A Difficult and Yet Optimistic First Quarter Moon

Sunday's First Quarter Moon traditionally represents a 'crisis in action,' when the impulse from the New Moon must confront impediments to achieving its ends. That is to say, all of us might run into obstacles that limit what we consider possible, as we strive to fulfill the deep soul desires represented by the extremely powerful and transformationally inclined Capricorn Solstice New Moon of one week past. It is interesting to note that the ruler of this New Moon, namely Saturn, has just crossed into Jupiter's sign of Sagittarius, and that this too has the effect of imposing the limitations of hard-and-fast practicality on the dreams and schemes for a better future floating through our heart space, and as well our thoughts inclined toward making a more significant contribution to an improved world situation. Equally, the positive Jupiter influence extending out toward this current positioning of Saturn might be able to pull this nuts and bolts thinking a few steps ahead of cynicism and despair, engendering that belief in Spirit implying that all things are indeed possible. It is a seeming paradox to go along with both of these viewpoints, and yet this is one way of viewing our present conundrum. As John Lennon said in a recently re-broadcast interview, and I am paraphrasing here, governments are mad, while the people really do have the power to change things, if they would only wake up to this simple and inescapable truth.

We can at any rate change things for ourselves, in our very own minds and hearts, and the astrological indications are in support of this ideal. Venus and Mercury are drawing nearer to their mutual entrance into the sign of Aquarius about a week away, when they will be conjunct and parallel in the sign that symbolizes the world coming together as one humanity, while expansive Jupiter remains in close trine with the powerful new planet, Eris, representing finding and acting on soul intention. This is a long-term transit that has existed all through December and goes on into the first two weeks of the New Year. It is significant as well that in the chart for New Year's Day, the start of the calendar year, Uranus and Pluto are once again emphasized, by the Sun's conjunction with Pluto. We are therefore in for another year of transformational change, punctuated by the mid-March exact alignment of their storied square, that might yet have the ability to move society in a more positive direction by a process of tough love. Desperate times call for desperate measures; as a collective we certainly are getting to the point where in actuality something has got to give.

As we make the move that in our personal lives accords with our own necessary metamorphosis, we will want to recognize that now is the perfect time to set intention for that crucial difference that we know in our hearts is possible. In this quarter moon configuration, in fact, the Moon is parallel and in forming conjunction with trickster Uranus in Aries, providing surprises, and surprising enlightenment, helping to prepare the way for the remainder of our own intense journey of personal evolution that we have been involved with all this previous year.

The Sabian Symbols for this First Quarter Moon are once again revealing. For the Moon, in the seventh degree of Aries, we have: "a man successfully expressing himself in two realms at once." This reminds us of the life of the Spirit, hidden deep within ourselves, in contrast with the surface forms provided by our personalities, which we must simultaneously uphold. Seminal 20th Century astrologer Dane Rudhyar comments "The primordial one-sidedness of emotional and cultural manifestation actually calls for the compensatory ability to operate at two levels. Thus the primary dualism of Sky and Earth, of the divine and the human, of spirit and matter." For the Sun, in the seventh degree of Capricorn, we find: "A veiled prophet of power." Marc Edmund Jones alludes to the implied leadership role in society, referring to "unerring insight into the motives of men [and women] and a consequent gift for organizing their efforts along any given line of accomplishment," and stating: "Here is an exaltation of the untapped resources inherent in all personality." Indeed we are each one of us that prophet, under the surface, and we must all begin to recognize in ourselves the force that can remove mountains, as required, in order to achieve necessary personal and cultural transformation.