- Sabian Symbols, Evolutionary Configurations, and More -

This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this New Moon happening December 23.

This marks the restructuring at the close of the 2022 Aquarian phase, preparing us for 2023. We are in the heart of a roundabout transformational process, with honesty, being gentle and appreciative, and a renewal of a quest the themes of these next 4 weeks.

The first decan of Capricorn is where we find our primal innocence and see a vaster perspective related to power and responsibility. We have been in the depths in Scorpio and the heights in Sagittarius, and now that we know what’s true for us and what is not, we can craft our roles to play in the coming season. Capricorn heads us to greater effectiveness, and with Jupiter just re-entering Aries, it’s triggering the Mars-Jupiter conjunction at 4 Aries in late May which launched a new sub-era and a new way of Being. This jumpstarts the Aries energy dominating the next 20 weeks!

We are now ending the long Mars retrograde. We had the ability to get the information or approaches we needed in September and October due to Mars trine Saturn. Mars went retrograde and again trined Saturn, giving us another look at how to do what we needed to do. Now Mars is in an extremely favorable and serendipitous tredecile with Saturn for this Lunation, giving us unexpected and unique openings, or interactive gifts and blessings based in things started in August and September.

The pace has begun to pick up since the Sun/Mars opposition on December 8, and as the dispositor of all the other planets except Neptune, is the main player on the stage of life. This month we’re re-focusing on gratitude and appreciation for the comfort and stability we have, so use the time to take an honest inventory of your blessings. If “God loves gratitude,” and gratitude is a spiritual power, then demonstrate it as much as possible and you will quickly change your karma for the better!

This Lunation will show us why we need to be judicious in how we use power, and how the wrong use of force damages many things. This is a time to see how apparent defeats in past years actually led us to spiritual victories and reminds us to keep our approach to new possibilities fresh. Much has ended, and this marks a point of major new beginnings for the coming month, the coming season, and the coming year.

Long Term Effects of the Capricorn and Aquarius Compressions

Everything that’s going on has to be referenced within the larger Capricorn and Aquarius cycles set into motion in early 2020. The current transits are renewing these larger cycles. These long wave Capricorn cycles and even more important long wave Aquarian cycles begun in March 2020 and amplified in December 2020 are the juxtaposed energies of the next 30 years. This period was the heart of a series of Great Compressions which have been a feature of the early months of 2020, 2021, 2022, with the last one in 2024.

This explains the four year sequence of The Great Compressions of Early 2020, 2021, and 2022. The first was in early 2019 when all the planets were bundled in about one third of the sky, called a Bundle pattern, which is the rarest of all. While the inner planets transited through all the other signs after that, we again hit maximum compression again in March 2020, and then expanded through the rest of the year.

This clustering happened again in 2021 in the last half of January into early February, with maximum compression was around January 19-21 when all of the planets were within a 101 degree span, creating a very intense zone of activity wherever we have late Capricorn through early Taurus. Four planets in Aquarius and two in Taurus made for a very crowded house, with 10 distinct energies occupying less than 1/3 of the total space.

The Planetary Spread

In 2022 we hit maximum compression in early March, with all planets between 28 Capricorn and 12 Taurus, only 104 degrees. In June we left the Bundle, and now have arrived at this season’s time of compression which isn’t as tight as the past several years.

In this chart, because all the inner planets are now in Capricorn, we are again tightening the span of activity. We now have all the planets in the 159+ degree span between early Capricorn and Mars in mid-Gemini occupying Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini. At this time, the inner planets are all in the 19+ degrees between 2 and 22 Capricorn, making that area most active in our charts at present. Though there will not be a compression in early 2023, there will be one more in early 2024.

Depending on the position of the Moon and the inner planets relative to the outer planets, different months bring us different Jones Patterns. These patterns operate their own independent influence, regardless of which planet is in which sign.

