Full Moon in Gemini: The Union of Opposites

alchemical union

Full Moon in Gemini with Lunar Eclipse
November 28, 2012

Oh, it's been an amazing two weeks, this trip from New Scorpio Moon to Full, solar eclipse to lunar. What was planted in the dark soil of the New Moon will come to light at the Full––except when we're in an eclipse season, all timelines lengthen and we enter a new, much larger cycle.

This is the Full Moon in Gemini, the Moon at 6 Gemini and the Sun at 6 Sagittarius. We're spanning the cosmos, with Gemini breadth and Sagittarian depth. Anything can happen, and all bets are off.

In the ordinary way, this would be a light-hearted Full Moon––Gemini and Sagittarius being the most optimistic of signs, generous, liberal-minded, and looking on the bright side.

Yet the times are challenging, and celebrations reflect this. We might feel the giddy relief of a near-escape, relaxation after having squeaked through something. We might feel deep gratitude at what we have, knowing how chancy this world can be. Optimism, yes, but with an edge, an awareness that it could be otherwise.

Jupiter the philosopher is conjunct this Full Moon, opposing in the Sun in his Sagittarian home. Since the great sage is still retrograde, he brings thoughtfulness and questioning that shift this Moon out of easy, hail-fellow-well-met territory.

And there are challenging aspects a-plenty. The Full Moon is squared by Chiron and Neptune, creating a T-square in the mutable, flexible signs. This also adds visionary depth, an awareness of past wounds, and the potential for healing.

The Chiron–Neptune square connects the Full Moon to the ongoing Grand Water Trine, holding on as Ceres retrogrades away, still within reach. At the Full Moon, Saturn is joined by Venus in Scorpio, a powerful combination that brings us to the alchemical image for this Full Moon: the coniunctio, or sacred marriage.

The culmination of alchemical transformation is this sacred union of opposites, the joining of the male and female.

But (I hear you say) the Sun and Moon are opposite each other when the Moon is Full, not joined. True––this union is one that recognizes the value and uniqueness of each, emphasized in the opposition of the Full Moon.

The coniunctio is sometimes described as the marriage of the red king and white queen, and here we see the Sun in a Fire sign and the Moon in Air.

This is not patriarchal dominance, but a true joining, yin and yang, Shiva and Shakti. Within ourselves, we realize and experience the melding of polarities into a magical one greater than its parts.

This Full Moon is at the apex of a yod filled to the brim with transformative energy: Mars and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn, masculine strength and power, form a sextile with Venus and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio, feminine strength and power, as each pair is inconjunct the Moon.

This uncomfortable set of connections demands resolution, and the answer to a yod lies in what is opposite the apex: In this case, the Sun in Sagittarius. As we embrace our opposites, we are transformed.

The Sun, after all, is catching a fiery trine from Uranus, who pours energy into revolutionary individuation. Uranus is sextiling the Moon, flowing energy both ways.

And now we've brought Uranus into the picture, we see he is forming the base of another yod, in which he and the Moon point at Venus and Saturn. We've looped back around to the melding of masculine and feminine (Venus and Saturn) in alchemical Scorpio. The answer to this yod lies in the sign of Taurus, Venus' sensual and practical daytime home.

As always, look to the house in which the Full Moon falls to see which areas of life are most likely to be illuminate now. Check out any planets in and around 6 degrees, especially those in the early degrees of the mutable signs. Where has change been coming into your life, invited or not? Where have you needed to adjust, or completely remake, your responses? These also are areas affected by the Full Moon.

How can we not be transformed? Surrounded by these energies, the best course is to dive in, go with the flow, follow the muses, and hope for the best. Whatever emerges is bound to be amazing.
    

Gibbous Moon: Citrinitas

golden light

Gibbous Moon in Aries
November 24, 2012

Today's Gibbous Moon, which arrived first thing this morning, shines light on where we are in the alchemical soup. The waxing Moon is brighter in the sky, leading into the Full Moon and lunar eclipse. This eclipse will complete the two-week intensity from eclipse to eclipse we're now in, the last eclipse of this calendar year.

What do we see now we didn't see before?

Alchemy continues to be an apt framework for this magically mysterious Scorpio New Moon cycle. In the ancient system, the next stage is the citrinitas, the yellow or golden stage. New light dawns, the solar light within. Something inside lights up; we see things in new ways.

A few days ago, the Sun moved from Scorpio's depths into the optimistic glow of Sagittarius. Today's Gibbous Moon shows the Sun trining the flames of Uranus in Aries, while sesquiquadrate (a square and a half) the Moon also in Aries. A lot of Fire!

During eclipse times, information flows––messages from the outer world, secrets uncovered, inner realizations are all heightened now. The Fire of this Gibbous Moon pushes us to look at where we are. Is there something we need to embrace? Is there something we need to face up to?

Later alchemical texts often omit the citrinitas, moving directly from black to white to red. Jung, however, associated citrinitas with the archetype of the senex, the wise elder. This Gibbous Moon, our citrinitas, focuses our attention on the senex who in astrology is Saturn.

The Grand Trine in Water still flows. At this Moon, we see Ceres in Cancer trining Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, trining Saturn in Scorpio who now is joined by Venus. Underneath the solar brightness of Sun, Moon and Uranus in Fire, the depths of emotional, ancestral and intuitive knowledge sustains us.

