by Robert Wilkinson
This “Second High Moon” will awaken forms of self-renewal so that we may find effective focus for a deep power within. This Full Moon has two oppositions along the Taurus-Scorpio axis, producing awareness and a “Tension of Opposites” requiring that we leave parts of the past behind. By what we let go of, we can move forward and find a degree of happiness in a fulfilled public or social function.
This Full Moon is stabilizing, intensifying, preparatory, and in many ways, revolutionizing. Our ability to confirm or re-confirm something about our values or what we draw on to shine our light will find new expression in a deeper faith, and our ability to stay balanced as we move through friction in our relationships will prove we are ready for the group work to come. The willingness to grow and build inner qualities we need since the New Moon can now find expression in the strength of our skills in navigating dynamic interactions.
The Sun in Earth and Moon in Water shows a time of fixed Earth (practical experience) of Taurus (practicality and grounded action) expressing its enjoyment of the NOW through the fixed Water (feelings and experiences) of Scorpio. The inner planets are now outside the outer planet span, and Mars won’t return to the outer planet compression until next March, when it will join Jupiter in Capricorn and conjunct Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn.
There are many planets in the last third of their signs, indicating a very mental-spiritual emphasis these next two weeks which will be a factor in the Ageless Wisdom to come forth over the next year. This one urges us to “enjoy our estate,” and marks a time of transition and renewal, so again, maintain your balance as you renew during this transition period.
As this Lunation falls near the end of Taurus and Scorpio, it shows we will find wisdom in confirming what we value within as we synthesize our intention and wisdom to find regenerative force. What is coming forth from this Full Moon will show us how we can find contentment in simply being ourselves at whatever state of philosophical completion we’re at related to what was awakened in the Summer of 2018 by Uranus.
As I noted in a previous article, some may think that the Moon is Void of Course. It’s not, because it makes an important triseptile to Venus and Uranus, and a septile to Saturn, before leaving Scorpio. Any time there are “out of sign” forming aspects (aspects made after the Moon changes signs), it indicates a transition must take place before the action indicated by the forming aspect occurs.
[A brief note on Void of Course Moons: historically the VOC Moon was used ONLY in Horary Astrology before the latter part of the 20th century. It was never used in natal or mundane astrology, and generally wasn’t considered a factor in evaluation a Lunation where the Moon falls in the final degree(s) of a sign. Also, I’ve found that those of us who have planets in the last degrees of their signs never experience a VOC Moon, since it’s always making some kind of aspect in our charts.]
In part 1 I explained why there’s some constant friction and agitation in the collective atmosphere off and on during these months due to Uranus semisquare Neptune anchoring constant friction whenever a planet moves through the middle degrees of the Mutable signs and beginning of Fixed signs. This anchors the on-again, off-again energies I have termed a “Rhombus Diamond,” associated with a “cutting, grinding, and polishing” energy that’s very frictional and disruptive.
At this time, the Sun/Moon opposition is cut into a highly specializing evolutionary pattern by Neptune, which is quintile the Sun and tredecile the Moon, throwing a favorable void into the middle degrees of Virgo. These aspects produce gifts, special circumstances, and interactions that could be described as “serendipity.” As the Sun and Moon have an abnormal number of 7th harmonic aspects, this Wesak Wisdom will put all of us at critical forks in the road of our destiny! I’ll discuss them later in the aspects section in part 3.
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. This Lunation has one other opposition because the Mercury is conjunct the Sun and so though separating, the Moon is opposed Mercury. This makes late Taurus/Scorpio the place where we “stand in the Light” these next two weeks.
As for other oppositions, we have now begun a long period of forming oppositions between Mars and the inner planets with the outers. Mars has already opposed Jupiter, which the inner planets will also do in June. While the compression of planets were very tight between November 2018 and March 2019, now that the planets are outside the outer planet span, they will oppose Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus from June through November.
Dispositors - What's the Backdrop to the Energies?
