What does it mean to begin something new when you feel a weight holding you back?
This week's new moon in Aries falls in the final degrees, ruled by a fallen Saturn now emerging as a morning star. Mars, the moon's host, conjoins Saturn. The impulse to act is strong, but so is the friction of limitation. You may feel like you want to hit the gas while something presses the brake. This is not a cancellation of your desires, but a demand for patience, endurance, and a deeper kind of courage. The cycle ahead asks: what is worth starting slowly and carefully?
When you feel that drag at the time that you're trying to move forward in life, this is how you build courage. It's how you build endurance, how you walk your talk, and how your passions and convictions are tested and made stronger and wiser.
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Transcript
Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].
Happy Friday. Everyone. Today, we're going to take a look at the new moon that's forming in the last degrees of the sign of Aries. The reason this is a very significant new moon, the detail that really stands out is those last final degrees for ancient astrologers were sort of all anaretic degrees. It doesn't have to be exactly the 29th degree to be considered anaretic.
In ancient astrology, in terms of the way we think of anaretic today, a little bit more difficult, a little bit more intense and transformational. And the reason for that is that in ancient astrology, the last degrees of most of the signs were the bounds of the malefics, the degrees that were ruled over by either Mars or Saturn. In this case, the last degrees of Aries are the bound of Saturn.
We have that fallen Saturn just appearing as a morning star, and Mars, the host of the new moon, is also conjoining Saturn at the time of the new moon. We looked at Mars and Saturn earlier this week. So now we're going to take a look at this new moon.
I'm going to give you a little list of things to watch for, given all of these little nuances, and then I'm going to give you some brief horoscopic reminders. The reason I'm doing brief horoscopic reminders is because we've done several full-on horoscopes in that whole sign house of Aries very recently. So I don't want to just say the same thing over, but I do want to give you a reminder.
In case you missed those episodes, you could always go back and watch them, but I'll tell you what to think about briefly through all 12 whole sign houses. And hopefully, with all of this in hand, you'll have some really good thoughts to take with you for this next moon cycle. So that's our agenda for today.
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There's need-based tuition available to break down all the things that the program includes, why it might be a good fit for you, what you'll get out of it, everything like that. So stick around after I sign off today to hear more about the Year One program. All right, let's pull up in the chat: so guys are coming out April 22. You can mark your calendars. 10am we're doing a live stream. They're going to be doing a tutorial for beginners.
So if you are new to Nightlight or want to check out this awesome new software, I'm an affiliate. You'll find the link in the description of the video or the comment section. You get perpetual discount when you go through me and Nightlight. That's cool anyway. So they'll tell you more about the program. But here's the new moon forming today. Friday, April 17, you'll see that it's forming at around that 27th degree of Aries.
That puts it in the last bound of Aries, which is the rulership of Saturn. Of course, Saturn is co-present in Aries in its fall, just emerging as a morning star. And Mars is moving into a conjunction with Saturn at the time of the new moon, and is the ruler of the new moon. Now the sun is also exalted. So there's a lot of Aries power right now.
Just a ton of emphasis on the sign of Aries, which we've covered from a variety of different angles this week on the channel. But what I want to do today is tell you what to watch for, given the very powerful whatever is happening at a new moon is impressing itself on something like wet clay. Because remember when you were kids in art class, you'd make something. My kids bring these home, and you get to put it in the kiln, and then it comes out, you've got a janky looking cup, whatever.
So that's what it is, though. The time of a new moon is wet clay, and the new moon will carry the imprint of that seeding moment, and it manifests and flourishes throughout the rest of the cycle. So it's really important to take a look at what's going on at the time of a new moon. This one is all bound up in Mars and Saturn conjoined. Saturn is the bound ruler. Mars is the domicile ruler.
Of course, the sun is in its own exaltation, so we've just got Aries firepower, not to speak of the fact that Mercury is just separating from Neptune. My God, it's a conflagration of fire energy. So I'm going to give you a list of five things to watch for. As I work through this list, some of these are just features of the new moon. Others are themes. I kind of mixed it up today a little bit.
