The New Moon in Aries on Apr. 20, 2023, is a solar eclipse, the first eclipse of the year and a rare and intriguing one in several ways.

A solar eclipse occurs usually twice a year when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, and all three bodies are in line. A total eclipse occurs when the Moon completely obscures the light of the Sun. When the Sun and the Moon are exactly in line with Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller, a bright ring of the Sun appears around the Moon, and the eclipse type is called an annular eclipse. A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line with the Earth and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This current eclipse in Aries belongs to the extraordinary fourth type of solar eclipses, a hybrid eclipse.

Sometimes an eclipse can shift between annular and total. It is called a hybrid eclipse, an extremely rare phenomenon, which will only happen a few times per century. It will happen only four more times this century. This annular total solar eclipse is visible in Australia and Indonesia. However, the transition from annular to total and back again occurs at two remote locations at sea.

This hybrid solar eclipse takes place in the last degree of Aries. It is square to Pluto, which recently entered Aquarius. The Moon enters Taurus right after the eclipse and the Sun follows a few hours later. A powerful transformative shift can be expected. Mars is the ruler of Aries and Venus is the ruler of Taurus. The eclipse is in aspect to both planets. It is in quintile to Mars in Cancer and novile to Venus in Gemini.

The quintile (72°) is generally considered as the aspect of creativity. When we divide the chart circle (360°) by five we get the quintile. Robert Hand has written about the five-series aspect family: “All these aspects seem to have a quality that we usually associate with Pluto, with overtones of Venus and Mars.” Dane Rudhyar has described the novile (40°), which is the division of the circle by nine, like this: “At the level of the Nine, the individualized person discovers and envisions the meaning and purpose of what he or she is.” According to him, the novile can lead to personal rebirth.

Each solar eclipse is a member of a particular eclipse family, a Saros series, which has certain characteristics. Each series will run for well over a thousand years and produce a solar eclipse every 18 years. We can study the characteristics of a particular Saros series by delineating its birth chart or by searching similarities between events that have occurred 18 years apart at the time of the eclipses. The word saros means repetition. The current eclipse chart has the same distinguishable flavour as the initial eclipse of this Saros in 1103 had.

The Saros series is number 7 North. The initial eclipse was in Libra opposite Pluto in Aries, and occurred on the Venus/Mars midpoint. Astrologer Bernadette Brady has delineated it as follows: “A very sensual family of eclipses, ranging from sudden sexual passions and lust to birth and procreative drives. This series is not subtle, and can catch people off guard and confront them with their own very deep passion which may have been hidden for many years.”

The solar eclipse in Aries is in conjunction with a tiny near-Earth asteroid ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim, which remained hidden until January 2020. It is the first and so far the only asteroid known to have an orbit completely within Venus’s orbit. The name means ‘Venus girl’ in the indigenous Luiseño language of southern California. The name celebrates the location of the discovery. The orbital period around the Sun is about 150 days. At about 4.1 million years from the present, ʼAylóʼchaxnim will most likely collide with Venus. In the old times the Luiseño people called Venus as Aylucha, “that which is left over from evening till morning, food or anything of the kind.” The presence of ‘Aylóꞌchaxnim emphasizes Venus in the chart, and the fact that the transformation at hand can be built on what already exists.

This has been a big week for Finland! First there was the tight and polarized parliament elections on Sunday. The conservative National Coalition Party and the radical right populist Finns Party won, which is not promising good for this country and its people who are already struggling with increased electricity bills and the cost of food. Then on Tuesday Finland became a full member of NATO in a ceremony held in Brussels. The membership is what all parties agree on and what we’ve been eagerly waiting for since we applied for it last May. This is a consequence of Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022, which fundamentally changed our security environment.

The Full Moon in Libra is opposite the tight conjunction of the Sun and Chiron in Aries. Jupiter is involved in the conjunction too. Jupiter in Aries, Praamzius in Leo, and Huya in Sagittarius form a Grand trine in the Fire signs.

