On Sunday, at 7:51 am EST (12:51 UT), the Virgo Moon will reach its last quarter phase, with 90 degrees of separation from the Sagittarius Sun — both in the sky and on the zodiac. It’s called a closing square aspect between the luminaries (Sun and Moon), and it approaches at a time when we could all afford to be closer with each other.
There has been so much in public and political exchange to drive us either apart or into seclusion since our current season initiated with the last full week of September. For many, perhaps including you, such a social environment has taken a personal toll.
After all, who would not want to recoil from injustice, atrocity and confounding absurdity? Yet, separation is even worse for the intrinsically social beings we are.
We are living at a crucial moment that will not just decide how this season will conclude and the new season will begin. Also being decided by all and each of us is whether the innate social nature that allowed humanity to survive is compatible with the respect for each and every individual human life that is necessary for society to survive.
While respect for human life begins with you, none of us are going to get through this moment alone successfully. Indeed, growing closer to each other will not be enough. Only by perceiving and cleaving to our individual and collective connection with the Earth and the universe will we be able to resolve our current crises and ascend to another cycle, another season.
As evidence that we are, together and individually, part of and contributing to something greater is how the Earth’s natural environment is now at a comparable moment of crisis correlating with that of our social environment. An even farther reaching connection is being evinced by how a solution is simultaneously being demonstrated on the zodiac and in the sky by the luminaries — the two greater lights.
Astrologers consider the lunar last quarter to be a crucial moment as the Sun and Moon close in on their next New Moon conjunction.
As the template for all closing square aspects, the last quarter Moon poses two questions for you. The answers you arrive at determine how the closing lunar cycle (or lunation) will end, and how the next lunation (initiated at the next New Moon) will begin for you. That’s where astrology can help by bringing thousands of years of observation and correlation to your situation.
Both questions have to do with the intrinsic nature of a square aspect as a moment of tension. The first query is whether the source of apparent pressure will be properly identified. After all, finding anything requires that you first look in the right place. The second uncertainty is how to gain relief from the evident strain on our individual and collective constitutions.
You have to stay up quite late or wake up very early to see the half-lit last quarter Moon. That’s because the Moon is getting closer to the Sun from our perspective, rising at about midnight, reaching its highest point in the sky around dawn.
By implication then, you have to go to some trouble to actually see the source of tension in a closing square. Even then, it’s still possible to be internally divided over its origin.
Fortunately, astrologers have been observing closing squares between the luminaries for a long time. Reliably, the correlated human experience is tension originating on the inside.
Unless one goes to the trouble of putting the illuminating experience of astrology to use, it’s easy to ascribe the perceived pressure so often concurrent with the lunar last quarter to an external origin. Such a misattribution gets you out of sync with the Sun and Moon, severing your contact with the universe, the Earth, and other people.
The Sun and Moon have no such problem — they persist and grow closer after the last quarter. By doing so, the greater lights are demonstrating what your priorities should be even as they offer an example for you to follow. Even more importantly, the luminaries are symbolizing an example for you to set.
While none of us are going to get through this moment alone, each of us must take responsibility for getting the ball rolling. You must first recognize that the Sun and Moon exist inside of you, and express through you, just as surely as they do in he sky. Hence, the extent to which you are at variance with the sky is the extent to which you will be out of whack with yourself, with other people, with the Earth and with the cosmos.
In effect, you are now being called to grow closer with all that is. You are being asked to become a living, breathing luminary for the rest of us to see and move with. You are being required to find and show your greater light so as to contribute to our collective survival.
A week from this coming Sunday, something extraordinary will happen on the zodiac and in the sky. The Sun and Moon will synchronize with each other and the Earth by merging directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, while simultaneously conjoining in the first degree of the sign Capricorn to begin a new lunation and a new season at the same time. That doesn’t happen very often.
Hence, the Capricorn New Moon and solstice will represent an opportunity to begin anew on two different levels at the same time — emblematic of a giant leap. The sky implicitly will be part of it. The Earth will intrinsically be part of it. Whether we will also be part of it will be a matter of choice — your choice, of whether or not to grow closer and be as one with each and every other.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
You are absolutely right Len who wouldn’t want to “recoil from injustice, atrocity and confounding absurdity”? Yet you describe such a beautiful event, the transiting Moon merging with the transiting Sun as they meet at the Tropic of Capricorn (the winter solstice) . . who wouldn’t want to be a part of it?
We in the USA, as in any country, are unified by the country’s birth chart Moon, and the U.S. natal Moon (Sibly version) at 27+ Aquarius DOES go a long way in unifying us on some level. I was born at a time when the U.S. citizens showed extraordinary unity, called patriotism then. Neighbors felt a camaraderie as their young men went off to fight a war somewhere else. We were a lot more naïve then, more trusting of our government . We have been exposed to truths that go beyond disappointment since those times, and now we are hard pressed to find neighbors who agree with anything.
Looking back, the charts that symbolize new cycle beginnings for outer planets (and charts for trans. planets starting in new signs) reveal potential just as birth charts for people do. Case in point is the conjunction of Neptune with Uranus in 1993. This followed transiting Saturn’s conjunction with each of them, each 3 times, in the late 80’s, but to make a point I will focus now on the 3rd of 3 conjunctions between Neptune and Uranus on October 24, 1993 at 3:40 PM in Washington DC.