But after that, I'm going to do some brief horoscopic reminders for all of you, so you just have a little sense of where this is taking place. All right, let me get my chart set up here. Okay, so the first thing on my list to watch for, given this unique new moon, is initiation under constraint. All of these planets in Aries love to start things up. They just do. You can't help yourself.
When you've got this many planets in Aries, you're like, I must start something. I must initiate some kind of action. Another way of putting this: you could say the voice or impulse of your desire is very loud and strong. Now, obviously everyone has a unique chart, so I'm not trying to say everybody's experiencing this. But if you pay attention, and you have a way of noticing these energies in your everyday life, then you're going to notice that the urge to act, the urge to act upon impulse, instinct, desire, appetite, it's like a hunter that's just ready to go out and hunt for something.
It's like someone who just can't help but start a new business. You know, they're always starting new businesses. Now, one question that always comes up with Aries energy is, can it be seen through from start to finish? Can you endure, persevere and take something from its seed form all the way through to its full manifestation, and then what's more, can you sustain it?
This is why we have cardinal, fixed and mutable signs. Everything goes through a process of birth and maintenance and destruction or death. This is a true sign of birth. A lot of energy in a sign of birth, a new moon in a sign of birth. But the dispositors, two of them, are Mars and Saturn. So beginnings that are shaped by limits and pressure or reality checks.
Now Mars in its own sign just wants unilateral action, but Saturn, on the other hand, is going to impose things like greater deliberation or delay or meditation upon the consequences that may come from an action. So you want to watch for actions that require a maturity and a kind of discipline, or a long-term sense of planning and strategizing, rather than just impulse.
So what's worth starting carefully and slowly? What will require endurance? The shadow of a new moon like this is going to be frustration, blocked momentum, anger and resistance to natural limitations that are coming up. Be patient. Take the long game into consideration, and you should be fine. But watch for that feeling of like I want to hit the gas, but I'm getting a brake pedal.
That doesn't mean that it will cancel out any new thing you're trying to start. It just might mean that we're talking about beginnings under constraint. The second thing to me is about the hidden governance of this cycle. So the bound of Saturn, to me, is very important here, especially because Saturn is kind of just showing up as a morning star, and Saturn has subtle authority through the bound rulership of those last degrees.
This is a moon cycle that is very weird to see. Like a powerful new moon in Aries, but it's in those last degrees and bound up with Saturn and Mars. There are a lot of Saturnian themes that are going to come up in the cycle ahead: accountability, consequences, old karma that's reaching maturation, all of which can have a very karmic or fated undertone throughout the cycle.
Everything's karmic. Karmic just refers to the world of cause and effect. But when you feel like the realm of cause and effect is peaking in terms of the meaning behind it, you're going, wow, I can see cycles and actions and consequences coming from them, and they are impactful. They're not just the normal impact. They're a little extra. That's what happens when we have a Saturn in its fall in Aries in general, and then added in with the Mars conjunction ruling the cycle.
So there's a sort of undercurrent of invisible rulers. Saturn, excuse me, is arising as a morning star, but it's a cycle that wants to feel like Aries but might end up feeling a little bit more like Saturn than you would imagine. So just keep that in mind. The third thing on the list is Saturn becoming visible.
So Saturn as a newly emerging morning star, but still in the sign of its fall. That means a planet is gaining voice, visibility and agency, but when it's in Aries, its fall, Saturn's expression is restrained or maybe a little reactive or out of place. So you want to watch for, for example, the emergence of anything, whether it's an authority, or structure or rules or a plan or an approach that feels unstable or maybe a little forced or strained.
And what we want to think about is Saturn always trying to help us grow and mature. A great word for Saturn is maturity in the most constructive sense. Saturn is a planet that's always like, hey, are we growing? Are we getting a little bit wiser? We're all going to die someday. Are you becoming more aware of what's really important in life? That's the reality check of Saturn, you might say.
