Sabian Symbol, Jones Pattern, Evolutionary Configurations, and More

This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this New Moon at 21 Sagittarius on December 12. This brings the Light of rising to an occasion using creative imagination, with faith that if we feel our truth, we will see where to go.

This is a freeing and unifying influence wherever we have 21 Sagittarius in our charts. Having purified and “broken away” from something in recent weeks, this gives us a chance to reflect and see how we’re now living in a way more aligned with our future than our past. Open to receiving a concentrated dose of spiritual energy, accept that the now-dead past is actually protecting you from something, and feel the lightness of Being!

The last decan of Sagittarius is about the transference of ideas and learning to fly free into a greater truth, future, or vision. Having begun a long term period of “playing dues” or realizing we’ve finished “paying dues” as a result of the recent Libra Solar eclipse, we can now break free and pursue a deeper connection with others while being free to use our imagination and faith to “assume a part ahead of natural development.”

The Planetary Spread

In this chart, because the inner planets are between early Scorpio and early Capricorn in a 58+ degree span, we’re still experiencing a widespread field of activity. We are now in a time when all the inner planets have finished their oppositions to the outer planets except Venus. Because of the planetary spread, we now have approximately half the chart occupied and the other half unoccupied, giving us a close to ideal Bowl Jones pattern. At this time we have planets in Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces, and Taurus.

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, the outer planet occupied span begins with Pluto in late Capricorn, and proceeds through Saturn in early Pisces, Neptune in late Pisces, Jupiter in mid Taurus, and ends with Uranus in late Taurus. (We don’t include TransPluto, since Jones didn’t use it in defining his patterns). Because we have 5 signs represented in a 190+ degree span and another empty 169+ span, this chart is a “Bowl” Jones Pattern.

So What is a “Bowl” Jones 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.”

Venus at 10 Scorpio is the leading planet on a degree of “a fellowship supper,” showing that a sense of fraternity and companionship as a new group sense is felt is leading us into experience. This entry to the Bowl tells us we are now deepening our sense of connection with others, with the promise of a new group energy coming forth to fill the voids creates by recent endings and losses.

With Uranus in Taurus closing the Bowl, we’ll finish experience with a sense of enjoyment at our “lightness of Being,” and some will reach very high states of a new breadth of possibilities. See how you’re now freed from the past, and have found something which certifies your worth through the actions you’ve taken.

This leads with social and emotional communion, and closes with actional and material confirmations. Because the leading edge is Scorpio Water, approach experience with a sense of who you feel close to and who you want to work and play with in the future. Because the closing edge is Taurus Earth, by the time you’re done with a given experience, you’ll know a simple enjoyable way of moving through life’s changes.

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 falls at 21 Sagittarius, and it is said that the third third (decan) of any sign deals with the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life, and being the last decan of Sagittarius it has a sub-influence of Leo with an added dose of Saturn. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The Sabian Symbol for the 21st degree of Sagittarius is “A child and a dog with borrowed eyeglasses.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, he states this degree is about “usefulness of make-believe,” “rising to situations through the imagination,” and “assuming a part ahead of natural development.”

In The Astrological Mandala he states this degree is about “the use of imagination and make-believe in anticipating higher stages of development,” and offers that as we imitate a level of awareness we haven’t yet reached, “the process of growth may be accelerated.”

He speaks of “chiefs of primitive tribes” wearing western glasses and hats as hoping to impress their people by adopting objects belonging to those who were seen as superior. He continues that this is similar to identifying “with a ‘Master’ or guru,” and offers that as we wear “the mask of a god” we become “for all practical purposes the incarnation of the god.”

He concludes with a statement that “growth is a hierarchical process” whether we’re aware of it or not, and says this symbol “suggests the value of learning through imitation.” He states this symbol is in the Span of Detachment, the Act of Group-Integration, and is the initial degree in the emotional and social level of the Scene of Transference.

Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of our “unimpeachably universal spirit, and of (our) realization that there are no absolute lines of demarcation between higher and lower life or between the varying stages of competence to be found in each.” He continues “Self-consciousness requires a supplementation of its capacities in the structures and material of each particular plane of being, and individuality develops as it enters into reality through its own characteristic modes of insight.”

He offers us the keyword EXAMINATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “an exceptional skill in the analysis of personal opportunity throughout the many dimensions of experience.”

From this symbol it seems the specific theme of the next month is about growth through imagination, and the possibility we may become a “higher form of Being” as we imitate what we believe that would look like. Alternately, this could also accompany a look back at how we did this in the past, perhaps remembering a technique of tuning into our “ancestral wisdom” by returning to Source. If challenged to rise to some occasion, do so with faith, good humor, and a sense of adventure.

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.

This month we have a lot of aspects and only three special evolutionary configurations. They each involve planets not involved in the others except for Jupiter in 2. This is extremely rare.

