by Robert Wilkinson
We have a Full Moon coming soon! This one will help us achieve a balance in our expression, and an education about truth and purpose as they relate to the love energy generated at the last New Moon. This is the first of the “Three High Moons” which I’ll explain in future articles. This is also a “last look back” Full Moon, and those who can find the right view of what they value and why will find a new view of what abundant life would look like.
This initiating, activating, optimistic and promising Full Moon moving us into the Light of Individuality expressed through “expansive solicitude” occurs on April 10 at 11:08 pm PDT, April 11 at 2:08 am EDT, 7:08 am BST, and falls at the 22nd degree of Aries and Libra. As with all Full Moons, use the Light of Spirituality you’ve been opened to since the New Moon, and now find the Light of Optimism you can express through the form of balanced or well-rounded caring with an eye to consequences.
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 eleventh Full Moon where the Full Moon Sun is 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, this begins the fulfillment of the theme of the recent New Moon at 8 Aries. You can learn more about that Lunation by going to The New Moon at 8 Aries Pt. 1 - What’s Happening in April 2017 as well as The New Moon at 8 Aries Pt. 2 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means.
An Overview
This Full Moon is one where Life and Love will come forth because of recent initiatives we’ve adopted in our lives. We’ve all let go of a lot in recent months, and now, with both Venus and Mercury retrograde, it’s time to take one last look back to see how what we let go of created space in our lives. Some will remember old things long buried and see how those losses allowed a different and greater abundance to come forth. Some will get new insights into the past to see what still remains to be buried and/or released down the time stream.
Of course, Mercury’s retrograde Sabian Symbol could also imply that we must “exhume some bodies” to make sure we buried what actually needed to be buried. Wouldn’t want to find out we mistakenly buried the wrong thing! In any case, the “Guide of Souls” will lead us back to the past over the next two weeks, as prelude to redeeming a promise beginning in early May.
Also, the Grand Irrationality is in full play thanks to Mercury making a tight septile with Neptune and biseptile with Pluto. This promises the entire Mercury retrograde influenced Lunation will feature some life altering experiences for those who have planets or points in the affected areas of that configuration! I’ll discuss these and other important aspects later in the series.
This continues the Bucket Jones pattern we’ve had for several of the past New Moons. The patterns change these months mainly due to the position of the Moon, though by mid-May we will again be in a Locomotive pattern with Mars in Gemini trining Jupiter. This month’s Full Moon is what I could call a modified Bucket, since technically a Bowl only has one planet as the handle, and this month we have the Moon very close to Jupiter as the only planets outside the occupied span.
This month’s Lunation features no less than 4 retrograde planets, with Pluto about to retrograde as well! There will a lot of re-tracing of steps, re-examination or reconsidering of things related to Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. With Venus and Jupiter so strong, see all that comes up as giving you a chance to be educated about your truth and purpose, blessing and forgiving what needs to be released with compassion and understanding of the human condition.
Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?
The Grand Irrationality, along with the other outer planet non-rational configurations that happen off and on throughout the year, 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 Full Moon triggers the Grand irrationality in a HUGE way, with Mercury at 5 Taurus exactly septile Neptune and forming a biseptile to Pluto! This is the third trigger from Taurus. The first was Mars in last month’s Full Moon and the second was when Mercury was still direct about to go retrograde. Now that Mercury is retrograde, it’s triggering it for the third time. The Sun is the next trigger, Mercury will put it’s part of the play front and center in mid-May, and Venus will finish the sequence many weeks from now. This will profoundly affect houses where we have early Taurus, as well as Gemini and Virgo on the cusps.
Because it involves a waxing septile and biseptile, this is the next turning point in the year cycle initiated when the inner planets conjuncted and septiled Pluto and then Neptune some time back. At this time, the current seven “hot zone” spans that trigger the Grand Irrationality are approximately 14-18 Leo, 5-9 Libra, 27 Scorpio-1 Sagittarius , 19-23 Capricorn, 11-15 Pisces, 2-6 Taurus, and 23-27 Gemini.
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.
Planetary Distribution
In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Venus in late Pisces through Mars in late Taurus) spans 55+ degrees. As the inner planets catch up to Mars over the next few months, then we’ll again begin to have significant clusters in a very narrow span. That makes the span of Pisces, Aries, and Taurus very active these next two weeks.
At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, in a widespread distribution. Currently, the occupied span begins with the Moon and Jupiter in Libra, and then Saturn in Sagittarius, Pluto in Capricorn, through planets in Pisces, Aries, and Taurus. As I said, this distribution makes for a modified “Bucket” pattern, with the span between 18-22 Libra created by the Moon and Jupiter as the handle.
The Bucket Pattern and how it works
A “Bucket Pattern” is a type of planetary spread with all the planets in about half the signs with one outside that span wide enough to be a handle. 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.
So rather than create a See Saw chart, I believe the Moon is close enough to Jupiter that it collects the Light and creates a narrow span of degrees in Libra that become the handle for the Bucket, expressed through a blended energy of Jupiter and the Moon. Since this handle or nozzle of the Bucket involves the sign Libra, that energy helps us focus the energies of all the other planets.
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 18-22 Libra.
As an aside, Jupiter has at some point been the nozzle for a Bucket pattern for the past 4 years. It was the handle when in Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra, so we’ve had a long run of learning how to focus all the other energies through Jupiter. So it’s the same handle, but with a different expression each year during those parts when Bucket patterns happened.
Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?
We are now solidly in a pattern where the Full Moon Sun falls in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon. This is the eleventh Full Moon echoing the pattern we last had between September 2013 and September 2014, and we have left behind the “reversed pattern” we were in between October 2014 and May 2016.
So we’re now in many months of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns, since the last New Moon Sun was in Aries, and this Full Moon Sun is also in Aries. Since the New Moon offers us seeds in the first half of the month’s lunar cycle, and fulfillment in the second half, we now have the “Seed Light” of Aries that will come to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Aries and Moon in Libra.
See you in the near future with parts two and three on this Full Moon, where we will explore the Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
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