Walking tonight at sunset, I can see Jupiter gleaming in the still-blue Western sky to the left of the stony Spring Mountains, while in the darkness behind me the gibbous moon shines brightly down on me. The air is finally crisp for Thanksgiving. It reminds me to enjoy this Thanksgiving Day with gratitude for the blessings we all share here in America - food to eat, clothes to wear, family to love, peace in the land.
I’ve been thinking about Jupiter (symbolizing expansion, curiosity, the search for meaning, ambition, pride, fame, leadership, wealth), as well as Mercury (symbolizing the mind, communication, business, travel, alchemy), on my walk, trying to understand this upcoming Full Moon in Sagittarius and Gemini. Each astrological sign has a planet (or two) that rules it, meaning that they share common attributes and fields of activities. Mercury rules Gemini, and Jupiter rules Sagittarius, so these two planets are involved in this Full Moon.
Whenever Jupiter and Mercury come together, the mind is expanded, the outlook is optimistic and intuition is strong. The search for meaning takes center stage and you see the bigger picture and visions of future possibilities. When you have these two planets connected in your birth chart, you have broad vision, a deep mind, and the ability to connect the dots. Your right brain (Jupiter) and your left brain (Mercury) are working together.
The Sun goes into Sagittarius, the sign of the higher mind and spirituality/religion/philosophy on Thursday morning – Thanksgiving Day. Sagittarius can induce us to be high-minded or judgmental, truth-speakers or fanatics. Then on Saturday morning before the Full Moon, Uranus in Pisces, which has been retrograde since June 23rd, will turn to direct motion again at 14 Pisces, opening up the doors of perception, asking us to free our minds and explore new possibilities. Uranus embodies the archetypal energy of individuality and invention, and can help us ‘think outside the box’ this full moon. What have we awakened to during these past 5 months? And how are we going to take action on it now?
This Full Moon in Gemini is all about the Mind – the Alchemical Mind. “As above, so Below.” Sagittarius’ task is to expand our consciousness, and discover greater truths and new realities, while the moon in Gemini asks us to be open-minded and inquisitive, willing to entertain possibilities. It is time to discover our truth – what we believe, how we perceive and therefore experience our life, how opened or narrow our perspective is, how deep we can penetrate into the mysteries of the cosmos, but first and foremost, into our own human psyches. And it is time to let go of what is holding us back from greater conscious about who we are meant to be.
This full moon calls us to re-establish equilibrium in our mental bodies, releasing old ideas, limiting beliefs and patterns so we can be open to the new realities and possibilities and evolutionary energies that are coming through in the next few weeks as Jupiter and Pluto begin their dance that will climax on December 11th with their conjunction near the Galactic Center. If you are interested in discovering your destiny and learning what you are meant to bring to the collective consciousness, you need to be meditating, cleansing body, mind and spirit (the moon’s nodes in Virgo/Pisces are squaring the full moon) and opening your hearts to the revelations, ideas, and visions that are coming our way. We must remember that the highest ideals (Uranus in Pisces square Jupiter in Sagittarius) of compassion, courtesy, respect, gratitude, and love must be the filter through which this new revelation comes – otherwise, our vision will be murky and dim with the old dying values of war, anger, ego, power and greed.
The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon make us aware that we have blessings and surprises coming our way when we open ourselves to the ways of Spirit.
The Moon at 2 Gemini: Santa Claus furtively filling stockings hanging in front of the fireplace – we need to be in a state of innocence and purity of heart to receive our spiritual blessings as well as our material blessings.
The Sun at 2 Sagittarius: White-capped waves display the power of wind over sea – the constant interplay of wind and sea is dynamic, inspiring and beautiful. Wind is a symbol of spiritual dynamism and the sea represents the collective unconscious. Unconscious energies are now being aroused by spiritual and cosmic rhythms. Are we ready to give birth to our Self?
This Full Moon makes a square aspect to the Lunar Nodes – the South Node at 2 Virgo and North Node at 2 Pisces.
2 Virgo: A large white cross dominates the landscape – the wisdom and compassion that only the experience of suffering and isolation can bring. A liberating ordeal that teaches us through detachment and discrimination.
2 Pisces: A squirrel hiding from hunters in a hollow tree – this is a lesson about our survival needs and how we learn to protect ourselves and our emotional sensitivities.
The South Node in Virgo – personality traits we need to leave behind - says: let go of control, over-analysis, obsessive worry, fault finding and making others wrong, staying in unpleasant situations, inflexibility.
The North Node in Pisces – the new direction we need to take, where our destiny lies - says: dream, be nonjudgmental, have compassion, trust in positive outcomes, surrender to Spirit, welcome change, meditate!
