Thomas Harriot at Syon Park drawing a map of the
Moon - courtesy of Rita Greer (2009)
The February Full Moon gets as astronomically perfected as it’s going to get at 8:35am (UT/+0) on February 18th.
Astrologically, this Full Moon stands at 29 Leo…and if you’re any fan of astrology, all I have to say to you is that anything in happening at 29 degrees of any sign to make your eyebrows go up!
Okay…panic not! Let’s just chat this through...
Leo is a sign of creativity. And we create because we want to…which is how Leo has come to be known as a sign all about what I want (or like) to do. That doesn’t unfortunately mean that everything we want to do turns out perfectly…! (I know. Big sigh…) But we wanted to do it and…and…and…
…Isn’t it somehow even MORE annoying when it was something you really, really wanted to do and it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to?
Oh, grrrr! Don’t you just hate that?
Okay…so Leo is about creativity – the things we try, and which we would like to think we’re nice about when they don’t pan out (blind dating, anyone?) but which, if truth be told, we tend to whine a bit about…or maybe even more than a bit about…when they don’t go our way.
Full Moon of February 18, 2011
at 3:35am (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel
Part of this whole issue – as a whole – is because Leo is a fire sign. Fire signs imagine and envision. Oh just THINK of how wonderful it could be if…!!!
(I know. It’s that “if” which gets us.)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it yet two million times (gag…two million?) but the ability to see what things could be is great as motivation and deadly as expectation. That’s the whole dotted line distance between happy and unhappy in all fire signs, with none being so hard to wrestle to the finish line about this than Leo.
Why? Because Leo is the fixed fire sign. And take it from me – an astrologer related to Sun sign Leos, an astrologer who habitually has many Sun sign Leo friends…Leo, the sign of ‘I want’ really wants the world to be the way they think it should be.
And bless all that Leo energy – it’s what makes us try. And try again. We don’t quit just because the first blind date was a bust – we go on to find the love of our life. We don’t expect to learn how to play the piano in a day. If one of a group of children turns out to have watched The Bad Seed one too many times, that doesn’t make us give up on the other three kids. Heck – it doesn’t even make many of us us give up on the one kid!
And that’s the beautiful side of Leo. When Leo supports, when Leo looks for and to the possibility, Leo is the breath of summer sunshine, the balm on our hard times, the joy in ‘joy of life.’
It’s just that I expected this to be good and it isn’t! thing which gets us in Leo trouble. And since we all have Leo in our chart – we all have some chance of falling into this pothole from time to time!
Especially now. Any Leo Full Moon (of which there is one, every year!) tends to mark a day (or two) of heightened expectations. Those who can convert this into doing good or being supportive are generally on the high side of this tide. But to those who are going to join the ‘think wonderful and everything IS wonderful’ club - prepare for critique.
Or at least a dash of cold water (and watch out for the squirt guns!).
Or at least a dash of cold water (and watch out for the squirt guns!).
Just to top this event off, this year’s edition of the Leo Full Moon is at no less than twenty-nine degrees of Leo: Leo’s last degree and therefore the moment when Leo is at it’s most “urgent.”
For those who schedule a party for this moment, we hope it goes well. If it does, like as not it’ll go really well! But for many, the feeling of ‘urgency’ which comes with this moment will in disappointment because the natural tendency for their to be an emotional ‘high tide’ at the time of the Full Moon which here is symbolized by the Leo “I want” (perhaps somewhat over-idealized) yearning will put the “bar” above that level which is reasonable to expect will realistically happen.
Remember…a Full Moon is the Moon in full face against the Sun – they stand in opposition. So though the lunar feelings ‘highlight’ the day, in the end the gravity of life wins. What goes up…must come down. Gravity of emotion becomes gravity of the earthy, earthly Newtonian real life kind.
And...those are the basics of this moment.
Beyond the basics lie the modifiers. One is that the critical, 29 Aquarius Sun stands conjunct Chiron. Is what we want actually possible?
Another is how the Moon of this figure stands exactly with Regulus, that famous Royal fixed star which promises success if and where and when we avoid the desire for vengeance and/or retribution.
