Libra Full Moon

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

*Le Premier Disque* (1912–1913) by Robert Delaunay

audio recording of Libra Full Moon article

Libra Full Moon

Libra as the sign of the scales involves the perpetual balancing experienced within all of our relationships. The Full Moon in Libra on 6 April will activate the polarity between Aries and Libra during a period of accelerating collective and personal change. Aries and Libra are cardinal signs that initiate new directions and set things into swift motion, and so the Libra Full Moon is well suited for adjusting to the quickly changing currents signified by Saturn and Pluto entering new signs during the past month. As the entrances of Saturn into Pisces on 7 March and Pluto into Aquarius on 23 March have correlated with new storylines and rapid reconfiguration of dynamics, the relational capacity that Libra possess for coming to terms with the myriad intersecting lines of tension within systems is needed for effective adjustment and reorientation. The polarity between Aries and Libra involves the fiery surge of the Ram’s direct passion set against the thoughtful contemplation of the Scales that carefully measures myriad ways of addressing circumstances and relations, turning issues over and over again to explore every facet imaginable. The days surrounding the full moon can help with processing whatever has come out of balance and recentering, as Libra is an air sign that excels at contemplating available options and weighing the pros and cons of potential directions.

The Libra Full Moon serves as a fulcrum in between two consecutive lunations in Aries: the New Moon in Aries on 21 March at the first degreee of Aries, and the upcoming Solar Eclipse in Aries that will take place on 20 April at the final degree of Aries. Since the Libra Full Moon will be followed by a Solar Eclipse that will catalyze tension with Pluto and a Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio that will activate Uranus, there is a great likelihood of unexpected and fast moving changes occurring in the month ahead which will require additional adaptation and adjustment. Amidst whirlpools of volatile collective change, the Libra Full Moon can be helpful for gaining awareness of developing issues coming to a head that will require strategy and nuanced agility. As Libra is also the active, outwardly directed domicile of Venus, the Libra Full Moon can also direct attention to the needs of our relationships as well as forging bonds of fellowship that can be mutually beneficial in coping with the rising tides of change.

The Libra Full Moon will be separating from an opposition with Chiron and applying toward an opposition with Jupiter due to the close proximity between Chiron and Jupiter with the Sun in Aries. Chiron will form a conjunction with the Sun on 5 April roughly six hours before the Moon forms her exact opposition with the Sun, making the lunation acutely focused upon the regeneration of Chiron in Aries. Considering only traditional planets, the Libra Full Moon is separating from a disruptive square aspect with Mars in Cancer. As a result, the Libra Full Moon may illuminate difficult feelings of hardship in relation to changing circumstances, the uncertainty of present dynamics and where they may lead, as well as old wounds of identity and alienation. Yet with the Libra Full Moon in the bounds of Jupiter while also applying to Jupiter, the silvery reflections of the Moon’s mirror may illuminate ways of recovering, restoring, and revitalizing a sense of purpose and vision to work towards.

The Libra Moon opposing Chiron while Chiron is simultaneously connecting with the Sun will reveal key issues and patterns that can bridge your present circumstances with your vision for future developments. Although the accelerated pace of collective changes can fear over the potential of what could happen, the amplified quality of chaotic flux also means there is increased potential for exciting new creative directions to emerge that were not previously available. Chiron’s strange orbit extends beyond the orbit of Uranus when furthest away from earth while weaving within the orbit of Saturn when closest to earth. Chiron spends the longest time in the sign of Aries due to traveling as far away from us as possible within his orbit, picking up emancipatory messages from Uranus to transmit. As a result, Chiron in Aries can be an important ally in discovering how to break free from old restraints into a more authentic path. Yet Chiron often does this through revealing the symptoms of our deeper wounds that need to be addressed so that we can reach our next stage of development.

Many of the personal and collective wounds stirred by Chiron in Aries relate to the impact of past and present colonial empires. The work of Dr. Bayo Akomolafe is resonant with the guidance available through Chiron in Aries, as he has said that decolonial emancipation is not the work of struggling with what is, but a place of occupying what we are becoming. Further resonant with the Full Moon in Libra, Dr. Akomolafe has also taught the importance of contemplating our circumstances so we do not react in ways that reinforce the very systems of societal oppression we wish to change. Chiron in Aries can help foster increased agency in creative actualization, yet also warns of becoming overly focused on one’s own perspective and desires while neglecting the realities of others. The contact between Moon and Chiron can draw attention to the mystery of internal spaces that source our external expression. Rather than insisting we know best while obsessing over external achievement, the Libra Moon reflecting Chiron emphasizes the importance of listening and relating to the vibrant meaning found within the realms of visible and invisible nature surrounding us.

The Libra Moon’s opposition with Jupiter will also reflect a process of deep mystery and hidden meaning found within our own darkness. Jupiter is traversing its invisible phase under the beams of the Sun during which time it cannot be seen in the sky. Within the regenerative phase of Jupiter’s solar cycle, we may likewise discover ways in which the sense of vision and purpose we have cultivated over the course of the past year during Jupiter’s previous visible cycle is now undergoing a process of death and rebirth. Within a week of the Libra Full Moon, Jupiter will be reanimated by conjoining the Sun in its exaltation of Aries on 11 April. As Jupiter ends one cycle while beginning another, we can likewise discover a renewed sense of our purpose and a regenerated vision for what we hope to create in the year ahead. The Libra Full Moon opposing Jupiter will increase awareness for aspects of our purpose that need to be shed or released to make space for the revitalized vision that is presently in process of taking shape.

*Simultaneous Windows on the City* (1912) by Robert Delaunay

The Full Moon in Libra is ruled by Venus in Taurus. Venus can directly express her essential nature in her earthy home of Taurus, and is applying toward a harmonious sextile with Neptune in Pisces that can facilitate experiences of pleasure, fantasy, and imagination as part of coping with present circumstances. Venus is not forming a major aspect with the Libra Full Moon, and so the otherworldly influence of Neptune may be more about finding sources of temporary respite to escape from stressful events stirred up by the opposition between Sun and Moon. While Venus remains in Taurus, we can look to her signfications of pleasure, friendship, aesthetic enjoyment, and artistic creation as ways to gain relief from difficulties.

Mercury recently entered Taurus on 3 April and will continue to benefit from Venus also occupying Taurus until Venus leaves her earthy home to enter Gemini on 11 April. Mercury in Taurus is in position to deeply attune with the changing reality of circumstances as Mercury is separating from a tense square aspect with Pluto in Aquarius and a clarifying sextile aspect with Saturn in Pisces while applying toward a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon in Taurus as well as a creative sextile aspect with Mars in Cancer. The sextile between Mercury and Mars will become exact on 7 April and will be worth paying attention to associated events due to the fact that Mercury will station retrograde in Taurus on 21 April and form an additional sextile aspect with Mars in Cancer on 23 April. Since Mercury will station retrograde a day after an intense solar eclipse, the time period around Mercury’s stationing and second sextile aspect with Mars will be volatile. However, the sextile between Mercury and Mars that connects with both the Libra Full Moon as well as the Aries Solar Eclipse could also correlate with a dynamic project you persist in developing during a period of unsettling change.

At the time of the Libra Full Moon, Mercury is moving direct and visible while approaching their maximum elongation as an Evening Star on 11 April. After the star of Hermes reaches maximum elongation they will begin slowing down in anticipation of their retrograde stationing on 21 April, while also moving closer to Uranus in Taurus. As Mercury begins slowing down, pay attention to signs indicating areas of change and issues that will demand attention during the upcoming period of eclipses and Mercury retrograde that will take place at the end of April and first half of May. You may notice habits in need of changing, structures that need to be released or reformed, or issues that need increased focus.

Venus will enter the mentally stimulating sign of Gemini on April 10 or 11, depending upon your time zone. This date marks a pivotal point in the waning half of the lunar cycle, as Mercury will also reach maximum elongation and Jupiter will also be reanimated by conjoining the Sun on the same day. Gemini is a fluid and adaptable atmosphere for Venus and will be a transit that can prompt curiosity in diverse ideas and interests while developing skills in creative expression and communication. After Venus enters Gemini she will immediately form a flowing trine aspect with Pluto in Aquarius on 11 April followed by a square aspect with Saturn in Pisces on 14 April. Venus in the flexible and intellectual sign of Gemini can help attune awareness to the ways in which we need to make adjustments in our relationships to accommodate the larger societal and personal shifts that have corresponded with the recent sign changes of Pluto and Saturn.

Libra 2 Decan

The Full Moon in Libra will illuminate the second decan of Libra associated with the Three of Swords tarot arcanum illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. An arcanum known as the “Lord of Sorrow,” the Three of Swords contains an image of piercing heartbreak: swords stabbing through a heart set against a stormy sky. Its gloomy, rainy, and cold atmosphere fits well with the fact that the second decan of Libra is the face of Saturn. The meaning of the Three of Swords can indeed relate to betrayal, abandonment, and loss, yet its connection with Saturn also means we can link the transcendent fostering of strength and wisdom that can be gained through facing the inevitable and enduring painful experiences. Indeed, T. Susan Chang in 36 Secrets wrote that the rainy backdrop of the Three of Swords can also symbolize “the very water of life for everything that sustains us.” Chang linked the Three of Swords to Binah, the Great Mother who serves as the third sphere on the Tree of Life and whose “dark womb” gives birth to the “Pillar of Form.” Chang wrote that Binah’s “sorrow is archetypal and saturnine in nature, shaped by the love of creation and the indelible knowledge that all things must end.” Chang wrote that the Three of Swords can show up in readings as the signing and fulfillment of contracts as well as the termination of relational bonds; in one way or another, “there is something you have no choice but to face: hard-won knowledge, irreversible realizations, the thing you can’t unknow.”

Henrich Cornelius Agrippa in Three Books of Occult Philosophy wrote that within the second face of Librra “arise two men raging and angry, and a man ornately dressed sitting in a chair; these have the significations for anger against evil, and a restful and secure life with an abundance of good.” While one of Agrippa’s signfications and images involves rage against unjust behavior, the same face also involves the security of an abundantly good life. In comparison, the Picatrix pictured a man leading a wedding and described the second face of Libra as signifying “relaxation, wealth, good living, security, peacefulness and easy living.” The association with marriage also appeared in the Yavanajātaka, in which a woman who “is clever in the office of an intermediary (between lovers) for the sake of the bridegroom” resides.

Austin Coppock in 36 Faces connected Saturn’s exaltation in Libra to the binding of “happy marriages and fruitful alliances” found in the second decan of Libra, as well as the breaking apart of such agreements. Coppock ascribed the image of “Two Links in a Chain” to the second decan of Libra, describing it as “a face of lasting unions and blended karma” in which “the power of obligation fixes volatile passions,” creating “a firm foundation for the good life.” Oaths and binding contracts are central symbols of this face that hold one of its central lessons: with whom and for what should one pledge themselves in oath. The second decan of Libra promises a bounty of abundance for those who stay true to their commitments in contracts of mutual beneficence. Yet it also contains the heartbreak of betrayal and becoming abandoned by the other side not holding up their end of the agreement. Coppock wrote that the “power of this face is nearly ideal for the binding of two things together, whether they be people in marriage, business entities, or merely a promise to oneself. It contains the formulae not only for knitting together, but continuing in happy union, and is therefore an arcanum of wonderful power.”

The Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed Kairos to the second face of Libra. Kairos in Greek mythology is the youngest son of Zeus as well as the lover of Fortuna, an embodiment of luck and favorable opportunities. Kairos was portrayed as moving with winged feet, carrying a razor or scales that represent the fleeting moment in which opportunity comes and goes, the moment we need to seize and not neglect. In modern culture the term kairos refers to the opportune moment for something to occur that is not confined to the demands of chronological time but rather connects us with a soulful sense of destiny thrust into the moment. We generally know to commit to blessed opportunities brought by the goddess Fortuna when they align with our purpose, but other times we can feel stuck and unsure if the opportunities presenting themselves to us are truly worthy of our commitment. The connection of Kairos with the second decan of Libra and the Libra Full Moon stresses the importance of contemplating the commitments you are forming so that you do not later face the torment of being bound to a contract you do not want to uphold.

The sacred, solemn and serious nature of oaths can be seen in the fact that even the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology were bound by them. The golden winged messenger and intermediary Iris, goddess of the rainbow, had the role of collecting the water from the underworld river Styx which was used by the gods to swear oaths by and put to sleep the deities who broke them. Oaths like Saturn necessitate limits and restrictions, yet their establishment and adherence create the trust and faith required to build enduring works in collaboration with others. The second decan of Libra holds both the benefits and abundance gained by those who remain faithful to their oaths as well as the discord that comes from unfaithfulness. In times of collective uncertainty, the oaths of intentions we make for ourselves as well as to secure bonds of fellowship with others are crucial for fostering greater stability and security. Let the light of the Libra Full Moon guide you in considering the goals, intentions, and relationships that deserve your full commitment due to aligning fully with your essential purpose.

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References

Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

New Moon in Capricorn

December 23, 2022December 23, 2022 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

Aurora Borealis (1882) from The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings

Audio recording of article

New Moon in Capricorn

Capricorn is zodiacal terrain that holds the duality of civilization and the wilderness. The wildness of Capricorn demands survival skills and sharp strategy, while its affinity for societal systems emphasizes cultural conditioning influences we must interface with. It’s the only zodiacal sign where Saturn and Mars are both glorified and fortified, a place of courageous initiative as well as cutting contraction. The New Moon in Capricorn on 23 December is fertile with creative visioning and pragmatic grounding, possessing the serendipity of cloaking the turning of the seasons in black, moonless night. The fertile darkness of the lunation will be aligned with the solstice when the Sun stations at the extreme of its declination, a time of extreme darkness giving way to the return of light in the northern hemisphere. It’s the darkest time of the year with the longest nights in the northern hemisphere, as the Sun reaches the nadir of its lowest declination while it rises and sets in the same place for several days; in the southern hemisphere the Sun pauses while at its greatest height in declination during the longest days of the year. In the spirit of transitional Janus, we may simultaneously reflect upon the growth of the past year while turning toward the bright beginnings of new goals and resolutions for the year ahead.