The Sun is in Taurus, making Venus in Taurus its worldly ruler and TransPluto in Virgo its spiritual ruler. The Moon is in Scorpio, making Mars in Cancer its worldly ruler, and Pluto in Capricorn its Spiritual Ruler. This begins a period of shifting dispositors, since when a planet is in Cancer, the Moon is its dispositor, and it moves through many signs in a short time.
This month is very unusual, as we now have FOUR “final dispositors” in Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. [A final dispositor is a planet in one of the signs it rules.] And, continuing the trend from last month, we again have a “Mutual Reception” in the mix. Using only worldly rulers, the Sun, Mercury and Venus are disposited by Venus in its home sign of Taurus. The Moon in Scorpio is disposited by Mars, and Mars in Cancer is disposited by the Moon, creating a Mutual Reception, which is a very powerful “closed loop” of self-reinforcing energies; Jupiter disposits itself, Saturn disposits itself, Uranus in Taurus is disposited by Venus, Pluto is disposited by Saturn, and as usual, Neptune disposits itself.
So this month we have all the planets ruled by four final dispositors and one Mutual Reception. By looking at how “chains of dispositors,” “final dispositors,” and “mutual reception” are in play between the planets, we get a clear picture of the backdrop for how each planet operates. 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 Wesak Festival “Global Buddha Wisdom” Full Moon falls at 28 Taurus and 28 Scorpio. It is said that the third third (decan) of any sign deals with the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life, and as the Lunation is in the third decan of those signs, invokes a sub-influence of Capricorn and Cancer.
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 28th degree of Taurus is “A woman pursued by mature romance.” In the original Jones notes published in The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this symbolizes "New perspective on life, genuine rejuvenation,” “the compelling charm of mature experience,” and “rebelliousness of inner hopes.”
We are told in the Astrological Mandala that this degree is about our “capacity to rise in consciousness and feelings above biological limitations,” where we have the power to “rise above the limitations which both biological nature and the ‘normal’ social pattern of behavior” have imposed on us at a younger age. After offering our cultural wisdom to others, this following degree is a receptivity to expanding our Ring Pass Not we have lived within once we realize we need to regenerate by stepping beyond that binding force in our lives.
Rudhyar offers that this symbol for the global Wisdom of 2019 is a clear signal that we should open “to the possibility of always new rebeginnings” where our new starts involve “a more mature response to the new possibility of experience.” He says it says it falls in the Span of Enjoyment, Act of Differentiation, and it’s the synthesizing degree in the Scene of Confirmation on the Individual-Mental level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of "the eternal promise underlying all objective existence, since the fullness of life is ageless and the human spirit immortal in its functioning.” He reminds us of “the danger of disappointment whenever any deprivation is taken as final, or when an individual no longer can be stimulated to the effort able to bring (them) rewards.”
He offers us “there is here the heightening of appreciation which comes with genuine maturity,” and gives us the keyword PERSUASION. He states that when operating in a positive way, it's said to be a degree of "the soul’s effective capitalization on its more enduring potentials.”
So this is the Light shining out a degree of rising beyond old limitations and finding a new perspective on life based in our “mature experience.” This promises a renewed life through our embrace of our immortality as Spirits in the material world. Rouse yourselves to new effort and you will find yourself with new power, new vitality, and new purpose!
The Light is showing us how to enjoy life renewals with their promise of new rewards which are more fulfilling than the comfortable limits we’ve been living within. Again, for truth seekers this will involve expanding beyond your previous “Ring Pass Not.” I devote an entire chapter to the importance of that “Guardian of the Limits of Power and Wisdom” in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Understanding the value and power of “The Ring Pass Not” can help us to see why some things must be left behind at crucial endings of life chapters.
The Lunar degree symbol for the 28th degree of Scorpio is "The king of the fairies approaching his domain.” In "the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, he states this degree is about “necessary respect for symbolic values holding vital forces integrated” and “Self-realization through devotion to the One.”
