by Robert Wilkinson
The Full Moon at 19 Aries-Libra has overall great aspect activity promising a lot of good, even though there will be continued polarization, and The Grand Irrationality is front and center! Welcome to the edge of major choices and changes resulting from what's emerging from the cocoon.
This continues a pattern of Lunations triggering the Grand Irrationality. Last month the Sun biseptiled Pluto; this month the Moon septiles Neptune. So it's more of the same of what we've been dealing with since all the planets from the Moon through Jupiter crossed the Aries zone of the Grand Irrationality, followed by the June 2011 Solar Eclipse in the Gemini zone. At least we're done with the Cardinal T-squares for a while!
Despite things still feeling like they're on a hard edge of change, due to numerous favorable aspects we'll all stabilize, understand, harmonize, and specialize in many ways, with gifts to be had and the ability to make progress despite headwinds.
We're going to restructure our responses in the houses where this Full Moon falls. While the Lunation itself involves oppositions to the Sun, Saturn, and Mercury, these will merely focus the more powerful Sun conjunct Saturn while quintile Pluto. This is high concentration, specialization, focused reorganization along more productive and/or important long term responsibilities, and the Light of "inherited wisdom."
The Moon septile Neptune shows a turning point in collective consciousness, where the Aries energies of Spring 2011 will acquire significant forms of long duration. Neptune is on its stationary degree of the "Butterfly emerging chrysalis," showing humanity is now moving into a greater self-renewing "emanation." This will bring a greater Faith and promise about whatever emergent reality we've confronted since Spring, as well as a larger view of a significant form of that reality. There's more on the larger Neptune influence at this "cusp of the Age" downstream a bit in this article.
Faith is one of the main keywords for what we'll confront these next two weeks. Basically, the Beauty we've embraced will show us a greater Faith, or the Faith we're demonstrating will show us how beautiful we are. Our Souls will definitely speak in some way!
Right now the 7 "hot zones" of the Grand Irrationality are around 5-6 Capricorn, 27-30 Aquarius, 18-21 Aries, 10-13 Gemini, 1-4 Leo, 22-25 Virgo, and 13-16 Scorpio. As you know, these zones shift slightly with each movement of Neptune or Pluto, so really if you have a sensitive planet or point near these zones, it's definitely affecting you!
Remember that the qualities of any Full Moon express whatever new directions we were shown at the New Moon. The past New Moon theme involved uniting with other members of our Soul group, conscious fellowship, and/or those who share our Heart Fire. We've had some things culminate with shifts in direction as we've found a new self confidence and discipline.
Here's more about the seeds being released by the current Full Moon. Briefly, from the New Moon in Libra article covering this period,
This New Moon... triggers the on-going Cardinal T-square... and again forces us to examine our habits, how we want to feel as we move in our everyday lives, and what we do and do not care about. This involves the supply of future needs...This period involves learning techniques of balancing perspectives in how to act, and whether we should be acting a certain way or not. Here we take a new look at our attainable ideals, and find new views of opportunities to fulfill them.
Venus is conjunct Saturn in its exaltation sign of Libra, so... the coming month will be about maturing, taking responsibility, and generally finding the beauty in all experiences. Libra tends to see the beauty in people and situations, so during this time where Libra is heavily accented due to Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn all occupying that sign, take time to appreciate the beauty that's all around you!
... this will be a very naturally creative-expressive New Moon period. The T-square shows that revolution continues to be in the air, ... it will also be a great month to connect with people in pleasant circumstances, and see how to balance our lives...
This time is still one of overlapping past, present, and future, so keep seeking a healthy (and functional) way of appreciating different value systems while identifying with a larger role or life in the world. We can find a greater self-dedication, and be about our "errand of mercy" in learning how to give our world what it needs through demonstrating our gifts. Keep seeing the "plants in our garden of personality and life" that need cultivating.
We're reviewing and absorbing through indirect means the larger spiritual lessons we've been learning since the beginning of 2011. We finished our "liberating ordeal" of August, and have had opportunities to be freed from old social rigidities and find new associates with whom we can work and play. By mid-November we'll know what skills we learned in August that we'll have to use wisely between mid-November and mid-April 2012.
