Cleaning time

I hear thunder outside, which goes quite well with this Full Moon chart. The Moon is exactly full as She rises, exactly conjunct the ascendant on the twelfth house side. Our hidden secret emotions receive full sunniest Leo-gold light from the sixth house of health and service to others. The Aquarius Moon is comforted by blogs, smart phones, all things technological. My money-saving Capricorn Moon prepaid phone would not satisfy an Aquarius Moon native. 

In addition to Moon opposite Sun and Sun opposite Neptune, this chart is exhaustingly full of aspect patterns, both harmonious and discordant: water Grand Trine; a bow and arrow from the Grand Trine and Jupiter opposite Pluto; cardinal Grand Cross pushing new starts and made up of oppositions and squares.

So we can start by breaking everything apart and washing it away. The waning Moon will help us let go of all the old hidden stuff we've been hiding.

Make a big, big wish and dive in!

Choices, choices! I love to think of Leo as the sign of free will. This Leo New Moon gives us the freedom to choose what forms to make in these harmonious days of water grand trine. 

Generous, caregiving Cancer Jupiter, space-clearing disciplined Scorpio Saturn, and visionary Pisces Neptune have been trine since mid-July. We have until August 30 to make the most of this combination of nurturing ideas, steady transformation, and intuitive imagination. 

Planting New Moon seeds in the midst of Leo extravagance could be fun! We can have big, dramatic, stylish Leo wishes granted. The good-natured Leo New Moon is also trine innovative Aries Uranus, for more individualistic, fiery beginnings.

Venus in Virgo will ensure that all is beautifully proportioned. Steady Capricorn Pluto is sextile both Saturn and Neptune and opposed by Jupiter for a blend of tension and grace. This opposition forms a bow and arrow pattern aimed right at our Jupiterian ideas on how to care for ourselves and one another. 

Cancer Mars is also opposite Pluto for extra caregiving passion and intensity. Virgo Venus is harmoniously sextile Mars, gentling the impulsive planet a bit more along with the motherly Cancerian transit. 

I like this New Moon. Everyone likes Leo, right? Let's all be regal and giving, and see what happens. 

Make a mosaic from the pieces

What do you do when the day includes major possibilities for disruption as well as a huge hexagonal window of opportunity for harmony and concord?

From 1:25am until 7:23pm on July 29, the Taurus Moon completes a grand sextile, a big hexagon in the zodiac. This pattern starts with 28 degrees Taurus ascending and the Moon at 1 degree Taurus. The hexagon moves through the signs to end with 24 degrees Capricorn ascending and the Moon at 10 degrees Taurus.

The Moon is the planet of all that comforts us, physically and emotionally. She shows our physical qualities, and what we inherit from our ancestors. Taurus is a steady, loyal sign for the Moon, if a bit stubborn about letting go the old.

However, the old is being torn away by the friction of multiple t-squares in this chart. In Cancer, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are opposite Capricorn Pluto and square Aries Uranus. These are cardinal signs that like to get things started; the ongoing Uranus/Pluto shifts are being emphasized by our words, passions and ideas about taking care of ourselves and others. Since the Moon rules Cancer and is also the fastest planet in the hexagon pattern, I think caregiving is further highlighted.

The Taurus Moon, Leo Sun, and Scorpio Saturn form the fixed t-square, the friction that tries to hold on to habit. This t-square becomes a grand cross after the Moon moves out of the hexagon, at 8:09pm. Saturn in Scorpio has been pruning our lives for a while now, and this grand cross can give the pruning shears a dose of Leo will, Aquarius quirkiness and Taurus stubbornness.

Overall, getting things started and keeping things the same can be a source of conflict. But perhaps it is all necessary for opportunities so complex we'll need new imagination to encompass the changes.

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Here's a timeline of ascendant changes and other major patterns. I've given a chart for 12pm below, just because it's so hard to pick out the most interesting chart from all these possibilities.

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1:25am, 28 Taurus ascending, Moon in the 12th house
3:27am, 0 Cancer ascending, Moon in the 11th house
5:47am, 0 Leo ascending, Moon in the 10th house. I like this one, as it puts the Moon/Saturn opposition in the opposite houses from my own natal 4th/10th Moon opposite Saturn.
8:14am, 0 Virgo ascending, Moon in the 9th house
8:29am, 6 Leo Sun moves quincunx 7th house Neptune and 5th house Pluto for a Finger of Yod pointed at the 12th house
10:37am, 0 Libra ascending, Moon in the 8th house, Sun in the 11th
11:38am, 12 Libra ascending, cardinal grand cross with ascendant, 10th/9th Cancer Mercury/Mars/Jupiter conjunct midheaven, 12 Aries Uranus conjunct descendant, 9 Capricorn Pluto in the 3rd house conjunct imum coeli
1:01pm, 0 Scorpio ascending, Moon in the 7th house, Sun in the 10th about to conjunct midheaven
3:27pm, 0 Sagittarius ascending, Moon just in the 6th house, right on the cusp, Sun in the 9th house, Venus conjunct midheaven in the 9th
5:47pm, 0 Capricorn ascending, Moon in the 4th house, Sun in the 8th
7:23pm, 24 Capricorn ascending, Moon in the 3rd house, four degrees from conjunct the imum coeli
8:09pm, no more hexagon but fixed grand cross with ascendant, 3rd house Taurus Moon, Leo Sun at the point of God's Finger conjunct descendant, Scorpio Saturn in the ninth house

