An Optimistic and Forward-Looking Last Quarter Moon

Sunday morning's Last Quarter Moon is quite an interesting lunation, for several reasons, including the very nature of this lunar phase. Rudhyar called it a "crisis of consciousness," a time when our mental focus shifts away from the arc of development of the lunar cycle that was launched three weeks ago, with the rather intense Sagittarius New Moon, to the new cycle that will begin one week hence, at the timing of the powerful Capricorn New Moon and Winter Solstice, occurring this year within a few hours of each other. Consequently there is a shift of perception, based in part on the new information that has flooded our brains during the intervening growth spurt. Additionally, a grand trine momentarily exists now between Jupiter, the Sun, and the new planet, Eris, of which more in the following paragraph. Then there is the square between Uranus and Pluto, which has become quite close by the timing of this quarter Moon, just a few minutes of a degree away from exact, perfecting Sunday evening for the West coast, early Monday morning on the East coast and in Europe. We are in for intense times indeed, as marked by this iconic collision between these powerful outer planets that supply the vision and the energy of death and rebirth that signals the passing of one personal era in our lives and the launching of what is distinctly another.

There is currently a strong spiritual directive for transformation, both culturally and personally, as symbolized by Uranus and Pluto in their dynamic aspect that defines our decade. This month is the sixth of seven close encounters between these outer planets that bespeak the onset of massive revolutionary change over this month and the beginning of 2015 that is fast upon us. December is also a time of great optimism and of finding deeper purpose, as indicated by the month-long trine between a slow-moving Jupiter and the planet past Pluto, called Eris, that was only recently discovered and named — in the fall of 2006 — as a 'dwarf' planet. Like Pluto, Eris partakes of what lies beneath the surface layers of one's personality, and speaks to the issue of discovering soul intention. When the Sun in this Last Quarter Moon makes a grand trine with Jupiter and Eris, all in the same degree of compatible Fire signs, you have on offer the perfect cosmic formula for moving forward with a more profound agenda than you normally consider, honoring that mandate that arises from deep inside yourself and that only you can truly fathom.

Mercury is also conjunct the Sun at the quarter Moon, indicating greater conscious understanding and analysis becoming applied to your situation. The simple truth of the matter is that there are goals that you hold very dear, almost without full acknowledgment, that run alongside and yet in a somewhat different direction from the agenda that society and your early conditioning seem to indicate; and yet you discover as you mature that in this direction alone lies the possibility for true happiness, as you come into alignment with that which you cannot not do, that set of tasks which you must ultimately perform in order to come into your fullest sense of who you really are.

With all the depth of the current astrology, it is helpful to gain additional insight from the Sabian Symbols for this grand trine in Fire. For the Sun, in the 23rd degree of Sagittarius, we find "Immigrants entering," a symbol that reflects the optimism implicit in the strongly Jupiterian message of this quarter Moon configuration, also tellingly a large factor in this month's USA headlines. For this symbol, Marc Edmund Jones alludes to what makes for a deep chime with soul intention and meaningful transformation: "opportunity caught and held" ... courage in crossing new frontiers." For Eris, in the 23rd degree of Aries, we find a mysterious symbol whose meaning lies hidden; "A woman, in pastel colors, carrying a heavy and valuable but veiled load." Jones, in a synchronous chime with the inner meaning of this grand trine, has: "This is a symbol of the soul's basic anchorage in the privacy of its own functioning and of the centering of real personality in the elements of its own particular genius." We might also note that the pastel colors are basically happy and optimistic, like the Jupiter factor. This reminds us of our own individual interior process, veiled from our conscious gaze. Then for the Jupiter degree itself, the 23rd of Leo, we have "A bareback rider," which Jones calls "uncompromising courage in the everyday business of living." This powerful symbol, a reflection of the Tarot card called The Sun, beckons us to our higher self, invoking that emblem of Spirit that rides upon our physical body, apart and yet inseparably linked, as we journey forward into wholeness.