Full Moon in Aquarius: The Head and the Heart

Full Moon in Aquarius: August 1, 2012, 11:27 pm EDT

The indie group from Seattle called The Head and the Heart offers the perfect title for the almost-here Full Moon in Aquarius:

With the Moon in cerebral, far-thinking Aquarius, and the Sun in passionate, expressive Leo, we discover anew we are both head and heart, both thinking, both feeling, both wanting.

This Full Moon comes with a Grand Trine in Air, a breath of fresh right when we need it, a chance to see our way clear, get a new perspective. The Moon trines Jupiter in Gemini and Mars in Libra, active, upbeat planets moving the Moon out of contemplation and into action.

The Sun is part of an almost-Grand Trine in Fire, trining Uranus in Aries while conjunct Mercury who trines the North Node in Sagittarius. Can you feel the heat? From the heart side, we're also pushed to act, take the lead, step into the spotlight, and express what's in our hearts.

The focus is on transformative action. There are two Yods mirroring each other, pointed at the Sun and Pluto. There are Fingers of the World, almost overlapping, pointed at Saturn and Mars. These tough-to-ignore patterns pull major players Pluto, Neptune, Chiron into relationship with Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury and the Sun.

This Full Moon highlights where we're coherent, and where we're not. The head–heart connection energizes our ability to see how aligned our thoughts, beliefs and values actually are. The surrounding aspect patterns support taking action to create the coherence we crave.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. In these tumultuous times, gaining clarity on who are are, what we value, and how to act is both difficult and essential. The Full Aquarian Moon raises us up, offering a wider, more spacious view of life, the universe and everything.

This is a Full Moon in fixed signs, so the possibility of stubborn, even fanatical, commitment is there. "This is how I feel, this is what I believe, and I'm entitled to my opinion." ––How often have we read or heard that claim in the last weeks? Often with the implicit "And you're entitled to my opinion too" as they expound at length.

If this is where we find ourselves––entrenched and embattled––this Full Moon amps up the pressure. Pluto and Uranus are not patient forces (understatement!). If we insist on holding to positions that are unfocused, untenable, or not in our highest good, change happens.

This is tricky territory. We want and need the fierce passion and clarity of thought that will breach any barrier and bring us through to our goals. Yet we need flexibility and openness to respond to a change-filled world and move forward.

This calls for the creative playfulness of Leo as well as the innovative planfulness of Aquarius.

With Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Mercury, Mars and Saturn on board, a wide range of practices can help guide our way. Intentional dreaming, vision boards, movement meditation, shamanic journeys––anything active and energetic as well as intuitive will bring in the energies surrounding this Full Moon.

This is not the time to keep our lights hidden ... in the light of this Full Moon in Aquarius, we step into a brighter, stronger sense of who we are and what we're here to do. Then we do it :)
   

Gibbous Moon: The Final Draft Dress Rehearsal

"All the real work is done in rehearsal" Donald Pleasence

Gibbous Moon in Sagittarius: July 29, 2012

Last night's Moon was beautiful here. An intense late afternoon storm moved through, dumping rain, upending umbrellas, dropping temperatures, and blowing the sky clear. Later, the growing, glowing Moon rose while the twilight sky glowed deep azure.

These were the last hours of the mysterious Scorpio Moon, moody and intense. She moved into optimistic, adventurous Sagittarius overnight, shifting us into a more upbeat mood. The struggles haven't gone away, but there's an easing of tension, a glimmer of hope, a bend in the road.

Tomorrow, the Moon reaches her Gibbous phase, the square-and-a-half with the Sun that marks the last stage before the Full Moon. It's a fiery point in this lunar cycle, as the Sag Moon pushes against the Sun holding strong in Leo.

The Sun is conjunct Mercury, trining Uranus in Aries, and trining the North Node in early Sagittarius. So this Gibbous Moon is actually bumping against a almost-Grand Trine in Fire that links the revolutionary trickster, the karmic signpost, how we think and communicate, and our heart's core. (Uranus and the North Node are too far to be trining each other, but the Sun and Mercury link them both.) Heady stuff, this.

