So much of the energy of 2020 has been heavily dominated by Capricorn and Aquarius – strongly Saturn-ruled signs. That has led to a heaviness, a darkness, and a sense of time dragging on and on while we hope, perhaps in vain, for better days to come soon. But let’s take a step back from all of our intense Capricorn/Aquarius energy, and look at the New Moon cycles of 2020, since we are hitting our fourth New Moon of 2020 today.
Christmas Day, 12/25/19, heralded the beginning of an eclipse season with a foreboding eclipse at 4 degrees of Capricorn, the sign in which Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, and the South Node were all clustered. Five days later on 12/31/19, China alerted the World Health Organization of the virus that would come to be known as covid-19. Eclipse seasons often kick off a series of related events that continue throughout the next six months, and in this case the series of events it kicked off was both epic and tragic.
Our first full lunation cycle of 2020 was off to a rough start with a New Moon at 4 degrees of Aquarius on 1/24. On 1/23, one day earlier, China began lockdowns – the first of what would become many caused by the pandemic.
Our second New Moon of 2020 occurred on Feb 23rd at 4 degrees of Pisces. This corresponded with Italy’s lockdown and the realization that not only had this spread well beyond China, but we also had a global pandemic on our hands and would need to take serious measures.
Our third New Moon of 2020 occurred at the 4th degree of Aries on March 24. This was the Monday, interestingly, in which many states issued a “stay at home” order . And we definitely saw the Aries New Moon bring the proactive energy of the warrior to the strange mix of world events. It ushered in a cycle of people aggressively headed to the stores in droves and emptying shelves of rice, beans, hand sanitizer, and pretty much all forms of cleaning products. The Aries warrior energy was also evident in very literal fights over toilet paper and other perceived necessities.
This energy all leads us to our fourth New Moon of 2020: A New Moon at 3 degrees of Taurus. Maybe I am naive or superstitious (or maybe both?), but I am hopeful for this New Moon cycle. There is a certain heaviness associated with Taurus, but it is not the oppressive heaviness of Saturn; it correlates much more readily to the heaviness of lethargy. And that may actually be where many of us are mentally and physically at this point. No motivation to get off the couch, because, really, where are we going to go? Many people I know (myself included) who were voraciously reading all news and statistics related to coronavirus in the earlier days of 2020 are now suffering from serious coronavirus news fatigue, and a bit of whiplash trying to follow the latest thoughts on how contagious it is, how deadly it is, how soon it actually started spreading, etc. Rather than the more hectic, panicked pace we were all keeping earlier this year, now many of us are making friends with the four walls of our houses, working on home projects, and planting gardens (This is causing a huge shortage of seeds! It’s hard to imagine a more Taurean response!)
The April New Moon is also the first New Moon of this cycle not happening in the 4th degree of a sign, but rather in the 3rd degree. In China, the number 4 is considered an unlucky number since it is pronounced nearly the same as their word for ‘death’. Not particularly auspicious during a global pandemic! Three is generally viewed as a much “luckier” number. Again, I acknowledge that I am very possibly a superstitious person, but the third degree definitely seems “luckier” than the 4th, and we need all the luck we can get in 2020!
So what could all of this mean for the April Taurus New Moon? For some (especially those on the front lines fighting the virus!), it has to continue to mean a highly concentrated and highly exhausting effort to treat people with the virus. For those of us who have the option of taking a deep breath, though, now may be the time to do so.
As the moon slips from the last degrees of Aries into the 3rd degree of Taurus that the sun occupies, maybe a lethargic darkness will quietly settle over the world. Maybe this next lunar cycle will give all of us the desire to look inward rather than outward. Maybe we will focus less on scrolling through endless news feeds and browsing graphs of statistics and will instead focus on the more earthy, grounded experiences right in front of us. Maybe we will improve our homes, our gardens. Maybe we will improve our family relationships over shared homemade dinner. Maybe this will give us the opportunity and desire to connect with the earth in a very real way (in a way we may not have connected with her in months, or even years!). New Moons are generally viewed as excellent times to set new intentions; times to evaluate the past monthly cycle and prepare for a new cycle ahead. Maybe it is time for many of us to do exactly that, focusing on what we can control rather than what we cannot control. We cannot control the health or the economies of the world, but we can control the state of our own minds, and maybe this Taurus New Moon is a call to do exactly that. We can ground ourselves in the sturdy energy of this most fixed sign, and find peace in focusing on the earth, our families, our gardens, homemade dinners with all of our comfort foods. While coronavirus will be a reality for all of us across the world for the foreseeable future, maybe this lunation cycle can be a call to take a deep, full inhale, and a long, slow exhale and allow ourselves to come down from our adreneline rush.