Gemini New Moon

The Gemini New Moon occurs at 11:40 am MST on Wednesday, May 28th at 7 degrees Gemini 21 minutes.  Here’s the chart:  GeminiNewMoon2014.  Gemini is the sign of the Twins who symbolize the dual nature of our physical plane of existence here on planet Earth.  This sign also reflects the natural law of polarity that exists in our time/space reality.  Gemini is associated with the choices we’re often faced with between two or more equally appealing options as this is the sign of diversity and variety. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, Gemini lives up to these qualities by being a ‘walking encyclopedia’ of knowledge.  The usually know a little bit about almost everything!

Gemini also rules the left brain and its logical, linear, deductive way of thinking.  Studying the surrounding environment, it labels and classifies phenomenal objects in order to understand the physical world. Ruled by Mercury, the ‘Messenger’ planet, Geminis never tire of learning one more fact, visiting one more website, attending one more workshop, making one more phone call, or reading one more book, text or email message!  Consequently, Gemini regularly suffers from information overload, becoming overwhelmed with way too many facts – facts that often conflict with one another!

Interestingly, Mercury is at 29 degrees Gemini in the New Moon chart.  The final degree of any sign  signifies culmination.  Planets at 29 degrees can achieve mastery and completion.  Mercury now has the potential ability to KNOW, and to ultimately arrive at a thorough and accurate understanding of the facts of any given situation.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Mercury goes retrograde for the second time this year during June.  Thank heavens for Mercury retrogrades!  This is because Mercury retrograde periods always help Gemini purge excess data and useless knowledge and balance predominantly left-brained logical thinking habits with right-brain intuitive thought processes. After all, our left brain is only half of our brain!  Mercury retrograde is a time to integrate left brain and right brain; logic AND intuition.

Mercury will be retrograde from June 7th to July 1st.  It will retrace its steps from 3 degrees Cancer to 24 degrees Gemini. This particular retrograde period will encourage a review of how we FEEL about ourselves, our home, our family and what we need in order to feel safe, secure and protected. It can reveal how our thoughts (Gemini) contribute either to an overall well-being or conversely to a consciousness of fear and doubt that creates emotional insecurities.

Neptune and Chiron in Pisces will also both go retrograde this month on the 9th and 20th respectively. While they’re coming to a ‘standstill’ before appearing to change directions in the heavens, their influence will greatly intensify.  Retrograde until November 17th, Neptune helps us reflect upon the deepest levels of truth our beliefs allow.  Its a time for spiritual reflection and development.  Spiritual guidance and inspiration is always highlighted when Neptune stations retrograde or direct.  Use this time to develop greater compassion for yourself and your fellow human beings.  Reflect upon beliefs that are preventing a direct reunion with the divine source of creation.  Chiron will be retrograde until November 24th.  In Pisces, Chiron can either bring spiritual awareness that helps heal old wounds, or negative, delusional thinking that re-imprints a consciousness of victimization.

Neptune is currently at 7 degrees Pisces, exactly square (90 degree angle) the Gemini New Moon at 7 degrees Gemini.  This planetary combination reflects the potential for facts and truths to become blurred, idealized, confused, obfuscated or even deliberately hidden or falsified.  Illusions, delusions and deceptions will be far less troublesome if you allow your intuition to help you navigate through spin, scams and lies.  Clearly it’s time to trust your intuition!  Let it point the way to your personal truth and the information you need in order to evolve.  Listening intently to internal messages will allow you to better recognize spiritual guidance and to receive new insights and understanding.  These insights can be particularly helpful in healing those past wounds that may have left you feeling victimized.

Perhaps you’re ready to learn the following spiritual evolutionary lesson:  If you experienced something in your life, your own consciousness co-created it.   Over the last decade, quantum science has proven that consciousness creates reality.  Although most of us have been culturally conditioned to blame the perpetrator for difficult things that happen to us, the fact is, we are each ultimately responsible for everything we experience in our reality.  At a higher level of spiritual understanding there’s a realization that there’s really no such thing as a victim since we all co-create precisely what our Soul believes we need to experience in order to learn the lessons that will facilitate the evolutionary growth intentions our Soul has chosen for us in each lifetime.  Seek to move beyond suffering over WHAT happened, and move on to understanding WHY it happened.  All experiences are PURPOSEFUL.  What are you learning in this life that would make sense of your experiences – especially those that were the most difficult?

The Ascendant of the United States natal chart is at 7 degrees Gemini and natal Uranus is rising at 8 degrees Gemini!  Under this month’s Gemini New Moon it’s likely that we’ll continue to experience upsets and breakthroughs relative to old ideas, opinions and perspectives, particularly thoughts about power and powerlessness.  Our country is also continuing to be greatly impacted by the current Grand Cardinal Cross at mid-degrees (12 to 14) of the four cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) since our natal Saturn is at 14 degrees Libra square our natal Sun at 12 degrees Cancer.  This once-in-our-lifetimes planetary configuration is associated with the enormous social, cultural, economic and political transformations many nations are undergoing.  Shocking and surprising new information will likely be revealed this month that continues to change our self-image and identity as a nation, ultimately leading to changes in goals and policies.

So expect more bombshell revelations!  Neptune rules many things including oil and gas, religious ideologies and organizations, film and videos, drugs, chemicals and the pharmaceutical industry, water, art, music, psychology, mental health and ill-health, infectious diseases, fraud, theft, prisons, scandals and spying.  Watch headlines this month for stories on these and other topics especially ongoing releases of information regarding NSA spying, continuing struggles over ‘Net Neutrality, spread of the the MERS virus and increasing water shortages.  Oh and expect more than a few deceptions and lies to be spun by the media and those in power who frankly don’t want changes or reforms to in any way affect their status quo.

The Sun and Moon are trine (120 degree angle) Mars in Libra (recently direct after a long retrograde from March 1st to May 19th).  This celestial pattern reflects the growing energy available to actively begin new projects and implement plans that have been on hold since early March.  Many new ideas are being ‘seeded’ into personal and collective consciousness now.  Don’t just think about them, act on them!

Working harmoniously through Libra, the sign of relationships and equality, Mars trine the Sun and Moon in Gemini also support new directions in relating and relationships.  An example of this energy is reflected in newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent invitation to attend his upcoming inauguration to his country’s long-time arch enemy Pakistani leader, Nawaz Sharif.  Compromise, collaboration, sharing and mutual respect is on the rise worldwide, despite what the media would have us believe.  Meeting others halfway and treating everyone equally will ensure greater harmony, fairness and justice for all.  A quote I recently read sums up the evolutionary imperative of these extraordinary times perfectly.  It said, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.”

Unfortunately, Mars in Libra is also finishing up an inconjunct angle (150 degrees) with Neptune in Pisces.  Sadly, this astrological aspect was reflected in the latest mass shooting (Mars rules men, guns and anger) by a mentally ill (Neptune) young man who killed six people in Isla Vista California in an insane act of revenge.  He held deep and long standing grievances against other men he felt superior to and against women for rejecting his sexual advances denying him the pleasures he felt he was entitled to as the ‘alpha male’ he perceived himself to be.  Perhaps gun safety legislation mandating background checks for ALL gun purchases that failed last year will be resurrected and finally succeed now that Mars is moving forward once again.

June offers all of us the opportunity to either increase mindless ‘busy-ness’ or a chance to calm our increasingly overwhelmed and overloaded minds.  Take time this month to simply be still and quiet.  Spend more time in nature, by water, listening to soothing music or creating art.  Make time for mindful meditation and prayer to enjoy and maximize the mind-changing benefits of this Gemini New Moon!

This article is a brief summary of my live presentation/analysis of the New Moon chart in an approximate hour-long audio recording that includes dates/descriptions of significant upcoming astrological aspects for the month. The audio recording is available on CD or mp3 file formats for $15. Contact me if you wish to purchase the audio recording.

The Cancer New Moon is on June 27th at 1:08 am MST!

 Copyright 2014.  Donna Lee Steele and Threshold Consulting.  All rights reserved.

Pisces New Moon

The Pisces New Moon occurs on March 1st at 12:59 am MST at 10 degrees Pisces 39 minutes.  Here’s the chart:  PiscesNewMoon2014.  As the final sign of the zodiac Pisces symbolizes culmination and spirituality.  The Soul’s evolutionary journey that began in Aries now completes its path and returns to the divine Source that created it through Pisces.  To facilitate the spiritualization process, Pisces dissolves barriers that are preventing this reunification with God/Goddess.

This dissolution process often feels disillusioning as mundane reality (that which has lead us to believe we are separate from our divine Creator) loses meaning.  Powerful yet subtle, Pisces confounds us with confusion, then clarity, then confusion!  Ultimately, the illusion of separation dissolves and gives way as we remember universal one-ness and our forever connection with our Divine Source or ‘All That Is.’

Neptune rules Pisces and is therefore the ruler of this New Moon.  Neptune is joined by the Sun and Moon, as well as Chiron (the Wounded Healer) and Juno (the asteroid associated with important partnership commitments) – all in Pisces now.  That’s a LOT of Pisces energy!   But Neptune itself makes only one planetary aspect during this entire month.  Accordingly, there will be little action associated with the actual New Moon sign of Pisces.   However, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are ALL standing still now as they ALL prepare to change direction within one week.

Planetary ‘stations’ intensify planetary energies, but acting upon these stationary influences will likely prove to be frustrating especially in early March.  While Neptune stands alone almost all month and four planets appear to stand still for a week, March may well feel like a final dress rehearsal – for next month’s explosion of celestial activity associated with the Aries New Moon that will bust out in bold new directions dramatically activating the 2014 Grand Cardinal Cross!

While Pisces draws our attention inward in search of deep spiritual connection, healing and guidance, outer relationship dynamics will nevertheless continue to also demand plenty of our attention.  In fact, most of the astrological archetypes active in this New Moon chart concern relationship matters including Venus squaring the Nodes, Venus entering Aquarius, Saturn stationing retrograde in Scorpio, Mars stationing retrograde in Libra and the Nodes of the Moon which just recently changed signs leaving the Taurus/Scorpio axis and entering the Aries/Libra axis where they’ll remain until November 2015.

But let me begin to explain the energy of the Pisces New Moon chart with Mercury which just yesterday completed its first retrograde of 2014 in Pisces/Aquarius.  This retrograde period encouraged a review of past wounds and traumas that left us feeling victimized.  Thousands of years of man-made religious conditioning that taught us that human sinfulness and imperfection is judged and punished by a perfect God that we should fear has created a mass wounding and sense of victimization that permeates the entire collective human unconscious.

As the Pisces age culminates, these psychological and spiritual wounds are in the process of being healed as we learn the truth of how the manifestation or co-creation process actually works.  If something’s in our reality, we have played a role in co-creating it with Source energy via the quality of our consciousness.  Quantum science now knows that consciousness creates reality.  We are all contributors through our individual and collective thoughts, feelings, actions and beliefs to the reality we experience both individually and collectively.   As we learn to take complete responsibility for what we are co-creating, these wounds will heal and we’ll be re-empowered as conscious co-creators.

Mars stations retrograde at 27 degrees Libra from March 1st until May 19th.   Libra rules relationships of all kinds and so this Mars retrograde period will likely bring back people and circumstances from our past to remind us of what worked and what didn’t.  The purpose of this retrograde will be to learn a greater equality in partnership with others such that everyone’s needs are considered.  Through Mars in Libra, we’ll learn to better balance the need for independence with the need for relationship with others.  Be especially mindful over the coming few months of how well you listen to others and how you experience giving to and receiving from others as these are Libra’s primary lessons.

Effective listening leads to appropriate giving and receiving which then contributes greatly to relationship equality.  Conversely, indiscriminate giving to create dependence (needing to be needed) and receiving from a place of neediness (wanting to be taken care of) likewise contributes greatly to relationship dysfunction through power imbalances.  Libra is actually the sign of extremes!  Libra is learning balance…

Saturn will station retrograde at 23 degrees Scorpio from March 2nd until July 20th.  Scorpio demands that we confront our fears about shared resources, power and the desire for control especially in our most intimate relationships.  Scorpio is the sign of loss, abandonment and betrayals.  Anyone who has experienced these kinds of wounds is necessarily quite wary of trusting others.  But we need others to evolve as a species and therefore all of us at some point must join forces with others in order to meet needs that we cannot meet on our own.  Of course the most powerful merging occurs through intimacy with another and that’s when we can feel the most vulnerable.

Saturn retrograde in Scorpio will give us an opportunity to become consciously aware of our wounds, our fears and all the ways in which we have come to believe we are powerless in the world.  Through Scorpio, we metamorphose personal limitations wisely by reaching out for what we need from others with an intention of empowering ourselves, not giving our power away.  Quoting an age-old parable, if you need fish but don’t know how to fish, find someone who’s willing to teach you how to fish, not just give you fish.  Saturn in Scorpio requires us to become totally self-responsible.

Jupiter finishes up its retrograde in Cancer (since November 6th) on March 6th.  Expect emotional insecurities to bubble up to the surface especially those associated with parents, home, family, career and beliefs.  Jupiter expands all it touches.  In Cancer, the sign associated with emotions and the need for protection and security, Jupiter retrograde has given us all the chance to reflect upon and expand our understanding of exactly what we do need in order to feel more safe and emotionally secure.  Cancer is all about learning that the ultimate emotional security or true source of well-being can only come from within, not from any outside thing, place, or person.  Through Cancer, Jupiter is teaching us to become more emotionally self-reliant.

Venus is completely finishing up its retrograde in Capricorn (December 21, 2013 to January 31, 2014) as the post-retrograde ‘shadow’ period ends on March 5th.  Then it enters Aquarius for the next month.  Just before it changes signs, it will square the Nodes of the Moon from 29 degrees Capricorn (North Node at 29 degrees Libra/South Node at 29 degrees Aries).  Planets square the Nodes always represent choice-points.  It’s likely that the important decisions at hand have to do with how to get personal needs met – especially resource and relationship needs.

Venus is THE archetype of self-reliance.  Its time to consider how you can best meet your own needs yourself rather than projecting those needs onto your partner.  For some, relationships may be ending; for others relationships may begin.   And some relationships will need to change now to reflect and accommodate evolving needs and desires on the part of one or all involved.  Old co-dependencies and unhealthy relationship enmeshments can now be more easily thrown off in favor of new found freedom, independence and self-reliance.

So take advantage of the natural ‘stillness’ in the heavens now as four planets appear to stand still as they ‘station’ direct or retrograde before changing direction.  If you can, start this month off with a lighter than usual agenda.  Take much-needed quiet time for rest, contemplation and meditation.  Make as few demands upon yourself and others as possible.  Reflect on all that you’ve experienced over the last year and seek to understand the deeper meaning inherent in those events.  After all, our Souls are continuously co-creating precisely what we need to facilitate our ongoing evolutionary growth intentions.  Indeed, this is the perfect time to take stock of how your world has changed and how much you’ve grown and evolved over the past year.

So what are you ‘finishing up?’  What’s culminating in your life?  What are you confused about?  What has lost its meaning?  What guidance are you seeking?  How are your relationships changing?  Tune into the Universe and tune out external distractions over the coming weeks.  And ‘rehearse your lines’ one final time because the really BIG show is just around the corner!

This article is a brief summary of my live presentation/analysis of the New Moon chart in an approximate hour-long audio recording that includes dates/descriptions of significant upcoming astrological aspects for the month. The audio recording is available on CD or mp3 file formats for $15. Contact me if you wish to purchase the audio recording.

The Aries New Moon is on Sunday, March 30^th at 11:45 am MST.

 Copyright 2014.      Donna Lee Steele.      All rights reserved.