Full Moon in Capricorn

(Otherworld - Andrew Wyeth)

This is tomorrow, the 12th July, around 12:30 pm GMT.

Full moons signify culminations or endings. This particular full moon is a real exciting one, with an end-of-era feel about it. Big shifts are underway! It's a “one door closes, another door opens” scenario.

Specifically, the issues that are being wrapped up relate to old family issues, old emotional dependencies and baggage, old power hierarchies.

Some Morrissey. Don't much like this song, but it expresses the mood.

“Break up the family, let's begin to live our lives.”

Time to shut the door on something old and outworn in your life...some closet full of rotting family mementos and clothes you wore 10 years ago. Fiery new portals are opening all around: opportunities for new alliances, creativity and self-expression, fun and mayhem.

But you can't step through a fiery portal of fun and mayhem carrying all your old crap and your parents' old crap and their parents' old crap...that doesn't work.

So what is the story here? We have a cardinal grand cross again, but it's looser this time than the ones we've been dealing with all summer. So tension is still in effect, but it's starting to break up.

We also have a grand water trine involving the sun, Saturn and Chiron. It actually makes a kite formation with the sun-moon opposition as the axis.

So we are looking at jagged tension, drama and power struggles via the grand cross. But also inward emotional strength and deep feeling via the grand water trine.

Plus we have some madcap social stuff going on: Venus and Mercury in Gemini trining Mars and the north node in Libra. That's easy communication, mental energy, lots of romantic options, excitement.

All in all, a big weekend! If you have scores to settle, this is the right time to settle them. And hopefully without too much ugliness either. There'll be plenty of emotional restraint available, and shiny new doors opening for every door that's closing.

Underlining this theme of shifts and endings, we have three major shifts happening in the weeks after the full moon, leading up to a brash new moon in Leo on the 26th July.

First Jupiter switches signs, then Saturn goes direct, and then Mars switches signs. This is what I mean by new doors opening.

Let's look at these changes.

Shift 1: Jupiter moves from Cancer to Leo on the 16th July. This is huge! Jupiter has been in Cancer for a year, so the emphasis this past year has been on home and family stuff. Nurturing those closest to you, dealing with turbulent emotions, taking care of your nest, makin' babies, wiping snotty little noses, lying around on the couch eating comfort food and watching boxed sets, etc etc.

But now our faith / hope / luck (Jupiter) shifts to Leo, which is about self-expression, drama, creativity, fiery self-regard, fun.

What this means is for the next year, it's not about dealing with your crazy family and their issues anymore... We've done that for a whole damn year and now it's over for another 12 years, thank god. The emphasis for the next year is going to be on YOU and how freaking amazing and special you are. How you are making a unique work of art of your own life. That's where your luck is going to be at.

Shift 2: Saturn goes direct in Scorpio on the 21st July after a retrograde period that started in early March. Karma comes due and starts being a bitch again.

If you've done your Saturn in Scorpio work and cut away the deadwood in your life, this will probably come as a relief. If you are still hanging onto crap that no longer serves you, it will hurt.

Saturn in Scorpio is about a kind of emotional ruthlessness – with yourself first and foremost. It's about taking responsibility for your pain. There are trade-offs to be made here for the sake of survival...the stakes are very high.

It's like, if you're walking around with a gangrenous leg...you are going to have to amputate the leg, and it will hurt like hell, and you'll have to learn to live differently. But if you don't amputate, this rotten thing attached to you is going to poison and kill you. It's that stark.

For 'gangrenous leg', substitute whatever in your life you know is rotten or unsound – it could be a relationship, a habit or addiction, a way of thinking. Bite the bullet.

(That expression comes from the days when wounded soldiers were given a bullet to bite while undergoing amputations without anesthesia. Very apt here.)

Shift 3: Mars will leave Libra and enter Scorpio early on the 26th July. He has been in Libra (the sign of his detriment) since December of last year – 8 damn months already. (He usually spends around 2 months in a sign.)

