by Robert Wilkinson
This Full Moon will throw us into the heart of the Mystery of our purpose, with radical shifts that were somehow predictable. Use this Full Moon to get over fear, and find a more gentle or harmless way of interacting with others, as well as yourself.
This initiating, exploring, transformational, and intense Full Moon occurs at 6:24 pm PST, 9:24 pm EST on January 1, 2:24 am GMT on January 2, and falls at the 12th degree of Cancer and Capricorn. Continuing the theme that proceeds at each Full Moon as they move through each polarity, this one gives us the ability to use the light of a greater personal power and discipline, giving it form and focus through entering deeper into the Mystery of our Self-revelation.
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.
An Overview
This Full Moon in Capricorn-Cancer organizes the vision of Sagittarius-Gemini that expanded the scope of the magnetic flow stabilized in Scorpio, and helps us to a more practical personal effectiveness. Here we see life as a “science experiment” and can understand how Plutonic seeds that sprouted in 2013 and 2014 are now personal skills and/or powers we can use in disciplined ways.
We’ve now moved out of the off-again, on-again Rhombus Diamonds anchored by Uranus semisquare Neptune and last month’s different one involving the Lunation in friction with Mars opposed Uranus. The Rhombus Diamond Octile has a “cutting, grinding, and polishing” quality, so catch your breath until September, when this configuration will happen again.
That’s not to say we’re entirely free of the friction, since we have transits that will semisquare Neptune and square Uranus coming in January, and conjunct Uranus while semisquaring Neptune in March, April, and May, culminating in mid-May when Mars enters Aquarius and semisquares Neptune and squares Uranus, also generating friction. The difference is that the semisquares are internal friction, whereas sesquisquares are external friction. The Rhombus is created by a combination of both, along with oppositions, so technically we won’t have a full Rhombus Diamond until September.
Interestingly, in this chart we have only two frictional aspects, those being Mars and Jupiter semisquare Saturn. This quickens the “death blow” to the Jupiter-Saturn cycle that began with their May 2000 conjunction at 23 Taurus. Even now the seeds of what will begin at the Great Mutation of 2020 are beginning to take shape. 2020 features Saturn conjunct Pluto at 23 Capricorn, followed by Jupiter’s two conjunctions with Pluto at 25 Capricorn that Spring and Summer, culminating in the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 1 Aquarius in December. I’ll write more about that very important period in coming months.
We’ve now moved into a time period of shifting Jones pattern. The patterns change mainly due to the position of the Moon, and at this Full Moon, we’ve again returned to a combination of a “Bucket” and “Locomotive” pattern. I’ll explain more later in this article.
Now that Saturn has entered Capricorn and Mars is in Scorpio, we no longer have a single final dispositor at work as a background influence. In this chart we actually have FOUR “final dispositors” for all the planetary energies: the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune. I’ll discuss the ruling dispositors in another article. At this time, Venus continues to lead the Sun, making this a highly social, emotional, and relational Full Moon where we can strip away fear and cultivate a sense of trust and harmlessness in our interactions as a path to the Light.
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.
In this Full Moon, there is no planet in a septile-series aspect to Neptune or Pluto, and we’re actually in a fairly calm period. The next triggers will be the second week of January when the Sun and Venus conjunct Pluto and septile Neptune, followed in late January by Mars making a septile to Pluto and biseptile to Neptune. Each of these represents a “fork in the road of destiny” for those affected, as well as humanity as a whole.
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.
We’re now slowly moving out of the configuration, and we’ve already hit a point in time when Neptune and Pluto are beginning to form a 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. (Right now they’re 53d 07m apart, en route to their closest orb in late January when they’ll be 52d 58m apart.)
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 Mercury in mid-Sagittarius through the Sun in mid-Capricorn spans 22+ degrees. Add Mars and Jupiter on one side, and Pluto on the other, and the span is 63+ degrees, so the areas between mid-Scorpio and mid-Capricorn will be very active these next two weeks. We’ll hit maximum compression in March, with all planets between Jupiter at 24 Scorpio and Uranus at 27 Aries, making a very powerful triseptile which I’ll discuss early next year.
At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, in an uneven widespread distribution, which is why this has elements of both a “Locomotive” and “Bucket” Jones patterns. Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in Scorpio, then includes Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in Aries, with the inner planets now occupying Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn. This chart’s Moon in Cancer is outside the occupied hemisphere, and due to its tight oppositions and trines, creates both a perfect Bucket and Locomotive pattern, combining the two influences.
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 the Moon, 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 “get a handle on what we need to do” by demonstrating good Cancer skills and approaches. Thus the focus requires sensitivity, caution, emotional intelligence, awareness of immediate needs, and a sense of the flow in situations.
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 12 Cancer.
Because it’s also a Locomotive pattern, I’ll also give the qualities of that Jones pattern again. You should see a combination of energies working out of balance, but generating power for those who know how to use the Lunar focus wisely.
So What is a “Locomotive Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets occupying 2/3 of the signs with an empty third, creates an imbalance that leads to power if we can find the compensatory “weight” to make things move forward smoothly rather than rock side to side creating friction. Target what is needed, and provide compensatory energies accordingly.
As Marc Jones put it, “this type of horoscope reveals a balance of this sort in the life. A third part of things… consisting of a free span in experience, is set against a two-thirds part, embracing a related but limited span in experience…. The basis of the dynamic is found in the native’s resulting strong sense of a lack or a need, of a problem to be solved, a task to be achieved in the social and intellectual world around him.”
Dr. Jones states “The temperament reveals a self-driving individuality, an executive eccentricity that is not … unbalance but rather is power. It exhibits a dynamic and exceptionally practical capacity which is neither the broad universality of the Splash pattern, nor the special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience characteristic of the Bundle people.
He goes on to state “The Locomotive classification is … moved more by external factors in the environment than by aspects of its own character. The point of application for the powers of the self is shown … by the “leading planet,” or the one of the two in the empty trine which forms its aspect clockwise in the zodiac, irrespective of any distinction as “applying” or “separating.”
Mars is the leading planet, and the Moon is the closing planet, in the Locomotive. Find appropriate Scorpio forms to enter into experience, which should become evident as they show us “world of the 5 senses and the mind as the playground of God and Soul.” Jupiter is at a degree symbolizing transfiguration, where Mars will conjunct it in a few days, so consider all “initiations into experience” as showing you what you have done well, and the work yet to do that will also transfigure you and your lives.
This favors an “expansive focus” and laser-like intensity in our approach to things, eliminating all that is unnecessary to move the flow toward transfiguration. Because the leading and closing edge of the Locomotive are both in Water signs, use deep feelings, a sense of the magnetics at work, and self-transcendence through eliminating obstacles to move through experience and come out with a greater sensitivity and caring about what truly matters, as well as a revelation about why you are as you are and what need in your world moves you.
As the Locomotive keeps things out of balance, Mars in Scorpio is now the front end to finding the way of initiating activity that must be accompanied by a compensatory “weight” to keep things moving forward rather than sideways. The more we work with the imbalances by referencing the Higher Self’s ability to play in the world of “the 5 senses and the mind,” the easier it will be to use Mars’ energies skillfully.
Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?
The late July 2017 New Moon in Leo was the final Lunation since June 2016 where the Full Moon Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon. That pattern happened between June 2016 and August 2017 and before then, between September 2013 and September 2014.
This is fifth Full Moon since the period between October 2014 and May 2016 where we again have a “reversed pattern” of the Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun. So we’re now in a different New Moon/Full Moon sign expression.
We finished the period of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns at the Solar Eclipse in late Leo and began the new sequence, since that Sun was in Leo, but the subsequent Full Moon Sun was in Virgo. 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 begin the sequence with the “Seed Light” of Sagittarius that will come to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Capricorn and Moon in Cancer.
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 27 Sagittarius. You can learn more about the recent New Moon in Sagittarius by going to The New Moon at 27 Sagittarius Pt. 1 – What’s Happening in December 2017 and January 2018, and The December 2017 New Moon at 27 Sagittarius Pt. 2 – Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What it All Means.
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn is now in its home sign of Capricorn for the first time since 1991, it is the dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius, making it an important factor through February in the immediate future, and it will play a different and powerful part in world affairs between March and November because Mars will be transiting those signs during that time. That makes Saturn a major force to be reckoned with in 2018!
Add the fact that it’s doing a very interesting dance with Uranus all of 2018, and once they come back into trine between May and October involving Capricorn and Taurus, and it will be the next chapter in us learning how to blend past and future together and craft your future destiny. After the 2017 Fire trines between these planets stabilizing Electric Fire and distributive “Fire by Friction,” this will provide practical grounding to our efforts.
This will help us organize and simplify our Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our charts. You can learn more about mastering the Saturn and Uranus part of generating your future destiny by taking a look at the material in my book “Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend.” Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, will help bring an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies infused with concentrated doses of spiritual energy that is making our spiritual life come alive.
Our inner Saturn gives us the power to take command of our lives and destiny. Saturn shows us those things we must master to become spiritual adults and fulfill our purpose for being alive on Earth. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, shows why some things happened when they did. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why they had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped their lives in profound ways.
Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your power to steer your personal evolution. You will understand how to throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose. Through your journey of self-discovery, you can find ways to live your life on your own terms, and fulfill your purpose for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!
If you’ve haven’t already gotten your copy, you can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page on Amazon and this should be all you need to order your copy. It’s also available on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, so if that’s more to your liking, go for it! I’ve been told people who live outside the US can get their copy much faster by going through Amazon. If you would, whether you’ve gotten the ebook or the paperback, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the more of a boost they give it.
On A Final Note
See you in the near future with parts two and three on this “Self-initiating authoritative” Full Moon challenging us to examine reality and how it works, searching for the Mystery of who we are and why we’re here, doing what we’re doing. We are still at the beginning of the end game of receiving a promise of redemption we’ve been waiting for these past 18 months.
Stay identified with your Higher Self, look at reality through the lens of creative imagination, and remember that because Mercury is still in its “shadow zone,” we are in process of receiving and demonstrating a blessing to be spiritual leaders in our own realm. See what you have done well that has transfigured you since 2014 and is now completed, as well as how to bring what you’re doing to a radiant completion down the road. Enjoy the intensity of your interactions, and I’ll see you soon when we’ll discuss Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
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