The Sun in Aries says ”I am” and Chiron in cojunction with the Sun tells that there is a wound in the core self and something needs to be healed. This applies to the identity of Finland. Aries is the sign of new beginnings, and we are now searching for a new identity as a militarily allied country. Quoting President Sauli Niinistö, ”Finland’s membership is not targeted against anyone. Nor does it change the foundations or objectives of Finland’s foreign and security policy. Finland is a stable and predictable Nordic country that seeks peaceful resolution of disputes. – – – NATO membership does not change everything. But being an ally requires Finland to adopt new ways of thinking, and some changes in legislation as well.”

The solar arc directed Sun of Finland is at the Aries Point. The meaning of the Aries Point is described as follows at the website of the Uranian Astrology Institute: ”It has often been interpreted as ‘out in the world’, ‘out among the public’, ‘among the general public’, and one that I also find most appropriate is ‘public settings’.” Finland has certainly gotten enormous publicity this week.

 

The Aries Point can also be called as the Cardinal Point. In fact also the first degrees of the three other cardinal signs (Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) represent the Aries Point. Since the radix Moon of Finland is in exact square to Sun of Finland, the solar arc directed Moon of Finland in the first degree of Capricorn is now at the Aries Point too.

Finland became a full member of NATO on Apr. 4, 2023, at 14:45 CEDT (-2:00) in Brussels, Belgium, when Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto handed over the official document to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In the event chart Praamzius, the symbol of peace, is rising in the first house. You can read more about Praamzius here: New Moon in Leo — August 08, 2021, 13:50 UT

Huya is a binary trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2000 and classified as a plutino. The secondary is not named, but it is relatively large compared to the primary, and the Huya system possibly resembles that of Pluto. Huya is named after the rain god of the Wayuu people indigenous to the Guajira Peninsula of northern Venezuela and Colombia. The orbital period of Huya is 250 years. Currently Huya is orbiting closer to the Sun than Neptune. It has passed perihelion in 2015.

In the radix chart of Finland Huya is rising in Gemini exactly at the ascendant. Now the transiting Huya in Sagittarius is at the descendant. It will be hovering there at least all this year. In other words, Huya has made this 180 degree journey in time from the birth of the independent Finland to this moment. Howard Sasportas writes: ”Traditionally, the Ascendant is considered the ‘point of self-awareness’ and Descendant is considered the ‘point of awareness of others’. It describes our approach to relationships and the qualities (along with the planets in 7th) that we are looking for in a partner.” These charts offer an interesting case study in solving the astrological meaning of Huya.

New Moon in Aries – March 21, 2023, 17:23 UT

A new astrological year begins, and what a start we will have! The Sun entered Aries on March 20, and the New Moon in the first degree of Aries follows on the next day. Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23, 2023. The New Moon is in conjunction with Neptune and Borasisi in late Pisces and with Mercury and Manwë in early Aries.

Saturn changed signs already earlier in this month, and now it is Pluto’s turn. Pluto’s ingress is a slow process though. It will retrograde back to Capricorn in June, re-enter Aquarius again in January 2024, retrograde back to Capricorn again, and do the final ingress into Aquarius in November 2024. There are some interesting minor planet ingresses in progress too, namely those of Borasisi into Aries and Sedna into Gemini.

The trans-Neptunian Manwë is newly arrived in Aries. The ingress took place at the end of January. Manwë is actually a multiobject system, a contact binary consisting of Manwë and Thorondor, surrounded by rapidly orbiting moonlets. According to the official naming citation, “In J. R. R. Tolkien’s mythology, Manwë is foremost among the deities who rule the world. Manwë takes special responsibility for the air and winds. He resides in the Undying Lands across the western ocean from Middle Earth. For intelligence of events in Middle Earth, Manwë relies on the kingdom of eagles led by Thorondor.” The wise eagles were Manwë’s messengers. Tolkien wrote that Manwë “sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea.”