Currently, as just noted the outer planet occupied span begins with Pluto in late Capricorn, and proceeds through Saturn in Aquarius, Neptune in late Pisces, Jupiter in early Aries, and ends with Uranus in Taurus. (We don’t include TransPluto, since Jones didn’t use it in defining his patterns). Because we have 6 signs represented between Capricorn and Gemini and the planets only occupy half the signs it makes this chart qualify as a “Bowl” Jones Pattern.

So, What is a “Bowl Pattern” and how does it work?

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying approximately half of the signs with an empty half opposite the occupied half, creates a “special type of conscious selfhood,” which Dr. Jones says “marks the Bowl type of temperament. He goes on to state “Fundamentally it is an extreme self-containment,” which “holds things, and a Bowl individual is one who always has something to bear.”

He goes on to state that with the Bowl, “the whole dynamic of man, his total power of achievement, arises in his instinctive realization that he is set off against a definite part of the world, that there is a complete segment of experience from which he is excluded in some subtle fashion. The Bowl not only holds something, but also places whatever it holds into relationship with a larger consideration.”

Dr. Jones continues that “the occupied segment of the Bowl horoscope reveals the activity and organization of the self, since planets are significant according to their place by sign and house, and the unoccupied segment becomes a challenge to existence, or the need and emptiness to which the native must direct his attention. The outstanding characteristic of the Bowl temperament is its marked sense of what is self-contained in contrast with what the self cannot hold, and this take an everyday form in an advocacy of some cause, the furtherance of a mission, an introspective concern over the purpose of experience.”

He concludes his explanation of how the pattern works with “The Bowl native always has something to give to his fellows, whether literally or psychologically, whether constructively or vindictively, because his orientation to the world arises from division; that is, frustration and uncertainty. The leading planets, determined in exactly the same way as for the Locomotive pattern, give a point of application, and shows where and how the native seeks to carry out his mission or gain his everyday justification for existence.”

He brings up another important point of analysis, as he states “the leading planet is of secondary importance in the Bowl pattern, unless it is found in a strong opposition or cosmic cross. The fundamental attack on the problems of life by the Bowl individual is indicated more significantly by the tilt or house-position of the Bowl-segment.”

He concludes this section by stating “the Bowl character is definitely more self-expending, or self-seeking, and more practically interested in what things mean and what they are. It continually throws the emphasis from the signs into the houses. It a general way the Bowl tends to ‘scoop up’ things and initiate experience when the position of the leading planet ranges from the fourth cusp, up and over the ascendant, to the midheaven cusp, and then inclines to “capture” things or consummate various phases of life when the leading planet is placed similarly from the tenth angle down over the descendant to the nadir.”

The Lunation at 2 Capricorn are the leading planets on a degree of intensification of experience. This indicates the approach to experience involves self-discipline, knowing the limits of applied power, and being honest when it’s needed. With Mars closing we finish experience by seeing how to find a new way to approach “virgin fields of activity,” where we face a future that is somehow familiar so we can express something of our individual spiritual knowledge.

This leads with actional and material crystallization, and closes with individual spiritual discoveries which show us there are many ways to enter a new life or embrace a new experience. Because the leading edge is Capricorn Earth, approach experience with a pragmatic and mature honesty in how to find new approaches and new information which is adequate to current challenges. Because the closing planet is Gemini Air, it implies that after all is said and done, you’ll recognize the many perspectives which come from seeing what’s in or out of balance, and the need to rebuild or find a new way to communicate something.

The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon

A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following month will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 2 Capricorn, and it is said that the first third (decan) of any sign deals with the actional, physical, and material levels of life, and being the first decan of Capricorn, it has a sub-influence of Capricorn with an added dose of Jupiter. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The Sabian Symbol we’ve been given for the 2nd degree of Capricorn is “Three stained-glass windows, one damaged by bombardment.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 2 Capricorn is said to be a phase of “underlying resistance to change in life foundations,” “faithfulness to self,” and “testimony of beauty against brute force.”