While September was a very solid and practical time that helped us stabilize the seeds of our future due to the very grounding and auspicious Grand Earth trine, October will help us curb certain seeds and cultivate those that offer the most promise of us getting what we need. Jupiter is now retrograding back to a trine to Pluto, This aspect will hold through March 2012, so tend your garden!
This Lunation finds the Moon at 19 Aries, making an opposition to Sun, Saturn, and Mercury. These should provide heightened awareness through getting a broader view of the Libra issues we've confronted in October. Through the balancing of views, we can find a way beyond the strife and ugliness of the landscape.
Other important forming aspects in this Full Moon chart involve Mercury conjunct Venus (out of sign while trine Neptune, and Venus binovile Mars while opposition Jupiter and sextile Pluto. This is a strong opposition-sextile-trine configuration which will bring awareness and productive understanding of the turmoil and changes set into motion in early August, as well as the recent Cardinal T-squares.
The opposition between Venus and Jupiter challenges us to hang in there and keep our eyes on the prize. Venus sextile Pluto can help us purify our relationships and attractions, where we can see how we're being led out into a larger world of more significant activity through awareness of how to use knowledge and skill to meet the demands of coming developments. Then there's the long term Jupiter trine Pluto practical stabilization of self-reorganizing seeds of change that I've explained in depth in other articles.
This configuration will help us find productivity and understanding out of the challenges we've gone through since early August. Mostly, it's the end of the inner or outer arguments against our new developing lives, where we will see how our past is feeding our present-future, so imitate the "more ideal patterns" the best you can, since it's the beginning of a new learning process.
Those with planets in the first 10 degrees of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces will be most favorably affected, as will those with birthdays in late February, late April, late June, late August, late October, and late December. Those with planets or points around 22-26 Aries, 14-22 Cancer, 20-28 Leo, 16-20 Virgo, 22-26 Libra, 14-22 Capricorn, 20-28 Aquarius, 16-20 Pisces will benefit in specialized ways, receive gifts, or find themselves in unique circumstances that are perfect for who they are or what they need.
Other important forming aspects involve Mars sextile Saturn, and Saturn quadranovile Uranus while widely trine Neptune and quintile Pluto. These show as a time of more productive building, productive expressions of the heart and/or creativity, and the need to accept the wisdom of humor as we separate from old structures that are no longer adequate to our evolving Dharma or sense of purpose.
Mercury trine Neptune will help our minds understand the larger collective field, and show us we are as surrounded by life and allies as a fish by water. This will help us know who we should be with to participate in a better "civilization," and show us what's become bankrupt since mid-June, freeing us from old burdens and pressures we no longer needed to bear. Now we can find clarity of understanding of what those "bankruptcies" were about, along with a new clarity of what type of social living is ideal for us.
Where Jupiter and Saturn are transiting is where we're getting a broader vision or a greater truth (Jupiter) and new responsibilities or a sense of purpose (Saturn.) As Venus still rules both Jupiter and Saturn, aspects made between Venus and Jupiter, and Venus and Saturn, are very powerful.
In this Lunation I've already discussed the Venus/Jupiter aspect, and Venus and Saturn make no aspect. However, as other planets aspect Venus, we can expect to see corresponding changes in our expression of Jupiter and Saturn.
Without going into depth, there is one configuration that is important, if subtle. In this chart there are both forming and separating "elftile" (11th harmonic) aspects between 4 important planets. We have Sun bielftile (65+ degrees) Mars, pentelftile (163+) Uranus, and quadraelftile (130+) Neptune, Mars quadraelftile Uranus and pentelftile Neptune, and Uranus elftile (32+) Neptune.
All of the aspects in this series involve making a leap of faith to transcend some sort of duality depending on which aspect and planets are involved. The presence of so many in this chart clearly indicates a time where we must demonstrate some sort of faith to overcome a duality involving several different life areas.
As these involve Sun, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune, you can see how it might require enlightened action or integrative practices to embrace a greater individuality within the larger collective emergent patterns. There are other possible interpretations, but for now take a look at where these planets fall in your chart to see where a leap of faith is required.
(To anticipate questions about this series, no, there is no book or work outside my own that I can recommend. What I do know about how these aspects function is entirely a product of my own research and observation over 40 years. An in-depth explanation of how these work, along with the septile and novile series aspects, will be part of the classes I offer on the Spiritual dimension of Astrology coming Spring 2012.)