This was a long time for the planet of raw male energy and war to be stuck in the sign of peace and social harmony....like forcing Mike Tyson to sit around drinking tea in a never-ending BBC regency drama. And his stay in Libra was made even more fraught by the cardinal t-squares and crosses he got involved in there. Just a very drawn-out and frustrating time.

Well anyway, that's nearly done and he's moving out... to Scorpio, which is more his style. We go from passive aggression, enforced politeness, metrosexuality and wussiness to...film noir. Mars in Scorpio is a private dick (ahem) out of film noir: obsessive, secretive, probing, boiling with concealed passion.

Here is Mars in Libra:

And this is what he looks like in Scorpio:

And I know which of the above pictures I'd be happier in, if I were Mars.

--So anyway, these big shifts are underway and you'll feel it. The full moon tomorrow represents the last stand of the issues we've been dealing with all this summer – and really since the start of the year. Look back to the new moon in Capricorn in January and think about what you've been slogging through since then. Time to draw a line under all that stuff and move on.

--OK, I could leave it at that, but I'll write a little more background on the full moon tomorrow. The sun at 20 degrees Cancer will be facing off against the moon at 20 degrees Capricorn. 

Capricorn is about the old order: the tried and true. Authority, stability, duty, responsibility, following the rules. And Cancer is about home and family, roots, nurturance, emotions, the past.

They are also about public life vs private life: Capricorn is the outward image or persona, and Cancer is the inner world. Career and worldly status vs. home and family life.

They are very 'parental' signs: Capricorn is patriarchal, and Cancer matriarchal. Ideally these polarities should work together: the point about polarities is they are two sides of the same thing, requiring each other. So Capricorn's rules and discipline can turn into cruelty if they don't originate from a Cancerian will to nurture and protect. And Cancer can get lost in emotional turbulence and sentimentality without a dose of Capricorn's restraint and pragmatism.

Anyway, Pluto in Capricorn is widely conjunct this full moon, meaning part of what's lit up here is the corruption and abuse underlying the old, patriarchal order. And the sun in Cancer is applying into a conjunction with Jupiter in Cancer, meaning truth (Jupiter) is on the private, emotional side of the equation. And these poles are bound into a grand cross involving Uranus in Aries (individual revolt) and Mars in Libra (fighting for justice).

We have been dealing with this scenario for awhile, and this is just another iteration of it. One way of translating it is to say that it represents a stand-off. The corrupt old forces of outer power / authority / respectability / status... vs. your own inner emotional truth.

Pretty tense. Again, Jupiter (luck) is on the side of the inner truth stuff, so I would pay attention to that. If you have some kind of stand-off in your life between what is expected of you, what you 'should' do and what you truly feel...well your own feelings are the thing to trust here, of course.

But with a caveat: restraint and an awareness of limits are called for. There are responsibilities to be attended to even if you don't like it.

The sun and Jupiter in Cancer are disposited by the moon in Capricorn, which represents emotional containment. Don't go spilling your messy emotions all over the place...now's not the time. Try to be realistic, pragmatic and disciplined about what you feel and what you need.

Bearing this out, we are moving into a conjunction between Mars in Libra and the north node, exact on the 14th. The story for the next few weeks is still about enacting a balance, fighting for fairness and right relationship.

A full moon is a balancing act really: you have two opposing themes (in this case Cancer and Capricorn) that must be reconciled. Hopefully in yourself: the point of all this astrology stuff is self-understanding. Otherwise you mindlessly play out one side of the equation and someone else comes along to play the other side and it's just a battle of puppets.

The real work is this alchemical thing of reconciling the opposites within yourself. This is tricky and takes a lot of awareness. And it's also always a work in progress: you have to keep at it forever. But ultimately there's no other way to be free.

