NOTE: You can now experience video dictations of these Moon phase articles by visiting and subscribing to the Life By Soul® YouTube channel! The video versions are usually up within 48 hours of the article’s post. Here’s the link to the video for this 2023 Aries New Moon and Total Solar Eclipse.
The second Aries New Moon of 2023 reaches its maximum phase on Wednesday 19th April 2023 at 9:12p PDT (29°50’). This is special not only because it’s the second Aries New Moon of 2023 (the first on March 2023), but because it’s also a Total Solar Eclipse for the South Pacific and South Indian Ocean regions.
In a Total Solar Eclipse, the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, temporarily preventing the light of the Sun from reaching the Earth’s surface. This can be interpreted as our emotions disrupting our perception of our individual selves, our personal realities, and our world views. In this moment of obstruction, we can’t see – we can only feel. And this means that once the Sun’s light returns, we may actually see our realities more clearly because what we felt can now be seen.
Eclipses are pivotal agents of change. This particular 2023 Aries Total Solar Eclipse encourages us to take actions to shift energies and break patterns in regard to how we see ourselves in the world – to act upon and/or react or respond to what we really feel about our individual selves and all that is happening right now. Through our external experience of our internal emotional truths, we may come out of this Solar Eclipse with a new perception of the world around us and a new understanding of the world within us.
Aries is cardinal fire energy, representing self-initiative. Making its second appearance in a 2023 New Moon phase, it reminds us that it doesn’t care if you follow its lead because it’s taking action for itself in support of its own self-identity and the values that support that self-identity. Its indifference to others can encourage independence and individuality, sometimes to a fault.
The thing is, this time around, the Aries New Moon isn’t only happening along with a Solar Eclipse – it’s also happening in conjunction with Vesta and the North Node in Taurus. This is an important transit because it doesn’t only find us facing the consequences of our individual impulses – it also finds us forging the foundation for our newly-emerging social values and how we intend to serve ourselves and each other in alignment with them. Of course, where the North Node is, the South Node is opposite, and in this case, the Scorpio South Node reminds us that in order for the present and future to emerge, the past must be cleared. That’s what this Aries Solar Eclipse is urging us come to terms with – the actions we must take if we are truly ready to release what no longer serves us well individually and/or collectively.
The funny thing about this 2023 Aries New Moon and Total Solar Eclipse is that even though we’re being asked to release what no longer serves us well, the reality is that events will happen in such a way that each and all of us will receive a clear message – we no longer have much of if any choice in whether we get to hold onto or let go of what no longer serves us well. The window for choice and action between the first 2023 Aries New Moon and this second 2023 Aries New Moon is now closing, and our actions now will simply reveal how we’re choosing to face and deal with the path that we have chosen – a path that is about to take root in the energy of the Taurus Sun’s ingress only a few hours after this New Moon’s maximum and this Solar Eclipse’s totality phase.
Now you may say, “But I didn’t choose this!”
That might be correct. However, there are two things that you get to recognize in making this statement.
- If you consciously never made a choice in a matter, you should know that not choosing is, in itself, a choice not to choose.
- .With the next path about to take shape, your choices are now in the steps you’ll take from here.
Each of us has conscious individual choice in the steps we choose to take, and in whether to work alone or in tandem with our communities and/or the collective whole of humanity. That’s where the numerology of this 2023 Aries New Moon and Total Solar Eclipse brings its magic to this event.
The daily numbers affirm a regional split – in the majority of North America and all points west of it, the 2023 Aries New Moon Eclipse occurs on a 3 Universal Day of learning and growth; while the rest of the world experiences the New Moon eclipse in a 4 Universal Day of stability, security, structure, and safety. However, the afore-mentioned magic is in our entire world experiencing this New Moon Eclipse during an 11 Universal Month of inspired collaborative action within a 7 Universal Year of mindfulness and efforts to make sense of the chaos around us. The 11 and 7 energies are combining to create a collective consciousness moment – an opportunity for individuals to recognize that the individual we’re seeking to celebrate may actually be a unison – a coming-together of individuals through common purpose, through community if through our common humanity, as one entity for our common and greater good.
It’s also understanding that working in community doesn’t mean sacrificing your uniqueness to others’ will. In a healthy community, your unique individuality is welcome and celebrated. There’s an opportunity to transform your perception of self and community through embracing this unison – to recognize that your one-of-a-kind self has a place in the whole. You don’t have to hide or sacrifice yourself. In fact, this is a time to allow yourself to make yourself known…
…which is why the 2023 Aries New Moon and Total Solar Eclipse is likely to impact you and all of us powerfully. It occurs in a way which almost forces you to feel where you’ve betrayed your True interests, where you’ve betrayed your True values, where you’ve betrayed your True self. It’s through the growing awareness and understanding of your self-betrayal that you may find you have no choice but to transform from who you’ve known yourself to be into who you are here to become.
That will require you to begin choosing yourself so you feel like you are being yourself. Choosing yourself in order to be yourself will transform your life.
For more insights into this transformation process, let’s look at the astrological transits within 3° orb at the time of the maximum phase of this 2023 Aries New Moon and Total Solar Eclipse:
DAISY-CHAIN STELLIUM: (Aries Moon conjunct Sun) conjunct (Taurus Vesta conjunct North Node) opposite Scorpio South Node (29°-2°-4°) – Emotional reconnection with one’s self-identity encourages actions to reclaim one’s physical, material, and financial integrity in sacred service to self and others as a matter of aligning with the destiny of humanity. This will also require the clearing away of anything that is not in alignment with one’s True self and True values in order to (re)establish a healthy balance between oneself and other individuals.
