Archive for March, 2020

New Moon in Aries — March 24, 2020, 09:28 UT

Wednesday, March 25th, 2020

The vernal equinox was on March 20, 2020. The Sun entered Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, and passed the Aries point. It is the point in which the most personal intersects with the larger world around one. The equinox chart shows the themes of the upcoming astrological year.

The New Moon in Aries took place on March 24 in the early degrees of the sign, in conjunction with Chiron and Salacia. The New Moon squared the lunar nodes on the Cancer-Capricorn axis and the Pholus-Quaoar conjunction in Capricorn. The tight triple conjunction of Jupiter, Pluto and Mars in Capricorn is squaring Eris in Aries. The New Moon opposed Makemake in Libra.

136472 Makemake is a cubewano discovered 15 years ago, in March 2005. It is one of the five minor planets which officially have received the dwarf planet status so far. The orbital period is 306 years. The discovery team (Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz) nicknamed it “Easterbunny” because of its discovery shortly after Easter. In 2008 Makemake was named after the creator god of humanity in the myths of the Rapa Nui, the native people of Easter Island.

The god Makemake was also the chief god of the birdman cult of the Rapa Nui, an annual dangerous competition. The contestants had to swim to the nearby island to collect the first egg of the season of a certain tropical seabird, and then swim back to Rapa Nui. Many lost their lives. The winner was entitled to gifts of food, and his clan would have sole rights to collect the wild bird eggs and fledglings of that season. The winner had to go into seclusion for a year and spend his time eating and sleeping, and could not engage in any other activity. He did this for his community.

We are now in the situation where we need to restrict our living. We need to reduce our social contacts to minimum. Luckily we have phones, the internet, and the social media, so we are not totally secluded. Our pursuit is nothing compared to that of the birdman. We need to do this now for our health care workers and for our community.

Full Moon in Virgo — March 09, 2020, 17:48 UT

Sunday, March 8th, 2020

The Full Moon in Virgo is opposing the conjunction of the Sun and Neptune in Pisces. We are facing the fear that the rapidly spreading new disease COVID-19 is arousing.

Two first centaurs, Chiron and Pholus, are now in a square aspect. Pholus in Capricorn is conjunct the south node of the Moon and Chiron in Aries is exactly square the lunar nodes. Chiron squared Pholus on March 8, 2020. Astrologer Eric Francis noted recently that the astrology of the current mess is Chiron square Pholus. He described the energy of Pholus being “the metaphoric or literal genie coming out of the bottle.” Please click the following link to read the whole article: Pholus and the Pandemic of Panic.

Last week, Olli Vapalahti, the virology professor at the University of Helsinki, used the same metaphor, when he was interviewed about the coronavirus situation: “Getting the virus back into the bottle is quite difficult.”

Pluto and Eris are now in a square aspect. Eris is the goddess of strife and discord, and she was rejected because of this tendency of hers. A reflection of the symbolism of Eris can be seen in the situation of those people around the world that are now under a travel ban or quarantine because of the virus.

The Full Moon is in conjunction with the centaur 346889 Rhiphonos, which offers a protective image. 346889 Rhiphonos was discovered in 2009. The orbital period is around 35.8 years. In Greek mythology Rhiphonos was one of the twelve Dionysian Centaurs who drew the chariot of the infant Dionysus. Zeus had set them to guard his son Dionysus against Hera’s anger. Dionysus’s mother was a mortal woman, with whom Zeus had an affair. The Dionysian Centaurs were originally sprites, but when jealous Hera found out about their assistance, she transformed them into ox-horned centaurs. Later loyal Rhiphonos was one of the commanders of the centaurs who travelled with the adult Dionysus around the world.

Don’t let fear take over, and keep washing your hands.