by Robert Wilkinson
This initiating, idealistic, action-oriented Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Full Moon that will show us that our experiment nears completion as we learn to “outwit” someone or something falls at the 26th degree of Libra and Aries. This is the power of spiritual “repair work” that will show quick results that should be enjoyable, where we learn to listen to the inner voice and cooperate with our inner powers and Angelic helpers. Here we take the openings offered since the New Moon and see how we have divine helpers at work even when our own efforts seem to fail.
Full Moons heighten feelings, due to the opposition of the Moon and the Sun. This particular Lunation has only one forming opposition besides the Moon and Sun, and that’s the tight forming opposition from Mars to Neptune, offering inspirational possibilities if we don’t get discouraged and give up too easily.
While the recent Grand Cardinal Crosses are now in the rear view mirror, this Full Moon shows a bunch of great aspects, with very few frictional ones. This makes for a very harmonious Eclipse effect these next 4 months, and many will find gifts and unique interactions that are perfect for what they need in the moment. In fact, the only frictional aspects involve Moon sesquisquare Venus, Mars semisquare Jupiter, and Uranus square Pluto. And to note, every planet involved in these aspects is harmoniously aspected by at least one other planet, offering mitigating energy.
Among the very favorable aspects, we see Moon trine Mars (out of sign) and tredecile Pluto. Mercury is quintile Mars and conjunct Saturn, Venus is biquintile Jupiter, the Sun is trine Neptune (oos) and quintile Pluto, Mars is biquintile Uranus and trine Pluto, Jupiter is tredecile Saturn, and Saturn is tredecile Neptune. These show a lot of specialized interactive uniqueness, and many will find a form of serendipity during the next 4 months that will be perfect for what they need.
Dispositors - What's the Backdrop to the Energies?
The Moon is ruled by Mars and Pluto, while the Sun is ruled by Venus and TransPluto. This makes the Earth element loom large in how the Moon expresses itself, with an expansive and blessed backdrop to the Sun. In this chart, Mercury in Scorpio and Mars in Virgo are in mutual reception, and Neptune is its own dispositor. That makes Mercury and Mars in a forming quintile very powerful as the final dispositors to how the chart will express these next 4 months. You can find out more by going to Astrology Class – What Is A Dispositor and What Is Mutual Reception Between Two Planets?
In the chain of dispositors, Sun is separating semisquare Venus and separating septile to both Mars and TransPluto while forming a quintile to Pluto. The Moon is trine Mars and tredecile Pluto, a very favorable configuration that will bring many gifts to those who have overcome fear these past 18 months. It is sesquisquare, showing annoying friction that is not crisis producing, and trine to TransPluto, showing a harmony of dynamic actional understanding with the Divine Redemptive Power represented by that planet.
Due to Saturn being a dispositor of Pluto, and Saturn being one of the Water anchors for the Splay configuration at work in this chart, it intensifies the prominence of Scorpio energies. We continue to be put in touch with a deeper reality, or a deeper feeling of connection with others as well as our own emotional depth.
As noted in previous articles, we’re into for a few months when the Grand Irrationality is in full play. Later in this article I’ll give you a link that will take you to an article that will elaborate on the phenomenon, as well as the hot zones that trigger these choices, changes, and events that mark forks in the road of destiny across many areas of our lives.
We’re now moving through a period of quickened activity, and with the planets where they are, we are still in a current that is taking us somewhere. Overall this is a time of quickened flow, emotional intelligence, and a new stability that will be with us for years. As in June, July, August, and September, we will be experiencing our Soul promptings more acutely during this time of deep feelings and necessary structuring.
This Full Moon will bring turning points in what we think, how we communicate, and how we coordinate our life affairs as we stand on the threshold of Mercury retrograde. Despite some vague worries and concerns, we can still cut to the chase, see the core of things, and come to understand how our ideals and relationships have hit important turning points.