We are told in the Astrological Mandala that this degree symbolizes “the necessary realization by any individual making a violent use of collective power that it will lead to the inevitable destruction of some of the values ensuring group integration.” He says this obviously refers to the destruction of war, and cautions that “the chief” of the previous symbol should not use power recklessly as “the integration (we) seek to maintain or enhance may be partially destroyed” if ambition corrupts the intention.

He continues the stained-glass windows symbolize “that through which the ‘light of the Spirit’ enters into the edifice.” He offers that our Soul “is said to be three-fold,” and asks the question “which part of our inner trinity of principles is damaged by violence?” He believes it is our “love and compassion.”

He states this symbol is a contrast with the one before it “because it opposed the power to destroy to the power to build,” where “waste is the opposite of group integration.” He says this symbol is in the Span of illusiveness, Act of Capitalization, and is the counterpoint degree of the Actional level of the Scene of Crystallization.

Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this degree is one of our “illimitable capacity for memorializing (our) experience by the record (we) leave in history, and of the necessity that (we) protect (our) handiwork from the superficial destructiveness of a life without vision or pride.” He states this is “the irrevocable narrowing of all things to their point of greatest personal significance, and the responsibility of the individual for exalting whatever (we) may draw to pertinence.”

He gives us the keyword COMMEMORATION. We are told when this degree works positively, it is one of “effective self-dramatization in some vital service to human affairs.”

So, the specific theme of the next month involves the Light of “resistance to change in our foundations,” being faithful and honest with ourselves, and a re-evaluation of things in the past which either need to be redone, or those things which brought to light passive and active-aggressive people and situations. What record are you writing in the Book of Life? What needs protection from barbaric outer forces? What is significant to you?

Important Aspects

Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. Partile separating aspects show what’s been going on in the Now. This section covers only forming and partile separating aspects.

We now have a planet in each sign between Capricorn and Gemini. While we have quite a few aspects, they are mainly favorable and promise us very positive conditions!

The Lunation is vigintile Mercury, conjunct Venus, quadranovile Mars, square Jupiter, septile Saturn, sesquisquare Uranus, binovile Neptune, and quindecile Pluto. (Even though the orb is wide, the Moon translates the Light of the Capricorn stellium making the entire sign a giant field of activity.) Mercury is conjunct Venus, semisextile Saturn, sextile Neptune, and conjunct Pluto; Venus is biquintile Mars, quintile Jupiter, decile Saturn, trine Uranus, bielftile Neptune, and conjunct Pluto; and Mars makes a quintile to Jupiter, tredecile to Saturn, quindecile to Uranus, and sesquisquare to Neptune.

Outer planet aspects feature the powerful ongoing Jupiter novile Saturn and semisquare Uranus; Saturn is semisextile Neptune and quindecile Pluto, and Uranus is septile Neptune and tredecile Pluto.

Special Configurations in Evolutionary Astrology

This month we’re back to 4 evolutionary configurations in play. In no particular order, they are:

1) The Lunation is square Jupiter and sesquisquare Uranus. This involves 3 points of a Great Octile, an “8 Pointed Star of Intense Activity,” with a need to keep things on track and not get too spread out. Find the central order to integrate the various energies competing for attention this month. This primarily affects those with planets or points near 1-4 Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, and 16-19 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. If you have something in one or more of these zones, prepare for some dynamic challenges which will require direct action.

2) The Lunation is also quadranovile Mars and binovile Neptune, with Mars binovile Neptune. This activates 3 points of a “9 Pointed Star of Spiritual Realizations,” with realizations finally coming after months of gestation. Zones most affected include 1-4 Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, 11-14 Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, and 21-24 Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

3) Venus is biquintile Mars, quintile Jupiter, and decile Saturn, with Mars quintile Jupiter and tredecile Saturn. This makes for four planets activating the “10 Pointed Star of Serendipity,” with unique interactive gifts and blessings promised by this configuration. Zones most affected include 1 Aries/Libra, 3-7 Taurus/Scorpio, 9-13 Gemini/Sagittarius, 15-19 Cancer/Capricorn, 21-25 Leo/Aquarius, and 27-30 Pisces/Virgo. Expect unique and delightful interactive experiences which will help bring forth your special talents.

