Light must come from inside.
You cannot ask
the darkness to leave;
you must turn on the light.
Sogyal Rinpoche
The New Moon on January 29, 2025 at 10 Aquarius quickens the new life stirring within us and within the depths of the slumbering earth.
The New Moon announces the Chinese New Year and occurs within the time of Imbolc. The light is increasing, and we are awakening to a vision of what we wish to bring into the world. We are to embrace change and the opportunity to love life all over again with a dawning insight into what we want to create for ourselves and our future. Life may hand out some unexpected surprise, but if we receive it as a gift, we will come to see that it is the catalyst needed to release something that is weighing down our ability to love fully and to contribute to others the unique expression of our heart's song.
A Mercury/Pluto conjunction join the New Moon
Ceres and Chariklo conjunct the New Moon
Air Grand Trine: Moon, Jupiter, and Makemake
New Moon Ruler: Uranus, Apex of a Small Grand Trine
Venus conjunct Neptune
This is the first Aquarian New Moon in 240 some years that has Pluto’s attention fully in Aquarius -with Pluto finally leaving Capricorn in its rearview mirror. We stand at the threshold of a new paradigm. Each New Moon is an optimum time to quiet ourselves, listening deeply to what wants to be birthed into our lives, and then shape an intention to honor what we hope to manifest for the coming month. It is especially potent now because this particular New Moon is the ignition point that sets in motion themes that will play out for the next 18 years while Pluto moves through Aquarius. We can anticipate seismic shifts in 2025 and 2026 that will catapult us into a new world where we are living in a way that is notably different from the one we have grown accustomed to living. Our intention at the New Moon speaks into the vision for the future we see for ourselves informed by the changes we intuit are coming our way.
This New Moon is a striking departure from the energy of the Cancer Full Moon two weeks ago. A time of sitting with and making room for uncomfortable feelings has yielded a newfound clarity and direction. We can feel a new potential rising within. Listening to what is next on our journey to to fulfill our heart's longing, we can see how the vision taking shape also serves the larger community. Where Aquarius resides in our birth chart will indicate the areas where new life and potentials are emerging for us. Unlike January 1, This New Moon may feel more like the beginning of the year. There is a momentum that supports the intentions and resolutions we articulate now.
I love what Astrologer Joe Landwehr said about this New Moon as he spoke to us now entering a ‘brave new world’ and that
“Whatever you think is going on... isn’t.
Whoever you thought you were... may be up for review.
Wherever you think you’re going... you can’t get there without the rest of us.”
Year of the Wood Snake
The Chinese New Year is celebrated at the New Moon, ushering in the year of the Wood Snake. The snake is a symbol of transformation. We experience the gifts of this year if we approach the coming months as a time of evolutionary growth where we let go of what holds us back and be adaptable and open to what life offers. We may shed skins of previous beliefs, circumstances and/or realities. There are qualities attributed to the snake that benefit us as to foster within ourselves as we go through this year of change. As a supreme strategist, we can develop our sixth sense around when to wait and when to move. Like the snake, there are times to coil up and become quiet, patient and yet alert, to when action is warranted.
What is a soul?
It's like electricity -
we don't really know
what it is, but it's a force
that can light a room.
Ray Charles
Interaction of Head and Heart
A stellium in Aquarius and in Pisces /Air and Water
Multiple planets in Aquarius inspire vision, innovation and objective thinking. Multiple planets in Pisces enhance our awareness of our sensitivity, feelings and heart. We recognize our unique potential and the contribution we can make as an individual (Aquarius) while recognizing that we are not separate from anything around us. (Pisces). We can imagine ourselves soaring like an Eagle (Aquarius) as we make plans or envision where we want to go without losing touch with the primordial presence that animates and infuses all life with its eternal essence (Pisces). It is not Logic versus intuition, or mind versus heart, or the empirical versus the magical. It is about drawing from both, letting them blend, collaborate and enhance the impulse of the other.
