This is a New Moon to conjure with. Arriving tonight, it couples the fire of Aries with hidden qualities to create a potent place for dreaming, planting, and creating.
This is a powerful Aries time. In the sky, planets and asteroids cover almost the full span of the sign from Chiron at 9° to Venus at 26°.
Mercury, Ceres, the Moon, and Eris are also found here with the Sun in cardinal Fire.
It’s a place of beginnings, of birth, rebirth and diving into adventure with energy and enthusiasm.
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Mars, ruler of Aries and therefore of this New Moon, sits at 23° Gemini. He sextiles the New Moon, sharing the youthful optimism of Gemini with the Fire he knows so well.
And this Mars is out of bounds at 24°N44’ celestial latitude. In other words, Mars has slipped outside the boundary set by the Sun in its journeys north and south of the equator. He’s beyond the pale, exploring uncharted territory. Here be dragons!
Out of bounds planets don’t deliberately break the rules. They simply don’t see them. They follow their own star, marching to the beat of their own inner drum.
It can mean breaking the law. More often, it means charting our own course without caring, or even noticing, how our choices and actions might appear to others.
This expands Aries’ qualities of independence, focus on our own goals, and taking risks.
Jupiter at 25° Aquarius trines Mars and sextiles the New Moon. Here we have expansive, generous Jupiter adding his energy to the Fire we already have burning. Aquarius can help make sure our actions are based in principles and ask whether our plans will benefit the community. Jupiter is likely to keep things positive while building the Fire higher.
But New Moons are not bright times, but dark ones. The night sky has no light. We can’t see our way clearly yet and wait in readiness for the light to return.
The New Moon supports this as well.
Everything currently in Aries, with the exception of Chiron, is combust and Chiron is under the beams.
This means that none of the Aries planets is visible. All are obscured by the Sun’s brilliance, which reduces the power of each planet for individual expression and action.
Mercury approaches the Sun for a superior conjunction on April 18, within the Crescent phase of this New Moon. “Superior” does not mean better but rather farther away. Mercury, moving direct, disappears behind the Sun, traveling far away from Earth.
This conjunction, when Mercury will be in the heart of the Sun, offers potent insights into whatever we seed at this New Moon. Mercury will be moving fast and seeing far. We can take the long view, gain perspective. Our thinking can be holistic and inclusive.
Venus reached the heart of the Sun on March 26 but has yet to find her way out of the castle. She will not be visible in the sky until May 4, when, in her own sign of Taurus, she will rise as the evening star.
Venus as evening star is a goddess of love, her heart softened by the deeper spiritual perspectives available during her own superior conjunction.
Yes, she is still in Aries, but already turns toward forgiveness, not in the sense of forgetting, but with a sense of letting go of past hurts so we ourselves can move on and create anew.
Venus is especially important now because she rules the third decan of Aries in which the New Moon takes place. She is also in this final decan, one that Austin Coppock named The Burning Rose for the intensity of its passion and creativity.
These last degrees of Aries invite us to celebrate our achievements. Whether by conquest or creation, we have gained something. It’s a time to celebrate where we are while recognizing there is more to come.
This Venus knows there is more because she currently squares Pluto the alchemist. She has been, and will be, transformed by her time in the Fire of Aries.
So with the darkness of the New Moon, and Mercury and Venus hidden by the Sun, we are in a time of inner Fire, of beginnings that cannot yet be seen. Which is exactly what New Moons are all about.
In alchemy, the element of Fire is divided into four types. The Fire they worked with most often was named Secret Fire, a force that could not been found within matter and yet had the power to transform it.
This is the Fire of life itself, the life force of the alchemist and the life force within each one of us.
The Secret Fire of the alchemists is sometimes linked with kundalini, the coiled serpent, a form of divine feminine energy located at the base of the spine. In some forms of tantric practice, learning to connect with and channel kundalini is a path to spiritual awakening.
A New Moon like this one offers many avenues for exploration.
The seeds we plant can be for creative projects in the world, ones that will unfold not only during this waxing cycle but in the months to come as Venus and Mercury emerge from under the Sun’s beams to appear in the evening sky.
We might focus, not on specific goals, but on our own creative and spiritual development, seeking to connect more consciously and fully to our own inner fire.
We may have things to celebrate. This past year has included many losses in all areas of life. While we’re not out of the woods, there’s a sense of emerging from a time of trials. Without forgetting what we and the world have lost, we can give thanks for what we have and for what can still be accomplished.
Any or all of these will align with this New Moon.
As a reminder, I do not make wishes or set goals at the New Moon itself. I used to do this, but now wait until the Moon reappears in the sky, in line with traditional practice. I find waiting for the visible Moon gives added focus and effectiveness to any work I do.
Generally, I wait a minimum of sixteen hours and then look for a propitious time that falls within the New Moon phase (before the Crescent phase begins). This way, I can rely on the light of the growing Moon to carry my messages wherever they need to go.
It’s always worthwhile to check where the New Moon falls in your birth chart. This offers guidance on the kinds of wishes and goals you might wish to focus on.
For me, this New Moon falls in the 9th House of journeys and higher learning, making the creative and spiritual possibilities especially interesting.
We’re about to experience an active, celebratory New Moon that opens windows into deep philosophical traditions. Aries, the sign of the intrepid adventurer, invites us to go beyond, into uncharted realms, to see what we can discover there.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from rose petals by René Porter,
and the following images:
dragon by Ravit Sages,
rose by Tiffany Chan,
Temple of Debod by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos, and
adventure by Linus Sandvide