by Robert Wilkinson
This Full Moon is extraordinarily dynamic, with lots of activity in the air! This is an extremely positional Full Moon, capable of yielding high realizations, but also extremes that will lead some to crash hard while others “break on through to the other side.”
As long as we have Jupiter in Libra and Uranus in Aries, the big lesson is to find a balanced expression of our “Lover-Relator” archetype. Jupiter is now direct and will form an opposition for many weeks to come. The “tension of opposites” of this axis can lead those on a path of Self-realization to live their uniqueness in an elegant, balanced way.
The primary line of opposition in this activating, frictional Full Moon is the Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn opposed by the Sun conjunct Mars in Cancer, bringing the “Innocent” archetype into play. This is a collision of strong force in signs opposite to where they do well, so expect a degree of things feeling “exiled” or “not at home” these next two weeks. And there are no favorable aspects to relieve the tension of this axis, so expect some very powerful manifestations of oppositional awareness that will break us free from obsolete responsibilities while challenging us to be courageous in accepting what we must.
An Overview
We have a serious number of frictional aspects at this Full Moon, implying a period of gear grinds that will mobilize us to action, or show us what can and cannot be integrated in our lives and personalities. This is a threshold Lunation, and attitude will determine how long we must wait to enter the “new lands.” It is a time to look as what sustains us, and how to express that in forms of social power. What do you care about? What are you willing to do to achieve it?
There are literally NO harmonious aspects in the sky at this Lunation. That’s about as extraordinary as it gets. Of course, as I noted in the first article, while that indicates general tension and friction in the air, along with oppositional stances based in self-serving self-justifications flavored with a lot of insecurity, these can still be beneficial prods to action in those of us with planets in the middle and late degrees of Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, and Pisces.
Though friction is in the air, we also find 2 important binoviles in the chart. The Sun is binovile Uranus, and Mars is binovile Jupiter. The binovile brings us to a realization that may not look like the truths we’ve discovered so far, with the spiritual challenge of finding the common basis of the two seemingly contradictory realizations. They also indicate something that’s been cooking a while will come into focus, while other things will recede for a later date.
The only other spiritual aspect is the Sun triseptile Saturn. This shows a fork in the road of this Sun-Saturn cycle, and will bring important choices and changes to those with planets or angles in the affected zones. These are 21-25 Sagittarius, 12-16 Aquarius, 4-8 Aries, 25-29 Taurus, 16-20 Cancer, 8-12 Virgo, and 29 Libra-3 Scorpio. This will activate through your Cancer and Sagittarius sectors, and affect all houses and planets involving the signs of Cancer, Leo, Capricorn, and Aquarius.
Why Are Full Moons So Important?
At a Full Moon, that which has opened since the previous New Moon surfaces in a public form, and heads toward the culmination and fruition symbolized by the second half of any cycle. First half, birth into form and field. Second half, culmination and completion of the purpose of that cycle.
That’s why it’s important to regard the New and Full Moon charts as “God’s Footprints in Time,” since one follows the other in an unending sequence of births of newer and newer seeds. The New Moons show us the seeds that will flourish under the reflected light of the Full Moon.
Full Moons heighten feelings, due to the opposition of the Moon and the Sun. As noted, this particular Lunation has 4 close oppositions and one wide one, the extremely wide Jupiter opposition Uranus. (I would ordinarily consider this opposition to be out of orb, but it’s forming and will only get closer over the next few weeks.) I’ll explain more about the aspect in part 3.
Dispositors - What's the Backdrop to the Energies?
The Moon is in Capricorn, making Saturn in Sag its worldly ruler, and Uranus in Aries its spiritual ruler. The Sun is in Cancer, making the Moon its worldly ruler, and itself as the spiritual ruler. Saturn in Sag is ruled by Jupiter in Libra, which is ruled by Venus in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury in Leo, which is ruled by the Sun in Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon. As you can see there is no “final dispositor” in this chart (except for standalone Neptune), and so the “chain of dispositors” I just gave you puts the backdrop to the chart among many planets.
So this month we have no mutual receptions, and only a chain of dispositors involving a bunch planets that don’t resolve in a final dispositor. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to Astrology Class – What Is A Dispositor and What Is Mutual Reception Between Two Planets?
The Sabian Symbols for the Full Moon
This Full Moon falls at 18 Cancer and Capricorn. It is said that the middle third (decan) of any sign deals with the emotional, social, and cultural levels of life, and as the Lunation is in the second decan of those signs, invokes a sub-influence of Scorpio and Taurus.
