We have two New Moons in Aquarius this year, an oddity for this oddball sign. This New Moon falls at practically the very last millisecond before the Sun enters Pisces. These are two very different signs holding very different realms of experience. Yet each connect to the other, through two archetypes: the Victim and Rebel, two energy patterns I’ve been exploring in excruciating detail in my own life, thanks to hardball Uranus-Pluto transiting my Aries Moon.

The Rebel needs oppression, something or someone (aka the Tyrant) that limits our personhood and freedom, to spring to life. Boundary violations trigger the Rebel; so can injustice, dishonor, disrespect. The James Dean that lives inside each of us, The Rebel -and the anger, injustice and intolerance it generates- can save us from situations and people that ultimately hurt us. A friend, spouse, job, our parents or marriage can turn into the Tyrant, our freedom-stealing jailer, from which we must break away from to claim our authenticity and selfhood. But sometimes the Rebel, nursed too long on injustice and a sense of disempowerment, becomes an Extremist. Like a terrorist hi-jacking our emotional life, and using anger and outrage to generate energy and protect our self from what was once a perceived threat but is now only an echo of that threat, we can get used to outrage as a way of life. Stay in Rebel too long and instead of forward-moving energy, our reaction to personal affront creates a false similar, feeding our Ego, draining our adrenals and life force faster than a cup of coffee.

The Victim is the archetype made up of dis-spirited attitudes, often arising from disempowering situations. “No one cares.” “I’m an alien in this strange world.” “I’m invisible.” “I don’t matter.” “I’m the victim of a system or XYZ -that won’t change.” The hungry, the sick, wounded, weak are easy to recognise, here, those who deserve our compassion. It’s sexier to be the Rebel, of course.  America loves Rebels; our country was founded on rebellion, so has a clear preference for the Revolutionary, Exile and Outcast – variations in the same Aquarian tribe. The last thing The Rebel wants to be is The Victim, but there they are, sitting side-by-side on the zodiac wheel, and in our psyches. Martin Luther King Jr. had the voice of a Rebel (Mercury in Aquarius) but with Venus and Moon in Pisces, the rabbit hole of disempowerment was one of the many choices within his reach.

Our emotions can control us, limiting our freedom and our ability to take action in our lives, in invisible ways. I remember one profound moment I made the decision to move from Victim to Rebel. I was twenty years old. I had been unable to work, go to school or do much of anything for two years, and (with the help of astrology) began connecting the dots of my inability to heal to dysfunctional, codependent family dynamics, I rebelled. I got angry, mostly with my mother, but my wrath was indiscriminate for awhile. It was a great survival strategy, a solid decision. I needed to rise up against my oppressors. But The Rebel cannot go on like this forever without burning itself out in a fiery flame, and everyone and everything it touches. Eventually I had to change – to soften, forgive and find balance.

Look around your world: Do you surround your self with Victims or Rebels? How is your relationship to them serving you?  Can you identify The Victim and The Rebel in your emotional attitudes, and at work in your life? We certainly need more conscious, empowered Rebels right now (not angry Extremists). And we need to look at all the whys and hows of our inner Victim. How these attitudes run like a forgotten computer program in the back of our mind, influencing us. Why we refuse to find a constructive use for our emotions and circumstances, choosing to complain, feel hopeless, lost, weak and defeated instead. The Sun may be diving directly into the waters of consciousness, Pisces, but this second Aquarius New Moon can help us truthfully pinpoint stagnation in our lives, those habitual emotional patterns that keep us from freedom and empowerment (Uranus-Pluto). Which is why, I imagine, the Universe thought we could use two.

image source: rebelology.com.au