Yet Uranus and Mercury remain retrograde, and we're not at the Full Moon yet. The intense emotions, the private and some very public challenges, the ongoing polarizations unfolding within this lunar cycle are still in process. Not quite ready for prime time.

The Leo Sun and Sagittarian Moon look outward, ready to share. Mercury and Uranus retrograde keep the focus inward. Messages are taking shape here. Insights gained, perhaps some conclusions drawn. But we're still working on it. Things are still in process, under construction.

This is a very creative time. Venus in Gemini trines Saturn in Libra, flowing energy from creative vision into form, finding the right container for what we see, feel and wish to say.

This lunar phase moves us beyond introspection into creation. It's time for active processing, for getting words on paper, paint on brushes, hands into clay. It's time to find the right key, the best chords, the melody and lyrics to express who we are and what we know.

The thing is, Mercury and Uranus will still be retrograde through the Full Moon. There's something about the coming illumination that will call on the inner work we're been doing to bring forward something we haven't felt ready to share yet.

With that in mind, it's time to get the show on the road. Those trial performances, the late drafts we bring to our best readers––the Gibbous Moon says it's time.
    

First Quarter Moon: Who Can We Trust?

Can we?

First Quarter Moon in Scorpio: July 26, 2012

Life is confusing. Mixed messages, conflicting reports, intense emotion, high stakes––it's everywhere these days, and sky patterns reflect it right back to us.

Tomorrow's First Quarter Moon, the waxing square halfway between New and Full, puts us right in the middle. With that Moon in wary, skeptical Scorpio, we wonder: Who can we trust?

The First Quarter Moon chart is filled with challenge. (Like we need more of that now, right?) Mars continues opposing Uranus and squaring Pluto, bringing added tension and attention to the signature polarizing question of our times: How do we find a path out of the serious issues facing us, into a secure and stable future?

Neptune and Chiron continue to square the Nodes of the Moon, signalling both the opportunity to reach deep and heal old patterns of wounding, and the confusion and pain of not knowing.

A series of Yods around the circle point to Pluto (Sun-Mercury and Jupiter at the base), the Sun-Mercury conjunction (Pluto and Neptune-Chiron at the base), and the Moon (Uranus and Jupiter at the base). The Finger of the World still points at Saturn, with Chiron and Jupiter at the base.

These are the great forces of this time in history, aspecting the luminaries, highlighting the perplexing and sometimes painful intersection between the personal and the global.

The heart of the First Quarter chart is the square between the Sun and Moon, this time in Leo and Scorpio, fixed Fire and fixed Water.

With Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun (and therefore also squaring the Moon), we see the potential for passionate anger and deep resistance. This is difficult emotional terrain.

Fire and Water are not seen as compatible, in the classical scheme. They're not seen as playing well together, especially Leo and Scorpio, the fixed signs.

In ancient Celtic legends, though, there is another view. The motif is seen in Hindu myth as well, and can be traced back to shared Indo-European origins: it's called Fire-in-Water, and signifies the presence of intense creative inspiration hidden in deep, dangerous waters.

The challenges of our times and our lives cannot be sidestepped. Choosing not to engage is itself a choice, with significant consequences. The only way out is through.

At this First Quarter Moon, we're shown that answers won't come easily. We'll need to dive deep, face things we prefer to avoid, to reach the gold.

For the Scorpio Moon, trust is always an issue. In a world of shadows and deception, what can we believe? The Sun and Mercury Rx in Leo say, we can trust our hearts to lead us ... if we are prepared to face truths courageously, express those truths passionately, and find the brilliant inspiration hidden in darkest shadow.
   

Crescent Moon: Tend and Befriend

why not?

Crescent Moon in Virgo: July 22, 2012

A lovely sliver of a Moon sailed through the western sky at sunset last night, as the Sun prepared to leave emotionally fraught Cancerian waters for bright and playful Leo.

With everything stirred up during the Dark Moon–New Moon time in Cancer, though, relaxing enough to play could be difficult.

The Moon's in Virgo now, ready to serve the needs of others but also anxious. Opposing Chiron and squaring the Jupiter–Ceres–Venus group in Gemini, this Moon looks for reassurance and healing in community.

Our basic understanding of how we deal with stress is the classic flight-or-fight response: Pumped up on adrenaline, we run like hell, or turn and fight.

That pattern expanded to include freezing as another response––the deer-in-the-headlights thing. Researcher/ healing professionals like Peter Levine expand our understanding of what happens in the body when we experience trauma, and how to heal it.

There is another model, documented especially among females in many animal communities, that's relevant to today's Crescent Moon. It's called tend and befriend, developed by Shelley E. Taylor and colleagues and first published in 2000.

The tend and befriend model notes that some animals respond to stress by finding community, making sure the young and vulnerable are cared for, and supporting each other. This pattern seems especially prominent among females and has been related to the hormone oxytocin, which plays a role in much of our affiliative behavior.

These are volatile times, reflected astrologically in the ongoing energy of Pluto squaring Uranus.

Sometimes our responses to stress and trauma are to move into intense emotions like fear and anger, escalate, and polarize––possibilities seen in the Mercury–Uranus trine, and an inconjunct from Mercury to Pluto.

We feel a strong desire to act (Mars opposes Uranus and squares Pluto). We want that action to be dramatic (Sun square Saturn).  Fight or flight.

A pair of overlapping Yods, one pointed right at fiery Mercury with Pluto and Chiron at its base, and the other pointed at Chiron with Mercury and Mars at the base, point to the challenges in expressing our thoughts and feelings without causing more trauma.

Where's the remedy?

The Virgo Moon loves to tend. Are the kids alright? Is anyone hungry? How can I help? Opposing Chiron in Pisces, there's an awareness here of deep emotional and spiritual needs, beyond the day-to-day concerns of Virgo, and a desire to heal.

Jupiter, Ceres and Venus hanging out together in Gemini are squaring this Moon–Chiron opposition, and they love to befriend. Those three, how could they meet a stranger and not find a way to connect?

This Crescent Moon T-square opens our eyes to the sometimes hidden value of getting together with friends. It's not just about having fun. It's about connecting, checking in to find out how people are doing, offering a hug that means more than it seems.

The intensity of this New Moon in Cancer may have knocked us off balance, revealing depths of old emotion we thought already resolved, or pitching us into rough waters in other ways. Now the Moon grows again, and we look for new ways to grow with her.

This Crescent Moon points to something we might miss. When the going gets tough, the tough call their buddies. This is less about circling to wagons to fight something off, than about checking in, tending, affiliating. It's about love, basically, offered in some practical Virgoan ways.


Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ––Dalai Lama
    

New Moon in Cancer: Rolling in the Deep

yep

New Moon in Cancer: July 18-19, 2012

This New Moon arrives in my time zone just after midnight tonight, straddling a waning and waxing day as she straddles a waning and waxing cycle.

Born in the depths of Cancerian waters, this is no quiet wallflower waiting her turn to dance. This New Moon is a blues singer in the spotlight, ringed with smoky darkness. All eyes on her, she sings her heart out.

So, sure, Adele's Rolling in the Deep is overplayed and much parodied. But listen to that lyric again, with ears tuned to the Uranus–Pluto square triggered again by Mars in Libra. Listen with an awareness of Mercury retrograde in Leo, sextiling Libran Mars as together they form a Yod to Chiron.

This New Moon brings intense tenderness. We might feel lots of past hurt, present hurt, the hurt of the world, the hurt of the ages. Do we drown in it? Or find the fire hidden in the water, reaching for the fever pitch that brings us out the dark?