So there's a paradox at play, because Saturn is in this weak condition in its fall, but newly empowered in its presence, which can mean that something that really needs our focus and attention and greater maturation is becoming just much more acutely visible and apparent to us. It's like, thank you, now I'm aware. But becoming more aware of something that needs more attention and work.
You see how that newness of the cycle meets with the newness of a fallen Saturn. So it's a little complex in that way. It's a bit like someone. I always think through the lens of recovery and sobriety and things like that, because it's been a big part of my life. But I think about Saturn, you know, in a weak condition but newly empowered in its presence.
Okay, how about someone in their first months of sobriety? It's new, but you're still weak. You could easily relapse. You have to be extra vigilant, and you really have to be on it. It's very exciting. You feel reborn, but you're still in a pretty weak condition. It's not like you have 10 years of sobriety under your belt yet.
And everyone who's been through a process of getting sober knows what I'm talking about. There are ups and downs for a while, as you are beginning to ascend out of a weakened position. Every planet that is in its fall was said to be in its fall in a valley of the world of fortune, which means it has nowhere to go but up. But it does depict situations that are kind of hitting a rock bottom, and we'll have to climb up again from that rock bottom.
So keep that in mind, because that's a big part of what the cycle might be about. Now number four would be clear vision, but something dragging. So a lot of the planets in Aries right now give really decisive, clear pictures of where you want to go, or what you want or what you desire. A clarity of purpose, a strong sense of intention or desire, again all Aries energy, that clear vision with an exalted sun and new moon and so forth.
But there's a heavier, slower, almost like you're dragging. There's like an anchor that's, you know, almost like if you had the anchor behind a boat dragging or something. So you want to note that this cycle might give you a lot of impetus to act or move forward, but you might feel like there's things dragging that are almost killing your vibe, or just making you feel like, ah, I wish something wasn't dragging me down or holding me back.
It can feel a little bit like a buzzkill to have a planet that is so known for its kind of flaring optimism and contagious, fiery activity and charisma to be dragging or have something pulling it down. But that's where a sign like this builds number five: courage and endurance.
When you feel that drag at the time that you're trying to move forward in life, this is how you build courage. It's how you build endurance, it's how you build resilience, it's how you walk your talk, and it's how your passions and your convictions are tested and are made stronger and wiser. There's something in the sign of Aries that sometimes gives up at a struggle because it's too youthful and immature to withstand being challenged and tested.
It's like, well, that's not fun. I don't feel free. Well, yeah, your freedom is something we always think about freedom as something that we're just sort of entitled to. And believe me, I support the idea that everyone ought to be a free agent, you know, as much as is reasonable and respectable. But there's also this teaching that's pretty old, and you find it in a lot of world religions, which is that your freedom is something that you earn. It's not cheap.
You know, to be free is not just the freedom to purchase things or the freedom to indulge in things. Freedom means being free truly in yourself, meaning, hey, my consciousness, my very being itself, is something that satisfies me and gives me joy and happiness. That's what freedom means. For example, to yogis: what does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be happy? To not need things.
And I'm not saying we don't need other people. Of course we do. But to not be constantly in a state where I feel like I'm in some kind of deficit, I need something I don't have to feel free. To be free from the burden of not having something that you think you need that it turns out you really don't. Like that could be taken to an extreme, and we could have some kind of gospel of, you know, you could maybe become avoidant attachment style or something if there were too much of that kind of thinking.
But in Aries, it's important, because this is a sign that wants us to find the strong core of our existence. Just the fact that you exist is enough reason to feel free and happy. Not all of us tap into that all of the time, but Aries gives opportunities to do just that. And so with this kind of moon cycle, we have an opportunity to say, if I have to work a little bit, if I have to put in some time and energy to develop the confidence in my own existence that it is a source of nourishment and happiness for me, then I'm going to work to situate myself confidently in that spirit of what I am.