Mercury too was the messenger of the gods. Mercury represents thoughts, speech, and communication. Mercury conjunct Manwë in Aries can mean forceful and direct communication, paying attention to details, whereas Borasisi and Neptune in Pisces can blur the message.

Neptune and Borasisi have a couple of things in common. They both were discovered exactly in the same degree at 25+ Aquarius, though 153 years apart. Neptune was discovered in 1846 and Borasisi in 1999. Deception and lies are the negative traits that are associated with Neptune. The trans-Neptunian Borasisi is named after the sun in the cosmogony of Bokononism described in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle. The foundation of the fictional religion of Bokononism is based on living by the untruths that make one happy. The ingress of Borasisi into Aries starts in May and is completed in January 2025. Neptune and Borasisi will meet each other in the same degree at 2+ Aries in the summer of 2025, but their exact conjunction does not occur until in May 2026.

Last but not least is Sedna’s ingress into Gemini. Sedna, the primary symbol for climate change, enters Gemini for the first time in June, returns into Taurus in November, and then re-enters Gemini in April 2024. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just published its report yesterday. Quoting the UN secretary general, António Guterres: “This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”

The Full Moon in Virgo occured on March 7, 2023, 12:40 UT. Saturn entered Pisces practically at the same time, only at about an hour later. In Pisces the Sun is in the same degree with centaur Nessus. In tight conjunction with them is asteroid Medusa. The Sun is sextile Uranus in Taurus.

Nessus was discovered in 1993 and named from Greek mythology after the centaur who tried to rape Heracles’s wife. The orbital period is over 122 years. Nessus orbits the Sun mainly between Saturn and Neptune, but sometimes crosses the orbit of Pluto too, so we can say that it links not only the realms of Saturn and Neptune, but also that of Pluto. Saturn (structures) and Pluto (renewal) are both changing signs now. Saturn just entered Pisces and Pluto is going to enter Aquarius on March 23 for the first time on this round.

Abuse of power, oppression, helplessness, and revenge are themes linked with Nessus, and the patterns can stretch beyond generations. The transits of Nessus can be painful, but they help to discover those patterns, and healing can occur when there is no more need to ”pass the buck”.

149 Medusa is a small main-belt asteroid discovered in 1875, and named after the Gorgon Medusa, a snake-haired monster in Greek mythology. Asteroid Medusa was discovered in Pisces quite near its current location.

In mythology Medusa was a terrible monster who could turn men to stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who gave her head to Pallas Athena as a shield. Originally Medusa was a beautiful maiden and represented the female wisdom. Along with the rise of patriarchy the image changed, and the serpent-haired Medusa is now widely seen as the symbol of feminine rage.

Quoting astrologer Demetra George: ”Medusa represents our serpent wisdom energy arising from our instinctive sexuality which we can transform into our powers to create, regenerate, and recognize truth.”

The current Sun-Nessus-Medusa conjunction is exactly conjunct the lunar nodes of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Apr. 1, 1979, 15:00 IRDT -4:30, Teheran, Iran). We have recently seen the horrific news, how more than 1000 schoolgirls in Iran have been poisoned since November. The aim is to frighten the girls from going to school, or possibly a revenge because girls have been protesting and removing their hijabs after Masha Amini’s death in the morality police’s custody in last September. This is the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, that schoolgirls have been joining the protests in Iran.

After public anger, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the poisonings as an unforgivable crime and that those who are guilty should be punished. The White House has called for an independent investigation. We shall see how things will develop in Iran.

New Moon in Pisces was in conjunction with Saturn, Crantor and Damocles.

Crantor is a peculiar centaur, approximately 60 km in diameter. It was discovered in 2002. This body orbits the Sun in a 1:1 resonance with Uranus, and thus its orbital period of 85.8 years is near Uranus’s 84 years. Crantor follows a complex, transient horseshoe orbit around Uranus. It is a kind of quasi-satellite of Uranus.