4) As usual, the Grand Irrationality is still a major behind the scenes activator of the irrationality of our times. Uranus septile Neptune anchors the configuration, creating an invisible spiritual field of “fork in the road of destiny” type of energy which triggers any planet or point in any of the 7 active zones. This long wave configuration has affected all of us for the past 30 years. At the present time, choices and changes are activated for those who have planets or points near any of the 7 affected “hot zones” around 1-5 Aquarius, 22-26 Pisces, 14-18 Taurus, 5-9 Cancer, 26-30 Leo, 18-22 Libra, and 9-13 Sagittarius.

Explaining Harmonics

This month we have a lot of aspects made by the Lunation, with a generous helping of specializing aspects and a light concentration of frictional aspects. The friction is provided by 1 semisquare, 2 squares (though squares to Jupiter can be joyous squares!) and 3 sesquisquares, with no more oppositions until May when Mars opposes Pluto. The numerous quintiles and tredeciles promise major gifts and blessings to those affected. The month to come will bring emergent new archetypes and major turning points for us all!

In the 7th harmonic aspect series of “destiny,” we have only 3 septiles. In the 5th, 10th and 15th harmonic specialization series, we have 1 vigintile, 4 quindeciles, 1 decile, 2 quintiles, 2 tredeciles and 1 biquintile. The 9th harmonic gives us 1 novile, 3 binoviles, and 2 quadranoviles, and 11th harmonic faith series there is 1 bielftiles.

The novile (9th harmonic), septile (7th harmonic) and elftile (11th harmonic) series all feature spiritual aspects. All novile series (9th harmonic) aspects indicate things which need to be put on the shelf for a while, or that which has been gestating can now move forward. They represent gestative energies that can lead to great spiritual realizations. Septile series aspects represent forks in the road of destiny, while the 11th harmonic elftile series indicate that faith is required to deal with transcending some dualities, issues and points of evolution where we confront the need to resolve some sort of duality by making a leap of faith to attain a form of mastery over that type of duality. This series tests our faith. Both the 7th and 11th series involve non-rational aspect values, bringing an element of irrationality in behavior and circumstances.

The quintile and biquintile (5th harmonic) and related 10th (decile and tredecile), 15th (quindecile), and 20th harmonic (vigintile) aspects are all specialization aspects. You can find more by going to Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Pt. 1 – The Quintile and Biquintile, and Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Part 2 – The Decile, Tredecile, Quindecile and the Vigintile.

You can find out more about the spiritual aspects (septile, novile, and elftile series) by referencing this brief overview of Astrological Aspects – the 7th, 9th, and 11th Harmonic Series Aspects and their Symbols.

Element Balance and Who’s Leading the Sun

This month indicates a balanced imbalance in the elements, with the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs and a huge imbalance between cold than hot. We have 1 planet in Fire (inspiration and warmth), 6 planets in Earth (practical grounding), 2 in Air (relatedness and communicating), and 1 in Water (feelings and experiencing). This month we have half the signs represented.

Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, it’s as chilly as a mountain forest in Winter! This should be good for practical ideas and visions of productive structuring. The Fire is provided by Jupiter, while as usual, Neptune hangs out in the background, providing vast and vague feelings related to the collective feeling field.

Because the New Moon falls in early Capricorn, there are no planets in front of the Sun and Moon unless we go all the way back to Mars in Gemini. Ever since the last Superior Conjunction of Mercury with the Sun, we have been in the very rare position of not having any planet before the Sun. This is the “gateway to the Light” being the Light itself, with none other than it to greet the spiritual wanderer. The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of understanding how the planets work in sequence.