Everything we’ve been through this past year is now coming to a head. We have to walk our talk. Whether we are progressives, conservatives, liberals, or neocons – we are hypocrites when we fail to live by our values. We need to be able to experience the world and different viewpoints at the same time as we filter those experiences through the lens of our values – which are the most basic beliefs that we live by. When we act against our values, we go against our inner nature.
We will be judged by our values and our actions.
Last month’s Scorpio New Moon:
But first, it’s time for some shadow work. Jung defined the shadow as that part of our personality we don’t see, which we reject as too painful, but which contains new life if we consciously relate to it. The dark emotions that Scorpio deals with bring up shadow issues.
With last month’s Scorpio New Moon bringing up some shadow issues (especially around November 15th, when one of its rulers, Mars, went retrograde), raise you hand if you had an encounter with a shadow element of your personality.
Well, my hand is raised, so I’ll report back to you. There’s always more to learn about yourself, always more room for greater consciousness. Don’t berate yourself for falling into your shadow complex as long as you recognize it and see the old patterns it relates to. As a matter of fact, you have to experience your shadow to become conscious of it. These past two weeks have given us a chance to recognize and release any old patterns that have been hiding out within our psyches. Now we need to acknowledge and let go of them and open our mind to new paradigms of behavior and belief. What served us before no longer works. It might even get us into trouble. So ask why your shadow developed – usually to help you survive in some way – honor it as an unloved aspect of yourself, and start working on transforming its energies.
The shadow can stop you from stepping into these new energies that are building up as so many planets pass over the galactic center. My experience was enlightening to me, because I failed to listen to a dream that showed me how to act in a certain situation that sudden confronted me this past week. My dream told me to stay silent, but my old shadow compelled me to respond, telling me that speaking my truth was more important. And of course it backfired. Even better, as I was explaining to a friend how I should have heeded my dream message, I heard a loud screech, and looking up, saw a hawk circling above me. He stayed there circling until he was sure I got the message! Sometimes truth is best served by not being drawn into conflict. Sometimes silence is the better way.
Mars Retrograde – November 15th to January 30th.
Let’s talk about Mars again, since its retrograde will be very important this year, as it opposes Pluto, Jupiter and the Galactic Center three time this fall and winter, taking the instructions we get from the Jupiter/Pluto/GC conjunction and acting on it. Mars began its retrograde at 13 Cancer, and people with Sun or Moon in Cancer, or Cancer rising will be especially prone to introspection, where they will be pushed to reconsider personal views and opinions about life, giving them an opportunity to gain insight into their unconscious motivations. Mars in Cancer wants to be loved and to love, to nurture and to be nourished, to feel safe and to keep safe those they love. Why and how they do it will be up for review and renewal.
Mars is the urge to DO something, to change and transform the outer world, by either building or destroying. Mars symbolizes all things masculine in the world and within our own psyches. Mars energy is assertive, aggressive, argumentative, energized, sexual and desirous. Mars in Cancer documents how we nurture the masculine in ourselves, in our culture (Mars went retrograde on America’s Sun), and in our men. Mars wants us to review what our expectations are about how the masculine and men nurture life.
When a planet goes RETROGRADE, it just means that a planet appears to go backwards, the planet’s energy turns within and we get the opportunity to re-do, re-play, re-think, re-plan, review, revisit, re-configure, re-conform, realign, reconnect and all the RE's you can think of.
With Mars going retrograde in Cancer, the sign of mother, family, roots, emotional security, and the past - the past might need to be revisited to regain some information you’ve forgotten and need to bring back into your life. Mars starts its retrograde in Cancer, a watery, feeling sign, so at first we need to listen to and validate our feelings. On December 24th, Mars retrograde is opposite the Sun, energizing the rebirth of the Solstice Sun. Then on New Year’s Eve, Mars goes back into Gemini (opposing Jupiter, Pluto and the Galactic Center - questioning the nature of our desires and their purpose in our lives), where it energizes us to think in new ways directly related to our feelings and higher vision. By the time Mars turns direct on January 30th, Mars will have developed a new way of THINKING AND DOING, and when it goes back into Cancer on March 5th, it will begin energizing the feminine energy of Cancer, and will be concerned with a nurturing vision and nurturing a vision.
Other cosmic happenings:
December 4th – Jupiter conjuncts the Galactic Center.
December 11th – Jupiter-Pluto conjunction at 28 Sagittarius. This energy will be building from now until the 11th. This conjunction supports concentrations of energy, wealth, or power and can bring opportunities to let go of and transform something in the area of life symbolized by the house where 28 Sagittarius is in your birth chart. Some themes will be: Transformation through expansion; the judicious use of power; change for the better.
Have faith that the way is opening, both collectively and personally, for fruitful change. With Jupiter in its own sign, joined with Pluto’s deep truthfulness, great things are in store for us.