Happy Spring!
(And Happy Fall to those of you down under.)
While the Spring Equinox heralds the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the Aries New Moon marks the moment of rebirth we celebrate at this time of year. Many ancient cultures celebrated the New Year at the beginning of Aries, since Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. It’s the time when life returns to the Earth as Winter slips away. Something new is beginning. It’s the time to plant the seeds you want to harvest this year. During this time of balance, when light and dark are equal, you have a chance to shake off your winter blues and see the possibilities awaiting you this year.
Setting intentions, visualizing goals, and letting go of the old are the order of the day as we begin this year’s journey through Aries. Aries is known as the sign of the warrior, the huntress, the pioneer, the explorer, the scout. Someone has to go out into the unknown and find the herd and send back word to the tribe. That would be an Aries. Aries is all about finding the initiative, the courage and the excitement to meet life on its own terms. The Aries warrior feels the fear and works through it. It’s a good archetypal image for these times when so many people are afraid to take chances and begin again.
If any of you know an Aries, you’ll know that Aries energy demands action. As my Aries son used to do when he was just a little guy, when things are stuck, Aries will elbow you in the side to get some attention and get the action going.
Aries is the scout of the zodiac, the adventurous one who would rather just do something than think about it another moment. What do you want to do? The sky’s the limit. My Aries son is in Nepal at the moment, and tells me that he’ll be watching the sun rise over Mt. Everest on new Moon morning. With the new Moon falling on his south node in his 12th house, I had mentioned that he might find some temple or religious site there in India that feels familiar to him. Knowing he feels that Spirit does not reside in a temple but in nature, I would say that seeing sunrise over Mt. Everest will do exactly that! Yes, astrology does work. Another good Aries friend will be watching the sun set over the Pacific on new Moon evening. Aries will go to the ends of the Earth if the impulse strikes. They know where life beats passionately and strongly.
With Spring here, and the light growing longer and stronger, step outside your comfort zone and starting doing things that you’ve never done before. What are you waiting for? Aries says life’s too short to put it off. With Saturn in disciplined Virgo inconjunct all those planets still in radical and idealistic Aquarius – North Node, Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune – and opposing Uranus and Mars in imaginative Pisces, the struggle between fear of change and the inevitability of change smacks us in the head (Aries) and says, think of possibilities and make it happen. “When the world is spinning down, you make the best of what’s still around.” (Sting)
The Sabian Symbol for 7 Aries is: A man succeeds in expressing himself simultaneously in two realms. The two realms of spirit and matter want to be joined again. We have to stop believing that matter is devoid of spirit and that spirit has no place in our bodies, lives or work world. We have to join these two aspects of our lives and succeed at LIFE.
Aries’ energy is good for the soul. It’s a time to shake loose all those stuck places in ourselves. You won’t hear an Aries say, ‘I can’t do that.’ They’re more likely to say, ‘You wanna see me do that?’ Aries is fire that moves through the soul, the fire that creates new life, new experiences and new psychological patterns. The adventure of life awaits you.
This year’s Spring Equinox chart, along with the new Moon chart, has Pluto squaring the Sun. Pluto is a big player in this year’s events. Pluto’s move into Capricorn last year at the end of November signaled the beginning of a time of cosmic evolution for our society and corporate structures (which rule our society). And its influence – the destruction of what’s dead and needs to be buried so that new ideas, new life and a new society can be born out of the ashes – is strong all through the year. On Winter Solstice, Pluto conjoined the Capricorn Sun. On this Equinox, it squares the Sun in Aries. On Summer Solstice, it will oppose the Sun in Cancer, and on Fall Equinox is will once again square the Libra Sun.
All the important turning points of the year are tied to Pluto in Capricorn. While we’ve been seeing how bankrupt our corporate and financial institutions are, we have to find a way to let these structures die so that we can create a more fair, balanced and fruitful way to do business and live life. Pluto in Capricorn will demand accountability from our political and business leaders. And it demands responsibility on our part as well. We have to take authority for our own lives and then step forward and join with others to change the world.
Pluto squaring the Aries Sun and Moon demands that we go deep within ourselves and find out what needs to be released before we can grow into our new life. Squares are turning points, where we get to shift our consciousness and change course. Old psychological patterns, imprinted by the patriarchy (Capricorn at its worst), have to be rooted out of our psyches so we can grow into our natural, unique selves.
How have the rules of the game - greed, domination, hierarchy, power and worship of the almighty dollar - stopped you from doing what you are meant to do in this life? Patriarchy feeds on fear, insecurity, duplicity, shame, domination and inequality. Do we really want to continue this system? It’s caused more destruction, more evil, more despair than it’s worth. I vote to let it topple. Another, more life-giving society can be envisioned and implemented in its stead.
This year is the year to rebel against the old so that your true life can begin. Remember, in times of chaos, we get a real chance for something new to emerge. Putting band-aids on the institutions that have failed will just bring more failures. We have to re-structure from the ground up. Putting band-aids on our psychic wounds will get us the same life we’ve been living. Learn to stand up for yourself. If you really want something new, it will take courage and passion to face the wound and heal it. So begin now to make the changes you keep putting off for another day. That DAY has come.
Along with Mercury, the Sun and Moon, Venus retrograde is a big part of this new moon. Venus retrograde is asking us to re-evaluate what’s important, what we love, what no longer serves us and what we’d like to connect to. Look to the houses ruled by Taurus and Libra to see where we have a chance to carefully reevaluate what we have and what we may really want. The degrees of Venus’s stations are also very important; in this cycle, that is 15° Aries and 29° Pisces. Do you have any planets or angels at those degrees in your chart? Those are the energies that Venus is trying to connect with for you.
If these degrees are important to you, you will have to deal with the issues of heartache and loss that you’ve ignored or repressed. Isn’t it time to grow up and understand that love is one of our greatest teachers? Learn the lesson and release the pain. Many of us would rather hold onto resentment, play the victim and blame everyone else. Venus in Aries is the warrioress. She isn’t afraid to stand alone and take her life in hand. When Venus turns direct on April 17th, she’ll be back in Pisces to reclaim the compassion and imagination that she needs to love wholeheartedly as she moves ahead again.
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