by Robert Wilkinson
The recent Full Moon Eclipse at 6 Taurus-Scorpio opens two weeks of stabilized, productive focus, while shutting down many old magnetics over the next 4 months that will yield a year of eliminating old wisdom forms and introducing new ones. This one takes us into a new way of interacting with others, where we master discouragement, see how to join others to overcome a problem or lack, and will be able to get to the heart of any matter pdq.
As noted in other articles, this is the second of the "Three High Moons" of Spring. This is where the life force poured out into the natural world at the Full Moon of Aries/Libra becomes manifest in a concrete wisdom form, being prepared to be radiated into the world via the World Teacher at the Full Moon of Gemini/Sagittarius, also coincidentally a Lunar Eclipse.
This period finalizes letting go of things we cannot bring with us into the new life we’ve already begun. Many things are in motion right now, with visions, truths, opportunities, and potentials born in the Spring of 2011 now boosted in energy and given concrete substance.
This Full Moon Eclipse Wesak Wisdom seems to involve mobilizing for some form of gain or increase through “cheerfully balancing a mountain of baggage.” Abundance is ours to the degree we have cleared out the ghosts of the past and are willing to break free of something known and familiar.
As most of you already know, forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already in the past. This Full Moon Lunar Eclipse has a wide variety of different forming aspects, both frictional and harmonizing. The favorable aspects are in command, with lots of sextiles, trines, and a quintile assisting the oppositions to find productive, harmonizing, and specializing manifestations. This is about finding stabilized forms in harmony with the deepest power of attraction and flow to steer some very dynamic and forceful energies.
Of note, we have very strong favorable forming aspects (If we include the opposition as offering us power and awareness) from planets between 2 and 13 degrees of Water and Earth signs, with Venus being the dominant force due to being in its home sign of Taurus and the dispositor for all the other planets except Neptune. If you have any planets or an angle between 2-13 Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, or Pisces, you should have a time of major increase and productivity.
The Scorpio-Taurus oppositions are harmonized through a very favorable sextile and trine to Pluto, opening a way to feel our way to understanding how the past is giving up its life to feed our future as we search for elementary understanding allowing us to go deeper into our search for a Life Mystery at 12 Cancer set into motion last month. The next two weeks, 4 months, and wisdom-year will bring great revelations based on what’s been given up, what’s been lost, and what ghosts we’ve chosen to leave behind during the past two years.
This configurations includes the vast majority of the forming aspects. Besides these, other forming aspects include Moon triseptile Uranus and trine Chiron, Mercury semisquare Neptune, Venus quintile Neptune, Sun novile Jupiter and sextile Chiron, Mars in its own separate opposition-sextile-trine with Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto, Jupiter triggering the Grand Irrationality through its biseptile with Neptune, the re-emergent Saturn triseptile Uranus and trine to Neptune, and the ever present Uranus square Pluto that is keeping the hard edge of our times front and center for the next 3 years.
While I can’t explain all of these, the most important of these are (in no particular order) a) the Moon conjunct Saturn triseptile Uranus, b) the Grand Irrationality, c) the Mars configuration, and the d) Mercury semisquare and Venus quintile to Neptune. In general Saturn trine Neptune helps us master discouragement through radical compassion by digging deeper into the root causes in the causes of what discourages us, and through spurring us to search for understanding, we’ll figure out an emotional stability by July that will serve us in the future.
The first of these four involving Moon, Saturn, and Uranus opens major hot spots of revolutionary choices and changes for those with planets or points around 5-10 Scorpio, 27 Sagittarius-2 Capricorn, 18-23 Aquarius, 9-14 Aries, 1-6 Gemini, 23-28 Cancer, and 14-19 Virgo. If any of these are important in your chart, this Eclipse will shut down something related to that over the next 4 months while opening new magnetics, feelings, duties, and ways to express your individuality.
The Mars configuration boosts the general power of the Lunation opposition while forming a sextile to Neptune, helping intuitive and/or compassionate action. This is very productive in promoting the flow of things into simple and satisfactory forms, and those who are in tune really will find “a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” This will be in effect for many months, so enjoy navigating the fogs to find your abundance!
Mercury semisquare Neptune may bring confusion. This is a signal that we need to move into pioneering views and interpretations. Venus quintile Neptune should be very sweet for those with planets near 1-6 Pisces, 13-18 Taurus, 25-30 Cancer, 7-12 Libra, and 19-24 Sagittarius. Enjoy the gifts!
