The New Moon in Aries hits tonight at 9:12 pm PDT. But this is no ordinary New Moon. It is a Black Moon, as it is the second New Moon in a row in this same sign. It also is a Solar Eclipse, so it has an added transformative power and fated sensibility that all eclipses bring. We officially enter two weeks of intensified and amplified energy in between the eclipses that we call the wormhole. Last month, we set intentions in the Aries sensibility of starting things up and thrusting out into the world with momentum and fire. We do this every March as part of the Equinox that we call the astrological new year. Only this year, we get to reup that commitment, and double down on what we want to put out into the world in the year to come by setting intentions in the same mansion for the second time in a row.
During last month’s Aries New Moon at 0-degrees of this cardinal sign, Pluto was still in Capricorn, and right after that lunation hit, the Lord of the Underworld changed signs and moved into Aquarius. In this way, the outer landscape is completely different than it was last month. It’s as if last month we just set intentions with the Aries New Moon as the start of the astrological new year, as we always do. But a day later, the solar system announced that we are moving through a generational change, as the Lord of the Underworld inched into Aquarius. If you examine the world events over the last four weeks, there were a few things that happened that are decidedly Aquarian (I’m thinking Texas in the United States, where new peace movements and new leaders may be rising up) and now we have a chance to deepen our commitment to who we want to be in a world that is changing before our very eyes, and we have to keep up.
Every Solar Eclipse is also a New Moon, and we set intentions as we would in any New Moon. It is the breaking of the relentless beam of light that turns a regular lunation into a radical transformative event that is an eclipse. The Nodes of the Moon, and the signs they are traveling through, quite literally generate eclipses. We are in the last eclipse in the Taurus/Scorpio axis, where the North Node and the future we are moving into is driven by love, as Taurus is a sign ruled by Venus. The South Node, and the past we are moving away from, is ruled by Scorpio, where all change and transformation takes place at the level of death and rebirth. Move forward toward love (Taurus), or get pummeled by the past, and face death (Scorpio). This summer, the Nodes will change signs and the three eclipse seasons that follow will take place in Aries and Libra, where we focus on relationships and working with consciousness as a mirror, but I get a little ahead of myself.
There is tremendous optimism in this eclipse, as Jupiter is in Aries only six degrees away from this New Moon, close enough to be Conjunct. The tremendous expansion that Jupiter brings to any party is directly dialed into this New Moon. It’s time to garner all the confidence and optimism you can muster, and pour that directly into the intentions you set at this time. They can be the exact same as last month, as that is the juicy benefit of a Black Moon, we have a second opportunity to dial into the same area of what we want to create for ourselves. This is where knowing your chart a bit is helpful, as you can look to the Aries house in your natal chart to see where all the juice of this current opportunity is being focused. Outside of a more specific perspective, understand that all of your impulses to start something up and move forward with new ideas is an invention of Aries. If you have been holding back in any way regarding the things you want to create, now is the time to get moving.
Remember that Aries moves forward without consideration or hesitation. It is the energy inside each of us where we are willing to dive into the Void without any guarantees. There is so much happening on the planet right now, especially here in the United States, that could cause many people to hold back their impulses to start up something new, especially if doing so involves any sort of risk. There are two risk takers in the zodiac, and the archetypal inventor of risk – Aquarius – is where Pluto just entered, so we have a deep connection, and perhaps more willingness, to try something completely out of the box at this time. The other risk averse player is Aries, but more through the sheer chutzpah of saying yes before knowing all you might need to know. Two New Moons in a row in this impulsive, blindly confident fire sign means the solar system itself wants us to move without inhibition right now. Keep that in mind as you ruminate over the intentions you want to set at this time. This is not the moment to hold back.
The next two weeks are going to be extra intense, as that is always the case in between eclipses. We call this the wormhole, named after the rip and tear in the fabric of spacetime, when the universe folds in on itself, allowing a partial to instantly move to another side of the universe by going through the fold. Eclipse seasons are like this for our consciousness. We set intentions at the New Moon eclipse like any other, and we harvest the benefit and release the unnecessary in every Full Moon eclipse. Only extra. Intentions we set have more power, and releases we move through have more capacity to help us transform. The Sun moves into Taurus tomorrow, and that will bring more grounded stability, but only a little. On Friday, Mercury turns around and we will have to add that challenge into how we meet the next few weeks. It’s going to be a wild ride, so dig deep to find all the confidence, optimism, and enthusiasm you can muster, set intentions from that place, and have at it!
