Cancer Full Moon, January 8-9, 2012  This first full Moon of 2012 highlights the opposition between the Sun in Capricorn and the Moon in Cancer, and speaks to the nurturing, creating and protecting aspects of life and society. It brings up the archetypal powers of mother and father, the issues of nurturing and protecting, and impacts our emotional body as well as our social body. The energies of family and state begin our new year, the structures that bind us together. Sun in Capricorn The Sun in Capricorn shines light on our place in and contribution to our culture. Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign, capable of molding and shaping a shared communal life. This sign of achievement rules our governments, our financial systems and our corporate structures. Pluto, planet of evolution, death and rebirth, began the work of renovating and renewing our social structures back in November 2008, when it first entered Capricorn – first by showing us where the structure needs to be renewed. Since then, its energy has helped exposed the hypocrisy and lies, greed and stupidity of many of the institutions we depend on. One sign of the structural changes to come occurred around the Gemini Lunar eclipse and Uranus going direct: a broad array of financial institutions are helping the European nations come to an economic agreement based on greater sharing and fairness. The world-wide financial re-organization is just beginning, so watch how the Uranus/Pluto squares beginning this year will initiate more changes in the years to come. It will happen if we ‘make it so’. The Cosmic Story of Christmas Eve’s Capricorn New Moon, as well as of the Winter Solstice, promises deep change for us individually as well as collectively. It occurred at a degree that Pluto had already worked over, so the seed-time of the Capricorn new Moon was fertile for something new to take form. As we face the dying patriarchy, we seem to have the heavens’ assurance that if we do our work and get free of the patriarchal rules within our personal psyche, we will change our world. What old cultural ‘goals’ are no longer valid for you? What parts of our society can you no longer buy into? How free are you from patriarchal rules that govern your behavior as well as your potentials? Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is widely squaring this full moon from the sign of Libra, focusing our attention on how fair and just we are in our dealings with others. These Libran values of fairness, equality, diplomacy and justice must also be the building blocks for any new financial system we put in place. The financial rules have been shaped to the 1%’s needs. Now we’ll have to create a system that is fair and just the 100%. Capricorn as Father and as Patriarchy  Capricorn is also the sign of the Father whose job it is to protect the life of his child, to be a guide into the world for his child and to let go of power when it is time for his child to create the next phase of life. ‘Patriarchy’ is ‘the rule of the fathers’, and its sin is its unwillingness of give over power to the next phase of life – to equal partnership between men and women, masculine and feminine energies. In rejecting its own death, it creates death for everyone. In Ursula Le Guin's wonderful Earthsea Trilogy, she images this fear of Death as a shadow, a shadow that drains all the joy and color out of life. In The Farthest Shore, the Archmage Sparrowhawk and the young king, Arren, go on a journey to try to restore the balance of life and death, which has been disrupted by a sorcerer who is so afraid of death that he has opened the gates between life and death and now cannot close them. The young King wonders why men are destroying the trees and the earth, and the Mage explains that they have no guidance, no king to show them how to live in the Balance. Then the young king wonders how this one fearful man could so easily destroy the Balance of the world as his fear spreads He asks the Mage, "Where are the servants of this (man) Anti-King?" “In our minds, lad. In our minds! The traitor, the self, the self that cries I WANT TO LIVE, LET THE WORLD ROT SO LONG AS I CAN LIVE! The little traitor soul in us, in the dark. He talks to all of us. But only some understand him. The wizards, the singers, the makers. And the heroes, the ones who seek to be themselves. To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one. To be oneself forever, is that not better still?” Arren looked straight at Sparrowhawk . 'You mean that it is not greater. But tell me why. . . . I have learned to believe in death. But I have not learned to rejoice over it, to welcome my death, or yours. If I love life, shall I not hate the end of it? 'Life without end,' the mage said. 'Life without death. Immortality. And then - this. This blight upon the lands. The arts of man forgotten. The singer tongue less. The eye blind. And then? A false king ruling. Ruling forever. And over the same subjects forever. No births; no new lives. No children. Only what is mortal bears life, Arren. Only in death is there rebirth. The Balance is not a stillness. It is a movement - an eternal becoming.'1 Cancer Full Moon – The Great Mother  The Cancer Moon wants to nourish and mother the new King born within each of us at this Winter Solstice. Being a mom and having a Cancer Moon, I can tell you it’s not an easy job. Cancer moons ‘feel’ what people need and have a great desire to give it to them. But because we are off-balance due to the patriarchal view that all things masculine are more worthwhile than our feminine talents, our mothering can become smothering. Or it can be a cold disregard for the true needs of the child. Being a mother is the hardest job in the world! And