In The Astrological Mandala,, Rudhyar offers this degree involves “the capacity in (us) to recognize and to pay homage to an integrating Principle at the core of all existence.” He states this symbol is related to “creatures of a spiritual world” beyond the realm of the ego, showing our “intuitive consciousness” something we should give allegiance to. These “entities are seen as multiple aspects of a central Power and Consciousness,” representing life forms within the unity that humanity strives to experience.
He tells us that the unifying principle is the Higher Self, and “at this stage the presence of a spiritual unifying factor begins to be sensed by the individual perhaps weary of the outer shows of his culture,” where “an inner allegiance begins to polarize the consciousness.” He states that this symbol falls in the Span of Appreciation, the Act of Group Integration, and is the synthesizing degree of the Individual-Mental level of the Scene of Faith.
According to Dr. Jones, this degree is about “the eternal promise underlying all inner self-realization,” since our completeness “is independent of the passing state of affairs in a world of time and space.” He warns us of “the futility of (our) common reliance on people and things through some mere accident of contact.”
He continues “outer reality takes the form with which (we) endow it as (we) exercise (our) sovereignty over its various potentials in the creative realms of (our) own imagination.” He offers us the keyword ALLEGIANCE. He says that when positive, this degree is “special competence of inward vision and a consequent outward perspective of high effectiveness.”
From these symbols it seems we can see the Light of reclaiming our Spirit’s power to renew our lives expressed in forms of “going within to find Oneness in our connection to all Life.” Here the Light of our synthesized spiritual individuality can express through understanding how faith in our deepest experience can help us feel unified with all Life, and the Light of “genuine rejuvenation” will express through an intensified connection with both visible and invisible things.
This is the Illumination of mental-spiritual Confirmation given form through mental-spiritual Faith. The Wisdom of the Light of Individual “Self-substantiation” will be given expression through going inward and finding Oneness in Self-realization, and self-realization in Oneness. As we regenerate, we should begin to sense “a unifying factor” in our lives and affairs which will “polarize our consciousness” helping us feel whole and complete in deepened inner and outer connectedness.
TransPluto, Divine Mother, and the Tests of Human Redemption
Both Neptune and TransPluto represent very vast fields of feeling and connectedness beyond individual control. Neptune is the oceanic field of collective consciousness in which we all swim, and TransPluto is an almost incomprehensibly vast Divine Mother energy which redeems all things, brings grace to all circumstances, and is beyond even Death itself. When these two planets make an aspect, it shows us how the collective field is relating to Divine Redemption in a historically significant way.
Many important collective developments related to these themes began to surface between 2009-2012, when Neptune in Aquarius was in very close opposition to TransPluto, or Divine Mother. That’s a major factor in why things became so polarized during those years, where the “tension of opposites” began to bring forth lessons in our Oneness, our need to share, and the human collective consciousness faced its need to embrace compassion and learn Viveka, or Divine Discrimination, especially when TransPluto was at the first degree of Virgo. Since that important opposition, we’ve all experienced intensified opportunities to join together in the Great Mother and realize our interrelatedness on a feeling level with All-That-Is.
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 4, 2014, when TransPluto left Leo for many centuries to come, and entered into Virgo for the next century.
TransPluto, or Divine Mother, danced between 1 and 2 Virgo between July 2014 and Oct 2017, showing us the larger view of what we are learning about how we conceive of God the Mother. The symbol for 1 Virgo is about how our ideas and ideals shape the outer forms in our lives, as well as how we act. It’s about picturing “the salient features and the overall meaning of any life situation,” as well as the Path of discipleship and other forms of training.
So one of the two great themes Divine Mother has taught all of us those years was to see life as a whole, and find meaning in seeing the significant features of the entire picture. We have had to understand the value and function of differences, and seeing how our personal integrity has allowed us to make our ideals real through accepting some sort of responsibility.