Because sometimes it takes work, it takes spiritual practice, might take some exercise, or it might take learning or developing skills that make us happy. But we put the effort in, and gradually what comes from it is not just oh, I'm really good at this or that, or I'm really prestigious or famous or whatever. No, it's like, I've done hard things and I'm happy with myself.
So doing hard things and feeling really good about who you are often go hand in hand. And I'm not here to give you a gospel of do as many hard things as you can, do 50 million pushups, or something like that. But also, let's let Aries speak. One of the kind of, there's a gospel that every sign has. The gospel of Aries is the gospel of: you don't need anything but yourself to feel good.
And with Saturn in this sign right now, kind of subtly hosting with the Saturn-Mars dynamic, the message might be: you don't have to do anything to feel good other than being yourself, and sometimes it takes some work to be yourself. So I hope that this is useful. Let me give you some horoscopic reminders before we go.
All right, I'm just going to roll through the signs briefly. So if you're an Aries, all of this is happening in your first house, all about identity and character and your personal nature. Doesn't get more fundamental than that. For Tauruses, we're talking about these energies in the cycle in your 12th house, a place of discovering unconscious dynamics, a place of relinquishing some degree of control and interest in things that transcend the ego.
If you're a Gemini, then we're talking about the 11th house of friends, networks, groups, communities, collaboration and social definitions of happiness or success. For Cancers, we're talking about the 10th house, place of career, vocation and your public role or responsibilities in the world, your influence in the world. For Leos, we're talking about the 9th house of beliefs, paradigms, teachers and teachings, understanding what is real, developing in the realm of the higher mind.
For Virgo, we're talking about the 8th house of soul contracts, entanglements and liberation from entanglements, the kind of reciprocal dynamics that give and that support and nourish and those that deprive and drain, and ultimately, an exploration of karmic dynamics is probably at play right now. Moving forward to Libra, we've got the 7th house of marriage, love relationships, interpersonal dynamics, where there's a lot of emphasis on questions of happiness and interpersonal connection.
For Scorpios, we're talking about the 6th house, a place of work, service and sacrifice. This is the daily grind, what you work for, what you work toward, what you give yourself to with a degree of service or sacrifice. And a question here is: are you giving to things that you really care about? Are you draining yourself? Is there a way to work smarter? Is there a way to take better care of yourself?
What are you really building through a lot of effort and work right now? What kind of hardships are you having to overcome and be resilient through? That's another question for Scorpios. For Sagittarians, we're talking about the 5th house of creativity, a place that is all about the creative acts of the soul. Life is not just a series of fated events. Life is also a kind of creative art project.
What are you making out of your life? Are you making babies? That's the 5th house topic. Are you making children? Are you making art? Are you making love? What are you making and what level of happiness does it provide you with? All right, for Capricorns, we're talking about the 4th house, home, family, roots, property, land and karma around your ancestry, your heritage, the private sphere of life and happiness therein.
We have Aquarians, which is in the 3rd house of the mind. A lot of learning here, and also speech, communication, intelligence, skill development, your local environment, your local neighborhood, siblings, peers, competition among them, but also really the need to be outspoken, the emphasis on how you communicate yourself, and what kind of communication works and what kind doesn't work. And last but not least, for Pisceans, we have the 2nd house: money, resources, assets, livelihood, material security. The cycle is starting there.
So again today, these are meant to be just little reminders, because we went through several Aries horoscopes in the past two weeks. So just wanted to give you that little reminder of what's happening, and I will leave you there for the day. I hope you guys are going to have a really fantastic weekend.
As I sign off, there's an informational video about the Year One program, "Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic," begins again in June. We have need-based tuition if you need a flexible price range to work within, if you're struggling financially for any reason but really want to take the course. Otherwise, the early bird sale is in effect now. You can take advantage of that and save significantly on the cost of the course. Otherwise, check it out. They'll tell you all about what the program includes and how it works.
Next, take it easy. Everyone. Bye.




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