Awareness Expands when Truth is Valued
Mercury Pluto conjunct each other and the New Moon
The planet of transformative growth (Pluto) opens and deepens our mind (Mercury). We have new ways of seeing things. Information that has been hidden or previously misunderstood comes is brought into the full light of day. Rigid or limited thinking is challenged, even shattered.
Truths that lie beneath circumstance or denial are illuminated. We open to a larger understanding of the nature of what is happening. This helps to inform and shape the vision that propels us towards a desired future (Mercury and Pluto conjunct the New Moon). We are urged to consider how we can collaborate and create community with others who resonate with or share our vision (4 planets in Aquarius). Rich dialogue can be explored with others now that help shape, expand and further clarify ideas we are having.
Nurturing a Shared Story of Healing and Nurturance
Ceres and Chariklo are two additional planetary bodies joining the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Pluto in Aquarius. They both bring a divine feminine gift to the vision stirring within us.
Ceres, the asteroid associated with nourishment invites us to nurture the seeds of our future self. In Aquarius and conjunct the New Moon, Ceres advocates that the best way to nurture these seeds is to talk with others about the ideas we want to see realized. We are to find like-minded people who want to contribute to the creation of a shared story around that vision. One of the initial outcomes of having these conversation is that we will feel buoyed. We will increase our feelings of hopefulness and confidence in the tomorrow that we are nurturing through dynamic dialogue.
Chariklo, wife of the Wounded Healer Chiron, is a Centaur who orbits between Jupiter and Neptune. Joining the New Moon stellium in Aquarius, Chariklo brings potential in how we define opportunity and challenge. She emphasizes collective healing and an experience of unity that will nurture innovation, humanitarianism, and community-oriented values. Her placement encourages us to question previously held beliefs, to think outside the box and embrace progressive ideas for how to serve the wellbeing of society.
It is better to light
one small candle
than to curse
the darkness.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Engaging Information that Seeks Harmony with the Earth
Air Grand Trine: The New Moon, Jupiter and Makemake
The Air Grand Trines catalyzes our interest in gathering and exchanging information and ideas. It inspires collaboration and the creation of stories that forge a pathway to a desired future. We are especially stimulated to consider information and engage in conversations centered around birthing ways of living connected to the ancient wisdom of the earth (the presence of dwarf plaent Makemake). A new vision is taking shape within us for how we can move in better harmony with the earth, her cycles and rhythms, and with all beings that call earth home.
Jupiter prepares to station direct February 4 after four months in Retrograde. Now halfway through Jupiter’s yearlong journey in Gemini, we continue to shape and make adjustments to the story we are weaving that defines our life and future. We are learning to be selective about the threads that make their way into the story – the facts and information, the ideas and the voices of collaborators.
We have access to information previously unavailable or overlooked that can turn our ever evolving story on its head, or at the very least create an interesting plot twist. Yet if we are indiscriminate about the diet we feed our mind and are indiscriminate about our exposure to information in the news, social media or through channels of gossip, our story may simply become a jumbled up by a mass of threads - and instead of clarity and inspiration, our story simply becomes a hodge podge of disparate ideas that have no center.
With so much data available at our fingertips, we are becoming information connoisseurs, better able to discerning about facts and inspired ideas from deep fakes and deceptions. We are becoming selective about what information we let in to our sphere of influence. Seeking ideas and conversations that elevate us, we can discover a bigger picture of understanding that helps enhance our vision of the path forward. In the last days of Jupiter Retrograde, we can remind ourselves that it is okay to slow down, to not be quick about making assumptions without all the information. It is worth our time to consider the source, interpretations and potential applications for the information that comes our way.
