New Moon in Aquarius

Aquarius New Moon February 12, 2021:

So here we go into a New Moon in Aquarius – Its the first New Moon in an Air sign since the final pass of the ‘Grand Conjunction’ which heralded a new 200 year cycle of Air. Astrology is marked as a system of patterns that work in much the same way that fractals work. Meaning that the microcosm is reflected in the macrocosm (and vice versa). The ancient astrologers expressed this as the basic tenant: “As above, so below. As within, so without”. In astrology, we also recognize that small patterns of time can tell the tale of larger patterns of time. Just like a snapshot of the moment of your birth can give a blueprint for your being, so can a snapshot of your birthday chart give a blueprint for the year ahead (Solar Returns) or a snapshot of the first year of your life give a blueprint for the subsequent years of life (Progressions and Solar Arcs). Following this logic, because the Grand Conjunction was at 0 degrees Aquarius, this upcoming New Moon in Aquarius can give us hints about how the energy in the new paradigm of Air will shift. Pay close attention to things happening for you on this New Moon (and the 2 weeks following) and see if you can see a finger print whispering of how energies are going to be unfolding for you in element of Air.

First let’s try to wrap our attention around the flavor of Aquarius, as understanding the energy will help us to notice it. Aquarius is fixed Air. So as we spoke of with the New Moon in Scorpio, the fixed mode is both stable and focused. What you see is what you get so to speak – at least in terms of energetic modality. Air however is the least ‘stable’ of all the elements, so even ‘fixed’ Air is going to be more difficult to grasp. Air element across many disciplines the world over, means change and movement. It is fast and often seemingly random. Air element governs the mental capacity and the nervous system. Think of how random and shifting our thoughts can be or how fast our nervous system relays information – this is the kind of speed and change we are talking about. Everyone talks about the world speeding up, but I don’t think that we’ve seen anything yet. Air element is considered both drying and cooling. Air signs are often felt to be more rational than emotional. Hence the term “cold” when referring to one who is perhaps overly intellectual. If you follow traditional medical systems, the Air element correlates most with the ‘Wind’ tissue state in western Vitalist traditions or the Vata dosha in eastern Ayurvedic traditions. Both are known to have health issues that nearly always relate back to the nervous system, dryness of tissues and contraction or sluggishness of organs or systems due to cold. So adequate water (and oil) is often a main concern when working with strong Air element.

One interesting thing to note is that all the Air signs in astrology (Libra, Aquarius, Gemini) are all considered ‘relational’. They all govern interaction with other people and on some basic level require others to do their work or fulfill their expressions. For Aquarius this is seen in its principal of networking and its love of the collective. This energy loves to connect people to one another and to new ideas to help them flourish. Having said that, Aquarius is often considered the loneliest of the signs in the zodiac. One will often read that Aquarius is the ‘visionary’ or that its ahead of the curve. And while this might explain some of it loneliness, I think it is more deeply understood by examining its rulerships. Aquarian energy is co-ruled; it has a traditional ruler – Saturn, and a modern one – Uranus. While many astrologers prefer to simplify things and only focus on the modern rulers, I feel we do our comprehension a disservice if we negate millennia of study, observation and understanding when we only focus on the modern ruler. I wrote a bit about Saturn in the last blog with the Capricorn New Moon, but let’s go a bit deeper here. Saturn, the farthest planet visible with the naked eye, is said to guard the gates to the earth plane. That etheric and cosmic energy must pass through his realm in order to manifest. Saturn rules concrete reality – where the rubber meets the road. He is the structure and framework and so Saturn energy builds foundations and systems. Saturn is often called a stick in the mud because he believes in following rules, but this grows more out of a deep understanding of the nature of consequences and time, rather than simply as a kowtow to authority as pop astrology would have us believe. Saturn grasps what is sacred about tradition and duty. Contrast this with Uranus who is said to govern lightening and left-field surprises. Uranus is often called the rebel. We will go far in our understanding of Uranus if we just think about the planet itself. Its axis is tilted 98 degrees relative to the ecliptic, so if we were looking at our solar system from the perspective of the ecliptic, all the planets would seem to spin like tops (just like you were taught in primary school)...except that is for Uranus… he instead would appear to be rolling. From this we see that Uranus thinks outside of the box, marches to his own drummer, grasps the unexpected, blows your mind, and hits you with events that utterly shift your trajectory. He is fast and electrifying, rebellious and confronting. He is known as the first of the transpersonal planets – meaning that he governs energies of the collective zeitgeist. As his orbit takes about about 84+ years, his energies are generational. Saturn’s orbit by contrast takes about 29+ years, hence he is considered a personal planet and works on the individual level.