With this full moon, we're dealing with these parental signs, Cancer and Capricorn, and a conflict between emotional truth and practical necessity. And then Jupiter moves from Cancer (which is about the undertow of childhood, mama and the past) to Leo (which is about the self, YOU in all your glory). And we have Saturn going direct in Scorpio, which is about the sloughing off of an old skin.

So I think the story here is about taking responsibility, becoming your own authority, your own parental figure – and that means you rely on what you know to be true deep down, not what the powers that be try to force down your throat. 

And also you get rid of the psychological baggage of the past: the stuff you can't bring through the fiery portal. Your granny's lovely tablecloths, moldering in the attic; your father's sense of inadequacy; your mother's rage; whatever. It's not yours and you don't have to carry it anymore. Something new is trying to be born - your life, maybe. 

(Yeah. Always.)

We are the sons of no-one, bastards of young!

And here is some Tsunami. I used to listen to this when I was a teenager. Sitting in my room, waiting for my real life to start - ha.  

Full Moon in Cancer

This one's at 26 degrees Cancer on January 16^th, around 5 am GMT. 

And it's...not so bad. Really, ha. It's actually sort of nice! Provided you've been doing your work.

The moon will be in her own sign of Cancer, which is a very nurturing and motherly kind of vibe. And she will have just passed a conjunction with Jupiter in Cancer the day before, which is kinda like getting a cupcake from the universe. Or a big smoochy kiss. It's a fleeting influence, but sweet. 

The moon will be opposing the sun in Capricorn, which is widely conjunct Venus: so this story is still about having rock-solid standards in love and money matters. Making sure your commitments are solid. 

So basically we are looking at a very motherly, nurturing, cupcake-bearing emotional tone opposing the cold, bedrock reality of limits and standards. You can't always get what you want...

Oh crap, I'll play the song even though it's kind of hokey. You get what you need. 

Yeah, very appropriate for this full moon. (There's even a cake on the cover of the album.) 

Mars will be exactly squaring Venus in Capricorn later on the day of the full moon...so this theme of wants vs. requirements really does seem to be what we are looking at here. Mars in Libra wants one-on-one relationship, social harmony, social justice and fairness. And Venus in Capricorn requires solid investments and security. Something you can bank on. And the moon in Cancer is about hunger and sustenance.

What do you want; what is your heart set on? And is it something that can actually nourish you, or is it junk food? It's the full moon, so you will know: the issue will be all lit-up and in your face. 

Here is a link to hexagram 27 from the I Ching. It's about issues of right nourishment. 

http://deoxy.org/iching/27

There may be something you want that you just can't have. Or something you really want that you probably shouldn't have (another cupcake maybe?)

Maybe you're emotionally invested in something that just does not work in the real world. Or maybe you're involved in some unjust relational dynamics that need to exposed and weeded out. 

Saturn in Scorpio (karma coming due, especially regarding dark collective psychological patterns) will be hitting the sun, Venus, the moon and Jupiter with beneficial aspects, and this is a very steadying influence on the emotional tone. It should be possible to cut off any toxic or unworkable patterns this full moon exposes. It should be easier than usual to walk away from temptation, to stop doing what you know is bad for you, to dissociate yourself from shitty interpersonal dynamics. 

And because Mercury is in Aquarius and sextiling Uranus in Aries...you will probably find it easy to understand, in a fairly detached way, exactly what's going on. And to articulate it brilliantly and with great clarity! To issue your revolutionary manifesto in a very electrifying yet rational way.

I think if you've been doing your work and dealing with your shit (Saturn in Scorpio again), the skies at this time will really be on your side. You'll get back some sort of solid return on investment; you'll have laid the foundations of your security...and you'll probably be feeling pretty damn ok.  

If you've been lying to yourself and others, indulging what's worst in you, attempting to nourish yourself on toxins...well you'll get a solid return on those sorts of investments as well. It's harsh, but that's just how it is.

