The Celestial Event Of the New Moon

In both astronomy and astrology, the celestial phenomenon known as the New Moon occurs at the exact moment the Sun and the Moon occupy precisely the same point in the sky-map of the Zodiac -- the same degree and minute of arc in a particular sign. In Astrology, this aspect of alignment is known as a conjunction.

We often speak colloquially of the New Moon as that tiny sliver of light in the night sky that will progress over the next month to create the bright circle of the Full Moon and then diminish gradually to a tiny sliver of light curving in the opposite direction before the process begins again.

In fact, at the moment of the New Moon, there is no light from the Moon visible in the sky at all. Reflected sunlight from the moon is completely blocked, and everything at that source is at its darkest point. The New Moon, then, forms at the literal moment of transition from light becoming less and less apparent to the instant of change when it starts increasing in availability again.

The Sun takes approximately one month to travel through one sign of the Zodiac. In roughly this same amount of time, the Moon travels through all twelve signs of the Zodiac ... changing signs around every two and a half days, and forming a New Moon in each of the Zodiac signs in turn, again, about once every thirty days throughout the year.

Obviously, the New Moon will always form in the sign where the Sun is at the time. Very rarely there will be two new Moons in a single sign ... one very near the beginning, and the other very near the end.

Interpreting Astrology is basically a process of deciphering the metaphors -- the "meaning" of the planetary energies with regard to their placement within the circle of the Zodiac and to their placement in relationship to one another. The New Moon represents the unification of Sun energy with Moon energy -- of outer, personal, extroverted, "masculine" energy with inner, subjective, introverted, "feminine" energy.

Another way of saying this is ... it is the uniting of one's basic spiritual expression with one's basic inner emotional center. It is the alignment of one's sense of self with one's capacity for emotional commitment. This is why astrologers recommend beginning new projects and enterprises "under the New Moon." There is a focus and solidity to such undertakings that can be extremely valuable in one's progression toward eventual success -- with the coupling of both conscious and subconscious assets as resources in the effort.

In Astrology, the metaphors of the various planet placements at the time of the occurrence describe the experiences, interests and themes of the coming 4+ weeks in everyone's life -- influenced as always by these same placements in a person's Natal Chart, the map of the sky at the time of birth.

This is very like placing a transparency on a picture, and gaining thereby an altered, or perhaps more dimensional, picture of the effect "current life" is having on the "raw materials" of your basic personality. Thus the placement of the New Moon both in the sky and certainly in one's Natal Chart (and the impact it represents there) will forecast the general issues and directions of life in the month ahead.

The metaphor of the New Moon, this monthly "alliance" of the two most individually significant celestial bodies, denotes a renewed alignment of one's sense of personal direction and one's sense of emotional commitment in successive departments or concerns of life as the year progresses through the creative process from new beginnings and initiations in Aries until the dissolution and release of Pisces ... in order to begin again on another level.

(c) 2007 Rebecca Brents, All rights reserved.