New Moon in Scorpio – November 15, 2020, 05:07 UT

The New Moon at 23+ degrees of Scorpio is sextile to the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and in quincunx to Eris is Aries. The New Moon in Scorpio is in conjunction with a trans-Neptunian minor planet named Deucalion.

The New Moon, which is the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon, is the first phase of the lunation cycle. It is always a good time for new beginnings, new ideas, or new projects. This New Moon has some special features that are highlighting the fruitfulness of this time.

Mars in Aries has just stationed and turned in direct motion, pushing things forward. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and thus a starting point for a new cycle. Mars in its own sign Aries is daring and full of motivation.

The conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto can produce a huge drive to accomplish great things. Jupiter magnifies everything it touches and Pluto is the planet of transformation. The last of the three exact Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions in Capricorn happened on Nov. 12. The New Moon in Scorpio forms a sextile to the conjunction, an aspect which allows the planets involved to work efficiently together.

53311 Deucalion is a trans-Neptunian small body with the orbital period of over 295 years. It is a classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano. There is no official definition of cubewano. However, the term is used to refer to objects which are not in orbital resonance with Neptune and do not cross the orbit of Neptune. Deucalion has a low-eccentricity orbit and a very small inclination, like a classical planet. According to the naming rules of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) the cubewanos are given mythological or mythic names associated with creation.

53311 Deucalion was discovered in 1999 and named in 2003 from Greek mythology after Deucalion, son of Prometheus. Prometheus had created humans from clay and given them fire, which he had stolen from the gods. Many astrologers think that the appropriate name for planet Uranus would actually be Prometheus.

Deucalion is the main character of the Greek flood myth, which resembles the story of Noah from the Bible. Flood myths occur in many cultures. The flooding waters are sent by a deity in order for cleansing of humanity and in preparation for rebirth. The flood in the Greek myth was caused by the anger of Zeus. All humans were drowned except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, who had been forewarned by Prometheus and built an ark. When the deluge was over, the ark landed on a mountain. Deucalion and Pyrrha consulted an oracle about how to repopulate the Earth and were told to “throw the bones of their mother” behind them. They understood that their mother is Earth and her bones are stones. The stones they then threw over their shoulders became men and women.

Humanity today is facing many problems, for example the covid-19 pandemic, the climate change, polarization of people, terrorism, political violence, the normalization of far right groups and the rise of fascism, and the challenges of the digital world, just to name a few.

In 2003, soon after the naming of 53311 Deucalion, astrologer Raimo A. Nikula shortly delineated the body as if he had been describing our world today. He noted that the myth of Deucalion reveals a need to create a new culture. Before the chance for a new start for humanity, there is a period of peril which is testing humanity’s endurance. According to him the symbolism of Deucalion is associated mostly with the sign of Aquarius. The new social norms creating the new culture should occur both the individual and collective levels. Just recently astrologer Eric Francis pointed out that the astrology of the forthcoming years will focus on Aquarius. “We are all here together. No person is an island. We rely upon one another,” he wrote.

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My special thanks to Chad Townsend for the discussion on the subject and for his valuable help!

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