The Full Moon in Capricorn-Cancer in December 2015 Pt. 1 – Moving Away From the Familiar As We Debate Going Forward or Going Back

by Robert Wilkinson

This initiating, organizing, stabilizing, and experiential Christmas Full Moon illuminating effective relationships and a greater group involvement occurs on Dec 25, 2015, at 3:11 am PST, 6:11 am EST, and 11:11 am GMT and falls at the 4th degree of Capricorn and Cancer. As with all Full Moons, use the light of the Sagittarian vision and adventure you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus to see how to fulfill some need in your life.

Today’s Full Moon post will be an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In parts 2 and 3 we’ll cover the Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

We’ve now been in many months where the Full Moon Sun is not the same as the Sun sign of the previous New Moon. I’ll explain the importance of this later in this article. Because the New Moon preceding the Full Moon always represents the seed forms that are brought to surface at and after the Full Moon, please check out the recent New Moon articles The New Moon in Sagittarius Pt. 1 – What’s Happening in December 2015-January 2016 as well as The New Moon in Sagittarius Pt. 2 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means.

An Overview

This is a Lunation that put the focus on radical transformation, so monitor your expectancies and reach out to your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters as you move away from the known and familiar. This Full Moon requires willingness to move into unknown zones, and be alert to inner and outer arguments undermining the major changes in direction already set into motion these past few weeks. During the next two weeks, we can take the balanced truths we’ve found since the last New Moon and use them to transform our lives and relationships, and reprogram what we expect to bring those expectancies into alignment with our highest intention.

The very strong Mercury-Venus-Jupiter double sextile splitting the trine shows great productivity and practical stability, organizing our actions in alignment with a great vision, using precision and organization to actualize a promise. These energies release through Mercury square Mars, showing that we will see why we’ve had to leave a lot behind, and why we’re receiving rewards for our courage.

Because Saturn cuts the Mercury square Mars, making two semisquares, there will be some degree of internal friction, with one era closing rapidly and another opening, so stay positive, keep it balanced, and see it all as a phase of paying dues to clean out old karmas related to the Mars at 25 Libra. Keep it tender and caring, pay attention to details, see what fits where, maintain your innocence, and regard it as a “first dancing lesson” where we need initiative, training, and willingness to master the details of some task as a potential to mastering some skill.

This is an experimental Full Moon, and opens a more mature understanding of broader things. And as per the theme of the Solstice and therefore the season,, since Saturn is at 11 Sagittarius, open t recognizing and learning to trust the “wisdom of the body,” or the wisdom of your deepest cellular awareness, apart from whatever your mind and feelings are going through.

We’re definitely in the Jupiter in Virgo era, kicked off by the Sun conjunct Jupiter at 4 Virgo in late August and reinforced by the Mars and Venus conjunctions to Jupiter in late October. This shows opportunities for those who have a precise plan and a way of executing it, so take a broad view of future possibilities that may take some time to come to completion.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?

The Grand Irrationality, along with the other non-rational configurations that happen off and on, indicate that we’ve been living in an era of very heavy decisions determining the future destiny of humanity since 1993. To refresh you, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave configuration set into motion every time a planet makes a conjunction, septile, biseptile, or triseptile to Neptune and Pluto. Septile series aspects show us points in time when our future destiny is precipitated by critical choices made in the present.

This Lunation directly triggers the Grand Irrationality, since we now have Venus biseptile Neptune, just coming off a septile to Pluto. This will throw affected areas of our charts into “forks in the road of destiny,” and many will find they have an “x-ray vision” helping them understand what is structurally sound or unsound in parts of their lives and relationships.

This is the final Scorpionic trigger of 2015, but the configuration will be highly active numerous times in the next few weeks through the Sun septile Neptune and conjunct Pluto. After that, we will be experiencing it for several weeks from mid-January through early February via Mercury retrograde and direct conjunct Pluto and septile Neptune.

Because this configuration involves Neptune and Pluto, the outermost spiritual planets, they show a long wave evolutionary crisis for the entire human race. Since 1993, at one point or another, everyone on Earth has experienced a nonstop energy of having to choose, at the bottom of our beings, the path to evolution or devolution, progress or regress, love or fear, joy or control. It’s why things have been so weird, irrational, and hard-edged.

