New Moon in Aquarius

Lunar Imbolc

11 February 2021

2:06 PM EST

Party in Aquarius

Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Pallas Athene, the Sun and the Moon are ALL in Aquarius right now. Hey ooooooh! This is a potent opportunity for us to become “new” with the archetype of Aquarius that lives in and expresses through us.

The full range of the Aquarian archetype is predominant for the entirety of 2021, with both Jupiter and Saturn in this sign for most of the year, and a trio of Saturn/Uranus squares beginning this month. This month, and this moon, mark a major activation of the Aquarian energies at play within and all around us this year.

A masculine air sign in the Self-Exploration modality (fixed), Aquarius is the archetype of radical revolutionary and unexpected change.

This archetype resonates with the energies of Uranus and the 11th house. Aquarius is about liberation—our ability to detach from what we perceive to the extent that it allows us to see the higher perspective and gain insight, overview and vision from this place. Aquarius seeks to experience greater states of freedom, living in a way that is outside of the rules of any forces which seek to control, limit, and restrict the human experience.

In its highest expression, Aquarius is original, innovative, futuristic, altruistic, tolerant, quirky, collectively minded, and truly brilliant. Outside of healthy expression, Aquarius can be:

being overly detached, checked out, fragmented, isolated or disconnected
over-active, overstimulated, impulsive to point of anxiety or nervous tension
hyper-rational, insensitive and uncaring
anarchist/ rebel without a cause
light polarizing + spiritual bypassing
distrusting of the physical and emotional realms of life

Take a pause and consider how you relate to these themes of Aquarius in your life right now, and how you might allow yourself to embody more of the highest expression of this archetype in your life.

Sabian symbol for the New Moon:

The Sabian symbol for this new moon in Aquarius is: A person turning their back on their passions to teach deep wisdom from their experience. What has been seeking to lure you off the path you are meant to walk? How might you transcend these forces? Where can you both honor your emotions and find a degree of objectivity that allows you to get unstuck and propels your life forward? What is the deep wisdom and insight you’ve gained from your lived experiences? How might you share from this space?

Chandra Symbol for the New Moon:

The Chandra symbol for this new moon in Aquarius is: A large brown bear picking and eating apples. This symbol calls to consciousness the split between our compulsive and addictive tendencies and our aloof and cold judgments of ourselves. It’s that vacillation between giving into our compulsions and then judging and punishing ourselves into reform. This is a lose-lose duality.

The invitation is to allow yourself a third or middle path of compassionate, curious willingness to see and be with what is alive for you—getting curious about what triggers or environmental cues compel you to your less useful behaviors, and instead of judging yourself, seek to learn from yourself. This has the potential to soften and ease the pendulum swing extremes of acting out and then attempting to be perfect. In this space, we don’t glaze over our actions with “it’s all good” or “I guess it was meant to be” and we also don’t act harshly toward ourselves. We hold ourselves with love in personal responsibility for our actions and energy, and their impact.

Lunar Imbolc

While traditional Imbolc has been set for February 2 each year, Lunar Imbolc is the astrological event of Imbolc when the moon goes from dark to new while she is in the archetype of Aquarius every year. Imbolc is a cross-quarter celebration of mid-winter, when the old compost of winter begins to warm and the first seed of spark of new life, which will break ground in the spring, begins to stir in the depths. This is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the first stirrings of new light and life within our own beings and to trust what is being cultivated in the dark before it breaks the surface of our awareness. And to know that Spring always follows Winter. But to also be right here, in the darkness still everywhere.

Venus conjunct Jupiter | Venus goes into the Underworld

Venus, the feminine-in-all-creation is at the same degree as Jupiter, which expands whatever it touches.

This is a massive expansion of Venus in Aquarius, the embodiment of the visionary and innovative feminine avatar, committed to universal ideals of egalitarianism, liberty, higher love and progressive idealism. She must be honored for her space, freedom, eccentricities and uniqueness, as well as her brilliant mind and her unique spiritual path. She is a champion for herself and other's freedom to be themselves.

This is Venus’s last conversation with a major outer planet before she goes into the Underworld in 2 days on February 13, 2021. She has “spoken” with Saturn and Pluto in the recent weeks, helping her to shed old oppressive programs and all that is preparing to die as she embarks on her underworld journey.

I imagine this is a conversation in which Jupiter offers Venus a pep talk for the journey she is about to undertake. He says:

“Whatever happens down there, don’t forget – You are the love you seek.

You are the embodiment of love itself.

Everything you need will emerge from the darkness.

Trust what you are made of is indestructible.”

In the underworld, where Venus will spend the next 2.5 months (until May 3), she will face her greatest crisis (like Innana on the hook, if you know her story). She will experience some shocking revelation that she must surrender more and die more to who she was before, in order to become more of who she really is. This is a time for our feminine to find her way through the dark, examining the shadow and the exiled and unloved parts of self, so that we may become more whole. In her darkest depths, Venus finds her greatest source of light within, the Sun (on March 25) in Aries, the archetype of the sacred warrior and sovereign

Mercury square Mars

Mercury (retrograde until Feb 20) will square Mars on Feb 14 (in 3 days),

This square produces dynamic tension between our masculine or yang energies (Mars) and our mental bodies (Mercury). This tension is intended to help both aspects of self and the collective move energy in a supportive way, but it can feel frustrating or heated in the moment. It’s interesting that this square is happening on Valentine’s day. I might consider being extra gentle around relating to loved ones this weekend, recognizing that challenging opportunities may present themselves in the realm of communication. It may help to ask the questions, all nods to the Aquarian energies at large:

Do I want to be right or do I want to be free?
Can I take a breath and pause long enough to access a higher perspective or take some space from this engagement until can come back more resourced?
Can I be with what feels messy in the emotional and physical realms and stay present even when it triggers me?

First Saturn-Uranus square of 2021

Saturn will come into its first square of three this year with Uranus on Feb 17 (6 days from now). This is a major energetic signature of 2021, this series of squares.

Uranus is the planet associated with Aquarius, so we have a dynamic meeting between the “Saturn” forces and the “Uranian/Aquarian” forces. This is authority meeting liberation. Conservative ways meeting progressive or radical ways. Old meeting new. Stability, tradition and comfort meeting innovation, discovery, and change.

The last time these two formed a square in the late 90s (Saturn in Taurus, Uranus in Aquarius) we experienced the dot-com bubble here in the United States. The square before that in the mid-late 70s (Saturn in Leo, Uranus in Scorpio) brought the Punk Era in the west.

In both of these eras, things changed quickly and old, outdated structures were rapidly deconstructed to make room for something new, unexpected, and “out-of-the-box.” So, we may expect to meet a similar kind of energy of rapid shifts and changes.

We should all be wise to remember that rebellion is often a reaction to something … but is still deeply entangled with that something energetically. Rebellion is not always liberation. We want to be mindful of “Old Ways dressed up in New Way’s clothing” and be cautious of creating authoritarian and hierarchical “new” structures. “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” to quote the brilliant Audre Lorde.

Thanks for reading!

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New Moon in Aquarius | February 2021