You may be wondering what sign this New Moon is in and what’s a Black Moon? Answering the second question is easier than the first: a Black Moon is the second New Moon during the Sun’s journey through a single zodiac sign (known as a ‘solar month’). The answer to the first question is a little more complex, for whilst, technically speaking this New Moon is in Aquarius, it is so close to the cusp of Pisces it’s almost redundant to allocate it one sign or the other. This is a rare state of affairs and one with great significance. For whilst one often hears mention of planets being ‘on the cusp’, most often they’re actually in the first or final degrees of a sign and someone’s playing fast and loose with the cuspal zone! This New Moon, however, is most definitely on the cusp placing us in the borderlands between one sign and another.
The Moon is new at 11:48 pm GMT on 18th February. Had it been a few minutes later it would have been in Pisces. But it wasn’t and that’s what matters! This Moon resonates deeply with our current state as we cross the border between astrological ages. The Age of Pisces fades as the Aquarian Age takes shape. This process takes many generations to complete and it would be wrong to state categorically we are now in the Aquarian Age just as it would be wrong to state the opposite. To be alive during the shift of the ages is a great blessing although it can, at times, feel like a great curse!! Akin to enduring an endless earthquake which repeatedly hits wherever we thought we were safest, it may look like something of a personal disaster which turns out to be the biggest stroke of collective luck when we finally decide to go with the flow and see where it takes us. This Moon assures us that the efforts of Uranus and Pluto in their square since 2012 will not have been in vain if we surrender to the imperative of deep and enduring, not fleeting and cosmetic, change.
The true power of this Moon lies in her foresightedness, for she brings visions of hope for a world made new. It may look like wishful thinking and provoke our inner cynic, but she remains unperturbed by those who fail to see what to her is undeniably clear: that what we are as human beings, our very nature, the communities we build, the relationships we share, the priorities upon which our world is built, are dissolving now, slowly but surely, like it or not. Whether we are waving an excited goodbye or clinging on for dear life, change is upon us, so deep and so wide that nothing and no one can avoid it. And rather than change happening to us, in fact we are the change. Evolution happens within, as an integral process that animates the evolving life-form. It’s not an event but a way of being, a changed heartbeat, a new flow of Vital Force in each and every cell. As this planet shifts so do we. This Black Moon affirms that yes, we live in the End Times. But the ending is a new beginning and the shadows of the abyss over which many are peeking right now is merely hiding the light of rebirth which burns forever bright in the heart of darkness.
Just as our each and every cell is made new by the forces of change that currently flood our planet, we each are cells of a much larger organism. As Mother Earth herself delivers the new age for us we can offer or deny her the love and support she needs for the birth. The worst excesses of humanity’s estrangement from its own essence have been perpetrated against our planetary Mother who has sustained and nurtured us from age to age. She cries out to us now for a deeper commitment to her welfare over and above that to our own egoic comfort. She wants to take us with her into the new but will go on alone if we continue to prioritise our desires above her survival. She will still be here in centuries to come. Humanity’s future is less certain.
This deeply powerful Moon reaches out to each and every one with a heartfelt plea: make evolutionary change your priority, your ‘raison d’etre’. Commit to the long haul whatever it takes. Connect with Source, experience your true nature, relinquish the egoic armour grown layer upon layer as life has challenged and broken you. Forget the past, not in an act of denial but a radical commitment to healing which makes all things new, not just in part but completely. The shift of ages requires spiritual warriors, courageous lovers and those so fiercely compassionate that nothing can escape their healing embrace. And it demands of us integrity so sharp it makes us bleed and eye-watering honesty so raw we are naked before it. Only then can we change deeply enough to become the very source of evolution, its driving force not its hapless victims. Its essence, not its effluence!
I love the feel of this Black Moon, challenging though she is. She straddles ages in no (wo)man’s land, inviting us to stand in limbo beside her, no longer who and what we were and not yet who we are becoming. This is the first act of courage she demands: to embrace the darkness of the unknowable whilst standing firm and sure that the sacred will always prevail and our very essence along with it. All else, she reminds us, may become as dust, dispersed on the winds of change.
Sarah Varcas