Everybody with serviceable eyesight can see the Sun, weather permitting. The same is true for the Moon during the days approaching and achieving its fullness. Those are two important fundamentals for human beings to remember at this particular time on planet Earth.
So happens we are now in the days approaching the Capricorn Full Moon, which will take place this coming Tuesday, July 19. From now until then the illuminated portion of the Moon will be growing in size, until Luna is as fully lit as it can be.
In addition to “waxing” into fullness over the next handful of days the Moon will be visible during the early evening hours when most people are still awake. That’s how it works coming up to a Full Moon.
What the Sun and Moon are doing right now is something everybody can see so long as clouds don’t get in the way. The same cannot always be said for even the brightest planets. Even Venus, which is the only celestial object besides the Sun and Moon to shine bright enough to cast a shadow, can sometimes be elusive. Other planets are even less bright, and even more subject to being obscured by the lights and buildings of the cities in which so many of us dwell.
Fortunately, using the Sun and Moon alone we can at least infer a good deal of what is going on with the astrology. That’s especially true for the impending Full Moon, which will take place in the 28th degree of Capricorn shortly before 7 pm EDT (22:56:31 UTC) on Tuesday. That’s because the 28th degree of Capricorn is where Mars is exalted.
As Eric put it in the Planet Waves weekly edition yesterday, Mars is at “center stage” from its current position in Scorpio for astrologers right now.
Unfortunately, everybody can see how the front and center presence of Mars in our current astrology is now predominantly being expressed on Earth. The recent series of tragically violent events all over the world can fairly be correlated with the less fortunate downside of Mars. Yet, that’s not all there is to how Mars manifests in actual practice. There are in fact two sides to astrology’s Martian story.
Ancient astrologers divided up celestial objects into good guys (“malefics”) and bad guys (“benefics”). Beginning in the 20th Century, astrologers like the late, great Al Morrison challenged that antiquated prejudice based on how things actually work out in the world. Now, most modern astrologers agree with the greatest living astrologer, Robert Hand. In the October/November 2014 edition of The Mountain Astrologer Mr. Hand flatly declared that “There are no benefics and no malefics.” Instead, astrologers now interpret planets to be consistent with what everybody can see.
Based on actual practice, everybody can see that every planet, every sign and every aspect has both an upside and a downside. The question of which side is expressing at any given time is usually resolved by context — where one object, sign and/or aspect fits into the whole. That holistic way of looking at things will provide both a useful and hopeful framework in which the implication of next Tuesday’s Full Moon can be understood.
One way in which anybody can understand the world is that things often go as far in one direction as they can before they must swing the other way. That’s obviously true of many natural phenomena, such as the seasons. It’s also a pattern that tends to evince in both large and personal scale human events. Astrology is no exception either.
The Moon, as it goes through its phases, is yet another example of moving from one extreme to the other that everybody can see. Indeed, one common way of interpreting a Full Moon is as a culmination after which Luna can only subsequently wane. Therein is reason for you to believe that you can act and make a difference to turn things around in concert with the skies.
Planets do not simply express from where they are in the sky or on the zodiac. Mars, for example, can be found to manifest from the signs it rules (Aries and Scorpio) and where it is exalted (Capricorn) at any given time, even if it is moving elsewhere.
A Full Moon precisely in the exaltation degree of Mars (which does not happen very often) implies that the violent downside of the red planet has gone as far as it can go before it must turn back and begin manifesting in more life-affirming ways. Given the importance of context, however, a fortunate outcome is not certain. A turnaround must be made to happen. That, as always, is where you come in.
That’s because astrology is not a spectator sport. You are part of the holistic context in which astrology plays out. It’s up to you to manifest the potential of next Tuesday’s Full Moon. Fortunately, you or anybody can see how to do it.
In a phrase, eschew violence. Act without violent means. Speak without violent expressions. Advocate for love, and against war. Be an example for others to do the same. Indeed, in the U.S. at this time you can commit the equivalent of a revolutionary act by simply not owing a gun. You don’t have to take it upon yourself to change the world. You don’t have to do the impossible. You simply have to do your part by not bringing any additional violence into the world.
If there is anything to what next Tuesday’s Capricorn Full Moon is telling us, the best time to do your part is now. Everybody can see that there has never been a more appropriate time to become an advocate for love and peace.
