The black sheep is sometimes the only one telling the truth - New Moon 28th October, 2019
On October 28th the Moon will be new in the sign of Scorpio. New Moons are times of new seeds, new intentions and new beginnings. They are magical times that mark the beginning of a new cycle. And, if we live in harmony with the natural cycles of the universe, the New Moon affords an opportunity to refresh habits and plans and to set new goals. This is also the first of six New Moons all at 4 degrees of their respective signs.
So, if we are working in harmony with the universe, then this New Moon is about embracing Scorpionic energy – the energy of power, insightfulness, passion, healing and transformation, whilst perhaps avoiding the more negative Scorpio traits of secrecy, self sabotage, intensity, feeing powerless and all that is hidden, occult, taboo and covert.
Understanding astrology gives us a head start because, instead of being a passive bystander allowing challenging planetary transits to buffet us from pillar to post, bringing confusion, distress and fear, we can actually be active participants in our life story as we work with the energy to reframe our lives. Astrology doesn’t cause things to happen it merely reflects the divine plan for our soul’s purpose.
A knowledge of the astrology of this New Moon helps us to know that it is exactly the Scorpionic energy that we need to grab hold of right now. So rather than fearing transformation or change and trying to block it out, we can know that we should embrace it – bring it on! But this New Moon exactly opposes Uranus, the planet of the rebel, of disruption, of sudden change and of authenticity. So we should be choosing to step into our own power, speak our own authentic truth and not fear walking to our own drumbeat or being a ‘black sheep’.
An opposition is very much an aspect of stress and tension and many are perhaps feeling right now as though they can’t be pulled any tighter physically or mentally. I know I feel like this. We have both the Moon and Uranus in fixed signs in what very much looks like a ‘face off’, a duel, a fight to the death. Each side is so firmly entrenched in their own views that they cannot see anything else. On a more collective level we are also perhaps finding ourselves in the midst of some very fixed passionate viewpoints and seeing events that polarize opinion where neither side is prepared to give way, each side believing they are right. It looks just like the UK Houses of Parliament. And with this chart so close to the Brexit deadline date it is hard to see how there is going to be any kind of giving way. Fixed signs will dig deep and dig in – they are there for the long haul awaiting the survival of the fittest. Uranus speaks turmoil and he also speaks sudden shock or the unexpected. And as I write this we see the potential for a snap election and we also see that any extension could be vetoed by the French (and it has to be unanimous on the part of the EU). If that happens could we just crash out without a deal just because the EU themselves can’t agree on an extension, even if it is against our law? Interesting for sure.
The energy of an opposition is one where we must learn how to balance the energies at each end of that opposition. However, in order to do that we have to be prepared to negotiate, to see the other person’s view, to build a relationship. We may never actually agree but we can perhaps find some kind of half way point. With fixed signs in play though it is hard to do things differently, to allow ourselves to go with the flow of a situation. The Scorpio fears loss of power whilst Uranus just doesn’t care; he believes his dogmatic fixed views are always right and he speaks his truth. However, truth and power don’t actually come from being like everyone else. Real power comes from stepping into our own authenticity, stepping into the power of the unknown and making it ours. Our modern western life teaches us to be mentally intelligent but becoming emotionally intelligent sadly lags far behind. And it is only opening ourselves up to different views, different ways of life, different interests that we can truly arrive at our own conclusions free of judgmental issues.
Mercury is stationing before his retrograde period. We have time to review, to rethink and to research. Scorpio has two rulers – Mars is the traditional ruler whilst Pluto, God of the Underworld, is the modern one. At this New Moon Mars is exactly square to Saturn, as well as square to his co-ruler Pluto. This is hard, tough energy. Nothing comes easy. Problems will only be solved by putting energy into them because there is a harshness and a sense of ruthlessness in the air.
So with Uranus exactly opposing this New Moon we are actively being encouraged to rebel against any kind of manipulation, programming and brainwashing (Scorpio) and to find our own truth and authenticity (Uranus). We must face our hidden and buried fears and step outside our comfort zones, however uncomfortable that might feel – in other words take the hard road and be the black sheep.
