Daffodils Ready to Burst Forth – Photo: L. Weikel
Vernal Double Whammy
I think we can all agree, Spring 2023 arrived prematurely. Unsettlingly so, at least for some of us who lament the possibility that we’re witnessing an observable shift in our climate. But as of earlier today, the equinox occurred and the season has officially arrived, bringing with it the promise of new beginnings and baby bunnies. Even more exciting, on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, we get to experience a vernal double whammy, a veritable turbo-boost of the ‘new beginning’ energy heralded by today’s equinox.
This double whammy of which I speak is the somewhat rare occurrence of both the arrival of spring and a new moon taking place at almost precisely the exact same degree. Specifically, at 1:23 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, the Sun and Moon will be conjunct each other (hence a ‘new moon’) at 0 degrees 56 minutes – essentially the 1st degree of the astrological sign of Aries.
The vernal equinox, the technical arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, is the moment the Sun crosses over from Pisces into the sign of Aries. That’s what actually makes it the spring equinox, the moment when the sun spends an equal amount of time both above and below the horizon.
Sunset 17 March 2023 – Photo: L. Weikel
Why So Special?
But new moons come and go, and they do not always coincide with the precise arrival of spring, as this year’s new moon does. That’s what makes this month’s new moon so special. We have an abundance of energy heralding clean slates and new beginnings happening at the very beginning of the feisty sign of Aries: a new season (spring, the traditional beginning of a new year in ancient calendars), a new moon (always, every month, an opportunity to ‘plant new seeds’ of ideas or projects.
Along with these lunar and seasonal synchronicities, other astrological occurrences this week portend an influx of remarkable and almost certainly palpable ‘big’ energy. On the 23rd, Pluto’s reign in Capricorn (since 2008) ends and we start experiencing Pluto in Aquarius, where it hasn’t been in 248 years. While we’ll get a taste of Pluto in Aquarius from this week until June, the planet will retrograde back into Capricorn for one final instigation of transformations in societal foundations (governments, corporations, financial markets) through January 2024.
On Sunday, Mercury moved from Taurus into Aries and just today, Venus moved from Aries into Taurus. This may all sound like a lot of gobbledygook (astrobabble?), but it is unusual for so many planets to be making big shifts from one sign into another. Not so much for the smaller planets, because they travel around the sun much faster than the behemoths Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto.
Big Shifts
My sense of the overarching energetic shift that we’re all going to be subject to (and which many of us will distinctly notice and feel in our bodies, minds, emotions, and observations in the outside world) – and already are, in many cases – is a radically different approach to what we’ve all been witnessing and experiencing in our lives for the past 13 years or so.
That’s why, I suspect, I was nudged to write this tonight. Awareness is power. And whether you ascribe to the possibility that the astral bodies above us have any impact upon our tiny bodies here on Earth or not, I’m of the mind that it doesn’t hurt to set intentions. If we know there is the potential for radical changes, re-sets, and transformation on the horizon, why wouldn’t we care enough to at least take responsibility for setting our intentions on the changes we would like to manifest in our lives?
So, forewarned is forearmed. Some major shifts are on the brink of happening, my friends. Take a moment to envision the changes you would like to call into your life. Surely getting quiet for a few moments and contemplating our lives’ trajectories is a worthwhile endeavor no matter what.
Plant your seeds of change well. And don’t discount Pluto’s ability to profoundly shake stuff up.
(T+140)