...

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

A 14 Taurus Full Moon


'Die Heuernte' by Ford Madox Brown (1855)
 
The November Full Moon is about to grace Earth’s skies. The time of this event will be at 10:24 in the evening of November 6th (UT/+0 time), which means that for many of us this Full Moon will actually be occurring on the 7th.

But wherever we are, it’s at the same degree: 14 Taurus, a degree which in the most basic of terms is defined as being evocative, feeling and yet ever so simply practical and pragmatic by nature - sometimes positively, and sometimes not so joyously. Sometimes displaying loner tendencies and sometimes manifesting as gregarious, 14 Taurus seems to be much about our own sensibilities about where and how we’re going to be most comfortably secure - either in general or with respect to some situation or effort of the moment. Hardly known to be as stubborn as some degrees of Taurus, 14 Taurus generally displays the willingness to discuss things against a marked ability to own our own opinions as just that - our opinion (no more, no less), which is a very useful thing sometimes.

Further clues as to the point of this unusually flexible Taurean degree come from the Sabian symbol for 14 Taurus: ‘Head covered with a rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves a storm.’  The obvious here being the man’s willingness to ‘brave’ this ‘storm,’ we should ask ourselves what kind of a storm this might be. Is it physical weather? Is he braving the wrack and ruin incurred after a run of bad luck? Is this about some ‘tide of time’ or some family, social, or societal period of upheaval?

Or is this just some inner conflict?

All are possible. In fact, all could be possible - singularly or collectively.

The 14 Taurus Full Moon (glyph chart)
November 6, 2014 - 22:22 (10:22) pm UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

The 14 Taurus Full Moon (text chart)
November 6, 2014 - 22:22 (10:22) pm UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

The ‘cold’ indicated here could also be physical. Then again, this may well be a reference to having to brave going against people who don’t think as you do - a fact made more likely than it might otherwise be by the fact that we are just in the wake of a solar eclipse in a moment when the Gemini eclipse of two-and-a-half years ago is having yet another moment of influence.


In his writing about this image, astrologer Marc Edmund Jones commented on how the man’s very willingness is the key here in that he is plainly willing to take on something which is unknown, implying a maturing of outlook (getting past reluctance in becoming willing to go out and brave that storm) which Jones thinks of as something which needs to happen before a higher or more productive consciousness/outlook can develop.

That’s an image which fits very well with this Full Moon, seeing as it opposes Taurus and Scorpio, which in greater terms is always about the ‘greater group’ or society or world - or maybe just you and your significant other.

The point is, Taurus is personal - and as its polarity,  Scorpio is where we work out where whatever our personal boundaries and values are against the personal boundaries and values of others (or things in this world). Thus the integrity of those boundaries - and the validity of the opinions or motivations which creates those boundaries - is tested.

Or to put it more simply...every polarity in the zodiac has its issues. But Taurus-Scorpio dynamics are  FAMOUS for pitting us not against others, but against a need to take our Self in hand.

And we don’t like that...(not at all)...from which arises all the digging in of Taurus heels and all that Scorpio snarling which can simmer into aggressiveness and even violence.

Fortunately, this is just a Full Moon. So it’s a moment, a day, a latter-part-of-the-week which highlights some facet, some factor in life which however emotional, however startling, however challenging is merely - as they say in parenting - a phase. It’s to enjoy if good, it’s to learn about and from probably no matter what - and after that, it’s time to move on.

Yet considering this Full Moon in particular... and considering how this Full Moon is the first step off the block in the wake of the October 23rd solar eclipse...and how, once we add in a couple of astrological ‘pictures’ included with the Full Moon chart...well, maybe we shouldn’t expect things to be less than intricately complicated.

Good or bad...they’re just likely to be complicated.

Why do I say that?

I say that because of the many and multiple relationships in the following diagram:


Complicated enough for you? And let’s remember - anything we see in a chart is BOTH what is going on around us and what is going on inside our ‘inner world,’ be that your home, family or mind.

That’s the way it works - and why though there are some things we will never control, why we actually have more control than we often think. As they say, life is not what happens to you, life is how you respond to what happens to you.

