Disseminating Moon: In Like a Lion!

Takarabune!

Disseminating Moon in Leo
January 1, 2013

Of course, I first typed "2012" in that header, then had to correct for the new year. Here we are, crossing yet another threshold, stepping through another portal, into what promises to be another amazing journey round the Sun.

Calendar time and astrological time don't always mesh gracefully. Yet on January 1, New Year's Day, we step into the Disseminating Moon––the waning phase after the Full Moon when we share out what we've learned, gained, and come to understand.

Since this is the calendar time of new beginnings, resolutions, and good wishes, it's intriguing that the lunar calendar invites us to put into practice all the things we've learned in this lunar cycle, and by extension, the past year.

The Moon's in passionate, creative, playful Leo, which is wonderful because Leo is feisty, fiery and warm, and we're in Capricorn time. The Sun is just slightly past conjunction with deep, deep Pluto, and Juno and Mercury are likewise in Capricorn. Saturn holds steady to his mutual-reception-sextile with Pluto, increasing the rock-hard, iron-fist qualities of cardinal Earth that Capricorn brings.

We're in deep winter here in southern Indiana, with more snow than Chicago or Boston, which, honestly, just isn't right. The weather's got me thinking about Capricorn, and the qualities that sign represents.

Saturn-ruled Capricorn is often described as the quintessential patriarch, the archetypal Father, authoritarian to the max. Capricorn can definitely wear that suit, and it fits well ... but as an Earth sign, Capricorn also carries feminine, or perhaps we might say, yin, energy.

In woman's garb, Capricorn is the Cailleach, the hag of winter who's bones are hard rock, and who can be pitiless in enforcing the laws of nature. This is the Baba Yaga, whose key question when we show up at her door is, "Are you here of your own free will?"

Which isn't a bad question for New Year's. Are we? Are we, wherever we are in our lives, there of our own free will? What does it mean to even ask that question?

The Moon in Leo knows––the Leo Moon, a square-and-a-half from the Cailleach, knows all about free will, and the absolute necessity of personal creative expression.

Within what is frozen, there is a burning ember waiting to ignite. Within the rock, there is gold. At this turning of the year, what commitments will we make to acknowledge the force of the Cailleach, while reaching with courage for the gold that is ours?

Luckily, help is available. Lots of help, always, actually, but I'm thinking of the Takarabune, the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, whose night this is. Tonight and tomorrow, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, sleep with an image of the ship of these gods under your pillow, and your dreams may show you good fortune to come.

The Leo Moon is squaring the Moon's Nodes, which mark the pathway from the past into the future. A planet squaring the Nodes is said to be a missed step, something we haven't yet done, that may block us from moving forward.

At this Disseminating Moon in Leo, arriving on New Year's Day, we step forward boldly and reach for whatever good luck and good fortune are available to us, carrying these gifts into the coming year with a high heart.
    

Full Moon in Cancer: There's No Place Like Home

home as refuge ...

Full Moon in Cancer
December 28, 2012

Before dawn on Friday, December 28 (EST), the Full Moon in Cancer arrives... which means we're heading into some nights of deep, meaningful dreaming.

Cancer is the Moon's home sign, filled with emotional connection, protectiveness, nurturing, and all traditional values of home and hearth. And since we're living in these amazing times, this Full Moon is also surrounded by transformative energy illuminating questions like: What is home? Where is home? Where do I feel at home?

I'm writing this in the middle of a blizzard that's brought this town and the surrounding counties to a halt. The university and city are closed, only emergency drivers are allowed on the road, and snow is still falling. I am at home, likely to be here through tomorrow at least, and thankful for electricity and internet.  Makes it interesting to be looking at this Full Moon chart.

Let's look at what this Full Moon brings ... At each Full Moon, the Moon and Sun are opposite, looking each other full in the face and paying close attention. This Full Moon happens at 7 Cancer for the Moon and 7 Capricorn for the Sun. Cardinal Water and cardinal Earth, these are two of the most traditional signs of the zodiac.

The Sun is conjunct Pluto, also in Capricorn, and sextile Saturn in Scorpio. Pluto and Saturn remain in mutual reception, residing for now in each other's houses, resonating more deeply than usual. These guys are on the same wavelength, which is one of deep, deep commitment to structure, physical manifestation, and the space-time matrix we inhabit––and also to complete and utter change.

Pluto and Saturn each form inconjuncts to Jupiter who remains retrograde in Gemini––I've written about this yod, this finger of fate, in earlier posts. The fundamental shifts we're experiencing now also call for shifts in our worldview, our philosophy of life.

The Full Moon is aligned with this yod of tectonic, evolutionary change. One of the paradoxes of our manifest world is highlighted for us at this Moon: That change itself is part of life. Our most cherished traditions must change to remain alive. Anything we try to fix in place, forever and ever, becomes dead.

The holders of tradition are strong at this Full Moon––the Moon and Saturn, Cancer and Capricorn––and the wisdom keepers themselves are saying, look, nothing stays the same.