TransPluto then made its first entry into 2 Virgo October 2014, and we began humanity’s “liberating ordeal.” That initial visit was between October 2014 and mid-January 2015, and began the themes of the “crucifixion” of our sense of ego-separateness so that compassion and understanding could come forth. We are told it symbolizes “eminence at the cost of struggle,”’ which certainly seems to be very much the case as humanity redeems the promise of its better nature.
It was at 2 Virgo between October 2014 and mid-January 2015, after which 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 again. In mid-May 2016 it went stationary direct at 1 Virgo, and then re-entered 2 Virgo in early August 2016. It remained at 2 Virgo until the end of March 2017 and then retrograded back to 1 Virgo between April and the end of June 2017.
It then again entered 2 Virgo until October 11, 2017, when it entered 3 Virgo, which we are told is a degree of “Two angels bring protection,” symbolizing inner powers and “divine help when human efforts fail.” Its occupancy of 1 Virgo is now complete, and since October 2017 we’ve been in the next phase of our collective “liberating ordeal,” promising relief, protection, as well as the manifestation of unexpected latent powers.
The themes of 3 Virgo include forms of security via “the simple and consistent convergence of all good things toward their own kind.” This is a type of conviction that guarantees “an effective fulfillment of our dreams.” With the planet symbolizing Divine Mother expressing help via guardian angels, we’ve begun to be provided welcome relief from some parts of our “liberating ordeal.”
It went stationary retrograde at the end of November 2017 at 3 Virgo, and re-entered 2 Virgo on Jan 19, 2018. It occupied 2 Virgo until it went stationary direct in mid-May 2018 on that degree, continuing to occupy 2 Virgo until Sept 6, 2018, when it re-entered 3 Virgo again. Our guardian angels were then back on the job as we cultivated “inner powers” as well as a greater recognition of how we have divine helpers everywhere!
As you can see, while we dealt with themes related to 1 and 2 Virgo for a long time, we’re now occupied with themes related to 2 and 3 Virgo for many months to come. It occupied 3 Virgo until late February 2019, and now again occupies 2 Virgo in this chart. It will stay on this degree as it goes stationary direct in mid-May, and in early August it will again occupy 3 Virgo. It will return to 2 Virgo one last time between April and June 2020, and then move forward through 3 Virgo again, finally moving into 4 Virgo in October 2020, introducing a new redemptive theme for humanity.
Planetary Cycles Bringing Forth Divine Mother
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. One major set of cycles were set into motion When Saturn conjuncted TransPluto at 28 Leo in August 2007, and of course Saturn’s SD point at 2 Virgo in May 2008 is currently being transited by TransPluto. Those Saturn-expressed TransPluto Leo and Virgo lessons will hold sway until their next conjunction at 9 Virgo in Sept 2037.
Another important cycle was set into motion when Jupiter conjuncted TransPluto at 1 Virgo in August 2015 in Virgo, beginning 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!
Related to that Jupiter conjunction, Venus went stationary retrograde exactly conjunct TransPluto in late July 2015, also at 1 Virgo, 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 2015, and found “beauty of form” when Venus transited it again 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 each time the inner planets transited those early degrees in 2016 and 2017. Related to this, please take a new look at the Mars-Jupiter cycle set into motion by their conjunction in mid-Virgo between October 2015.
Of some interest is that over a 10 day period in late August 2019, we'll have Mars, Venus, the Sun, and Mercury all conjunct TransPluto! This will set numerous "redemptive cycles" in motion, especially for those born in late August or who have planets in early Virgo. Allow the vast redemptive energy to wash many things clean in your lives, and you'll know by 2021 you have "made it through the night" related to whatever planets you have in early Virgo, as well as early Gemini, early Sagittarius, and early Pisces.
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 Second “High Moon!”
© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson
This explains a lot of things to me, very interesting, insightful. Thank You for sharing your wisdom, much appreciated.
Beverly Bradford
Posted by: Beverly Bradford | May 16, 2019 at 10:16 AM