The Capricorn New Moon occurring during solstice means it is on the World Axis, the axis mundi centered upon zero degrees of the cardinal signs in the tropical zodiac. Moreover, Jupiter is further activating the Aries Point by occupying zero degrees of Aries, while Ceres is at 1°09′ Libra and Uranus is at the cross-quarter of fifteen degrees of Taurus. The first degrees of Aries and Libra are the nodes of Earth, the intersection of the celestial equator with the ecliptic that defines the zodiac. Activations of the Aries Point focalize manifestation of archetypal forces through the World Soul into worldly events, and so the planetary combination of Sun, Moon, Jupiter, and Ceres will combine their influences so that issues around justice, wealth, food supplies, labor movements, freedom, faith, grief, and purification will come into prominence within current events. In our personal lives, we will have amplified support for opening to reception of abundance in the year ahead and enlarging the scope of vision to engender plans and strategies for burgeoning creative directions.

In addition to Jupiter boosting the beneficence of the Capricorn New Moon, Venus and Mercury will also be present within Capricorn and glowing brightly in the night following sunset. In fact, all of the visible planets will be visible in the darkening sky following sunset in the days surrounding the lunation. The star of Aphrodite will be especially emboldened with resilient hope and creative ripeness, as she has recently emerged into visibility as an Evening Star and will be continuing to increase with brighter and brighter light in the months ahead. Venus is receiving the liberating and innovative force of Uranus in Taurus through a flowing trine aspect, accentuating our capacity for breaking free into new storylines freed from restrictive patterns of the past. Venus and Mercury will both be separating from trine aspects with Uranus while applying toward creative sextile aspects with Neptune in Pisces, with Mercury forming an exact sextile with Neptune on 24 December and Venus on 28 December. With Venus and Mercury carrying a Promethean torch to light the way forward, their combined presence in Capricorn will kindle new ideas for creative development while also enhancing capacity for devising plans of action that can adjust to changing conditions.

The Capricorn New Moon is ruled by Saturn in Aquarius. Saturn is in a solitary place of forming no major aspects with other planets besides separating from its longstanding square aspect with Uranus in Taurus that has been the dominant astrological influence during the past couple of years. Saturn is six degrees away from Uranus on the day of the New Moon and will be almost ten degrees past Uranus by the end of the forthcoming lunar cycle. The tension between Saturn and Uranus during the past couple of years has been the driving force behind systemic collapses, movements for change, and the overturning of old and familiar storylines and structures in our personal life. Within their friction is the consolidated contraction of Saturn that slowly builds enduring structures, set against the accelerated vision of Uranus that resists restrictions and insists on making innovative changes to the status quo. Although their disruptive influence is ultimately on the way out during 2023, there will be a final activation of Saturn and Uranus during January and February. Utilize the stillness of the solstice and the darkness of the New Moon for reflection upon the ways in which your life has been reordered and reshaped by Saturn and Uranus since the end of 2020, and how you can utilize the final months of Saturn occupying its airy domicile of Aquarius to solidify the foundations and structures of whatever changes have taken shape.

During the forthcoming lunar cycle Saturn in Aquarius will be nearby the fixed star Deneb Algedi in the tail of the celestial Sea Goat (the Capricorn constellation). Saturn’s proximity to Deneb Algedi will bring additional emphasis to envisioning ways of generating greater wealth and material manifestation, as well as how to protect and preserve resources that have already been acquired. Deneb Algedi is a fixed star often associated with the ancient creator deity Enki aka Ea who dwells in subterranean water. A trickster and wise magician, Enki reorders the conventions of civilization from the depths, transfiguring the landscape so that the resources needed to fuel civilization can grow and take root. As Deneb Algedi also connects with the law and order of conventional society as well as the metaphysical principles of natural law, Saturn’s presence with the Sea Goat’s starry tail will call attention to where we need to free ourselves from conventional conditioning in order to claim the authority for steering our lives forward from a place of authentic desires and presence.

*Pan and Fortune* (1793) by William Blake

The month following the Capricorn New Moon will place extra focus on Capricorn, with Venus forming conjunctions with Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn and Mercury undergoing a retrograde passage that will keep the star of Hermes within the confines of Capricorn until 11 February. There is a mercurial quality to the lunation as the Capricorn New Moon is in the bounds of Mercury while Mercury is at its maximum elongation as an Evening Star, the point of its solar cycle in which it begins to slow down in preparation for stationing retrograde. Mercury will ultimately station retrograde in Capricorn on 29 December while forming a conjunction with Venus only three degrees away from Pluto. Venus will then form an exact conjunction with Pluto on 31 December. The union between Venus and Mercury will be particularly powerful due to Mercury stationing retrograde on the same day, facilitating penetrating insight into the underbelly of your relational dynamics and creative processes. There will be a deep well of unconscious forces to investigate that can uncover meaning that had been buried in subconscious recesses as well as insight into your relationships with power and societal conditioning.

Since Pluto will exit Capricorn to enter Aquarius next year on 23 March 2023, the potent activation of Pluto by Mercury and Venus will make the month ahead an opportune time for contemplating the many ways in which your life has changed since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008. During 2023 and 2024 we will experience Pluto moving back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius until finally entering Aquarius for good on 19 November 2024. Pluto’s archetypal meaning includes death and rebirth experiences as well as the wealth and treasure that can be retrieved during underworld journeys. Pluto signifies our inner subterranean realm, the deep soul patterns circulating in our unconscious that often drive our instinctive reactions without our awareness. Pluto is also connected to desire for power, dynamics of power and control, and power struggles. When we resist the transformative change of Pluto for security reasons we can experience upheaval and breakdown, but as we surrender to its process of decay and regeneration we may experience a purification in which we burn away old restrictions and evolve into a more potent vitality. Though you have likely already experienced immense regeneration in the Capricorn section of your natal chart since 2008, the months ahead will bring opportunities for receiving deeper lessons of insight into the ways that Pluto in Capricorn has brought about pivotal confrontations that have reshaped your life and perception.

Fortunately a powerful ally and mentor for exploring the shadowy realms of Pluto will be stepping forward: Chiron. Chiron will have a more amplified presence than normal due to stationing direct at 11°56′ Aries on 23 December, the same day as the Capricorn New Moon. Moreover, Chiron is occupying the fiery domicile of Mars while engaging in a receptive sextile aspect with Mars retrograde in Gemini. As Chiron slowly begins to generate forward momentum in the weeks following the Capricorn New Moon, Mars will finally end its retrograde passage and station direct in stillness on 12 January 2023. Chiron in myth and astrology mediates the division between wilderness and civilization, helping us gather the guidance of our ancestors and the resilient resources found within the recesses of inner psyche. Residing in his shadowy cave on the outskirts of society within a wild landscape of medicinal plants and mountainous terrain, Chiron is the wise hermit who trains the alienated in cultivation of the unique qualities they can share as part of finding a role in community. Whatever difficult issues, tests, and wounds have been stirred up by the retrograde passage of Mars, the stationing of Chiron can help in attuning to the deeper lessons and wisdom to retrieve from the turmoil and challenges.

With Jupiter also co-present in Aries along with Chiron, the Capricorn New Moon also serves as an initiation into the buildup of Jupiter slowly approaching a conjunction with Chiron that will take place on 12 March 2023. There is an excellent article written by Brian Clark about the Jupiter-Chiron cycle and their conjunction in Aries in 2023 you can read here. Amongst many other themes, Brian Clark deduced that the start of a new cycle between Jupiter and Chiron in 2023 will highlight mundane issues centered around educational changes, medicinal wisdom, indigenous reconciliation, refuge for the displaced, and natural and psychic wilderness.

Capricorn 1 Decan

The New Moon in Capricorn will rise in the first decan of Capricorn associated with the Two of Pentacles image illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image of a juggling magician set against a backdrop of sea change embodies the capacity of Capricorn to penetrate into structural forms and impact matter from the underlying fabric of reality. Fittingly for a decan focused upon shaping material fortune, the first face of Capricorn is ruled by both Jupiter and Saturn. T Susan Chang in 36 Secrets wrote that Jupiter’s rulership of this face is shown through the metaphysical lesson of the Two of Pentacles: “the only constant is change.” Chang wrote that while the Two of Pentacles portends that nothing will be remaining the same, its connection with the first decan of Capricorn also signifies that there will be opportunities opening up to take advantage of for new growth and experiences. As we bring the volatile year of 2022 to a close, the New Moon in the first face of Capricorn is a boon for gleaning the new goals for growth we can gather from the many changes we experienced during the past year.

Austin Coppock in 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Headless Body” to the first face of Capricorn, stating it “entails the descent of the spirit into the body of the world itself,” bringing consciousness to deeper and deeper levels of matter to “set those powers in motion” as well as “use the higher, logoic functions to guide them along their course.” Coppock analyzed the attribution by the 12th century philosopher and astrologer Ibn Ezra of a bestial man carrying a cattle prod to this face, suggesting it reveals the capacity of this decan to not only set material forces in motion but also steer them in order to create change such as new sources of work and sustenance. Coppock further illuminated that since “the figures which roam this decan can root deeply into what soil they find themselves in,” using discernment in choosing which location to lay down roots within is critical. If we wish to utilize the capacity of Capricorn for building a sturdy foundation that will support the development of enduring structures, we need to be mindful where we choose to begin construction.

While Coppock cited the image of a headless man holding a sword found in the Hellenistic text Liber Hermetis as the inspiration for his image of “A Headless Body,” it’s further interesting that it also directly connects to the image for this decan found in Demetra George’s translation of The Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius (a Greek language text ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus during early Roman Imperial period, possibly around 50 CE): “Body of a man without a head, dressed in a scarab skin wrapped around his chest, small water urn in right hand, left hand stretched out upon thigh.” While the image of scarab skin in The Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius fits well with the scarab-faced deity Khepri in Egyptian religion who represents the rising sun, creation, and the renewal of life, the fact that the figure is also carrying a water urn reveals the purification and spiritual regeneration that can be experienced during the solstice when the Sun enters the first face of Capricorn. Like the headless Ketu associated with the South Node of the Moon, the headlessness of figures associated with the first decan of Capricorn also reveals the extraordinary power of this face for attuning with the spirits of material forms.

Moreover, the “atavistic consciousness” Coppock described within the first decan of Capricorn that “descends into the natural world with ease” connects well with the Hellenistic text 36 Airs of the Zodiac attributing the ancestor of earth and body-based healers, Asklepios, to the first face of Capricorn. Asclepius, son of the Sun god Apollo and a mortal woman, embodies a centered focus which integrates all surrounding realms, both material and immaterial. Rooted in Earth, Asclepius is a healer who emerges in times of crisis and cathartic change, reverent of Nature, in balance with masculinity and femininity, and reliant upon ritualistic incubation to find healing cures. Asclepius is associated with healing through dreams, an incubatory process that reveals the connection between external symptoms and the underlying unconscious. With his hermetic staff planted in the ground, Asclepius weaves together meaning from celestial and chthonic realms through discernment centered in his sensual nature, applied to his work through disciplined spiritual practice.

The capacity of Asclepius to monitor synchronicities in waking and dreaming life for deeper meaning will be especially helpful to cultivate with Mercury stationing retrograde in Capricorn within a week of the New Moon. We can expect another great wave of change to take place during 2023 due to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all entering new signs, and so the New Moon occurring in the first decan of Capricorn is ideal for envisioning how to be co-creative with the changes underway. May the stationing of the solstice Sun during the darkness of the New Moon in Capricorn aid you in dreaming the creative life you wish to embody in the year ahead.

If you enjoy my writing please consider supporting my work through a monthly subscription on my Patreon page. Take a look to see the benefits you will receive as a patron! Beginning in January we will be exploring the fixed stars in the Oak branch tier, including the mythology of the stars and how to work with them not only in natal and mundane astrology but also how to develop relationships with them through ritual and astrological magic.

References

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

George, Demetra. (2021). Egyptian Decans: Star Gods of Time. Astrology University.

New Moon in Pisces

March 12, 2021 / grayastrology / 2 Comments

New Moon in Pisces

The New Moon in Pisces on March 13 will serve as an expansive container for imaginal activation and revisioning the way forward. Pisces is a boundless sign of nocturnal water, providing the lunation a moist environment ideal for sinking into embodiment of whatever sense of soulfulness has been stirred up recently. The underwater zodiacal terrain of Pisces can blur and erode the places we have been fixated with certainty, nurturing intuitive flexibility in how to adapt in alignment with the flow of changing dynamics. Yet the capacity of Pisces for bending boundaries and remaining open to new influences is not about fickleness, for Pisces can sustain faith in its vision against all odds and challenges that arise with surprising strength and determination. The undulating rhythm of the New Moon in Pisces favors slowing things down to fully absorb surrounding influences and feel into what aspects of plans and perspectives need to be washed away, realizing the essential pearl of meaning to continue forming and shaping within.

The New Moon in Pisces is separating from a conjunction with Venus and Neptune in Pisces and applying to a harmonious sextile with Pluto in Capricorn. The astrological movements surrounding the Pisces New Moon in mid March are less volatile and overwhelming than they were a month ago, creating an opportune time for contemplating all of the deep seated material that has been stirred up, collected and gathered in our mind and body over the past year of a global pandemic that has affected all of us in one way or another. The New Moon at 23º03′ Pisces is not only forming a constructive sextile aspect with the present placement of Pluto in Capricorn, it is also forming a sextile to the degree of the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto that formed last year on January 12, 2020. At the bottom of the oceanic expanse of the New Moon are buried gems of purposeful vision that the subterranean senses of Pluto may detect. Sink down into what the Moon, Venus, and Neptune may discover and retrieve under the waves of the fertile lunation.

2021 began with the thrust and chaotic volatility of a new era of Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions in tropical air signs spiraling outwards. Whatever new ideas, plans, and projects have been incubating since then will be able to be more readily developed and creatively expressed during the course of the lunar cycle ahead. Indeed, the Full Moon in Libra that will occur on March 28 will provide a catalytic impetus to push forward with significant development on the ideas and plans we have been formulating. In contrast, the New Moon in Pisces is less suited for action and more in accord with deep dreaming akin to taking a long luxurious bath wrapped up in our own thoughts, fantasies, and ruminations.

by Gustave Le Gray (1856/57)

Neptune in Pisces is at center stage of the lunation. The New Moon is separating from Neptune within three degrees, with Venus applying within one degree of an exact conjunction with Neptune during the moment that the Moon unites with the Sun. The influence of Neptune can lull us into a trance, and while in some cases this can lead to confusion and ungrounded decisions, the billowing bliss of Neptune can also sensitize perception to the divine life force pulsating through our material circumstances. Neptune can open a portal to other-worlds, like a diversion into a faerie realm where we become absorbed with the non ordinary rather than the routine. From the outside being seized by Neptune may seem unproductive, like a procrastinating paralysis, yet the imaginal insight that can be revealed under the waves of Neptune can become incomparable treasure once brought back to dry land.

With Venus closely applying to Neptune as the New Moon forms, we will encounter the strange solutions and numinous notes of Neptune within our relationships and creative expression. The conjunction between Venus and Neptune in Pisces on March 13 will be the ninth time they have united in the exaltation of Venus since their first conjunction in Pisces on February 28, 2013. Neptune dissolves the boundaries of Venus in her exaltation of Pisces, functioning like an oceanic chariot pulled by brilliant dolphins and seabirds carrying the star of Aphrodite blissfully high above the turbulent waves below. Venus is in fact soaring toward a union with the Sun that will come at the end of the month, with the fiery rays of the Sun burning off what needs to be purged and shed from her past cycle. The influence of Neptune upon Venus can help bridge what previously felt like an uncrossable impasse, dissolving the complexity of problems so that the essential issue in need of addressing reveals itself.

Venus is wrapped up in dreams and mystery within the darkness of the New Moon in Pisces, undergoing a secretive metamorphosis away from the light of day. From the New Moon on March 13 until Venus forms its superior conjunction with the Sun on March 25 at 5º50′ Aries, Venus will be in the process of ending a cycle and so we may need to focus on laying to rest and resolving older issues rather than initiating something new. Yet the storylines ready to burst open with the new cycle of Venus may already be building and deeply felt, and so we may simultaneously find ourselves beginning to embark on exciting new creative directions at the same time we may experience a cathartic release of old patterns. With the Moon increasing in light, waxing into the blossoming of the Full Moon on March 28 at the same time Venus is ending and beginning a cycle, it will be an especially illuminating period for deep patterns related to Venus in your life.

The Morning Star phase of Venus ending now began last June when Venus emerged into visibility before sunrise during her retrograde phase in Gemini after forming her inferior conjunction with the Sun on June 3. The full arc of the cycle Venus is closing now can be traced back to the last time there was a superior conjunction of Venus on August 13, 2019 at 21º11′ Leo. However, if you wish to dig into the five pointed star timing of the synodic cycle of Venus, you may also wish to consider the last time there was a superior conjunction of Venus in Aries eight years ago on March 28, 2013 at 8º10′ Aries for patterns of your story beginning and ending then that could relate to now. There was also a conjunction between Venus with the Sun in Aries four years ago on March 25, 2017 at 4º57′ Aries, but Venus was retrograde then and so it was a different phase of her cycle than now.

Horus

Jupiter in Aquarius rules the New Moon in Pisces, but is in the twelfth place from the lunation and not forming any aspect with the Sun, Moon, Venus, and Neptune in Pisces. Jupiter’s lack of a major aspect to the lunation will craft a liminal atmosphere that amplifies the influence of Venus uniting with Neptune. It’s as if Jupiter in Aquarius is away on pilgrimage or sabbatical, removed in contemplative isolation or immersive travel from the fantastical festivities taking place in its home of Pisces. Once the Moon is waxing in light in Aries it will form a sextile with Jupiter on March 15, making the first aspect between the Moon and Jupiter within the new lunar cycle.

Jupiter is at the beginning of its solar cycle, freshly emerging into the sky each day before dawn, heralding sunrise along with Saturn and Mercury. The triple alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury in the sky before sunrise recently has been a stunning visual symbol for the renewal and creative potency available as Jupiter and Saturn bring forth the new movements emanating from their union on the Capricorn solstice. The forthcoming lunar cycle is ideal for making strident effort to develop and move forward with whatever ideas have been gestating, as the Full Moon in Libra on March 28 will be applying closely to a flowing trine with Saturn in Aquarius as well as a trine with Jupiter in Aquarius.

Mercury in Aquarius is moving fast in its explorative Morning Star phase, carrying forward the insight and information it gathered from an extended period of time it spent in proximity with Jupiter in Aquarius. Mercury has been in Aquarius since January 8 and formed its first conjunction with Jupiter on January 11, its second conjunction with Jupiter while retrograde on February 14, and its third and final conjunction with Jupiter on March 4. Mercury will speed through the final degrees of Aquarius in the days following the New Moon, not forming any major aspects with other planets until entering Pisces on March 15, at which point it will begin applying toward a sextile aspect with Uranus in Taurus.

Mercury in Aquarius combines the fluid volatility of air with a fixated focus that inventively cultivates enduring forms and covers the ground needed to bring work to completion. Though the massive pileup of planets in Aquarius in February could have felt overwhelming in whatever aspect of life they impacted for you, the capacity of Mercury for mediating polarity and holding tension means that ultimately it was a gift for Mercury to spend so long digging into the complexity of issues stirred up by the gathering of planets in Aquarius. Mercury reached maximum elongation as a Morning Star on March 6 and is now in a phase in which we can implement whatever realizations and revelations we gathered during its period of being retrograde in February.

In addition to forming a collaborative sextile aspect with Uranus on March 21, upon entering Pisces Mercury will also begin applying toward a catalytic square aspect with Mars in Gemini that will become exact on March 23. This means that Mercury will now begin investigating the disruptive influences that Mars and Uranus have been playing this year in relation to the new narratives initiated by Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. The sextile between Mercury and Uranus can feel like an emancipatory breakthrough in projects and plans that experienced delay or needed repair during February. Mars is in the airy home of Mercury, and so the fact that Mercury will be receiving Mars will bring more opportunities for constructively applying the fiery and frenzied force of Mars in Gemini to the imaginal visions gathered by Mercury in Pisces.

Complicating matters will be the additional factor of Mars applying to a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon in Gemini and Mercury applying to a square aspect with the lunar nodes at the same time they form their exact square aspect with one another. Information warfare within global politics as well as extreme verbal combat within social media platforms could be one manifestation, but there will be an especially important emphasis placed upon the relationship all of us have with technology and the flooding of information and viewpoints through the technological screens it is commonplace to now carry everywhere. We will be well served by prioritizing our use of time so we are not needlessly distracted and can instead utilize the blazing speed and insatiable curiosity of Mars in Gemini to make significant progress on plans and projects. Yet we will have to navigate extreme tidal forces and tumultuous air currents as Mars approaches its conjunction with the North Node of the Moon in the days surrounding March 26 through March 28.

Fishing Boats at Choshi in Shimosa from “One Thousand Pictures of the Ocean” (1833:34) by Katsushika Hokusai

Around the same time that Mercury completes its sextile with Uranus and square with Mars, the red planet will soar out of bounds in northern declination to an extreme height in the sky. Mars out of bounds in Gemini truly knows no bounds in its pursuit of information and desire to communicate its discoveries. While we will need to find ways to bring balance and grounding into our daily routines, the wild nature of Mars out of bounds in Gemini can lead to the kind of inventive solutions and unorthodox creativity that may be exactly what we need. Mars will remain out of bounds in Gemini until April 23, and then will continue being out of bounds in Cancer until May 24; as a result, the propulsive force of Mars out of bounds will be something we will need to get used to.

Fortunately, Mars in Gemini will also be applying to a flowing trine aspect with Saturn in Aquarius it will complete on March 21 followed by an empowering trine aspect with Jupiter in Aquarius it will engage for an extended period of time and not complete until April 16. Previously in January, Mars in Taurus united with Uranus while causing problems and forcing movement and reactions from the issues related to Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. In contrast, Mars is now out of aspect with Uranus and forming aspects with Saturn and Jupiter that can be utilized constructively and productively. While the massive breakdowns and breakthroughs constellated by the square aspect between Saturn and Uranus will continue to be an underlying theme during the rest of the year, Mars in Gemini in the weeks ahead will be in position to make rapid responses to address issues stirred up by Saturn and Uranus. If we can maintain our own sense of balance with Mars in Gemini, it can also play a liberating role in catalyzing development of the larger inspirations and visions we have been forming within our minds in recent months.

It’s also worth considering that Mars is receiving the conjunction forming between Ceres and Chiron in Aries on March 13 through a harmonious sextile aspect. Mars will then form an exact sextile with Chiron on March 17 and an exact sextile with Ceres on March 25. Ceres and Chiron will form their exact conjunction at 7°56′ Aries, close to the degree in Aries where Venus will form its superior conjunction with the Sun on March 25. Within the darkness of the Pisces New Moon, Ceres and Chiron will be ritually preparing and purifying the space where Venus will be reanimated by the Sun. The receptive sextile between Mars with Ceres and Chiron can spark courageous action in protecting and tending to those in need in our community and environment, with Mars in Gemini supporting those willing to speak out and take a stand for justice when necessary. Ceres and Chiron can utilize the unorthodox inventiveness of Mars in Gemini and its capacity for multi-tasking to find ways of bringing resources that can help nurture and activate the agency of those who have felt marginalized or on the outskirts of dominant cultural networks.

With Ceres and Chiron also forming a constructive sextile aspect with Saturn in Aquarius in addition to the sextile they will form with Mars in Gemini, the New Moon in Pisces can also be potent for those healing ancestral wounds as well as ways their own experience of growing up in family and cultural systems have created issues in their ability to form healthy attachments and connections with others. After Ceres begins to separate from Chiron, Venus will renew her cycle with the Sun on March 25 within three degrees of Chiron. Three days later there will be a Full Moon in Libra on March 28 that will form an opposition with Venus, Chiron, and the Sun in Aries. Chiron in Aries is the wise mentor focused on clearing the issues getting in the way of us claiming our authority to live authentically even if it means departing from working and serving within established power structures. As the Moon waxes toward fullness in the forthcoming lunar cycle, we will shift away from the deep visioning of Pisces into the creative actualization of Aries. Whatever internal or external issues we need to tend that are getting in the way of following our essential path and embodying our purpose will be revealed by the strong activation of Chiron in the coming lunar cycle.

10 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Pisces 3 Decan

The New Moon in Pisces is in the third decan of Pisces associated with the Ten of Cups illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. An image of idealized happiness, it’s form of a joyous couple enraptured by a rainbow, their children blissfully dancing in front of their picturesque home is one manifestation of countless images that could be used to display the inspirational vision underlying and driving inner motivation. An earlier image for this face is found in Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy in which a nude male is present near a beautiful maiden whose head is decorated in flowers. Other old images for the third decan of Pisces show the other side of having a great dream: the terror of loss. For example, in Ibn Ezra’s The Beginning of Wisdom the image ascribed for the third face of Pisces involves another nude male, but this one is armed with a lance and yelling for fear of thieves and fire. The New Moon regenerating in this face asks us to contemplate the inner images of inspiration that have been motivating our work in the world, the full implications of our dream as well as how well it truly fits our sense of soul purpose.

The rainbow pregnant with abundant cups in Pamela Colman Smith’s image for the Ten of Cups evokes the great daimon of Hope found in of the ancient story of Pandora’s box. After Pandora opens the box that unleashes evils and ills into the world of humanity, the only presence left in the box is Elpis, the spirit of Hope. It’s the spirit found in cultural ideals such as a young Judy Garland wistfully singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” musing that somewhere exists where the most precious dreams you dare to dream really can come true. Fittingly, the ancient Hellenistic text The 36 Airs of the Zodiac attributed the figure of Elpis, the daimon of Hope, to the third decan of Pisces. The guiding star we wish upon, the guardian angel we pray to for assistance, the hope we are able to muster in even the bleakest and most desperate of times, is essential to the meaning found in the third face of Pisces, the final face of the zodiac full of the passion required to move through the end and rebirth of the entire cycle of the zodiac.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Cup of Blood” to the third face of Pisces, describing it as a place revealing one’s willingness to “sacrifice everything” for the “attainment of one’s greatest desire, no matter the cost.” Noting the images of romantic happiness found in the Ten of Cups card as well as in Agrippa’s masterwork, Coppock wrote that the third face of Pisces “inspires the lust and desire implied” by the images, “but the true object of the passions is a merger with the universe itself . . . The face and body of the beloved are a mask, an entry point into the experience of all-as-bliss.” Coppock noted that “the third face unfolds as the quest for true and perfect love,” yet the willingness to sacrifice all for the dream leads to the third face of Pisces becoming “littered with broken dreams and failed martyrs- those who sacrificed themselves for an illusion.”

The burning desire pulsating through the third decan of Pisces, its grandiose dreams of ecstatic bliss as well as the agony of loss that comes from the failure to materialize dreams all fit well with the fact that Mars is the ruler of this decan. Along these lines its further compelling that the New Moon’s proximity with Neptune is demarcating the establishment of Neptune in the final decan of Pisces for the rest of Neptune’s journey through Pisces that will last until 2025. While Neptune spent part of 2020 in the very beginning of the third face of Pisces, Neptune will spend the entirety of the next four years within this face. As a result, the New Moon in Pisces is ideal for putting you in contact with the inner visions and desires driving your conscious action from unconscious sources. May the darkness of the New Moon in Pisces aid in deepening your relationship with the inner images, patterns, and desires that have been shaping your external goals in the greater world.

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References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Full Moon in Virgo

February 27, 2021 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

Beatrice (1897) by Odilon Redon

Full Moon in Virgo

The Full Moon in Virgo on February 27 serves as a lighthouse guiding us from a period of great volatility and tumultuous rupturing toward a restorative shore. The light of the Sun reflected from the Moon in Virgo will accentuate a sensual attuning to the deep changes underway and emerging processes at work. No matter what trouble or difficulties you have had to endure recently, it will be essential to stay with the processes underway to see where they lead, altering navigation and changing the ways you are participating within dynamics as needed. The polarity between Virgo and Pisces serves transitions and liminal passages, possessing facility for mixing together insight from our past with discerning guidance into where our path is heading into the future. Make whatever space is available for deepening into the changes of the past month, sifting through shifting feelings and the nostalgia of what is passing away as you turn toward what is entering your life and arising anew.

The Full Moon is separating from a trine with Uranus in Taurus and applying to an opposition with Neptune in Pisces. The Virgo Moon is also applying toward a square aspect with the transiting lunar nodes at their northern bending, placing the lunation at the midpoint between the eclipses of December and the ones that will be coming in May and June. With Uranus forming a flowing trine with the Virgo Moon and a harmonizing sextile aspect with the Sun in Pisces, there can be an exciting reception of inspiring vision regarding future potential as well as insightful revelations regarding how to deal with present challenges. Yet we need to also take account of our dreams with grounded awareness that will enable our imagination to discover creative solutions and innovations that will make a practical, tangible impact within our current circumstances. There can be an experience of forward momentum unleashed that can create meaningful progress and results in the month ahead as long as we do not become unrealistic about available resources and relational dynamics.

Before the Moon forms its opposition with Neptune it will unite with Vesta retrograde in Virgo. Vesta is separating from an extended opposition with Neptune that has been in effect for months, as Vesta formed its first opposition with Neptune while direct on December 20 and its second while retrograde on February 9. The meeting between Vesta with the Moon on February 27 can help in focusing with devotion on the work and interpersonal relationships we wish to prioritize. Since we are in the middle of so many large scale collective changes as well as dramatic personal shifts, it can feel overwhelming to orient within it all especially with so much accumulated grief from the lingering pandemic impacting us. The Full Moon with Vesta can help in centering as much as possible within a period of time full of immense decentering and deconstruction. For some it may be necessary to get extra rest and relaxation for restorative recovery, while for others it may be necessary to become more active in bringing certain tasks to completion. Let Vesta guide you toward whatever needs to be prioritized so that you do not waste time and effort on inessential and unnecessary distractions.

And Another Angel Came Out of the Temple Which is in Heaven, and He Also Having a Sharp Sickle (1899) by Odilon Redon

Mercury in Aquarius rules the Full Moon as a Morning Star visible before sunrise along with Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. Mercury stationed direct a week before the Full Moon on February 20 and is presently generating forward momentum as it applies toward a conjunction with Jupiter that will become exact on March 4. As Mercury moves forward for the third time through Aquarius (it first entered the degree it is occupying at the Full Moon on January 16) we will be in position to craft inventive solutions to issues we have been confronting for the past month and a half. Mercury traveling with Jupiter through Aquarius can envision longterm plans and facilitate important decisions that will have enduring consequences. While the groundbreaking changes brought by 2021 are far from over, the week following the Full Moon is an especially fruitful time for reorienting and revisioning the direction forward.

Mercury is at 13°01′ Aquarius during the lunation, and so is not forming a traditional aspect with the degree of the Full Moon at 8°57′ Virgo. However, the Virgo Moon is in an otherworldly seventh harmonic with Mercury and later in the day the Moon will form a quincunx aspect with Mercury. Moreover, the Full Moon is forming a close quincunx aspect with Saturn at 8°17′ Aquarius. There is no common ground between Aquarius (diurnal, fixed, air) and Virgo (nocturnal, mutable, earth) and so the strange connections between the Full Moon with Mercury and Saturn is illuminating material out of the direct line of sight of the planets in Aquarius. Since the lunation is forming a propulsive trine aspect with Uranus, we may receive far reaching visions of potential that feel beyond our present scope to manifest and materialize. Although we may realize certain inspiring dreams are currently beyond our capacity to create, we can continue to incubate ideas in our imagination while finding ways to experiment with bringing smaller aspects of larger visions into reality.

With Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn visible in pre-dawn skies and increasing in light, we will have opportunities during the waning half of the lunar cycle to make productive steps in developing whatever new ideas have been germinating since the seeds of the great conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter were planted a couple of months ago. You may notice greater clarity emerging regarding the visions that have been swirling within without taking definite shape. The astrology of the month ahead is not as volatile as it has been since Saturn and Jupiter formed their conjunction, and so it will be an ideal time for making forward progress while continuing to deepen in imaginal engagement with larger goals we can develop that can have far reaching impact within our own lives as well as in the wider community.

Fisher King by Leonora Carrington

Within the light of the Full Moon, Venus in Pisces is applying towards a conjunction with the Sun that will eventually occur on March 26. Venus will spend the next month traveling close behind the Sun, rising and setting under the beams of solar radiance as it remains invisible from view. Although combust under the burning rays of the Sun, Venus presently has protection due to not only being in its exaltation and triplicity, but also its own bounds. Venus will remain in its bounds until March 3, lending extra potency to Venus during the same time that Mercury is applying toward a conjunction with Jupiter. With Venus possessing a lot of essential dignity while traversing the underworld, there will be deep reservoirs of imaginal resources to access and explore creatively in the week following the Virgo Full Moon.

Vitally, Venus and the Sun will be applying toward conjunctions with Neptune in Pisces during the waning half of the lunar cycle. The Sun will form a conjunction with Neptune on March 10 followed by Venus uniting with Neptune on March 13, the same day as the upcoming New Moon in Pisces. Venus and the Sun ending and beginning new cycles with Neptune within days of one another will create a quality of time vastly different than the recent period in which Venus and the Sun passed through conjunctions with Saturn in Aquarius. The combination of the Sun, Venus, and Neptune within the oceanic realm of Pisces may dissolve and wash any anxiety or emotional overwhelm constellated by the large gathering of planets in Aquarius during February. During the first two weeks of March we can sink into the soulfulness of our senses, finding ways to nourish emotional needs and nurture the imaginative ideas we have been gathering and gestating.

Running Horned Woman, (6,000-4,000 B.C.E.) Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria

Ceres recently entered Aries on February 20 and will be applying toward a conjunction with Chiron in Aries during the waning half of the lunar cycle. Ceres will form a conjunction with Chiron at 7°56′ Aries on March 13, the same day as the New Moon in Pisces. The mythology of both Chiron and Ceres involves sacrifice, with the sacrifice of Chiron resulting in the liberation of Prometheus and the sacrifice of Ceres resulting in her daughter Persephone claiming rulership in the underworld as well as bringing the mystery initiations to the upperworld of humanity. Ceres and Chiron in astrology also can relate to both core wounds and grief we carry, abandonment and attachment issues we must work through to form healthy relationships, as well as profound capacity for being creatively productive in ways that can bring vital resources to others. Ceres and Chiron together in Aries can foster resilience in following an unorthodox path even when we fear it could lead to us being rejected or misunderstood by others.

In the fiery, cardinal sign of Aries both Ceres and Chiron will be empowered to take action and will be pleased when we go after what we want and determinedly makes things happen. Ceres in Aries has a mothering style focused upon fostering interdependence rather than dependence, tending to needs in ways that will animate a sense of sovereignty and nurture capacity for creatively self-actualizing one’s purpose. If we have been feeling wounded or angry due recent changes that have been occurring, find ways to regenerate just like Ceres in myth did in river currents so that you may regain your ability to productively make change happen in your surroundings. If you feel you are lacking agency in certain areas of your life, make an effort to actively seek the support you need through resources within your relationships or wider community.

While the last time Ceres entered Aries was on 14 April 2016, the last time Ceres and Chiron were together in Aries was in 1975 when they formed a conjunction on April 20, 1975. The last time that Ceres formed a conjunction with Chiron in any sign was on March 24, 2016 at 21°50′ Pisces; there was also a Solar Eclipse in Pisces on March 8, 2016 that was separating from Ceres closely and applying closely to Chiron. It will be revealing to reflect upon what parts of yourself Ceres and Chiron have nurtured into development over the course of their past cycle.

8 of Pentacles by Pamela Colman Smith

Virgo 1 Decan

The Full Moon in Virgo arises in the first decan of Virgo associated with the Eight of Pentacles card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. In the image of the Eight of Pentacles a craftsman is fully engrossed with his art, concentrating with full attention and focus in the moment. This image evokes the importance of taking things step by step, one task at a time, completing each aspect of the process with loving care and attention. Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Tree Bearing Fruit” to this face, noting the prevalence of images associated with “fruitful works” developed through “humble observation of, and careful tending to, the created world” in ancient texts. Coppock noted the significance of the “humility” present in the Eight of Pentacles image, writing that “the old apprentice represents a willingness to put away pride and submit instead to the demands of the craft itself.”

The Sun and Mercury are the rulers of the first face of Virgo, pointing toward a potent animistic capacity for relating to the spirit of the land within this face. Indeed, Austin Coppock described the first decan of Virgo as essentially being connected with watching, listening, and tending to the creative processes of Nature rather than imposing or forcing one’s will “rashly.” Both the Picatrix as well as Three Books of Occult Philosophy give agricultural images to this face involving sowing, plowing, and gathering a harvest and wealth. The chthonic nature of this face is further shown in the image found within Liber Hermetis of “a serpent put together awry” whose “head is the likeness of the Moon.” Coppock wrote that the first face of Virgo invites us “into the mysteries of incarnation . . . the prudence of postponing delight until the fruit is ripe.” While Coppock noted the first decan of Virgo involves “humility” at a core level, “it results in works of surprising glory.”

The Hellenistic text the 36 Airs ascribed the Titaness Themis, the divine embodiment of order and natural law, to the first face of Virgo. To Coppock, the presence of Themis in the first decan of Virgo is significant in relation to “mindfulness” and “observance of divine law,” as Themis spoke with the voice of the Earth from her seat at the Oracle of Delphi. In some stories Themis built the Oracle of Delphi, whereas in others she received it from Gaia before passing it on to Apollo. The divine order of Themis found within the first face of Virgo carries the gravitas of oracles and weighs matters on her scales in accordance with divine, natural law rather than the regulations constructed by humans. In the ancient Greek play Prometheus Bound, Themis is none other than the mother of Prometheus and the one who gave him his gift of foreknowledge. Approach the insights received during the Virgo Full Moon with the humility you would bring to deciphering an omen. Under the radiant light of the Moon, let the sword of Themis cut through confusion so that you may come into deeper relationship with the creative process you need to tend and nurture in the month ahead.

If you enjoy my writing please consider supporting my work through a monthly subscription on my Patreon page. Take a look to see the benefits you will receive as a patron!

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Full Moon in Aries

October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

Morning Fantasy (1904) by Mikalojus Konstantinas

Full Moon in Aries

The Full Moon in Aries on October 1, 2020 will pour a fiery ferment into our lives and stories, inflaming the tension that has been building in the past month. Since the middle of August, Mars and Saturn have been engaged in grinding conflict that has exacerbated impasses, amplified anger, and provoked outrage over abuse and misuse of power. Mars and Saturn are at centerstage of the Full Moon, with Mars retrograde in Aries raging against the stalwart stationing direct of Saturn. The timeless endurance of Saturn will persevere through the onslaught of martial heat, yet matters will be dismantled and irrevocably altered by the frenzied fire from Mars. While longing has been thwarted in many ways during the dissolution, we can remain rooted in our desires that continue to be reshaped into new dimensions.

The Full Moon is in a place of extreme fire, as Aries is the home of Mars and the exaltation of the Sun. The influx of fire will demand fuel to consume, waste and inauthenticity to be burned off, kindled inspiration to be shared, and faith in our intuitive knowing to be followed. The peak light of Selene adorned in the flames of Aries will illuminate our turn into the final quarter of 2020, yet it is not merely the end of a year we are approaching- it is the closing down of two centuries of Jupiter and Saturn conjoining in earth signs and a reckoning with all of its troubled ghosts. The tumultuous storms of 2020 have exposed innumerable injustices across society, amplifying awareness of long-standing issues of systemic oppression in need of remedy and reparation. The recent clash between Mars and Saturn has magnified difficulties and brought experiences of foreboding toil for many, but these same forces that cause separation can also motivate ferocious determination to resiliently embody and activate our core values.

Pivotally, the Full Moon is separating from a conjunction with Chiron in Aries and applying to a catalyzing square aspect with Jupiter in Capricorn. Chiron can facilitate being present with problems, allowing symptoms to guide discovery and reveal the underlying issues in need of attention. As Melanie Reinhart has spoken of Chiron’s gift in mediating ancestral relationship and healing, there is a larger perspective to integrate concerning how our temporary personal issues are seated within vaster patterns of intersecting ancestral wounds and burdens, as well as ancestral blessings and resources of strength and resiliency to draw from. It will be worthwhile to pull back from busyness to ground into nurtured space of reflection in the wake of the Full Moon. Within a protected space of rootedness not unlike an imaginal cave of Chiron, allow yourself to see through present dilemmas into the larger tapestry of soulful patterns and stories at play.

Red House (1929) by Paul Klee

The Full Moon is in the fiery red home of Mars, placing the extremity of heat inflicted by Mars during its retrograde phase front and center. Mars is separating from a square with Saturn and applying toward a square with Pluto that will be intensified due to Pluto stationing direct on October 4 at 22°29′ Capricorn. Pluto stationed retrograde on April 25 at 24°59’ Capricorn and since then has been instigating a radical realignment between our internal metamorphoses and the shattering of societal systems that have corresponded with Pluto initiating new cycles with Saturn and Jupiter. From the Full Moon until Mars completes its square aspect with Pluto on October 9, there will be a release from the constraints of Saturn and an upwelling of volcanic desire as Pluto takes on the role of blacksmith within the forge of Mars.

The stillness of Pluto stationing direct will saturate the astrological landscape with the chthonic fertility of Hades. As the underworld ferryman emerges to demand offering from Mars, so will we need to examine our inner soil and the seeds germinating within its silent darkness. Look within for guidance rather than to external forms of security, for the volatility incited by Mars across civilization will necessitate finding faith within the deep harbors of psyche rather than the societal structures being dissolved and reforged. The strife and discord within collective events will be rampant with purgative force as Mars additionally will form a conjunction with the dwarf planet Eris on October 4, the same day Pluto stations direct.

While conjunctions between Saturn and Pluto have long been known in mundane astrology to incite collapse and polarized conflict in global events, the irrevocable dismantling of long-standing societal structures that has corresponded with their conjunction in 2020 has been magnified in intensity due to Saturn and Pluto uniting in close proximity with their own south nodes. The archetypal meaning of the entire orbital arcs of Saturn and Pluto crashing down across the ecliptic has been in effect during the past year, and as they both station direct together while Mars crashes into them they will unleash a final flood of accumulated toxicities and oppression built up from ages past.

Thus Mars retrograde is not only forming a square with Saturn and Pluto but also the nodes of Saturn and Pluto, placing it at the unfathomably cathartic place of volatilizing Saturn and Pluto from the southern bending of their own nodes. As a result, we have arrived at a crucially important opportunity to confront societal issues that have been festering and plaguing people for centuries and detoxify their intersection with us as individuals. The Full Moon in Aries will illuminate the importance of claiming responsibility for our behavior and intention, being accountable for the wider collective impact of our individual action. As the tension between Saturn, Pluto, and Mars erupts, we may discover the courage needed within our depths to protect those who are vulnerable and stand up for the world we wish to see rebuilt in the years ahead.

From Liber Novus by C.G. Jung

Vitally, Mercury will be at its maximum elongation as an Evening Star during the Full Moon in Aries, demarcating the threshold of Mercury beginning to slow down before stationing retrograde in Scorpio on October 13. Mercury in Scorpio will be making a sequence of three oppositions with Uranus in Taurus between now and November 17, with its first exact opposition occurring on October 7 and its second occurring on October 19 after shifting retrograde. Mercury and Uranus facing off will make the already volatile astrology even more chaotic, but there will also be enormous creative potential unleashed between Mercury and Uranus for reception of revelations and liberating yourself from whatever needs to be shed and released.

Mercury will be under rulership of the fiery instigator Mars, making the upcoming Mercury retrograde phase in Scorpio especially disorienting and purgative. With Mars retrograde already dislodging stuck patterns, Uranus being opposed by Mercury in the dark watery climate of Scorpio will amplify capacity for absorbing atmospheric undercurrents and penetrating under the surface of dynamics to reveal what has been hidden in the root of the matter. The watery landscape of Scorpio is not only a place of burial and decomposition, but also a place in which decay nourishes and feeds the growth of orchards and vineyards that ultimately produce fruit. While we will need to allow for unexpected commotion that can upturn plans, the simmering tension between Mercury and Uranus can also reveal insights buried in the boglands of Scorpio that will prove to be potent catalysts of profound growth.

2 of Wands by Pamela Colman Smith

Aries 1 Decan

The Aries Full Moon will rise in the first face of Aries associated with the Two of Wands card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image of a conquering figure holding a globe, piercing the expanse of the horizon with his gaze is fitting for a decan steeped in will power, as he seems intent on enacting his vision upon reality and expanding his influence. The ambitious confidence and assertion present in the image connects with the fact that Mars rules the first decan of Aries, giving Mars both domicile and face rulership over the Aries Full Moon.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the symbol of “The Axe” to the first decan of Aries, as it has a long association with fierce figures such as in the Liber Hermetis where we discover a man “standing on feet like claws” and “holding above his head a double-sided axe with both hands.” Coppock rooted the symbolism of the Axe in it being “the primordial splitter” that creates the division necessary for growth, as “cosmologies begin with the sundering of the One.” Indeed, not only did the Hellenistic text the 36 Airs identify the mythic Aidoneus with the first face of Aries, so did the ancient philosopher Empedocles identify Aidoneus as one of the four fundamental elements at the root of creation.

While Coppock described the Axe as a magical tool essential for the use of the first face of Aries in “breaking bonds which no longer serve” and bringing “subjective order to the world” through “taming the environment,” he also noted it is a face of raw, unfiltered, and untamed willpower that can evoke the “tyrannical spirit of the infant.” As it is a decan focused upon “the will pressing reality to conform with its pattern,” its strength lies in the personal power of an “unrestrained will” and “the individual yang struggling out of the collective yin.” Yet Coppock also warned of “a tendency in this decan to try to do too much with force alone,” quickly accumulating karmic debts and destructive opponents.

The Aries Full Moon will ignite the fiery, raw individualism of the first face of Aries, and so we need to consider how and why we intend to wield its penetrative potency externally and internally. While the martial ambition found in this face can be linked with empire builders who wish to amass immense power and control, its primordial fire is also what brings the inspiration and foresight required to throw off the shackles of colonizing empire and insist on liberation. However, fighting fire with fire amidst the incendiary astrology of the next month can risk unleashing devouring flames that burn out of control and lead to severe destruction. Considered responses and thoughtful initiatives are advisable within our external relationships, yet within our inner furnace we may more freely direct the fierce flames of the Full Moon to melt down entrenched patterns, fluidly reforging a revivified presence.

Nowhere, Love, will World exist but within. Our lives
pass in transformation. And all the while the outside realm
diminishes. Where once a solid house endured,
some abstraction shoves itself into view, completely at ease
among concepts, as if it still stood in the brain.
The Zeitgeist is building vast reservoirs of power, formless
as the thrusting energy it wrests from everything.
It no longer recognizes temples. Furtively we hoard
what the heart once lavished. Where one of them still survives,
an object once prayed to, revered, knelt before—,
it’s already reaching, secretly, into the invisible world.
Many no longer see it, yet without the gain
of rebuilding it greater now, with pillars and statues, within!

— Rainer Maria Rilke, from the Seventh Elegy of Duino Elegies translated by Edward Snow

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References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Rilke, Rainer Maria. (2000). Duino Elegies. translated by Edward Snow. North Point Press.

Chiron on the Radiant Astrology Podcast

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 / grayastrology / 1 Comment

Gray-podcast-Chiron

I recently spoke with Christina Caudill on her Radiant Astrology Podcast about Chiron in Aries, Chiron’s role in astrology bridging the realms of Saturn with the realms beyond Uranus, and what we can learn from the mythology of Chiron. We talked on the day that the Sun in Aries was conjoining Chiron exactly, with both Chiron and the Sun forming a square aspect with the transiting lunar nodes. We discuss the connection between Chiron and what’s been happening with the COVID 19 pandemic.

Here is a link to the podcast:

Mythological Chiron w/Gray Crawford

You can find out more about Christina Caudill and her work in astrology here. Check out her membership circle you can join to support her work and gain access to extra content from her here.

If you enjoy my astrological content please consider supporting my work through a monthly subscription on my Patreon page. Take a look to see the benefits you will receive as a patron – in addition to the normal benefits patrons receive, I am currently offering a 50% discount on all natal consultations for patrons until further notice.

Full Moon in Leo

February 9, 2020February 10, 2020 / grayastrology / 3 Comments

Achaemenid Gold (6th – 4th Century B.C.)

Full Moon in Leo

Leo is the place of fixed fire, the indomitable flames that endure and resiliently persist in the face of extinguishing forces. The Full Moon in Leo on February 8 (or 9th, depending upon time zone) is an invitation for sustaining focus on the creations you most dearly wish to forge from your inner furnace, no matter how dire the collective crises of the time appear. The Full Moon is applying toward a flowing trine with Mars in Sagittarius, inciting passionate heat and radiant inspiration that can enliven any downcast spirits. Since 2020 began with the intensifying conjunction of Saturn and Pluto combined with volatile eclipses, the Leo Full Moon can stoke movement driven by the undercurrents of whatever deep material has been stirred up in the past month.

Heroism and courage are character traits associated with Leo we will need to embody in 2020, as it is a year that promises immense collective change with numerous cycles within astrology coming to endings and beginnings. Yet while heroines will be needed, the trine between the forthright Leo Moon and crusading Mars in Sagittarius also warns against hubris and righteously exerting your will in conflicts in which you think you know best. The Leo Full Moon is ruled by the Sun in Aquarius, giving it the unique characteristic of being the only Full Moon in which the polarity between Sun and Moon is mitigated by the Sun receiving the Moon into its fiery home. The cool, contemplative nature of the Aquarius Sun can help in detaching from emotional reactivity, discerning choices for authentically contributing the skills we are excited about developing within the wider community.

While the trine with Mars is the only aspect the Full Moon is making with other planets, if we are willing to welcome the dwarf planet Eris into consideration there is a fire triangle formed by the Full Moon, Mars and the distant trans-Neptunian entity named after the goddess of discord. While there hasn’t been a lot of time to compile astrological research concerning the meaning of Eris since her discovery in 2005, astrologers have begun to construct significations based in large part upon her meaning in mythology and wildly eccentric orbit. The chaotic strife Eris delights in instigating can be witnessed clearly in current events, and so it is fitting that the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto on January 12 formed a harsh square aspect with Eris. The fiery triangle between Eris, Mars, and the Full Moon can propel breakthroughs that have their source within the volatility of collective breakdowns and personal tensions that have sharpened awareness of what matters most to us.

The Full Moon is also engaged in aspects with asteroid goddesses, as the Leo Moon is separating from a square aspect with Vesta in Taurus and applying toward a sextile with Juno retrograde in Libra. As we become clearer about what gifts we wish to cultivate from exploration of our inner darkness, we will need to form mutually beneficial relationships with collaborators who can help bring the imaginal potency we have been developing into the light in ways that can be received by a resonant audience. We also need to reflect upon the balance of power and responsibility within our relationships, making adjustments so that there is a fair distribution of tasks and reciprocal attention to having emotional needs met. There is stormy astrology on the horizon we will be able to navigate more effectively by addressing relational imbalances that the Leo Full Moon illuminates.

by John Duncan

There will likely be important relational issues brought to attention by the passage of Venus in Aries forming conjunctions with Chiron and the mean calculation of Black Moon Lilith. Allow the full light of the Moon to expose whatever material has been harbored in your shadow and projected into your relationships. It’s a good time for the practice of reflecting upon how not only those you desire but also are repulsed by can reveal key patterns about yourself you have not been consciously aware of. Venus expresses ardor directly in Aries and once struck by the arrow of Eros, Venus in Aries will claim the agency required to draw closer to the source of attraction. With Venus continuing to shine brightly in twilight as an Evening Star, though impulsively following desires can lead to trouble it will be the kind of trouble that can also trigger vital lessons.

Venus is also applying toward a sextile with Ceres in Aquarius as Ceres is in an exact square aspect with Uranus in Taurus. Venus in Aries is not afraid to fight for whatever it considers to be true, good, and beautiful, and so one way this configuration may show up is through increased interest in social activism and protest movements building around issues of environmental and social justice. The square between Ceres and Uranus can feel upsetting and enraging regarding any personal or collective events in which greed and power dynamics harm or threaten life, yet the invigorating sextile between Venus and Ceres will stoke intrinsic motivation to take action as needed. In some cases this may mean taking the risk to initiate direct movement toward goals, in other cases there may need to be a staking out of space and time in which to actively contemplate the next course of action.

In the week following the Full Moon, whatever issues surface that involve Venus in Aries will continue to demand attention as Venus will be applying to a square aspect with the lunar nodes that it will complete on February 13. Venus in Aries delights in the creation of movement, and so if facing dilemmas related to Venus it will be helpful to be physically active such as taking hikes in nature while reflecting upon the next steps to take. Interestingly, although Venus is at the zodiacal point of being at the southern bending in relation to the lunar nodes, it is simultaneously applying toward a conjunction with its own geocentric north node and so will be passing across the ecliptic in the next week from southern into northern latitude (fittingly on February 14 aka Valentine’s Day). This means that the instinctual, subjective emotions and desires that Venus in Aries stirs up will be absolutely essential to integrate and can serve as important guidance in how to more fully engage in the larger changes that want to take shape in our life.

John Duncan The Turn of the Tide

Just like Venus, Mercury in Pisces is also visible during sunset and in fact will reach maximum elongation as an Evening Star on February 10 at ten degrees of Pisces. The maximum elongation of Mercury as Evening Star demarcates a shift in speed as it slows down to match the steady course of the Sun. Although Mercury will continue to be visible in the week following the Full Moon, it will increasingly become slower until stationing retrograde on February 16 at 12º53′ Pisces. This means that issues that will become deeply involved in the upcoming Mercury retrograde phase that will last from February 16 until March 9 will be more obviously rising to the surface in the week following the Full Moon. If you notice old patterns and storylines emerging that could be laid to rest, they can serve as worthy compost during the initial putrefying phase of Mercury retrograde that will last from the stationing of Mercury on February 16 until the inferior conjunction of Mercury on February 25 that will occur two days after the upcoming New Moon in Pisces.

It is notable that not only is Mercury in its fall in Pisces, it is further under rulership of Jupiter in its fall in Capricorn. This does not signify doom but does invite contemplation of ambition and desires for greater power and status within society. Rather than insisting on having our expectations of higher achievement fulfilled, Mercury and Jupiter are in position to facilitate descent into the depths of inner darkness and shadow. There is wisdom and depth to gather in our unconscious underworld if we are willing to undergo the trials we must necessarily encounter when journeying there. From now through the back and forth of Mercury retrograde, we will have the opportunity to regenerate our beliefs and visions of meaning and what we want to create with our life.

Mercury is also mediating the polarity between the lunar nodes, forming a sextile with the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn and a trine with the North Node of the Moon in Cancer. Furthermore, Mercury is applying to an exact sextile with Pallas Athena in Capricorn, as Pallas Athena is beginning to separate from a recent conjunction with the South Node of the Moon. The collective wounds associated with the misogyny of patriarchy that has its roots in the ancient times that astrology itself was developed have been on full display in the current events that have corresponded with a new cycle beginning between Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. Since Mercury in Pisces is more about feeling than articulation, symbol more so than thesis statement, we will have opportunities to deeply feel and reckon with how our thoughts and ideas are systematically conditioned by the times we are living in. These insights will go far beyond words, yet by opening to the possibility of making the inner changes we are capable of making we can begin to strip away however we have been inauthentically conditioned by dominant cultural forces.

Pallas Athena in Capricorn will be an overlooked player in the great planetary drama that will be enfolding in February and March after Mars enters Capricorn on February 16. Pallas Athena will be applying to a conjunction with Jupiter in Capricorn that will last all the way through the Aries Equinox into April, with Pallas Athena being present with Jupiter and Pluto when they form their first conjunction on April 4. Pallas Athena is ultimately a symbol of sacred feminine wisdom, and though her mythology has had her wielded as a weapon in the hands of empires of the past, so may she side with the forces of liberation in the present.

Paul Klee (1925) Ghost Chamber with the Tall Door (New Version)

The major outer planetary aspect that will form during the waning half of the current lunar cycle will be Jupiter in Capricorn receiving Neptune in Pisces through a waning sextile aspect that will complete on February 20. This will be the first of three sextile aspects that will form between Jupiter and Neptune during 2020 (the others will be on July 27 and October 11), making it a key aspect for the year. The harmonious interplay between Jupiter and Neptune can be helpful in realigning our vision of life this year to be more congruent with all of the changes that have been taking shape in the past year, especially changes corresponding with the last quarter square formed between Jupiter in Sagittarius with Neptune in Pisces during 2019.