The Sabian Symbols for the Full Moon
This Full Moon falls at 26 Aries-Libra. It is said that the last third (decan) of any sign deals with the mental-spiritual levels of life, and being the last decan of those signs, invokes a sub-influence of Sagittarius and Gemini.
Since the Moon always focuses the light of the Sun in specific forms, the degree symbols for both are important. The Sun degree is the illumination or enlightenment of the Lunation, whereas the Moon shows us the potential forms that enlightenment will take. Though I’ve given you a sense of what this is about up to now, here’s where we go into detail.
The Solar degree symbol for the 26th degree of Libra is “An eagle and a large white dove turning one into another.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols, Rudhyar ways this is a degree of “Necessary cooperation between mind, will, spirit – and heart, love.” Also “Power of psychological balance and compensation,” and “Unity.”
In the Mandala he goes on to say this is a degree of "the interaction of the spiritual Will and of the Love principle when crucial needs arise.” He says this is what seekers for “a higher life of Relationship” must master, where a Yang-Yin interplay is at work, rotating and changing one into another.
He states that “consciousness operates beyond duality, because the polarized energies of the Soul, (or spirit), Will and Love, though ever distinct, work for a single purpose.” He goes on to offer that this “represents a new, higher approach to the use of polarized forces within the personality,” with the keyword “Adeptness.”
So the illumination available via this Full Moon is through the Light of oscillating energies we’re learning to master with an eye to a higher way of being in relationships, whether with others or potentially the self to the Self. He states this degree falls in the Span of Revelation, Act of Group-Integration, Scene of Reconstruction on the Individual-Mental level.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “exceptional personal endowment” where we can meet life with creativity and a sense of purpose. He goes on to say that we are responsible for ”the general state of affairs” in our immediate reality, with the risk we will be frustrated when we cannot shape things according to our ideal.”
He says “Man is the master of his fate to the extent his action is in his own true interest,” and offers the keyword ADEPTNESS. He states that when operating positively, the degree is “unusually effective self-discipline.”
The Lunar degree symbol for the 26th degree of Aries is “A man possessed of more gifts than he can hold.” In the original Jones class notes, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “Supreme endowment, and inexhaustibility of resources in all possible life realms,” and “Sometimes obsession by potentiality.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that this degree symbolizes the mind confronting “a totally unfamiliar and as yet unexperienced type of potency,“ where we may go through a difficult time adjusting to new perceptions and possibilities. He states we should not “rush ahead excitedly and lose (our) bearings,” and we need to get calm and mindful so we can move within the natural limitations of the “new order.”
He says this symbol shows we have to move carefully in some new realm, and not undertake more than is “as yet safe and sound to attempt.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Examination, Act of Differentiation, and Scene of Potency on the Individual-Mental level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of “exceptional personal endowment” in terms of “social capacity” and how each of us may be of potential value to others, in terms of “spread of interest” and what we attempt. He says that restlessness, a lack of control, or “exaggerated self-confidence” may create frustration or even self-betrayal, but “there is also a prodigality of ambition and effort which can lead to a very genuine self-fulfillment.”
He offers us the keyword EQUIPMENT. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an uncompromising independence and an inexhaustible drive toward self-discovery.”
From these symbols it seems we can see the light of an alternating Will-Love, Mind-Heart way of relating to our existence and those in our social matrix taking shape as an independent drive toward discovering a greater potential in action, thought, and feeling. Here the Light of Ideal Relationships helps us reconstruct something valuable to our Spiritual mind and individuality, and takes form in a realization of something we’re endowed with that we can use to further our interests, which at times we will share with others.
As with the last several Full Moons, important transformations helping us see a deeper Mystery are evoked by this Lunation. This calls us to a greater empathy and ability to know shared feelings, and continues to educate us in an emotional understanding we’ve experienced since June. As usual, just keep moving with the flow, don’t try to push the river, and go deeper in your inner and outer feeling connections.