The New Moon falls just before the festival of Halloween which developed from the Celtic feast of Samhain. Samhain marked the end of the summer and the beginning of winter – the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year. For the Celts it was the beginning of their year – a time when they acknowledged the beginning and the ending of things. As the leaves fell from the trees nature gave them lessons on the cycle of life and death – all very Scorpionic themes. Bod-monath (or November) was a time when livestock which could not be fed through the winter was slaughtered and salted down. The associations of killing were balanced by the pleasure of eating the last tastes of unsalted meat before the Spring.[1]
It was a time for magic and divination when Druids and Soothsayers would forecast the events of the coming year. Samhain was a time to celebrate the harvest as well as a time to commune with the realms of the spirit. Samhain like Beltane was a fire festival when bonfires, deemed to have protective and cleansing powers, were lit. Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the otherworld could more easily be crossed. This is also very Scorpionic – things that are hidden from view, the spirits of the dead, things that we aren’t supposed to talk about. The ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, were thought to come more easily into our world and they needed to be pleased to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality and were invited to attend with a place set at the table for them. Mumming and guising were also part of the festival, and involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food. Playing pranks at Samhain led to it being nicknamed “Mischief Night” in some parts – the early beginnings of our modern day ‘trick or treat’.
Christianity incorporated the old Pagan traditions into the Christian calendar with All Saints (All Hallows) on November 1st followed by All Souls on November 2nd. By the end of the Middle Ages, the Christian feast of the dead had really developed into an important occasion. Henry VII decreed that the monarch would dress in purple and his attendants in black, the colours of mourning. Candlelit processions were held and church bells were rung to comfort the souls in purgatory. The opening of the season of darkness became an opportunity to confront fears of death and damnation (very Scorpionic). The Hindu Diwali festival known as the festival of lights occurs about the same time as Samhain – Diwali marks the Hindu New Year just as Samhain marks the Celtic New Year.
The decline in the strength of the Sun at this time of year was a source of anxiety for early man and the lighting of the Winter fires symbolized man’s attempt to assist the Sun on its journey across the skies. As the winter set in the lord of the underworld now walked the earth and with him travelled all those other creatures from the abode of the dead – ghosts fairies etc.
More ancient man was in awe of the power of nature and recognized that the Gods and nature needed respect and offerings. With Neptune’s entry into Pisces we are beginning to consider our relationship with nature in a more sensitive fashion. And with Uranus (rebellion) in Taurus – the most Earthly of signs – we appropriately have Extinction Rebellion. However, Neptune in Pisces is also reflected in an upsurge of fake news and this New Moon in Scorpio reminds us that not everything is real – data can be manipulated as can we. Of course we must reverse our toxic (Scorpio) attitude to the land that gives us life. With scant respect for the miracle of life, we not only pollute the Earth with toxic waste, we put all manner of toxins into our bodies. We pollute the air that we and our children breathe and bring in more and more radio waves to feed our need for instant connections. We do need to mend our ways.
