This Full Moon occurs just hours apart from one of the most important events of the year, the Winter Solstice (in the Northern hemisphere). For a period of several days, the Sun appears to stay in the same position of its rising and setting in the sky; the Earth’s magnetic field is affected by being reduced in its power, thus creating a doorway for more universal energies to enter our field of awareness. The days start to grow longer, as the Earth moves in its orbit, its North Pole tilting most strongly toward the Sun at the Summer Solstice. 

We are at a doorway moment in our Earth cycle. But it is more than just the shortest day of the year. We are at a doorway moment in history as well. For the first time in our human history, everyone on this Earth together is facing the most dire of circumstances. With 12 years given as the critical time for us to change our ways, and with the political establishment mired in maintaining 20th century values, economics and business models, we are headed most certainly for global disaster should we not make the necessary changes.

And of course, what’s on our minds is, HOW is this going to happen? Yes, we are in need of change, and yet there seems to be only movement backwards! Of course there are many who are working to move us forward, but those who are in power, and who have vast monetary resources are not yet on board. What is to be done?

The clues to our pathways are often provided by astrology, and by other disciplines which rise above the societal and cultural norms and values, which allow us to get a more bird’s eye view of what is possible for our future. In a sense, we look to the heavens for a broader and more hopeful perspective.

In the charts of the Full Moon and Solstice there are some significant alignments, the meanings of which may help guide us to move into this next cycle around the Earth, and give us some vision of ways forward, ways to make a difference.

Full Moons and Solstices have one important thing in common: they are periods of self-reflection. The Full Moon always is a time to stop, look and meditate. Solstices, even more so. There are many, many rituals that have been observed throughout the centuries by peoples across the globe that occur at the time of greatest darkness, as well as of greatest reflected light, and both are happening simultaneously  this year. This co-incidence of Full Moon and Solstice will not occur again until 2029. (And not until 2039 will a lunar event occur at Summer Solstice, which will be a New Moon.)

Mars, the planet which represents the mode of our actions is in Pisces now (see previous  New Moon blog post) and conjoins Chiron. Together they form a T-square to the Sun/Moon opposition (a tension-filled right angle). Symbolically, this tells us that the ways in which we are habituated to moving forward, to making things happen (Mars) is being put on trial, first of all in Pisces, it’s suspended in a Neptunian dreamlike state, and secondly, Chiron’s presence asks us to look at the woundings our actions have done in the past. This is true globally, certainly, as for instance more and more evidence of the horrors of the US military actions come to light, and it is also true on a personal level. We are all being asked to look within ourselves at how we may be “colonizing” others with our actions and beliefs, where we have wounded others by some form of coercion or domination, whether conscious or not.

Then, Mercury, god of our thoughts and reasoning, is conjoined with Jupiter at this juncture. Jupiter symbolizes expansion, but it also rules spirituality, thinking of things not only on a large scale, but also beyond space and time, to the realm of the gods.  So we are being asked to look beyond our standard ways of seeing the world, to expand our consciousness. Mercury’s higher function is to act as a messenger between the material world and the non-material, which is the substrate of our existence. Do we connect daily with Spirit and in so doing, open ourselves, humble ourselves, by asking for assistance? And also through this connection or prayer, aren’t we also healing ourselves and making ourselves available to the designs of healing, to being a force for healing in the world?

The dark polarity of Mercury and Jupiter together is the narcissism and inflation we see so clearly in our President’s manner and in other fascist leaders today. It’s no accident that the policies we’ve been observing in the US for decades have created the kinds of anger, violence and hatred around the world, and that we are responsible. Spreading awareness of our role in the world stage, of how war and prisons have become businesses for profit, is what is necessary to change it. And, too, we personally also must see that the world stage is a mirror of our own individual cultural upbringing, and must work to look within and see where we, each of us, has been culpable for our own narcissistic desires.

In both of these charts, Venus and Neptune are in a harmonious trine (120˚ angle) relationship, which is about finding the higher, deeper aspects of our ability to love. Since we’ve been taught to denigrate the feminine arts of loving, the power of love seems to us to be little more than philosophical advice. Given that we have come from centuries of these material/mental ways of seeing ourselves, we have little awareness of how our energetic body affects change in the world around us. The power of the heart, its magnetic field, its wisdom, is vastly under-used by even the most astute practitioners. We as a race are still in our developmental infancy of knowing what we are capable of energetically, of how we can powerfully affect our world, our day to day environment, our ability to attract and repel certain events and people. The power to love contains the aspects of forgiveness, compassion, understanding, as well as humility, the ability to have clear vision to perceive deception and ugliness (knowing we are not above such activities). Venus trine Neptune at this important juncture tells us this is the timing to investigate possibilities of using this loving power we’d thought were previously impossible. (Venus trines Neptune about twice a year, but this aspect will not repeat at Winter Solstice until 2046, and previously had not happened at Solstice since 1939.)

That the Jupiter/Mercury conjunction is square (90˚) to Neptune tells us to trust our heart-knowledge, rather than the cognitive assessment of our experience (which breeds narcissism). This is difficult to do from our Western perspective. We think about ourselves and our experience, and confuse the Moon with the finger pointing it out.  We believe we are our thoughts, while our direct experience passes us by, and we see ourselves only by looking in the mirror of our self-reflection. Our thoughts will not save us, but connecting with our hearts, which is a present-moment experience, will heal us.

Perhaps we can use this time to know that truly a revolution is about to take place on our planet, but also that this revolution is happening within each of our own psyches. The very ground beneath us is shifting; just as the sea levels are rising, the waters of the unconscious are flooding us with their dictum to awaken to our own ways of how we have mistreated the Earth, and our bodies. The Cancer Full Moon shows us the ways of self-care, Earth-care, finding the ways of love toward those around us, which don’t always look the way we thought they would. The principle of aloha carries this: We are all interdependent upon each other, breathing the same air, and it is love that brings us together, to find we are stronger when we are united in love. This is a time to bless the small as well as the large, the cup of water we drink each day as well as the Spirits and ancestors we can call upon to help us and inspire us to work to save this fragile and magnificent planet of our birth.