Something I'm seeing in my own life under these skies: there is a real theme of women being fed up with deeply ingrained cultural patterns of patriarchal power and abuse, and refusing to put up and shut up anymore. It's exhilarating. 

Jupiter in Cancer is some big fat female energy. And this full moon will be conjunct Lilith, a signifier of scary, socially unacceptable female power and rage. And these points are involved in the current cardinal grand cross, which is about rotten social structures that must be changed. 

So I think for women especially...speaking out about relational injustice, even if you're initially branded a crazy bitch for it (and you probably will be), is really important. We have Jupiter (luck, blessing, justice) on our side right now and we had better use it! 

This goes for gay men as well, and men who don't buy into the patriarchal worldview. The cardinal grand cross represents a window of opportunity or a portal to a different kind of world. We can actually instigate revolutionary changes in the collective via individual action these days...and that means fighting for justice on your own home turf, in your own life. Speaking out, making a fuss, being loud and troublesome if that's what feels necessary. And also banding together with other women and like-minded men for support.

Things only change when enough individual people are willing to stand up and challenge the collective undertow...even if that means being isolated at first. We have to value our personal integrity and the truth of our feelings and intuition more than we value fitting into social structures that are inherently rotten.

Full Moon in Gemini / Uranus Direct



by Ivan Bilibin

Ok, this Gemini full moon hits exactitude at 26 degrees Gemini on the 17th Dec, around 9:30 am GMT. And then at around midnight on the 18th, Uranus goes direct at 8 degrees Aries after a four-month retrograde period (since July 17). And all this ushers in a very fraught and edgy holiday season.

Let's look at the full moon first. This one appears to be about communication, big-style. The sun will be conjunct Mercury in truth-seeking (but sometimes bombastic and verbose) Sagittarius, opposing the moon in restless, chatty Gemini.

A Gemini moon is not very emotional: it needs mental and verbal stimulation first and foremost. Witty banter, wordplay, amusement, gossip, news headlines, reality tv: it's pretty value-free. It just needs to keep jittering around from one thing to the next - to avoid boredom and stagnation.

Gemini is like the Internet: a network of loosely associated content. You can surf from one link to the next forever but you never exactly get anywhere--and that's the whole point. It's not about getting from here to there or finding meaning or seeking out capital-T Truth - that's what Sagittarius is for. Gemini is more about knitting something together: networking. And shallow as it may seem, nothing really exists outside of this networking. Our minds and lives and communities are emergent properties of the network.

So for example we have a lot of individual trades creating a marketplace, or a community's life emerging from the back-and-forth of individual conversations among people. Or the communication of neurons in the brain collectively creating a mind.

Gemini is about information, communication, commerce. Thought - but the actual physical process of thought, not the products. The leap of a signal across the neural synapse: the intangible, lightning fast transmission. With Gemini, it's not the actual message that matters but the act of messaging. The messenger isn't supposed to read the message or interpret it or act upon it, only convey it.

And this relates to the association of Gemini with twins: in order for there to be a message, there has to be a gap to be bridged: a separation. A duality or polarity, as between two neurons in the synapse. Or the cathode and anode in a battery... Duality is what calls the intermediating spark into being.

(JEDWARD BREAK!!! I'M SORRY.)

Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is represented as a winged messenger in the mythology, with a cloak of invisibility. A merchant, a trickster and a thief; volatile ('mercurial') and hard to pin down. A real jumpy, nervous, shiny chicken of a god, always rushing around on some errand or another, stopping along the way to perform random little acts of mischief.

Anyway, back to the full moon. This Gemini moon is disposited by (and in opposition to) Mercury in Sagittarius, and this is problematic for our shiny chicken messenger. This is a face-off between the need for distraction, stimulation and networking, vs. a drive for meaning and truth. And Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, is in Cancer and trining Saturn in Scorpio--so this is about a sustained, steady drive for emotional truth, deep soul engagement and opening up old emotional wounds so they can heal.

