New Moon in Aries: The Pregnant Pause

 

Art by Claudia Tremblay

New Moon in Aries:  The Pregnant Pause

Moon conjunct Sun- 4/11/21 @ 9:30pm CDT

 

It’s my birthday today.  A new year for me, and a new lunar phase for all of us.  There is something about the New Moon in Aries each year that stirs up the seeds of creation and sets things in motion…even as that lunar motion is imperceptible to our ‘see it to believe it’ views of life. 

Most would never equate the Cardinal Fire energy of Aries with stillness.  There is an initiatory spark to it.  It inspires movement, liveliness, creative action.  And yet, within the silent song of Sun’s exalted rays, there are unseen elements in pregnant pause…growing in meaning before being revealed. 

Venus, who descended into invisibility behind the Sun this February, has only just experienced her Exterior Conjunction with Sun on March 25^th.  She is still transforming in the Underworld before she reveals herself as Evening Star next month.  Like the unseen Moon at this time, the stillness inherent in this pregnant pause is that we cannot yet see what will be birthed from this Aries initiative.  We may be ‘expecting’ new life…but we are in the ‘waiting womb’. 

And it isn’t easy to wait for anything during Aries season…especially while all planets are moving in direct motion.  It isn’t easy to wait for things when you were blessed with Aries energy at your birth either.  There’s always this desire to launch into new endeavors, to blaze a trail, to express boldly from the ‘I Am’ of our existence. 

But the quality of time, the Kairos, we are feeling at this lunar initiation is so weighty and purposeful that even an Aries native will want to take this time to consider the way ahead before jumping into action.  For anyone, it can be fearful to not see the path ahead.  What if we fall into a chasm and the Underworld swallows us?  I mean, that’s extreme…but extremities are part of the larger lesson of these times.  This Aries season confronts us with our own edges, and we must engage the inner strength to pass through them.

The seeds are stirring…but they’re underground.  We need only to shoot our roots down to find support. Tapping into the underneath is crucial to the integrity of what we grow from this beginning.

 

The Aries Stellium and the Plutonian Underworld

Art by Sandara

 

Full-speed-ahead as most other planets are now, Pluto has been slowing down significantly in Capricorn and will station retrograde by April 27^th.  And this already slow-moving outer planet is in a 90 degree square with this New Moon.  But it’s not just the luminaries coming into square with Pluto.  It’s Venus, Persephone, Eris, and Ceres too…all of them in Aries, conjunct our luminaries and squaring off with Pluto at this time.  All we can see of this square in our sky is the brilliance of our shining Sun…but there is so much happening behind the scenes. 

Pluto square Eris is definitely an enduring undercurrent of our times…we already experienced 3 exactions of that square in 2020.  And the next exactions occur surrounding Pluto’s direct station in October this year.  Because both are slow-moving outer planets…they’ve been within the orb of influence with this square for a while and will continue to be as we navigate a time where ‘heavy discord’ that demands purposeful action seems part of the ‘new normal’. 

Less than an hour after New Moon, Venus exacts this square with Pluto.  As Venus’s cycle relates to the mythic storyline of Inanna and Ereshkigal…this Underworld part of Venus’s journey is where Inanna learns the value and meaning of death from the Chthonic Mysteries taught by her older sister, Ereshkigal.  The Queen of the Underworld (Pluto) confronts the Queen of Heaven (Venus) with her own shadows and her own death (Sun conjunct Venus).  And yet, there is a revivification process taking place now.  Ereshkigal has had her redemption for her sister’s involvement in her husband’s death.  She is weary from her own pregnancy with Ninazu and allows the galla to take Inanna’s corpse in her gratitude for their help through her labor.  Now Inanna is redeemed as well by being slowly brought back to life…but there are still a few weeks before her return to the sky (Heliacal Rise of Venus in early May). 

There are many correlations between the Chthonic Mysteries of Inanna and Ereshkigal and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter/Ceres and her daughter Persephone/Kore.  And, at this New Moon, Ceres and Persephone join Venus/Inanna in her Underworld transformation.  All of them are at a turning-point crisis with Pluto/Ereshkigal.  In this turning-point we see the seasonal shifts that these stories reflect.  In the Southern Hemisphere, Ceres is mourning her daughter’s return to the Underworld as this hemisphere experiences the introduction to their colder months.  In the Northern Hemisphere, Ceres is rejoicing in the return of her daughter…and the growth of the warmer months springs forth.  Persephone conjunct Venus at this time really highlights the power of the Queen of the Underworld, and the important decisions she must make in those depths. 

And all of these celestial bodies, along with Eris and our luminaries, are square to Pluto…adding quite a bit of weight to an enduring dynamic echoed from last year.  So while it is a collective Soul Crisis we’ve been moving through for over a year, we may each be feeling it very personally now.  Something is transforming deep within us, and we are pressed to make important decisions that could alter our course.  The planets suggest that, in this process, we don’t disregard the parts that are hidden beneath the surface.  Those are the crucial elements in what we need to process (sometimes from fear into fuel) throughout this lunar month.

Aiding us in this task is a sextile opportunity between this Aries Stellium and Mars in Gemini.  Mars is out-of-bounds from the Sun’s path, and bringing in a rogue energy to guide all that is in Aries into new territory.  Mars has been offering a lot of information to act upon.  And all that is in Aries asks us to move only toward what, of many options, is in integrity with us.  There is also a mutual reception between Mercury in Aries (Mars’s diurnal domicile) and Mars in Gemini (Mercury’s diurnal domicile).  This mutual reception will be growing into a sextile throughout the week ahead, building opportunities to put our ideas (Mercury) into action (Mars). 

Adding to this opportunity is that Jupiter in Aquarius is in harmonious aspect as well, creating a Blessing Triangle with a trine to Mars and a sextile to the Aries Stellium.  Yes, there is a great blessing in all that is stirring within us right now.  We may not see it at first, but we are supported in this Aries initiation.  As with Inanna/Venus…there is promise of new life. 

 

New Moon in Aries 23

Sabian Symbol:  “A woman in pastel colors carrying a heavy and valuable but veiled load.”

'The Blessing' by my friend,
Shannon Bagley Hilson.
Gifted to me when I was pregnant
with my daughter.

 

In this symbol that the luminaries highlight now, there is lightness and heaviness co-present.  In Dane Rudhyar’s interpretation of this symbol, he specifically defines ‘a pregnant woman in a light summer dress’.  The symbol is about inner fulfillment, as well as the weighty value in the task of creating something meaningful.  Both versions of the symbol are protective about what is being carried.  It also suggests that what is currently veiled will soon be revealed.  So, whatever it is that we each are carrying…whether it be an idea still forming within, a new venture awaiting its proper timing, or even a heaviness we are transforming (maybe all of those things and more)…may this Aries New Moon bless us through our Sun’s rays.

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi