A First Quarter Moon of Revelation and Frustration

The First Quarter Moon in Libra, following the dynamic New Moon of July 4th, comes along in the late afternoon and evening of Monday, July 11th. The Moon is at 20 Libra, and the Sun at the 20-degree mark of Cancer, with Mercury and Venus nearby. This is the second lunation this month featuring a Grand Trine between personal planets together with Mars and Chiron, echoing the one featuring Venus from the New Moon timing, and bringing up a sense of the painful state of human relations at this time on planet earth. In this regard, and specific to the U.S., it is quite interesting that Uranus is actually in partile or same-degree square to the nation's Mercury, symbolizing the media, so that we can continue to expect startling events and their instantaneous coverage as this month continues to unfold. There will perhaps be many more such happenings as we head into the Republican National Convention being held in one more week. This is bound to be an unusual one this election season, with a nascent movement within that party to unseat their presumptive nominee as unfit to serve. In another feature of this First Quarter Moon chart, it is also of extreme interest to note that Pluto continues to be quite strongly placed, aspected by Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, so that this July cycle can be seen as a continuation of the intense lunations that we have been observing recently that in their essence lead to nothing less than the transformation of our society at large, and of ourselves individually.

Mercury, at 25 degrees of Cancer, makes a Grand Trine with Mars in Scorpio and with Chiron, the Wounded Healer, at 25 Pisces. We have already seen media accounts that bring up a great deal of pain, from just a few days ago, when both black people being taken into custody and law enforcement officers were tragically killed. These incidents point to the need for all of us, in all nations but especially in the U.S., to come to some better understanding of ourselves and of each other, and to acknowledge the racial divides that still plague us as a society. That the Sun and Moon degree of this approaching First Quarter Moon form a T-square, exact to the minute, with U.S. Chiron, at 20 degrees of Aries, cannot be overstated. There is very definite national upset on display, so that one can only hope that all the furor will lead to positive change over the course of future days and weeks. It would help were the national debate to at least begin to recognize the deep-seated and largely unconscious racism that is a sad but undeniable part of the social fabric, here in the United States and elsewhere. In our individual lives as well we must begin to deal with these concerns, our own private microcosm of the larger cultural picture.

The telling and still relatively close square between Saturn and Neptune remains quite active, being aspected in this First Quarter Moon configuration by Uranus, Eris, and Mercury. The planet of communication, the winged messenger of the Gods, is in very close sesquiquadrate aspect to both Saturn and Neptune, and is also closely square to Uranus, and makes a Grand Trine including Mars and Chiron, as indicated above. Regarding this latter aspect pattern, we therefore have an opportunity to learn something from the massive tragedies facing us as a society, and from the events of our lives also, when these reveal buried anger and the hidden fears we bring into the present from the residue of early childhood wounding. Stepping back to the bigger picture of Saturn versus Neptune, we have illusions to work through on both individual and societal levels if we are to enact useful solutions that respond to what is really going on inside us.

The Sabian Symbols of this First Quarter Moon are of interest. They are, for the Moon in the 21st degree of Libra: "A crowd upon a beach," a symbol of humanity at large. The idea of a beach is particularly poignant in terms of modern 21st-century fears that rising sea-levels could create a refugee crisis of even greater proportions than what we are already seeing due to war. In any case this symbol can be regarded as humans en masse with a situation in common, banded together at the edge of nature, forced by circumstances to relate to one another in the context of a shrinking world. Marc Edmund Jones remarks that here, humans exhibit "the unconditioned friendliness through which [they bring] new facets of [themselves] to a point of immediate expression." He goes on to state that they feel the need to "release the pyramiding tensions of personality whenever it is held too closely in rein, and to enjoy wider self-realization." This is an invitation that speaks to working with what lies within each of us, for greater self-knowledge and self-fulfillment, as these outer planet energies, including Chiron, incline us toward. For the Sun, in the same degree of Cancer, we find: "A prima donna singing," which Jones takes as a symbol of individual excellence. He refers to "an overflowing richness of self through its full command of its own deep and genuine potentials." Indeed it is high time that we, as a species, begin to recognize and act upon our truest nature.

A First Quarter Moon of Revelation and Frustration

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Chart for the First Quarter Moon on July 11, 2016

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