Cancer is emotional, guarded and a cardinal sign. The New Moon in Cancer is not about to sit still; she's taking action. The lady might sing the blues, but she's no one's fool. Blues music is about roots, loving and hurting, scars and moving on, about life.

Squaring Saturn, this New Moon knows about consequences––the ones that come from what we do, and the ones that come from what we fail to do.

Together, the New Moon and Saturn are sesquiquadrate Chiron, a Finger of the World; again, the wounded healer steps forward, inviting us to create beauty from the inevitable messes of this world.

Chiron squares the Jupiter–Ceres conjunction hanging out with the Moon's South Node and Venus, and together they form sesquiquadrates back to Saturn, another Finger of the World.

We're looped back to matters of the heart, and of the past, shown where we're wounded, and pushed to do something about it.

Where is it time to turn a corner in our emotional lives? Where are we stuck in old patterns––family patterns, ancestral ones, life patterns, relationships––that beg for transformation? Look to where this New Moon falls in your birth chart for clues.

The last New Moon in bright, agile Gemini showed us where to press the reset button in our thoughts. This Cancerian New Moon offers no quick fixes. This New Moon is about feelings, those dark waters we'd rather rise above.

Emotions don't go away when we ignore, resist, explain away, meditate through, repress, or intellectualize them. They go into the body––our body––and stay until they're acknowledged. Emotions want to be felt, and then ... move. Deep feelings don't like to be stuck any more than we do. It's about allowing, processing, letting go. Can we do it?

This New Moon forms creative quintiles with Mars, while Leonine Mercury quintiles Saturn. With these patterns, our emotions can move, take form, and find passionate expression. We can flow with this energy and turn sorrow into treasure gold.

Don't underestimate the things that I will do.
    

Balsamic Moon: Release on the Exhale

Somali woman

Balsamic Moon in Gemini: July 15, 2012

The Balsamic Moon arrives in about twelve hours, just after midnight EDT. This Gemini Moon, nestled among the big Gemini group, has much to tell us about letting go.

This won't be easy, but it's time. Inhale, bringing to mind every idea, concept, thought, meme, phrase, stereotype, and image that no longer serves you. On the exhale, let them go. Repeat as needed.

The Balsamic Moon, at 8 Gemini, it conjunct Ceres, Jupiter, Virgo, and the South Node. This party in mutable Air sparks with energy and connections focused on the feminine, women, girls, mothers, goddesses, nurturing, the Great Mother, the past, ancestors, traditions.

Where have we come from? What images and ideas of women, girls, mothers and mothering did we absorb in our earliest years?

In that heady, unconscious, powerful mix, what is highlighted for us now? What is worth keeping, and what needs to be reforged?

In my morning dream, a father and an autistic baby are in a house. I am with them, in some kind of care-taking role. I answer a loud knock on the door to see a very large, angry woman in a wheelchair with two weedy-looking men. They seem dangerous. I am alarmed.

Kali

She rises up out of the chair, which she no longer needs, and demands the baby, forcing her way in. The father is ineffectual and clueless. I run for help. The woman and henchmen chase me.

Terrified and determined, I run inside an open door to find myself in a building full of steep stairs painted dark red. I run to the basement, staying away from windows so they can't find me. I still need help for the baby. EOD

Yep, I've got my own thoughts and images of the feminine to sort out. It's an interesting process.

lineage

This Balsamic Moon is a half-square away from the Sun in Cancer, bringing light to the feminine. Squared by Neptune and Chiron, inconjunct Pluto, a square and a half from Saturn, the whole Gemini group is under a lot of pressure to change.

Sextile Uranus, sextile Mercury and trine Mars, in this moment, change can happen swiftly, unexpectedly and completely. Uranus and Mercury are both retrograde with this Moon (Merc turns tonight), and both in Fire.

With this Balsamic Moon, eureka moments can arrive with a suddenness and clarity that take our breath away. These are good days to expect the unexpected, and open to experiences of surprise, intuition, and new influence. Time for minds to open.
    

Fire Dance: Mercury and Uranus

the heart of the fire

On the Way to the Balsamic Moon, Some Retrogrades ... 

The Moon is waning, hard to find because she's smaller and rising closer and closer to dawn.

She's also just entered Taurus––earthy, sensuous, practical and stable, which is a good thing, since the next few days offer some interesting sky changes.

"There is a Chinese curse which says 'May he live in interesting times.' Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history."

––Robert Kennedy, Cape Town, 1966

There's no clear reference showing that living in interesting times actually is a Chinese curse. What's intriguing about this quote, often requoted today (I've been saying it myself), is that Kennedy made it popular in the years we're now revisiting astrologically: Then, Uranus and Pluto were conjunct, now they're squaring off.

As we move toward the shadowy time of the Balsamic Moon, two events will grab our attention. Uranus turns retrograde early tomorrow morning and Mercury turns retrograde late Saturday evening (both EDT). Both planets are in Fire, Uranus doing his slow burn through Aries and Mercury blazing through passionate Leo.

Uranus turns retro

Uranus, like the other outer planets, spends a fair amount of time retrograde. His turning emphasizes his presence, and allows him to revisit the early degrees of Aries. He'll move back to 4 Aries, and turn direct again in mid December.

Retrograde planets focus energy inward, suggesting we'll experience inner revolutions and upheavals. At the same time, Uranus is widely opposite Mars, widely trine Mercury, and square Pluto right now––a whole lotta energy packed into one pattern, with the potential for explosive action.

Uranus brings the shock of the new, and this morning we're reading reports of a new moon discovered for Pluto. Offering exciting new information on how complex Pluto's system really is (presence of Uranus) and alerting scientists that exploring Pluto will be riskier than expected (square aspect), this discovery brings Pluto into the public eye.

Mercury goes retrograde Saturday night, suggesting the weekend might not go exactly as planned. Quelle surprise. With Mercury retrogrades, looking for the silver lining is vital. Mercury in Leo, the sign of the heart, of the Sun, of our core self, invites us to explore our inner creative fire.

What lights us up, sustains us, keeps us going? If you've been looking for your bliss, in Joseph Campbell's phrase for the thing that points us at the right doors and then opens them for us, this is the time to connect. Uranus pushes us to become who we truly are, no matter how oddball that looks to the outside world, and Mercury in Leo connects mind and heart with passion.

first Mercury–Uranus trine

These two planets dancing in Fire will trine each other twice this summer, on July 25 and August 18. Retrogrades are about inner experience, yet the power of these fiery energies could lead to public eruptions––creative, passionate, revolutionary, and possibly angry, disruptive, and destructive.

Anything in our charts in early Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) will be powerfully affected. Planets and points in early cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) will have their toes in the fire. Stuff in the early fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) will feel the energy through the connection to Mercury.

OK, anything in early degrees catches some heat from these two. Since Pluto and Mars are part of this dance, and with lots of everybody else hanging out in the early degrees of other signs, we'll all just party down with this energy.

Traditional astro advice for Mercury retrograde is to move slowly and don't start new stuff. During this particular Mercury retrograde, we'll want to pay attention to that advice, especially if what we want to start is an explosion.

At the same time, the coming weeks are likely to bring inner conflicts, turmoils, passions, creative drives, desires, and rages into the sharp focus.

While the Moon wanes, let the passions getting in your way burn themselves out. This is release time; we need to use it.

The New Moon in Cancer of July 19 will invite us to connect deeply with our emotional core. Clear directions for creativity, desire, and personal expression will help manifest our dreams.

These weeks seem likely to be a rocky, fiery ride––passions are, after all, things we feel strongly about and modern culture mostly expects us to sit on our emotions. At the same time, this double retrograde offers an opportunity to connect with "the brain in the heart." If we come out on the other side with a clearer vision of the bliss we want to follow, it will be awesome.
   

Last Quarter Moon: Creating Congruence

confluent congruence

Last Quarter Moon in Aries: July 10, 2012

Tomorrow's Last Quarter Moon, in mid-Aries, sits in a complex of T-squares and Fingers of the World patterns that weave together squares, oppositions, and squares-and-a-half in web almost too intricate to be described. Yes, these are challenging angles––we live in challenging times.

Before reaching her square with the Sun that creates the Last Quarter, the Aries Moon will trine the North Node pointing to our life path, conjunct on-fire revolutionary Uranus, and trine Mercury in passionate, expressive Leo.

These are days for speaking up, speaking out, and making a splash. These are days for realizing who we are and doing something about it.

The Last Quarter Moon chart includes three T-squares and three Fingers of the World. Looking at those repeating triangles reminded me of geometry and congruence––when shapes can be shifted around and the overlap is exact, they are congruent.

So even though these aspect patterns include different planets and points, they have key similarities. They are congruent.

They are, of course, congruent and pushy, congruent and challenging, possibly congruent and downright unpleasant, since they are squares, oppositions and sesquiquadrates.

In this waning Moon, as we turn the corner into the release work before the next New Moon, the pushiness is, I think, the point.

Where are we not congruent? Where are our inner values not being expressed in our outer life? Where are we not walking our talk?

Where are we not congruent with the world, perhaps because our model of how things work no longer fits the events happening around us? Where is something we've always believed true, just not working any more?

Those are the places our attention is focused. Those are the places where a new dynamic balance is called for.

Of course, we'll have places where we are congruent, where who we are, what we believe, and what we experience, lines up. Those places might feel energized at this Moon, and we could feel called to express ourselves more clearly, more passionately, more vitally.

This vigorous, no-nonsense Last Quarter Moon is not about to back down. Better get ready!
   

Disseminating Moon: In the Whirlwind

seeds to the wind

Disseminating Moon in Pisces: July 7, 2012

The Full Moon has passed and the world is changed. It'll be a while before all the changes shake out and we settle into what they are, but something seismic shifted.

This was the Capricorn Full Moon, ruled by Saturn, Lord  of Matter, and we heard that the god particle (originally meant to be the goddam particle), the boson that brings matter to our universe has been found.

This might not seem relevant to daily life, especially in a summer bringing intense heat, drought, and fires to some, and torrential rain and floods to others. Yet working to understand the fabric of the universe leads us toward understanding life, and our lives. This was illuminated at the Full Moon.

Now the Moon is waning, bits of her full roundness disappearing as she shares herself with the world. What reached fruition at the Full Moon is now disseminated, like a ripe seedhead scattering its fruits to the wind.

At this Disseminating Moon, the Moon is at 0 Pisces, conjunct Neptune and Chiron, and sesquiquadrate (a square and a half) the Sun in the middle of Cancer. Sun and Moon in difficult aspect in Water, with Neptune the illusionist (or visionary) and Chiron the wounded (or healer) right there.

Looking at the challenges cropping up in our personal lives, as well as in the world around us, it would be easy to collapse into feelings of fear, anger, stress and being overwhelmed.

There's plenty of overwhelm around. The Disseminating Moon chart includes two complex T-squares, two Fingers of the World patterns, and two Yods––the skies echoing the feeling that things are coming to a point, cannot continue as they are, and something, somewhere will tip us into something else entirely.

We're surrounded also by energies supporting, urging––ok, sometimes it feels like forcing––our transformation. All of the powerful outer planets are included in the T-squares and Pluto is at the apex of one Yod. There's a cosmic dance happening, and we've got our ticket.

The real question is, can we keep up? Is the pace more than we can stand, the needs greater than we can bear?

In answering those questions, it's worth noting that the "answer" to the Yod pointed at Pluto is the Sun in Cancer, who sits beneath that triangle––the Sun at home, nurturing, feeding, supporting, and maintaining vital traditions. One of the Finger of the World patterns points at the Cancer Sun too, emphasizing that Cancerian homeplace.