When Mercury moved in front of the Sun, Mars retrograde at 25 Gemini became the closest planet in a sign earlier than the Sun. The Sun got to its maximum distance from Mars at their opposition on December 7/8 just after the Full Moon at 17 Gemini/Sagittarius. The next time any planet will lead the Sun will be after the next Inferior conjunction in early January, after which Mercury will again by “the entry to the Light.”

The current sequence at present of Deciding, Feeling, and Thinking

We’ve been through several different sequences over the past few months. There are six patterns, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. This Lunation shifts the pattern from the previous Lunation and begins a new one. As a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience over the next 4 weeks involves leading with our decisions, then feeling what we need to about those actions and decisions, and then finally thinking, coming to a new vision or understanding.

This Lunation shows we’ll enter experience with a sense of something to be done. This pattern is very strong, and leads with deciding and acting, followed by feeling and experiencing what those decisions and actions mean on deep levels. Ideally, those deep feelings then can lead us to a new vision, a new understanding, or a communication that can lead us to a different view.

So make a decision and act as needed, and after the decision or action, sit with the feelings and experience them, bringing them to the surface of your consciousness and get clear about what you’re feeling and why. After you’re clear about what you’re feeling, then go get new information and update your perceptual files and what you think you know, or what’s being communicated. That will lead naturally to a new set of decisions and actions.

This pattern knows how to get things done! Another strength of the pattern is learning and teaching through anecdote, so frame things in terms of something which needs to be decided or done, and once you’ve set it into motion, then update your perceptions and understanding. If you don’t know what to do, let your thinking and envisioning follow your feelings, since getting a new view or understanding will naturally show you what to do and how to do it.

Summing Up

This New Moon is going to help us be thoughtful, mature, and honest in how we structure or restructure our lives going into 2023. Have removed much which block us from strengthening our connection to Source and intensifying our quest for a great truth, vision, understanding, or sense of adventure, we now get to take responsibility for the wise use of authority and the spiritual power of gratitude and appreciation. This is the next step into a new dawn, but we must remember that dawn begins in mid-January and only becomes evident in February.

This brings a fork in the road of our spiritual work, a new understanding of how we are positioned within the collective field, and the need to let go of inhibitions, especially old ideas which inhibit the ability to claim our caged-up power and break up old complexes through unleashing our “will to wholeness.” This is a huge turning point, with new ideals, new ways of seeing the larger scope of the creative process, new allegiances, and an ability to gain perspective through elevated consciousness and view.

We’re almost done with the period of re-working, undoing, re-doing, or re-evaluating our ways of getting something done. Past weeks may have brought reversals or slowdowns as a result of what’s being surrendered, or perhaps some things from the past needed to drop away so we could see the essence of the landscape and what we’ll be dealing with in the future. This time may have accompanied the need for us to set something or someone free. As we have released what we no longer needed to hold on to, we’ve felt emotionally lighter in many ways.

The pace begins to quicken from here on, even if we’re about to go through another Mercury retrograde. We’re still learning about various spiritual powers and are on the threshold of rapid unfoldment of new adventures and truths. This is the final phase of demonstrating how we use those spiritual powers effectively, so continue to purify your ego so that your light can shine bright and strong in 2023. Catch glimpses of your Soul’s trajectory, but keep in mind the old answers can’t confirm the new conditions of existence. Still, mobilize in simple and straightforward ways, and don’t forget to enjoy yourself!

We are in revolutionary conditions with Uranus conjunct the North Node, activated by Mars in July which is pulling us into greater spontaneity after cleaning out our mind and its perceptions and interpretations. Let in new ideas and spiritual sunshine. Rise to any occasion that calls your heart and strength, hear the inner voice, let go of old “social rigidities,” and find pleasure and revitalization with your true friends and spiritual Brothers and Sisters. Show heart strength and focused magnetism as you release what you no longer need. Especially let go of dishonest people and circumstances. You deserve better.