Within the volatile breakdown of societal structures during 2020, Jupiter and Neptune’s relationship can inspire imaginative ideas for coalescing new growth from whatever dissolution and shedding we have been undergoing personally. In particular, we can gain awareness of old beliefs we need to release that have been interfering with our capacity for more deeply understanding our present circumstances. During the Leo Full Moon, Jupiter is applying within two degrees to an exact sextile with Neptune, as Neptune is simultaneously conjoining the true calculation of Black Moon Lilith. The combination of Neptune with Black Moon Lilith is a potent symbol for how we can become distracted and seduced away from our true authenticity by the myriad forms of illusory media surrounding us and the polarizing political conflicts that have become further exacerbated through manipulative media.

7 of Wands by Pamela Colman Smith

Leo 3 Decan

The Leo Full Moon is in the third face of Leo associated with the Seven of Wands illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. In the image we see a figure bravely fighting for their life, using their wand to fight off the onslaught of six attacking wands. They are standing on a cliff in a precarious position, yet their stance and face suggest someone putting their whole being into their struggle with extraordinary determination. We can further connect this image with the struggle of the individual in asserting their personal truth in the face of an angry mob or judgment from the dominant opinions of culture. Fittingly, Mars is the ruler of the third face of Leo, suggesting the indomitable spirit present in the warriors who reside here.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “The Banner” to the third face of Leo, writing that it signifies “the tenacity to fight for the place one has gained, to struggle and be victorious over contrary forces within and without” through “the power of the utterly steadfast heart, which never fails to rise to the challenges present.” For Coppock, it is the “unconquerable heart” which is the source of the power found in the third decan of Leo, as “what resides in the heart is untouchable, invincible” and most radiant when enlivened with passionate spirit. Coppock described its symbol of “The Banner” as revealing a principle of “Truth, Justice, or Beauty” that “must be invoked” to fully rouse the fiery spirit found here, “for it is only to such flags that the heart truly salutes.”

There is an interesting connection in the Hellenistic text 36 Airs to the third decan of Leo with the Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis. Similar to how a banner can unite a populace behind a common cause, Serapis developed as a divinity who could unify Greeks and Egyptians living within the same Hellenistic realm. Serapis is an underworld deity similar to Osiris who bears both solar and serpent symbolism, and who also became associated with the agathos daimon, or Good Spirit. Just as Jupiter has its joy in the 11th house of Good Spirit associated with fellowship and the hopes we aspire to achieve, so can we connect “The Banner” of the third face of Leo with the essential desires rooted in our higher self that bring out the best in us and motivate us to take action or make a stand as needed. As the peak illumination of the Leo Full Moon wanes in the week ahead, open yourself to discovering a symbol of your most soulful purpose to carry through the challenges to come in 2020. Not as a banner to use in imposing your will upon others, but rather as a guiding star you may follow through whatever difficulties and darkness arise.

If you enjoy my writing please consider supporting my work through a monthly subscription on my Patreon page. Take a look to see the benefits you will receive as a patron.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Virgo Full Moon: Torch of Regulus

February 18, 2019February 25, 2019 / grayastrology / 1 Comment

Astraea

Full Moon in Virgo

Around the hollow of her right flank a great stream of the primordially-generated Soul gushes forth in abundance, totally ensouling light, fire, ether, worlds.

In the left flank of Hekate exists the source of virtue, which remains entirely within and does not give up its virginity.

The Chaldean Oracles translated by Ruth Majercik, fragments 51 & 52

The Full Moon in Virgo on February 19 dramatically illuminates the ingress of the Sun into Pisces and is conjoining the fixed star Regulus, the heart of the lion, at zero degrees of Virgo. Due to precession of the equinoxes with the tropical zodiac, the fixed star Regulus entered tropical Virgo at the end of 2011, seen by many as ushering humanity into a new era in 2012 and beyond. Known as the heart of the lion in the Leo constellation, Regulus is one of the four royal stars of Persia that has anchored the zodiac and seasons for ages. In ancient Egypt when the Leo constellation rose at summer solstice with the flooding of the Nile, Regulus as the heart of the lion served as the fierce protector and guardian of the revivifying water essential to civilization. Across astrological traditions, Regulus has been associated with leadership and power, the type of fiery strength that can achieve success and victory against all odds. According to Bernadette Brady, the nemesis of Regulus is revenge, meaning its ambitious qualities need to be balanced by restraining from seeking retribution and vengeance if we wish to secure the success it can bring.

In Indian astrology, the nakshatra of Regulus where the full moon will ripen is Magha, the seat or throne of the king that has been linked with splendor, regality, prosperity, power, and the will force needed to achieve important endeavors and victories. Dennis Harness described the shadow side of Magha in connection with the extreme ambition that resides here, such as “arrogance” and “prejudice,” over attachment to “material prosperity” and “identification with class status,” as well as “divine restlessness or chronic discontent” for falling short of high aspirations and perfectionist standards. Harness further described the danger of constant courting of external approval at expense of the essential self.

Magha’s ruling deities are the ancestor spirits Pitris, making the nakshatra associated with gifts and benefits brought by ancestors, as well as loyalty to spiritual lineages. Harness described Pitris as “the great Fathers of Humanity, who function as guardian angels giving protection in the event of major calamities on earth.” Interestingly Ketu is the ruler of Magha, since transiting Venus, Saturn, and Pluto are near the South Node of the Moon at the time of the Virgo Full Moon. Thus the Virgo Full Moon can amplify our capacity to receive support from lineages, a potential also signified by the grouping of Venus, Saturn, Pluto and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn.

Regulus is also central to the tenth lunar mansion Al-Jabhah, or “The Brow,” described in the Picatrix as the head of a lion. It is considered a starry place of recovery, healing, aid, improvement, strength, power, and success according to Christopher Warnock in his book on the mansions of the moon. Warnock described the sound of a mighty lion roar reverberating throughout this lunar mansion, signifying a return to power and strength following a period of sadness or depression.

In light of these connections between the Virgo Full Moon and Regulus, it is significant that the moon reaching peak light is separating from a trine with Uranus in Aries and applying to a trine with Mars in Taurus. There is incredible empowerment and assertion within these aspects which are further intriguing to consider with the shift of Regulus into the more humble, service oriented sign of Virgo. The starry power of Regulus may be applied to our discernment and choices, fueling desire for the strength of our authentic integrity to serve the greater good rather than feeding the flames of glamor, fame, and self recognition. In spite of the flooding of social media in recent years with selfies and self promotion, perhaps part of the meaning to be found with Regulus in tropical Virgo is to be a powerful support for others, to take leadership on behalf of one’s community, and to achieve goals without the need for proclamations or receiving external praise.

The Sea of Time and Space (Vision of the Circle of the Life of Man) by William Blake (London 1757 - London 1827)

The Sea of Time and Space by William Blake

Mercury in Pisces rules the Full Moon while conjoining Neptune in Pisces, making it the most imaginative, otherworldly, nebulous, and abstractly poetic lunation in Virgo imaginable. Mercury is in its new Evening Star phase following its celestial cazimi in Aquarius, revitalized and freshened, visible in the twilight of sunset to help us digest and discern meaning from our daily experiences. Since Mercury is beginning to separate from its conjunction with Neptune at the time of the Full Moon, our ruminating thoughts will be more far ranging within imaginal spaces than normal, making our fantasies more potentially fruitful for new visions and ideas to cultivate.

Yet while Mercury in Pisces is separating from a conjunction with fantastical Neptune in Pisces, it is applying toward a sextile aspect with the hard reality and consolidating nature of Saturn in Capricorn. Part of this meaning can be applied to the reality that while Mercury is at the beginning of a strong phase within its synodic cycle, its recent union with Neptune also means that it has entered into the shadow of its upcoming Mercury retrograde phase in Pisces that will dominate the month of March. In fact, Mercury will remain in Pisces until April 17 and since Mercury will ultimately station direct at the end of March in a conjunction with Neptune, we will be returning for an extended period of Mercury conjoining Neptune again from March 20 through April 7.

Knowing a Mercury retrograde in Pisces will be starting on March 5, keep in mind that the imaginative visions and ideas you may receive at the Virgo Full Moon are likely to undergo many changes and shifts from now through April. Mercury’s applying sextile toward Saturn in Capricorn means we need to ground developing plans in the light of the full moon into secure structures that will both protect developing ideas as well as provide the needed flexibility for mutation in form over the next month. Mercury will also be in range of a sextile aspect with Venus in Capricorn for the rest of February which will never perfect due to the ultimate stationing of Mercury. We can have a rich exploration of aesthetics, playing around with different forms of style with regarding to developing plans, keeping in mind that some of the ideas we experiment with will not turn out to be fruitful.

Significantly, as Mercury in Pisces moves away from its union with Neptune it begins to move toward being received by a square aspect from Jupiter in Sagittarius. Just as the union of Mercury and Neptune in Pisces is the first of three that Mercury will experience due to its impending retrograde, so is the square aspect between Mercury and Jupiter the first of three. Mercury as a result will be artfully weaving us into the heart of the dynamic square aspect between Neptune in Pisces and Jupiter in Sagittarius from now through the middle of April. Thus begins a time to open awareness to how your dreams and fantasies inform your perceptions, how the state of your beliefs impact what you receive as well as achieve in the world. The Full Moon in Virgo is illuminating an initial glimpse into the depths of your inner world, bringing the possibility of self realization and reordering how we use our inner visions to manifest what we truly wish to create and manifest. There may be some disillusionment and waking up to self defeating patterns as part of this process, yet the upcoming Mercury retrograde may then be used to shed those same patterns.

Darkness by Thomas Danaher

Venus in Capricorn is separating from a conjunction with Saturn and is applying toward a union with Pluto and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn in the following week. Venus will conjoin Pluto on February 22 and the South Node of the Moon on February 25. Continuing to herald the sun as a Morning Star, Venus will be bringing us into fully feeling the ramifications of however the triple lineup of Saturn, Pluto, and Ketu in Capricorn is impacting us. On collective levels we can clearly see these effects in global power struggles and uprisings of conservative, nationalistic, and totalitarian politics, yet on an individual levels the type of intensified honing and consolidation demanded by these transits may feel exhausting.

As Venus moves through Saturn, Pluto, and Ketu, she is not calling for excess or the grandiose, but instead to strip away the inessential, find wisdom in elders and ancestral lineages, and to diligently and thoroughly build sturdy, substantial foundational elements of life with patient discipline open to the fluctuations of fortune. Moreover, after moving across Pluto and the South Node of the Moon, Venus will then move on to square Uranus at the final degree of Aries at the end of February. This occurs just before Uranus enters Taurus on March 6 and comes under the rulership of Venus. Altogether, Venus is leading us through an important process for the rest of February in which we will have to face restraining elements within our life, yet by embracing the necessity and making modifications as needed, we will begin preparing personal space for the disruptive and liberating impact of Uranus in Taurus coming in March.

Chiron, Themis and Hebe

Chiron in Aries

The Virgo Full Moon also heralds the arrival of Chiron into Aries, where it will remain until 2027. Chiron is not only at the “Aries point” of zero degrees, it is also forming a quincunx aspect with the Virgo Full Moon. There’s something perfect about the quincunx between the lunation and Chiron, as the Full Moon’s union with Regulus points toward Chiron’s capacity for cultivating heroic qualities. Yet the quincunx aspect brings up the uncomfortable feelings that can come up when the gentle gaze of Chiron prods us to break out of comfortable routines in order to embrace a more courageous, essential expression.

The Full Moon is illuminating our first impressions of what Chiron has in store for us in Aries, the zodiacal terrain in which Chiron orbits as far away from us as it gets toward the orbit of Uranus. As Chiron’s orbit bridges the realms of Saturn and Uranus, in Aries his medicine incites us to follow the emancipatory influence of Uranus and its corresponding breakthrough experiences and reception of revelatory insight. Chiron in Aries wants you to be engaged and active, willing to assert your own integrity rather than succumb to conditioning influences which corrupt your authenticity. This is easier said than done, but fittingly for Chiron’s return to Aries our global society now has an abundance of teaching available on holistic medicine and healing practices to be accessed at our fingertips, as well as to be utilized on the heroic path Chiron is calling us to follow. It is no coincidence that Carl Jung, who promoted the concept of individuation, was born with Chiron in Aries.

8 of Pentacles by Pamela Colman Smith

Virgo 1 Decan

The Full Moon in Virgo arises in the first decan of Virgo associated with the Eight of Pentacles card illustrated above on the left by Pamela Colman Smith. The Virgo Full Moon will peak in light just after the ingress of the Sun into the first decan of Pisces, associated with the Eight of Cups card illustrated above on the right by Pamela Colman Smith. In the image of the Eight of Pentacles we see an artist and craftsman fully engrossed in the moment with his art, concentrating with full attention to one direct focus in the moment. This image evokes the importance of taking things step by step, one task at a time, completing each aspect of the process with loving care and attention. In contrast, within the image of the Eight of Cups we find a figure retreating into a watery, island realm of caves and seclusion ideal for contemplation. Their staff planted in earth, their red cape and boots signify the flowing vitality they may contact within a cultivated space of sacred meditation and ritual.

In the confluence of these images, we may also discover the power the Virgo Full Moon may harvest from its proximity to Regulus: strength in cultivating protected space to focus with loving attention on our sacred arts. Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Tree Bearing Fruit” to this face, noting the prevalence of images associated with “fruitful works” developed through “humble observation of, and careful tending to, the created world” in ancient texts. Coppock wrote that the first face of Virgo inmates us “into the mysteries of incarnation . . . the prudence of postponing delight until the fruit is ripe.” While Coppock noted the first decan of Virgo involves “humility” at a core level, “it results in works of surprising glory.”

The Sun in the first face of Pisces is the ruler of the first face of Virgo, opening us to a Pisces season which will be extremely memorable due the retrograde movement of Mercury that will strike to the heart of the square aspect between Jupiter and Neptune. The vision of a potential “great work” received within the Virgo Full Moon conjoining Regulus is to be remembered, but expectations for the path toward manifestation to be smooth and easy need to be released. With Uranus on the cusp of entering Taurus, with the coming Mercury retrograde mixing up the depths of Jupiter and Neptune, there will be an ample abundance of imagination and creativity to draw from in any work. Let the creative process flow through you and allow its currents to guide you, letting go of attachment for needing to control things to happen in a certain way at a certain time. Nature and Spirit have their own plan in mind.