At that time the Moon was on the ascendant at 29+ Aquarius, conjunct Vesta at 28+ Aquarius, one degree from the U.S. Moon at 27+ Aquarius. Transiting Saturn (23+ Aquarius ) and Pallas (22+ Aquarius) were close enough to form a stellium in that sign, while the Uranus-Neptune conjunction itself was at 18 Capricorn 32. At the time, Pluto (24+ Scorpio) was conjunct Mercury (22+ Scorpio) preparing to begin their own new cycle, and they were square the Aquarius stellium on the ascendant of the Neptune-Uranus chart that would be in effect for over 80 years.
I interpret that Moon on the ascendant of the chart to be a signal that – where Uranus and Neptune were concerned – The People of the country (USA) would be the priority of their 80+ year cycle , that growing up was a mission (Saturn conjunct Moon), that dedication and hard work would be required (Moon conjunct Vesta and Saturn) and would necessitate a strategy (Pallas conjunct Saturn, Vesta and Moon), in order to overcome the challenges symbolized by Pluto (ruthless exposure) in Scorpio (doubled) through communications (Mercury conjunct Pluto in Scorpio). All of this landing on the U.S. natal Moon couldn’t be more specific.
We have come 21 years into that cycle, 1/4 of the way through so we won’t have a Mission Accomplished party any time soon. Still, as you remind us Len, in just over a week we will have an opportunity to begin anew on two different levels that can bring us closer together, in spite of the multitude of shocking revelations that make us want to retreat from participation. It is the goal of Neptune and Uranus to pummel us (US) with data through a variety of methods unheard of before 1993 (let alone the ’40’s!), but they have also provided us with a Jupiter trine at 26+ Libra – understanding through partnership – to support our ascent through the injustice, atrocity and confounding absurdity that surrounds us.
How fortunate that we have all found one another here at PlanetWaves, where we can take it one step at a time; discussing our personal dilemmas as well as seeking answers to the global issues that threaten our existence. Oh, and there’s another thing in that chart for the beginning of the Uranus-Neptune cycle, nurturance. Ceres was at 28+ Aries at that time, and she was sextile (easy flow) the Moon, Vesta, Saturn, Pallas and the U.S. Moon in Aquarius. We get that nurturance from you Len.
There is much potential growth symbolized in the above chart and when transiting Pluto first reaches the degree where Uranus and Neptune made their conjunction (18+ Cap) in February, 2017, it will be at a time when a lunar eclipse at 22+ Leo will be taking place, the same degree where transiting Jupiter is right now and where he went retrograde. That will be followed by a solar eclipse at 8+ Pisces (conjunct Neptune at 11+ Pisces) which will conjunct the U.S. Ceres at 8+ Pisces (which squares the U.S. Uranus at 8+ Gemini). What we experience right now and in the weeks and months to come will bear fruit in just a couple more years if we stick with the program. There, I feel better now.
be
Len, This sounds like so many other Astrological points we have crossed over the last year or two. Constant points of choice; wow I hope we make the right ones. It seems easy to make from a personal perspective and then looking out at the world it can seem haplessly doomed.
I’ve been reading Robert Fuller lately – his phrase dignitarianism plays off of, and from, the term libertarianism and points to one of our main shortcomings as a world society – rankism. Rankism or belittling of another’s dignity, based on a sense of superiority, is the reason for all that ills the human race. I sense that he is correct from all that my life has taught me. Everyone needs to feel secure and respected in order to truly exercise their liberty. Roberts sees a future where personal dignity is protected and projected by society and government. Maybe that is where we are being drawn in this time of massive shifting possibility. With dignity intact where would atrocious behavior come from? We can blame the guns if we want – but every time someone shoots and kills for seemingly no reason there is someone who’s dignity was lost. Terrorism is just a symptom of an ill society. When society learns to respect and treat every other with the same respect and compassion that we all desire and deserve – terror and heinous acts of violent lashing out will disappear.
Yes it is something we can’t fix by any means other than to make the leap and see our self in every other being – and from there to walk with deliberate intent to practice total love. A tall order and one that must be a miraculous shift of consciousness. Thanks for all your many expressions of this truth, Len.
Thank you Len! You see, I don’t know what’s going on in the news these days but basing
from what the rest of you are reporting, something major probably is going on.
I decided to disconnect many years ago. We have TV but only to watch good movies which reminds me The Hobbit is coming up 🙂
On a personal level, magical manifestation abound! Wishing you all Happy Holidays!
Barbara: First off, i’m glad you are feeling better. We all love you here. Thank you once again for bringing your expertise on the US (Sibly) natal chart to cross reference that third conjunction of Uranus and Neptune (boy howdy, i remember that) and update to where we are now. Brilliant, and deeply appreciated. As you point out, the Sibly Moon is still a resonant touchstone. Finally thank you for your sharp wit (the wry reference to “Mission Accomplished”) which never fails to bring a smile.
Cowboyjam: Thank you for an equally brilliant correlation with the issue of dignity. You are spot on, and i’m very grateful that you bring the word, the concept, and the principle of dignity into the discussion. i can’t thank you enough, Let us each behave with dignity toward all. Let us all respect the dignity of each. Let us remember the concept of dignity in astrology, how (whether it’s essential of accidental) it brings special meaning and elevates the archetype in question, just as it does for people.
Catherine: Thank you for your participation as well. In spite of eschewing the news, it does appear as if you have a grasp of its essence. In order to strengthen that grasp, please read Eric’s lead piece for the weekly edition, along with Amanda’s companion piece which have just posted up at the top of this website.
I don’t know why – perhaps it is me, perhaps it is because I have been pondering how to resolve an acute, out of bounds Martial frustration, given the waning Moon – but this is the most RIGHT ON and HELPFUL piece I recall from this impeccable teacher. Many thanks. <3