The Sun is the Light, while the Moon gives form to that Light. With the Sun in Cancer, we are illuminated by gathering all we need to sustain the supply required to continue the beginnings of the past season. Cancer is the fourth sign, and emotionally grounds experience in personally relevant ways after the mental explorations of Gemini.
The Moon in Capricorn shows the Light of Cancer will take form through the Capricorn qualities of taking responsibility, “enlightened self-interest,” and claiming personal power in the public realm. Capricorn takes the pure potential of the limitless vision, truth, and adventure of Sagittarius and crafts it into power, responsibility, and public gravitas. This Full Moon will show us how to express the Light of Consolidation in focused forms of Group Activity.
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 18th degree of Cancer is “A hen scratching for her chicks.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Constructively practical, natural approach to life and its simpler joys,” “Concern over things,” and child-like group devotion.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves “the practical concern with everyday nourishment necessary to sustain one’s outreaching activities.” He states this is about us finding that which nourishes whatever we’re putting our energies into, and caring for their unfoldment.
He says that we have to learn “the fulfilling of life’s responsibilities.” Here we learn to nurture whatever we’re doing to integrate our personality, or integrate ourselves within a social set up. This degree falls in the Span of Ingenuousness, and is the third, or synthesizing degree, of the Scene of Consolidation on the actional level.
Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the maximum protection which life at large will provide” for individuals, where we find “high rewards for any effort which is self-consistent or industrious at base.” We are told that our creativity can “endow (our) own manifestations with a gift of self-continuousness.”
He goes on to say that our “Normality is exalted in the simple business of self-being.” He offers us the keyword PROVISION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “a marked capacity for meeting every demand of existence advantageously and with a persisting self-fulfillment.”
This is a degree where we learn to gather the material and non-material substance we need to nurture something that is important to us. Here we need to honor what protects our outreach in society, and claim rewards for consistent and industrious efforts.
So we enter a time of illumination through seeing that which needs to be cared for and nourished, and be consistent and natural in our concern over what will strengthen our life activities. This is the Light assisting us to meet life’s demands in ways that are perfect for us, in simple and natural ways, growing into a more secure life.
The Lunar degree symbol for the 18th degree of Capricorn is “The Union Jack.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of "extreme of objectification of inner resources,” “challenge to life,” “splendid self-realization,” and “Full awareness of competition.”
In the Astrological Mandala he goes on to say this is a degree of "the protection afforded to individuals and groups by powerful institutions in charge of maintaining order.” He then goes on to tell us that “power is required to maintain social order and relatively peaceful interpersonal… relationships.”
He speaks of the need for “justice and compassion must balance social power, and especially the power of privileged groups,” along with the “realization of the ambivalence of political power, its value and its dangers.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Dependence, Act of Capitalization, and Scene of Group Performance on the Actional-Physical level.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of "the maximum protection which life at large will provide for the individual … on the social or political side.” He continues “there are always high rewards for common effort, since the organized nation is able to bring benefits to (us) beyond anything any person or group could ever win in a lesser dimension of experience.”
He goes on to say that "A greater community of interest is exalted through every possible phase of normal and everyday being.” He offers the keyword SUPERVISION, and states that when operating positively, the degree is "the self’s ever-widening spread of interest in its insatiable desire to leave some permanent imprint of itself on everything it touches.”
From these symbols it seems we can see the light of finding “persistent self-fulfillment” through gathering what we need to sustain ourselves, expressed through taking responsibility for personal power within a social context. We can find illumination in being guided by an “active defensing offense” expressed through a core efficiency and/or purification that will sprout certain seeds while killing others.
TransPluto, Divine Mother, Neptune, and the Polarization in the Collective Atmosphere
In the Full Moon charts of 2009-2012, Neptune was in a very close opposition to TransPluto, the planet symbolizing Divine Mother Energy. That’s a major factor in why things became so polarized during those 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 is again in direct motion at 1 Virgo, giving us another experience of the initial step into this new Virgo era where Divine Mother takes center stage and shows us the long term future of humanity. As it is also still conjunct the North Node (which has now slipped back to the 25th degree of Leo), we are all being pulled toward a greater liberation from ego, a greater compassion, or a redemption we’ve wanted for a long time, this time via heart energy and sharing it with others so all may know a greater group magnetic attraction.
We now have entered a period of revisiting the lessons of the last times it occupied 2 Virgo, and we now confront another phase of our “liberating ordeal.” The first time we went through this “liberating ordeal” was between October 2014 and mid-January 2015, at which time it retrograded back to 1 Virgo. It re-entered 2 Virgo in early September 2015, and stayed at that degree until February 2016, when it retrograded back to 1 Virgo.