At this time, the current seven “hot zone” spans that trigger the Grand Irrationality are approximately 10-14 Leo, 1-5 Libra, 22-26 Scorpio, 13-17 Capricorn, 5-9 Pisces, 26-30 Aries, and 18-22 Gemini.

This is one of the last Solstices where the configuration will be powerfully active, since the Neptune septile Pluto is separating, slowly but surely. Winter is when it is strongest, since it’s when the aspect is at its closest, being 52d 35m in this chart.

As we move into Spring, Neptune and Pluto will separate in distance, and unlike the past 22 years, by Summer they will no longer be in septile. Winter is when they are closest, but by Summer they’ll be too wide to be a septile. We’re now slowly moving out of the configuration, and within a few years Neptune and Pluto will be back in long term sextile, as they were for most of the last half of the 20th century.

At this time, the Grand Irrationality gains strength as we move through Autumn and into Winter, and will again lessen in strength in the late Winter into the Spring and Summer. As I’ve explained in other articles, that means that in the Autumn and Winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) they operate as a simultaneous “pulse,” since they’re both aspected near the same time. But in the Spring and Summer we experience it as a rolling influence, with first Pluto aspected, and then Neptune at some time after that, depending on which planet is doing the aspect to these planets.

Important Factors

This Lunation brings us a mixed bag of forming aspects which I’ll discuss in parts 2 & 3. In this chart, there are two septile-series aspects, the Venus biseptile Neptune and Sun biseptile Uranus. Again, these promise significant choices and forks in the road where they fall and rule in our charts.

We also have the intensely frictional minor semisquare aspects (don’t know why they’re called “minor” when they can induce times of inner crisis!), as well as the very powerful opposition-sextile-trine the Lunation makes with Neptune, throwing a very productive and favorable void into early Virgo. Coupled with the powerful “three note chord” of the double sextile trine in late Water and Earth, this will be a very strengthening and stabilize Full Moon as we move through radical transformations in our fellowships and our expectancies.

In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Mars in Libra through Mercury in late Capricorn) is a wide spread of 87+ degrees, and includes 4 signs. That makes Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn very active these next two weeks. This month we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 8 signs, in a widespread distribution.

This Lunation creates an occupied span of 203 degrees that begins with Jupiter in late Virgo through the planets in Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces, and ends with Uranus in mid-Aries. Only the Moon in Cancer is outside the span occupied by the other planets. That creates a “Bucket” Jones chart pattern, where we lead with Jupiter in Virgo and close with Uranus in Aries and have the Moon in Cancer as the handle, or focal determinator, of the Bucket.

The handle shows us how the energies are focused or released. Of note is that we shall continue to have a Bucket only once in the months to come, at the next Full Moon in Leo, since none of the inner planets will be far enough into Gemini to be a distinct handle until June 2016. Get used to using Lunar energy wisely!!

It’s important that Jupiter in Virgo leads the occupied half while conjunct the North Node. This position of Jupiter shows that we need to take the humor, vision, and heart strengths we cultivated when Jupiter in Leo was the leading planet of the Locomotive in 2014, and find ways to reclaim that power and vision in a practical form. Be willing to experiment and be educated, or be experimental when called to educate another. Improve your effectiveness in forms of group interaction and training, since the next two weeks we can improve our social cooperation and effectiveness.

We can use the Jupiterian vision and optimism in precise ways to initiate concentrated Virgo actions. Because the leading edge of the Bucket is in Earth and the closing edge is in Fire, keep opening to a simple, grounded practicality and enjoyment of life, and close cycles of activity with an inspired individuality that knows when to hang tough and when to withdraw from agitated people and circumstances.

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 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 Jupiter, termed the “focal determinator.”

The handle, or focal determinator, 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. With the Moon in Cancer as the handle, we should be able to grasp what we need to move forward in an immediate re-grasping of experience. This will help us focus on the next stage of what opened to us back when Jupiter was in early Cancer the Summer of 2013, kicking off a year of cultivating emotional intelligence.

This implies Jupiter in Cancer represents how to “get a handle on things,” or how to focus our energy. We can use Moon in Cancer to deal with a problem or need in our lives, or the nature of what is needed in any given circumstance (since it’s impacting ALL charts.) Go for whatever represents productive nurture of self and others. This is all part of cultivating the potential for fellowship in this Full Moon chart.