Learn to trust the process, and trust in your ability to navigate these currents as you embrace a new life. This feeling magnetism is showing us who are part of our Soul-group.
TransPluto, Divine Mother, Neptune, and the Polarization in the Collective Atmosphere
One important thing to note. In the Full Moon charts of 2009-2012, Neptune was in a very close opposition to TransPluto, the planet symbolizing Divine Mother Energy. That a factor in why things have been so polarized the past several years, teaching humanity compassion and the need for Viveka, or Divine Discrimination. This has offered all of us opportunities to join together in the Great Mother and realize our interrelatedness on a feeling level with All-That-Is.
The energies of Divine Mother will only grow stronger throughout this century, and these will be demonstrated each time the planets make significant aspects to TransPluto. In this chart TransPluto again occupies the first degree of Virgo, showing us the long term future of humanity. Again, the Divine Redeemer is showing us ways to show Viveka through understand the place and function of individual differences.
While Neptune has now moved on out of the exact opposition, they are again close between August and November 2013 now that TransPluto has re-entered Virgo and Neptune is at 3 Pisces on its stationary direct degree. In this chart, it has many favorable aspect, including a quintile from Saturn and is in an out of sign sextile/trine to the Eclipse. Venus biseptile TransPluto shows that humanity is definitely at a huge fork in the road that will determine its future, with either karmic kickbacks coming, or a stirring up of a new identity, a new love, and a new truth. The Saturn aspect will be reinforced during the coming Mercury retrograde period beginning in a few day, and these quintiles will show us unique gifts and circumstances related to Divine “Redemptive-Compassion” lessons and expressions wherever we have early Virgo and mid-Scorpio.
A brief note on the larger Era. We approach the end of the TransPluto (Percephone, Parvati) in Leo era that we’ve known since September 20, 1935. Since October, 2011, we’ve been a transition period where this planet will dance at the last degree of Leo and first degree of Virgo through July 5, 2014.
So enjoy this penultimate period before the transition to a different transitional Era. After then we enter the TransPluto in Virgo era that will last through July, 2107, when it leaves Virgo for good and re-enters Libra for the last time, also after a few years of dancing on the cusp of Virgo and Libra.
Important Chart Factors
Many are finding a new stability or new sense of permanence wherever they have early Scorpio in their chart. There have been recent “fated” meetings, interactions, with fellowships and groups formed and connections deepened due to the recent series of Saturn triseptiles with Uranus. That has given us many months of radical choices, changes, forks in the road in the Aries and Scorpio areas of our lives, with Saturn anchoring a deeper personality integration that began mid-June.
Jupiter at 20 Cancer offers us festivity! We’ve begun an active process of personality integration through the house that Jupiter is transiting in our charts, and are getting ready to put on the show and come to realize some long held ambition in the very near future. As this is a process, we’ll be focused on this through April 2014.
Mars shows that we will be able to count on our “invisible helpers” when it seems all else fails, and that these experiences will show us hidden powers in our Being. Regardless of the crisis, we will have major angelic (Devic) help at our disposal. Things will be very unique in how they unfold over the next few months, and we will see a lot with new eyes, new understanding, and new skills. Much will be released, so stay focused on your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters and deepen your connection with them.
Of paramount importance is Mercury biseptile Neptune and septile Pluto, triggering the Grand Irrationality. I gave you an extensive explanation of this in the recent article kicking off the Mercury retrograde series, The Guide of Souls in October 2013 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 19 Scorpio.
The seven zones activated by Mercury in this chart shows us we are on the threshold of knowing things that will alter the course and direction of our lives, and how our minds are able to recognize signs and signals and bring forth messages from the Spiritual realms of Neptune and Pluto. There may be a need to see loss and death in terms of the power it provides us to regenerate, and many will come to a deeper understanding of the permanent spiritual factors in their existence, as well as a deeper courage that will never desert them.