Interesting separating aspects, showing things just past, include the Moon trine Mars and biseptile Pluto, and Mercury conjunct the Sun and Saturn, quintile Mars and Pluto, and in a very tight triseptile to Uranus. Finishing up, we see a separating Venus quincunx Uranus trine Neptune, Sun quadranovile Jupiter, and Mars square Jupiter.
Taken together these show many diverse areas of life where we understood how the past influences the future and so had to reorient, emotional and lifestyle decisions opening door for the future, and perceptual gifts and special talents that indicated our need for individuality within some group effort. Also adjustments in desires based in the liberating ordeals of August, gifts from the invisible realm, and relational understanding that offered us new ways to sing our song to our world.
The next two weeks is where we see a new practical ideal or wisdom, and can find power in protesting what's out of balance in forms that show a broader vista of activity and focused potency. See things symbolically, let yourself be led into a deeper "life ritual," and since what's done has already ended, see the limitless potential open as you close a door to a life that's already over.
As I've mentioned in other Lunation articles as well as earlier in this one, a major factor in this season is that Neptune now stands on "the cusp of the Age." It recently went stationary retrograde at 1 Pisces, a degree showing us where our world is at right now relative to the transition between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius. This stationary point is affecting all of us through the rest of 2011.
Neptune is now at 29 Aquarius, the degree where it will go stationary direct in early November. We've now begun a process by which humanity is beginning to break out of its cocoon, and graduate into a new realm of being. I wrote more about Neptune's shift from Pisces to Aquarius in the article Neptune Retrograde Into Aquarius - A New Look At the New Age, and am still composing more about the relationship between the end of Aquarius and beginning of Pisces. Stay tuned!
Since Neptune went stationary RX in Pisces, showing us where we're at as a global humanity as well as what we can expect from 2012 for many years to come, here's some of what I've said in prior articles about 1 Pisces:
We now can feel a vast connectedness with all Life and all Time. This degree is one of joyously rallying as we begin the closing of a long cycle. Fairness is paramount in all dealings, and with Saturn in Libra, the scales are weighing many things right now.Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, points out that the first degree of Pisces, "the cusp of the Age," is "a symbol of full maturity in (humanity's) social estate, with an emphasis on the group integrity" facilitating each to develop their special patterns. This degree is about a willingness for each of us to do our part in the larger "common ideals of a community life."
Here we refine our ambition through "a consistent generosity toward the aims of others with a real intensity of effort directed toward its own ends." The keyword is COMMERCE, and when positive, this degree "is an exceptional capacity for organizing the converging and conflicting interests of many people in practical arrangements of mutual benefit."
Mars and Pluto rule the Moon in the Lunation. They are just coming off a biquintile, showing we recently were involved in specialized interactions where we had to "let our Soul speak." The Moon separating biseptile Pluto shows recent seeds emerging that balanced our life rhythms as we closed old doors and opened new ones. It indicates that the recent decisions around these seed forms is now front and center through the Moon forming a septile to Neptune, heralding new collective developments within even larger fields of activity. Destiny is on the move, individually and collectively!
Venus rules the Sun in the Lunation. Venus is on a degree of "a true contact with inner and transcendental realms of reality," where we will find rewards from realizing our connection with a greater Universal Life. Here the Light will find its backdrop in the higher meaning and "immortal value" in each moment of living, along with a consequent enthusiasm arising from a clearer vision. Find "an unquenchable and irresistible confidence in the goodness and integrity of all things," and you'll see the light of a practical wisdom you can act from and with.
As with last month, the next two weeks offer us opportunities to move and groove through some fairly easy times and experiences to find a new rhythm of self expression through using knowledge and skill to anticipate what's coming. Though the ongoing Uranus square Pluto still shows a larger tension in the air, during the next two weeks we can get clear about the seeds of the future, and what is already left our lives. This sets up future rewards by our ability to anticipate when we'll need to be skillful, use the down times productively, and be self-initiating in our training and preparation for demonstrating our skill.