often there is no gratitude for the things we do, because all of us see nurturing as our due. But it wouldn’t hurt to be grateful to the Great Mother more often for all the ways we are nurtured – by each other, by our food, by Mother Earth. Learning to be grateful is good for us. Gratitude makes life holy, because a grateful heart gives value to everything and everyone. When we live in that awareness, our creative imagination opens up - another of Cancer’s gifts – and we know how to nurture life. This Cancer full Moon asks us to look at what is happening to our world and nurture a new way of being in ourselves and in our world. To do that, we have to discern when to literally help, when to offer advice, when to stand silent and be a witness to new ideas and growth without entangling ourselves where we are not needed. A good mother gives what is necessary for her child’s growth and consciousness, and sometimes this entails ‘not giving’ them what they think they need. When your own mother, or your inner mother, cannot give you the love you deserve and need, turn to the Goddess, for she is the Great Mother of us all. And don’t forget to be grateful for her love. Prayer to our Lady of Guadalupe: Have you forgotten? I am your mother. You are not alone. You are under my protection. Anything you need, ask me. Do not worry about anything, Am I not here – I who am your mother? Have you forgotten? I love you, and you are under my protection.2
A good mother loves and accepts her child enough to encourage her/his unique development. A good father helps his child go out into the world and offer his/her unique talents to our collective destiny. This is the promise of the Cancer full Moon – to nurture the new Light being born within you and to learn how to bring it into the world for our communal benefit later this year. What does your intuition tell you to do about your life situation? Are you taking care of your needs so you can help others achieve theirs? What old patriarchal complexes – both in the mother and father complex- do you need to heal? Become aware of how your life interacts with the life of the culture. Are you bringing your nurturing gifts to our collective table? Cancer Full Moon 2012  The Cancer Full Moon occurs on Sunday January 8th at 11:30pm PST and on Monday January 9th at 2:30am EST/ 7:30am GMT. Besides the square from Saturn, Mars in Virgo will lend this full Moon the energy to help us focus on our task – rebirthing ourselves and our world. The Sabian Symbol for the Sun at 19* Capricorn is: A five year old child carrying a bag filled with groceries. This symbol suggests that we can rise to the occasion when asked to assume greater responsibilities than we might feel prepared for. We just might be better than we believe of ourselves. Why not give it a try and see? The Sabian Symbol for the Moon at 19* Cancer is: A priest performing a marriage ceremony. This beautiful symbol suggests that the power of all our unions is blessed by spirit. Man and woman, masculine and feminine energies are need to birth a child or a new world. Perhaps if we want to accomplish our great goal and vision, we need to partner up with someone so we can help and nurture each other as we blaze a new trail (Uranus in Aries) for our lives and the life of the world. These partnerships will make new choices, to birth a new world-view. Mercury, the planet associated with perception and communication, just moved into Capricorn and forms aspects with all the outer planets. The Sabian symbol for 2* Capricorn is a symbol of the unnecessary waste and destruction that is so inherent in our past culture. It’s time to change it! Three rose windows in a Gothic church, one damaged by war. The rose window symbolizes how the light of Spirit enters into our social structures. The three windows also symbolize our three-fold nature: body, mind and spirit. The war damage to our spirit of love and unity must be healed if we’re going to bring a profound change into the world. Mercury in Capricorn is joined with Pluto, deepening the mind to receive new information while it trines Jupiter in Taurus, grounding us in sensual reality as well as our values, so we know what we want to build. Mercury sextiles Saturn and Neptune/Chiron, offering opportunities to expand our perceptions and our understanding of relationships (Libra) and both the group mind (Aquarius) and heart (Pisces). Mercury squares Uranus in Aries which challenges the mind to think outside the box of patriarchally-approved ideas. All in all, this full Moon wants us to become aware of our new potentials and then nurture them. Our culture (Capricorn) needs our innovative ideas (Uranus in Aries), our compassion for each other (Neptune in Aquarius/Chiron in Pisces), our sense of fairness and our need for good partnerships (Saturn in Libra). And they have to be Earth-based, Earth-centered. Our Earth (Taurus) is our only home (Cancer). The opposition between Jupiter (expansion and belief) and Saturn (constriction and despair) stretches us to find a third way through our broken world, a path of beauty, discipline, excitement, deepening, imagination, compassion and desire. It’s time to live fully and freely. Don’t forget to have fun doing it! If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past Security in human systems we’re told will always, always last Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast Without the breath of real freedom we’re getting nowhere fast. …Without freedom from the past things can only get worse. Know your human rights, be what you come here for. Sting, History Can Teach Us Nothing
May 2012 be a year of love and protection, joy and fulfillment for all of us. Cathy
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