Everyone will go through important releases of energy, people, and elements that would prevent them from being the spiritual potential they hold in the depths of their Being. This is a threshold, and some people cannot go through it with us, nor can we cross their threshold with them. So let go, let God, and show your stuff with focus and compassion. The experiment nears completion!
Spirit walks with this configuration, as well as any major septile series aspect between the planets. The choices we make as a result of these non-rational aspects show us our “direction of destiny,” and determines if the Spirit will grow stronger and closer with you, or if you will move in directions away from Spirit. Given that most of this community is intentionally trying to live in harmony with Life, Nature, and each other, chances are that whatever you – yes, YOU the reader – are confronting will show you a deeper, richer, more powerful Spiritual life. Which is a good thing.
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 simplicity, idealism, aspiration, and either rededicating ourselves to a deeper, more profound way of getting to the core of things, “coming up for air” and leading a more natural life, or both.
Also, this time is dynamic, frictional, and marks a turning point in how we’re dealing with our Cancer issues that were raised in June, July, and August. Are we caring for ourselves and whatever life we embraced this Summer? Does it align with our purpose and ability to serve our world a better way than in the past?
The New Moon indicated that we’re learning to “put on the show,” while seeing how to keep the momentum and initiative in our own hands. This is where the light of what we’ve learned about practicing new forms of “self-dramatization,” and our focus through trusting our feelings showing our spiritual strength. This fulfills our mandate to concentrate on the inner rather than the outer, see the broader context of “our mission,” and using a broader compassion, commit to something that will add value to our life and world.
In past Full Moon articles I included a page or more lifted from the articles on the previous New Moon. Since I am trying to shorten the articles for readability, I will no longer lift whole sections from those articles. Instead, please go back to part 1 of this Full Moon series where you will find links to those New Moon articles. They will help you understand the themes for this Full Moon period.
Jones Patterns and Element Balance
The planets fall in a Splay Jones pattern. This indicates a widely distributed planetary spread that shows a diverse but separated set of interests, with an emphasis on individuality putting itself into different situations that may not harmonize easily. So learn to triangulate when caught between conflicting energies that only come together because you are moving through those experiences.
The “Splay” Jones pattern features planets at odd angles widely spread around the signs. The Splay shows widely diverse actions that requires being at “the hub of the wheel” holding the various “spokes of life” in harmonious tension.
With 4 planets in Water, 1 in Air, 2 in Earth, and 3 in Fire we have an emphasis on feelings, with a near-balance between inspiration and practicality, and not much interactivity due to a shortage of planets in Air signs. This deficiency in Air shows that thinking, interacting, and socializing 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 hotter and more emotional 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, 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 seeing things from the past in a symbolic light, offering different perspectives on the individualizing events of the past several years. This will be excellent for helping us reinterpret some things, and find a greater than normal understanding. As usual, beware of those who are impatient, since explosiveness is in the air due to this position. As it is retrograde at 10 Aries, we are reviewing lessons from April 2013, and realizations that synthesize into a bigger picture of our unique part to play will show up as powers beginning January 2014.
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 been the major theme for 2013, and given the aspects in play in this chart, we are now on the threshold of expressing new views and new ways of relating to others. Venus will call us to a life renewal, or show us how the unfinished business of the past has come to visit until we take care of it.
For the next 4 months, regard the deeper transformations going on in your life as helping you finish your lessons on harmlessness, kindness, and magnetism that brings forth a more gentle set of interactions. We are learning how we can fully embrace the feeling and experience of that emergent transformational role we accepted 2009-2010, and this continues to help us get focused as we stand on the threshold of new adventures to come. Keep purifying yourself in every way, since the less sludge we carry forward the lighter and freer we’ll feel.
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 the square between Uranus and Pluto 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.