Crantor is named from Greek mythology, but not after one of the centaurs, rather a Lapith who was killed by the centaur Demoleon in the wedding of Pirithous, the king of the Lapiths. The name Demoleon means “the lion of the people” in English (Robert von Heeren, The Centaur Research Project). Centaur Demoleon tried to throw a tree trunk at the king of Athens, Theseus, but he managed to evade it, and the trunk hit Crantor instead.

Perhaps Crantor gets at least some of its astrological meaning from Uranus, the planet of unpredictability, rebellion and brotherhood.

Examples:

Billy Graham (Nov. 7, 1918 – Feb. 21, 2018), the American evangelist who held large indoor and outdoor rallies broadcast on radio and television. – the Sun conjunct Crantor in Scorpio

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club originated on March 17, 1948, in California. – the Sun conjunct Crantor in Pisces

Julian Assange (born July 3, 1971), the founder of WikiLeaks – Saturn-Crantor conjunction at descendant in Gemini

Russel Brand (born June 4, 1975) is an English comedian and actor, known for his flamboyant and loquacious style and manner. – the Sun conjunct Crantor in Gemini

Matt Bellamy (born June 9, 1978) is an English singer and musician, known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for English rock band Muse. He is recognised for his eccentric stage persona. – the Sun conjunct Crantor in Gemini

Britney Spears (born Dec. 2, 1981) is an American pop singer. – Crantor at the Midheaven in Cancer

The Moon in Leo and the Sun in Aquarius are squaring Uranus in Taurus. They form a T-square in fixed signs. In spite of the fixed sign’s tendency for stability and their desire to resist change, the tension contained in the pattern can burst out suddenly and unpredictably. In Scorpio a trans-Neptunian minor planet Mbabamwanawaresa is completing the pattern as a Grand cross.

Mbabamwanawaresa is named after a revered fertility goddess of the Zulu people of Southern Africa. The Zulu ask her advice when they need to make an important decision. According to mythology Mbaba Mwana Waresa was unable to find a suitable husband in the heavens, so she scoured the lands of South Africa in search of a mortal husband, and then defied all of the other gods when she fell in love with a mortal man.

Replace “the other gods” with “the royal family” and think about Prince Harry, whose Sun is in exact conjunction with Mbabamwanawaresa, and who has toured the Southern African countries just about yearly since his gap year in 2004. Being away from the spotlight in Africa helped him as a teen. He has described Africa a place where he finds peace and healing time after time. There he felt closest to his mother Diana after her death and there he later also found a soulmate in his wife Meghan. His charities are also in Africa. There he met a couple which he has referred as his beloved second family. Harry recently reveald that his African friend once told him: “I think your body was born in Britain, but your soul was born here in Africa.”

When Harry arrived in Lesotho on Feb. 13, 2004, the transiting Mbabamwanawaresa (the goddess) at 17+ Libra was in exact conjunction with his radix Venus (what we love and appreciate). The transiting Chiron at 22+ Capricorn (healing) formed a Grand trine with his radix Sun at 22+ Virgo (father, one’s soul) and Moon at 21+ Taurus (mother, one’s feelings). No wonder that Harry fell in love with the southern Africa and felt healed.

The following quotes are from different interviews in various media during the years.

“For most of my life, it has been my lifeline, a place where I found peace and healing time and time again,” he said.

“I have this sense of complete relaxation and normality [here]. To lose myself in the bush…. This is where I feel more like myself than anywhere else in the world.”

“It’s like being plugged into the earth” is how Prince Harry described to me the effect Africa’s wilderness has on him.

“Lesotho gave me the space and the freedom to breathe, to live, and to grow.”

”I feel rooted in Africa and everything about it.”

“Fifteen years I’ve been coming here,” he said. “It’s a sense of escapism – a real sense of purpose.”

Prince Harry realized Meghan was his soulmate when they were camping together in Botswana in July 2016, shortly after they had begun dating. In the summer of 2016 the transiting Jupiter – the ”greater benefic” — was passing over Harry’s radix Sun-Mbabamwanawaresa conjunction in Virgo.

