The New Moon in Aquarius occurred on Saturday evening here on the East Coast of the US. New Moons are seed times, when the Sun and the Moon are together in the same degree of a sign and this New Moon happened at 22 degrees of Aquarius. There are some unique characteristics of this New Moon, the most evident from an astrological perspective, is that there are no major aspects to any of the other planets, save for a conjunction to a little known asteroid Nessus and a very tight square to the nodes of the Moon.

Nessus is one of the centaurs, half man and half beast.The archetype of the Centaur was one of the battle between the higher divine nature and the lower animal nature and in the case of Nessus his beastly side was in charge. He was killed by Hercules after he attempted to rape Hercules wife as payment for helping the couple cross a river. While Nessus was dying he convinced Hercules wife to take his blood soaked cloak as a magical talisman that would keep Hercules from straying toward other women. As fate and human nature would have it, the doubt seeded in her mind by Nessus did come to pass and one day she was feeling insecure about Hercules and covered him with Nessus’ cloak. Instead of keeping him true to her the cloak caused Hercules’ skin to start to burn ultimately causing his death. Luckily for Hercules, his deeds were so great that Hera, his former arch enemy took pity on him, and made him immortal.

There are many themes within this myth, love, lust, doubt, fear, anger, unintentional consequences, intentional misdirection, death and rebirth all complex and paradoxical. A real ‘slice of life’ in the drama of being human.

The New Moon’s square to the transiting nodes of the Moon indicate a that we are in fact at a crossroad in our human evolution. The transiting North Node indicates our collective evolution forward, in the sign of Scorpio we are being asked to move towards the facing of our shadows, those parts of self that lurk in the darkness, that we can’t or won’t look at in fear that if they were to emerge no one would love us, or worse, they could take over. And the transiting South Node in Taurus asks us to let go of all that keeps us stuck, to move out of our comfort zones and face the future unencumbered by our ‘things’. Things can include possessions, relationships, attitudes towards what is essential in our lives, that keep us from evolving, keep us from our higher natures, stuck in our lower animal self.

Aquarius is a collective sign. It is the sign of the group-mind. It is also a fixed air sign. The square to the nodes by the New Moon creates a fixed T-square configuration. At the open end of the T-square we find the sign of Leo, the sign that rules the heart. We are undergoing a collective initiation at this time, the way forward is one in which we must face our personal demons, own them, embrace them and love them. The underworld, the place where the shadow lurks, is also the place where our greatest riches lie. This is the lesson of the Transiting nodes, to touch what is truly of worth by facing what we fear.

A few personal thoughts on this New Moon. We have just been through a rather transformational winter storm here in New England. Where I live in Southeastern Massachusetts, we faced not only snow but hurricane force winds followed by temperatures in the teens. We of course lost our power. Luckily we have a fireplace and a stack of wood we inherited from the many historic storms of the last few years. As we sat in our living room in the dark watching the fire, like our ancestors have done for thousands of years , the tenuous thread that connects us to life became quite evident. For me there was a profound sense of peace as the modern world receded and I was brought back to basics, another lesson of the Scorpio/Taurus nodes. A New Moon in the sign of technology and electricity and all we had was fire, food and the company of family and pets.

I wish each one of you the opportunity to feel that peace as we face some of the scariest monsters we can dream up. We can move through this together keeping the eternal flame of our divine inheritance burning slow and low. For it is love that unites us and ultimately makes us immortal.