How do you jitter around at paties, relaying gossip and talking about the Kardashians or whatever...and be profound and true at the same time? It's pretty damn hard. It could wind up looking like the Jedward video above. Gemini backed up by Jupiter in Cancer: big spurts of female water & a pair of manic teenagers jumping around singing about true love.

(Ok YES I KNOW, that Jedward thing is deeply disturbing.)

Anyway it's likely people will be playing out the two polarities of this dichotomy in their interactions:

some will be jiggling from foot to foot nervously while others try to engage them in long-winded philosophical dissertations.
Some will be replying to deep and heartfelt revelations with ridiculous and inappropriate jokes.
Some will be going on internet dates and spilling their guts to uncomfortable strangers.
Some will be blurting dark family secrets at lighthearted social gatherings.
Some will be blogging about the esoteric meaning of Gemini in windy Sagittarian style, then inserting Jedward videos to illustrate.
Some will be taking absurd selfies at Mandela's funeral and they are the president of the goddamn United States, show some dignitas already please.

Etc etc.

So awkward! --And hey, what about that guy who was supposed to be doing the sign language at Mandela's funeral and it turned out he was only flapping his arms around? Amazing! That is a Gemini-Sagittarius conflict story if ever there was one. "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"...except of course it didn't involve sound or fury; it was just dumb.

Anyway, the above examples are pretty harmless and amusing...I'm trying to keep things light, Gemini-style. But Gemini is known for twisting the truth, and the truth is, this stuff isn't really light. For one thing, Mars is in Libra now - the signifier of war in the sign of social harmony - and social faux pas are a big deal. A very very big deal, as Libra moves into cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto. People will be very edgy and the consequences of breaches of social etiquette may be severe - and potentially traumatic.

And Uranus, which represents sudden shock, is going direct after the full moon, with Mars in opposition: so things can get explosive and dangerous very quickly. You do not fuck with people under these skies. And if they fuck with you...well I guess you'll have to resist the urge to annihilate them. Unless they really really deserve it, and you are willing to deal with the consequences (such as going to jail for the next 40 years).

Things can turn on a dime and get violent and out-of-control very quickly, so be careful. This is the whole holiday season we're talking about: the second half of December and the first week of January, roughly. The potential for family conflict, with Jupiter in Cancer aspecting Mars, Uranus and Pluto, is very high. There could be breakthroughs as well: big beneficial shifts in relational power dynamics. But these kind of changes don't come without discomfort, and the energies at work here look very uncomfortable.

Anyway, Happy Christmas; Happy New Year. Stay safe and take no chances. Pace yourself, make sure you get enough rest, avoid risky situations. Use your words carefully. You probably say dumb things when you're drunk; we all do. But the consequences over the next few weeks could be serious, so be careful about holiday drinking.

There is a new moon in Capricorn on New Year's Day, and it looks like a doozy. Conjunct the sun, Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn, and aspecting Mars, Jupiter and Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross. I'll write more on it later. Suffice it to say for now: things are going to change in a big way this holiday season; there's no way around it. Let's see what happens.

"May all your crises be opportunities!" sayeth thee Philosoraptor

(as he devours yr brain...)

New Moon in Sagittarius

This new moon happens at 11 degrees Sagittarius on the 3rd of December, just after midnight (GMT), and it represents a bit of emotional bouyancy and relief after months of very stark skies.

Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign symbolically represented by a centaur with a bow and arrow: a creature half-human, half-horse, shooting its intention and drive toward some far-off target. And the sign is like that: nomadic, half-wild, adventurous, unsuited to settled life. It wants space and freedom, open sky and a change of air. It is always literally or metaphorically galloping over the plains, seeking what's past the horizon; never content with staying within the staid old boundaries.

It's like this poem:

http://www.portablepoetry.com/poems/alfredlord_tennyson/ulysses.html

"I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and forever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!"

Yep, that's very Sag.

& this: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

That's the purpose, the goal. The never-ending seeking is itself the goal - each provisional goal, attained, is only a marker along the way, never the end in itself.