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Len…I totally… adore..you ….could be at the Methow rhythm and blues …Methow wa this week-end< listening to the fabulous Thunderbirds….thank you so much for your work …kind…
words, and wisdom.I appreciate you….just didnt feel like partying this week-end.
Miss Mcghee
Miss Mcghee: Please accept my thanks in turn for you kind words. May your weekend be the best of all worlds for you!
Len – I posted my comment under Eric’s piece – so posting it again: Bless you, Len, bless you. Am so touched by your words, also because they confirm that I’m on the right track. I’ve had problems with a colleague at work, who can be a bit difficult. Am so stressed out at the moment that I didn’t behave very well towards her in these last days. But yesterday, I was so devastated by what happened in Nice – and I know that this woman has a little boy. Somehow, I felt I had to change things around – so I went into her office and apologized for not having behaved very well in these days, but that I was so stressed out. She gave me this enormous, beautiful smile, and was clearly surprised, and perhaps a little touched. it’s easy to be nice with charming, lovely people – but I reckon that the real challenge is turning the other cheek with the difficult ones (without of course, letting them walk over one). It also ties in beautifully with Eric’s great words, “Make your personal choice in favor of something else. Visualize and do what you can to make your personal world a saner and more peaceful place.” Thank you, dear ones.
Lizzy: Thank you for sharing your workplace experience, and for how you always so generously support other commenters here at Planet Waves.
Has anyone ever seen their Venusian shadow?
Just wondering.
Geoff: One night, years ago, Out away from city lights, on a moonless night, I saw my shadow cast by Venus. I did not have a camera to record it. There must be a photo on line somewhere, but (as you know) i’m not much at search engines. Thanks you so much for your questions and support.
Thanks, Len. I knew there was something particularly lovely about you!
Lovely!
Thank you Len, we are on the same page with this Full Moon in seeing that violence (Mars expression) has gone about as far as it can go, and although I didn’t know that Mars had 27+ Capricorn as his exaltation degree, I did know that 27+ Capricorn is where the U.S. Sibly chart’s Pluto is. I didn’t know that Venus could cast a shadow either. You aren’t teasing are you?
No, the reason I’m thinking that violence for the sake of violence is morphing into something else is because of Mars’ opposition to Sedna at this Full Moon. Sedna not only symbolizes the waters of our planet and all the life within it, her mythology (story) is a product of the patriarchal age, just as Mars myth is and that is going down. I see this opposition as a balancing of the extremes of the masculine and feminine natures of human beings, a blending of this dawning new age where polarized views (of man/woman and other things like black and white, rich and poor) will be working toward a common ground; equality if you will.
With the grand water trine between Chiron, Sun and Mars still effective, and Vesta reaching her opposition to the Galactic Core, this Full Moon reeks with compassion and healing. The New Moon also trines Sedna and I’m hoping for some powerful decision-making (U.S. Pluto) that either favors women’s rights in some way or a change in the abuse of so much of our U.S. lakes, rivers and streams and the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Vesta Return chart of last April had both the Sun and QB1 in the degree of Chiron’s discovery, 3+ Taurus. If Sun symbolizes consciousness and QB1 symbolizes a threshold then this Full Moon’s Pallas at 4+ Pisces retrograde, Ceres at 0+ Taurus and Juno at 1+ Scorpio appear to be lighting the way forward for some Vesta/Chiron type of healing action of a feminine nature. Even the U.S. Venus at 3+ Cancer supports this Vesta Return’s Sun-QB1 conjunction.
Perhaps in a rally of support of Sedna’s agenda, these 3 goddesses in the FM chart, Ceres, Pallas and Juno will be working on some legislation to curb violence at least in this country. Actually, Sedna forms a pattern called a kite in which a grand trine (in this case Sun, Mars, Chiron) has a planet in opposition to one of the 3 in the grand trine. That would be Sedna in this case. Again, the focus is on Mars, life-affirming action Mars. You have my word I won’t bring any additional violence into the world Len.
Additionally, the Full Moon’s Jupiter at 19+ Virgo is trine the U.S. Vesta at 19+ Taurus, she who recently had that Vesta Return (almost at the same time transiting Mercury occulted the Sun in the same degree as U.S. Vesta). Transiting Pluto is within orb (15+ Capricorn retrograde) at this Full Moon to qualify for a grand earth trine with transiting Jupiter and U.S. Vesta, so it really could happen. Peace and Love conquers all.
be
Barbara (and Geoff): First off, i’m not teasing. Please see the link from NASA immediately below this resp0nse regarding the shadow cast by Venus (under the right circumstances). So, unless you think NASA is teasing, that should be that as regards to that fact.