Take care to evolve

The Moon is full at noon! Well, not exactly at noon. But look at that beautiful tenth house Sun, 0 degrees of Leo shining in His own sign from the kingly house of public image and career. The Moon exactly opposite is at 0 Aquarius in Her own fourth house of home and nesting. 

What comforts Aquarius Moon? Her home would be full of electronic devices, I think, and revolutionary ideas about how to evolve. Leo Sun gives the extravagant enthusiasm to make all that evolution happen. 

Next Monday the Moon will have moved into Taurus to complete a Grand Sextile, a big harmonious hexagon in the heavens among all those frictional t-squares. So let's take today's evolutionary Full Moon energy with us throughout the week, making surprising changes to our comfortable nests. 

We can work hard at all this unusual nurturing, with disciplined Capricorn on the fourth house cusp. Which puts Cancer at the midheaven, emphasizing the Moon's nourishing care. 

This chart has so many other patterns in it, because of the developing sextile. I've seen the pattern called a Star Tetrahedron by some astrologers. After the Full Moon, whatever fruit ripens today is shared over the next two weeks as the Moon wanes back to New. 

Now is a good time to think and feel about what innovative changes we'd like to see in how we care for ourselves and each other. Next week is good weather for miracles.

Cautious optimism is still optimism, right?

I've read a few columns about how this New Moon is the "soulmate" influence. My first reaction is cynicism -- I have the Capricorn Moon tightly opposite Cancer Saturn in my own birth chart, across the fourth and tenth house axis. Nesting and working are difficult, solitary work, you guys! No one is going to do something like help you, for goodness sake. And even if someone offers to help, s/he probably will exact a pound or two of heart's flesh as price.

In the interest of questioning one's assumptions, I will now give my kindest, most charitable interpretation of this so-called soulmate New Moon.

Scorpio Saturn in the seventh house of relationships is one corner of a water grand trine. Water can be the loving element of life in the desert of Saturn's survival tactics, certainly. And this seventh house is ruled by gentle Venus, with partnering Libra on the cusp. Scorpio Saturn clears the way for new growth by strictly pruning away the old. Also, Rahu of the new lessons is in this seventh house. Good enough. Saturn also rules the midheaven, and no doubt soulmates would be public figures, if only by taking endless pictures together to post on Facebook.

Saturn usually presents obstacles, but He is in that flowy water grand trine with generous Jupiter and imaginative Neptune. Jupiter in nurturing Cancer, lending His broadening philosophical ideas to how we can take care of each other in the third house of daily life and communication, with its own sign, Gemini, on the cusp. Traditionally Saturn was known as the greater malefic and Jupiter the greater benefic; the good and bad in life are harmoniously combined here and given a voice by Gemini and the third house.

Third corner of the water grand trine is Pisces Neptune, imaginative and visionary at home in His own sign. Neptune gives the eleventh house of friendship and group endeavor an even more idealistic sense of grand vague vistas, possibly with the intuition to back up these feelings. The eleventh house has its own sign of Aquarius on the cusp, ruled by innovative Uranus. Revolutionary Aries Uranus is found in the twelfth house of secrets and hidden motives, perhaps the kind that lead us to fight alongside idealistic friends.

Speaking of fighting, there is another grand trine in this chart. Gemini Mars in the third house is also trine Saturn and Neptune.  Maybe soulmates are the people you fight with but still stay friends. You might be fighting intensely over philosophical ideals; Capricorn Pluto is opposite Jupiter and in the ninth house of philosophy and religion, home of Jupiter twice because of its Sagittarius cusp. Pluto's intensity is softened a bit by the gentle sextile with Neptune. But the sextile with Saturn and square with Uranus are not comforting enough for an optimistic column as this should be.

Oh, and this is about the Cancer New Moon. New opportunities for nurturing! And the nurturing happens every day, all around us, in the third house of the neighborhood and daily communication. Our ability to learn is nurtured here, and learning is the root of all human existence. The Moon/Sun conjunction is conjunct the imum coeli, the very root of the chart. Mercury retrograde, ruler of the third house where we find the Moon/Sun, is in the fourth house of nesting and nourishment. The Moon rules that fourth house.

