by Robert Wilkinson
This empathic, reorganizing, imitative, and practical Full Moon occurs at 7:54 am PST, 10:54 am EST, and 3:54 pm GMT on February 19, and falls at the 1st degree of Pisces and Virgo. As the Full Moon brings the themes of the New Moon to surface, continue to follow the Light of the “energy management” of the Aquarius New Moon and give it form and focus through being clear about “the Light of Closure,” expressed through an understanding of how the parts relate to the whole.
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
Continuing the theme that proceeds at each Full Moon as they move through each polarity, this one gives us the ability to bring to surface forms of practical discernment which can help us adjust to redeem the best of the promise of the past. We now ground the broader views and truths we’ve developed since Sag/Gemini expressed as forms of personal power on a social level in Capricorn/Cancer and turned to action building a vision in Aquarius/Leo.
The recent Eclipses in the Aquarius/Leo sectors of our charts has left voids which are already beginning to be filled with “preparatory contents” as a primer for the Jupiter conjunct Saturn at 1 Aquarius in December 2020. Much will be confirmed when Venus transits Aquarius in the next weeks.
Due to the Moon conjunct TransPluto, Divine Mother energy is front and center the next 2 weeks, so be clear about what’s core, what’s peripheral, and the place and function of all the details of your life and anything you’re involved in. This will bring forth forms of inner powers and strengths, as well as “invisible helpers” who bring aid “when human efforts seem to fail.”
There are several very powerful configurations at work in this Lunation which promise high specialization and productivity despite some friction spurring us to see what we care about and how to nurture it. As Mercury and Jupiter are the worldly rulers of the Lunation and are in square, cross currents in forms of expression are evident, with a need for precision in allowing our “will to wholeness” to guide what bursts forth so it truly breaks up all the complexes it’s intended to explode.
Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?
There are two patterns; one is when the Full Moon Sun is the same sign as the previous New Moon Sun, and the other is when the Full Moon Sun is in the next sign from the Sun in the previous New Moon. We last had the Sun in the same sign in both the New Moon and Full Moon, the so-called “natural” order, between June 2016 and the late July 2017 New Moon in Leo, when the Full Moon Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon.
We finished the period of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns at the August 2017 Solar Eclipse in late Leo and began this other sequence, since that New Moon Sun was in Leo, but the subsequent Full Moon Sun was in Virgo. Since then, we’ve had a “reversed pattern” of the Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun. This is the nineteenth Full Moon since then where we have Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun.
This Full Moon is the next to the last in the string of Full Moons at the first degree of their signs! November 2018 began this run at 1 Sag/Gemini, and it continued through 1 Cap/Cancer and 1 Aquarius/Leo to now. Our next Full Moon will occur just a few hours after the March Equinox at 1 Aries/Libra, which will be the last in this “reverse order” sequence of Lunations. After that we revert to the “normal” sequence of the New Moon and Full Moon Suns being in the same signs rather than different ones.
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 are in a sequence with the “Seed Light” of Aquarius coming to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Pisces and Moon in Virgo. You can learn more about the recent New Moon at 16 Aquarius by going to The New Moon at 16 Aquarius Pt. 1 – What’s Happening in February 2019, and The New Moon at 16 Aquarius Pt. 2 – Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What it All Means.
Planetary Distribution
In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Venus at 19 Capricorn through Mercury at 17 Pisces spans 58+ degrees. This span will be the focus of broad activity in our charts. When we add the next nearest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, it expands the active span to 7 planets in 85+ degrees. Our occupied planetary spread (except for the Moon) has now contracted to 5 signs. We hit maximum compression last March, with all planets between Jupiter at 24 Scorpio and Uranus at 27 Aries, making a very powerful triseptile between the bookends.
At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, in an uneven widespread distribution. Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in late Sag, then moves through Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in late Aries, with the inner planets (except Mars) now occupying Capricorn and Pisces, with the Moon in Virgo creating an almost perfect Bucket Jones pattern.
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 are definitely in a classic Bucket chart, with the Moon as the handle, or “nozzle,” of a Bucket Chart.
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 Virgo as the handle, we should be able to “get a handle on what we need to do” by demonstrating good Virgo skills and approaches. Thus the focus requires practicality, humility, honesty, and a sense of responsibility. Be the essence of "Divine Discrimination," and become perfect in your expression!