The Lunation is vigintile Mercury, novile Venus, sesquisquare Jupiter, quintile Saturn, quincunx Uranus, square Neptune and decile Pluto. Mercury is sextile Venus, vigintile the Sun, quindecile Mars, trine Jupiter, septile Saturn and sesquisquare Uranus; Venus is elftile Mars, opposed Jupiter (via Collection of Light by Mercury), opposed Uranus, sesquisquare Neptune, and binovile Pluto; and the Sun makes the same aspects as the Moon.

Outer planet aspects feature Mars biquintile Jupiter, binovile Saturn, triseptile Uranus, biseptile Neptune, and semisquare Pluto; Jupiter is bielftile Saturn, novile Neptune and trielftile Pluto; Saturn is binovile Uranus, quindecile Neptune, and elftile Pluto, Uranus makes no other aspects, nor does Neptune.

This month the friction is provided by 1 semisquare, 2 squares, 4 sesquisquares, 2 quincunxes, and 2 oppositions. As you can see, this month brings many challenges of “right action/non-action.”

Special Configurations in Evolutionary Astrology

As mentioned, this month we have three evolutionary configurations in play, with Jupiter playing part in two of them.

1) Mercury is stationary retrograde trine Jupiter and partile sextile with Venus. This brings the separating Venus opposed Jupiter back into play via Translation of Light. This opposition, sextile, and trine is very productive, stabilizing, and offers us an expanded awareness of our Taurus/Scorpio axis. This creates a very productive void around 5-12 Cancer, and will benefit all planets we have in those degrees of the Earth and Water signs.

2) Jupiter is bielftile Saturn and trielftile Pluto with Saturn elftile Pluto. This anchors three points of an “Eleven Pointed Star of Mastery of Duality Through Faith.” This generates voids near 3-4 Pisces, 6-7 Aries, 11-12 Gemini, 14-15 Cancer, 16-17 Leo, 19-20 Virgo 21-23 Libra, 24-25 Scorpio, and 26-27 Sagittarius. If you have something in these zones, use faith when confronting some duality and it will lead you to mastery of those types of dualisms.

3) Mars is triseptile Uranus and biseptile Neptune, bringing echoes of The Grand Irrationality, indicating that Mars’ degree at “the power of ancestral wisdom” is activating the same ancient inner wisdom we contacted in 2018 leading to an awakening which will impact the relationship our purified consciousness has with the collective in the future. This anchors three points of a “Seven Pointed Star of Destiny” and primarily affects planets near 12-17 Sagittarius, 3-8 Aquarius, 24-29 Pisces, 16-21 Taurus, 8-13 Cancer, 29 Leo-4 Virgo, and 21-26 Libra. If you have something in one of these zones, the part of your destiny related to those planets in those houses and the houses they rule is in motion! Expect major choices and changes these next 4 weeks.

Explaining Harmonics

Aspects in the same series are considered to be various stages of “harmonics” for each series. In the 7th harmonic aspect series of “destiny,” this month we have 1 septile, 1 biseptile, and 1 triseptile. In the 5th, 10th, 15th and 24th harmonic specialization series, we have 2 vigintiles, 1 quindecile, 2 deciles, 2 quintiles, and 1 biquintile. The 9th harmonic gives us 3 noviles and 3 binoviles, and in the 11th harmonic faith series there is 2 elftiles, 1 bielftile, and 1 trielftile.

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 waiting 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 must make 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 an imbalance in the elements, with the 10 traditional planets occupying 5 signs. We have 3 planets in Fire (inspiration and warmth), 4 planets in Earth (practical grounding), 0 in Air (relatedness and communicating), and 3 in Water (feelings and experiencing). This month we have almost half the signs represented.

Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, it’s very out of balance, with very little Air and a lot of Water, Earth, and Fire. With so much Earth and Water, it should be good for making bricks but avoid getting stuck in the mud of ambivalence or thinking what’s passing is viable in your future.

Mars is the planet leading the Sun. This is the “gateway to the Light” showing our ability to tap our ancestral wisdom in a broad view of our spiritual evolution is the means by which we come to illumination. Mars in the Aries decan of Sagittarius is powerful, and is leading us to trust the Wisdom we contacted back in 2018 and been using since then. This renews that wisdom in a new form of activity, and as Mars is in “destiny producing” aspects with Uranus and Neptune, it would seem the next month will propel us forward into a new Wisdom adventure! The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but overlooked part of understanding how the planets work in sequence.

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. We’re in a similar pattern as next month, though with Mercury retrograde our inward turned mind must be allowed to do its research and rehearsal modes before we complete our process.

For now, as a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience over the next four weeks involves first feeling our way into decisions and actions. After we decide and/or act, it will be important to get new information to come to a new vision or understanding. Once we get the right view or understanding, then a new feeling-experience will naturally arise that points the way to the next action.

So over the next 4 weeks we’ll still be leading with our feelings, then making decisions on the basis of those feeling experiences, followed by new information, new ideas, new interpretations, and new views. We’ll be “feeling our way” into new experiences, then deciding and acting on the basis of those feelings. After a decision or action, then we’ll have to find newer, more up to date information, facts, and understanding so we can get a new vision.

