The Magical Convergence of Time
Aries New Moon: March 21, 2023
peaking at 1:23 P.M. EST
happening at 0°50’ Aries
click links above for timezone converter & to check the placement in your chart
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Some say time is like a flat circle or a spiralic unfolding. I say it’s like a sparkling web — a series of intersecting lines, held within an ever-expanding circle — and we can never know where it starts or where it ends, but if we’re lucky, we can see the moments when the lines converge, revealing a significant signature, repeated like that in music, by the god of time.
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The music started without me even noticing, and I don’t know how long I’d been singing before I heard the words coming out my mouth.
The melody was haunting, like a siren’s song, repeating itself on a loop:
Amphitrite, Aa-amph-i-trii-iite, what does it mean? What does it me-een? Amphitrite.
I searched the words and learned that in Greek, Amphitrite quite literally means “three times around.”
And it was then that I saw how this time right now is simply the beginning, the first passing of a line across a point that we will return to again and again.
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Eugène Antoniadi rushed through the garden, past the verdant bushes, perfectly trimmed, and the women, sitting on benches, taking in the view of the River Seine.
He hurried through the converted chateau, up to the center of the dome, where just recently, La Grande Lunette had been installed. Its twin steel tubes were rectangular in shape, holding perfectly crafted strips of glass, meant to refract light just so and capture whatever they could from out beyond this earth, deep into the void of space.
Full of light, that’s how Eugène saw it. He opened the leather, cylindrical tube he’d been carrying and unrolled the documents inside. He was always exceptionally careful with them, ensuring that they would never bend nor crease. He looked through the telescope he’d been using now for twenty-five years, and that’s when he saw it, something bright on the surface of the north pole of the planet Mercury. He named this bright spot Apollonia, after the god Apollo, and he marked it on a map:
Eighty-nine years later, I stumbled upon Apollonia by accident, or was it luck?
I was reading about the goddess Tyche, the Ancient Greek goddess of good fortune and luck, when I learned that there was an asteroid named after her - asteroid number 258 - but when I went to enter the number into my planetary mapping software, I made a typo and entered 358 instead. That’s when I saw an asteroid named Apollonia, asteroid #358, perfectly aligned at the exact same spot in the sky as this new moon.
I corrected my mistake and added 258 to my calculations only to see that the asteroid Tyche was also there, converging at the same degree of Aries as the sun, the moon, and the asteroid Apollonia.
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My typo, a simple slip of the finger transposing a two with a three, taught me about the god Apollo, the naming of the asteroid Apollonia in 1893, and the use of the name - yet again - years later when the bright spot was discovered on the planet Mercury.
Mercury! I realized, is also there, next to the sun, the moon, Tyche, and Apollonia.
It’s all coming together now, sharpening into focus like the turning of a lens in La Grande Lunette.
And with a literal roll of the dice, one more asteroid is revealed: asteroid #37, named after the goddess Fides. Fides as in fidelity, faith, and trust.
On this new moon, we shall speak only words of fortune and faith, and luck shall enrapture us like the light from Apollo himself.
The conjunction of three asteroids, one yellow dwarf, our earthly moon, and the planet Mercury in the sign of Aries. The planet Neptune is also technically conjunct (hanging out in Pisces to the left).
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I woke the next day, thinking about the discovery of Apollonia on the planet Mercury. This bright spot on Mercury’s north pole is what’s known as an albedo feature. Albedo features are visible contrasts in light/darkness on the surface of a planet, and before we sent spacecrafts to get a better look, seeing these changes in light was pretty much all we had for understanding what could possibly be happening on the surface of another planet.
Albedo, interestingly, is also the name of one of the four stages of alchemical transmutation that, according to Hermetic philosophy, leads to the formation of the philosopher’s stone, the embodiment of enlightenment itself. It starts with the blackening - negrido - then comes the whitening - albedo - then citrinitas, rubedo - the stone!
My email pinged, and I saw that my Word of the Day email had just arrived. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The word of the day was…Apollonian. Surely, I thought, this word was sent just to me. Surely it was produced through some invisible cookies tracking my internet searches the day before. Surely it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. Except…it was.