It's worth noting that the other Yod points at Mercury in Leo, inviting us to speak from the heart, to explore and share our passions in creative and playful ways. The other Finger of the World points at Saturn, the manifester, ready to work hard to make things happen.

The answers to our challenges are not out of this world. They are within each of us, when we act in alignment with what is best in us, and when we respond to what is best in others and in the world.

Yes, change is here, and change is needed. If the seeds we disseminate are the best we can offer, the growth that comes will answer the needs.
    

Full Moon: Burning Bright

Tiger, Singapore

Full Moon in Capricorn:
July 3, 2012

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

–– William Blake

The Full Moon in Capricorn arrives on the afternoon of July 3 (EDT), and is a Moon to conjure with. The sky is filled with patterns: two T-squares, two Yods, a Finger of the World, a Grand Trine in Fire that is also a Kite. Fearful symmetry indeed!

Full Moons illuminate. Capricorn looks at our work––how we work, with what effort, dedication, patience, ferocity and smarts. Who are we in the world? What have we achieved? Capricorn wants results, not excuses.

This Full Moon is conjunct Pluto, so the questions run deep. Pluto wants power, control and strong foundations. Ultimately, Pluto wants right livelihood. Are we doing what we're made for, what we came for, what we're meant to be doing?

The Capricorn Full Moon conjunct Pluto isn't interested in shilly-shallying, doesn't care if the file got lost, or the dog ate your homework.

The Sun in Cancer cares, though. The Sun reminds us that who we are in the world rests on who we are at home. This Full Moon will also shed some light on our secure base, our ability to take care of ourselves, and our stability.

Uranus in Aries squares the Full Moon and doesn't care about any of that stuff. Uranus knows what's not working and is ready to change it, yesterday if possible. Why be concerned about worldly achievement or secure homes when the game is reinventing itself?

As with the lunar phases leading up to this Full Moon, we're in a time when the global and the public intersect with the personal and the private. In fact, this Full Moon may shine light on exactly those places in our lives.

Meanwhile, the second and very complex T-square involves the Nodes of the Moon in Sagittarius and Gemini, plus all the Gemini planets clustered around the South Node (Jupiter, Ceres and Venus), being squared by Neptune and Chiron.

Both Capricorn and Cancer, the opposing signs of the Full Moon, value the tradition. The big Gemini group clustered around the South Node invites us to look at the past in new ways. Whether those new perspectives are enlightening and healing, or deceptive and wounding, depends on where we are in relation to these planetary energies.

Interestingly, Saturn, ruler of this Full Moon, forms sesquiquadrates to Chiron and Venus, who square each other. This Finger of the World pattern points to the need for balance, responsibility, creativity, and action in the world to solve the problems presenting themselves.

The call for creative action is sounded again in a pair of Yods, one pointing at the Moon–Pluto conjunction with Venus and Mercury at its base, and the other pointing at Mercury with Chiron and Moon–Pluto at its base. Mercury in Leo wants to speak from the heart, in a passionate voice.

At the heart of this Full Moon, there beats a Grand Trine in Fire that connects Mercury, the North Node and Uranus. This blaze becomes a kite when sextiles to the Gemini group are added in. Expression is key––this is not a time to sit on our hands, but a time to speak, think, act.

Mars trines the Gemini group and sextiles the North Node from his position at 0 Libra––again, creative and balanced action is supported.

Within the fearful symmetry of this Full Moon we find tremendous energy, possibilities for insight, and the desire for action.

Look to your birth chart to see where this Full Moon falls. The houses of the Full Moon (where the Sun and Moon appear by transit), and the houses ruled by Capricorn and Cancer, are places through which these energies can flow.

Look also for planets in your chart touched by the Full Moon and its complex patterns, especially anything in the early degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn). Areas if life related to these planets will be in the spotlight at this Full Moon.

Honor the past without accepting it blindly. Examine whether actions align with values. Connect with what energizes and enlivens. Take action. Ride the tiger.