The New Moon occupies a distinctive position in depth-psychological literature, functioning simultaneously as an astronomical datum, an archetypal threshold, and a symbol of coniunctio. Within the astrological-psychological tradition represented most fully by Greene and Sasportas, the New Moon is the Sun-Moon conjunction at birth, marking a personality configured toward subjective, inward orientation — a seed-moment before differentiation into light. Rudhyar extends this further, situating the New Moon within a systemic dualistic rhythm in which the Moon’s innermost orbital position corresponds to radical subjectivity. Von Franz, reading through alchemical texts, treats the New Moon as the moment of complete lunar evacuation that enables coniunctio — the soul passing from Moon to Sun in a sealed, hermetic interior. Jung, in Mysterium Coniunctionis, engages the Moon’s phases principally through their moral and psychological valences in Augustine and Paracelsus, where lunar darkness connotes folly, infection, and the unconscious underside of psychic life. Moore, following Ficino, situates awareness of lunar phases — including the dark and empty New Moon — as essential to the soul’s proper timing. The central tension running through this body of work is whether the New Moon represents a dangerous void, a fertile inception, or the alchemical precondition for transformative conjunction. All positions converge on one point: the phase is not neutral — it is charged with initiatory, psychological, and cosmological significance.
This Sun-Moon conjunction is of course a New Moon, which is also a solar eclipse because they are parallel in latitude as well as conjunct in longitude.
Greene identifies the New Moon as the astronomical and symbolic condition in which Sun and Moon are conjoined at birth, amplified in this case by a solar eclipse aligned with the North Node, producing an exceptionally concentrated natal signature.
, The Luminaries: The Psychology of the Sun and Moon in the Horoscope, 1992thesis
Behind the shut door the moon receives its soul from the sun and the sun takes away the beauty of the moon, which becomes quite thin and weak. That means the coniunctio takes place in the new m
Von Franz reads the alchemical enclosed house as the moment of New Moon, when lunar emptiness makes the coniunctio possible — the solar principle infusing the depleted Moon with renewed soul.
, Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology, 1980thesis
That probably means the moon has completely waned, i. e., it is the new moon. To this the sun replies: “If you do this, and if you do me no harm, O Moon… I will give you a new virtue of penetration”
Von Franz interprets the Moon’s complete waning as the New Moon phase, the alchemical nadir at which the solar principle promises the lunar a transformed, incorruptible nature following their coniunctio.
, Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology, 1980thesis
as the transiting nodal axis returned to Leo/Aquarius… and aligned once again with the natal New Moon in the 1st house, the first film he made with his new production company hit the cinemas and was, to the astonishment and envy of his colleagues, wildly successful.
Greene demonstrates, through a biographical case study, how the natal New Moon functions as a cyclically recurring axis of destiny, activated by transiting nodal returns to produce major life manifestations.
, The Luminaries: The Psychology of the Sun and Moon in the Horoscope, 1992thesis
you were born under a New Moon, because they were conjuncting at your birth. In the following days, the Moon shows its crescent in the sky as it moves away from the Sun and begins to reflect the Sun’s light.
Greene provides the foundational technical definition of the New Moon birth phase, establishing it as the Sun-Moon conjunction and the initiating point of the entire lunation cycle.
, The Luminaries: The Psychology of the Sun and Moon in the Horoscope, 1992supporting
I can see that some of you are looking rather shell-shocked after all that technical information about progressed New and Full Moons.
Greene situates progressed New Moons within the broader interpretive framework of the lunation cycle, linking them to the nodal axis as the site where Sun-Moon coniunctio is most likely to manifest in lived experience.
, The Luminaries: The Psychology of the Sun and Moon in the Horoscope, 1992supporting
At New Moon, the Moon is at its innermost point within the Earth-orbit. At Full Moon, it is at its outermost point outside of the Earth-orbit. Subjectivity and objectivity.
Rudhyar frames the New Moon as the point of maximal subjectivity within the dualistic orbital rhythm of the lunation cycle, anchoring its psychological meaning in a systemic cosmological polarity.
, The Astrology of Personality: A Re-formulation of Astrological Concepts and Ideals in Terms of Contemporary Psychology and Philosophy, 1936supporting
the New Moon proved to be the best time to plant crops, as it produced the most abundant growth.
Cunningham grounds the New Moon’s depth-psychological significance in its ancient agricultural and intuitive associations, linking lunar inception to maximal generative potential.
, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, 1982supporting
if the ritual prescribed that the rites or magic must be performed at the new moon or at the full moon, or perhaps even at the dark of the moon, the man must curb his impatience till that time arrived.
Jung invokes the New Moon as a phase of psychic timing within ritual practice, arguing that submission to lunar rhythms — including the New Moon — disciplines the masculine will and connects it to the anima principle.
, Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984supporting
with the processes of psyche entails familiarity with these lunar phases: knowing the colors and aromas of beginning and of ending, recognizing fullness for what it is — part of a rhythm, not a goal; and appreciating emptiness.
Moore, following Ficino, argues that psychological attunement to Luna requires conscious familiarity with the full range of lunar phases, including the dark emptiness corresponding to the New Moon, as a precondition for soulful timing.
, The Planets Within: The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino, 1982supporting
with the processes of psyche entails familiarity with these lunar phases: knowing the colors and aromas of beginning and of ending, recognizing fullness for what is is — part of a rhythm, not a goal; and appreciating emptiness.
Moore (1990 edition) reiterates the Ficinian principle that lunar consciousness requires appreciation of emptiness — the New Moon phase — as intrinsic to the soul’s proper rhythmic orientation.
, The Planets Within: The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino, 1990supporting
This is the dark of the moon. A time of mystery, wonder, and terror. The witching hour when Hecate haunts the crossroads and her hounds stand guard, baying.
Nichols evokes the dark Moon — the New Moon’s nocturnal correlate — as an archetypal domain of Hecate, mystery, and psychic dissolution, treating lunar darkness as a threshold between ordinary and underworld consciousness.
, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, 1980aside
moon, month, mind and measure all belong to the same symbolism. This tells us that in some psychological sense the moon and what’s symbolized by it, namely the feminine principle, create time, measure and mind.
Edinger’s etymological analysis grounds the Moon’s phases — of which the New Moon is the initiating moment — within the symbolic complex of time, measure, and mind, underscoring their collective psychological importance.
, The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995aside