A sense of deep connection will accompany new experiences, followed by our need to decide something or act on the basis of those feelings. So learn and teach through anecdotes, seeing how others handled things practically, or how you handed things practically in the past. Let your thinking and communicating and envisioning follow your actions, and let your feelings follow a new understanding, a new perception, or a new view.

One caution with Mercury going retrograde; beware of getting too hung up on finding all the information there is to find before moving into your next feeling, and don’t ignore the strange or roundabout signals it sends you. Also, when dealing with memories or echoes from the past, take it all dispassionately, and wait for further revelations and developments before making final judgments. On the other hand, don’t start second guessing your actions and decisions, since at best it will lead to indecision and at worst, doubt.

Summing Up

This New Moon will open doors to a greater faith and truth based in the ancestral wisdom residing in our genetics. We’ve let go of a lot, and now get to review the entire year to see how we are now in a state of “fulfilled Selfhood.” Rest easy, feel the greater group “personality” which comes forth when you’re with others, whether physically or “close at a distance.” Remember we can learn about “non-local awareness” at this time of Saturn in Pisces, and develop our subtle senses of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience.

As the Mercury retrograde now begins to re-trace a zone we’ve already experienced, use the contrasting view to recalibrate your attunement to Source and your invisible helpers. Fly free or take a joyous walk! Play with perspectives, play with ideas, play with friends, play with letting go and receiving, and play with the idea that as you have already made space in your inner and outer life, it is now being filled perfectly with a new expression of you!

We’re finishing a time of saying goodbye to old ways, places, and people, However, since all forms pass away in this impermanent world, these show us times to open to the new since there’s more potential than there is in whatever has left. Celebrate the Sagittarian dance with life, applaud your lesser self for being brave enough to make it to here and now, and feel the lightness of your unique evolutionary dance through space and time. We’re all moving from the interpersonal to the transpersonal level of focus, and we’re still in a time of getting intense doses of spiritual energy which we’ll be able to use beginning April.

Because the axis of power is still in the oppositional awareness between Scorpio and Taurus, know when to move forward as well as when to make a strategic retreat. Just because we must retreat from a battle doesn’t mean we’ve lost the war, as whatever strength we’ve had to show these past three years sapped that which opposes us of its strength, wealth, magnetism, and more!

With Saturn in Pisces, demonstrate practical compassion as you live at a higher level than you thought of living before now. We are now moving into the life renewal we’ve “heard as a call” since June, and have just made our lives more secure in some way. We recently turned a corner which allowed us to see “the world of the 5 senses and the mind as the playground of God and Soul,” and now are living differently, freed from the conflicts between the old and new perspectives.

We have been trained in expressing our integrated awareness from awakening to the simultaneity of past, present, and future all existing in the NOW. This Lunation allows us to expand freely, whether through harmony or friction. Look to the future and you might just see a clear vision and a means to accomplish it. Show humor and a sense of abundance as you prepare to leap forward in January.

Pluto is giving us a chance to read the future through omens and objects. Neptune’s showing us why we’ve needed to purify this year, since the abundance we’ve received is only the first of several phases of receiving what we need to walk into the new collective reality of Neptune in Aries in 2025! Uranus offers us a “lightness of Being,” so allow yourself to feel the joy and “ecstatic state of awareness” which is your Soul’s nature.

Remember the year’s theme involves old answers not confirming the new conditions of existence, and old approaches won’t get the job done as we stand at the entrance to a new life and land, a new field and focus. Be brave as you get clear about what dances you want to do and which things you’ll need to express as part of your new life roles to play. Pull the energies in, anticipating things to come which can spring forth after Mercury goes direct on January 1.

The Long View

In 2020 we entered a transition phase in human history. While we will be functioning within the Capricorn cycles we began then, we also have begun 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 next ingress into Aquarius. That will strengthen 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. 2022 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, and have entered a new phase with Mars now done with its outer planet oppositions as it closes in on a new Sun/Mars conjunction cycle.

New groups of Spiritual communities have formed since 2021, and will be given a boost in early 2024. Those which are Aquarian in nature will be “lifted on the wings of angels” in 2024. Trust the process. 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 is now solidly in Pisces. This helps us to a deeper feeling of connection with others and Source. 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….

Because Venus occupies 10 Scorpio and is part of the “chain of dispositors” ruling all the other planets except Neptune, it’s bringing depth and closeness to all things it rules and influences. Allow yourself to be close to others, and you may find that whatever hesitation you had before now easily vanishes. This is a purifying time so we can fly free, full of faith, hope, and optimism in the midst of the great confusion. Meditate to attract those who are part of your group, or take a look back to see how what you’ve done with others in 2023 has now become a group energy.

We spent the Summer processing a lot of subconscious material about past and present relationships, and can be freer and happier in the future. Having remembered what made us feel loved and happy in the past, we can now embrace new forms of these appropriate to our evolved state.

If you want to know more about how Venus works its magic to bring us the people and things we need to find spiritual understanding, you can get a deeper understanding of you power to shape your future 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 involves 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!)

Here's part one with the overview and more! The December 2023 New Moon at 21 Sagittarius Pt. 1 - What’s Happening in December 2023- January 2024

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

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