There is also a need for regarding this time as a long wave experiment, learning the natural laws behind what’s happening. Search for the mystery, find a way to dig deeper for knowledge while also moving into unknown zones, and remember you’re moving into a new law of life.
It’s important to note that Full Moons heighten feelings, due to the opposition of the Moon and the Sun. This particular Lunation has the Moon conjunct Saturn opposed to the cluster of planets in Taurus, setting multiple house rulers into polarization, opposition, realization, and awareness. This one really does require that we learn how to resolve “the tension of opposites” in our existence. Of course, those who succeed at that will find radical Illumination accordingly.
Mars leads the Sun in the Lunation, showing it’s time to get it in gear and mobilize! Action will be front and center, so slow down a little and try to be pleasant even in the face of “bull in the china shop” people and situations. It also will bring power to prior sextiles and trines to Neptune that set larger harmonious and productive patterns into the subtle atmosphere.
Is The Grand Irrationality A Major Factor in this Full Moon?
As noted, the Grand Irrationality is still in motion at this Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, due to Jupiter. And of course, it’s been in full swing in April through the transits in the Aries zones. Any time the Grand Irrationality is triggered, big “forks in the road of destiny” happen. This is now setting many things into motion directly related to the on-going endings set into motion in June 2011 that have been a constant since then.
To remind you, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave irrational atmospheric field generated at this time in history. It began around 1992-1995, and will last a few more years.
It’s why there’s such a hard edge to things, and a lot of obsessive-compulsive behavior dominates in society. Certainly there’s much that makes absolutely no sense right now. At this time, the seven hot zones most impacted by the Grand Irrationality right now are 9-13 Capricorn, 1-5 Pisces, 23-27 Aries, 14-18 Gemini, 6-10 Leo, 27 Virgo- 1 Libra, and 18-22 Scorpio.
To learn more about this long wave configuration associated with the ongoing weirdness and hard edge to everything in our world, please begin with Our Larger Reality At the Edge of the Age of Aquarius – Dealing With The Global Weirdness of The Grand Irrationality. If you don’t know what this is about, please check it out. And if you do, well, keep surfing the wave!
So Just What Was the New Moon Theme for this Period?
Remember that the qualities of the Full Moon express whatever new directions we were shown at the previous New Moon. You will recall its theme was about finding illumination learning to generate power, and move quickly into new ways of living and doing our Being. We’re rapidly finishing up dealing with the “ghosts of the past,” and will be done with this end game by June 2013.
From the New Moon articles:
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Aries indicates a time of great power, where the momentum will throw us into new paths, new lives, and new initiatives as Mercury finishes up the dream time. And yes, the Grand Irrationality is fully active, throwing everyone into major choices and changes!This New Moon in Aries is active, quickening, one-pointed, and will jump a lot into high speed motion, so expect things to develop faster than you imagined! This is the final “purging of the old way,” and opens the door to great power and concentrated doses of spiritual energy. Finding an intuitive, forgiving, and/or compassionate view, understanding, or way of coordinating events is crucial in knowing what to do and when.
This New Moon is dynamic, active, and is fairly focused and concentrated in its effects. We can expect huge new developments wherever we have Aries in our charts, so get ready to generate power, follow through on whatever is fulfilling itself, and welcome the powerful new spiritual energies pouring into our minds. Be receptive to having your mind shaped by spiritual energy, and you will reap “good fortune” to the degree you put forth the correct effort at the right time.
This New Moon will show us how to generate power on the physical plane. This activates everything that’s been building since April 2009 that opened up between May 2010 and Jan 2011, initiating a new chapter of life for almost all of us. This is a “firm quickening,” so follow “the God within” and get it in gear!! Because it's so strongly action oriented, be patient as you push the rapidly ending past into a rapidly developing future.
The general theme is that we are moving into a greater group awareness and function, and can now “master discouragement” while clearing out the last “psychic impurities” in our consciousness. Here we can see things differently, and begin to generate power while following through on whatever has begun. This will lead all of us to “concentrated doses of spiritual energy” that will ultimately teach us a “technique of transcendence.”
Through past understanding and practice, we have begun to demonstrate a higher level of social functioning. Ultimately, over the next few weeks we continue to let go, say goodbye, see what’s permanent, what’s temporary, and our connection with those in our Spiritual group, whether visible or invisible.