And notice Ulysses is totally unexcited by the prospect of hanging out with his aging wife in Ithaca and administering his domestic domain... Man what a boring-ass scene that is, when he could be out sailing off the edge of the known world. It's wonderful, isn't it? I think it is. He is unable to accept stagnation - he'd rather die.

Anyway, here are some Sagittarius keywords and phrases: restless, optimistic, outward-looking, expansive, happy-go-lucky, generous, blunt. OTT, funny, randy, full of hot air.

Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is about luck, blessings, expansion, higher education, teaching, faith. It's probably no coincidence that Jupiter (the 'great benefic' in astrology) is a gas giant, the biggest planet in the solar system, holding some of the largest moons in the system within its massive gravitational field. The four inner ones were named after some of the Roman god's multifarious sexual exploits by Galileo. Big huge randy gaseous guru planet, over-the-top everything, full of lightning and howling winds and storms the size of the Earth—it's interesting how the astrological meanings of planets line up with the actual physical objects. (Remember the meanings were devised long before the physical objects were observed via probe or telescope.)

But that line of thought would lead me into a digression I will not follow right now. (Digressions - especially philosophical ones - are very Sag too!)

A moon in Sagittarius is symbolic of a happy, roving, freedom-loving sort of emotional tone — a great need for space and broadened horizons, an emotional buoyancy. We can all use this after the difficulties of the past year — we can use a bit of a lift.

And this particular Sagittarius moon is in mutual reception with Jupiter in Cancer. This is a beneficial relationship, and the theme of emotional buoyancy is um, further buoyed up! Further inflated. It looks pretty happy and cheerful really. Nice time to eat way too many holiday snacks and hang with the fam', singing rousing holiday carols around the hearth and weeping and telling dirty jokes and shooting each other with little water pistols and whatnot.

Might as well...it's been a grindingly difficult year for so many, and the one ahead is gonna be no picnic either. This new moon is about getting a much-needed breather, a jolt of hope and fresh air and light in the midst of difficulty and darkness.

The moon and sun in Sagittarius will be trine Uranus in Aries, and this represents more uplift, more energy and future-directed hope and faith. And Jupiter in Cancer will be trining Mercury and Saturn in Scorpio: this stabilises the emotional tone and facilitates deep communication. It will very likely be possible to examine old relational patterns and emotional wounds in depth, especially family ones...and to gain some sort of freedom from them; to transcend them. People are going to be less likely to want to stay stuck in the past, dwelling on their petty little personal grievances...and this is great, needless to say. Because under Saturn in Scorpio, the weight of all that old grievance, combined with the knowledge of collective difficulty...well it can be too much. It's lovely to get a breather like this. Thanks Jupiter!

The new moon will also be squaring Chiron in Pisces, so here's the catch: this is only a breather. The awareness of pain and loss will never be far from the surface, however festive and rambunctious things may get. The undercurrents here are deep and serious, and they are not going to be going anywhere for a while.

So enjoy yourself, drink some freaking eggnog with a triple shot of rum, bask in the affection of your crazy family... and set your intentions for a cheerful holiday season. Come the full moon in two weeks, Mars will be in the early degrees of Libra, just entering Uranus-Pluto cardinal t-square territory. And then things are likely to get considerably more jagged and uncomfortable.

OK, I have another poem about this new moon. T.S. Eliot this time.

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/Ts-eliot-marina-lyrics#note-2052767

"The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships." Yep, that's it exactly.

The boat may be falling apart; forgetfulness and awareness of death ever-present. And yet there are other shores calling like birds from the fog. Very like Tennyson's Ulysses, really: an old man facing decrepitude and death, but fired with the spirit of enthusiasm and adventure nevertheless.

Well whatever rapids and whirlpools lie ahead, we can resolve to face them with that same exploratory spirit. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."




"Otherworld" Andrew Wyeth