Red Tent Round Up #4: February New Moon in Aquarius
Wise Words from: Diane Arbus (Photographer), Louise Bogan (Poet), Soft White Underbelly (Podcast), Pluto in Aquarius (Podcast), MGMT (Musicians)
The concept of the Red Tent is a revived Native American tradition where the community held space for women during menstruation, honouring their physical embodiment of the natural cycles and heightened intuitive capacity at this time.
As many women menstruate with the New Moon, this monthly round-up of material, relevant to the astrology, is intended to be both comforting and thought-provoking for all those embracing the slow, dark depths of this transformational period (pun absolutely intended).
This Red Tent Round-Up will be published monthly, just before the New Moon, with the Sabian Symbol for the degree of the New Moon provided for reflection. The rest is my redistribution of words and works from the Wise Women (and Men!) I am fortunate to have happened upon. Le grá, in love.
“Almost every Aquarius is a rebel. Give them a guide and they won’t follow it. Tell them there’s a dress code and they’ll show up wearing nothing at all.” — Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky, Astro Poets: Your Guide to the Zodiak
This New Moon occurs at 20 degrees of Aquarius, Friday (Venus-Day) 9th February 2024, 22:58 GMT (Dublin, Ireland).
Aquarius Keywords: Objectivity, Detachment, Unconvential, Futurism, Fantasy, Technology, Innovation, Revolution, Liberty
The Sabian Symbol (Dane Rudhyar & Elsie Wheeler) for 20 Aquarius:
A LARGE WHITE DOVE BEARING A MESSAGE
The answer of spiritual agencies to thorough, sustained and victorious individual efforts. The individual who has gone courageously and with indomitable spirit through his crucial crisis receives, as it were, a deep spiritual blessing from the Soul-realm: “Mission accomplished. Peace be with you.” And in this blessing a secret prophecy of what is yet to come may be seen by the perspicacious and spiritually sensitive mind of the recipient. Every real spiritual step a man takes in his development is the result of a victory over forces of inertia or destruction. The Divine is totally “present” in the heart of all true victories. What the “message” is depends on the particular situation, but the white dove always signifies peace; at the very heart of this peace is the CERTIFICATION of individual worth and victory.
During this imaginative New Moon, we move from one Saturn sign to the next, leaving behind the conservatism of Capricorn in favour of the Aquarian idealistic futurism. Saturn in Pisces not only rules the New Moon in Aquarius, but is the Exaltation Ruler of the chart as well, given Libra Rising.
This occurs at the transitional point from the Decan of Mercury to the Decan of the Moon, signaling a shift away from the Mercurial maintenance of the status quo towards the Lunar concern for progressivism and the collective.
Saturn in Pisces remains in a close sextile with ruler Jupiter in Taurus. Although considered natural opposites (Saturn’s exclusion vs. Jupiter’s inclusion), the harmonious sextile conjures this image of the White Dove of peace.
These great outer bodies provide the detailed, yet flowing, imagination (Saturn in Pisces) and the sustained, practical persistence (Jupiter in Taurus) required to envision, then actualise, our weird and wonderful pursuits this Aquarius New Moon.
New technologies, as described in the media, or maybe within the home, may be thematic. Advances in medical treatments, or the withholding of such (e.g. the tragic lack of life-saving spinal surgeries for children in Ireland).
The New Moon is co-present with Mercury in close overcoming square to Jupiter, so we may find our ways of thinking to be challenged. We may find that we are compelled to use our communicative capacities (Mercury) to convey a bigger story - a story bigger than just ourselves, but one that resonates with the expanse of society (Jupiter).
Ruler Saturn deals with those on the fringes of society; Aquarius loves the rebels and the dissidents, the outsiders and the outspoken, the castigated and the unconventional, the independent and the unorthodox, the technologists and the technophobes, the exiles and the aliens - aspiring to understand each group’s unique point of view.
We stand as a collective under Aquarius, so no matter the matter, we are compelled to speak for voiceless and to march for the groundless. We have the freedom to choose a better future, and this begins with the choices we make for ourselves.
Journal: Where are you making innovative, experimental or socially conscious changes in your life this Aquarius New Moon?
We started to get deliveries of organic veg from a local supplier to save time, improve our health AND reduce reliance on Tesco, who in turn are heavily reliant on Israeli products - more expensive yes, but still wins all round if you ask me.
As per our Sabian Symbol, this is my victory over the forces of inertia and destruction.
This is a particularly potent New Moon for anyone with planets in fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), even more so when on the angles (1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Houses).
THE ARTISTRY ALCOVE
The Photography of Diane Arbus
“There's a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you riddle. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life.”
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was born into a wealthy mercantile family of Jewish migrants from Soviet Russia. Arbus was raised in a comfortable home, mostly by the household maids, and was fortunate enough to receive an excellent education in the arts and access to state-of-the-art photographic technology of the time.
Arbus married her teen sweetheart once turned eighteen, and she enjoyed a collaborative photography business with her husband Allen, choosing their subjects and fostering their trust. Although they produced imagery for major fashion magazines - such as Glamour, Vogue and Seventeen - both Diane and Allen were said to have “hated the fashion world”.
In a fashion typical of the Aquarian temperament, Arbus steered away from more conventional photography of randomers on the busy New York streets, towards the freaks and geeks on the fringe of society.