Prince Harry’s memoir Spare was officially published on Jan. 10, 2023. He stated “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become.” The transiting Mbabamwanawaresa in the mid-degrees of Scorpio was conjunct Harry’s Midheaven (“calling”) and Saturn (grounding). His solar arc directed Sun-Mbabamwanawaresa conjunction in the first degree of Scorpio was conjunct his radix Pluto, the planet of transformations and rebirth.

However striking Prince Harry’s case is, a delineation of a new planet must be adaptable for more than just one man. Harry has given material for that too. One of his missions is to help save wild areas of the earth. When he was younger he dreamt of working as a wilderness guide.

People who have found their purpose from nature or in the wilderness:

Charles Darwin (Feb. 12, 1809 – Apr. 19, 1882), an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. — Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct Jupiter in Pisces.

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. — Mbabamwanawaresa in Aries square the Moon in Cancer, trine Jupiter and the Midheaven in Sagittarius.

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who was concerned for man’s loss of connection with nature. — The Sun in Leo sextile Mbabamwanawaresa in Gemini.

Sir David Attenborough (born May 8, 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. – Mbabamwanawaresa at the North node of the Moon in Cancer.

Christopher McCandless (Feb. 12, 1968 – c. Aug. 1992), a young adventurer who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s and died there. — Jupiter in conjunction with Mbabamwanawaresa in Virgo.

This New Moon in early Aquarius conjunct Pluto is an extreme supermoon, although the Moon is invisible, as it always is at the New Moon. The Sun and the Moon are in conjunction and the luminaries are in line with Earth. The Moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, and last time the Moon was this close to us was in 1030.

Instead of the Moon you may be able to see a rare visitor, the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) which is now passing through the inner solar system and should be visible if not with bare eyes at least with binoculars. Its closest approach to Earth will be on Feb. 1, 2023. It hasn’t been seen from Earth in about 50,000 years and it won’t be back in millions of years. In the chart comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is now at 21+ degrees of Libra. It is moving clockwise through the zodiac, in the opposite direction than the planets, and at the Full Moon on Feb. 5, 2023, it will be at 22+ degrees of Gemini.

The Sun conjoined Pluto on Jan. 18 in late Capricorn and entered Aquarius on Jan. 20. Pluto is about to start its slow ingress into Aquarius. We are on the threshold of a new era. Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time on March 23, 2023. Pluto returns into Capricorn in June 2023, makes the second enter into Aquarius in January 2024, goes back to Capricorn once again in September 2024, and then in November 2024 enters Aquarius the third and the last time on this round. Pluto’s orbit around the Sun takes 248 years.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 and its companion Charon in 1978. Pluto-Charon is the first known trans-neptunian binary object and the largest of the binary systems in the solar system. The barycenter of the Plutonian system lies in the space between both bodies, and the four small moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra) orbit not just Pluto but Charon as well.

Already before Pluto’s astronomical binary status was known, its dual nature was obvious to astrologers. The first book published on Pluto was in 1934 by a German astrologer Fritz Brunhübner (1894 – 1965), who wrote:

“Just as the two luminaries form a polarity, so Pluto, too, is a polarity – a duality – seeking union or blending into singleness. Pluto is the ‘die and be’ of Goethe; it is death and rebirth; Pluto kills or destroys but builds out of the elements of the destroyed – out of the old, something new; Pluto rises from the ashes like the phoenix. Pluto is transformations…”

Brunhübner even thought that the mythology of the god Janus had better represented the characteristics of Pluto, and the name Janus would have been more fitting. In Roman mythology Janus was the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces.