This is not a comfortable place to be.

In some areas of life, we all look for the best kinds of changes. We want to be safer, more secure, more prosperous, happier. We want our children and families to have those things too. We long for a better world, a more peaceful and compassionate one. And yet ... we don't want to give up anything to get there, not really, and we all have something––an idea, a belief, a commitment, something––we do. not. want. to change.

This Full Moon might show us where change is happening anyway.

This edgy relationship we have to "home" is reflected in David Whyte's FB post from this morning. (I love synchronicity.):

Ground
is what lies beneath our feet. It is the place where we already stand; a state of recognition, the place or the circumstances to which we belong whether we wish to or not. It is what holds and supports us, but also what we do not want to be true; it is what challenges us, physically or psychologically, irrespective of our abstract needs. It is the living, underlying foundation that tells us where we are, what season it is and what is about to happen, To come to ground is to find a home in circumstances and to face the truth, no matter how difficult that truth may be; to come to ground is to begin to step into difficulty and through all difficulty…

From the Forthcoming Essay “Ground”
© David Whyte 

So, check where this Full Moon falls in your chart, which houses the Sun and Moon are in, and which planets in your chart are aspected. This will likely point to places in your life where basic assumptions, things assumed to be always true, and what you count on to stay the same, might be shifting.

The intent of this Full Moon is not to leave us homeless or ungrounded. Instead, it's meant to show us that this life is more ark than fortress, more journey than staying put. We carry "home" with us wherever we go. Change is growth is life.
     

Gibbous Moon: Welcoming Transformation

the Capricorn Sun?

Gibbous Moon in Taurus
December 24, 2012

A few days ago, I wrote about getting in touch with our birth charts, finding where the growth points are, and learning which transits of planets through signs are likely to affect us the most.

This learning process is a great reason to follow the Moon, who some astrologers slight because she changes so quickly––we live in the moments of those quick changes, and our experiences are right there for us to feel and relate to.

Christmas Eve brings the Gibbous Moon, the square-and-a-half between the Sun and Moon. This sesquiquadrate is an edgy aspect pattern, and the Gibbous Moon is often a challenge before we reach the illumination of the Full Moon.

This Gibbous Moon certainly carries its share of challenge: The Sun in hard-driving Capricorn is squaring revolutionary Uranus, a classic encounter between an immovable object and an irresistible force. We could feel really pushed today, pushed hard.

But me, I feel happy. In the spirit of Christmas and the mysteries of the Moon, I'll tell you why. The Moon is our mama, and we all know if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy––under these aspects, my Moon is happy.

Here's how it works for me, as an example, and to encourage you to get to know your Moon mama better: My Moon is in Virgo; at 0 degrees of Virgo, in fact, which makes her anxious. Then, looming over my Moon is my natal Pluto, and together they're right at my Ascendant.

Astrologers out there are already saying "ouch" and for everyone else, this means I often feel insecure, anxious, inept, and so on ... and yes, I know many people who know me won't believe that. I also have Leo rising, who puts up a good front, but believe me, my Moon can be a jumpy, unhappy place.

... Except when the transiting Moon's in Taurus, which (for several astrological reasons) feels wonderful to me.

With a Taurus Moon, I feel content, peaceful, blissed out. I feel the wonderfulness of the world, its abundance, its myriad marvels.

When the Sun's in Capricorn, trining my anxious Moon, I feel more capable, more powerful, more energized. This is how it works for me.

It's not all sweetness and light in the sky or my birth chart: That same Capricorn Sun strengthening my Virgo Moon every Winter's Solstice also squares my Libra Sun.

This year's Gibbous Moon brings my Sun front and center into a T-square with the Sun and Uranus, telling me in a very pointed way to revolutionize my life. I'm working on it, I promise (I keep muttering this...).

Still, my Moon mama is happy. It all looks possible, and doesn't need to happen today, no matter how pushy Uranus gets.

It will happen, though: The Capricorn Sun is moving toward conjunction with transformative Pluto, who holds to his sextile with Saturn, they're still in mutual reception, and still forming a yod with Jupiter. The phoenix is about to flame up, to rise again.

My absolutely favorite tale from this time of year is Dicken's A Christmas Carol, a story I feel a deep, abiding connection to. The Capricorn Sun can be a real Scrooge––a grasping, squeezing, covetous old sinner. This energy embodies everything we like least about a season that gets commercialized, overspent, overstuffed, and still somehow never enough.

On the night of this Gibbous Moon, Christmas Eve, Capricornian Scrooge will go through the fire, encountering (with the help of Pluto and Saturn) the dark side of his greed and lack of compassion. We all have this chance to be remade, we're all invited to walk abroad with the spirits.

When the transiting Moon's in Taurus, I am confident in the redemptive powers of insight and compassion. Here, have something heartening and sweet for your journey. It could be a long night, I know it will be a magical one, and we'll awaken to a wonderfully magical birth.