(Aries Moon conjunct Sun conjunct Taurus Vesta) square Aquarius Pluto (29-2°) – The emotional reality check of this New Moon Eclipse supports a reassessment of your sacred service to yourself. Are you acting in alignment with your own values, or are you betraying them? Are you ready to make new or different choices to align with your values if you’ve strayed from them? And if so, are you ready to receive support and/or encouragement from others in order to find your way back to being in integrity with yourself?
(Aries Moon conjunct Sun conjunct Taurus Vesta) trine Virgo Black Moon Lilith (29-0°) – This New Moon Eclipse also supports a reassessment of your sacred service to yourself. Are you acting in alignment with your own values, or are you betraying them? Are you ready to make new or different choices to align with your values if you’ve strayed from them? And if so, are you ready to receive support and/or encouragement from others in order to find your way back to being in integrity with yourself?
(Aries Jupiter conjunct Eris) square Cancer Pallas Athena (23-25°) – Growing awareness of self-betrayal challenges your personal emotional patterns. You may not be able to react or respond in the same way as you did before, pushing you to abandon your usual emotional coping strategy for a new way of experiencing and navigating your feelings and intuitions.
(Aries Jupiter conjunct Eris) quincunx Virgo Ceres Retrograde (24°) – Recognizing where you’ve betrayed yourself in your life doesn’t seem like it would affect how other people’s values impact the way you live your life, but with these two bodies in exact aspect, that’s exactly what happens. Your self-betrayal is largely due to the times in which you chose to align with other’s values – either by peer pressure or by simply doing what you thought you needed to do in order to sustain yourself in your day-to-day life. There may be a growing sense of guilt and/or shame you feel for not staying true to yourself, and these feelings could be what is compromising how you perceive yourself and/or your self-worth. It’s important to recognize that you did the best you could in that moment, and that that you know the impact of past choices, you can make different, healthier choices now and forward.
Aries Chiron square Cancer Mars (13-16°) – Acting upon your personal emotional investments and/or your emotional impulses may end up doing more harm than good to your self-identity, yet the discord you create or experience may result in you taking on a new and different course of action – one in which you earnestly begin healing your long-carried self-identity wounds.
Taurus Mercury conjunct Uranus (15-17°) – Public discussions and debates about our personal and social resources and values take unexpected turns – turns which may result in surprising and/or sudden shifts in your personal and collective resource management priorities.
Cancer Pallas Athena sextile Virgo Ceres Retrograde (24-25°) – As our emotional patterns are being challenged and changed, we may recognize how much we’ve compromised our own emotional truths to accommodate others’ systems and processes. In other words, we may see how we made emotional concessions to others’ values in order to “make it work” and get what we needed from the situations we found ourselves in rather than asking ourselves if those systems and processes really work(ed) for us.
YOD: (Aquarius Pluto sextile Aries White Moon Selene) quincunx Virgo Black Moon Lilith (0°) – The White Moon and Black Moon are calculated points, but that doesn’t stop this configuration from having a very interesting energy dynamic. With Lilith at the apex, the energy of this configuration is focused on what’s hidden in the shadows of our everyday systems and processes. These elements are being brought to light in order for “the way the world works” to undergo transformation. Transformation is the death of one form of being in order for a new form of being to emerge. The old form can no longer exist in any way – the new form must be adopted, yet for some reason, many of us are unable to acknowledge the need for the old form’s impending demise. This transformation must occur for the light of our truest and most brilliant selves to shine, yet there’s difficulty in (or resistance to) seeing what needs to be transformed. If you want to thrive in your life, you can no longer do things they way you’ve always done them before now. This really is a “let yourself die in order to let yourself live” moment. This could be a moment in which individuals and institutions realize that their shadows can no longer be hidden, but also that their light can no longer be hidden and they’re being called to shine.
Virgo Ceres Retrograde trine Taurus Juno (22-24°) – We’re getting quite a bit of feedback about how our values are actually working/functioning in the world. As this shows up, we’re also learning what we’re truly committed to in regard to our values. Which values are we refusing to waver on? Which values are we willing to reassess? Which values have we abandoned? This is a moment for reassessment of our values as we’ll need to be clear about what we’re committed to in the weeks, months, and possibly years to come.
Virgo Ceres Retrograde opposite Pisces Neptune (24-26°) – The more experiential feedback we receive about the conditions of our everyday lives, the more we may realize that the values we’ve idealized may not be as ideal as we’ve been led to believe. Many of us are having a major reality check moment as we are being forced to see both sides of the situations before us, and find ourselves being asked to establish a balance between what is ideal and what is real.
The energy of this 2023 Aries New Moon will be felt from Sunday 16th April through Sunday 22nd April 2023. However, the Aries Solar Eclipse’s energy will be felt most notably over the next six months, and the events which occur during this time will likely have an enduring effect on each of our lives and the world as we’ve known it.
Things won’t be the same again.
We as people – individually and collectively – won’t ever be the same again.
There’s no going back to what came before. There’s only moving forward. There’s only choosing forward…
… and we’re going to feel it every step of the way.
Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light and Blessings,
Grace