So, another question asked at this time is, how's our relationship with the wise elder, both within and without? Where have we become fixed, sedentary, pedantic, or heavy handed? Or, where are we encountering maturity, wisdom, the voice of experience, the awareness of time ... and are we listening?

If we need an additional reminder (or push) to look at our relationship to wisdom and authority, the asteroid goddesses form another pattern: While Ceres participates in the Grand Water Trine, we see Juno, Athena and Vesta in a T-square.

Juno, who stands for the strength of family bonds and commitments, is in philosophical Sagittarius. She opposes Vesta, keeper of the hearth at the center of each home, in Gemini. Both are squared by Athena, who raises the standard for learning, tradition and the rule of law, now in visionary Pisces.

Each of these three goddesses embodies a certain kind of relating, a way to understand who we are in society (Athena), in our extended family (Juno) and in the center of our homes (Vesta). Venus conjunct Saturn in Scorpio hold up a mirror, asking us to look at our relationships, how we define them, and whether they're working well.

This exploration of alchemy and archetypes might seem esoteric and theoretical. It sounds nicely mysterious, but what does it mean? Here's an example:

I'm living with Saturn in a serious way. My second Saturn return arrives in two weeks, which means, among other things, that my Saturn is in Scorpio and has been receiving aspects from everyone else moving through Scorpio these last weeks.

Living alone for the last several years, I've been working with Pema Chödrön's approach of staying with discomfort to learn from the very things we normally try to ignore. I don't do this every day, mind you, but I do give it a try.

For a variety of reasons, I've been feeling very alone lately. Not lonely, exactly, but alone. I like to think I'm mostly OK with this. I am, after all, introverted and generally happy in my own company. This morning, I realized (while doing my morning tai chi, so, out of nowhere, more or less) that I am most uncomfortable being alone as I fall asleep at night, and as I wake in the morning. This explains, in a new and interesting way, why I often feel compelled to get online first thing in the morning, even when I know I have other priorities and Facebook is a great evaporator of time.

Not an earth-shattering insight, and perhaps even a "duh" moment––but it tells me something about myself I didn't know before, that illuminates my behavior and opens a space for change. This is about my relationship to Saturn as senex, the hermit living alone. For what it's worth, I'm here blogging this morning, but haven't yet checked any of my other online accounts.

The Full Moon is on her way. Illuminations now, major or minor, comfortable or un, help us prepare for the greater illumination to come.
    

First Quarter Moon: A Light Appears

golden seams: mending cracks with gold

First Quarter Moon in Aquarius
November 20, 2012

The rich symbolism of alchemy weaves itself through the sky patterns of this Scorpio New Moon cycle. With the First Quarter Moon, the challenge in square between the Moon and Sun, we move from the total darkness of the nigredo into the light of albedo; literally, from darkness into light.

The Moon shines in the sky again, and the sea changes wrought in this powerful cycle begin to show themselves. The work is only beginning––this is, after all, a challenging phase, and we are in the stubborn arena of the fixed signs. Yet transformation is in the air, the water, the earth around us. We can't escape, so we might as well dive in.

The albedo is the stage of washing, of purification. The seven metals of alchemy correspond to the seven planets of classical times, so as we purify alchemical metals, we also purify the planets and their energies. Psychologically, we cleanse ourselves, our souls, the doors of our perceptions.

The Sun is in magical Scorpio, still conjunct the North Node path of destiny and Mercury now retrograded back into Scorpio: Illumination of the inner journey.

The Moon is in visionary Aquarius, conjunct Neptune and Chiron, challenging the inward focus of Scorpio: What are the community-wide, indeed, cosmos-wide implications of my personal journey?

Meanwhile, The Grand Trine in Water still holds sway, emphasized by the presence of the Moon and the square from the Sun. Saturn, Ceres, Neptune and Chiron in trine, conjunct the Moon and challenged by the Sun. It's not enough to achieve personal insights. What are we doing with what we've seen? Are we changing ourselves? Are we changing our world?

You know, we look at these charts as transit charts, about what's happening in the sky right now and how it affects us. I keep thinking about these as possible (actual, for someone) birth charts: Children born during this time will find some amazing pathways of transformation, I'm thinking, in ways we can't possibly imagine now.

In Jungian psychology, the albedo is associated with how we relate to our inner masculine and feminine, the animus and anima. As we purify each planet, its energies are enlivened and focused––and here is Venus in Libra, where she rules, in a tight trine to the Moon, which draws her also into the Grand Water Trine.

Mars is in the fire, as he continues to move into conjunction with Pluto, and into a square with Uranus. Marie-Louise von Franz relates this cleansing of planetary energies with the withdrawing of projections:

When we see others as the cause of our own aggression, or errors of action, Mars has fallen and needs repair. When we locate our troubles with love, affection, relationship or creativity in the faults of others, or of the world, Venus is in trouble and needs help. At this First Quarter Moon, these two are well placed to transform, if we can align with the energies in that way.

Jupiter remains retrograde in Gemini, continuing to invite us to reexamine our philosophies, to question what we thought we knew for sure. At this First Quarter, he is sesquiquadrate Venus, the challenging square-and-a-half that puts pressure on her to reflect on all Venusian things.

And so, we have more light now. The light shows us where work is needed––and what we can become, if we let go of everything in our way. In this waxing half of this Scorpio Moon cycle, we are growing our selves. Now we can see what shape, color, sound, texture that self might grow into, what the glorious butterfly will look like, if we can just stick with the process of change.

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." ––Leonard Cohen