A Demanding, Yet Peaceful, Full Moon

Sunday's Capricorn Full Moon is an interesting one, taking place as it does with the Sun in early Cancer, forming another in the series of grand trines in Water that include Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces; and thus continuing to emphasize these important outer planet energies. The Saturn-Neptune trine lasts through the remainder of this month and all through July, before beginning to fade in early August. This will be an interesting summer, with loads of heart energy, bringing our feelings closer to the surface.

Our communication and our relationship connections are now based even more on inarticulate feelings as well as on the more mentally active logical mode that is ever accentuated within our culture. This Full Moon time is a chance to reach out for a better balance between these twin modes of apprehending and attempting to control the world around us. Saturn speaks to the issue of control, and for accepting the practical limits of our situation, while Neptune is about reaching for a more idealized solution that flies in the face of logic and that takes Spirit more fully into account. Since both are in Water, and Water is now so prominent, the feeling tone of what we are about is highlighted, over and above mere logical analysis.

The planetary energies of Neptune in Pisces, also Saturn in Scorpio, and the Water signs in general, take us to the inside of our personalities, the underlying emotional basis of our lives and of our sense of psychological security. As these positions indicate, this is in fact a huge theme for the remainder of the summer. In mid-July, coming right up a few weeks away, Jupiter joins the party in early Cancer to trigger the most significant part of this cycle. Jupiter enters Cancer on the 25th of June, just one day before Mercury Retrogrades. The Mercury Retrograde period — taking place in Cancer also — lasts through July when you take the period of its retrograde shadow into account. Mercury changes to direct motion on July 20th, and finally escapes its zodiacal shadow on August 4th. The next six weeks therefore constitute a more meditative time, when simple logic fails us, and when we are encouraged to reflect on different and more soulful approaches to our situation.

With Mercury making a contra-parallel aspect to Pluto in Capricorn over this next week, and with the Moon also in Capricorn, Pluto is emphasized as well at the time of this Full Moon. The transformational effects of this small but powerfully dynamic planetary archetype are mighty. Through all this we can make progress, but we must recognize that it is we ourselves, and not others, that must change and evolve.

The Sabian symbols for this Full Moon are instructive. They are, for the Sun in the third degree of Cancer: "A man bundled up in fur, leading a Reindeer." This is a bit mysterious, but could be taken as referring to the hardships of the spiritual path. Life is not easy; and a fully realized life is perhaps the most difficult of all. We head north, in the direction that Spirit directs us, with as much courage as we can muster. For the Moon, in the third degree of Capricorn: "The human soul receptive to growth and understanding." This speaks also to the mandate for spiritual growth that we all feel inside.

Collectively, as well as personally, it could well be time to begin to see things differently. The problems that we face as a society are seemingly getting even more out of hand; to name only the most obvious: war, poverty and starvation in the midst of plenty, global warming and environmental degradation. Yet we can also accept the truism that if we want to see anything change, the change must begin in the place where we can actually make it, within each one of us, individually.

A Demanding, Yet Peaceful, Full Moon

What is in store for you in the next few months?

Chart for the Full Moon on June 23, 2013

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