The New Moon in Aquarius always feels like a second New Year to me, as my natal moon is in that sign. The Moon returning to its place in your birth chart – your lunar return – happens every month and it’s a moment to have an emotional reset. However, a New Moon in your moon sign is more powerful than that; it’s not just a refresh, it’s a moment to really get back to the fundamentals of who you are at a feeling level. If there’s ever a moment to get in touch with your deepest needs it’s going to be now – if you have the Moon in Aquarius that is. You other moon signs will have to wait your turn
And rest assured, your time will come. Meanwhile, this New Moon will touch you in a different way, according to where it falls in your natal chart. The New Moon in Aquarius will affect all of us in different ways – both individually and as a collective, as Aquarius is the sign most associated with the sense of community and belonging in a social sense, through its association with Uranus and the eleventh house. Aquarius is concerned with the future, so is this the moment to assess your future needs? Wherever you end up may depend on how you feel right now.
New Moon in Aquarius: The Basics
The New Moon in Aquarius takes place on February 9th 2024, at 22:58(UT) and it’s located at 20˚ 58′ Recently, I’ve been writing a lot about Aquarius because of the recent Pluto ingress into that sign. It’s also the sign of the Great Conjunction in 2020-2021, the meeting of Jupiter and Saturn that triggered a new cycle of social and cultural trends. So much of our present astrology goes back to that moment; the point of the great conjunction has remained sensitive and Pluto is currently resident on that point, so things are going to be tumultuous for some time.
Part of that is due to the nature of Aquarius. It’s the sign of revolt and revolution, shocks, surprises, genius and innovation. It’s associated with electricity, invention, technology and a ‘new order’ ; anything that is new carries Aquarius’s symbolism, as are the actions and ideas that bring new things into being. Aquarius is an air sign, so its focus is on ideas and idealism. In mundane astrology, it represents the power of the people – and planetary transits through this sign often coincide with periods of revolution – and that includes everything from cultural revolutions to counter revolutions and civil wars.
Globally, we are having a major Aquarius moment, so the question arises: what will be seeded by this New Moon? This is a seeding time, and whatever is planted will come to fruition in due course. Whether those seeds bear personal fruit or a societal flowering – only time will tell – but they will produce radical change in some form. When Aquarian seeds bloom, they look like no other. And the fruits may have an acquired taste. So, to get a better idea of what may be planted now, let’s have a look at the New Moon Chart. It may reveal some of the surprises that are in store.
New Moon in Aquarius: The Chart
New Moon in Aquarius: The Aspects
The New Moon chart shows us the nature of what is being sown now. The aspects to the new moon, both by the nature of the aspect and the planets involved, hint at what’s to come. And this New Moon in Aquarius sits between the emerging stellium of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto (that will come together in Aquarius soon) and Saturn in Pisces. Saturn is not involved, but the New Moon is connected to the Venus and Mars conjunction in Capricorn through a semi-sextile aspect to Venus. The major aspect from the New Moon is a square to Uranus in Capricorn – and Uranus trines Venus.
There is a lot of Aquarius and Uranus energy in this New Moon – and significant mounts of tension as indicated by the square aspect. Aquarius and Uranus are edgy and uneasy. There’s often significant discomfort – the kind you experience when you have to live with something and you don’t really like it; it’s not ideal, it causes you irritation, but you can’t really do anything about it. It’s not in your control, yet you wish you could do something about it, or that things would change. It’s often upsetting or frustrating, but you have to endure it – and maybe you learn to live with it. Get the picture? This New Moon is a lot like that.
New Moon Square Uranus
In keeping with the surfeit of Aquarius energy, I’m going to look at the square aspect that the New Moon in Aquarius makes to Uranus in Taurus. It upends astrological protocol that I should analyse this first, but in a weird Uranian way, it also makes perfect sense. Uranus has been overturning everything that we thought was stable for some time now – and it will continue to do so before it leaves Taurus in 2026. During its stay in that sign, it will have received a number of important transiting aspects – and that includes being aspected by this New Moon in Aquarius.
When a planet is aspected by another planet – especially Mars (the trigger planet) or a lunation (new moon or full moon) or an eclipse (solar or lunar), it’s like throwing a switch: the planet’s energy springs into life. However, when that aspect is made by a dark New Moon, the energy of that aspect goes underground, ready to emerge under the light of the complementary Full Moon, six months later. So, the things to keep in mind are as follows:
- The square aspect signifies tension and demands action. Not taking action usually results in things going wrong or frustration and anger.
