The New Moon in Capricorn approaches. It will perhaps arrive before you listen to or read this post. Here in my eastern time zone, the New Moon is exact at five seconds after midnight.
Is this a kind of Cinderella New Moon, rising from the ashes to have her moment of beauty and magic?
Of course my time zone is the only one in which the New Moon arrives just as midnight tolls so I won’t push that metaphor too much. But I also can’t quite let go of it. Too many images of radical transformation feel relevant when the most important aspect of this New Moon is a conjunction with Pluto.
But Pluto is no fairy godmother.
Pluto is the most distant planet we know in our solar system, with an eccentric orbit that takes over 200 years to complete. The energy of Pluto, their personality if you will, their impact is intense and transformative.
Pluto unmasks us. In the presence of this enigmatic sage, lies dissolve. The heart of the matter is revealed.
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On the world stage, we sometimes hear astrologers link Pluto to violent conflicts and uprisings, to authoritarianism and fascism. Brutality. Naked power. Pluto can sometimes invoke this in our personal lives as well.
I would argue, though, that Pluto neither creates nor supports violence or cruelty. Instead, Pluto reveals what is already there.
Other planets reveal things to us, about our world, and about ourselves. Each does it in accordance with their energy, their purpose, if you think of it that way.
Pluto gets associated with pain because the mechanism of action here is to rip things open. If a bandage is festering, then it must be removed before true healing can begin.
At this New Moon @ 23 Capricorn, we renew our experience of both Capricorn and Pluto.
What do we know now we didn’t know a year ago? One perfectly valid initial response would be, I know a lot of things I wish I’d never heard of.
That kind of willful ignorance, the looking away, is precisely what Pluto does not permit.
We now know many things. Things we can deny if we work at it but cannot forget. What do we do with this hard-won knowledge?
The big move into Aquarius, the fixed Air sign where we currently find Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Pallas Athena, says we need a plan. We need a vision. We need something inclusive, just, and beautiful. Once we have the perfect plan, we will implement it.
This intellectual goal can be compelling. Yet at the New Moon, Mars and Uranus in Taurus square Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius. Squares are contentious. They require action. They need to find balance.
Taurus is fixed Earth. I’m reminded here of the old adage that no plan survives first contact. Originally used in military contexts, it was first contact with the enemy that messed up the beautiful plans.
But we all know from high school English classes that sometimes the enemy is the weather, the territory, the circumstances that cause equipment to break, communications to fail, supplies to disappear.
Taurus knows about life as it’s lived, day by day, year by year. Mars and Uranus in Taurus know exactly what can happen to beautiful plans.
Does this mean we don’t plan? It’s futile? Visions are just pie in the sky? Worthless?
I don’t think so. We need goals and plans and maps. At the same time (that square again) we need to remember that the map is not the territory.
We need boots on the ground. We need, literally, groundwork.
There’s a lot going on in the Earth signs at this New Moon. Mars and Uranus are there in Taurus. Sun, Moon, and Pluto sit together in Capricorn. And Venus is also there at 5 Capricorn.
Venus forms a trine to Mars and Uranus. She calls our attention to the beauty, harmony, and balance we both find and create when our plans fit our territories well. There is beauty in the roots of things. Sometimes, digging deep, we reveal truth.
But then we come up against the question of what truth is. We notice that Neptune, planet of dreams and enchantment and confusion, has barely moved and still squares the Nodes of the Moon.
One of things we come up against when we attempt to implement our clearest plans is that truth on the ground often does not match up with the truth of our vision. Life is messy. Unpredictable. Chaotic.
Can that too be beautiful?
Check your birth chart to see where 23 Capricorn falls. This will point to where Plutonian action might be felt.
Some say to set intentions or goals during a New Moon. I did this for years myself before deeper study showed the dark of the Moon was not the best time for this. At the New Moon, seeds may be planted, but we can’t see them.
I now prefer to wait at least sixteen hours after the New Moon, when the first sliver of moonlight can again be seen in the sky. For many in older times, this is what the New Moon meant: The moment when the Moon’s light returned.
I’m mentioning this because this New Moon could feel especially dark, given the strong Plutonian presence. So with this New Moon, unless you are prepared to put yourself in Pluto’s hands, I do not recommend setting intentions or goals.
There will be other times under other Moons when wishes and intentions can bloom. With this New Moon, instead, we wait and watch to see what will be uncovered.
At this New Moon, we will feel Pluto’s intensity. Somewhere, truth will out. It might be partial. It might be painful. It will be prophetic. It’s quite likely to be messy.
As we sail through the skies into a new Age of Air, it’s good to be reminded that the ground beneath our feet, messy as it is, is what supports us in so many ways. We ignore it at our peril.
In creating airy visions, we need to keep our feet on the ground.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the eucalyptus bark by Tim Mossholder,
and the following images:
Apophysis 3D fractal ball by Garden, and
the Lascaux cave paintings by Prof saxx