What's the proper sequence at present of deciding, feeling, and thinking, and an Overview of the Lunation
This Full Moon is balancing and marks a point of release of the past, as well as release of people and energy. This Eclipse puts deciding and acting front and center! As a process of moving through events, see what needs to be done, decide how you want to do it, and then find the knowledge, information, interaction, or vision that enables you to do what you have to do. Then when you’ve processed the information, interaction, vision, or idea, go deep within and get clear about what you’re feeling. Once you know what you’re feeling, it will naturally lead to new decision, new facts, and new actions, which will in turn be followed by a new vision, new information, or new understanding.
So this is a Lunation indicating that we’ll lead with our decisiveness, which will result in a vision, understanding, or need to communicate something. After we act and then process the information or vision, then we need to go deep within and feel the experience of those ideas and understanding that led to that feeling. Once we know what we’re feeling, new decisions will be natural and easy.
To sum up, this Lunation will help us use both strong and soft power to repair or reconstruct something of our individuality or spirituality. This puts us on a threshold of higher realizations we never dreamed of before now. This one requires that we keep a calm mind as our lives become highly activated in some way, and with so many gifts and specialized circumstances and situations, stay open, since magic is in the air regardless of what may be lost in the process of outwitting someone or something.
This continues a new freedom and adventure that began as a result of the voids created by the Eclipses of 2011. Despite the incredible amount of feeling energy during this time of planets moving through Water signs, it’s just an opportunity to practice the emotional intelligence and “feeling-knowing” that has emerged over the past 10 months. Even if this period puts us under pressure to make critical decisions, the flow will lead us exactly where we need to be.
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.
Previous articles in this series:
Astrology in October 2013 - On The Threshold of a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at 26 Libra-Aries
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
4 angles of illuminating...
What are the 4 angles? I find this confusing.
Posted by: Tasha | October 17, 2013 at 12:44 PM
ok, so now I am feeling a little more comfortable, may be even hopeful???with this full moon eclipse conjuncting my Libra 26 asc/Aries 26 desc. Thank you!
Posted by: debbie | October 17, 2013 at 12:55 PM
Thanks so much Robert for giving us such a wonderful positive take on this lunar eclipse. I feel the energy as standing under a fab cyber waterfall!
It can sometimes feel a bit lonely being in a small community and stubbornly sticking to my intuitive guide posts as we try and navigate these difficult days. So it's wonderful to get encouragement to persist and keep exploring my inner wisdom.
Posted by: Trinity | October 17, 2013 at 03:23 PM
Hi Tasha - It's from my days as a television producer/director. In the trade, we have a key light, a fill light, a back light, and a footlight. These together dispel shadows. Do the same thing intellectually, and you dispel intellectual shadows. That's why we always have to find multiple angles of approaching any given thing, so we can get a well-rounded illumination of the object of our perception. Those who have studied anything using only one angle of approach generate shadows in their knowledge of that thing.
Hi debbie - This should be a fairly favorable eclipse, as well as Mercury retrograde. I suppose the eclipse on your horizontal angle shows illumination of the self, focused through the non-self. You may get insights into why old relationships with self and others had to end, or perhaps a heaviness you took on with Saturn was on your Asc may be seen in a new light.
Hi trinity - You're most welcome. I believe eclipses do not have to be fearsome things. Lonely? When you're a part of this global community? Impossible!! Remember the 3 "Refuges" - The Wisdom, the Way, and the Community. Guard your heart, since it is the source of everything you value in this world and the others. And of course, we may as well investigate the wisdom, since it's the only game in town!!
Posted by: Robert | October 17, 2013 at 03:30 PM
Yes thats true about Mercury rx as well and I am at home with it as it is so natally, in fact I regularly find good things occur during the retro for me, often where I had missed something or missed an opportunity or been overlooked etc, so that's a good reminder. Thank you!
Posted by: debbie | October 17, 2013 at 07:06 PM
Ur Highness.....So when was the last time we had an eclipse in Aries...looking forward to being a taker for a change:):)
Posted by: Chickie Farella | October 17, 2013 at 07:13 PM