I visited the Word Genius homepage to confirm that Apollonian was indeed the word of the day - not just for me, but for everyone. I even double-checked the site on another device that knew nothing about my Apollonia searches, and still, Apollonian was the word of the day. This was indeed a coincidence - a sign, a synchronicity - not some algorithmic/cookie-infested regurgitation.
Apollonian, according to the word of the day, means “relating to the god Apollo” and “relating to the rational, ordered, and self-disciplined aspects of human nature.”
And so it is that I’ve come to see this time now, from March 21st through April 5th, as the beginning of a new world order, one imbued with good luck and good faith, and this new order is starting now - in our minds - like the sparking of a new flame that may struggle to stay lit, but that we will keep coming back to, with kindling and fresh logs and matches until eventually, it is a roaring fire inside - clear, directed, and burning according to the Order of Good Faith.
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The Order of Good Faith is a shift in collective consciousness that starts in the hearts and souls of individuals and moves through our social structures, shoring up the broken pieces as if repairing the leaking holes in a ship.
This is a collective trend towards greater authenticity, which leads to more genuine, honest, and fair dealings in business, in law, and in our relationships both with ourselves and with each other. This is a mass trend towards HONEST COMMUNICATION, and as the order spreads, ulterior motives fade away. Less is wasted and manipulated. There is a greater social desire to act and argue from a position of good faith. I feel this as a mass exhaustion with bad faith communication that leads people to reshape their practices and speak with greater integrity.
Like most big collective shifts, this new order does not happen overnight. It’s not like the snapping of fingers, but instead, this is something we grow towards. What happens now, during this new moon time, is something that helps shift the collective consciousness in this direction. I keep hearing Martin Luther King, Jr. in my mind, reminding us: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
And on this new moon, the asteroid Themis is conjunct the healing asteroid Chiron. Themis quite literally means “order” in Ancient Greek, and the asteroid was named after a goddess of justice, wisdom, and good counsel. The current astronomical conjunction between Themis and Chiron also involves the planet Jupiter, the asteroid Vesta, and the asteroid Feronia.
While the healing of order and justice is a global shift, we are definitely likely to see this in a very tangible way in America. The Themis/Chiron conjunction on this new moon is occurring at the same place in the sky where the asteroid Chiron was when America formed in 1776, but this is also a slow moving conjunction. America is undergoing a deep, years-long healing, and whatever happens right now with the many cases currently making their way through the American justice system, I trust in the long arc of the moral universe, I trust in the order of good faith, and I trust in the knowledge that what happens now is not an end, but yet another beginning.
I hear the song again. It sings in my mind: Amphitrite, Aa-amph-i-trii-iite, what does it mean? What does it me-een? Amphitrite.
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On this new moon, the asteroid Amphitrite, asteroid #29, is perfectly conjunct the planet Saturn, aligned in the sky at 1 degree 33 minutes Pisces. This happens to be at the exact same place in the sky where both the asteroid Amphitrite and the asteroid Delphi were when I was born.
I remember: Delphi came up earlier in my research for this new moon, but why?
I flipped back through my notes and found myself back in the land of Apollo - at the Temple of Apollo, also known as Apollonion.
Apollonion was located in Delphi, Greece, and it was there where the Oracle of Delphi spoke her prophecies. As I read about the Pythia, sitting in the temple, speaking of the heavens, I thought of Eugène Antoniadi, standing at the center of the dome, “bowing before the oracle-eye” of La Grand Lunette, and the word ORACLE flashed in my mind.
I had seen it one day earlier, written in all caps on a decal stuck on the car in front of me as I was leaving the doctor’s office. It jumped out at me because at that very moment, I was listening to a friend’s podcast episode titled, You Are the Oracle.
The word oracle comes from Latin. For some reason, I always think of it as relating to the eyes. Something to do with vision or the mind, but really, the root of the word, ōrare, like orator, means “to speak.”
An oracle is a divine announcement, a spoken proclamation of prophecy, and ultimately, that’s part of what this new moon is about. A great message is arriving like a divine announcement, and it will very likely be arriving through you. What this message is? I do not know. I would not be surprised if there is a big overarching message that affects us all (especially in America), but I also think that this oracle “energy” will be experienced mostly on the personal level, bringing a different message for each of us. Whatever the message is for you, trust it when it comes. Even if it doesn’t make sense, trust it. For this time is deeply woven, wrapped around the same point again and again, carrying us through 2023 and into 2024, and even if the message doesn’t make sense to you right now that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense. So just, keep trusting.
