New Moon in Aquarius; give up all the other worlds except the one that you belong to
As I write this, we are actively dwelling in the energy of the New Moon in Aquarius. Culturally, for most of history, it was commonly believed that we live in an enchanted sentient cosmos. Historically, the Sun in Aquarius brought the rainy season when water showered from above. There are numerous myths around this connected to Aquarius; Persian Astrologers viewed the constellation as a "well-bucket" and named many of its stars to include the word "luck" because the seasonal rains brought renewal. That is the energy of this New Moon: Renewal.
The Sabian Symbol for this New Moon at 9 Aquarius is “A man who had for a time become the embodiment of a popular ideal is made to realize that as a person he is not this ideal.”
The embodiment of a popular idea takes on so many forms. We are told to become responsible successful adults where “success” is measured by your perceived position in life. You need to make/have so much money, be that magical age where you are both not too young but at the same time not too old, and of course always strong, never vulnerable. You can’t be too heavy or too thin. If you have the audacity to pursue a creative profession, your odds are minuscule at best, and you should definitely have something to fall back on.
Our idealized self must be larger than life. It doesn’t allow much space for our humanity. Most, if not all, of the people I work with (including myself) have this larger-than-life image they are chasing, which is impossible to reach. It leaves them feeling that they are not simple enough in their being, they must do more to be deserving. To be allowed to fully bloom and express themselves. And, of course, we rarely admit it. We are all in love with our personal idea of Oprah’s Best Life, and because of this, we miss so many moments within our own lives.
It begs the question: Who or what are we really being responsible to?
Though Virgo takes the brunt of the concept of perfectionism as a sign, Aquarius is far more perfectionistic than Virgo. Aquarius holds this image from above of how they should be, a code of sorts they are always trying to live up to and honestly often believe others should live up to as well. The dark side of Aquarius is this idealized life, a story that we are all trying to live up to.
Yes, Aquarius is also about that connection to humanity. To the greater good. It can just get fixated on what that greater good should look like.
We live our lives from the stories we tell ourselves and tell others about ourselves. We take them as truth.
David Whyte captures this perfectly: “One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually true and whether the opinions we go over every day have any foundation or are things we repeat to ourselves simply so that we will continue to play the game. It can be quite disorienting to find that a story we have relied on is not only not true - it actually never was true. Not now not ever.” He goes on, “There is another form of obsolescence that can fray at the cocoon we have spun about ourselves, that is, the story was true at one time, and for an extended period; the story was even true and good to us, but now it is no longer true and no longer of any benefit, in fact, our continued retelling of it simply imprisons us. We are used to the prison, however, we have indeed fitted cushions and armchairs and made it comfortable and we have locked the door from the inside.”
Aquarius is an air sign, it needs to move. It needs space. It is yearning for freedom.
When we insist, consciously or unconsciously, on living from an idealized space, we have imprisoned ourselves. We don’t have any space for our actual selves, and most often, we refuse to listen to them. To embrace them. To set them free.
Embracing our messy, vulnerable selves is how we begin to genuinely discover who we are versus the popular idea of who we should be.
This is a very Aquarian New Moon.
Aquarius is the sign associated with revolution. Pluto and Mercury are aligned with the Sun and Moon is amplifying this energy. Pluto enjoys tearing things down to their most elemental level and burning away the unnecessary.
It is also the first New Moon of 2025, bringing in the Chinese New Year. The year of the snake. A snake is a very Plutonian creature. It sheds its skin. The skin it has outgrown.
This New Moon let us learn that one thing David Whyte urges us to, “The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.” We don’t need to become bigger, better versions of ourselves. We must, like a snake, shed the skin of stories about ourselves of who we should be that no longer fit. This New Moon invites us to come back into this moment right here, and right now and set ourselves free.