American astrologer Isabel M. Hickey (1903 – 1980) published “Pluto or Minerva: The Choice is Yours” in 1973. She wrote: “There is a very negative side to Pluto. That side is as low as its higher aspect is high. When mob rule takes over, the negative side of this energy causes individuals to act far more viciously than any one of them would act by himself.” She also wrote: “The dark forces use the Pluto force destructively and thereby bring on their own destruction. It takes strength to be a devil. Most of what we call evil is ignorance. Organized evil is beyond the comprehension of the average person. The forces of Light and their work is just as little understood. Always and all ways we can choose which is right for us.”

The Full Moon takes place exactly conjunct Mars retrograde at 16+ degrees of Gemini. The Moon and Mars are in conjunction with Altjira, a binary Kuiper belt object.

148780 Altjira is a classical Kuiper belt object, cubewano. The primary was discovered in 2001 and the secondary in 2007. Altjira was named in 2008 from the mythology of the Arrente people, a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples. For some odd reason the secondary was not given a name of its own. Altjira was the central god of the Dreamtime who created the earth and then retired to the sky. The orbital period of Altjira is 294 years.

Some of my ideas and examples about Altjira is available here:
Full Moon in Gemini / Penumbral Lunar Eclipse — November 28, 2012, 14:46 UT

The New Moon occured in the early degrees of Sagittarius. The Sun and the Moon were part of a noteworthy t-square configuration. The New Moon opposed the wondrous planetoid Sedna, which is retrograding in the last degree of Taurus at the moment. A classical Kuiper belt object called Sila-Nunam in late Leo was the apex of the t-square. Sedna and Sila-Nunam are both named from Inuit mythology.

The New Moon was trine Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius. Jupiter was changing its direction and turning into forward motion simultaneously with the New Moon. In the chart Jupiter is still stationary. This is meaningful and adding power to the natural characteristic quality of Jupiter as magnifier and expander. If Jupiter touches another planet in the chart by an aspect, we can expect the effect of that other planet to be emphasized. Jupiter is tightly sextile to Sedna and in quincunx to Sila-Nunam.

Sedna came into our awareness in March 2004 when astronomer Mike Brown amazed us and introduced it to us in his press conference. The body is named after the Inuit goddess of the Arctic Ocean. Sedna’s orbit is one of the largest in the Solar System. The orbit is exceptionally elongated, the orbital period around the Sun is 11,400 years, and Sedna never comes even near Neptune. Sedna starts to change signs next summer and in 2024 enters Gemini. Because of the extremely long orbit, the astrological meaning of this dwarf planet is collective and refers to experiences that reach beyond several generations.

Sila-Nunam was named in 2012 after two Inuit deities, Sila and Nunam. This is a binary object, consisting of two almost equal sized bodies orbiting each other around a point in the free space between them. Sila-Nunam’s orbital period is 293 years. Sila is one of the oldest Inuit deities, even older than Sedna. Sila is the Inuit god of the sky, weather, and life force. Sila’s wife Nunam is the Earth goddess.

Sila-Nunam was discovered in 1997, the same year that an international treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol was signed. The agreement set targets for industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Now climate emergency is real. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) ended on Nov. 20, 2022, in Egypt. Sadly, it was not a great success. No matter in what kind of havoc the world may be otherwise, the fight against the climate change must be one of our primary missions. This New Moon in Sagittarius urges us.

The Full Moon in the middle degrees of Taurus is an intense total lunar eclipse. The oppositon of the Sun and the Moon is exactly aligned with Mercury-Uranus opposition. Saturn in Aquarius squares the aforementioned planets and adds challenge.

A lunar eclipse works often a bit like Uranus, shaking us emotionally. Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius are fixed signs, which are not keen on change. This eclipse disrupts their stability. Taurus is very concerned with security. The Moon represents our instictual reactions, memories, and what we need to feel safe. Uranus can strike like a thunderbolt. It is revolutionary and unpredictable. Uranus is also the liberator that can free one from something that has become a burden.

In Scorpio there is intensity. Mercury is the planet of communication, travels and commerce. It is also the messenger between our conscious mind and the unconscious. There can be a shift in one’s economical situation, in values, or in relationships. Try to be considerate in your communication now.