References

Brady, Bernadette. (2008). Star and Planet Combinations. Wessex Astrologer.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

de Fouw, Hart & Svoboda, Robert. (1996). Light on Life: Introduction to the Astrology of India. Lotus Press.

Harness, Dennis. (1999). The Nakshatras: the Lunar Mansions of Vedic Astrology. Lotus Press.

Majercik, Ruth. (1989). The Chaldean Oracles. Brill Academic Pub.

Warnock, Christopher. (2010). The Mansions of the Moon: a Lunar Zodiac for Astrology & Magic. Renaissance Astrology.

Aries Full Moon: Saturn’s Harvest

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

georgia-okeeffe-rams-head-blue-morning-glory-1938

Georgia O’Keefe (1938) Ram’s Head, Blue Morning Glory

Full Moon in Aries

The Aries Full Moon occurs two days after the Libra Equinox, the turn toward the deepening darkness of Fall in the northern hemisphere, while the southern hemisphere experiences the fecund flowering of Spring. A time of balance in light and darkness, the Libra Equinox offers the gift of clarity reflecting upon experiences of the past season and envisioning what’s to come in the season ahead. In the northern hemisphere, the colorful changes in Autumnal leaves correlate with crisp awareness into our changing circumstances and distilling the resources we may cultivate to endure the darkness which will increase with each subsequent dawn. In myth we associate this time with Persephone returning to her role ruling the underworld, mythic symbolism that is an apt metaphor for the shedding and intensification supported by the astrology the Full Moon is embedded within.

The Full Moon in Aries on September 24 is the traditional Harvest Moon, the Full Moon occurring closest to the Fall Equinox in the northern hemisphere. It’s a perfect fit with the astrology surrounding the lunation, as the Full Moon is applying to a square aspect with Saturn in Capricorn. The scythe of Saturn glows in the silvery luminescence of the Harvest Moon, its blade severing us from whatever is ready to be shed, its cut cleanly delivering a harvest of resources ripened for gathering. The past season was full of volatile, catalytic astrology transits, the type of transits that often correlate with monumental changes in relationships and the roles we embody in the world. Saturn in Capricorn can be a severe taskmaster, yet will bring reward and approval for hard work and consistent effort. Saturn has been in Capricorn now for three quarters of a year, with the Aries Full Moon illuminating whatever has been working well or is need of new strategies and modification.

The Full Moon is also united with Chiron in Aries, further revealing whatever has been developing in correspondence with Chiron’s time in Aries which began on 17 April 2018. Chiron re-enters Pisces a day after the Full Moon where it will stay until it returns to Aries for good on 18 February 2019. Within the dark caverns of our innermost recesses, Chiron is holding a lantern spotlighting a strength and talent we may resiliently rely upon in the season ahead. Ultimately, Chiron in Aries calls us to courageously fight for our ideals within not only personal spheres but within the wider collective, being willing to resist forces of oppression and totalitarian influence. Yet the dominant role played by Saturn in Capricorn in relation to Chiron and the Full Moon means containment is a necessary element. The influence of Chiron and Saturn calls for disciplined effort focused with precision upon the realistic confines of our circumstances; this does not mean restraining oneself from expansive, freedom-oriented goals but rather pinpointing whatever most needs attention in the moment.

Georgia O’Keefe (1937) Horn and Feathers

Mars rules the Full Moon in Aries while applying to a conjunction with the South Node of the Moon in Aquarius. Mars in Aquarius first applied toward a conjunction with the South Node of the Moon in the first week of June, coming into contact a second time during the catalytic time period of the Total Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius that occurred on July 27. As a result the Aries Full Moon brings closure to narratives that have been developing during the past four months and an opportunity for decisive action and choices in correspondence. Mars in Aquarius uniting with the South Node of the Moon purifies and hones our idealistic concerns for our greater global collective, as well as efforts we desire to initiate within local community. Aquarius is a visionary placement for Mars that can be future-oriented, yet its unbound desires for greater freedom have had to be tempered through the numerous martial tests we have had to face during the past few months of Mars shifting between retrograde and direct motion. Mars completing its final conjunction with the South Node takes on a sobering presence, and in correspondence we can make difficult choices we held back from enacting previously.

In addition to uniting with the South Node of the Moon, Mars is also in range of a conjunction with Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius. In combination with the additional influences of Saturn and Chiron upon the lunation, a wholistic awareness that takes account of subconscious influences will be a necessity for effective action and results. This is not a lunation for dreamy, overidealistic envisioning of potential but rather a stark assessment of circumstances combined with willingness to do whatever we must do to find solutions and initiate needed change. The trials and difficulties we need to work through will bring unconscious motivations to the surface.

Mars in Aquarius is also in a harmonious, airy trine with the Sun, Mercury and Ceres which are co-present in Libra, with Mercury applying to a conjunction with Ceres. Altogether these aspects point to support found in community, to the importance of reaching out to others who may bring support and needed insight. Deep, mutually introspective communication can be supported as long as those engaged in dialogue are willing to claim responsibility and sustain willingness to listen even when in disagreement. Unfortunately, due to the influence of Saturn and Chiron upon the Full Moon there is also potential for harsh and wounding communication. Certain relationships may emerge that can be particularly supportive in the changes coming in the next month with Venus stationing retrograde.

Cernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatmen, from the Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, France

Pluto is one of the strongest influences upon the Aries Full Moon, as Pluto will station direct in Capricorn on September 30, less than a week after the Full Moon. Furthermore, as the Moon in full phase begins to separate from its square aspect with Saturn, it will begin to form a square with the stationing Pluto, further dredging up the deep desires of Pluto. Pluto has been retrograde since 22 April 2018 when it was at 21°17′ Capricorn, now stationing at 18°45′ Capricorn. Thus those with cardinal placements (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) between 16 – 22 degrees will feel the plutonic shift most intensely. Pluto’s stillness brings an initiatory quality to the Aries Full Moon that incites impetus to penetrate into the heart of any matter we are engaged with. As strong, compulsive feelings are likely to emerge that were previously hidden or inaccessible, the week following the Aries Full Moon has the potential to facilitate an integration of powerful self realization.

During the waning half of the lunar cycle, Venus will station retrograde in Scorpio on October 5 a few days before a New Moon in Libra on October 8. With the Sun, Mercury, Ceres, and Uranus all in the domiciles of Venus, the stationing of Venus holds wide influence over the surrounding astrology. At the time of the Aries Full Moon, however, Venus remains a bright Evening Star and in combination with Mars in Aquarius and Saturn in Capricorn can be supportive in beginning to make adjustments and reorientation to the changes we can sense are on the horizon with the impending forty day period of Venus retrograde.

2 of Wands by Pamela Colman Smith

Aries 1 Decan

The Full Moon arises in the first face of Aries associated with the Two of Wands card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image involves a conquering figure holding a globe in one hand as he gazes from a protective castle into an expansive terrain. It is the body of water that appears to have secured his focus in this moment, and the presence of the globe seems to imply a moment of reflection regarding expanding his influence or dominion. The grandiose ambition and confident assertion present in the image is fitting considering that Mars rules the first decan of Aries, giving Mars both domicile and face rulership over the Aries Full Moon.

Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the symbol of “The Axe” to the first decan of Aries, which has a long association with furiously martial figures who dominate enemies and assure victory in battle. For example, the Liber Hermetis ascribed an image of a man “standing on feet like claws,” while “holding above his head a double-sided axe with both hands.” Coppock deepened the symbolism of the axe through linking it to the splitting and separation from “the One” of ancient wisdom traditions, a severing necessary for creation and growth. Coppock linked this separation to “building a distinct and individual life . . . the individual yang struggling out of the collective yin” which he compared to both the cutting of the umbilical cord between child and mother and the cutting of trees to build homes in the wilderness.

In contrast to the emphasis on personal power within the first face of Aries, the sabian symbol for the degree of the Aries Full Moon is “a comedian reveals human nature,” highlighting a sense of humor accepting our vulnerabilities and dilemmas. Dane Rudhyar described it as involving “the triumph of objective consciousness over subjective feeling or moods,” a capacity “to laugh at the inadequacy of the form one sees” in the mirror. Humor and the release of tension that comes from laughter is always needed medicine during pivotal times, and as we know it is often the one playing the part of the fool who can claim a platform to speak truth to power. As Austin Coppock wrote regarding the first face of Aries, those wielding its raw power are not always successful as “some trials require the wits of tricksters rather than the sword-arms of warriors.” The Aries Full Moon is extremely powerful in terms of gaining clarity regarding our current circumstances, with a sense of humor and playfulness being as important to bear as dry analysis and assertive willpower.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Rudhyar, Dane. (1973). An Astrological Mandala: the cycle of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases. Random House.

Scorpio Full Moon & Jupiter

April 29, 2018 / grayastrology / Leave a comment

Detail from The Cross Rose in the Garden of Venus by Marlene Seven Bremner (2016)

Full Moon in Scorpio

We marvel at the lush petals opening, quivering in colorful scent. Yet its the roots, invisible and unnoticed that nourish the splendor. The Full Moon in Scorpio invites us to descend into sensation, into our hidden inner world that replenishes vitality and sources our full presence in the world. Authentic growth comes from deepening into the senses of soul, quietly embracing how the fullness of our inner senses receives the fullness of the outside world. The Full Moon is united with Jupiter in Scorpio, meaning there is revelry to be found in depths of thought and feeling, whether through shared intimacy or solitary, penetrating contemplation.

Taurus has the grace of calm power and a stubborn resolve for maintaining the stability of whatever brings pleasure and nurturance. The season of Taurus invites gratitude for the beauty we find in our surroundings and doing the necessary work to prepare the fields of our domain for the harvest we wish to reap in the year ahead. The polarity of the Full Moon in Scorpio digs underneath the surface of our motivations to the primal desires that drive us and bring the intrinsic resiliency to persevere with full participation in life. The polarity between Scorpio and Taurus is a powerhouse willing to dig in and do the necessary work, and the surrounding astrological aspects indicate there are important endeavors to complete. However, it will also be important to make space and time for sensing within as its an especially fertile lunation for uncovering previously concealed insight.

The Scorpio Full Moon illuminates the path that has opened in the aftermath of numerous tumultuous astrological aspects that have dominated April. Over the course of the past month Mars has moved from a conjunction with Saturn (April 2) through a conjunction with Pluto (April 26) its beginning to separate from at the lunation. Mercury in Aries has formed two catalytic square aspects with Saturn in Capricorn, first while retrograde (April 5) and then a final time recently while direct (April 25). During the past month plans may not have gone smoothly, unforeseen obstacles or delays may have emerged, and our desires may have taken us off pre-planned paths into unknown terrain. The aspects surrounding the lunation suggest that however things have been developing, we have been given the needed information and felt the needed desires for intensifying realization of passion and purpose.

The union of Mars and Pluto in Capricorn rules the Full Moon, amplifying the potency of the lunation’s alliance with Jupiter. Whatever has been lurking in the shadows comes forward, demanding awareness. In some cases this subconscious material involves our positive potential we have been denying or holding back from. It also can involve ghosts of the past stirring up regrets, disappointments, and memories of immature behaviors we have now outgrown. Instead of debilitating ourselves with excessive self criticism, allow the putrefaction of the past to feed reception of the vital new presence ready to emerge from within. Mars and Pluto can be engaged best with the integrity of honest expression. If we attempt to block expression due to fear of external disapproval, the suppressed volatility of Mars and Pluto will erupt with volcanic force and unforeseen consequences. As a result its important to clarify internal feelings and then find ways to ground the inner fire into concrete action.

from Rosarium Philosophorum

The Full Moon in Scorpio forms a square and symbolic crossroads with its North Node in Leo and South Node in Aquarius. This deeply stirs lunar states of mind, irrational feelings, psychic messages, and subtle guidance to glean from flowing unconscious streams, especially since the Scorpio Moon is also applying to a trine with Neptune in Pisces. The Full Moon is at the bendings, and though this can feel chaotic it also creates reflective opportunities for investigating the undercurrents of our current trajectory and surrounding developments in relationships. Practically, this means that the Full Moon is at the point of forming a square aspect with the previous Leo Lunar Eclipse (January 31) as well as the upcoming Aquarius Lunar Eclipse (July 27). There are strong currents to navigate as the Scorpio Full Moon peaks, so do your best to balance the compulsive force of the union between Mars and Pluto with reflecting upon your current path and next steps to take. The force of Mars and Pluto together needs expression and creates the atmosphere in the weeks ahead to jump into the rush of life and do your works of passion.

The past month of Mercury moving retrograde, becoming purified by the Sun, and now moving direct again as a bright Morning Star has helped clarify passions and refined purposeful visions. Mercury is at maximum morning elongation as a Morning Star at the Scorpio Full Moon, and as it illuminates the liminal pre-dawn skies it will help open the awareness and make the inspiring connections that can bring the visions we have been developing into fruition. Frustrations and delays that arose in the past month through Mercury’s back and forth tension with Saturn have ultimately given us additional perspectives to draw from, with the process elucidating more effective strategies and choices. The mercurial process may also have catalyzed intimations of new potential voiced from within that can now be integrated.

Gary Caton in his book Hermetica Triptycha connected Mercury direct at maximum morning elongation to the rubedo phase of alchemy. Caton wrote that Mercury’s current connection with the rubedo phase signifies becoming “messengers of the future we have seen within us,” manifesting the new meaning gained during the recent Mercury retrograde period rather than returning to the status quo we had previously been used to. Caton advised as we integrate what we’ve brought back from spiritual realms and subconscious sensations, “the appearance of some externally chaotic conditions at this point actually demonstrates that the inner chaos of the spiritual realms has been successfully transferred, that spirit and matter are in correspondence” (p. 128). Embracing the volatility can help us deepen into the essential change and growth ready to be experienced.

