2012 Aries New Moon
By Kathy Biehl
March 22, 2012
7:38 AM PDT / 10:38 AM EDT / 2:38 PM GMT
2 Aries 22
And we’re off! Two days after the Sun entered Aries and marked the beginning of spring, the Sun and the Moon are coming together to enhance the season’s exciting, combustible launch. Chicks are breaking out of their eggs, sprouts are bursting through seeds and the earth, and long-simmering impulses are flying out of everyone.
It’s exciting, volatile and not entirely comfortable. What is happening now is unlike anything we have experienced — a bold, heady assertion, to be true, but one that fits the bravado and daring of Aries, not to mention the wild times ahead.
Aries contains the rawest life force and survival instinct, the most impulsive, self-motivated, independent, courageous-to-reckless bent of the zodiac. This energy is erupting everywhere now, but with a few notable twists.
The New Moon is tightly sandwiched between Mercury the messenger (which is retrograde, about which more in a moment) and Uranus the rebel. This is not a quiet, subtle gathering. It’s more like a cluster of people talking/yelling over each other, asserting themselves without listening. Some people are enthusiastic, some are openly aggressive and some are exploding with pent-up frustration or anger. And some people are misreading the word fragments that manage to make it to their ears and jumping to conclusions — and action.
The din isn’t likely to die back into calm or clarity anytime soon. This meeting is taking place in the midst of three retrogrades. One involves the last planet that the Sun and the Moon crossed before entering the gathering: Mercury, who rules what goes through our minds, comes out of our mouths and how we get around. The potential for garbled communication is high, and much that does get through accurately will involve finishing old matters or dealing with that garbling. New or future-oriented topics will fare better after Mercury goes direct in the first days of April.
Another retrograde involves the New Moon’s ruler, Mars, the planet that rules our drive, ambition and energy. Mars has been retrograde since mid-January. With another three weeks left in his backward journey, some people are hitting the breaking point in dealing with the do-overs and fixes his time in practical, detail-focused Virgo has required. (His demanding aspect to the North Node of destiny and collective experience is also behind the epidemic of folks being fed up.) His retrograde is stoking the internalized expression of emotion, until some is exploding like the lid blowing off a pressure cooker. He’s also putting a time delay on marching forward with projects, which may not get much of anywhere till his retrograde ends April 13 (and likely not till he finally moves off the degree of his direct station 10 days later).
The third retrograde factor comes from Saturn in Libra, which is opposite the New Moon by sign but actually making an out-of-sign adjustment aspect. All the shouting that’s going on now has ramifications. These high-octane bursts of individualism do not fit neatly into our social constructs, agreements and obligations. Something has to give. With all this firepower, it’s not going to be the Aries end. While we figure out (in some cases, battle out) how we’re going to deal with this dichotomy, relationships will be in a state of flux at least until Saturn goes direct in late June…with new approaches, structures and agreements probably not firmly in place until he finishes his Libra journey in October.
The other big twist comes from the far side of the planet sandwich: anything-can-happen Uranus. Uranus in Aries has all the nuance of a Molotov cocktail, and that combustibility is core to the phase starting now. The New Moon fuses the unpredictability, volatility and structure-breaking properties of Uranus onto not merely the coming four weeks, but the entire spring.
This is the cosmic can of spinach that gives individuals the power to break through barriers and pull off feats of uncommon strength and bravery, not to mention recklessness. The vibe is equal parts “my way or the highway” and “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” It’s energizing and motivating — but remember, because of the retrograde planets, it’s not going to catapult us into our wild new adventures just yet. A lot of what we’ll be doing is running in place, when not tackling lingering or returning issues.
Think of it as warming up (which dovetails with Mars retrograde in Virgo) and warming up for adventures — okay, let’s be honest: skirmishes — to come. This Uranian-enhanced New Moon is accelerating our own daring, drive and motivation to gear us up for the summer and fall. That’s when the first clashes come between the two cosmic change agents Uranus and Pluto. The first brings unpredictable change, the second, unavoidable; when they lock together, the impact will pit the wiles and impulses of the individual against deep-rooted power, traditions and institutions.
This process of metamorphosis will play out over three years (Uranus and Pluto square seven times between now and 2015). The stress and tension of the build-up is already all over the political landscape. Possibly you’ve been sensing it in your body as well. Enormous restructuring is coming in our individual lives, just as much as we’re witnessing it collectively.
It’s invigorating. It’s liberating. It is even fun, believe it or not. Think of the power of the life force that’s necessary for a sprout to burst out of a seed, push its way through the dirt and break out into the light. That’s being fueled for each of us right now.
Are you are an Aries sun, moon or rising? Do you feel like you’re being challenged at every turn? I have a reading special just for you. Learn more..
© Kathy Biehl 2012. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.