The seeming oppositions of these two rulers gives us a very big clue into Aquarius – basically that it is a complicated energy. Aquarius is hard to really wrap your head around. When speaking with a client who has strong Aquarian energy I often refer to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave or tell them that this is the energy of the prophet who goes out into the desert, hears the voice of god, and then feels compelled to return to the fold and share its vision. But people don’t like change, they don’t often want to have to consider new perspectives which could then require them to question who they are and why they are doing what they are doing. And even when they are willing to do so, without a similar experience as a reference point, they inevitably find it difficult at best to understand the prophet. All things being equal, the occupation of ‘prophet’ does seem to have an abnormally high rate of being shunned, stoned or beheaded relative to the rest of the jobs available in the human story. Aquarian energy is similarly marked. It is an energy that is often on the outside looking in. And here we see the rulership complexity playing out – the Uranus rules that part that chafes under the limitations of societal structures which are unable to accommodate the full scope of needs and desires of the individual's actual possibility. So it goes ahead and breaks the trail, scouts the way forward and sees what might exist beyond the current paradigm. The Saturn portion however, feels compelled to return and prepare its human family for what it knows lies ahead. It is wedded to duty and feels responsible to help manifest this broader vision.

We can go even further in our understanding of Aquarian energy if we remember that it is the natural ruler of the 11^th house in astrology. This house governs the groups we belong to, the people we admire and hold up, the power of the collective possibility. Pop astrology will tell you that the 11^th house is the house of hopes and dreams or friends and neighbors – which doesn’t really say much and seems a bit random or all over the place (ha! Kinda ‘airy’ wouldn’t you say?). More accurately, the 11^th house is where we make connections to people who can further our dreams and visions of the future. They are the folks we surround ourselves with to help us do so and we in turn add our energy to that collective group. Back in the day, your neighbor would certainly fill that role more – they’d come over and help put up your barn or bring in your harvest, and you would play similar roles for them. These days our definitions of ‘friends’ and certainly of neighbors have changed. (Maybe one of you Mercury-Aquarian types can come up with a better word to describe those 11^th house folks.)

If we consider these rulerships of Uranus, Saturn and the 11^th house we see a fundamental truth about Aquarian energy – it is focused on advancing society through its unique ability to embody paradox. One of my teachers Steven Forrest, in his Book of Air describes it like this: “on the one hand, this sign is associated with a fierce commitment to independence, individuality and free-thinking. On the other hand, it is irrevocably linked to group activities and collective enterprises – all of which rather obviously require some submergence of individuality and personal autonomy in the service of joint aims.” He goes further, saying that “The social group with all its pressures and expectations is the incubator of Aquarian freedom.” Pointing out the intrinsic link: that freedom requires a cage - for without the cage, freedom would be unnecessary. It then also then follows that resistance is also a basic part of change. It is not simply that Aquarian energy suggests paradox, but rather that it embodies paradox. This distinction while subtle is also profound. It emphasizes an ability to relax or be at ease within the intrinsic tension or discomfort of polarity. Humanity seems to have a most curious habit of believing that relaxation is the absence of tension, but Aquarius offers us another perspective. If we dare to examine and sit with this puzzle, it perhaps gives us a way to enter into this new time.

While I could have begun by listing out things that Aquarius energy governs, like networking and group activities, visionaries and geniuses, electricity and technology, rebellion and paradigm shifting, cyberspace, environmentalism, astrology, patterns, autism, eccentricity, sexual freedom etc… these things would not cohese in the same way as I hope they do now. (See, it wasn’t just the drugs influencing those hippies in the 60’s!) It seems that if we are to embrace the future we must learn perhaps to better embrace paradox itself. Learn how to be comfortable with discomfort. Become able to relax within states of intrinsic tension. Aquarian energy suggests to us that the way forward is not about excising the past nor leaping pell-mell into the future, but rather learning to hold the complexity of the moment by embracing the uniqueness of our times and of own natures. For we too are walking, talking paradoxes. Our conceptions for the most part are binary, our language and understanding is thus arranged – we live in a world grounded in duality (good or bad, hot or cold, yes or no). Aquarian energy invites us into holism through a kind of unity consciousness which recognizes that paradox is intrinsic to the moment and teaches us that our minds can actually sit easily holding both sides of a duality without feeling in conflicted. Of course that is the high aim, the low vibration of any energy is also always equally available to us. For Aquarius, this will express itself often through our nervous systems as extreme tension or through our minds as disassociation or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. We will either separate ourselves becoming somewhat cold or overly rational or we will bounce all over the place feeling like a yo-yo jumping from one side of any given paradox to the other.