In mid-May it went stationary direct at 1 Virgo, and then re-entered 2 Virgo in early August 2016. It remained at this second degree of Virgo until the end of March 2017, after which it retrograded back to 1 Virgo where it was until a few days ago. As you can see, we’ll be dealing with themes related to 1 and 2 Virgo for a long time to come.
In terms of the larger Era, we’ve now ended the TransPluto (Percephone, Parvati) in Leo era that we knew from September 20, 1935 through July 4, 2014. The transition period where this planet danced at the last degree of Leo and first two degrees of Virgo began October 2011 and ended July 2014.
Interestingly, because the NN is now in late Leo, the line of greatest development is the degree TransPluto occupied off and on between August 1996 and June 2000. It was at 25 Leo during Aug 1996 through March 1997, July through October 1997, January 1998 through September 1998, February 1999 through August 1999, and March 2000 through June 2000.
On July 4, 2014, TransPluto left Leo for many centuries, and entered into Virgo for the next century. Because 2 Virgo symbolizes “a liberating ordeal” and the planet occupying that degree symbolizes Divine Mother energy, I would think that would mean we all have been and continue to be tested to allow compassion and understanding to come forth as humanity stands at the crossroads of time.
Of some importance is that Saturn squared TransPluto from December 2014 through June 2015, and again in late September and October 2015. That severely tested our ability to be far sighted, compassionate, and discerning in seeing the larger redemptive possibilities of this time in history. However, the first two months of 2016 Saturn made a waxing biseptile to TransPluto, showing that time was a huge turning point in finding responsible, future oriented truth teaching ways to demonstrate this “Divine Mother energy.”
Mars biseptiled TransPluto the last 4 days of August and first 5 days of September 2016, triggering previous Saturn in Sagittarius biseptiles to that planet involving lessons of “crises of compassion and connectedness” for humanity. This activated the forming direct biseptile of Saturn to TransPluto of Jan-Feb 2016, the Saturn retrograde biseptile of May-June 2016, and heralded and activated energy that was structured in the final Saturn biseptile to TransPluto between mid-October and mid-November 2016 giving us major shifts and “liberating ordeals.”
Saturn made a tredecile to TransPluto between late November 2016 through early January 2017. This began a long wave sequence of serendipitous relationship pulses between these two important planets. The first tredecile was made when Saturn went stationary retrograde in March 2016. This activated when Mars made its tredecile to TransPluto from September 5-14.
The tredecile is an aspect of “serendipity,” and indicates some very unique and specialized interactive gifts. That means the earlier tredecile between Saturn and TransPluto set up what’s happened in recent weeks, when Saturn made the tredecile again in November and December 2016. This sequence will be resolved this Summer when Saturn goes SD at 22 Sagittarius, creating a “hot spot” tredecile that will be activated by future transits.
Also, when Jupiter conjuncted TransPluto in August 2015 for the first time in Virgo, it began a new 12 year cycle of how these “Divine Mother energies” will manifest. It also began a new long wave era, since Jupiter will conjunct TransPluto in Virgo every 12 years until the 22nd century!
To finish this brief section, Venus also went stationary retrograde exactly conjunct TransPluto in late July 2015, setting up Venusian manifestations of Divine Mother that will show each and every time 1 Virgo is transited. That means the Venusian Divine Mother promise of late July 2015 was expanded, or set into motion somehow, by Jupiter's transit of 1 Virgo in mid-August 2015, and then took expression due to Mars’ transit of that degree in late September, and found “beauty of form” when Venus transited it in early October 2015.
Those two conjunctions have dominated the Virgo landscape in our charts since then, and were given new value, new power, and new understanding with the inner planet transits over those early degrees between late July and late August 2016. The Mars-Jupiter cycle set into motion in October 2015 in mid-Virgo will continue through their next conjunction in mid-Scorpio January 2018.
So we’ve officially entered a different Spiritual Era that will last through July 2107, when it leaves Virgo for good and re-enters Libra for the first time in many centuries, also after a few years of dancing on the cusp of Virgo and Libra. I offered you a bit more about this vast spiritual energy field in Astrology in the Age of Aquarius - Transpluto, a.k.a Divine Mother, Parvati, and Percephone.
See you soon with part 3, covering aspects, planetary sequencing, and other important factors in this Full Moon!
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
Very well said about moon and capricorn thank you for posting this.
Posted by: one face rudraksha | July 08, 2017 at 01:21 AM
In light of the G20 meeting and what is said by the symbol of the "Union Jack" and NN now at 25 Leo, there seems to be an opportunity for change and new considerations or agreements from this G20 meeting. It is going to be interesting to watch as this powerful group does and can condition a lot of current world events.
Blessing be to all.
Posted by: Nic | July 08, 2017 at 02:13 AM