Here’s more:
A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following 4 weeks will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 21 Aries. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.The symbol is “A pugilist entering the ring.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Complete immolation of self in things purely physical” and “intense self-assertiveness, physical and psychological.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves "the release and glorification of social aggressiveness.” He states this degree shows us “potency glorified as … strength and will-to-power,” and relates to “survival of the fittest” related to recognition or a form of wealth. He invokes the symbol of the Tao, where in rotation first one side is on top and then the other side is on top, reminding us that “Victory is always temporary in a dualistic world.”
He continues that this symbol “reveals (a person’s) deeply rooted feeling of admiration and envy for whoever can generate overwhelming power.” He says it falls in the span of Examination, and it’s the first degree of the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Potency in the Act of Differentiation. So for this month we’re being taught how to generate a new form of social or emotional power through self-assertion, and remember to be patient as the wheel turns between this direction and that. Time to “just do it” over the next 4 weeks.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “a complete lack of personal sensitiveness,” where there are “raw elements of experience” that lead us to self-realization. He offers that we need to demonstrate “full confidence in (our) own powers,” as we find the appropriate audience for offering the world our “major fruits of achievement.”
He continues that this symbols shows us “a need to be up and about the business of life. He offers us the keyword of EXERTION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “a mobilization of the self’s capacities in a concentrated attempt at self-establishment.”
So we enter a time of intense activity where we demonstrate our powers in raw situations. This is about a type of social or emotional potency expressed in some basic form of life activity. Concentrate your efforts and follow through on whatever you need to do, quickly, gracefully, patiently, with an eye to the spiritual reunions shown by this Lunation. The next 4 weeks are purifying, closing, proving, taking heart and finding courage, and accepting the concentrated doses of spiritual energy now blowing into the open windows of our minds.
As with the New Moon, the overall planetary pattern is a “Bucket” Jones pattern, with the Moon and Saturn as the nozzle, or handle. While it’s highly unusual to have two planets as a handle (since ordinarily it would become a See Saw), I’ll explain in the next paragraph.
So What is a “Bucket Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets in about half the signs with one (in this case two very close together) outside that span wide enough to be a handle, creates a “Bucket” Jones Pattern. The energies of the occupied half are focused through the “handle,” or “nozzle,” in this case the Moon and Saturn, said to be the “focal determinators.” The handle represents the way to greater effectiveness, the cause to be embraced, the lack to be filled, or the way to use the total energies of this time in a focused manner.
Dr. Jones states “the bucket type indicates a particular and rather uncompromising direction in the life effort.” This pattern gives “interest in a cause,” with executive tendencies that will adapt allegiances to maximize results of the effort. He says “the bucket type at its best reveals the real instructor and inspirer of others, and at its worst the agitator and malcontent.” This is the larger planetary pattern within which we’re all trying to do what we do.
We are also told this pattern is more about finding an effective release for energy within social settings, but also about the self imposing its pattern on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So given the handle builds through Capricorn and Pisces, we should be able to find some sort of blended Lunar-Saturn focus over the time this Eclipse is in effect. Again, that will be very beneficial for those with planets between 3-14 degrees in Earth or Water signs.
With 4 planets in Earth, 3 in Water, 2 in Fire and 1 in Air, we have an emphasis on feelings and practical matters, with a good dose of inspiration, but not much in the way of ideas and relationships. There is a deficiency in Air, showing relatedness and mental questing must come from within rather than external events. Since Air and Earth are “cool” elements and Fire and Water are “hot” elements, things may be a bit more emotional and practical over the next two weeks.
More on how Uranus Square Pluto Is Ramping Up Radical Energies!
As I’ve mentioned off and on over the past 2+ years, (and earlier in this article!), we’re all learning to manage the “out of control” energies of Uranus square Pluto. I’ve discussed this aspect at length over quite a few articles in the archives. Use the site google box to find out more about this years’ long disruptive revolutionary influence. Welcome to the 21st century of upheaval, transformation, and titanic collisions between a new world being born and an old age that’s digging in even as it’s dying.
That square represents the ongoing revolution of our times, with innovations and pioneering energies in conflict with restrictive and controlling power structures. We’ll be dealing with this for a few years, and it promises to make this year and next very “electric and eclectic,” moving the world through a revolution unlike any seen since the 1960s!!
Uranus is on a degree of learning to embrace a new formal law in our lives, or stewardship for higher standards. This is introducing “a new ruler” so embrace a new individuality however you need to. As I noted in past Lunation articles, we’re now moving into a different social orientation for many years, so continue to learn how to concentrate to see the whole picture, as this shows us how to externalize our higher Self in new individual ways. It’s going to be the major theme for 2013, and given the aspects in play in this chart, there will be a lot of harmonious restructuring so we can become more direct and efficient in accepting and concretizing the abundance that’s ours if we mobilize.