But nature has always shown herself to be more powerful than us – hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions for instance. Climate has always changed and always will. Earth’s climate has alternated between ice ages and greenhouse periods. We have had 11 interglacial periods over the past 800,000 years and our current interglacial age has been in play for around 10,000 years, so this one is probably due to end . Before that we had 130,000 years of ice age. The Medieval warm period produced warmer worldwide temperatures than now – up to 3 degrees Celsius warmer than today’s temperatures in fact – a reason for our current warmer sea temperatures. CO2 is a gas of life and it is climate that controls Co2 and not the other way around. We are living under the effects of the Medieval Warm Period and it is possible that our planet is actually beginning to cool, just as it did when the Medieval Warm Period was followed by a period of cooling known as the Little Ice Age. The electromagnetic radiation emitted from the Sun is responsible for life on earth and at the Little Ice Age we had low solar output that resulted in cold climate minimas. A strong quiescent Sun can cause irregular seasons and increased worldwide cloud coverage that reduces sunlight and lowers temperatures. A group of Finnish scientists has researched that human activity can account for no more than a .01 C rise in global temperature.[2] The Finnish group assert that natural variations in low cloud cover, which are strongly influenced by cosmic radiation’s ability to penetrate Earth’s atmosphere due to variations in the strength of our planets magnetosphere, account for nearly all changes in global temperature. This is further supported by researchers at Kobe University in Japan who published a nearly simultaneous paper that reveals how changes in our planet’s magnetic field govern the intensity of solar radiation that reaches the lower atmosphere causing cloud formation that alters global temperatures. Cosmic rays which are normally deflected via the magnetosphere are, in times of weak or changing magnetic fields emanating from Earth itself, able to penetrate further into Earth’s atmosphere causing the formation of low level clouds which shade the land from the sun allowing cooling to take place. A lack of clouds makes the surface hotter. This natural phenomenon is now documented to be the primary driver of global temperatures and climate, not human activity. A weaker magnetosphere causes global cooling while a stronger magnetosphere results in global warming according to this research. We can, in fact, survive global warming but cooling would be a completely different story. Fear of global warming is a way of bringing in controls such as smart meters and taxes. The ‘black sheep’ might say that the carbon tax scheme and other taxes (Pluto) will actually make some people wealthy indeed (Scorpio/Pluto)
Another ‘black sheep’ type person is an ex-Navy officer turned inventor, Trevor Jackson, who has just signed a multi-million pound deal to produce his electric car battery that will take drivers 1,500 miles without needing to charge. Under the bonnet is a revolutionary new type of battery which, unlike those used in conventional electric cars, can also power buses, huge lorries and even aircraft. It’s far simpler and cheaper to make than the batteries currently in use in millions of electric vehicles around the world – and, unlike them, it can easily be recycled.
However, to get to this point Jackson faced determined opposition from the automobile industry establishment. Motor manufacturers even lobbied the Foreign Office to bar him from a prestigious conference for European businesses and governments at the British embassy in Paris, which was supposed to agree a blueprint for ensuring all new cars are electric by 2040. The game-changer is that the aluminium-air fuel cell stores far more energy than a conventional battery. It is so light and powerful that it could now be set to revolutionise low-carbon transport, because it supplies so much energy.
However, the car industry has already poured massive investment into a very different type of battery, lithium-ion which has big drawbacks. As well as lithium, they contain rare, poisonous substances such as cobalt. They can explode or catch fire, as seen with the spate of incidents that forced Samsung to recall tens of thousands of Galaxy Note 7 phones in 2016. With repeated charging, car-sized models eventually become spent. Recycling them to recover the cobalt and lithium is extremely expensive – about five times as much as the cost of disposing them and starting from scratch. Aluminium, on the other hand, is the planet’s most abundant metal. Many of the factories that refine it from ore or recycled junk are powered by green, renewable energy, such as hydro-electric dams. And once an aluminium-air fuel cell is spent, it can be recycled very cheaply.
Aluminium-air cells could also be used in some types of aircraft – propeller planes, short-haul passenger and cargo flights. Drivers with cars that depend on lithium-ion have to charge their batteries from the mains when they are spent – a process that takes a long time, and difficult for those who only have on-street parking. But when an aluminium-air cell became exhausted, the driver would simply exchange it for a new one. Instead of a vast network of charging points, all that is necessary are stores where cells can be swapped, just as people already swap propane gas bottles.[3]
Sometimes we need the black sheep to stand up and say that there are other ways, other viewpoints. It’s sad to see how much our lives is actually driven by ‘the money’ without us realizing.
The New Moon set for London has all the angles at 0 degrees. This does suggest the start of something new. But there is no easy aspect for this New Moon – it’s a case of dig deep, dig down and put in the effort. Then it is possible to master and to transform. But along the way acknowledge where you are stuck or fixed. Embrace change and transformation, be authentic and don’t fear walking to your own drumbeat – the black sheep is often the only one prepared to tell the truth.
[1] Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun, Oxford University Press, 1996.
[2] https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/16562-finnish-scientists-effect-of-human-activity-on-climate-change-insignificant.html. paper entitled “No experimental evidence for the significant anthropogenic climate change”.