Some Fresh New Headspace

New moon at 20° of Aquarius

A depiction of what could happen to us on this new moon, by @arrogantkai

On Friday, February 9th at 2:59pm PST, the new moon arrives at 20° of Aquarius, the cosmic water bearer. Aquarius is fixed air, peak mind. In the northern hemisphere, it guides us through the frozen heart of winter, the time when the lifeforce is the most contracted, the most inward. Its the archetype of the intellectual, the utopian visionary, the spiritual futurist. It has a tendency to leave the body and earth behind, taken as it is with exploring the far reaches the mind and its multiverse, but it’s just trying to get the most radical, collective perspective. It wants to know what the trees and mushrooms and stars think. It wants to think like they think. Aquarius is ruled by Saturn traditionally, and Uranus less traditionally, so its archetype encompasses both the rational, linear, structured mind and the irrational, chaotic, intuitive mind; the whole psyche. It’s known for its dissociative tendencies, and its struggles with anxiety and fear (fear is the mind killer). But its highest calling is to transform the experience of the Self and the world through heightened consciousness, to return us to our bodies having realized our true nature as enlightened parts of a complex luminous whole. Basically it wants to heal us from being angry, cut-off, paranoid weirdos, to being loving, connected, creative weirdos, who can act in concert to save this planet.

The last year has been a time of great transition in Aquarius. One month after last January’s Aquarius new moon (Predict the Future By Creating It), Saturn completed its transit of Aquarius - a transit that began in March 2020(!) - with a final dramatic cazimi (The Conditions That Give Birth to Luck). Whatever house in our birth chart Aquarius styles, that transit changed the shape of that house for us; we had to stabilize things or grow up here somehow. Since then, we experienced the first brief ingress of Pluto into Aquarius (March 23, 2023 - June 11th, 2023), which hinted at bigger, more destabilizing changes to come. We also had that powerful full moon in Aquarius at the end of July (The Road Forward Transforms), which was involved in the shadow work of Venus’ retrograde of Leo, healing whatever was holding us back from speaking more feely and honestly. Pluto has now returned to Aquarius—it re-entered on a dramatic cazimi on January 20th, and it’s now sitting at 0°, a position I call “guarding the gateway.“ So everything transiting in from Capricorn to Aquarius has to do so through a 0° Pluto conjunction — first the Sun, then Mercury (Feb 4th or 5th), then the Moon (Feb 8th), Mars (Feb 15th), and Venus (Feb 17th). Its like a formal announcement that Aquarius is its new underworld, and everyone must receive its blessing to enter.

0° is also a degree of great power — the degree of The Fool. It’s the degree of formlessness and potential; the degree of the Great Mother Nothing, from which all somethings originate. At this moment, sitting at 0°, Pluto is conducting the 2nd act of a 3-part initiation of an an epic, 20-year-long metamorphosis in Aquarius. Pluto is the part of us that thrives in the dark and does not fear death; the part of us that knows how to sink down into the hidden depths of our personal and collective being, face what’s there, find some treasure and power in facing in it, and return transformed. It shows us how to phoenix. As it activates a fresh redemption arc in the sign of the inventive mind and collective consciousness, it’s impossible to know exactly where this will go—it’s definitely beyond what we can imagine right now. But we can trust that all it will reveal is already true.

The way we work with Pluto is the same way we work with the moon, by honoring the cyclical nature of life and death, waxing and waning, and leaning in to that cycle’s regenerative wisdom. The next phase of your evolution, whatever is it, will be intelligent, unfolding out of this loop, in accordance with your nature. The Sabian symbol for 20° of Aquarius is “a large white dove bearing a message,” which feels like a promise of peace on the other side of whatever stressful calamity we will all go through. So on new moon at this degree, an elaborate manifesting ritual is not necessary; but we might need to create some conditions for receiving such a message. Find a moment this weekend to really be in the cosmic egg of winter. See if you can empty your mind and not rush to fill it. Laugh at how hard it is. Try less. Let go of all hope for a better past. Let go of needing to know the future. See if you can just sense yourself as the force you are, among many other forces. See if you notice your thoughts and stories, endlessly generating, without identifying with them. How does the saying go? You are not the thoughts you are thinking, and you are not the part of you listening to the thoughts you are thinking. You are the part of you that’s aware of the part you listening to the thoughts you are thinking. Pull yourself up on that kite string. Be that loving awareness. Take the first step into a new headspace. Let any messages from your inner temple that need to arrive, arrive. And just like that, you will make this next phase possible.

Ritual & Writing Prompts

(Disclaimer: Prompts are suggestions, not instructions. Play with what inspires you, ignore what’s doesn’t. Adapt in any way you see fit.)