A Full Moon of Slowing Down to get your Bearings

The Libra Full Moon of Wednesday, March 23, is also a lunar eclipse, and it is therefore good to remember that eclipses are powerful. This Full Moon phase also represents a fulfillment of one or more themes that are being brought forward from the extremely potent New Moon and solar eclipse from two weeks ago. At that time, all the outer planets were triggered, indicating that these past days have been especially useful for events that have shown you the way forward toward the profound transformation taking place in your life, during this time of change. In this Full Moon we have a highlighted presence of Saturn, lord of limitation, and also of Chiron, the Wounded Healer. These are difficult energies that we will of necessity be required to negotiate over the next two weeks. Slowly or more rapidly, we are all coming to recognize where the behaviors that we have tolerated for many years, are coming to the end of their period of utility for us. As inconvenient as it might be, or even perhaps painful, we are therefore faced with the necessity of letting them go.

With this Full Moon configuration, closely following the advent of the Spring Equinox of the previous weekend, we find an extremely prominent presence of Saturn, because still in close parallel with Pluto, and now parallel to Mars also, while greatly slowing down in the sky, getting ready to station retrograde just two days after the lunar eclipse, on the 25th. This makes Saturn even more prominent. We will therefore see in the surrounding society, and for our individual arc of development as well, the reactionary push back to oppose revolutionary thinking. Within our personal lives we might well observe that forward motion in pursuing our agenda is not as easy as we once thought. This is not, however, a tragedy. We have the chance to really hone in on our goals and objectives at this time, and this could prove to be even more important than rapid forward movement.

Chiron, too, is highlighted greatly in this Full Moon eclipse configuration, being parallel the Sun and Moon, and by virtue of his close conjunction to the lunar South Node. Chiron is also exactly semi-sextile in the sky to Eris, one sign away in the 23rd degree of Aries, adding further emphasis in the direction of soul empowerment. Chiron represents knots — or 'complexes' - of broken-off energy, buried deep within our psyches, where we have been wounded in the past and may yet heal. The revival begins with concerted effort toward acceptance of these dark places within us without judgment, shame or blame, instead substituting a simple acknowledgment of their existence. Then we can begin to see the ways that they contribute to reactivity, and impede our progress toward what we truly wish for ourselves, long-term.

We also have a strong Mercury presence in this Full Moon eclipse, because the winged avatar of mental energy has just entered the sign of Aries, so therefore resides quite close to the Sun, and is catching up. Mercury is also trine to a slowing Mars, getting ready to retrograde next month. The awareness that this Mercury placement symbolizes is always a good thing, especially seasoned with a helpful dose of mystery in the form of Neptune in close square with the Mars/Saturn midpoint.

The Mars retrograde period does not begin until April 17th, and is yet a powerful presence in this Full Moon eclipse energy also, because so greatly slowing in his forward movement, moving only some three degrees of Zodiacal longitude between now and then. This decelerating of Mars is another important echo of the Saturn energy for making an about-face and taking our time, letting the information that we can glean from the events of our lives, and our reactions to them, slowly settle.

The Sabian symbols for this Full Moon are suggestive, and a reminder of the Sun and Moon in fruitful combination. They are, for the Sun in the fourth degree of Aries, "Two lovers strolling through a secluded wood together," which for Marc Edmund Jones represents "the first innocent rounding out of conscious experience," and "the complete flow of all efforts toward some proper end." He elaborates, "Reality is ever without meaning or power, except as it stimulates the Self to move in its own interest persistently and continuously whenever the least opportunity offers." For the Moon, in the same degree of Libra, we find the homey image: "A group around a campfire," bringing in the concept of community. Jones relates this symbol to "effective structure for further and greater objectives in life," and goes on to say, "Any reality broader that a simple self concern must have its origin in common responsibility [that] becomes the expression of identity." And we might add that any undertaking that furthers social goals, on the part of each one of us, reverberates through the ethers to help in the universal Aquarian Age movement toward consciousness transformation. This general awakening is the key, and the hallmark of these difficult, and yet in a subtle way very encouraging, times that we are living through, and helping to enliven, by our every studied action.