Today is a new moon. Enjoy some solitude, clean your house, and spend a few moments dreaming up some wonderful possibilities that you would love to experience in your life over the next few weeks.

A new moon occurs when the two luminaries, Sol and Luna, align in the same part of the sky. Initiating a 28-day cycle, each new moon phase gives us a fresh start. Kick a habit, plant some real or figurative seeds, write a list of goals, trim your toenails… simply make an effort through your actions to express your readiness for something new.

Today’s new moon takes place in the 25th degree of tropical Gemini. Gemini is an air sign, home to the blossoming of human curiosity and intelligence. The nature of mind is to expand wildly in all directions; exploration and discovery are the means and the end and all directions are equal in their ability to reveal new information.

Drawing from Dane Rudhyar’s Sabian symbols (a rich astrological system where each degree of the zodiac reveals a point along the journey of human experience), the 25th degree of Gemini is pictured by a gardener trimming the leaves of palm trees.

When pruning a palm tree, gardeners leave behind old, dry leaves at the top of the tree because their toughness provides protection from the scorching Sun for the tender new growth.  Even if the top layer of growth is kind of dead and ugly, its presence is necessary.

Untethered imagination and intellectual exploration are beautiful in their purity but potentially dangerous in the context of a real society. Cultural values form a protective layer, guiding the pursuit of the intellect. 

This pruning picture is especially relevant for today’s new moon, because Sol and Luna are also aligned with Mars. Mars is the essential masculine, the force that separates, cuts, defends, strengthens, vitalizes, and energizes. For the next few weeks, Mars is our blade and his slicing determines what will grow and what will not, which pieces of information in our immediate sphere are true, useful, and valuable. 

Mercury, refreshed and familiar after a recent retrograde, holds the Martian blade. Before he can excitedly slice and dice however, he must answer to wise Saturn and muse Neptune. His zippy trek slows when he meets the fog of Neptune and the weightiness of Saturn.

Choose which parts of your immediate, information-laden environment to allow to proliferate into a brilliant green. What information are we going to allow in or dispose of? What matter composes the tough, protective layer of our palm tree?

Saturn’s restrictions and obstacles will motivate our expanding minds to rise above challenges in order to grow in strength and skill.  The constant stream (Gemini) of messages (Mercury) is our immediate environment (Nature)…how can such vastness feel slow and restrictive? So many answers out there but sometimes we forget what the question was.

During this lunation, our mind is eager to learn and choose and nurture and analyze. We are curious and connected, aggressively seeking more and more and more information - wildly expanding in all directions. But there is this pull, like a gnawing, a gentle but stubborn gnawing of a familiar monster. Oh, you again!?

Saturn has dipped back into Scorpio, where he resided from October 2012 to December 2014...think back to this period of your life.

What did you commit to? Where did you grow through dedicated effort? What was delayed, restricted, challenging? Where did you mature? What sucked? What brought you that deep feeling of satisfaction?

We are going to get a refresher on those lessons and areas of life all summer, until mid-September.

To get the most out of this new moon, choose the information that you receive wisely and decisively. Be curious and open to your environment, be aware of where you need to expand your imagination (Neptune)  and where you need to be cautious and mature (Saturn).

Prune that tree but keep a layer of protection!