12:17 am  AHST  07/21/2024
    3:17 am    PDT  07/21/2024
    6:17 am    EDT  07/21/2024
   10:17 am   GMT  07/21/2024

This is the second Full Moon in Capricorn in a row, an unusual event, and is occurring at 29˚ of that sign. When events occur at the last degree of any sign, (29˚is called the anaretic degree) this is a critical point in our development. It is a transitional degree and indicates we are at a turning point, and this Full Moon, which exposes the dark of night under its gaze, is especially powerful. During transitional times, we are often faced with additional anxiety and stress with the uncertainty of what lies before us. Often how we navigate transitional times is influenced by our early family structure: upsets, hurts, arguments, abandonment and even violence often would accompany times of stress in a family that did not have the tools to recognize the need for extra care and patience during these difficult crossroads or turning points in life. But transitions are the bread and butter of our ability to grow and change, and a constant reminder that nothing here is permanent. In order to navigate these 29 degree times, we need lots of patience, endurance, and extra self-care.

Why is this 29^th degree so important? The Moon represents The People in a “Mundane chart,” which is a chart that’s read for the influences upon the world at large. These last degrees of Capricorn is where Pluto has been hanging out for the past few years, completing a passage through that sign which started in 2008. Pluto is the planet of transformation, the kind which involves dramatic and drastic changes, endings and the seeds of new beginnings. In the sign of Capricorn, it concerns the structures of our society, governments, laws, and traditions, as well as its collective karma, since Saturn rules karma, and is the ruling planet of Capricorn. When Pluto is in this sign, we the people are obliged to examine the integrity of our governments, since Pluto will bring out and help to expose any compromises to integrity on the part of governments worldwide. But Pluto also rules obsessive impulses, and so many of the people are also in a phase of making an obsession out of what others would consider as “evil”, fetishizing fascism, dictatorships, and weaponry, as we’ve seen in the US with gun worship, and in those politicians who lie and take advantage of the disadvantaged in order to ascend to power. Pluto rules megalomania.

Pluto has finished its course in Capricorn—well almost. It went into Aquarius this year, and will retrograde briefly into 29˚ of Capricorn around Labor Day in the US (interesting coincidence) and remain there throughout the November election in the US, only going forward into Aquarius on November 20^th. This last “finishing up” phase of Pluto’s is giving us an extra “push” for the people to become aware of how far we’ve gone into what is referred to as the “far right” or the worship of “power over” others—the Domination Paradigm. This Full Moon conjoining Pluto in the very first degree of Aquarius is asking us to make the bridge in awareness from what has been, to what could be. From competition, capitalism, patriarchy, and greed, to a mutually beneficial sharing of our increasingly limited resources here on Spaceship Earth. And from petroleum dominated economies to alternative sources of what powers our society.

But first we must comprehend that it’s the end of an era. And the very beginning of a new one. The ending isn’t pretty, as long as the pursuit of wealth dominates our concept of who has the power to decide things. We all suffer from this colonization of our minds, from “I can’t afford to…” to “If I were rich I’d…”. This is actually at its deep root a spiritual calling for humanity. To look at our values and see that, just as the Sun now in Cancer values nurturance as its primary goal, we cannot sustain life that is against the intrinsic design of Nature. We are like children who have yet to learn to cooperate and share our toys, our resources with each other. Other life forms, such as trees, and animals know how to do this.

The conjunction of Mars and Uranus, the import of which was discussed in my last posting, has moved on, as Mars has just moved into Gemini. Now the planet of action has moved into the sphere of thoughts and ideas, joining Jupiter in that sign. Mars is exactly trine (making a harmonious, supportive angle of 120˚) to Pluto in Aquarius. This is asking us to focus our thoughts toward the ideals of Pluto in Aquarius: to remember that we need to learn what it is to live according to these new ideals, the advancement of the rights of individuals, as well as the rights of trees, rivers, lakes, animals, etc. and the Earth. Our understanding of who and what we are will change under Pluto’s coming 20 year passage in Aquarius. What we do to others, we do to ourselves, and it’s not just a philosophy, but a physicalization of what has been called karma, which is simply that all our choices stay with us and have an affect upon our lives, for good or not.

Fundamentally, the chart shows us we are at the razor’s edge of needing to change our thinking and our philosophies about who we are, how we live, and the nature of reality itself.¹ Pluto in Aquarius will show us where the imbalances are in our world, but first as it backs into Capricorn for a few months, it will show us how well or how poorly we’ve integrated the lessons shown quite dramatically to us about the nature of corruption and the rising of fascism worldwide. Pluto’s call for change is unavoidable and inexorable. How we navigate those changes is up to us.

Neptune is also hanging at its 29^th degree of Pisces, the sign of the imagination, which it rules. Only once every 164 years is Neptune in its own sign, (it was last there in 1847-62) and this always heralds a change in our spiritual awareness on a global level. Neptune began this current Piscean journey to its depths in 2011 where it first conjoined with Chiron (the wounded healer), beginning our descent into uncovering the nature of our collective wounds. I see this as a global feeling of disillusionment and depression, as we learn to understand how deeply slavery, war, and corruption have been integral to our ways of living together on the planet. Neptune will enter the sign of Aries in March of 2025. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, an epic, sea-change beginning for Neptune, where we can begin to see putting our visions (Neptune) of a better world into decisive action (Aries). This influence will begin to implement important social changes, and initiate a dissolving of materialistic values that have previously ruled (and ruined) our planet. But, more on this later.

¹ Astrologically, Mercury is in a powerful YOD aspect to Moon/Pluto and Neptune, which is about fine-tuning our mental/perceptive faculties..