by Robert Wilkinson
This distributive, inspired, and freeing “Christfest” Full Moon opening the world to a new form of Wisdom Teaching occurs at 2:14 pm PDT, 10:14 pm BST May 21, and falls at the 2nd degree of Gemini and Sagittarius. It is the third of the “Three High Moons” of the Northern Hemispheric Spring. As with all Full Moons, use the light you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus through understanding the available power, and renew your life!
The importance of the Christ Fest Full Moon is explained in greater detail in the article Spiritual Astrology – the Three High Moons of the Northern Hemisphere Spring. Briefly, the Life Force of Earth re-emerges at the Full Moon of Aries-Libra, and this Life Force is expressed as a form of “Buddha Wisdom” of some compassionate form that helps us all to end suffering. This Wisdom is then shaped into a form of expression by the World Teacher at this Full Moon of Gemini-Sagittarius, and expressed the “world teaching” for the next year.
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.
This is the last Full Moon where the Full Moon Sun is not the same as the Sun sign of the previous New Moon. I’ll explain the importance of where we’ve been and where we’re going 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 at 17 Taurus Pt. 1 - What’s Happening in May-June 2016 as well as The May New Moon at 17 Taurus Pt. 2 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means.
As with all Full Moons at this time, use the light of the New Moon in Taurus and the enthusiasm, mobilization, and spiritual wisdom you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus to see how to distribute what needs distributing. Because the Moon is in Sagittarius, it’s time to see a broader view or greater truth related to the Wesak Wisdom of renunciation and letting go that was set into motion in the last Full Moon.
An Overview
This “World Teacher” Full Moon brings forth Wisdom that expresses something eternal about the relationship of mind to Life. This chart shows a very dynamic process due to Moon conjunct Mars, and Sun opposition Mars, marking the culmination of the Mars retrograde process. From here on, Mars speeds up, but mark my words, this Full Moon (and by extension the rest of the year) will prove highly activating!
This is an extremely important Lunation that will open a certain type of Wisdom for the next year. This Lunation bridges what has been, and what is just now beginning to unfold. Jupiter is now direct, and it’s the depth of the Mars retrograde just as Mercury begins to move forward. So much begins at this point, after a period of review and everything slowing down so we can rework the plan.
We’re still in the Bucket Jones pattern with Jupiter as the handle, or “nozzle,” for focusing all the other planetary energies. Mercury stationary direct reaffirms its third Earth trine to Pluto, marking the final Grand Earth Trine dominating the past several weeks, helping us all stabilize things.
Because of Jupiter’s position, we’re learning a lot about discernment, and now that it has gone stationary direct in mid-Virgo conjunct the degrees where Venus and Mars conjuncted it last October, we will see rapid forward movement on both personal and social levels, even with Mars still retrograde. Because Jupiter is still conjunct the North Node for many months, it indicates our generic line of greatest development involves “the expansive principle” being pushed to a greater effectiveness.
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.
Unlike recent Lunations, this one does not trigger the Grand Irrationality. We won’t really have to deal with another one of these “forks in the road of destiny” for humanity for a few weeks.
At this time, the current seven “hot zone” spans that trigger the Grand Irrationality are approximately 13-17 Leo, 4-8 Libra, 25-29 Scorpio, 17-21 Capricorn, 9-13 Pisces, 1-5 Taurus, and 22-26 Gemini.
As I’ve explained before, we are now in a period where this influence is waning, since Neptune is now no longer in a close septile to Pluto. We are now moving through Spring, where Neptune and Pluto will continue to 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.
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.
Important Factors
This Lunation brings us a mixed bag of forming aspects which I’ll discuss in parts 2 & 3. In this chart, the most prominent aspects are Moon exactly conjunct Mars opposed the Sun, the Grand Earth Trine, and a very large number of elftile (11th harmonic) series aspects. I suspect that the wisdom teaching of the next year involves making leaps of faith to overcome forms of duality, and in the faith we will attain mastery.
In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Mercury in Taurus through the Sun in Gemini) spans 16+ degrees. Once Mars returns to the same proximity to other inner planets in October 2016, then we’ll again begin to have significant clusters in a very narrow span. For now, we have a concentration of 4 planets (including Uranus) within a 39+ degree span. That makes Taurus and early Gemini very active these next two weeks (and indicative of the Wisdom to come forth this year). This month we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 7 signs, in a widespread distribution.
This Lunation creates an occupied span of 180 degrees with only Jupiter in mid-Virgo outside the span, creating a Bucket Jones pattern. As I mentioned, this is also important because Jupiter is conjunct the North Node. This position of Jupiter shows that we need to take the humor, vision, sensitivity and and heart strengths we cultivated when Jupiter in Cancer and Leo leading and/or focusing the changing configurations of late 2013 throughout 2014 and 2015, and find ways to reclaim that power and vision in a practical form.
Be willing to find techniques that help you know what is core and what is peripheral. Take another look at what is more important and what is less important, and find ways to experience life and power more deeply that open a cultural sensitivity and/or your understanding of the importance of your cultural background.
The Bucket Pattern and how it works
Because the Bucket pattern has been in play off and on for many months during the times when the Moon has been between late Scorpio and mid-Cancer, let’s take another look at this Jones pattern and how it works. As I explained above, with all the planets on one side of the zodiac and Jupiter in Virgo far enough away from the nearest planet to become a nozzle for the focus of all the other planetary energies, it becomes the “handle,” or nozzle for focusing the energies of the rest. 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.
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 14 Virgo.
We also had Jupiter as the handle of a Bucket pattern off and on through the past two years. In 2014, Jupiter was the nozzle then as now, but was in Cancer at that time. It then became the nozzle, or handle, when it was in Leo in 2015. Now it’s in Virgo. Same handle, different expression. It would seem we’re all learning a lot about how to manage Jupiter’s energies as the nozzle for the fire hose!
Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?
We now finish the pattern of the Full Moon Sun falling in a different sign than the Sun of the previous New Moon. We now re-enter the pattern we last had between September 2013 and September 2014, and are now finished with the “reversed pattern” we have been in since then.
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 17 Taurus, while this Full Moon Sun is at 2 Gemini.
So now we end “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 universal spiritual signs and signals represented by Taurus and comes to a Full Moon illumination through the initiatives of the current Sun in Gemini.
See you in the near future with parts two and three, where we will explore the Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Robert, it's clear that Jupiter at 14 Virgo is gathering all the energies of the chart. What does it mean to have one's natal south node at that point?
Posted by: Jo Garceau | May 17, 2016 at 07:06 PM
Hi Jo - I would think that Jupiter is teaching you something about your SN, and that at this point you could find opportunity, truth, and all those other good Jupiter keywords by "showing what you know." I've found that transits across the SN begin a period of demonstrating what you've built or grown toward since the last transit of that planet across your NN. This period of demonstrating what you already know will culminate in about 6 years when Jupiter transits your NN. As I believe you know, I also have the Nodes at 19 Pisces/Virgo, so that's true for me as well. In my case, Jupiter is also approaching my Saturn at 29 Virgo, and I hope to have my book on Saturn out by August. (Now if only so many planets weren't retrograde, I might be making quicker progress.....)
Posted by: Robert | May 17, 2016 at 07:32 PM
I have natal Saturn at 14 Virgo in the 10th house. I'm hoping this means a long awaited change or recognition in my career, like optional retirement.
Posted by: Linda | May 17, 2016 at 09:26 PM
Indeed Robert! If I knew, I'd forgotten your nodal axis. Explains a lot about why I love your work. Thanks for the explanation and good fortune with the Saturn book.
Posted by: Jo Garceau | May 18, 2016 at 10:09 AM