That Time of the Month: The New Moon

Every month the Moon moves about 390 degrees from the point of it's last alignment with the Sun and becomes combust once again. But this isn't a very good occurrence.

My guess is that it's "werewolf" folklore that we can thank for the misconception that the Full Moon is the bringer of chaos. Now whenever something peculiar happens or people behave out of character, if there's even a loose gathering of people around I'm betting there's about a 30% chance that one of them will add a 'must be a Full Moon.' But this is wrong. The Full Moon is actually almost always an easy time. When the light of the Moon is nearing its peak the Moon acts as a natural benefic. It brings harmony, comfort, restfulness and a feeling of being at peace.

My theory as to why this happens requires some conceptual analysis. The Moon has been called the "maternal" planet for eons. In fact, the Moon helped to shape the Earth and it keeps the Earths rotation from becoming chaotic. A person with a strong Moon is typically a bit on the shy side and might be prone to worries. When the Moon is in sect, meaning nocturnal, it's in a cooler, less active part of the sky. The nocturnal half of the sky literally gets less attention, as these are planets that have set and cannot be seen. If the Moon is in the nocturnal sect, assuming that the Sun is in its preferred sect, the hot and noticeable diurnal sect, then that means the Moon is increasing its light, literally and figuratively lighting the darkness. If there is light during night then there is less fear, which the Moon can at times be prone to because it's easier to see possible hazards; thus the Full Moon is happy, feels like there's fewer eyes on it evoking its shyness and is cool and calm.

When a New Moon occurs we get problems. In Vedic astrology and according to Ptolemy, the Sun and the Moon consider each other friends (though I can think of one line of Romeo and Juliet where Shakespeare seems to disagree); though according to Vedic no planets are friendly to each other when conjunct. So why would the New Moon be such a bad thing? Is the power of combustion really that evil?

No, it isn't that. What it is this: Remember earlier what I wrote about the Moon's occasional tendencies to worry? This is heightened when the Moon is low in light, which happens when the Moon approaches the Sun, for the obvious reason that no light means greater vulnerability to the unseen. Another problem is that the Moon and the Sun are both very powerful planets. The Moon a deep, gentle, inward energy, the Sun a bold, unconcerned, outward energy: Opposites, like hot and cold, positive and negative, yin and yang. When these two behemoths come together they create an incredible energy gradient and tension of two totally different energies clashing, uniting and supposedly one being cooked off (Moon's). The Moon's deep feelings merge with the Sun's bold identity and all of this energy at once is usually too much to handle. Worst still the frightened Moon feels watched and pressurized because it's in the hot, visible diurnal sect (astronomically speaking of course) made by the unyielding Sol invictus. The result can quite possibly be that people panic. This aspects brings causes there to be a lessening in compassion and unity. And if it occurs during bad aspects to other planets or possibly if the dispositor is debilitated as today's Mercury retrograde is it's all the worse still. It's not all bad, though. If this energy is channelled properly it can be a good day to work in overdrive or pick up something that's been forgotten and work toward its completion.

Happy Gemini New Moon '09 everyone! ...And don't let Mercury retrograde and Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune trip you up too much!