For the next 9 months, regard the deeper transformations going on in your life as a “science lesson” showing you the laws of Nature. This Full Moon will help us go deeper into the Mysteries of the Natural World as it relates to our ability to overcome separateness and move into newer, more intense life experiences.
We are still being challenged to get beyond fear, see things from the past differently, and find relief through expressing the Higher Self that’s been “cut and polished” in past months. We can grow into a larger role when we’re confronted by old Pluto roles, coercions, and heavy-handed corrosive behavior. We can use this square in two big ways, both now and into the future.
We can exercise good Pluto function to put the brakes on negative Uranian manifestations, and good Uranus function to put the brakes on negative Pluto manifestations. Look to the harmonizing aspects to each to show which is building and which one is the release point for those energies. In this chart, Uranus is specializing many things in everyone’s lives, so go with the new rather than the established.
The Cusp of Where The Age of Pisces Gives Way to the Age of Aquarius
As I've mentioned in other Lunation articles, a major factor in recent years was Neptune transiting degrees in early Pisces that symbolize "the cusp of the Age." Beginning February 2011, it danced between its stationary direct transformational degree of 29 Aquarius when we began the end game of a collective transfiguration, and 1 Pisces, the cusp of where the Age of Pisces gives way to the Age of Aquarius. We’re collectively there as a human race, and Neptune has been showing us glimpses into the greater Way, Truth, and Life that we share together, expressed through the sign of compassion, forgiveness, and unity of feeling-awareness in the great “Ocean of Life.”
Neptune in very early Pisces has major implications for humanity as a whole. I’ve discussed this phenomenon of Neptune dancing back and forth between early Pisces and late Aquarius in many previous articles, opening the collective consciousness to the energies of this transitional period, this “time cusp” between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius. This happened throughout 2011 and 2012. When Neptune finally went stationary direct at 1 Pisces in late 2012, it marked a platform from which humanity will confront many ghosts of the past centuries over the next couple of years.
In the larger precessional Age, our world is at 1 Pisces right now. Thanks to prior transits of both Neptune and Chiron to this degree, many of us have collectively awakened to 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.
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."
So this is where humanity as a whole is at right now. I believe we will finally enter the Age of Aquarius sometime between 2045-2070, when we all will see the concrete manifestations of Aquarian patterns that were awakened by Uranus and have been dreamed into collective consciousness by Neptune during these planets' movement through late Aquarius. (Please also check out part one of that series since it elaborates on the transition between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius.)
This is a time to see a bigger picture, and be creative in moving through what’s breaking down and what’s coming into clear focus. Keep alert to others who share your various Ray and sub-Ray frequencies. With Saturn in Scorpio, this is a great time to get focused, eliminating all that is irrelevant to your long term growth patterns. Or perhaps you can use the energy to regenerate in some way so that you “take command of the Great Work” and perfect your various physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual “vehicles” to express exactly what you’re here to do.
What's the proper sequence at present of deciding, feeling, and thinking, and an Overview of the Lunation
This Full Moon continues the pattern of the past New Moon. As a process of moving through events over the next two weeks, as well as then endings of the next 4 months and the introduction of the new wisdom forms over the next 11 months, first get clear about what you’re thinking, understanding, or envisioning. Then focus on a simple fact that allows you to make a clear decision and act accordingly.
After those decisions and actions on the basis of those thoughts, visions, information, and understanding, then go deep and sit with the decision or action to feel the experience of what you’ve done. So find a new view, a new understanding, new information, and new interactions that can help you see clearly what must be done and how. Then do it, and feel what you must on the basis of that decision. Periods of solitude may be required after a critical decision or action. After that direct experience of feelings the results of your decision and action, a new understanding will arise, or a new way to communicate, or a new vision.
To sum up, this Lunation will help us substantiate many of the new beginnings we’re already experiencing, and those who mobilize should find some very valuable rewards and resources they can use in the future. This is about being a good guardian of what we need to protect or confirm, as well as moving out of the “known and familiar” into a greater dream, passion, or wisdom.
This is a time to cut to the chase, see to the core of things, learn how to move effortlessly and/or enjoyably between the old and the new, overcoming any ambivalence about what has to be done and when. By linking with others we prepare our individuality for circumstances to come down the road, and by our courage in focused will power we will become an example for others who will also have to do that in their day and time.
