AQUARIUS NEW MOON / CHINESE NEW YEAR - 4 February 2019

Exact at 9.03pm GMT, 4.03pm EST.

This New Moon also coincides with the beginning of the Yin Earth Pig, a peaceful, patient and thoughtful creature who is very well aware that “charity begins at home”. The New Moon represents mini death/rebirth, whereby we let go of whatever is not serving us in order to make way for something else to come in that is more in line with who we are in the process of becoming. Whatever energetic seeds are planted during this time tend to blossom and bloom later in the month. It can be a powerful and potent time to set some heartfelt intentions, although we must watch what we ask for because the universe, or spirit, has a tendency to really take us at our word and can be quite literal. Often we are given only what is needed for our greatest growth at that time, and that can come in many guises! We may consciously want something for ourselves, but deep down inside we might be absolutely terrified of what it might mean if we actually get it, or on a subconscious level we feel that we don’t deserve it. And when it comes down to it, our subconscious rules the show!

The Sun and Moon are forming their monthly union in humanitarian, non-conformist and idealistic Aquarius, a sign well known for standing out from the crowd! Wherever Aquarius and its ruler, Uranus, are found in our chart shows where we feel a need to do things differently, in a way that does not conform to societal norms and expectations. Aquarius represents the part of us that questions the rules and regulations in order to individuate and liberate ourselves from conditioning patterns that we have accrued throughout this life and previous lifetimes. Slowly but surely we peel back the layers of parental and societal “should and shouldn’ts” in order to arrive at the core, which is our own, unique essence. It is essential that we liberate ourselves from our conditioning in order to grow spiritually. Aquarius challenges us to be strong enough to be our own person and to break down the walls that are keeping us confined in consensus reality. Sometimes we have to go out on a limb or go a bit crazy to begin to awaken and see the light. Breakdowns, as hard as they may be, can lead to massive breakthroughs.

This New Moon also has Mercury sitting right next to it, and Black Moon Lilith not far away. We could experience some real “aha” moments during this Moon, not to mention having some quite off the wall thoughts or visions of the life we truly want for ourselves. It is possible that memories resurface into our conscious mind that are important pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of our life! We have a chance to take a step back and look at our lives objectively, from the bird’s eye perspective, and see what might need to change in order for us to be the truest version of ourselves. Epiphanies could come hard and fast that help us to understand ourselves better. With Black Moon Lilith involved, we could experience some quite raw, visceral feelings, possibly around feeling rejected, or bullied, or ostracised, or misunderstood. Where in our lives are we intolerant? Can we sometimes dissociate or detach from our emotions? Are we insecure around being different or are we overtly rebellious and contrary? How do we feel in group situations? Do we feel like an outsider? Are we brave enough to question authority and to act on our visions? How can we help make the world a better place?

Mars is a big player during this New Moon, especially as he is moving towards a conjunction with Uranus, the ruler of this Moon! First, however, Mars will form a challenging square to Pluto which will be exact on Friday 1 Feb, but will still be around during the New Moon. Mars is currently very potent, as he is in his own sign, Aries. When the planet of assertion, courage, aggression, desire and independence squares off against Pluto, the planet of the soul, power, transformation and our subconscious desires, the results could be interesting indeed! On the one hand we could experience intense power struggles, rage coming up from the depths, confrontations that force us to be more transparent, impulsive acts that come from subconscious urges and anger that we might usually prefer to suppress. On the other hand, this combination could help us to confront something that we might usually prefer to avoid or sweep under the carpet. It could help us to face ourselves bravely and honestly and to dive deep so we can move past our own limitations. This is a powerful combination that could signify some kind of face-off between our soul and our ego.

Mars is also building up to a square to the Nodes of the Moon, which will be exact on 9 February. Whenever a planet squares the nodal axis it represents unresolved material that might prevent us from moving forward and achieving our North Node objectives. With the South Node (familiar patterns that may be holding us back from growth) currently in Capricorn, we are being asked to have a good look at any unhealthy or limiting parental and societal conditioning and to let go of our more patriarchal values, issues around judgement, hard control, suppression of feelings and too much emphasis on duty, status and keeping up with the Joneses. The Cancer North Node is beckoning us forward, asking that we nurture our inner child and move towards greater sensitivity, allowing ourselves to be more vulnerable and nurturing, taking care of one another and healing our ancestral roots and the Mother Daughter relationship. Ultimately we are being asked to bring some more matriarchal values in so that we can achieve a balance between the two signs.

