A Full Moon of Cosmic Enticement

Wednesday's Gemini Full Moon is conjunct Saturn and Mercury, and also makes a T-square to numinous Neptune, with the Sun and Moon being in square with this magical presence residing in early Pisces. This signals a thoughtful time of great moment, as we slide into December a week away, and on to the ending of a totally climactic year. In this intense lunation, highlighting Saturn and Neptune in exact square, their collision contributes greatly to the tenor of these times, active through the ending of this year and also for much of the next. We all might be able to acknowledge that 2015 has been a year of massive change and startling realizations, both individually and collectively; a year of major revolutionary transformation, as represented by the Uranus-Pluto square that is equally in motion with the advent of this complex and astrologically active holiday and Winter Solstice transition timing. We are enjoined by our angel guidance — and by the active presence of our Higher Self within us — to come forward and be counted alongside those others who feel the same particular way about where things need to be going in these urgent times, with the future health of our society and even our planet on the line.

Saturn and Neptune, now in almost precise dynamic connection, perfecting later in the week (on Thanksgiving morning here in the USA) jointly signal an important shift in the cosmic weather, bringing new complications, and new solutions, to bear. They will be in range of this closing aspect through the ending of the year, an aspect that was based on the preceding conjunction from about twenty-five years ago, 1989-1990 to be exact. You might want to think back to what was happening for you at this time, especially in regard to your spirituality and your commitment to growth and learning. Their square will last for most of next year, as well, before fading away completely in the final months of 2016. This configuration is fascinating, because these two are entirely antithetical archetypes that do not easily combine, and even less so when in a difficult square alignment. There could be fantasy escapism that derails constructive efforts, or perhaps the other way, finding it difficult to escape the exigencies of modern daily rat-race living for a breath of cosmic freedom. The dangers of excess in either direction are well known; the possibility of effecting a merger of such polarized (and polarizing) points of view a potential nightmare. There is, however, the possibility of finding — through individual creativity, recommended — a third way. That is, one that leaps right between the horns of the apparent dilemma.

That creativity might well be supplied by Uranus, also active in this Full Moon configuration, being aspected by Jupiter coming to his station, and as well by the presence of the new planet, Eris, remaining close by. Jupiter in fact closely aspects their midpoint of 20 degrees of Aries. With Uranus invoked, we know that the uniquely quirky intuitive and entirely individual exploit is oftentimes the best, surprising though that action might appear to the uninitiated. As far as Eris goes, she has been demonstrated to be a spiritual warrior energy for taking action in support of yourself, and of your principles, at all costs, speaking to that in which you most deeply believe. See my book on this subject, The Tenth Planet. This is therefore a fitting astrological archetype for these fractious times that we are living through, when it is vital for each one of us to stand up and be counted.

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are, as always, enlightening. They are, for the Moon in the fourth degree of Gemini, in an appropriate emblem for this time of the year, "Holly and mistletoe." This obviously invokes the coming Christmas holiday, with its celebration of the spirit, and involving liquid medicinal spirits redolent of foggy Neptune. This is symbolism of the ending of the year, in the sign of Capricorn, associated with the Winter Solstice that is also Saturn's territory. Marc Edmund Jones remarks on "a universal richness of experience through which [one] may ... share the magic of his or her own self-renewal." For the Sun, in the same degree of Sagittarius, we have, "A little child learning to walk," for which symbol Jones references the implication of, "life's continual stimulus to every potentiality of skill and character." He goes on to state that, "There is a constant rehearsal and perfecting of function through which the conscious being gains and strengthens its powers." Indeed, we are, all of us, spirits in the material world, and must pay attention to every facet of our earthly and our celestial existence as we nurture ourselves, and as we grow into the exemplary humans that we have all along intended to become.