New Moon in Aquarius – Jan. 29, 2025, 12:36 UT
Wednesday, January 29th, 2025The New Moon is in Aquarius, where Pluto has recently entered. Mercury is in conjunction with Pluto. Pluto is trine Sedna in the first degree of Gemini.
Pluto’s trine to Sedna reflects the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists being moved closer to midnight yesterday. The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by scientists including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The metaphorical clock was now set to 89 seconds to midnight to warn the public and the world leaders about how close humankind is to destroying the world. The factors shaping this year’s decision include nuclear risk, climate change and the potential misuse of artificial intelligence, for instance.
Mars in Cancer is in conjunction with the newly named quasi-moon of Earth, Cardea. Last summer the International Astronomical Union and Radiolab announced a public competition to name one of the quasi-moons of Earth. The winner was chosen from seven finalists and announced on Jan. 13, 2025. Cardea is the Roman goddess of the hinge.
A quasi-moon is an asteroid that actually orbits the Sun, but if you watch it from the Earth, it looks like it’s orbiting our planet just like the Moon does. Cardea is a small Apollo asteroid discovered in 2004 by the Lincoln Near Asteroid Research project (LINEAR). The orbital period is one year. It stays as a quasi-satellite of Earth until around 2600.
Roman doors were hung on pivot hinges. Cardea was one of the deities who preside over doorways. They were said to be “doorkeepers of the earth”, guarding the passage to the earthly sphere. On Radiolab’s contest page Cardea was introduced like this:
”A name imbued with elegance and depth, Cardea is the Roman goddess of doorways and transitions, symbolizing the guardianship of thresholds. This quasi-moon, forever straddling the space between Earth and the cosmos, reflects Cardea’s dominion over liminal states, embodying a celestial gatekeeper of the in-between.”
In its discovery chart Cardea was retrograding at 14+ degrees of Leo tightly opposite Neptune and also with wide orb opposite the Moon. Neptune symbolizes dreams, illusions, imagination and the unconscious. Perhaps Cardea really can turn the hinged door from our everyday reality to another place. The unique director David Lynch died on Jan. 15, 2025. In his birthchart he had 10th house Cardea in late Virgo trine to the Sun-Venus conjunction in Capricorn, semisextile Jupiter in Libra, and square to his lunar nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius.
Oxford English Dictionary defines the adjective ”lynchian” like this: ”Characteristic, reminiscent, or imitative of the films or television work of David Lynch. Lynch is noted for juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace.”
Lynch himself has said of his attitude to dreams: ”Waking dreams are the ones that are important, the ones that come when I’m quietly sitting in a chair, letting my mind wander. When you sleep, you don’t control your dream. I like to dive into a dream world that I’ve made or discovered; a world I choose…”
Actor Kyle MacLachlan wrote: “What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.”
Filmmaker Harmony Korine said: ”He embraced his own inner logic and filtered it through a subconscious magic. He created worlds and unmatched vibrations. He hit on things that were inexplicable and sacred and beyond articulation.”