In 2020 we entered a transition phase in human history. While we still have to function within the Capricorn cycles, we began in 2020, we also have crossed the threshold of an era unknown to humanity since the 13th and 14th centuries. Even then, we were still in the depth of the Age of Pisces, so the awakening of new ideas then were relative to the old era, whereas what’s coming involves wave after wave of Aquarian energies, pushing us to the coming Great Age emerging in the second half of this century.

The long wave Aquarian pulses were initially set into motion by the Mars conjunct Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020, marking the initiation of archetypal Aquarian preliminary structures offered by Saturn. The promise and potential of the new Aquarian pulse then began to expand into a greater social and cultural vision beginning at the Jupiter conjunction with Saturn, the Grand Mutation of the Solstice also at 1 Aquarius. So, we have 20 years of Aquarian energies set into motion by that conjunction!

When Venus and Mars conjuncted at 1 Aquarius in March 2022 it gave a new impetus and new expression to the Aquarian structures which took shape in 2021. The next time Mars transits Aquarius will be in February and March 2024, when it conjuncts Pluto at 1 Aquarius in February about 3 weeks after Pluto’s first ingress into Aquarius. That begins the Pluto in Aquarius “generation” of the 21st century which lasts until 2043. As there will be a Jupiter conjunction with Pluto at 15 Aquarius in 2033, we’ll see the “expansion of the Angels of the Age of Aquarius” at that time.

2021 opened a new adventure for all of us, and the long term “metamorphosis” we went through showed us what the beginning of the coming Age of Aquarius is about. Last year helped us remember we are Beings of Light, a Superstar shining the Light of our Eternal Love into our world. We’re now expanding our spiritual knowledge, understanding, and effective forms of service, with rapid developments on the way by mid-January.

New groups of Spiritual communities formed last year and will continue to form this year, and those which are Aquarian in nature were “lifted on the wings of angels” in 2021. Trust the process. We are learning not to play to the generic confusion, irrationality, and misleading notions. Revolution is in the air! And when you find things and people of eternal worth, value them with all your heart.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Saturn continues its long-term occupancy in its home sign of Aquarius. While we’ll still be focused on the group work set into motion last year, we are now experiencing Saturn’s late Aquarius qualities. It was a major influence in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Eclipses, continuing its years-long power behind events.

Because Saturn plays such a large part in our lives, if you haven’t gotten your copy already, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. This book shows you the way to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to master life on your own terms. It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers and will help you understand how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and your power to change negative karma to positive karma. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.

And now, on a related note….

Last month’s Lunation and this one both feature Mercury conjunct Venus, the last time in Sag, and this time in Capricorn . Because Mercury “brings the news” about everything to all of us and activates ten thousand views and thoughts on any given thing, with Mercury conjunct Venus we are certainly getting lots of information about Venus! Since we’ll be discovering what Venus in Capricorn is all about through December, and then Aquarius in January, you can get a deeper understanding of this and more by getting your copy of The Magic of Venus: Friendships, Soul Mates, and Twin Flames. It is the most comprehensive book on Venus ever written and offers a multi-faceted view of why we attract the people we do, as well as how to re-shape our inner Venus to create more satisfying relationships in the future.

This work is an in-depth examination of the psychological dimension of Venus, the spiritual dimension of Venus, and the astrological dimension of Venus. It offers practical techniques for changing your image of what you want to attract your heart’s desire, and how to make your relationships more fulfilling because you are living a Soul-ful life. You’ll find out about why you like or don’t like people and things, why you’ve attracted who you have in the past and present, and how to make those attractions more aligned with your Soul purpose in the future. A major theme weaving the various dimensions together is understanding why Soul Mates come into our lives, and how to know the difference between a Soul Mate and our Twin Flame.

It has chapters on the qualities of each sign’s natural mate, the qualities of Venus in each sign, Venus retrograde, and when crucial choices and changes are made, affecting who we attract in the future. It was written for both astrologers and lay people, and as it has a thousand gems for better relationships, with self, others, and Source, please consider getting your copy by going to the link above! (And when you’re done, please leave a review on Amazon, since it helps the book and all other books on astrology as well!)

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson

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