Eastern Asia is a diverse region with a long and complex history. It is therefore not surprising that there is more than one way of calculating when eastern Asian calendars turn over into a new year. For a great number of people, however (including many in Western cultures), the Asian new year takes place with the second New Moon after the Capricorn solstice.
Assuming you are among those who at least acknowledge the Asian lunar new year, this Friday (or Saturday, depending on your time zone) will be the day. That’s when the Moon will meet up with the Aquarius Sun for the second New Moon of our current season.
Interestingly, the occasion of lunar new year in 2017 will be symbolically new in several ways for Western astrologers as well. Approximately 24 hours before the Aquarius New Moon, a Kuiper Belt object known as 50000 Quaoar will change signs for the first time since it was discovered in 2002.
Indeed, Quaoar has been continuously in Sagittarius since 1994. On Thursday, however, Quaoar will enter Capricorn for the first time in more than two-and-a-half centuries. Based on how events have correlated with other slow-moving objects changing signs in recent years (think Pluto entering Capricorn in 2008 as just one example), the lunar new year coming up should be newer than most.
Neither will Quaoar be alone in implying some changes of unusual substance during the upcoming Year of the Fire Rooster. Less than seven hours before the Aquarius New Moon, Mercury will finally move past the degree of Capricorn where it stationed retrograde back on Dec. 19. Then, less than six hours after the Moon separates from its merger with the Aquarius Sun, Mars will enter its Aries dominion for the first time since February of 2015.
Note the signs involved with the big celestial changes coming up at the end of this week. Aquarius: emblematic of a much anticipated (and disparaged) New Age which may or may not have already begun. Capricorn: a cardinal sign, which means that a new season begins when the Sun enters. Finally, Aries: not just a cardinal sign, but the place where the entire zodiac starts over. It’s enough to inspire you to initiate some changes of your own, even if nobody else gets the cosmic hint.
Given how women gathered all over the U.S. (and around the globe) to assert their political power over the weekend, you might even want to consider changing one of the world’s oldest traditions. After all, the Year of the Fire Hen does have a certain ring to it. Who knows? It might catch on.
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Well it’s gonna be hard to miss the point of everything new and starting fresh from what you tell us Len. I’m ready for it too. And Quaoar. . . how awesome will it be to witness his creation dancing, no longer in the sign of philosophy and pontification but now into the sign of manifestation and form. That IS new!
Could it be that those human beings who were part of the world-wide Women’s March have symbolically ushering in a long period of creating new rules of equality (Capricorn) new forms (Capricorn) new institutions (Capricorn)? How appropriately timed it is then that as Pluto is entering into his final years, perhaps the climax of his sojourn through Capricorn, that the creator god Quaoar initiates his own long transit in that sign. Bring it on.
be
I agree that marching and dancing are closely related enough to consider them the same thing. Maybe a little Fire Hen dance is in order this weekend…this month…this year.
Thanks Len (and Be)!
Well aword, you have led me to check on the asteroid Pallas, since dancing and marching require a kind of choreograph, or plan, and she – being the goddess of planning – might be able to shed a clue or two regarding all this change that’s coming.
As it turns out she is in Pisces and square the U.S. natal Uranus (surprise!) in Gemini right now. With her proximity to trans. Neptune (less than 2 degrees ahead of her in Pisces) she’s acting as a bridge between that little gap in the square between trans. Neptune and U.S. Uranus. Pallas and Neptune, what a team.
This square between trans. Neptune and U.S. Uranus, assisted by trans. Pallas; dare we hope it could mean that an intricate dance step will be preformed by transiting Mars entering Aries (just after the NM) as he squares the trans. Quaoar . . a dance step that will wake us from this dream state we find ourselves in? That may be too much to ask of the Fire Rooster, but at least dancing (as well as marching) has a mesmerizing quality about it, not to mention its therapeutic advantages.
If that’s all there is then let’s keep dancing (marching) and see what all this newest new brings. If that’s all there is. Thanks Peggy Lee.
be
The New Age Aquarius has begun, and in reading its thought that the cell phone is a good symbol of this new age. Also, the three ruler of Aquarius are in aspects; Jupiter (esoteric ruler), opposite Uranus (modern ruler), and Jupiter is square Saturn (traditional ruler). That’s how the Fire Hens connected.