A Spacey and Spiritual Full Moon

Saturday's Full Moon in Pisces is of great interest due to the difficult-to-define outer planet Neptune, which is conjuncted by the Moon at the time of exact, bringing a direct and palpable presence to us of this numinous astrological symbol. This happens at nearly noon on the USA West Coast and 3 hours later in EDT, more of course if further east, to the next day in Australia and New Zealand. Neptune is not an easy energy to grasp. Like the Water element with which it is associated, it defies form and limitations of all kinds, flowing into the spaces where it feels the calling to enter. Neptune symbolizes other-dimensionality, what is beyond the physical, and as well, the natural compassion that comes when we recognize all men and women to be the substance of our own bodies. In this way of seeing, there is no differentiation; all is One. Because we must concurrently exist in the real world of ego-involvement, to come to peace with the Neptunian archetype is to embrace the paradox of our human existence. We are individual, unalterably separated from our fellow humans, and from God/Nature/Universe; and yet, simultaneously, we are at one with all creation. It was in praise of this undefinable Tao of existence that translator Witter Bynner wrote these words, corresponding to the eighth verse of the Tao Te Ching, the classic Way of Life representing ancient Chinese wisdom:

Man at his best, like water,
Serves as he goes along:
Like water seeks his own level,
The common level of life.
Loves living close to the earth,
Living down clear in his heart,
...
And for blocking no one's way
No one blames him.

This Full Moon also has Jupiter, in early Virgo and thus in opposition to Neptune, nearby to the opposing Sun. Over the next two weeks, Jupiter moves ever closer to being exactly opposite this spiritual and spacey energy, ensuring that we will partake of a very powerful dose of Neptune over this timeframe, easing into the next New Moon, of September 12th, which is also a Solar Eclipse. Jupiter additionally aspects trickster Uranus, alchemically combining the intuitive creativity of these two powerful outer planets. Uranus was aspected by the Leo New Moon from two weeks past that began the current cycle. The effect of Jupiter is to provide an expansive influence, and one that is in perfect chime with the numinousity symbolized by Neptune. These two planets are in fact the co-rulers of the sign of Pisces. We are therefore particularly drawn to this energy, representing inner realms of unconscious process, as symbolized by Neptune, Pisces and the 12th house, referring to the unseen and largely unknown underside of our personality.

In the timing of this Full Moon as well, Mars and Venus are close together in mid-Leo, just as Venus is coming out of retrograde. Venus, stationing direct on September 6th, moves only one degree back and forth between now and the eclipse two weeks later. These personal planets are in a quincunx, or inconjunct, aspect with transformative Pluto, so that all three outer planets, plus Eris, are invoked by this Full Moon. Seminal 20th Century astrologer Dane Rudhyar famously called the three then-known outer planets "the Ambassadors of the Galaxy." With this intense emphasis, we are caught up in our fated mandate for growth and change, inescapably bound; and yet, at the same time rising to our joyful destiny.

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are worth noting. They are, for the Sun, in the seventh degree of Virgo, "A harem," which Marc Edmund Jones feels is emblematic of "the withdrawal from reality in one aspect as a means for regrasping it in another." He goes on to say, "Implicit in this static symbolism is the necessity for using any fellowship in lesser values as a self-strengthening, in a definite and renewed struggle, towards the greater." For the Moon we have "A cross lying on rocks." This again provides a contrast between the merely substantial material world and the spiritual values of that which lies beyond the physical. Jones relates this symbol to "the insistent stirring of an inner voice which seeks to quicken the soul to the paramount necessities of its existence." Indeed, we find ourselves residing in two worlds, that of mundane reality, and the World of Spirit inside us. We win when we, as consciously as possible, choose to operate in both of these realms at once, because that is the true nature of our human experience.