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 individual imposing their patterns on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So all of us can expect some sort of focused attention on the house where we have 4 Cancer.

Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?

We now continue the pattern of the Full Moon Sun falling in a different sign than the Sun of the previous New Moon. We’ve now completed the “normal” pattern we last experienced between September 2013 and September 2014, and are now in the “reversed pattern” we last experienced between June 2012 and August 2013, where the Full Moon Sun was in a different sign than the previous New Moon.

As I've explained in previous Full Moon articles,

... the Full Moon being in a subsequent sign than the previous New Moon indicates that what is released as realizations in the Full Moon period actually "prepares the ground" for the coming New Moon seed. Strange reversal of function, since you would think the New Moon provides the seed for the next Full Moon. But this set of Lunations works the opposite way....

Another way to look at this is the Sun sign of the Full Moon is the same as and precedes the Sun sign of the next New Moon, reversing the usual way Lunations work. So the fulfillment of the Full Moon sets up the next "seed" to be revealed at the next New Moon....

The first New Moon in the new pattern had the Sun at 30 Aquarius in February 2015, with the Full Moon Sun at 15 Pisces in March. The second New Moon was the Solar Eclipse at 30 Pisces, with the following Full Moon Sun at 15 Aries. The third had the New Moon Sun at 29 Aries, and the Sun at the next Full Moon at 14 Taurus. The fourth had the New Moon Sun at 26 Gemini, and the last Full Moon Sun is at 10 Cancer. The last New Moon was at 20 Sagittarius, while this Full Moon Sun is at 4 Capricorn.

So we’re in the heart of “the other” natural pattern, and will return to the pattern of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns beginning in June 2016 with the New Moon in Gemini and the subsequent Full Moon Sun also in Gemini. Since the New Moon offers us seeds in the first half of the month’s lunar cycle, and fulfillment in the second half, and we’re still in the stage of different Sun signs at the Lunations, this one takes the “Seed Light” of focused magnetism represented by Scorpio and comes to a Full Moon illumination through the clarity of Taurus.

See you in the near future with parts two and three, where we will explore the Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.

A New Look At Mercury Retrograde

Mercury is now at 23 Capricorn and slowing down, preparing to go retrograde in early January at 2 Aquarius, guaranteeing all of us a “cosmic visitation” that will galvanize us to action. While that sounds very dramatic, you can bet you’re going to mobilize in the area of your chart where 2 Aquarius falls. We began to experience the retrograde effect very strongly on 19 December, when it entered its retrograde “shadow zone.”

That’s why if you haven't already gotten your copy, you may want to buy a copy of the new expanded 2nd edition of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde, the 2015 winner in its category of The Indie Spiritual Book Awards.

The first major work on Mercury retrograde ever written, it offers in-depth information about Mercury retrograde people, Mercury retrograde in the various signs and houses, and what the entire Mercury Retrograde phenomenon is about. If you want to know what we can expect from the coming Mercury retrograde in Aquarius and Capricorn, or 2015’s Mercury retrogrades in Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra, or the others in any other sign and the influence in the houses, it’s all in there.

By knowing more about 2014's Mercury retrograde periods in Pisces/Aquarius, Cancer/Gemini, and Scorpio/Libra, as well as 2015’s Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra, you may see patterns in what was going on in your life, what you were taking a new look at and why, and how this "looking back" influenced your choices as you moved through past events. And you can get a heads up by taking a look at the coming 2016 Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius/Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn/Sagittarius. It’s all in the book!

Here's the Amazon link to the page where you can order your paperback or ebook copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. It is an invaluable resource for understanding past, present, and future Mercury retrogrades, so get your copy today. Just make sure you get the 2015 edition, and not the 1997 first edition, since the second is a far superior product!

© Copyright 2015 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[micheline]

Hi Robert !!! Thanks so much for this write up. Should be interesting as it falls in my fifth house and conjunct so my natal Mercury ! Merry Christmas to you and all your kin!

[caliban]

Ah, the bucket. I'm a bucket person natally. I am not so sure about the bucket and socializing. It was already a little punchy cookie decorating tonite.

[Ann]

Thank you Robert. Merry Christmas!