Next, thank you again so very much for being so generous with your time and energy as to continue to keep us abreast of transits and progressions to the U.S. Natal (Sibly) chart.
Finally, as regards to Juno and Ceres facing off from across the zodiac. I’ve been watching that particular opposition forming up for some time. It won’t last forever because Juno is moving a bit faster right now. Even so, it’s a relatively long-lived aspect which will be the baseline of a brief fixed sign T-square when the Sun enters Leo on Friday. i’m not done thinking about it, but so far it seems to have to do with being consciously aware of priorities it comes to needs. In this case at least, the “T” in “T-square” could stand for “triage.”
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/28nov_venusshadows/
Thank you, dear be.
Three cops reported killed in ambush, one critical, one in fair condition in Baton Rouge indicates — to me — that what we’re looking at in this binge of violence is epidemic as a sociopolitical response to disenchantment/despair with the growing militarization of authority and the systemic political disdain of elitist America. Same across the world in response to how those in authority have failed their citizens.
That is the root of the primary issue that found outlet in the Bernie v. Donald movements — two different approaches to normalizing a democratic government gone deaf and unresponsive to the voice of the people (one, obviously, workable; the other ridiculous.)
I just heard an officer on CNN say that — specifically because there is more than one assailant — this feels like “an attack upon America.” But there are others of us hearing that that think what the police have become, in self-protecting rather than protecting those they’re pledged to serve, is an attack on American citizens and a beleaguered Bill of Rights. It is not ‘black and white.’ Nothing ever is!
Read an interesting piece about the ‘assassination’ personality over at Huffy this morning, which begins the (necessary) conversation about what makes the ‘lone wolf’ persona a ticking time bomb — especially at a time when the goads that tip this type of person over have become normal news of the day. There’s plenty of ‘nuance’ there to examine … and relate to.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/micah-xavier-johnson-assassin_us_578936ede4b08608d3347fa8
If we scout around the web, read the fine print (stuff that doesn’t explode a headline) we’ll find that big money and affluent characters are still NOT being held accountable for their actions, the banksters that (occasionally) are dinged with big payouts to the Feds still walk free while those that were ruined by their fraud receive nothing but more bad news as they struggle to survive and adjust. Until that begins to change, we can be sure that our politicians are ‘owned’ and serve other than public interest. Period.
Narrow that kind of elitist and class’ist crap down to the point where white folks can wave a machete and threaten police who try to contain them and still wake up the next day. Black folk, brown? Not so much (but take care, the growing paranoia in the halls of authority won’t hold the color line forever.)
We knew that would explode at some point, didn’t we? Can the cops that are let off the hook because they feared for their life TRULY defend with such a notion when the entirety of the non-white population has PTSD life and death issues when they see them coming? How many have died responding to an order to surrender ID because they were “reaching for it.” Insane!
When you hear about the inequities daily — at the top levels of government, in our school systems, our court houses, in our cop shops — those who already feel victimized and helpless to change the system go berserk. And while violence may be a ‘male’ thing more than female, seems to me that Mars is just pulling the trigger, at this level — Venus is home loading more shells, gone to survival mode. We would have fewer deaths if we had fewer guns, but we would not have fewer people on the edge of chaos, tribalism and revenge.
The Huffy article, on Micah Johnson, the Dallas shooter, said it very simply:
“Johnson expressed a similar sense of betrayal to his parents after having left the Army. It was not what he had “expected,” according to relatives. His mother said that “the ideal that he thought of our government, what he thought the military represented, it just didn’t live up to his expectations.””
What, lately, has lived up to expectation, you guys? What, lately, has worked the way it was ‘supposed to”? How disappointed down to your toes are you with this compromised system? Rational people try to figure out what’s wrong and fix it. But if your personality is already tilted, your paranoia fed by radical propaganda, and your closet full of weapons of war, you’re primed and ready to boogie.
It appears to me that we can’t fix this issue without fixing the WHOLE of it, which is what this era-shift is about — getting to the darkest stuff we’re nursing, making it visible and throwing our arms around it. Until the government treats us all fairly, the politicians serving the people and not the lobbies, the cops retrained to protect citizens rather than the newly militarized “us v. them” mentality that’s at the core of their authoritarianism, we can’t begin to tamp down the flames of revolt that’s coming at us carrying a gun.