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 1 Virgo.
The Rhombus
As Uranus is still semisquare Neptune, anchoring the off-again, on-again friction Rhombus Diamond configuration, we’ll have to continue to deal with this “cutting, grinding, and polishing” quality each time the Moon moves through the middle of the mutable signs and the end of the cardinal and beginning of the fixed signs. In this chart, for the first time in a very long time, we do not have the Rhomus friction activated by a third planet. We do have other powerful semisquares and sesquisquares in play which I’ll discuss in another part of this series.
The perfect Rhombus Diamond is made every September when a planet is in mid-Virgo opposing Neptune at the same time another planet is opposed Uranus, with double semisquares and sesquisquares created between those planets. This creates a massive Octile frictional configuration, which was most recently activated during the late 2018 Full Moons when Venus opposed to Uranus.
Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?
First, what it is. The Grand Irrationality is a phenomenon we’ve been living within since 1993. Since then, we’ve been in an extraordinarily irrational period which continues to this day. 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/or Pluto. Septile series aspects show us points in time when our future destiny is precipitated by critical choices made in the present.
Because this configuration involved Neptune and Pluto, two powerhouse Transpersonal planetary representatives of Spirit, they have symbolized the long wave planetary crisis the entire human race has been going through since 1993. From then to now, 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.
The Grand Irrationality V.1 was the period when Neptune was septile Pluto. It began in 1993, was very strong and in constant movement the last 5 years of the 20th century and the first 15 years of this century. This phase has now waned, since Neptune no longer makes a forming or partile separating septile to Pluto and won’t again for many centuries.
However, we have now moved into a new phase of The Grand Irrationality! It’s not the configuration as we’ve known it since the 90s, since the Neptune part of the equation has faded into a “pulse” that is triggered after the main configuration is set into play. I explain more downstream.
Uranus began to biseptile Pluto in the Summer of 2017, briefly setting the new configuration into play. That began the current “never-ending revolution” since Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener, has hit its “fork in the road of destiny” with Pluto, the Lord of Transformation. I term this phase The Grand Irrationality V.2!
This particular larger period in time is even stranger than it was during the Grand Irrationality V.1, since this period combines Uranus’ semisquare to Neptune with Uranus biseptile Pluto. So along with the hard edge of the Grand Irrationality involving Uranus and Pluto in a 7th harmonic aspects, we also have Uranus in an 8th harmonic frictional aspect to Neptune, another of the Transpersonal Spiritual planets!
This configuration was highly active during several recent Lunations, and as Venus biseptiles Uranus and conjuncts Pluto with Mars biseptile Pluto, we have the Grand Irrationality in play for the next two weeks! This activates the Saturn biseptile Uranus in play since last month’s Total Eclipse Full Moon, and moves us into another time of crucial turning points, choices, and changes!
Though Uranus biseptile Pluto is now partile separating, Venus brings it back into play, making the Grand Irrationality V.2 a factor in this Eclipse, even though Uranus is still trielftile Pluto. As this is the first of three biseptiles Saturn will make with Uranus, this one takes away that which we do not need down the road or which would hinder the structure of our individualization.
This first biseptile will be exact in mid-February and active until March, so take heed! The second one will be in late April through all of May, with the third and final one happening in December. As you can see, the biseptiles from Capricorn to late Aries and early Taurus will dominate the landscape this year!
More on Uranus Biseptile Pluto
Though Uranus is temporarily not in biseptile to Pluto, we’ve already begun to experience the radical choices and changes associated with these two planets in a 7th harmonic aspect! As I offered back in May when Uranus first entered Taurus, “… they will soon make a biseptile, guaranteed to be a very unstable and irrational time!” That prophesy has certainly played out in the news with trumpets blaring, thanks to other transits triggering these 7th harmonic non-rational energies.
We first encountered these very briefly in August 2017, and it went into nonstop pulses beginning at the end of June 2018 with Uranus again 101+ degrees from Pluto. This lasted through October when the orb became too wide. We’re now enjoying a brief return to the trielftile between December 2018 and April 2019. The biseptile comes roaring back between May and July, and again October 2019 through December 2019.