Beyond that, we have an associated opposition composed of TNO Orcus at 2 Virgo in opposition to Circe at 2 Pisces. And let’s not underestimate the fact that Fomalhaut – another Royal fixed star – stands at 4 Pisces.
To tease this apart gently…all Trans Neptunian Objects (TNOs) represent precepts which we may know of all the time, but which in practical terms aren’t in play on an everyday basis.
As a specific in the many things which we might know but never focus on in everyday life, Orcus represents consequences. Envisioned as the god who greets one’s soul as you pass beyond life, Orcus represents that moment when we realize there is no going back, no chance of ‘unringing’ the bell, no chance of changing things already done or not doing something we did, even if we now realize it was a mistake.
In early Virgo, Orcus summons up all those lists of things we ‘should’ do, be it something simple like getting a check up…or maybe just keeping our mouth shut or being polite…or violating a rule or standard of behavior we knew we were breaking when we did it. Virgo representing all we need to do in life in order to maintain life, it’s not just the exercise or the job or workplace, but everything which keeps our world working – from the sewers to the civil servants, from the military to communication lines, computers and junctions.
With the Sun here in the technological and energy sign of Aquarius, there is in fact some emphasis on ‘what allows life to work,’ and with Orcus in Virgo (within orb to also be in opposition to the Sun) there is certainly good reason to contemplate real consequences to real actions.
With Neptune currently conjunct the Sun on one side, certain aspects of life and beliefs about what life is, should be, has been, could be, might be are dissolving. And while it’s fine to challenge or even bring down something you believe is truly wrong…with Sun/Neptune being a highly idealizing dynamic, the question is whether the realities of need have been thought through.
It’s one thing to say ‘that’s wrong.’ It’s another thing to not have a contingency or replacement plan ready to put into place. You may hate electric light bulbs – but what are you planning on using instead?
It’s one thing to say ‘that’s wrong.’ It’s another thing to not have a contingency or replacement plan ready to put into place. You may hate electric light bulbs – but what are you planning on using instead?
Chiron in this picture underscores a plaintive longing. But is it a fantasy being longed for? With Circe in this picture, we have to wonder whether we are tempted/lured into buying into some fantasy simply because current realities are so hard to think of as what we have to deal with at this moment.
Moon in Leo…we don’t want what reality is, we want what we want reality to be.
So what is your reality?
Considering goings on in the world, I thought it might be interesting to look at this Full Moon against a couple of charts.
First – that of Egypt.
In this chart, the Full Moon is conjunct Regulus and Deucalion, a combination which connotes mandatory morality - or the morality of mandates. This is the Leo end – this is the desire.
On the Aquarius (Sun) end we have Vesta – sacred service conjunct Chaldea and Kalypso. This is the sacred calling (Vesta) to be of service (Vesta) with a lot of work which needs doing (Chaldea) and the need to keep working at trying to be/do better (Chaldea/Vesta) not for your own sake, but for the sake of the greater society (Kalypso/Aquarius).
With both these signatures intercepted across the 5th house/11th house axis (Moon in 11, Sun in 5) there’s an added underscoring to that ‘don’t do just what you want,’ on the solar end which seems very much of the moment, considering Egypt’s long history of less than munificent leadership.
Sun intercepted here in 5 may also indicate a lot of hiding or hidden energies rather than the ‘service’ energetic which would be most positive.
One other note: with Moon in 11th (the house of societal income) this would point to not just the income of the people, but that of the country; not destroying that which provides Egypt with income (and) which is so special about Egypt is hopefully of note. The positive is for people to band together protecting this, the negative is for people to be so self involved as to think only of themselves.
Full Moons always portray a ‘balance’ of forces; keeping things ‘in balance’ is part of every Full Moon question.
How about the Obama Administration?