We can continue to get beyond mental and emotional heaviness during this time, and find a lot of very core realizations about life and experience. We’re still feeling some timeless human states of being, and so cultivate the compassionate mind as you forgive, say goodbye, and release it all to the vast ocean of Divine Consciousness.
Don’t get too hassled by the emotional heaviness. It’s helping us restructure what we attract, what we repel, what we need to let go of, and shows us our need to create some space or a void that we will hold empty as long as we need to. Keep it simple and practical, enjoy yourself as much as you can, and trust “the God Within.” Keep learning how to extricate yourself from those things that aggravate you, don’t waste time and energy battling the wrong problems, and assert the deep, subtle, and powerful parts of your Light/Life in your interactions with others.
To reinforce a critical point: while Jupiter is in Gemini we’ll continue to learn more and more, expanding the truths and new potential futures opened these past several years while now finishing up our liberation from ghosts of the past that were indicated in the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse. Jupiter in this chart shows we’re now beginning a phase of needing to exteriorize our discoveries, and are transmuting physical energy into the power to build concepts.
We all have the ability to live in a more fulfilling way, but only as we let go of what is no longer feeding us what we need. No need to eat crushed stone when there are delicious banquets to attend! This Eclipse will help us activate for our own gain, and give gifts for those who have cultivated intuition, compassion, and forgiveness. See your larger Soul group, and open to illuminations by joining with them to bridge a gap or chasm. Eliminate to regenerate, do not clutch at old feelings, and look below the surface to get clear about how and what to reorganize.
This continues a new freedom and adventure that has begun to fill the voids created by the Eclipses of 2011. This stabilizes our life renewal while lifting us to more solid foundations and resources. Release old ideas about wisdom and go deeper. Here we see and feel deeper and more holistic ways to live and be with others that will lead us to depth understanding about the relationship of the material to the Spiritual, the form to the energy behind and within all forms.
Do not take the larger tensions, pressures, and friction personally. Though the larger atmosphere is tense and conflicted, it’s really only the play of invisible forces leading us all to new forms of individualization that will block old shadows of control mechanisms that are useless anyway.
As I’ve noted in previous Full Moon articles, since all shadows result from light hitting a dense object, it’s better to become as translucid as possible to dispel lurking shadows. And if you must look at the shadows, then refocus on the object being illuminated, since that’s the source of the shadow.
Find the correct 4 angles of illuminating whatever you want to focus on, and all shadows will be dispelled. Then you’re seeing things with an illuminated mind, and can act accordingly.
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
Ur Highness....does one read from their rising or sun sign regarding house and how this eclipse will affect us. In other words...Taurus is my 1-2 and 9-10?
Posted by: chickie | May 01, 2013 at 06:04 PM
Great question chickie. Curious about Robert's response. I'm going with rising degree for transits. It's working. But I flip it around sometimes for fun and a different perspective. Not sure about the "right way."
Posted by: caliban | May 02, 2013 at 11:18 AM
Hi Chickie - You can view it through the lens of the Solar chart and the lens of the Natal chart. The former deals with how this Eclipse will affect your Light/Life; the Ascendant (Natal) chart deals with how this Eclipse will affect your view of yourself and your world and everything in it.
If your Sun or Ascendant is 11 Aries, then 6 Taurus and Scorpio fall in both the natal and Solar first and seventh houses, but a subsequent sign from the Sun or Ascendant. That means it will exert a tremendous influence on the subsequent house that has Taurus/Scorpio on the cusp.
If the Sun or Ascendant is 2 Leo, then the Eclipse falls in the 4th and 10th. If the Sun or Ascendant is 11 Leo, then the Eclipse falls in the 3rd and 9th.
This of course is based on the equal house system and doesn't take the Midheaven into account. I suspect this Eclipse will actually be favorable due to the plethora of favorable aspects and patterns.
Hi Caliban - I hope you can use some of what I just wrote. I find using both the Solar AND the Ascendant are good for giving me contrast. As we begin to see the dance of the planets all making conjunctions, squares, oppositions, and new conjunctions to all our natal planets, we get a sense of how those distinct parts of our inner nature is evolving.
I've always found it interesting where the inner transits are during the months the Lunar Eclipses are in effect. In this case, the Eclipse Effects will last about 4 months. That means the planets will move from where they are through Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and into Libra, all the while making aspects to the Eclipse positions while the Eclipse is still active.
Posted by: Robert | May 02, 2013 at 01:50 PM
That sounds like a fun exercise. Thanks.
Posted by: caliban | May 03, 2013 at 06:24 PM