An Emotionally Transformative Cancer Full Moon

Sunday evening's Full Moon continues the theme of revolutionary transformation that has been so present in all of the recent lunations, and gets the New Year off with a bang. Uranus and Pluto remain only two thirds of a degree away from the perfect square that they exhibited last month in mid-December, as they prepare to close once again to exact for one last time in mid-March. In the intervening three months they are never more than a degree away from the perfection of their square. Hence, the radical changes represented by these powerhouse planets remain in the psyche of all of us over this entire period. This Full Moon makes for an especially poignant moment in this lengthy cycle because the Sun, at the 15th degree of Capricorn, conjuncts Pluto while the Moon opposes; jointly they square Uranus in the thirteenth degree of Aries. The Full Moon opposition from mid-Capricorn to mid-Cancer is in perfect orthogonal alignment also with the Moon's nodal axis, at 14-plus of the cardinal signs of Aries and Libra, thus being almost exactly conjunct and opposite Uranus. It's an awesome configuration that astrologers love to write about, and it implies further enlightened awareness regarding the particular personal issues for each one of us, individually, in this new month and year. With so much transformational intensity going on, we might be asking: What in my life needs to be let go, that I am nevertheless holding on to?

It is the same for you and for me, and whether that holding back from our transformational imperative is major or minor; what needs to be let go, if major, might be a relationship or a home, although god forbid, while if minor, might be as simple as a habit of avoiding an exercise program that you know in your heart is important for your continued good health. The question becomes where in your life change wants to happen, and why we are so awfully good at clinging to a dysfunctional arrangement. The same could be said for most of our politicians, although that's another story.

This Full Moon takes place in the sign of Cancer, which speaks to our basic emotional roots, where much of the substance of these questions lies. Another way to think about this issue of letting go is to wonder where in the depths of your psyche do you find the fear or the block that keeps you from experiencing being all that you can be. Chiron in the fourteenth degree of Pisces is trined and sextiled by this Full Moon configuration, as well as by Pluto, and the archetypal symbolism of this powerful planetoid holds some of the answers. Chiron, known to modern humanistic astrology as The Wounded Healer, represents those dark places within us, where we have experienced trauma and where we might yet heal, by acknowledging these regions deep inside that we have walled away from our consciousness. We, all of us, have dysfunctional components of our personality that we would rather not face, that we would prefer to keep hidden away from the sight of even our most private meditations, let alone public scrutiny. And yet, it is only by admitting our deeply wounded areas to a place at the table of general awareness, taking ourselves as we are, whole and fractured, healthy and wounded, recognizing that both points of view are in some way entirely accurate, that we come to greater integration. We thereby escape the burden of the past, and move into light-filled true being.

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are quite interesting in this regard. They are, for the Moon, in the fifteenth degree of Cancer, "A group of people who have partaken of a huge banquet and enjoyed it." Marc Edmund Jones calls this a symbol for "the richness of life, — an effective and smooth demonstration of human competence." We might also note that pleasure has its addictive qualities as well, and that, always, balance is required. For the Sun, in the fifteenth degree of Capricorn, we find a symbol for the fullness of life in the context of illness: "Many toys in the children's ward of a hospital." This could get us thinking about making the best of a difficult situation — bliss will find its way. Jones references "the physical and psychological limitations which come to all humankind without apparent reason," which reminds us once more of Chiron, and the essentially wounded nature of our human condition. It is only by acknowledging the dark places inside us, and in spite of them allowing ourselves the comfort of simple joyousness, that we will be able to move on with our challenges and be truly healed.