Makemake is a dwarf planet that orbits between Pluto and Eris, Residing in a place way beyond the reach of the sun’s rays, it reflects what is buried deep within our collective unconscious. Primarily, it holds the ancestral memory of how to live in harmony with the earth. Named after the creation god of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island, Makemake evokes environmental awareness, natural wisdom, and spiritual renewal. We can feel the rewards now of engaging in conversations with others to explore indigenous wisdom and ways our ancestors lived that we can incorporate into our own. We can be focused on topics like permaculture, keeping chickens or canning and storing food. Or, we can open ourselves to exploring ritualistic ways to court and evoke earth’s wisdom to help us shape a story that promises a generative future for the earth and all life that she supports.
New Moon Ruler: Uranus
Apex of a Small Grand Trine with Mars, Venus and Neptune and Saturn
Uranus stations direct the day after the New Moon, after five months of moving Retrograde. Changes we have been looking to make may have been delayed or slowed down in recent months. With the New Moon, there can be surprising and electric movements that catapult us forward. Changes we have been mulling over may be ready to happen.
Uranus is hanging out at 23 degrees Taurus from mid-December to mid-March as it slows down and prepares to change direction. We can look to where 23 Taurus is in our charts or to planets between 21-23 degrees to see where we are ready for sudden change and liberation. These are places in our life where we may feel restless or agitated, wanting to break away from predictability and open to something that will enliven and wake us up to a new way of living. 23 degrees Taurus is also the point where Jupiter and Uranus were conjunct last April, seeding the new vision for how we want to create stability and security for ourselves. We can now begin to define the vision that was seeded and the promise of its potential that will manifest over the course of the next fifteen years.
As always we must recognize that when Uranus is prominent, we are not necessarily in charge. There can be surprises, something unpredictable that we didn’t see coming. Something that has been repressed is being released, or something is occurring to break up areas of our rigidity. We are to welcome the unexpected and receive the gift it has to give us.
Uranus as the New Moon Ruler, emphasizes the potential for our liberation from some situation or belief. What has been stuck can be unstuck. There is a lifting of rigidity or in the conditions where we have held ourself back. We are open to new potentials, open to getting ourselves out of the box that is stunting our growth and potential. We feel ready to engage an idea that fills us with a sense of aliveness. We may be ready to travel, make a declaration, or invest in a plan. We may experience an awakening that increases awareness and innovation.
That was the year she cleared out
her old ideas of things,
until she could hear
her own joy
with almost no effort at all.
Kai Skye
Nurture and Follow the Love
Venus conjunct Neptune and the North Node
Planets are gathering near the final degree of Pisces, the degree of big endings and of compassion. The momentum building in this area of the sky will peak in March during the spring eclipse season and the Venus and Mercury Retrogrades which will see both of these planets hanging out at the final Pisces degree. Their retrogrades will serve to further catalyze the shifts needed to have us ready for what will arrive in 2026. We are not privy to the exact nature of what the upcoming changes will be, but we can intuit the movements needed now to be in alignment with them.
The North Node has just entered the last minute of Pisces, beginning its 18-months to journey to the first minute of Pisces. The collective evolutionary point (the North Node) lets us know that to move forward in a good way is to open to and be an expression of divine love. We are to nurture compassion, forgiveness, mercy and empathy as the north star that will orient, guide and inform decisions we make.
Venus, exalted in Pisces, has entered the shadow zone of her Retrograde Cycle. Moving back and forth across the last degrees of Pisces three times over the next three months, the ingredients are all present for deep karmic patterns to be cleared. We may find it easier to let go of something we have been clinging to, even when we know its not for our highest good.
Venus is infused with spiritual insight and perspective (conjunct Neptune) coupled with her response to an edict to more fully embody universal love (conjunct the North Node). By looking at life through the lens of love, lifechanging developments are catalyzed. There is less attachment to the things of this world, and an increased capacity to experience our eternal nature as the true reality. In this, we are less shaken by what is happening around us, and can move with lightness and with love as we respond to what life brings us.