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This new moon is conjunct Apollonia, the land of Apollo, and in Ancient Greece, Apollo’s temple in Delphi - the Apollonion - was built not once, not twice, but three times.
Amphitrite, what does it me-een? Amphitrite.
Three times around.
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I read more about Delphi. The history of its oracle was not new to me, but somehow, in all my years of reading about Ancient Greek mythology, I’d never come upon this story. Not until now:
The Ancient Greeks believed that Delphi marked the center of the earth. According to myth, Zeus placed two eagles at opposite ends of the earth. He sent them flying simultaneously at equal speed, and the point where their paths crossed - above Delphi - was believed to be the center of the earth. There, in Delphi, Zeus placed a stone - a stone at the center of the earth - to mark this powerful point, and to honor this story, the Ancient Greeks placed a marble monument in the Temple of Apollo. This marble monument - this sacred stone - was known as the Omphalos of Delphi, meaning “naval of the earth,” the point from which all life was believed to have begun and just being near the stone was believed to aid in direct communication with the gods.
My jaw jopped as I read this story. Not just because of all the new scientific information that has recently been revealed about the center of the earth, but because in early February, when I was first writing about the new research surrounding the earth’s core, I kept hearing the phrase “the stone at the center of the earth.” I wrote all about it here, confessing then that I didn’t completely understand why I was calling it a stone since the core of the earth is technically not a stone, but here I am, two months later, reading an ancient myth claiming that a god placed a stone at the center of the earth. But really, the stone at the center wasn’t even the part of the story that made my breath still, made the air around my body feel electric - it was the eagles.
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Four months ago, I was sitting in the passenger seat, taking the highway home, when I saw something I couldn’t quite believe. There, in a tree to my right, I saw not one, but two eagles.
I turned my head to look at them for as long as I could. They sat perched on branches on opposite sides of the trunk - as if they were sitting on the scales of justice themselves.
The eagle on the right was a bald eagle - black and white - and the eagle on the left was golden brown. A golden eagle? I’d never seen one before in my life. Didn’t even know they existed. I had to look it up on my phone to confirm what I’d seen - a huge brown bird, as big or bigger than a bald eagle - but the moment I saw a picture of a golden eagle - the only other type of eagle known to live in the state of Ohio - I knew that this is what I’d seen.
It’s plumage was an exact match. And while both types of eagles live in Ohio, spotting a golden eagle is incredibly rare. There are estimated to only be six sightings every year. And that day, I saw both eagles, sitting together, in a tree - one on one side, one on the other - as if they’d flown in from opposite directions and met up there, at that exact spot.
When I read the ancient myth of Zeus using two eagles to locate the center of the earth, I immediately remembered the eagles I’d seen and wondered: what day was that? I thought, perhaps there’s a connection to this new moon now. I entered the date in my software - December 8th - and was shocked to see that the planet Saturn was in the exact same spot then that it is now.
Without even realizing it, I started singing, Amphitrite, Aa-amph-i-trii-iite, what does it mean?
Three times around.
And that’s when I realized that I’d forgotten to change the year in my software. I wasn’t looking at December 8, 2022, but December 8, 2023. The number two had yet again been transposed with a three, and only because I saw those eagles in December and read the myth of Delphi now and made the “mistake” of running the chart for 2023 instead of 2022, I was now seeing something that I never would have seen if not for the confluence of those three things.
Saturn will return where it is now on December 8, 2023…but the only way that could happen, given the basics of planetary movement, is if there is a third time. A third time when Saturn will cross the exact same point.
On an educated, intuitive whim, based on years of astrological observation, I entered the date of the coming Aries full moon - September 29, 2023 - and sure enough, that’s it. That’s the third time.
Saturn is crossing one degree and thirty-three minutes Pisces three times this year. The first time is now. The second time is with the Harvest full moon in September. And the third time is on December 8th.