So maybe these rosy how-to-call-in-your-soulmate interpretations are warranted. Conversation, caretaking, free flow of ideas for how to nurture are all present in this New Moon chart. Charming Venus, ruler of that seventh house of partnerships, is in the fifth house of fun, romance and creativity. 

This New Moon could be fun, at the very least. We'll see. I'm not interpreting those three big warning t-squares here, and I didn't say anything bad about Saturn in the seventh house. So there.

Syllabus

Our lesson plans for the next month are complete, with tonight's third-in-a-row eclipse. Lunar eclipse tonight, on the North Node, where we find progress and new material for our curriculum. 

We may have fun learning, with friends! The Sagittarius Moon, expansive and generous, is in the eleventh house of teamwork, friendship and group endeavors. On the other side of the Earth, we find the Gemini Sun, chatty and curious in the fifth house of fun, creativity, romance and children.

The eleventh house has a Scorpio cusp, and Pluto, ruler of Scorpio, is in the first house. Our hearts' friendships and intense individuality are working together. The Sun's fifth house cusp is loyal Taurus, whose ruler Venus is in the sixth house of health and service. Fun and games will have steadiness, loyalty and purposeful work helping others. 

The Moon/Sun opposition forms a t-square with imaginative, visionary Neptune in the second house of values and personal wealth. Money is imaginary, isn't it? A kind of flow, like Neptunian seas. Aquarius is the second house cusp sign, and we find surprising Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, in the third house of learning, communication and daily travel. 

Second house is associated with Taurus of that fifth house cusp, holding fast in the Gemini Sun's lightheartedness; eleventh house and Uranus are alike in humanitarian aims, warmed by the fiery Sagittarius Moon. This t-square is neatly tied together. The t-square is not an easy pattern, but learning happens through obstacles. 

Misty lessons are set for these next months, all about dear friends and finding enjoyable ways of helping one another. 

Easy summer?

Rahu and Ketu, the Dragon's Head and Dragon's Tail, remind us of our appetites. We can be made more aware of the literal eat-food-now urges, but also of our hunger and satiation in the areas affected by these Moon's nodes. 

At the solar and lunar eclipses, the Sun, Moon and Earth align to light and dim this awareness of what we crave. The emotional New Moon blocks the Sun's free will and vitality at the solar eclipse. At the lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the Sun's light of reason usually reflected in feelings at the Full Moon. 

As humans, we desire freedom. Our stories are filled with the human wish to control our circumstances,  and the difficulties that ensue when we are thwarted by forces beyond our control from outside and within our selves.

Right now our eclipse lessons are about holding on and letting go of what we crave. The South Node, Ketu, the Dragon's Tail, is in loyal Taurus. Taurus desires consistence, beauty, comfort. As the Dragon's severed tail, Ketu hoards. Letting go of lessons already learned and moving out of our comfortable habits could be particularly difficult with the South Node in Taurus. 

Characterizing the North and South nodes as Rahu and Ketu is a Vedic concept, and Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac. Our tropical Scorpio/Taurus eclipses are Libra/Aries in the sidereal system, more about partnerships and the self than holding on and letting go.

I'm a magpie astrologer, stealing the ideas I like and using them as I choose. Interestingly, even in the tropical zodiac, Thursday's solar eclipse is about Me and We here in the Mountain time zone (and in the Central and Eastern time zones as well.) The New Moon blocking the Sun's light is in the seventh house of partnerships.

So we have the South Node/Ketu holding on to our comfortable reliable Taurus partnership habits, whatever those may be. What does a New Moon do here? Emotions block the Sun's light; do we see how emotions cloud free will? Perhaps we see how we allow others' emotions to choose for us. Or perhaps we are even more unaware, since the Moon is between the Sun and Earth. 

In any case, this eclipse is a new start with our old habits -- emphasis on Our, with the New Moon in the seventh house of partnership conjunct thinking/talking Mercury and assertive Mars. 

Then, on May 24 we find the Earth between the Sagittarius Moon and Gemini Sun. That one looks  enjoyable -- North Node Sagittarius Moon in the eleventh house of friendship for an intuitive enjoyment of the shared, broadminded endeavors we crave. 

On October 18 we return to the Libra/Aries and first/seventh house axes, this time with the North Node/Rahu in the partnership/We position for new lessons, perhaps refreshed by what we let go and rethought in the previous eclipse cycle. 

North Node Scorpio New Moon and solar eclipse on November 3 happens in the first house, with Mercury conjunct the North Node and Sun/Moon conjunct Saturn. Right now we're preparing for that new lesson by letting go of what doesn't work.