Yes, I know...it’s that effort thing. Life requires personally employed verbs.

So with regards to the above (that most convolutedly complicated diagram), let’s isolate a couple of facets - starting with one which focuses on Sun and Moon in a way most likely to be an active consideration during this time:


Yes, it’s a t-square - that adorably challenging notion which causes so much mental toe stubbing. T-squares speak to us (each of us as individuals AND the collective Us) asking whether we ‘get it’ that our concerns have greater applications. Whatever we come to a t-square with we are likely to be thinking of very individually...you might say almost possessively.

And that’s all before we get to the fact that in this particular t-square, the ‘t’ (the “hurdle” we have to get past in how we are approaching any given issue, contemplation, situation, effort or relationship)... that ‘t’ is being presented here in the sunny if sometimes sun-blind sign of Leo.

Leo is all about making something of our Self. It’s a natural sign of self-development - and thus pleasure in the achievement, be said accomplishment be athletic, social, financial, or anything else. Leo (and the associated 5th house of the chart) are where we look to see our spirit of fun - what we like and what we like to have fun doing - whether it’s fun for anyone else or not.

Leo is the birthing place of the individuality we need in its polarity sign, Aquarius, as to be part of the Aquarius whole (the group, the company, the society, etc.) requires that we are-or-have something individual which ‘fits’ into said functional process, business, social group, way of living, marketplace, system...OR the breaking apart of or breaking away from same (whatever group).

As for that ‘whether it’s fun for anyone else or not, that’s exactly the part of Leo which Leo depends on (individuality requires being willing to be yourself) as Leo’s engine... and yet too much Leo when in or applied to group doings can often go very wrong. Especially now as we’re starting into the Age of Aquarius there is a tendency - which may yet grow - to isolate or behave overly individual (separatist) manner, along with a tendency for some to believe in the anarchistic approach to changing how the system works.

(Again, this is a phase - it’s just that it’s a phase in a process...the astrological age of Aquarius...which is 2,160 years long and which is likely to be filled with a number of wild swings of various pendulums. To us things may seem like they’ll never end, but they will...they may just never end for us.)

So here we are with this Leo balance to master and the t-square issue of getting past thinking something is only about us - which is something akin to a double helping of the same thing framed slightly differently...and THEN we add in Juno, the emblem of management.

Not control, management. Juno is more about running an ongoing process and dealing with variables than designing how things are going to be done. It’s more about running the household than building the house or going out and slaying any dragons, if you take me.

As for 11 Leo, this is Leo in one of its more creative modes - not Leo at it’s most worldly and deft, suggesting that as this Full Moon comes into formation there will be some ‘managing’ of something which is otherwise not going to (as they say) get the job done.

With the origination point of this Full Moon being that comfort-prone 14 Taurus Moon, Juno’s presence in this Full Moon t-square may be exactly what causes us to take something which we know how to do and can do and cause us to do it. The ‘object’ of this t-square would be the Sun at 14 Scorpio, another degree which is uncharacteristic for its sign as 14 Scorpio isn’t known for much of Scorpio’s well-known (and well-documented - in blood, yet) steeliness.

Oh yes, there still is some of that Scorpio brooding energy quality in this degree...but there is also a recognition of the real and valuable resource which not just inherent in the ability to understand others (though that’s valid, too) but in the ability to use what we understand about others to create a tide of interaction through which resistance can be overcome in favor of actual give and take. Though this energy can seem brutal (it certainly carries strength) it’s honest; those who choose not to deal with it because it’s not ‘nice’ are only being asked to see their lack of realism as to what life is - a combination of light and shadow, good and bad, pain and joy, success and nullification.

And that may well mean that one important fact inherent in this lunar Full Moon tick of the cosmic clock is simply that it’s purpose is to move us or to time our moving from that which is comfortable into that which is less comfortable but more workable.

However: with all three points in this t-square (and both ends of this Full Moon figure) in fixed signs, there are going to be qualities of hesitation plus those ever-popular and always evocative ‘I don’t WANT to’ outcry humans all fall back on from time to time.

