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The wheel of the yearly zodiac is beginning to unfold. We are moving from Mars ruled Aries-I AM to Venus ruled Taurus-I HAVE. We are drawn from the fiery world of inspiration into the world of manifestation where we discover our senses, accumulate possessions and differentiate our self through what we value.  

Taurus is a fixed sign and like all the other fixed signs (Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio) consolidates the power of its element – in this case Earth, feminine Earth. Taurus’ function is to stabilize, materialize and be productive. Taurus is, in general, conservative, security oriented, loyal, determined, resourceful, domestic. Taurus is ruled by Venus and governs her sensual sense and monetary/financial areas as well. 

The most noteworthy configuration of the New Moon chart is the strong quincunx (150º) aspect to the Sun/Moon from Saturn in Libra. Let’s talk about the nature of the ‘quincunx’ aspect and also about Saturn and, in particular, about the USA being in its 8^th Saturn return. And we might throw in what those subtle, yet powerful asteroid goddesses are doing in the background. (Vesta, Pallas Athena, Juno and Ceres, actually they might be the real show…).

The great teacher, Saturn, Lord of Karma is well placed with fairness, justice and balance resonating from its placement in Libra. The quincunx aspect (150º) is an unusual one carrying the quality of connecting planets that have nothing in common. No connection through element – earth, air, fire, water, and no connection through modality – cardinal, fixed, mutable. One has to expand the container, increase compassion in order to encompass the spread of qualities. It’s as if Saturn is saying ‘broaden your vision; look beyond what you have known; stretch your personal (Sun/Moon) container; don’t be limited by what has gone before’ – especially in the story you tell yourself about your life and the way it has always been and in personal relationships that may be living in a strait jacket. 

Most people have heard of a Saturn Return. It takes Saturn 28-30 years to return to the place it was when you were born. We experience our first Saturn Return when we are about 28-30 years old, and this is considered astrological adulthood, because Saturn has traveled all around the wheel of your chart and touched each planet and house in turn and you have seen all of your ‘karma’ in at least the first round of manifestation. The second Saturn Return is at about 56-58 years when you are reaping what you have sown in your maturity. Whether it’s in a chart of a personal life or a country or event, Saturn’s lessons tend to be sobering. One feels a restriction, limitation of expression, focused hard work, even the rewards are sobering – wisdom and self-discipline. The shadow aspects become evident, the obligations, inadequacies and fears become all too obvious if values have been more externally oriented than internally driven. So, where do we find the United States? In its eighth Saturn Return! We should have known! The return will span from October 29, 2009 until October 5, 2012, exact on Dec. 3, 2010, March 22, 2011 and Aug. 28, 2011. The return chart has a difficult T-square pattern with Pluto and Uranus promising a very deep transformation and revealing of the darker side of our nation. It’s imperative that we redefine who we want to be as a nation in the next cycle of the wheel. At this reckoning we see business and corporations valued above citizens, food sources monopolized with no relationship to Mother Nature, one or two percent of the people holding the majority of wealth, and we feel a continued entitlement to gobbling the globes natural resources while we enact many policing/warring activities around the planet. While we endeavor to take stock of our national selves and enfranchise the needs of all including the young, old, and working classes, we have the growing opposition of those that want the country to remain just as it was in the past.   It’s a very tense and sobering time this eighth Saturn return. One can look on the seventh Saturn return as an esoteric completion, and the eighth return brings us to the possibility of a new beginning, a new frequency. *

Let’s turn our focus back to something subtle and beautiful in the New Moon chart. Quietly, without much fan fare, all the asteroid influences along with Venus, all of which are feminine, are involved in a formation of sacred geometry called a Finger of God made of two quincunxes and a sextile forming a long triangle: Vesta, priestess of the sacred hearth fires of the temple; Pallas Athena, Warrior Queen and goddess of wisdom; Venus ruling beauty and love, magnetism, aesthetics/finance/social relationship; Juno, Divine Consort ruling committed relationship; and Ceres, the Great Mother and goddess of agriculture all are aligned. I’ve never seen this before. Whatever will they be doing??!? A Finger of God formation has the function of being a catalyst; something is brought through from the divine. What ever it is, is requiring the full presence of every major feminine body in our solar system. They are gathered and are in tight sacred alignment. And the formation is in relationship to the Sun/Moon in Taurus via a trine from Juno. I have no idea what this ‘means’, but at this near midnight portal of the New Moon, I would throw open my doors and welcome this feminine energy to fill my every pore with whatever these feminine divine archetypes choose to share with us mortals. 

June 1^st solar, June 15^th lunar, July 1^st solar

*Thanks to Shelley L. Ackerman for an interesting article in Mt. Astrologer Magazine on America’s eight Saturn returns, Dec. 2009.