And for whatever magical reason that doesn’t quite yet make sense, I was guided through eagles and more to see this pattern now, to observe the magical convergence of time, and I believe this is not for nothing. I believe it’s for a reason, and that something very magical is happening with the crossing of this point over the course of 2023.
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The planet Saturn was named after the Roman god of time. What is time? How does it move? How does our perception of the order of events through the web of this glorious illusion affect our understanding of everything?
For make no mistake, time is an illusion. “Our naive perception of its flow doesn't correspond to physical reality.” It corresponds with something else, and something, I think, is telling us a story.
Scene 1: I’m sitting at my computer, making a typo, and discovering the asteroid Apollonia.
Scene 2: An email arrives with the word of the day - Apollonian.
Scene 3: I’m reading about the temple called Apollonion, reading how inside there was a stone marking the center of the earth, a location discovered by the crossing of two eagles.
Scene 4: I’m sitting in the car, awed by the rare sight of two eagles, perched in a tree.
Scene 5: It’s another day. I’m writing about the sacred temple stone, the marble monument known as the Omphalos.
Scene 6: Another word of the day arrives. This time, it’s “marmoreal,” meaning “made of or likened to marble.”
And so it goes. It goes, and I can stretch it into a line that looks straight, but really, if you could pick those scenes up in the palm of your hand and pull on each one, you would see the threads weaving in seemingly infinite directions, and at certain places, you just may find something solid and sparkling, like a diamond, a jewel in Indra’s net, a stone at the center of it all.
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A woven web is taking us to the Libra full moon on April 6th and a rare hybrid solar eclipse (yet another Aries new moon) on April 20th. All of this is building to the Aries full moon in September, which also happens to be the Harvest moon, and then it just keeps going…leading to another big moment connected to all of this in December.
This new moon time now marks the beginning of three cycles of three, three times around:
Three Saturn transits (as Saturn crosses a point it hasn’t passed in 26 years).
Three Aries moons (as this year has not one, but two Aries new moons).
And three Pluto transits over the next year, as Pluto finds itself crossing a boundary in the sky that it hasn’t seen in 245 years.
Pluto is the slowest moving “planet.” It stays in the same sign for longer than any other planetary body, and it’s been in its current sign, Capricorn, since 2008, but on March 23rd, it is leaving Capricorn for the first time in fifteen years and entering the sign of Aquarius.
It will keep going back and forth over this same point in the sky - the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius - crossing it a total of three times in the coming year and then two more times before November 21, 2024. Afterwards, it will stay in Aquarius for the next twenty years, a sign it hasn’t moved through since the Revolutionary War and the formation of the United States of America.
Then, like now, Pluto crossed the cusp between Capricorn and Aquarius again and again. It crossed the point five times between 1777 and 1778, just like it will do now in 2023 and 2024.
Back then, on its second to last crossing in 1778, it was conjunct the planet Venus and the asteroid…Amphitrite.
Amphitrite, what does it mean? What does it me-een? Amphitrite.
On this new moon, our destiny is aligned with the planet Venus, the asteroid Juno (which was conjunct the sun on that fateful day in 1778), and the asteroid Thalia (which was conjunct Venus and Pluto during the final crossing in 1778). Together, this conjunction speaks of a great blooming - a joyous flourishing - of love and relationships as all marriages (i.e., forms of partnership) are evaluated - entered into, dissolved, etc. - and through this, ultimately, a new unification takes hold, a binding force, like that forged between the United States of America in 1776 and between the earth and Theia 4.4 billion years ago.
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What happens now? This is only the beginning.
To be continued…
Long Story Short:
This Aries new moon time takes us from March 21st through April 5th, but it is only the beginning - the first of two Aries new moons this year leading to the Harvest moon in September and another big event in December. This moon time brings heightened intuitive awareness, a newfound clarity of mind, and the beginning of a new Order of Good Faith that will slowly be spreading throughout the collective. We are very likely to see a big event - like a divine announcement - arrive in ourselves and quite possibly for all of us here in America. Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, is changing signs for the first time in 15 years and moving into Aquarius for the first time in 245 years. Times they are a changing, and the earth is slowly shifting beneath our feet - back and forth - as new foundations are moving into place and faith and trust and integrity are restored.
The Tip Jar
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