How might Mars be preventing us from doing that? Are we harbouring anger towards our parents or society for their inability to meet our needs when we were younger? Was our need for independence thwarted when we were young?  Were we forced to conform to our parent’s expectations at the expense of our own individuality? Have we suppressed our instinctual will for so long that we don’t even know what it is? Do our desires feel at odds with how we have been taught to behave? Does our anger come out in distorted ways because we were somehow given the message that anger is not acceptable? Are we angry at the system? Are we afraid of our own anger? Have we lost ourselves by being the good little girl or boy?  Where might issues around domination come up, both personally and collectively? Do we assert ourselves in healthy ways? Have we got the ability to create healthy boundaries and to say “No” when we need to? How does sexuality and violence play a part in our lives? Has it been normalised by the media so much that we have become desensitised to it?

Finally, Mars will join Uranus in the 29^th degree of Aries! This is building now and will be exact on 13 February. This combination could help us to release any stuckness around anger, although of course this could also mean literally losing our temper! Mars and Uranus can signify violent uprisings or revolutions and sudden acts of aggression, but it can also help us to be brave enough to step outside of the box and act differently. Uranus is getting ready to leave Aries once and for all on 6 March, and so this pairing of the warrior planet and the Great Awakener and revolutionary in the very last degree of Mars’ own sign of Aries does feel quite important. Could this give us the courage to stand up for a better world for us all to live in? Might we be brave enough to make the changes in our lives that we know we need to make? Could this pairing help us to step outside of our safe ruts and comfort zone and act on our deepest desires and visions for a better future? Could we find the inner strength to bust out of the mould and be who we really are? Where in our lives to we need to make a stand, or to liberate ourselves? This could be our chance.

I will go into this more next time, but we are building up to a very important conjunction between Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn which will be exact in January 2020, although these two planets are dancing around each other throughout 2019. What might happen when these two powerful planets join forces – the planet of soul, power, death and rebirth combined with the planet of karma, hard control and societal structures? In the beginning part of this year these two bodies are going to join forces with the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn. This will happen in April, but Pluto is already only 5 degrees away from the South Node, so it feels important to mention it now as the energy is already building. There is a sense of us having to go back in order to go forward. Possibly we have some unresolved material in our past that holds the key to the future. Is history repeating itself?

It is important to consider that all of this is occurring in the sign of Capricorn, which represents the patriarchal structures, governments, corporations as well as the parental and societal conditioning that we have received in this and other lifetimes. Issues around power, powerlessness, loss, abandonment, trust, suppression of feminine values, control, karma, authority and domination could come to the fore and we could be forced to confront them in order to move forward both personally and collectively. We are entering into a very important time indeed and it will be interesting to see what has changed by the end of this process. There is a sense of some kind of purging of the old, outworn structures so that something new can be built in its place. Sometimes we have no choice but to revisit the past in order to learn what we need to grow and evolve. Some hard lesson could be learned during this time, but if we learn then well then hopefully we will never need to repeat them!

So, the beginning of the Yin Earth Pig year involves quite a lot of powerful planetary energy! The year of the Earth Pig involves issues around what we digest, both literally and figuratively, so it is important to be careful about what we take into our body, mind and spirit this year. There is also a big relationship, interestingly enough, between our true nature that we have come in with versus what we have been “fed” by our parents and the culture we were born into. We might want to be more aware of what thoughts we circle around, as they can powerfully affect our reality. Something to consider this year is what we might want to generate and bring up to be expressed through our heart. On another level, this year could also be quite damp, involving issues around water. I like that idea – what can we bring to the fore that is the truest expression of our heart?

Interestingly enough, I just realised that I found myself being drawn to watch Babe last night! Ha ha ha! Coincidence? I think not! What a perfect message for the Earth Pig Year and Aquarius New Moon!

Happy New Year!

Much Love

Amy

xoxo

My website: www.amybirdartandastrology.com

Picture: Morning Pig by Cari Humphrey