Harmonia Elementorum (2017) by Marlene Seven Bremner

Saturn has begun its retrograde journey from 9º08′ Capricorn that will take it back to 2º32′ Capricorn when it stations direct on September 6. As a result this Saturn retrograde in Capricorn will be especially significant for anyone with sensitive natal chart placements in the first ten degrees of cardinal signs, but for all of us we are now at the beginning stage of returning to an examination of the issues that have arisen with the ingress of Saturn into Capricorn at the end of 2017. Saturn is in a harmonious sextile with the Scorpio Full Moon and flowing trine with the Taurus Sun, aspects that support time spent rooted in rumination. Saturn has turned away from the heated intensity brought by Mars earlier in the month to return to its cold and solitary lair that facilitates taking apart recent difficulties in order to discern how the lessons learned fit into the bigger picture of our lives.

In contrast to Saturn, Venus in Gemini is playing a mediating role with the transiting lunar nodes that are in hard aspect to the Scorpio Full Moon. Venus is forming harmonious aspects with both the South Node and North Node of the Moon, indicating that actively following our curiosity will help discern choices aligned with our life purpose to a greater extent. Venus in Gemini is explorative and willing to listen and sustain dialogue, promoting a period of greater socializing. Venus in the airy home of Mercury draws us toward perspectives we may not agree with at first but ultimately help us clarify our reasoning and purpose in response. Venus in Gemini can help us flexibly shift in line with volatile changes and refine our understanding through staying engaged in conversations and discovering connections that bring about self-realization.

Interestingly, Venus in Gemini is also contra-antiscia to Mars in Capricorn, a shadowy yet dynamic aspect that will bring relational issues to the surface. The triggering of old relational patterns is further signified by Chiron in Aries occupying the mid-point of Venus and Mars at 0º Aries. If we are reminded of old wounds we may also notice how much we have grown and are now capable of releasing old pain through genuine forgiveness and acceptance. There is also immense vitality within these aspects for creative expression that harnesses the value we can discover in difficult experiences and memories. The influence of Chiron further provokes self-esteem issues in relation to identity, placing importance on finding value for our true self rather than personas we have previously crafted to fit more easily into consensus culture. Chiron has been in Aries for a week and a half, so the Full Moon is opportune for noticing what issues have arisen in correspondence with Chiron changing signs.

5 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 1 Decan

The Full Moon illuminates the first face of Scorpio associated with the Five of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image appears desolate at first, as a despairing figure stares with fixation upon three spilled chalices. However, upon closer look there remain two upright chalices behind the figure, suggesting hope. There is also a river flowing underneath a bridge behind the figure, bringing the flux philosophy of Heraclitus that no one ever steps in the same river twice since the river is always changing as well as the person. It is a fitting image to associate with the first decan of Scorpio as it captures the fundamental nature of having desires within our constantly shifting world in which we must deal with the loss of what we desire most in the world.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Jawbone” to the first decan of Scorpio, declaring hunger as its chief concern. Coppock synthesized the ancient textual images of this face around the repeating cycle of desire, including consuming hunger, satiation, the loss of what one desires, and the competitive violence of pursuing desires. Curiously the ancient Hermetic text Liber Hermetis tells us “a crab having wings” resides here, indicating that liberation may be possible once we face the compulsive nature of the cycle. The Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the Numphai to this face, feminine nature spirits who reside in sacred streams, groves, and grottoes. The obsessive nature of this face brings to mind the figure of Dionysus who often ran with wild nymphs and whose all consuming desires brought dismemberment and rebirth.

Mars rules the first face of Scorpio while conjoining Pluto in its exaltation of Capricorn. With Pluto amplifying the fires of Mars, feelings of grief and loss may come more strongly from collective rather than personal realms. We can feel pain and destruction within local and global collectives, from the degradation of natural environments to innumerable instances of abuse, abandonment, loss, and betrayal occurring in the lives of others if not ourselves. It can be easy to identify with the mournful figure in the Five of Cups card lamenting the spilled liquid softening the ground under their feet. Yet as the image suggests, we also have cups full of enlivening liquid ever ready to quench our thirst. Turning toward whatever has survived a chaotic process of purgation, we discover a deepening strength and magical potency. There is agency to be seized and embodied in the glowing light of the Scorpio Full Moon. Use it well, and discern how to most effectively serve with its light.

References

Caton, Gary. (2017). Hermetica Triptycha: The Mercury Elemental Year. Rubedo Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Aries New Moon & Uranus

April 16, 2018 / grayastrology / 3 Comments

Rene Magritte (1962) The Domain of Arnheim

New Moon in Aries

New Moons present an opportunity within fertile darkness to set intention. As the Moon aligns with our Sun and begins a new cycle and trajectory into increased light, we similarly pass from the close of a cycle into the promise of potential. Amplified beyond the norm, the New Moon in Aries on April 15 invites intention sung from peaks of far ranging vision. The lunation is aligned with Uranus and so whatever has been building in tension within constriction now demands release. Uranus brings increased excitement and incites desire for honest, authentic expression freed from restriction. Collective events will clamor and roar with a quickening pace, breaking open what has been confined. On personal levels within the tumult there is support for releasing liberated vision through grounded effort. Patience and due diligence must be embodied, using the imaginal excitement of future dreams as a gentle force of inspiration rather than an overbearing insistence on getting one’s way.

The New Moon arrives at the same time that Mercury has finally stationed direct, ending it’s retrograde in Aries that began March 22. Hermes seizes the stage, and as all eyes become drawn to the Winged Messenger we can also become conscious of openings for taking bold and direct action aligned with inner purpose. Whatever has become dislodged and purged in the past three weeks of the Mercury retrograde has created the space needed for integrating a new dimension of presence sourced from the stoking of inner fire. Mercury will be illuminating the sky at dawn as a Morning Star as the Moon waxes in light in the forthcoming lunar cycle, curious and eager to set plans in action and seek out new information to strengthen development of goals. Pay attention in case Hermes fooled you recently with some sleight of hand, as Mercury stationing direct brings capacity for focused alacrity attuned with the changing details of circumstances.

At the same time Mercury in Aries is stationing direct, Saturn in Capricorn is stationing retrograde. Planets stationing bring their significations forward from the depths of the collective unconscious into stark awareness. This is especially the case with Mercury and Saturn at the moment as they are stationing in range of a catalytic square to one another. Due to Mercury’s retrograde phase in recent weeks, we have already experienced a square aspect between Mercury and Saturn on March 10 and April 5. It will be worthwhile to reflect upon changes that have been happening since March 10 and messages we have received regarding the work and service we wish to perform as well as the stability and effectiveness of the structures we have in place for support and implementation. If we have already been actively reflecting upon and experimenting with what’s been working and not working optimally in recent weeks, then the Aries New Moon is ideal for implementing needed modification.

Mercury will be applying to a square with Saturn in Capricorn for the rest of April, eventually perfecting the aspect on April 25. This means the rest of the month Mercury has a drive for instigating movement and directly creating what we want, while Saturn will make the limitations of available time and resources obvious. The negative side of Mercury holding such a strong aspect with Saturn for so long is excessive self-criticism for not living up to expectations. If you have a grand vision of something to create, let the limitations and obstacles that arise in the next month help you strengthen your project and allow it to develop with fruitful fluidity. The encounter between Mercury and Saturn is perfect for figuring out how to best serve the needs of others with what you want to manifest, rather than being overly consumed with your own selfish conception. If you are instead feeling frustrated with a lack of inventive ideas or confused over which direction to pursue, allow Mercury the time and space to help guide you, as its tension with Saturn in the weeks ahead will eventually bring increased clarity.

Knight_standing_on_fountains_-_Splendor_Solis_(1582),_f.7_-_BL_Harley_MS_3469

from the Splendor Solis

Mars in Capricorn rules the New Moon while applying to a conjunction with Pluto. As the tension between Mercury and Saturn builds over the rest of April, so will the ferment between Mars and Pluto intensify as they will eventually reach exact union on April 26. Mars and Pluto coming together is always a time of reckoning in which we must acknowledge and find outlets of expression for deep seated desires we may have been repressing or denying. This particular conjunction of Mars and Pluto is epic, as Mars is moving from a union with Saturn to a union with Pluto and therefore foreshadowing the coming union of Saturn and Pluto in 2020.

The cycle of Pluto and Saturn is one of the most important cycles to pay attention to in mundane astrology especially in connection with destruction of empires and power structures coupled with the emergence of upstarts claiming increased levels of power and control within global systems. Its especially significant that Saturn has made it within the fifteen degree threshold with Pluto that Richard Tarnas established as his boundary marker for cultural correspondences in his book Cosmos and Psyche (Tarnas tracked historical correlations with planetary alignments of conjunctions and oppositions using a fifteen degree orb). This essentially signals that we are already experiencing the sweeping tides that will irrevocably alter the global landscape in 2020. No kidding, right.

The scope of the coming changes relative to global civilizations is immense, as Pluto and Saturn will be uniting in range of a conjunction with their own south nodes. Dane Rudhyar wrote that the south node of a planet is like “the negative pole of an electrical system” that is “a point of release, but what is released can be waste-materials…At its south node the characteristic quality of a planet is almost forcibly thrown upon the Earth.” Pluto has already conjoined its south node and we are only at the beginning of a period unleashing the full arc of Pluto’s archetype. The news cycle is full of stories displaying the decay of old cultural systems, the exposure of corruption within them, and innumerable examples of those in power attempting to coerce and maintain control within the dismantling. There is no stopping the rapid currents of change underway, but within the breaking apart of the old there is new space being created to take responsibility for developing new structures that can support those feeling vulnerable amid the upheaval.

Significantly, at the same time Mars is approaching Pluto it is also being received by Jupiter in Scorpio through an integrative sextile aspect that can help bring regeneration out of discord, or at least transmit feelings of resistance, stress or challenge into productive action. The ability to produce something of beautiful value within surrounding intensity is also embodied by Venus in Taurus separating from a trine with Mars in Capricorn and applying to an opposition with Jupiter. The flowing energy between Mars with Venus and Jupiter combined with powerful tensions held by other aspects points to Aries New Moon being an extremely powerful launch pad for bold, dynamic endeavors full of resilient perseverance to not only survive but foster increased levels of strength within a stressful environment.

odilon-redon-centaur-1900-trivium-art-history

Odilon Redon (1900) Centaur

Chiron in Aries

Chiron ingresses into Aries two days after the New Moon on April 17. Chiron first entered Pisces on April 20, 2010 and so we have eight years of Chiron moving across Pisces to look back over and reflect upon today. Chiron will be in Aries for only part of 2018, as it will station retrograde on July 5 at 2º25′ of Aries and then return to Pisces on September 25 for its finale in the sign of the Fish. Chiron spends more time in Aries than it does in other signs, for its crossing of Aries terrain takes it to the furthest point of its orbit out by Uranus. Chiron is the celestial body that bridges the dimension beyond Uranus to the one within the guardianship of Saturn, and so can provide counsel for how to listen to the subconscious messages arising with the Uranian lunation.

Chiron has brought about enormous dissolution while in Pisces that has helped facilitate healing as well as strength in facing and learning from disillusionment. Pisces is an internal and sensitive water sign that is in clear contrast to the fiery agency that will become available to Chiron in Aries. Chiron emerges from his cave in Aries ready to train heroes and heroines, eager to engage the power systems of the world in direct action. Chiron in Aries brings empowered will force to the determination of Saturn and Mars in Capricorn, bringing increased drive for advancement and protection, finding ways to direct outrage from oppressive power structures into effective streams of manifestation. Chiron in Aries will demand reclaiming power. How we choose to reclaim power and fight against forces of oppression will be one way Chiron in Aries will trigger wounds for healing.

Aries 3 Decan image from Allegory of March: Triumph of Minerva (1476) by Francesco del Cossa

Aries 3 Decan

The third face of Aries is ruled by Venus and Jupiter and similarly holds uplifting passion resonant with the daimon of Eros. The image above by Francesco del Cossa of a figure who resides within this face encapsulates aspects of numerous images found in ancient text. The trinity of Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Picatrix, and Liber Hermetis all reveal figures dressed in red and holding a staff or sword. This passionate figure is wearing either a golden or wooden bracelet depending on whether you consult Three Books of Occult Philosophy or the Picatrix, but both texts indicate the figure embodies the unrest of not being able to do desired good. The reason for not being able to manifest these good wishes is not stated, but Three Books proclaims there is “talent, tameness, joy, and beauty” to be found here. The figure in the Picatrix is an iron worker and so has a medium through which to transfigure frustrated anger into works of vivifying creation.

The figure in Liber Hermetis wears a gold crown with glistening emeralds decorating her belly. She is full of magic and her staff has the heads of four serpents facing a polarity of directions. Her garments of dark rose are lined with golden strings and she seems to possess the grace of the figure painted by Francesco del Cossa rather than the fury over constraints described by other texts. The focused countenance in del Cossa’s figure suggests they have an inner knowing of being able to make a targeted impact, as they seem to be summoning an inner force to project through the golden bracelet held delicately with their fingers. Francesco del Cossa placed an arrow in the other hand, evoking the mythic Eros or Cupid. Eros is in fact resonant, as the Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the figure of Eros to the third face of Aries: the capacity of Eros to arouse passions into creations that inspire collective forces lies at the heart of the decan’s meaning.

Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “The Burning Rose” to the third face of Aries for reasons similar to its correspondence with Eros. Coppock wrote that “Eros’ escapades make clear that the desire for unification is inflamed by separation, love by war, lust by forbiddance.” The concept of unifying through the flames of inspiration is key to Coppock’s interpretation of this face, as he wrote that it contains “the power of the spirit to unify and seduce, to motivate and to bond those of confluent passion.” Coppock illuminated that it is the martial, battle-ready ferocity of Aries turned toward artistic performance and charismatic presentation that gives this decan its power “to create a commonality of spirit even in the most hostile conditions.”

All of us can draw from the inspirational force of the New Moon occurring in the third face of Aries, united with Uranus, to bring resources and people together for the greater good. While we will become upset and express grief over difficult collective and personal events, there will also be opportunities for the strife of intense events to mobilize us toward new levels of strength we can utilize in supporting and inspiring others. The Aries New Moon asks us to get into the flow and ride the rapids of coming change, ready to respond and open to receiving assistance.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Rudhyar, Dane. (1971). The Planetary and Lunar Nodes. CSA Press.

Libra Full Moon

Libra 2 Decan

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New Moon in Capricorn

Capricorn 1 Decan

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New Moon in Pisces

Pisces 3 Decan

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Full Moon in Virgo

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Full Moon in Leo

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Full Moon in Virgo

Chiron in Aries

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