
New Moon, Monday 17th July, 19.32, BST- Sun & Moon at 24 °Cancer 56’.
In this post I focus on the conjunction between Pallas Athene at 3° Virgo 25’, and Mars at 4° Virgo 27’ both in a harmonious trine with the lunar north node at Aries 29° 43’.
Pallas, the warrior goddess is associated with wisdom, creative intelligence, warfare, female leadership, and healing. She is a protectress goddess and a virgin goddess. Her symbols include owls, the olive tree, and snakes. She is deeply linked with the Gorgoneion and mythology of Medusa.
In the new moon chart, Pallas is paired with Mars, also a warrior god associated with war, sexuality, and fertility. In astrology Mars shows how we express our self, how we exert our will, and how we use our libido. Mars is generally equated with generative, masculine energy although the placement of Mars in a chart speaks to both male and female sexual and libidinous energy. Mars shows how we go after what we want.
Pallas and Mars side-by-side is a potentially combustible pairing… doubly enhanced warrior energy. While Mars is sometimes brutish and crude in achieving his goals, Pallas expresses wisdom-particularly feminine wisdom-that engages the higher aspects of mind above primal instincts.
While Pallas has no Phallus (no rhyme intended) she does have a spear (a substitute phallus) which may have been acquired through renouncing her feminine, instinctual, and sexual energy. This transference of power is symbolised both in Pallas’ birth from the head of Her father Zeus, and in Her punishment of Medusa when outraged by the sexual union between Medusa and Poseidon. Pallas however incorporates an image of Medusa’s head on Her shield symbolising both her victory over the instinctual realm and Her access to it.
Given that Pallas and Mars are in a trine to the lunar north node (what we are collectively manifesting), an appropriate topic for exploration this new moon is:
What is feminine leadership and how does it manifest in the world?
Typically, we have seen female leaders operate within a patriarchal paradigm with the same tenets of success being applied. Achievements and results are still measured on growth, profit, profile, and success according to a capitalist system. Slowly but surely more soulful, empathetic, erotic, cyclical, and right-brain thinking is gradually filtering into the collective fields of leadership. However, there are still many aspects of feminine power that are outside of what Val Plumwood calls “the master model” of culture.
So, what does true female leadership look like and what is possible?
The first word that springs to mind when I think about this question is collaboration. Mars can be quite selfish in achieving what He wants and can be very singular in His pursuits. Although Mars is sexual instinctual energy, He is not necessarily an erotic energy (which is why He needs Venus to coax this out of Him). Pallas, although She has to some degree traded her feminine qualities of sexual and fertile power, still operates from the feminine principle; She is connected to Venus, the Moon, and the essential ground of feminine being. Able to rise above the purely selfish pursuit of taking what She wants without regard for others, Pallas engages a genuine leadership that considers the well-being of all.
When these two work together they are a force to be reckoned with – the sheer will, and life force of Mars married to the mental and creative genius of Pallas.
Now what could true feminine leadership look like?
While Pallas has to an extent forfeited Her sexual power in favour of a more cerebral intelligence and wisdom, Mars brings the juice to the table.
I have often felt that the most alarming and dangerous force in the world for the powers that attempt to withhold power for themselves is the marriage between the intellect and the instincts in a human being. This creates a particular kind of wisdom at once both immanent and transcendent… a true “heiros gamos” of spirit and matter.
Is this what we are collectively manifesting? The potential is there.
Also in this new moon chart Venus, the true Queen of Eros, is involved in a Yod (finger of God) aspect pattern with Pluto and Neptune. Venus Herself is in a process of spiritual transcendence and renewal.
The Sun/Moon conjunction of this new moon chart takes place in Cancer under the rulership of the Moon; the Mars Pallas conjunction is in Virgo, the seed of divine potential. Both the Moon and Virgo are deeply feminine archetypes.
In ‘The Gnostic New Age’ April De Conick says that according to one of the oldest Gnostic Christian groups known as the Peratics,
“The first phase of initiation resulted in the awakening of the human spirit, the seed of divine potential, and its release from Hades into the skies through the star gate Virgo.”
Shortly before the Sun enters Virgo on August 23, Venus’ conjunction with the Sun on August 13th marks Her transition from evening star to Morning Star an event that is symbolically correlated with Inanna’s return from Hades. This event is also paralleled in the Akkadian Ishtar; in ancient Mesopotamia She is Istar d’ Akat and is regarded as a male deity of war.
This new moon can be viewed as a conscious preparation for the Venus interior conjunction.
The Sabian symbol for the new moon I feel speaks to the capacity for humanity to be guided by a superior power that overrides the egoic will toward a higher purpose. The power responsible for enabling this shift is the “Pentecostal descent of power” which, mirroring the feminine signature this new moon, may be regarded as Sophia.
PHASE 115 (CANCER 25°): A WILL-FULL MAN IS OVERSHADOWED BY A DESCENT OF SUPERIOR POWER.
KEYNOTE: The response of spiritual forces to the integration of personality through positive will-full endeavours.
We are dealing here with a man who uses his will and positive imagination in facing his life problems. To him comes a Pentecostal descent of power. He receives the “mantle of power,” the grace (baraka in Sufi philosophy) or the Providential assistance which can make him a true leader in his culture.
For me mediations this new moon focus on realising that a higher power is at work and that once we realise what this means for us personally, we can engage our Mars in support of it.
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Thank you so much. I have my Mars conjunct Pallas Athena but in Pisces 4 and 5 degrees. Trine my Venus. Sun Trine my Neptune. Venus square Ceres. Chiron conjunct Eros opposition Moon. Vesta conjunct Neptune. Juno conjunct Lilith. I am in a battle currently, emotions of intellect in full bloom.