Last night was the first significant lunar event for 2015. It carried with it the force of a full moon lunar eclipse.
The lunar nodes travel slowly backward through the Zodiac. Last night was precisely half way between the last set of eclipses and the next. That is because both the sun and the moon opposed each other nearly exactly square to the lunar nodes.
To make matters worse (from my subjective point of view) the above combined with the Pluto-Uranus Square forming a Grand Cardinal Cross like the one we experienced last April.
Furthermore, the Mars-Jupiter opposition, which is past peek, but still within orb, nearly cut the square in half adding in its two cents.
For me personally, I got slammed. Shortly after waking, I started to feel pain along my centerline between my lower neck and upper back. The pain was mild—neither stabbing nor a constant ache, yet it colored my day by resurrecting all sorts of other pains in my body.
Beneath the discomfort, I could feel a pool of emotion. It was like an echo of old grief. I couldn’t get to it, or express it, but I think if I had, I would have sobbed.
In looking at the chart, I can begin to understand.
The Pluto-Uranus Square of the past few years is a globally affecting aspect. Given that both Pluto and Uranus are distant, the aspect has been long lasting and its influence has been broad.
The luminaries interacting with the square bring all of that energy home. They bring the thoughts and emotions to the surface. Even if no personal events incited a strong reaction within us last night, we likely felt something anyway.
When the lunar nodes are involved, we have to consider the past and future.
In general, the full moon is a now event. Since we get one every month, it typically only reaches back 2 weeks, and forward the same. Come the next new moon, we reset the cycle.
The lunar nodes, however, are karmic. They ever oppose each other and can reach back lifetimes while simultaneously guiding us forward toward our ever-growing potentials.
And let’s not forget that the full moon occupied the sign it rules making it very hard to not feel. Adjectives I would use to describe some of what I felt are: insecurity, fear of the unknown, heartache, neediness, being afraid to want again for fear of getting hurt again, hopelessness.
Given that the Grand Cross was a Cardinal Cross, it was an easy night to say too much too soon. Had I seen this coming, I would have recommended not going out on a limb or making oneself vulnerable. If you pushed for something, you probably got the opposite of what you really wanted.
As is often the case, there is the other side of the chart. Even with the orb factor down to 30%, we still see positive aspects.
The subtler positive influence came from the sextile between Saturn and the almost by not quite Mercury-Venus conjunction (which is visible this week to the west after sunset if the weather permits). In my opinion, this aspect tempered the Grand Cross in such a way that, although the feelings were strong, the events were not. In other words, this Grand Cross was, for most of us, more of a sensory experience than a drama/trauma one.
The stronger positive influence comes from the wedge crated by Chiron, which sat only 35 arch-minutes from exactly aspecting the full moon opposition.
During the full moon, the Part of Fortune always sits exactly on the descendant. In the Austin chart, Chiron sat in the 6th house, the house it rules by certain measures, and was closest to the Descendant and Part of Fortune.
The pain I felt caught my attention. If it weren’t for the physical (6th house) pain, I might have missed the emotional (Pisces) pain. The physical pain is a result of the emotional. Last night’s full moon cracked the surface illuminating something that lies beneath.
The Descendant marks a poignant external position. We are shown something out there that directly relates to something in here. This is a powerful tool…if not the most powerful tool in this dualistic realm. It’s what separates dream reality from waking reality.
When I look back on the past few years, the last quarter of 2013 was the nadir. All of 2014 was a gradual climb up from that painful low point. Last night was a reminder of where I have been. Yes, it felt like regression. Yes, it felt a bit as if I was falling back into it. It even felt, for a moment, as if all of the distance traveled in 2014 was for naught, as if all of the apparent gain was an illusion.
But it wasn’t.
In some ways, last night’s full moon grand cardinal cross may simply have been the emotional unveiling of the 2015 syllabus. I think we already intellectually knew—individually and collectively—what we need to work on, so last night simply showed us in an emotional/sensory way.
Isn’t that the role of the moon?
The sun is said to represent our waking consciousness. The moon pulls on our emotions. At the full moon, we see as much of the moon as we can. It looks as large as the sun and as bright as it ever gets. It shines the entire night long.
It captivatingly catches our attention.
Think of the information attained as a planted seed. In three months, in early spring, I’m sure we’ll see signs of new growth.
A Fool's Inclination 