And in this deeply polarized moment, which “victim” of circumstance do we relate to? Is it possible … all of them? Can we understand the guilt and fear that drives the cops in policing an often hostile community of color? Can we put ourselves in the place of those victimized by quick-on-the-trigger and brutal cops? Can we feel the anger that such unrighteousness prompts? I can.
And how do we reconcile those conflicted thoughts? This is what the Buddha gave:
“Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them. They too feel justified in their point of view.”
Len, dear, you are — as usual — giving us just the reminders our hearts need for this period. There is much to do in our own lives. When we ‘become peace,’ peace prevails around us. Each of us has the responsibility to do no harm — thought, word, deed. To face the pain and breathe through it, to be that neutral energy where white hot hate must necessarily begin to cool. The more we can do that in our own space and reality, the more peace out-pictures around us and colors the totality of humanity.
Sounds like too little to do, in a time of emergency, but it’s what is at hand. Fixing the world feels like too much, fixing yourself sounds more do-able (but not, I think, easier.)
What is loving comes without need to punish or manipulate, compete or defend. Love isn’t a thing we do — it’s what we are, and we have plenty of opportunities to prove it so. Good to remember when the Moon grows fuller and emotions high!
Just thoughts for the day. My love to each of you. Be well, be blessed, all.
Da’yam good to “hear” your take on this latest Breaking News event Jude. I too can put myself in the place of both sides of the coin but what to do, what to do. Many others I know will take either one side or the other due to their personal experiences. It demands a lot of patience (in short supply these days) to make headway getting through to people who are blinded with rage. In my heart of hearts I “know” that the Universe knows what it is doing by awakening our primitive emotions that have for so long taken a back seat to our mental faculties. The will to survive it is said, knows no bounds.
Recalling the “let them eat cake” attitude of the French “elite and class’ist” levels at the dawn of the French Revolution, noting the desires of some in some States to secede from the US, witnessing the constant brutality on TV and films and one might wonder what took them so long to get started. Now we are into the domino effect and until Neptune and Saturn get through their present crisis (aided and abetted by Uranus square Pluto pressures) in pursuit of the goals of their 1989 cycle start, we remain in heightened alert, Level 3 out of 5 levels of vigilance would be my guess.
Indeed, for the U.S. that cycle (chart) contained 2 specific hits to the U.S. Sibly chart; Nessus at 22+ Virgo conjuncts the U.S. Sibly Neptune and Pholus at 8+ Gemini conjuncts the U.S. Sibly Uranus. It is a Centaur kind of awakening (and purging). Whereas the conjunction itself between Saturn and Neptune took place at 11+ Capricorn (where transiting Pluto also was Feb 2013 – Nov 2014, if anyone needs a clue), now both transiting Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Sagittarius are and have been aspecting that same degree, and each other, for months.
This same chart holds planetary connections to the BP oil disaster event and who knows how many other disasters since then and on into the future there will be. Compassion vs. Rigidity. Subtle vs. In-Your-Face. Spirituality vs. Religion. Cloudy vs. Clear. The end of a cycle vs. the end of life. Saturn and Neptune must reconcile their huge differences.
I noticed that the personal planets Mercury and Venus made their conjunction yesterday at 5+ Leo which qualifies them to be the apex (release) point of a Yod when combined with the 1989 Saturn-Neptune chart’s sextile between Uranus at 4+ Capricorn and Venus + North Node at 4+ Pisces.
Transiting Nessus now at 5+ Pisces was there to add oomph to the clarion call. Something of value (Venus) is to be released (South Node) unexpectedly (Uranus) from the status quo (Capricorn) when the time is right. Something poisonous (transiting Nessus) even. It was wasn’t it? Leo gave it drama to get attention, Venus insured it would be of worth and Mercury insured it would be heard round the world.
As Len said and you reiterated Jude, we must do no harm, express love and peace, and as much as possible, stay above the fray. This is part of a process and it will end.
be
Jude: Thank you for holding forth as only you can do. It’s an honor that you bring your deep understanding (and worthy emulation) of humanity’s potential for dignity and grace to serve all of us here as a comment to my meager effort to serve both qualities.
Someone should write about Ceres at 0 Taurus opposite Juno at 0 Scorpio right now and the fact that transiting Hades continues to languish in his conjunction with the U.S. Jupiter. Or maybe I just missed it.