Full Moon in Cancer

photo by Samuel Aranda

This is tomorrow: Thursday, the 12th January, 11:34 am GMT.

OK, it looks painful and shocking.

I haven't been a big fan of these Cancer full moons, the past few years – despite the fact that the moon is at home in Cancer, her own sign.

The problem has been the now finished (but still potent) Uranus-Pluto square. Having these jolting, ruthlessly transformative energies hitting that soft, gushy, moody Cancer moon is just a recipe for hurt feelings, destructive outbursts and emotional trauma. Especially family trauma.

That's what we're dealing with here. Be nice to your mother please - she's under a lot of pressure.

The chart of this full moon is a cardinal grand cross, an intensely uncomfortable aspect pattern that demands change. The aspects are very tight. And our sensitive Cancer moon is under heavy fire from Uranus in Aries (rebellion, abrupt change), the sun and Pluto in Capricorn (illumination of structural rot) and Jupiter in Libra (the need for justice and balance, especially in close relationships).

Jupiter in Libra may sound like a benign influence, but if you keep in mind that Jupiter magnifies whatever he touches, you are looking at some potentially over-the-top emotional reactions here. Also power struggles, and abrupt relationship changes and re-balancings. Plus some cruelty, courtesy of Mars square Saturn. All in all, it's not pretty.

But at best, this looks like a necessary catharsis to me. Mars is applying toward conjunction with Chiron in Pisces (exact on the 17th January), and Mars and Chiron beneficially aspect the full moon. This is a big emotional outpouring – a bloody mess, basically – that must be acknowledged. You're allowed to feel hurt, to cry and to mourn your losses. It's not self-indulgence but emotional necessity.

Turning pain into art – or faith, or boundless compassion for all suffering – is also an option, with Venus exactly conjuncting Neptune in Pisces for this full moon. This is a beautiful, gentle, dreamy influence. Unfortunately it can also translate into romantic delusion and victim-saviour dynamics in relationships – but given the harshness and violence of this sky, I think it's nice to have so much soothing Pisces action going on. It's anodyne; it softens the blow.

We had a coldly realistic new moon in Capricorn a couple weeks back. It was not a feel-good scenario, but I did think it was a flash of illumination about the road ahead. Now at this full moon in Cancer, the view comes clear – we see exactly what we're dealing with and what must be done. Again, it is not a feel-good scenario. It's ugly. But it is workable.

Mercury is direct again, trining the north node in Virgo, and about to enter no-nonsense Capricorn a few hours after the full moon – and all this speaks of sober, bleak, no-nonsense insight that can be directed with immense practicality. You know the stark truth now, so what are you going to do? It's pretty clear you can't keep doing what you've been doing.

The cardinal grand cross denotes forced change. We are not going to be able to sail through this without adapting to radically changed circumstances. There is no pretending the changes away. They have to be worked with, and it hurts. The future isn't what we thought it would be.

But all the Pisces stuff in the sky says: at least we can try to be compassionate and kind to each other, and have faith that this mess serves some larger design. Jupiter in Libra adds that we should strive to stay fair, diplomatic and balanced, and to be generous in our dealings with others. And Mercury in Capricorn and the north node in Virgo are advising absolute pragmatism: doing what needs to be done to adapt, whether you feel good about it or not.

New Moon in Capricorn

This is tomorrow, the 29th December, around 7 am GMT.

We have a lot going on in the sky heading into this new moon. Today (the 28th) in particular, is an important day. Today Uranus stations direct in Aries in exact opposition to Jupiter in Libra, and in tight trine to Saturn in Sagittarius. Plus Saturn squares Chiron in Pisces. Plus retrograde Mercury conjuncts the sun in Capricorn.

This symbolism here is of illumination – hidden truth coming to light, or a flash of insight that lights up the road ahead. As Mercury is retrograde, you will not have all the information, so don't make the mistake of thinking you do. (That will come later, as Mercury stations direct and moves to conjunct Pluto in January.)

What you will have is something solid to go on – a hunch that'll lead in the right direction. There will be practical things you can do with it, and your next steps will probably be quite clear.

Because this Mercury retrograde is so tied up with Pluto, what's revealed might be uncomfortable and ugly. With Saturn squaring Chiron, it could bring hopelessness and a painful awareness of limitation. And with Mars conjunct Neptune on the south node, it might feel easier to get drunk or take refuge in fantasy than to deal with what's happening. This is not exactly a feel-good new moon.

But it's better to know the reality than to be left in the dark – because then you can start taking practical steps and figuring out how to work with the situation. We are not eating pie in the sky in cloud cuckoo land here. It's just a shit sandwich on Planet Earth and we have to try to make the best of it.

As Mercury is retrograde in cautious, sober Capricorn, the appropriate response to new ideas or information right now is not a headlong rush to action. It is calm and quiet and industrious – focused on pragmatic, strategic structural changes and adjustments.

The new moon trines the north node in Virgo, which helps!  Rome wasn't built in a day – it took a lot of little steps. Virgo is all about the little steps.

Here is hexagram 53 from the I Ching – it feels relevant to this new moon. It concerns the need for gradual progress in order to build something of lasting value.