So given the recent weirdness, friction, ego crashes, and disappointments that helped show us how to let go of our lower self and embrace the fire of our Higher Self and its Truths, this Lunation should help stabilize a newer, simpler, more enjoyable way of doing our Being. This period will show us what in balance, what's out of balance, what needs to be "protested," and the deeper meaning of things allowing our Soul expression to come forth spontaneously, creatively, and naturally.
We've now in the heart of a 4 month period of deciding what parts of our gardens we want to cultivate while seeing how Nature is rewarding us for past effort. As with recent months, this period continues to help us recalibrate to balance our Soul's needs and expression freed of lower ego and its assumptions.
Follow your decisions and actions into thinking and new information and visions. Then stop to feel what you're experiencing based in those ideas, communications, and visions. It should be a good time to decide and act with purpose followed by new ways of understanding that make our activities clearer in our intention. The trick will be to learn to check in with our feelings, so they don't get neglected in the process. Feel your experience once you've learned what there is to learn, communicated what there is to be communicated, and seen what there is to see, and then allow a new fact or action to arise naturally.
This is a very active and diverse time, with the See Saw Jones pattern indicating that we have to find ways to harmonize diverse actions, ideas, and feelings. Stay centered, don't get lost in peripheral thinking or views, and see the whole picture before doing what needs to be done.
Take a larger view, stabilize what is valuable and beautiful, use your imagination, and be gently and sweetly determined to do what must be done, even if it seems to be disconnected from the defensiveness and insecurity that inevitably arises as we move from a known past into a speculative future. Keep it simple and straightforward, and move step by careful step into walking the way into a new life, while anticipating a freer, more playful life to come.
As with past weeks, the coming two weeks are about seeing the Beauty in things, and deciding to move forward with faith, idealism, practicality, and a sense of responsibility to live our "inherited wisdom." This is an anticipatory time, along with finding allies, a sense of humor, and ways to express our Soul.
We all began multiple new lines of living between March and May 2011, and the peaceful, gentle wisdom patterns we generated in May led to major releases through powerful transformations set into motion in June. While early June set forth the seeds of transformational energies leading us to strength, the second half of June revealed those transformational energies in forms of play.
July helped us perfect our expression, while setting the stage for the "liberating ordeals" of August. For those who embraced the challenge, ego props collapsed so we could be liberated from old social rigidities to make our lives freer and happier in human fellowship. Those who opened to truth and honesty now are much clearer about what is and isn't real for them.
September was a stabilizing period after major crashes, where we prepared to break free of old patterns and began to live a new life while maintaining productivity. We had to reorient, since finding ways and places of well-being through assuring future supply was the line of greatest development.
Now we find ourselves at a cosmic moment of pause which presages major change in the near future. Don't fall into distress at not knowing what's coming, and be alertly ready to act. Spirit is demanding "its full share in the privileges and rewards" of social living, so keep in mind that your interests are served only as you vigilantly work on your own behalf.
Let go of whatever has lost its usefulness, open to new potentials, and be alert to what you need to claim for yourself to further your interests. Opportunity is all around - open to it!
© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson
thanks Robert!
Posted by: Deb Marcoux | October 11, 2011 at 09:29 AM
Hi Deb - You're most welcome.
Hi all - I forgot to include that this Full Moon is the smallest of 2011, due to the distance between the Moon and the Earth. To elaborate, when the Moon is close to the Earth it's called perigee; when distant, it's called apogee. You'll recall the "Super Full Moon" back in March, named that because at 221,565 miles away, it was unusually close to Earth and therefore very large.
This one will be the opposite. From an article via MSNBC we read that "Less than 10 hours after the October full moon peaks... the Moon will arrive at the apogee of its orbit... which in October is a distance of 252,546 miles. That's only 154 miles shy of the moon's absolute farthest point from Earth it can reach."
It will appear about 1/8 smaller than the "Supermoon" of March 2011, and since it's at apogee, its motion will be relatively slow. So it will seem to be full on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, since its motion is slower than usual. Again, from the article:
"The Moon appears to go from one full moon to the next over a period of 29.53 days, known as a "synodic month." But the time that the moon goes from one perigee to the next is equal to 27.55 days, known as the "anomalistic month." So if a Full Moon coincides with perigee (as was the case last March), the following month perigee will take place about two days earlier in the calendar relative to the Full Moon. And about a half year later, the Full Moon will be nearly coinciding with its farthest point in space relative to Earth — apogee — which is what it will do on Tuesday night."
