We arrive at the first New Moon of the new year today. It hits at 9:00pm PST, so it falls into your calendar Wednesday for those of you points east. We are in Capricorn season, and so goals and ambitions are what we want to focus on when setting intentions not only for the lunar cycle ahead, but the entire year. The tradition of new years resolutions is encapsulated in this New Moon, and so when you connect to the seeds you are planting right now, be sure to include your hopes, desires, and aspirations for all of 2021. Perhaps you have already attended to this with some ritual, a vision board for the year, or some other way that you have approached the turn of the year. However, this is the moment when the solar system is receiving those impressions, and this New Moon will help ground into your psyche what is possible for the year that is currently stretching out in front of us.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, and so we are already in an energy of gravitas in this mansion, but this New Moon is exactly Conjunct Pluto, and I mean exactly, by less than a single degree. As we combine the power of our conscious awareness (Sun), and our unconscious mind (Moon), we also get to dip all the way down to the deepest places of our hidden desires (Pluto), and fold that power into what we want to experience for the rest of the year. Remember, it is Pluto that has been the reflection of all the profound ways we are transforming, and was the leading energy that made 2020 all that it was. In this New Moon, we catch up to that energy of transformation, and set intentions concomitant with all that has changed. Capricorn helps us climb to the highest peak of our consciousness as a natural artifact of this archetype. Let that vantage point help you see far.

Our thinking should be clear courtesy of Mercury’s movement over the past day or so building up to this New Moon. Jupiter and Chiron are holding a 60-degree angle that is bringing a tremendous amount of hope this week, and we are benefitting directly because of Mercury’s connection to this healing transit. Mercury just met up with Jupiter by Conjunction, so we have been downloaded with a huge sense of excited possibility. At the same time, Mercury moved through a Sextile with Chiron, allowing for a tremendous mental healing to take place as we ramped up to today’s intention setting moment.

Part of the backdrop includes Neptune in a T-Square with the Nodes of the Moon. The Nodes reflect the collective, and when a planet makes contact with them, all of us are impacted at the same time and in the same way. Neptune is interesting to grapple with, because he brings with him our connection to the Divine, so Neptune in contact with the Nodes indicates a moment when we are being guided by energies that are much higher than our 3-D human selves. But the geometry is hard. Squares are conflicts and obstacles, and when Neptune is challenged in this way, the net result is cloudiness, confusion, and metaphorical fog hindering our ability to see where we are going. The New Moon Conjunct Pluto tells us we are moving forward with all the power we can muster, but Neptune Squaring both our past (South Node) and our future (North Node) means we must move with blind faith.

Mars and Uranus are inching toward a Conjunction that peaks on January 20th, but are close enough in today’s New Moon to be part of this lunation. Venus is Trining them both today, so love is in the equation I am about to express. Given that the peak of this powerful meeting between the God of War and the Great Awakener happens on the day of the presidential inauguration here in the United States, I believe that one of the intentions I will ask you to consider is a prayer for peace and the unfolding narrative here being led by love and grace, and specifically that day. There is no avoiding the power of this Mars/Uranus Conjunction, but consciousness is everything, and the power of prayer and intention is tremendous. Let us marshal some of that power toward this end if you will join me.

The world right now is in desperate need for all of us to marshal all of our resources into personal intentions that also serve the world at large. We aren’t done with the deconstruction that accelerated last year, and the year ahead promises to be unstable and filled with more breakdowns of the old guard, while the new ways are being ushered in by the way showers. If you are reading this, then you are one of those who must go first. Allow your personal celebration of this New Moon also be a gift to the collective with intentions that describe the world you would like to create. Be like the goat and climb to the highest summit inside your own consciousness, and see Peace for Humanity in the distance.