So as you think about how you want to approach this upcoming New Moon, think too about how you want to approach the future. As a representative of the human race, what seeds do you want to cast before you that the future may harvest? What we do on a small scale ripples out into the larger patterns and vice versa. So call on the energies available at this time to help you usher in a more interesting vision of possibility for yourself, but also for the world. I for one have been finding the drama of good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, etc growing rather stale. Its overly simplistic and frankly quite boring. Possibility is so much larger than that. In the spirit of Aquarius, we are all in this together. Meaning it takes all of us – by both being true to our own individuality and holding up our perspective, but also by making room for other perspectives and other individuals too. To quote my beloved teacher Steven Forrest again: “Truth is too big for any one person to carry.”

I know that this is a long blog but I want to take one more stitch through Aquarius. It’s called the water bearer. She who goes out and brings back the one of the most vital of life sustaining necessities and offers it freely to those who thirst. In Tarot, the major archana card 17 – the Star – carries the symbol of Aquarius. In analyzing the symbols of this card Angeles Arrien, cultural anthropologist quotes the philosopher Heidegger saying “a person is not a thing or a process, but an opening through which the Absolute can manifest.” Shamanic cultures throughout the world describe the importance of becoming ‘a hollow bone’ - an opening for Spirit. The Star card suggests that each of us is not only a divine light, but an expression – a perspective of the Divine Creation. We all have the tendency to like some things about ourselves and feel ashamed of others. But what would it look like if we could get out of our own way and harness that Aquarian imperative and simply become a hollow bone – trusting that the whole of us (all the paradoxes and polarities included) were necessary so that the Way Through is wide open and not pinched or blocked?

So what are some good practices? I had a friend once who told me that he and his dad loved to debate and had this practice that at any point one of them could call “change” and each would have to argue the other person’s point. Wow… how would the world be different if our politicians could do this eh? Maybe we should practice amongst ourselves and set better examples for them. Tai Chi is excellent at teaching awareness of polarity and the relationship of duality. If Qi Gong is more your style, a very simple form called Pan Gu works specifically with balancing polarities within the body. Simply meditating on the Yin-Yang symbol could provide much insight. More mundane practices for you techno-phobes would be to embrace some aspect of new technology with a willing and open mind. The reverse could also work for the techno-philes – learn something old school, or practice doing something the long and hard way. Another practice would be simply to find a group that embodies something dear to you and take part. Go be part of a team. If you are people orientated, do the reverse - spend some energy cultivating your unique individuality, find ways to stand out, challenge yourself, allow yourself to be seen as a unique individual.

Aquarian intentions would echo these practices. The aim is to find ways to embrace paradox within your own person. Notice your own monkey mind and whatever it is prattling on about – rather then trying to still it or silence it, see if you can simply redirect it to the polarity of whatever it is going on about. For example when in college I took up a practice that when I noticed my mind criticizing someone (myself included) I made myself spend time contemplating their genius, finding their beauty, seeing their strengths. Or what about learning to notice where there is resistance, particularly in the mind and having the intention of relaxing or allowing – making room. Making your container larger. If paradox seems too difficult to grasp hold of, then simply focus on being open to change, welcoming it, opening the door, relaxing into it.

For witchy rituals – when Aquarius is in the picture the point is to make it authentically your own and as an offering to the collective. So I will give you an outline here, but really, it’s up to you to own it and channel it as best suits your unique self. So… gather two items to symbolize polar elements (Fire and Water or Earth and Air). Hold one in each hand. Focus first on one and then on the other. Think about each of them in turn, what they mean, how they manifest, in what ways you relate to each and how they enter your life. Take as long as you need. Next try to bring both objects into your awareness simultaneously. See if you can feel into them both at the same time. Not simply in your hands, but also in your mind. Feel for the tension this might create. Observe the place of resistance between the two. If you are unable to hold both in your mind at the same time, use that as the tension point. Where ever you feel the tension, focus there and see if you can honor it – open to it and remain present for it. Spend time just listening and observing, noticing what you notice. After a while speak out loud (not simply in your head - we are working an Air ritual, so give that vibration room and send it out). You can use a normal voice or whisper, but give sound to what rises inside of you. Don't’ think too much about it. Don’t try to head anywhere or have it mean anything. Allow whatever rises to have a voice - it doesn't even have to be words per say, it could simply be notes or vowels, trills or calls. It's not up to you to understand it. Be a hollow bone. Whatever you send out from yourself, wrap it in love.