Henry Seltzer ~ June 19th New Moon
Astrographs | June 18 2012
The New Moon that comes along on Tuesday, June 19th, is an interesting one, being the second New Moon in the curious and thoughtful sign of Gemini, the Air sign most closely connected with intellection and communication. This introduces a long series of New Moons that take place near the end rather than the beginning of their respective signs, producing a more muted and also a more spiritual feel for the particular sign involved. This placement in late Gemini, called the Aquarius decanate (the last third of the sign) is really very different than the early degrees, being concerned with the ultimate result of thought process in terms of philosophical groundbreaking and social benefit, and indicating that it is now high time to put our actual money and our concerted actions wherever our deepest thought process might take us. This New Moon happens just one day before the June 20th Summer Solstice, when the Cardinal sign of Cancer –oppositional to Pluto’s Capricorn placement – comes into its own.
Of course the big news this lunation is the Uranus-Pluto square which is now extremely close, and fully triggered by this New Moon cycle. The First Quarter Moon a week further on, taking place on the 26th, makes a T-square with Pluto, and hence also with Uranus in Aries, so that this latter configuration represents one peak this year of the energy for Uranus- Pluto and the total revolution that their powerful square brings to the table. In this New Moon configuration there is thus the incipient T-square of Sun/Moon on the edge of Cancer with Pluto and Uranus. Meanwhile, Venus, retrograde and stationing in Gemini, also closely aspects the dynamic duo of these outer planets. Mercury participates, now in Cancer and widely opposed to Pluto. The Sun/Mercury midpoint at the time of the New Moon is closely opposed to Pluto and square with Uranus, being a mere 1 1/2 degrees away from exact, and is also exactly trine Chiron in Pisces. The Chiron factor is important, bringing as it does an increased awareness of the painful places inside ourselves; our pain in the face of difficult transformation and loss. In the end it allows us to dwell more deeply on the metamorphosis that is underway, regarding both its individual and its collective aspects, and that is still accelerating. We recognize that we lose something of ourselves in the process, which is bound to be scary. This however does not mean that we lose our spiritual grounding; this is the great comfort symbolized by the prominence as well in the current skies of Jupiter and Neptune.
As this New Moon cycle launches us further into the maelstrom, with the first exact hit of Uranus-Pluto rapidly approaching, we do well to reflect on where we are in our lives and where ultimately headed. There is an important part of ourselves that is in the midst of radical change, and that as a result is likely to become forever lost to us, at least in its present condition. This is the action of Pluto, to make way for the new phase, our next stage as inspired by Uranus. It helps to reflect on where Capricorn and Aries fall in your individual chart, or indeed in your Solar Chart, where for Sagittarius, for example, Pluto lands in your second house of resources, with revelatory Uranus in your sector of creative self-expression. In the larger picture of the collective, the transformation that we might expect will be with government, power and control issues there, as well with re-constellating our very identity as a culture, as in the rebellion on various levels symbolized on our own national scene by the Occupy movement. Then there is the consciousness and human potential movement, reflected in the slogan that has lately become popular of “Occupy your Heart.” How we align with these various currents within our society will be one telling factor over the coming months and years, as we more fully explore the truth of what it means in this century to be human, and what it truly means to be nothing but ourselves.