Here we have the native Moon at 29 Scorpio. Scorpio being the sign of all things emotional, interactive and often contentious, by now it would seem pretty evident that this administration has an emotionally-based relationship with its Congress and its citizenry, plus issues with financing, debt, investment markets and the whole financial panoply of Scorpio fiscal issues. That while the health care bill was going through we actually heard people talking about death panels…that’s plainly a Scorpio emblem. Scorpio is both conception and death (one form of which would be abortion)….so that this is an administration against which anybody would use a term like ‘death panels’ is emblematic of this Moon.
As, frankly, is its prosecution of war.
29 Scorpio is Scorpio at it’s most intense and urgent degree. So what is, is. This is what the administration gets and the ‘currency’ is testy, tense and combative. That Obama himself tends to take a moderate tone is very much the Pallas (wisdom) in opposition to the testiness. If he was more assertive would others back their tones down? Perhaps so – there’s only so much energy; that we don’t own, others own for us. With Kallisto and Byblis conjunct this Moon, the whole matter of ‘terrible subjects no one else wants to talk about’ has been made part of this administration. Byblis – in particular – says that there worst thing this administration can do is attempt to ‘justify’ or buck pass.
While we’re here, simply because it’s such a quirky thing, a comment on a repeated theme in the President’s speeches where he in essence says that he does not believe that America can’t work through its problems and be the nation it purports to be.
Conjunct wisdom (Pallas) as portrayed in the 1st house we have Scylla – an emblem of ‘clinging to’ or stubbornness or perseverance or being ‘stuck in’…PLUS Kassandra, the quintessential ‘I speak the truth but am not believed’ symbol of all time.
The good news: Kassandra always spoke the truth. The bad news: no one believed her until the truth became the truth.
This being an out-of-sign (and element) opposition, Pallas here is pictured as very thoughtful and well spoken, airy and intellectual. Yet the Scorpio Moon is the very hallmark of passion. As many have noted, President Obama is at his best and gets the best reaction when he is calm (airy) in the face of a very emotional (Scorpio) situation, or where he uses the precepts of intellectualism to touch people emotionally.
Considering I didn’t start out to write any of that, (it does sort of happen when one sits down to chat with friends!) along comes this Full Moon, and presto change-o, yeoucheroo…a mere (!!!) awkward administration Pallas/Moon opposition gets turned into a full fledged, bollox-worthy Grand Cross.
One with three positions at 29 degrees, no less.
If the administration plays its ‘cool and thoughtful’ card, appealing to emotions utilizing the positive Leo note, people may be inspired.
Most of all, by the thought that they can work through whatever needs to be done. That, in the end, is one of the great under-sung Aquarian issues: the need to work through the process but not get stuck in the process.
Considering this is in the end, merely a Full Moon, we here come to a turning of the tide. Two, actually - considering that Pandora goes direct about two hours after the Full Moon.
That's a lot of things coming to light!
(And in case you missed it...look back a few posts - we talked about Pandora's station a couple of days ago.)
As with all things, this moment will pass and we will into a next ‘phase’ of development. With Pandora now in direct motion, in the days ahead the inner provocations we have been trying to express and vent will be prompted by external means. Those who remember to be realistic and supportive will hopefully go on...and make great gains.
After all, the last thing in the box Pandora wasn't supposed to open is Hope.
But yes, we have to work to get there.
That's a lot of things coming to light!
(And in case you missed it...look back a few posts - we talked about Pandora's station a couple of days ago.)
As with all things, this moment will pass and we will into a next ‘phase’ of development. With Pandora now in direct motion, in the days ahead the inner provocations we have been trying to express and vent will be prompted by external means. Those who remember to be realistic and supportive will hopefully go on...and make great gains.
After all, the last thing in the box Pandora wasn't supposed to open is Hope.
But yes, we have to work to get there.
Just remember…no matter how big your dream is, life is bigger than anything you can possibly dream up. You may think you know it all – but you don’t!
And the good news there? That means you aren’t responsible for everything which happens.
But you are responsible for what you know - and what you are capable of knowing...and doing.
So yes, the glass is half full – but who among us will actually drink?
But you are responsible for what you know - and what you are capable of knowing...and doing.
The glass half full?
photo credit: Derek Jensen (Dec. 2005)
So yes, the glass is half full – but who among us will actually drink?
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