1:39  am  AHST  7/3/2023
  4:39 am    PDT 7/3/2023

  7:39  am    EDT  7/3/2023
  11:39  am   GMT 7/3/2023

This Full Moon is a Supermoon, one of four in a row, and also occurs at a position astronomers call “out of bounds.” When a planet is out of bounds, it is beyond the limits of where the Sun rises, either to the North or the South (~23˚) of the Equator. Astrologically, this means that the energies that the planet governs are kind of out of control, or beyond its limits. And with the Moon we’re talking about our emotions, our moods. So as the Full Moon rises at sunset, you may notice that it’s quite a bit farther South than usual.

A Moon in Capricorn in general has the feeling tone of practicality, and is emotionally distant, as it tries to focus upon the material world and our organizational needs. With the opposition to the Sun and Mercury in Cancer it’s pulling strongly on the kind of reasoning and perceptions that are emotionally based, that are based upon family ties, friendships, and deep feelings of belonging. But with the out of bounds placement, we can go too far into the Capricorn coldness, resisting emotionality and connection, and opting for “keeping busy,” all the while feeling inside an intense mixup of conflicting emotions.

Since a Full Moon is by definition the Sun and Moon opposite at 180˚, both in this chart are at 90˚ angles (called a T-square) to Chiron (and Eris). Squares are about a kind of challenge that involves too much energy, or a tension of energies pulling us in different directions. Chiron’s presence in a chart asks us to address the parts of ourselves, often karmic, that we can’t “fix”. Often these are created by trauma-based or family of origin habits that continue to haunt us or betray us from time to time. But Chiron’s presence isn’t a curse, it’s a calling, to address and become fully conscious of our wounds. That’s when generational or karmic wounds can be reconciled. This Full Moon may have the effect of pointing these issues out to us, often in unconscious ways (i.e., by projection onto or from others around us).

With Neptune having just gone retrograde on June 30^th, these unconscious patterns in our psyche are being activated and we are being asked to pay attention to what comes up, as a way for us to clean up old habits (physical and mental) that no longer serve us. We may find ourselves mentally foggy for these few days until Neptune’s station starts to move, albeit backward from our Earthly viewpoint. Neptune in Pisces isn’t the clearest of directors, and so we must be a kind of spelunker and take the flashlights of awareness into our dark caves of mystery to explore what’s there of value.

And those lights in this case are Mars and Venus, conjoined now in Leo and in a trine (harmonious angle of 120˚) to Chiron (and Eris). So the energy here is about becoming conscious and getting creative with these activated wounds. Sing them, dance them, play with them, write them, express them to trusted friends, draw or paint them, or thrash them out in the garden soil with a hoe or shovel! Use care however, as these two bright lights are also square to Uranus, so stay grounded with the Earth in the midst of your expressive flights.

Eris and Chiron conjoined: Their exact conjunction won’t be until 2025, but every 53 years or so this combination sparks our awareness of our health. The last time was in 1971-72, and before that during the pandemic of 1918. Quite a combination, Chiron the wounded healer and Eris the troublemaker and exposer of artifice in the zodiac. As this conjunction approaches 2025, we’re being asked to pay closer attention to the hidden causes of our illnesses, both physical and mental/spiritual. There are many positive aspects (angles of the planets to each other) of this Full Moon chart, that offer us the creative and constructive means to do this. There is a lack of Air element in this chart, so the best way through is not so much with our thinking and talking, but through our bodies, somatically, as the predominant elements are Earth and Water.

And finally, as I’ve noted before, Pluto is going back over its last degrees of Capricorn, retrograding throughout the rest of this year. Here we’re re-viewing the event of the Pluto Return in the US, and its significant manifestation, the attack on the Capitol Building where the electoral votes for the presidential election were being counted. This attack was greatly disturbing to the psyche of America, as well as to the police officers who responded to the mob, four of which died by suicide within seven months. Pluto’s job is to revisit this time, so as to not forget or downplay what happened, but to realize the seeds of our discontent and to act accordingly, just as personally Pluto puts into our faces that which we’d rather soon forget. Events in the next 6 months will be reflecting to us what the work is that lies before us.