Saturn, ruler of Aquarius, revels in the nonconformists, and those with an Aquarian curiosity are fascinated by such oddities, celebrating their differences and holding space for their personal, often traumatic, stories.
“For me, the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture.”
Diane Arbus
Arbus became famous for her unconventional photographic style, ignoring conventions of composition, creating intimate and intriguing portraits of her subjects: prostitutes, carnival freaks, performers, the mentally ill, nudists, dwarves, strippers, sword swallowers, strong men… In addition to the many “normal” - but striking - subjects she happened upon throughout her travels.
The hauntingly beautiful, subject-centric, and elegant simplicity of Arbus’ photography reminds us that:
1) We are all rather interesting really, us humans, including you, dear reader.
2) Art doesn’t have to be heart-breakingly laboured, it just has to be heart-felt.
Journal: What weird and wonderful creative project have you been sitting on, or recently inspired to do, that you’ve been delaying? Or have you dived in already?
RELISHING READS
Leave Taking by Louise Bogan
Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970), of Livermore Falls in Maine, was born into a financially struggling, lower-middle-class Irish family. She was fortunate enough to have been supported in her education by a close female benefactor.
Bogan attended a Latin Girls School for five years, which opened the door to Boston University. However, in true Aquarian fashion, she decided to make the independent and unconventional move to drop out after her freshman year and instead moved to New York, pursuing a career in writing, leaving behind her only daughter.
Bogan found the societal attitudes of the 1930s & 1940s towards female poets to be extremely stifling, and she eventually refused to critique other female poets:
"I have found from bitter experience that one woman poet is at a disadvantage in reviewing another, if the review be not laudatory."
Despite success and renown, Bogan struggled in both her professional and romantic life, suffering depression on the divorce from her husband and the subsequent poverty when she returned to raise her daughter.
Poetry Foundation describes Bogan’s writing as of “subtle, restrained style”; “modern and emotive without being sentimental”; “immediate and contemporary”; with “a personal quality derived from personal experience, but it is not private or confessional.”
This is the quintessential Aquarian lunar temperament: one constrained by the comforts of detachment and the apparent futility of conformity; the analytical struggle of intellectualizing an emotion, and the internal conflict of being “of the time” while tempering eccentricity - for as Bogan stated shortly before her death:
"No more pronouncements on lousy verse. No more hidden competition. No more struggling not to be a square."
Louise Bogan
Bogan’s Leo Sun brought balance to her very poignant, waxing-to-fullness Aquarian Moon, and interestingly many of her poems refer to the Moon. The Leo-Aquarius axis is concerned with the tension between Self-Actualisation, Intimacy and Legacy (Leo) vs. Collective Need, Independence and the Future (Aquarius) - and for me, Bogan’s Leave Taking exudes this tension so very profoundly.
Journal: How do you balance your independence with interdependence? Is this something you consciously create within your career, family life, or creative work?
PODCAST PANORAMA
Soft White Underbelly by Mark Laita
Essentially the contemporary moving picture version of Arbus’ photography, Mark Laita’s Soft White Underbelly podcast tells the stories of society’s most fragile and misunderstood.
This is Diana’s story - and I love the title because it reminds me of my Aquarian Mother’s detached but compassionate way of conveying her truths to the many who have sought her council over the years: “It’s up to you to unf**k yourself”.
Diana’s story resonates deeply; she’s a beautiful reminder that we can all lean into the hard work of self-knowing, and indeed, grow to enjoy it as a daily process.
“I was taught love hurts you, love, love does harm, love is not there for you, love betrays you, you can’t trust it and so my relationships mirror that” - Diana
Pluto in Aquarius by Chris Brennan & Nick Dagan Best (The Astrology Podcast)
Are you fed up with the organized criminality of world governments? Do you smell revolution in the air? I do.
Pluto has moved into Aquarius. One of the most important astrology transits of the year, nay, the century. This is a fascinating exploration of the role of Pluto in Aquarius in revolutions and major technological advancements - and the “Empire’s” attempt to control them.
“I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place.”
Maya Angelou (Mars in Aquarius)
Journal: Is there somebody you have encountered in life who is utterly unconventional, very different to you, and yet, taught you something important about how you live your own life?
Within which sectors of society would you most like to see change, revolution, or reform? Does this mirror any aspects requiring change within your own life?
SOUNDSCAPES
The Youth by MGMT (Oracular Spectacular, 2007)
Spacey, indie, starry-eyed, neo-psychedelic electro-rock band MGMT are the quintessential Aquarian musicians of the month. Formed by Andrew VanWyngarden (Aquarius Sun) and Benjamin Goldwasser (Aquarius Mars) in 2002, MGMT was the soundtrack to my most rebellious years of youth.
Go on, have a little sway as you catch the wave of nostalgic remembrance for your youthful yearnings - they can still come true, you know.
I.C.Y.M.I
Here’s last month’s Red Tent Dream Scape for the New Moon in Capricorn…
Retreat. Regenerate. Rebirth. Xx
Hello, Hello There!
I’m Sarah Griffin, this is Griff-in-Theory. Irish Vilomah, ex-pharmaceutical scientist, creative and inquisitive spirit, lover of both the macabre and the mystical. This is a space for pondering, so I would love to hear your ponderings in the comments.
Another enlightening and beautifully written post! Thanks