At which point, that may be what we have to manage. Maybe so...maybe not.

Plus we’re not done with Juno yet. Just to make things interesting (as if they weren’t already interesting enough), Juno is not only focal in this chart by being squatly positioned at the ‘t’ of the t-square, but it’s also involved in a grand trine of the thoroughly fiery kind.


Fire signifies a vision. The imagination. How things could be. In this case we have two well-known asteroids (Juno and Vesta) in trine with what is arguably our solar system’s most peculiar planet: Uranus. In keeping those peculiarities, the astrological Uranus speaks to ‘breaking with the status quo’ whether that’s breaking a habit, achieving a scientific breakthrough, the idea of a tunneling crew finishing breaking through a mountain.

Uranus indicates a reordering of things. So in trine to management-prone Juno and ‘the cost’ involved in keeping one’s Vesta promises (whether that’s a monetary cost or what it ‘costs’ you to hold yourself to some standard) this is an ongoing (grand trine) effort to change OR disrupt (depending on who you are) something...which either pertains to some ‘vision,’ or which provides the means by which something is changed/altered so that it can become the vision.

That seems like a lot to heap on one Full Moon, but there you are. With Uranus in Aries as there is a ‘weighting’ towards things First Person, whether that pertains to physicality or some need to wrestle decisions, indecision, conflicts, disruptions or conflicting/conflicted aims.

And the dream is still there. Whether or not we are pro or con something, we are still (Juno) managing to (Vesta) hold to some pre-determined notion (image, vision) whether real or imagined - all of which is being brought back to that very same managing (or) managerial Juno which is sitting at the ‘t’ of the Sun-Juno-Moon t-square.

The combination suggests two things. The first version would have the entire Uranus-Vesta-Juno grand trine as some sort of ongoing commitment to change (or change something). The second version would have us trying to manage at least two very different things, whether or not they have any direct connection or influence on each other.

All of which takes us back to that ridiculously complex initial diagram.


To have all these planets (green), fixed stars (blue) and asteroids (white) this closely aligned isn’t all that unusual. What is interesting is to see so many sextiles (green dotted lines on the left side of the diagram) basically linking Sun to Moon in one direction while the other half of the cycle is pretty much linked by semi-sextiles (dotted lines in purple).

Semi-sextiles are tough moments, clashing ideas and ego bruises (purple). Full sextiles (green) are opportunities. The path of opportunities leads through the global and worldly sector, telling us that this Full Moon - and to some extent everything which is on life’s table right now - is far more about how we relate to the world and in the world than about who we are or our more individualistic characteristics.

But it’s natural to be who we are - and the (blue arrow) trine from the 14 Taurus Moon to the North Node (and all its friends) in Libra speaks to an ongoing tendency we all have (and that we need to tap into at the moment) to relate to others in a manner which is consistent with our aims and our past (or cultural conditioning) whether or not we recognize that what we are putting ‘out there’ is what is coming back to us in some fashion, thus allowing us to hone what we do and thus achieve the desired result.

In other words, we don’t ‘change’ them - we change our Self so that they automatically respond to us.

And this is an interesting moment. Looking back to the fuller diagram of this Full Moon we see the Moon in conjunction with Europa and fixed star Menkar, a quantity which speaks to our ability to [Europa] ‘get carried away’ by our efforts to avoid our inner [Menkar] Self, most likely through ongoing or old ‘messages’ which are clouding our ability to know the difference between what we do for-with-to others and how that ends up affecting us.

 
And on the Sun’s side? With the energetics described by Deucalion (fairness), Atropos (endings), and asteroid Maximov (maximums or maximal effects) all ‘fused’ with the Sun while conjunct   Kassandra (a truth we choose to deny) and Lumiere/Venus (the light of approval or acceptance) what we can do and what we will ask ourselves to follow through on may be two very distant and different thoughts.

Yet in the end this is just a moment in time - a Full Moon which asks and points out what’s important to us.

Will we heed that call?
.
.
.

2 comments: