February’s Last Quarter Moon: The Eye of Eclipse Season

The Last Quarter Moon of Wednesday, February 7th marks the mid-point between the recent Lunar Eclipse of January 31st, and the upcoming Solar Eclipse of February 15th. This is an important point in time of the eclipse season to which it is wise to bring our full awareness and presence. The Last Quarter Moon, in general, symbolizes a phase of letting go, akin to the time in the growing cycle when the trees shake off their leaves, gently giving them back to the earth for compost and enrichment in the coming cycle. This is especially heightened between two eclipses, when a larger eclipse cycle has drawn to a close with the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, and a new cycle is about to begin with the coming Solar Eclipse and New Moon. This Last Quarter Moon can be seen as a liminal space – one where we are waving our goodbyes to outworn ways of being, and simultaneously looking ahead to the new experience we may have of ourselves and the world through our transformed eyes. The layers we shed during this time may be thicker or more numerous than usual, and the new seeds of intention forming in our hearts and spirits for the coming cycle have more weight and influence than in an ordinary lunar cycle. This is the ‘whoa’ factor as well as the beautiful gift of this Eclipse Season. There are large potentials for shifting, transforming and attuning to a more aligned way of being, but the process of that can be confronting, and require that we hone our awareness and really tune into how we can live our most beautiful lives and be our most authentic selves.

Helping us to do that is a strong dose of Eris in both this configuration and in the coming New Moon Eclipse, only a week or so away. Eris represents a Feminine Warrior energy in support of soul intention. As the Moon aligns with Jupiter, in Scorpio, together they make an inconjunct aspect, also called a quincunx, with Eris in Aries. Jupiter and the Moon also aspect Pluto in Capricorn, while Eris still conjuncts Uranus nearby. Because the Uranus-Pluto square is thus triggered, the defining aspect of this decade, there is a whole lot of transformation going on. And this reaches to the very structure of our society as well as on the personal level, speaking to each one of us as individuals.

Another way that the Moon, amplified, showing up in Scorpio speaks to us could look like a deepening of experience in emotions, and encountering things in the depths of our psyches that we could find painful or upsetting. Jupiter just a few degrees away, and while he lends a friendly boost of optimism, he also tend to amplify and expand everything he touches, so the emotional pain or wounding could seem overwhelmingly large. We are reminded during this lunation too that Jupiter’s journey through Scorpio has brought forth the #metoo movement, and so with the Moon’s presence with him there we could well see a further amplification of conversations or events around masculine/feminine dynamics in the collective, as well as more personal spheres. With Chiron, The Wounded Healer, in aspect to Jupiter we may also interpret this as the cosmos’ way of helping us heal and transform, and through that lens we can see that whatever has a magnifying glass placed upon it at this time is just exactly what we need to see and be present to within ourselves. It is a profoundly vulnerable and healing process when we can gently invite the parts of ourselves that we’d rather not be chummy with out into the light of our awareness A beautiful alchemy can occur when we welcome our inner demons to the dinner party, instead of continuing to push them out into the cold.

With Venus in aspect to Jupiter (and also in parallel to the Sun) she plays a part in this, testifying to the level of human connection we all not only crave but actually require to be happy and healthy beings. The wound that exists between the masculine and feminine is being highlighted in a big way right now, and as Venus is also about self-worth and value, we are seeing that what’s actually running the engine of dysfunction and pain here is shame. Shame is pervasive in western culture, and it stands in the way of human connection, because where we do not feel worthy, we do not want to encounter the pain of being witnessed, and so we go on hiding out. Brene Brown’s take on this is profound. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” Her work on shame and vulnerability is crucial medicine at this time for nearly all of us.

The Sabian Symbols for the degrees that the Sun and Moon occupy in this Last Quarter Moon configuration also have something to contribute. They are, for the Sun, in the nineteenth degree of Aquarius, “A forest fire quenched.” This certainly bring up the Water element, as we saw with the Scorpio energy described above, and the strong presence of Neptune in Pisces we also have had lately. Marc Edmond Jones describes “regenerative relaxation after extraordinary effort,” and “[one’s] exceptional capacity for achievement through the whole-giving of oneself in an emergency… bringing personal interests to some larger point of effectiveness.” For the Moon we find, “A parrot listening and then talking,” which might remind us of an educational flow. Jones has “the continual reworking of reality … conscious existence can be shaped according to any [desire]. The degree represents exceptional skill in bringing the the whole tenor of transient circumstance to the service of a personal aspiration.” Indeed, as we assess, we find that we do not entirely know exactly where we are going, although we stumble through, and in the process learn more about what we are actually here for.