This is the first biseptile in the larger Uranus/Pluto cycle that began at their conjunctions in the mid-1960s. The waxing septile occurred 1989-1991, so this is the next point in that larger “Pulse of Destiny.” The hot zones, measured from the current Uranus biseptile Pluto, are around 19-23 Capricorn, 10-14 Pisces, 1-5 Taurus, 23-27 Gemini, 15-19 Leo, 6-10 Libra, and 28 Scorpio-2 Sag. If you have anything near these zones, your life has had some abrupt transformational experiences since last Summer, especially in early November when Jupiter activated both Uranus and Pluto!
As I told you at the Solstice, if things don’t make sense, they don’t have to. The only thing that matters is to know how to focus and not get distracted by the craziness in the atmosphere. Sometimes, when we keep our heads when all around us are losing theirs, we come out on the other side looking and feeling good!
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn is in its home sign of Capricorn for the first time since 1991, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. We have now begun a year of “co-equal rulerships” between Jupiter and Saturn, since Jupiter now disposits all planets in Sag and Pisces, while Saturn continues to disposit all transits through Capricorn and Aquarius. Because Mars was in a Saturn-ruled sign from March 17 through November 15, 2018, Saturn was a very powerful influence on all Mars-related events of that time, which of course meant Saturn was the backdrop to Jupiter in Scorpio for that entire time.
2017 and 2018 were an extraordinary period, due to Saturn trine Uranus dominating most of those years. Their 2017 Fire trines stabilized Electric Fire and distributive “Fire by Friction,” which led naturally to the 2018 Earth trine helping us ground our efforts in practical ways. These helped us blend the past and future, the established with the innovative, and make the structure of our lives unique.
This Full Moon finds “the Light of Saturn” front and center due to the aspects in play! It creates a Rhombus effect with the Lunation, while also sextiled by Mercury and tredeciled by Mars. Add the partile separating biseptile with Uranus, and it’s clear Saturn is putting us at a fork in the road of destiny where crucial choices are being made. This will help us all get a different perspective on long range factors happening at this time so we may anticipate major changes to come all year. This is the next point of “choice and change” in the Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our lives.
I cover a lot of their dance awakening us to using our power to create our destiny in conscious individualized ways in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, teaches us how to construct an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies making our spiritual life come alive.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life 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! 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 Full Moon precipitating endings, adjustments, redemption, and serendipitous treasures to be claimed! We will see powerful manifestations of Divine Mother energy, building on the honesty we’ve learned since the past New Moon.
Past weeks have shown us how to get out of our own way so Spirit may manifest. Some have experienced the marriage of the heavenly and earthly within them, while other have thrown off their primal fear and chains of mental slavery. The Eclipses have offered many gifts, as well as taken away whatever to clear the way for a more “light and bright” heart expression
Many vaster vistas of feeling are promised by Mercury, while Jupiter counsels us that imitation is the way to “practice perfect roles” yet to be mastered. Learn to give things a push so they are in your continued interests, and don’t get distracted by too much about nothing.
Remember that the Rhombus Diamond energy of multiple interlocking semisquares, sesquisquares, and opposition is stimulated for the next two weeks, putting pressure in several sectors. One group involves the middle degrees of the Mutable sectors and first degrees of the Fixed sectors in our charts. The other sectors involve the first degrees of the Mutable sectors and middle degrees of the Cardinal sectors of our charts.
When it comes to using friction productively, remember that it takes pressure to turn carbon into diamonds. And the more skillful we become in dealing with life’s aggravations, annoyances, disruptions, and unexpected diversions, the less these are a problem in the future, and the more we are able to keep our cool in the midst of the generic atmospheric conflict. That way we can fulfill our destiny and enjoy the journey!
We have now moved from a Sagittarius to a Capricorn emphasis, though with Jupiter in Sagittarius through late 2019, we all get to learn the Sagittarius dance with life, love, humor and freedom. Keep laughter in your heart as you move into the future, and claim your power to live a more effective life!
I’ll see you soon when we’ll discuss Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.
© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson
keep laughter in your heart I really love that thankyou
Posted by: claire daring | February 16, 2019 at 11:37 AM