Spells we have been under are breaking. We are waking up to where we have been deceived. It is as if we have been hypnotized into idealizing or putting our faith in something that only fed off our vitality and ultimately took us off track. As illusions fall away, we recognize the true nature of the soul and the true purpose of why we incarnated. We were all magnetized to be alive at this time on the planet so that our illusions could be stripped from us and we can see and embody the truths that lie buried beneath culture and karma.
The changes we are experiencing require that we shed old identities, ways of seeing and relating, and even in how we conduct daily life. In the wake of shedding what we have outworn, we are ready to be more real, more authentic in the way we live. If we resist and doggedly stay drugged by our illusions, we will sink further into addictive patterns and crippling self-deception. Conversely, if we accept the great invitation that is being offered, we can open and trust the larger forces at play that can carry us towards an unprecedented new beginning that is unfolding over the next couple years. Its not just about moving with our heart, but having our heart and head working together - both sound thinking based on verifiable information (Aquarius) coupled with trusting our intuition (Pisces) that will guide us along the path to fulfill our soul purpose.
On March 30, for the first time in 165 years, Neptune will enter Aries. A few weeks later, Saturn will also leave Pisces and join Neptune in Aries. Venus and Mercury will hang out with both of these planets as they make the transition from water to fire, from final endings to unprecedented beginnings. 2025 offers fated developments and fated clearings in service to this transformative passage we are undertaking. Rather than resist change or seek to hold onto something leaving us, we can feel the grief and loss, honor a time of transition, and then move on. There is new life and a new day beyond the deconstruction of the life we have grown accustomed to. To move in a good way, we become centered in our heart and give space to feelings that surface. As we forgive ourselves and others and offer the love within our heart, the edges soften and we experience ourselves as more fluid and more welcoming of the gift each moment brings.
Emotional Presence and Release
Mars Retrograde in Cancer
Its hard to believe that Mars is not a prominent theme of this New Moon as it plays a significant role in the overall experience and journey of the winter months. Retrograde since December 6, it has traveled from Leo back into Cancer, stirring up uncomfortable feelings that we are compelled to sit with. Insecurities surface as well as frustration with our inability to move life in the way and in the timing that we wish. It is prudent to practice patience and be willing to revisit old feelings, reconnect with people from our past, and re-evaluate our approach to home and family (Cancer). At present, Mars is in a harmonious relationship with the planets in Pisces (Venus, Neptune, Saturn), increasing our sense of compassion and kindness towards ourself, our past, and our future.
Mars has slowed down to a crawl and will be hanging out between 17 and 20 degrees of Cancer until March. The increased sensitivity to our feeling nature and personal needs helps clarify what we have outgrown and are ready to release. Taking the time to feel and to grieve supports us in lightening our load, both internally and externally, as we move into spring.
You are a light that cannot darken.
You are a soul that shines through.
You are eternal amid the moment.
You are awakening.
You are love.
Craig Crippen
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Personal Reflection of the New Moon
This past week the landlords began gutting and renovating the apartment beneath mine, which was left in a sad state from flooding and disrespectful tenants. I had not thought how this would effect me. Suddenly, paint fumes, bleach and the smell of toxic chemicals they were using filled my apartment, nostrils and lungs. This was a sudden and unexpected event that thrust me into making sizeable adjustments to my life for the next couple weeks.
In less than 24 hours, I moved myself, my cat and my work to a friend’s house a mile from my home. The disturbance and change in my daily rhythms and routines has turned out to be quite liberating. Habits that had been depleting my energy suddenly fell away.
Being away from home, I am viewing my daily life from a distance. Even just a mile away, I am outside my life looking in. I have found greater clarity about the seeds I want to nurture and have bloom this year.
So if something unexpected, and potentially unwelcome, inserts itself into your day, welcome it. It may just lift you out of some stuckness that you have been powerless to shift and gift you with insight into something that uplifts and opens your heart. From the experience, a vision can emerge for how to newly express the love that lives with appreciation for the beauty of life and the gifts you have been granted.
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