Please don't be discouraged if the road ahead looks long and hard! “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”, per Martin Luther King. It's a very Jupiter in Libra sentiment – faith (Jupiter) in balance and justice (Libra) – and it's the way to go right now.

We will need more than faith though; we will need effort. I think this new moon looks fantastic as a scenario where faith and committed effort come together, along with righteous anger and the desire for change.

We do have a Mars-Neptune conjunction at this new moon, exact on New Year's Day and very close to the south node. So discouragement is definitely an option – dissolution of energy and will. This can be about illness, exhaustion and vulnerability to drugs, alcohol and delusion. Careful with all these things, please. The boundary-dissolving substances are especially dangerous this month.

That said, the Mars-Neptune conjunction beneficially aspects this new moon. What this says to me is that disillusion and disappointment can act as a spur here, and not as a swamp you get stuck in. It's when our illusions drop away that we're most capable of working with reality as it is.

I think the key to this new moon – and to the month ahead – is Uranus, planet of shock and revolution, stationing direct NOW in Aries, sign of anger and individual will.

Change is demanded. We are not going back to the old realities; we are creating radically new ones. New models of relating, new ways of making a living, new values, new visions of the future, new political groupings, new modes of protest and collective action – everything has to change, and all the old tried-and-true stuff we took for granted is just not gonna work anymore.

This kind of structural change is not going to happen overnight. But here at this coldly realistic new moon in Capricorn is where we get a sense of the road ahead - an intuition of what's possible - and start plotting our next moves.

The time to start implementing changes will come soon, as Mercury stations direct on the 8th January.

We'll have a stomach-churning full moon in Cancer on the 12th January. It looks tense, and I'll write about it closer to the time. I don't think the month ahead looks emotionally easy at all! But it does look great for gaining clarity about the road ahead, putting necessary changes in place, and getting things done.

It's a good time to make your New Year's resolutions. I think, make them wilder and stranger this year than you've ever dared. Why the hell not? Happy new year to all!

New Moon in Capricorn

see here

This is tonight, the 10th January – around 1:30 am GMT.

The holiday season happens while the sun is in Sagittarius, which is about bounty, jollity and excess (among other things). But a new moon in Capricorn signals the end of the festivities. Time to take the shiny decorations down and get back to work.

Capricorn is about sober reality, discipline and achievement - so it makes sense that we start implementing our New Year's resolutions around this time. It's when we set intentions for the year ahead, and embrace austerity after the excesses of the holidays.

This return to sobriety is especially in evidence this year, with the sun and moon conjuncting Pluto, which speaks of deep, focused intent and a will to transform.

Also, we have Mercury retrograding through Capricorn, and this is about serious mental consideration. Mulling things over, seeing reality with sharp clarity. Communication that cuts to the bone.

And Saturn – Capricorn's ruler – is conjunct Venus in Sagittarius. This is about limitation and commitment in love and money matters. With Saturn and Venus in Sagittarius, a sign that loves freedom – and also squaring Neptune – there may be a longing to bolt, to escape, or to blot reality out altogether. Keep in mind that escape is not actually a viable option here. You have to work with what is being presented to you; there's nowhere to run.

Bearing this out: Saturn in Sagittarius is disposited by Jupiter in Virgo, which just went retrograde yesterday – and is conjunct the north node in Virgo.

Saturn and Jupiter are basically opposites. Saturn is about contraction, focus, duty, limitation – while Jupiter is about expansion, exuberance, fun and hope. What we are looking at with this new moon is a deep and intense focus on the Saturn side of the equation – while Jupiter's influence is blocked. In other words, party time is over. There are deep and intense burdens and commitments to be taken on, and you'd best put your head down and get on with the work. No escape.

There is just a hell of a lot of blockage, restraint, discipline and focus on the small-picture stuff here. It might feel tremendously heavy and depressing and bleak. On the plus side though – there is the power to see clearly and get things done. And with Pluto and Uranus involved (Pluto conjunct the new moon, Uranus squaring) – there is the potential to restructure things at a deep level.

Maybe your finances are shot to hell, and you have to do some serious belt-tightening. Or maybe your liver is shot to hell and/or you need to start a new health regimen. Maybe you're doing the dry January thing – and with headlines like this, we're being frightened into collective sobriety this new moon.

Or maybe it's time to commit to a new project or to a relationship, or a career change, or whatever.

Whatever you're taking on, rest assured there is plenty of follow-through available. Capricorn is about perseverance. You keep at something despite the obstacles (which often have a lot to do with your own fears), until it is achieved.

But the only way out is through.

Full Moon in Cancer

This is on Christmas day, around noon GMT.

The sun will be at 3 degrees Capricorn, the moon at 3 Cancer.

The Cancer-Capricorn polarity is about home and family life (Cancer) vs. outer achievement, career and persona (Capricorn). Private vs. public; the inner, emotional life vs. the outer persona. Vulnerability vs. control.

