A lightning strike captured over Phoenix, Arizona, over a thirty-second exposure. Photo by Vex5.

You may not be thrilled to hear that Tuesday’s Capricorn Full Moon represents a peak of the events since the Sun ingressed Cancer three weeks ago, though that’s just what it is. Things seem to be peaking every day, though reading the astrology modestly reveals that we’re just getting going.

For one thing, the Uranus-Eris conjunction — the engine behind everything we’re seeing, at least symbolically — has just begun. It describes an era that will take us well into the early 2020s, when Pluto squares Eris.

Table Mesa, Arizona (evidently the Lightning State). Photo by Shredex.

So to put this into a wide context, it’s as if the 2012 aspect — Uranus square Pluto (2012-2015; remember that old friend?) — now has added to it a major new outer planetary factor (Eris) and is being drawn out for as long as Eris keeps taking aspects from either Uranus or Pluto.

That starts to trail off at the end of 2020, with much fanfare around it.

There will be no avoiding this, though for a while you get options on what role you want to play; how you want to use this amazing time in history, when so much will change so fast. As someone who follows astrology, you get to be on the leading edge of this wave.

Sticking to the immediate moment: In this week’s Planet Waves TV, I briefly summarize the action of Mars, which for the past six weeks has been hanging out in a narrow degree of the zodiac, setting off Uranus-Eris. Yet the same astrology that describes violent incidents is also describing something in all of us emotionally and psychologically.

For many people, already stressed, depleted and world-weary, this may not be so easy. We’re going to be pushed to rise to the occasion. This is not about ‘being the best person you can be’ in theory. It’s about hearing what you’re called to do, and doing it.

If we look at these same aspects as an inner phenomenon, they’re making it difficult to go back to sleep. It’s some of the most potent wake-up astrology I’ve ever seen, and it mixes long-term events with unique, immediate ones (what Mars is doing) and rarely-seen ones (Chiron square Pholus, bringing the healing qualities of the centaurs into the equation).

Photo by Skyseeker.

As for the Full Moon, it happens at the end of the Sun’s run through Cancer, just as the Sun is getting ready to enter Leo. So we get a peak or crescendo of all that’s happened since the solstice. Try to think all the way back to mid-June, right before the Sun ingressed Cancer, and notice what you were doing, and where you were at emotionally and mentally.

Notice how events and scenarios have developed. Try to get a pulse on what is unresolved, stuck or at an impasse. You can use the Full Moon to precipitate resolution to these situations.

In any event, this Full Moon will peak quickly over the next 48 hours, and take many people by surprise. Try to stay on your own good side, and steer clear of people who are having a typical reaction to this aspect (making life difficult for servers and retail people, or turning everything into a confrontation).

Do your best to go with the flow, keep your emotions as far from your interpersonal transactions as possible, and respond proportionally minus one half. That is, understate even your most modest responses to what people say and do, and let this aspect clear like a thunderstorm.

I read the chart in detail in this week’s Planet Waves TV, and I’ll have more for you on Tuesday on Planet Waves FM.