So two weeks from now, the New Moon of Oct. 26-27 at 4 Scorpio will be at perigee, but we can't see the Moon since it's too close to the Sun. Still, because it's at perigee, its speed will be very fast AND the tides will be more extreme because the Moon will be relatively close to the Earth.
Posted by: Robert | October 11, 2011 at 12:21 PM
3rd and 9th house action for me. I feel like starting a revolution in my own back yard!
Small but potent full moon. Thanks Robert!
Posted by: Kaz | October 11, 2011 at 01:36 PM
Thanks Robert, these are two great articles. Part One was loaded with great stuff as is this one.
Namaste
Posted by: Jean | October 12, 2011 at 12:56 AM
Thanks, RW.
Posted by: DJ | October 12, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Robert, do you practice Anusara??
Smiles, thanks for all you do!
Meghan
Posted by: meghan ganser | October 13, 2011 at 07:37 PM
Ahhh, distance. Zoom out. Larger picture. Clearer perspective. I like it.
Posted by: caliban | October 14, 2011 at 09:50 AM
The vortex of this grand irrationality, i had thought, eh, maybe it won't affect me, i'm doing good, i'll be OK. but no.
No. I suppose when i try to deal with it, and shove it back into my subconscious my subcon has a way of bringing it back up like a buoy and amplifying it.
What can be said about emotional conflict? How is it best dealt with if you can't resolve it through mere human means? Some days i feel like i need a super power to be able to deal with some of the things i have trapped in there. Being that I have at least 3 planets in the 12th house i feel this so negatively, because in essence I am my own undoing and i truly understand the placements of these stars in my horoscope. I wish i could change this fate that has wrought pain into my subcon. The things i deal with are so unenlightening.
Posted by: rogue12 | October 15, 2011 at 07:44 PM
Hi Kaz - Prepare, prepare, prepare!!
Hi Jean - Yes, even if they are becoming the articles so long they ate Chicago!;-)
Hi DJ - You're most welcome.
Hi meghan ganser - Not that I am aware of, though when I looked up what Anusara is, I am in agreement that this entire existence is a Leela, a playful dance of the Eternal "All-That-Is" within an ever-changing material and non-material creation leading us humans to Sat-Chit-Ananda. It would also seem that its philosophy is derived from the 2nd of the "3 Eternal Truths of Human Existence" as these have been given to humanity since the dawn of time itself, in terms of the intrinsic goodness ("beneficence") of the Eternal Principle that gives Life. And of course, you also are most welcome.
Hi caliban - Yes, we cannot get perspective about the lines on our hands when our palm is smashed up against our nose....
Hi rogue12 - Welcome back. The Grand Irrationality affects us all, since we're all in this collective field together. We can do well, or "not well," depending on our position in consciousness as we move through the weirdness. We should never shove anything back into subconsciousness, given that a major part of our training to be fully human demonstrating our Divinity is about knowing the subconscious plates that bring forth less than our ideal so that our self conscious mind can open to superconsciousness and destroy the imagery that creates suffering, both in the present and future.
We can always resolve emotional conflict through learning detachment, dispassion, discrimination, and the ability to generate the "will to good," or Bodhichitta on our own terms whenever we need to. As the great Jivanmukta Sri Yukteshwar put it, "face your fear and it will cease to trouble you." That would imply if it still troubles you, there's something you're not facing. It may also help to remember that the body, feelings, and mental constructs are impermanent, and therefore unreal. Only Love, Wisdom, and Divine Intelligence are eternal, and the "lower triad" is always subject to the movements of the "Upper Triad."
The placement of our planets never compels us to suffer in any way. That which challenges us shows us the way to serve others who also suffer those things. That which opens doors to skills and Higher Awareness shows us the way to serve others who also are on that path. That which is "unenlightened" can always be "enlightened." Just set up the 1K lights and turn them on!! Knowing the correct angles of illumination ensures no shadows!!
Posted by: Robert | October 18, 2011 at 07:38 AM
Ah, i see. Well that's not too tricky at all!
Posted by: Jacoby | February 01, 2012 at 02:10 AM