- Square aspects between the Moon and Uranus (and the Sun and Uranus) tend to be discordant and disruptive. The outcome is not always negative, but it takes a lot of energy and ‘thinking outside the box’ to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
- You need to break the rules to make the rules.
So, at the time of the New Moon, you may feel considerable amounts of impatience – or even boredom – with a particular situation in your life – or life in general. This may make you impulsive, and rash decisions and actions – that will have future implications – are likely to result. Some of you may be confronted with situations that are emotionally charged, particularly if a demanding issue arises. They distract you from the normal routines of your life – but is that necessarily a bad thing? Look into yourself and give yourself permission to break your own rules – and that’s what Uranus in Taurus is about – breaking the rules.
The thing to remember is that things rarely occur ‘out of the blue’; if something appears that way, it’s usually a message that you need to start dealing with things in a different way – and that’s the message here: you have to start approaching some important issue in your life from a different direction. ‘The same old’ isn’t going to work. You may not resolve the situation, but you may discover – somewhere down the line – that a new approach makes it easier to live with. That would be a breakthrough – and breakthroughs are the thing to aim for where Uranus is concerned. They put things on another trajectory – and that’s also a plus.
New Moon Semi-sextile Venus
Venus is a key player in this lunation, although it is connected to the New Moon in Aquarius by a relatively minor aspect, a semi-sextile. if you’re nor familiar with this aspect, it’s the ‘next door’ aspect, when two planets (or planetary configurations) are 30˚ apart. Semi-sextiles are more difficult than their status as a minor aspect would suggest. They bring together energies that have nothing in common, so we have a New Moon, infused with forward looking, ‘lets do something exciting’ energy, tied into a relationship that is traditional, or wants to do everything by the book, or is stuck in the past.
It’s highly likely that this New Moon in Aquarius will impact on relationships, given that the semi-sextile connects the lunation with Venus (the signifier of relationships) and Venus is conjunct Mars in Capricorn. Venus and Mars together are absolutely relationship oriented, so what’s the message we are getting from this? Quite simply, if there’s something that’s irritating you in your relationship, you need to address it – not from the perspective of a stand up argument (though it’s always a possibility), but by doing things differently.
There is a challenge present in a semi-sextile, and your challenge may be related to your partner. The issue that you need to address (as shown by the New Moon’s square to Uranus) may need to be handled with tact and delicacy – and that’s a challenge when Uranus is involved. Things may not be straightforward, you may need to see both sides. Things may be complicated, so setting something in motion( to deal with whatever has arisen) may require you to work within a certain structure, or set particular parameters, within which you have to work. That will need co-operation and agreement – and the time to get those in place is now.
Follow the aspects to Neptune in Pisces…
As a final word, I want you to look at the links from Venus – and the stellium of which Venus is part. We know this lunation holds the potential for ‘breakdown’ (if you don’t address some unexpected issues that are close to your heart) as well as ‘breakthrough’ if you deal with them in an unexpected or new way – and do so with a degree of sensitivity. What we also need to acknowledge is the sextile from Venus in Capricorn to Neptune in Pisces. In other lunation reports, I’ve called this, ‘the background noise’ because it gives the lunation a context. With Neptune in Pisces, the background noise may have been silent.
So, how does Neptune relate to the events or occurrences that may unfold? Neptune is associated with not being able to see. I’m not so much talking about physical blindness, but the inability to see what’s under your nose. The sextile opens the door – it’s an opportunity – and you may now have the opportunity to start dealing with something that you have either ignored – or something about which you were kept in the dark. However it manifests, there will be details that you did not know – until now. That may be the shock, or the surprise.
And you can deal with the situation – or ignore it. It’s y0ur choice – but it may not be much of one. Neptune is tricky, and the situation you have to deal with may be Neptune related, so deception, delusion, mental health issues and addiction may feature – and (of course) they come in multiple forms. I suspect that’s why a degree of sensitivity (also Neptune) is going to be required. If that degree of sensitivity is a new experience for you, or the situation calls for you to respond emotionally in new ways that are difficult for you at first, that may be the thing you need to get used to over the coming months.
Further Reading
February 2024 Horoscope: The Month Ahead
The Big 2024 Horoscope: The Year Ahead
Transits | Pluto in Aquarius: The Trailer
Jupiter Conjunct Saturn: The Great Conjunction
Uranus Transits Taurus: Is This The New Normal?
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© Sara Shipman 2024
picture credit: Image by 8385 from Pixabay