The moon is in her home sign in Cancer, so she's comfortable there. Plus she'll be well aspected at the full moon: harmoniously aspecting Neptune (compassion, emotional openness) and Mars (great emotional energy and force). So it might actually be possible to get along with your crazy family on this holiday so fraught with family tension.

I hope so. Best wishes to all.

But here's the inevitable doom part: Uranus and Pluto are squaring each other tightly, and Uranus will go direct later Christmas night – just as the moon moves into Cardinal t-square territory against those two heavies.

Be prepared for some kind of emotional eruption or jolt. Uranus direct provides the zap, and Pluto the deep, manipulative nastiness. Mercury in Capricorn is involved, so very harsh words may be said. Mars in Libra is also involved, amping up the irritation.

This comes post-Christmas dinner, when everyone's sitting around all semi-sloshed after their sherry trifle, exhausted from the effort of trying to stay civil. Perfect time for some nasty barb to be flung, or for some deep dark family secret to be aired.

This fraught atmosphere continues into the day after Christmas, as the moon moves to square Mars in Libra and oppose Mercury. Fighting words, words that can deeply wound.

Three of swords

I am not trying to be negative here – this is a heads-up. If you're aware this is the atmosphere, you can hopefully do something to mitigate it.

In this case, I think the best way to mitigate it is represented by Jupiter and the north node nearing conjunction in Virgo. Humility and attendance to little details; serving others. You could go into the kitchen and do the dishes. You could put all the leftovers in little goddamn color-coded Tupperware containers. You could bring the dog for a walk.

Mercury in tight-lipped Capricorn will also be harmoniously aspecting Jupiter, the north node and Venus – you can use this to communicate truthfully, practically and with kindness. Or you can just tell a lot of terrible jokes – this looks like a good influence for terrible jokes. Mercury in Capricorn has a way with deadpan absurdity.

Anyway, if you can't say anything funny (or helpful, or practical, or healing), you don't have to say anything at all. There's just no point.

There is the potential for truthfulness and deeply comforting talk with these aspects – but there's also a lot of emotional upset going on. So things could go either way – or both ways. With Uranus direct, you can expect some kind of shock. It might be liberating, if you keep it in perspective. But with the moon (emotions) under fire, it's likely to register as hurtful.

Regarding perspective (a theme now, with Saturn in Sagittarius): it has been a hell of a year, so maybe cut people some slack.

The calendar year kicked off with an incredibly intense full moon in Cancer on the 5th January, and the moon's monthly transits of Cancer since then (and really for a few years previous), have been a recapitulation of that energy – another kick to the gut, more or less – as she squares Uranus (shock) and opposes Pluto (death).

The final exact pass of the Uranus-Pluto square was back in March – so we are standing in a changed landscape now, for better or worse. There isn't any going back to how things were.

And then we had Saturn in Scorpio for 3 months this year, dragging us through some dark psychological debris. There isn't any unknowing what we've learned.

And then, late last month, we had the first round of the Saturn-Neptune square we'll be dealing with for the next year. The scales have fallen from a lot of eyes; the ground is dissolving beneath a lot of dreams.

There isn't much energy left for bullshit. It's safe to say, astrologically this has been a heavier year than most, and people are tired and shell-shocked. For many it's been hellish. Full of great gifts and surprises, sure – but the losses and betrayals have a way of impacting us harder.

And now the year is ending with another Cancer full moon on Christmas day, a day that holds the accumulated ghosts of Christmases past. It's bittersweet – an emotional summing-up of what this year has meant.

So I guess...the kinder we can be with each other, the better. The humbler and more honest we can be, the better. No one has had it particularly easy, and no one needs any more nastiness at this time.

But the nastiness will probably be pretty easy to come by. Easy to fall into, in a reflexive, emotionally reactive way.

Relationship planets Venus and Mars are both in signs where they don't function well: Venus in nuke-em-all Scorpio, Mars in passive-aggressive Libra. And the moon is under fire in Cancer, as we've seen.

And the south node – the place this story will tend to get stuck – is in Pisces. Which means it's much easier to sit around feeling depressed and victimised then to focus on what we can do practically to help others. Even though helping others and being grounded and practical is the exact way out of this morass of self-pity and chaotic emotion.

Granted, some scenarios have become untenable. There are some people you just don't need to have dealings with, whether they're family or not. If they're family, it makes everything harder – you might just have to suck it up and humour them this Christmas, but it sure doesn't mean you have to do it the rest of the time.

Hell, they might not like you either. Big deal – not everyone has to like each other.

Anyway, a shift is coming. Venus leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius on the 30th December, and this should lighten the relational friction up considerably. And then Mars moves to Scorpio, a sign he rules, on the 3rd of January.

And we will also have every planet in the sky moving direct! For the brief window between Uranus direct on Christmas till we start a Mercury retrograde on the 5th January – and then a Jupiter retrograde on the 7th – everything will be moving forward. So it's full speed ahead. New horizons are opening up.

So whatever emotional claustrophobia is going down this Christmas – remember it's fleeting. It's just a mood! Better days are coming. And you don't have to let yourself be dragged into it. You can go out to the kitchen and sort the recycling or something. Or make everyone watch “Airplane”.