the last full moon of 2017 is going out with a bang! the full moon at 11’40 gemini is exact on sunday december 3rd 2017 at 7:47am- bringing into the full Light of consciousness information, communication, ideas and thinking that needs to be seen for what it is. with jupiter in scorpio right now we have the planet of expansion going into the depths and shadows. gemini and scorpio are about as opposite as two signs could get. gemini is about the surface, scorpio is about the depths- gemini like lightness, scorpio likes intensity. gemini lives in the head, scorpio lives in the bowels and the sacral chakra. there is much shadow coming to Light all over the world right now- with a huge focus on the men in power who have abused their power in regards to their treatment of women. as i write this the announcement that matt lauer has been fired from NBC after his 20 year career due to sexual misconduct allegations is quite the shocking and unexpected (mars opposite uranus on friday morning!)- bringing to Light some big shadows hiding in the closet.
this full moon is a DOOZY. with sun/moon opposition in the signs of lower mind and Higher Mind, small picture and Big Picture, information and Truth- this full moon seeks to bring to Light what is not being looked at. yet both are almost precisely square to neptune (within 10 minutes of exactness)- so it’s very hard to discern the Truth from lies, fantasy from fact, fiction from reality. it’s easy to see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, spin things or be a deer in the headlights. it’s so important right now karmically to be honest, direct and clear- with ourselves and with others. we also need to be willing to see where we have deluded ourselves, been escaping reality and not taking responsibility for our lives.
add to this the fact that the ruler of the full moon is mercury who just went retrograde the night before the full moon (exact at 11:34pm PST) – and into the Underworld we go! on monday november 27th mercury aligned with saturn and on december 6th they will align again- so we essentially we have a 10 day mercury/saturn conjunction occurring as mercury heads down into the Underworld. this is serious, intense, karmic and focused. mercury in sadge likes to see the positive side of things, the potential, the glass as half full! but saturn in sadge is demanding we own up to reality and see what IS not just what could be/should be/might be/used to be.
remember we still have the saturn/chiron square operating at the end of the year (the last square was november 2nd but they are still journeying close together). i have been calling this the core wound territory transit as it has been bringing up some of our BIGGEST STUFF- those karmic patterns and old wounds we keep operating out of and falling into and getting stuck in (which the poem by portia nelson i have posted at the end of this post pretty aptly portrays). we are being challenged in a HUGE way to step up our mastery and deepen our healing journey- but it is not coming easy i will tell you! and this mercury retrograde triggers the saturn/chiron square a total of three times. if we have been using 2017 to show up, do our work, face our shit and shadow and do the work of integration and healing- this month may see the rewards for the work done. if on the other hand we have avoided facing what we needed to face and have been escaping being accountable, responsible and integrous- then this month could be more shocking, revealing and just plain not fun.
it’s interesting to see that the jupiter/neptune trine ties right into the full moon. jupiter is 3 minutes from an exact quincunx to the full moon in gemini and neptune is 10 minutes from an exact square. this is about as tight as you can get. with both jupiter and neptune tensely aspecting the lunation we need to be really aware of where we are overdoing the Love and Light at the expense of the shadow. both jupiter and neptune are spiritual planets- they see the positive, the potential, they are generous and forgiving. yet the shadow aspect of these two is transcending things before we have truly gone into them and forgiving others before we have really done the deep work of feeling and moving through our anger and rage. luckily jupiter is in scorpio so he is helping us plumb the depths- but if we have any tendencies towards spiritual bypassing (which most all of us do) we want to be super aware of where we are Unconsciously defaulting to this way of being as a means to avoid facing reality within or without. (a GREAT book to read on this topic is ‘spiritual bypassing’ by my shadow work teacher robert masters).
another major aspect in the chart that is waning as it was exact early morning friday december 1st is the mars/uranus opposition. this is wake up/shake up territory and as i write this lunar insight i can feel a low level of anxiety and ungrounded energy in myself but also in the collective. something is brewing and building and sensitive people can feel it (my cat is acting nutty too). i am not going to make mundane predictions about what it is (earthquake or some kind of natural disaster? escalation of conflict with north korea? first contact and disclosure about alien life? who knows!?!)- but i will say that psychologically, spiritually and emotionally the pot is being stirred. we need to be aware of where we are being impulsive, reactive, restless, anxious and fearful- as making decisions/taking action from this place really will not serve us. using this energy to instead bring to Light what needs to be revealed, initiate change and become the agent of our personal and collective evolution is a much better option!
the fixed star acumen is super important in the full moon chart and for the whole month of december as mercury stations retrograde on it and saturn will cross over it just before he moves into capricorn on december 19th. acumen is a fixed star right near the stinger in the scorpio constellation- which pretty much sums up what this fixed star is about. but we need to remember sometimes the poison is the cure. the word acumen means it stings or smarts- so something is not feeling good and we need to face it and look at it and get INTO it in order to heal it. in our western culture where our medicine is not holistic and does not see how everything is interconnected- there is a belief that we should just let sleeping dogs lie. what is in the past is in the past- why dig it up? the problem is that when you have toxic, stagnant, stuck energy buried in the past- it keeps coming up in Unconscious ways that are destructive. until we go back into the past, dig up what we have buried, made amends for what was done- we are not really living in the present but we are a product of our unresolved past. the fixed star by the stinger of scorpio is a reminder that that which we don’t face and address can come up to sting/smart us and take us down at the most unexpected time!
another really important archetype to take note of in the full moon chart is the asteroid pandora- who is conjunct the sun, opposite the moon and square neptune. if you know your greek mythology you know pandora had a box and she opened it and all hell broke loose. if you don’t know the story it’s worth googling but in short pandora was created- by the request of zeus- to bring misery to the human race because demigod prometheus stole the fire from the Gods and gave it to the humans. pandora came with a box filled with all the ills of the world and although told to not open it her curiosity got the best of her and she did and that is when all hell broke loose.
this full moon is in gemini- a sign that is known for it’s curiosity (like pandora). with pandora on the sun and opposite the full moon i keep thinking of forrest gump saying ‘life is like a box of chocolates- you never know what you are gonna get’. with pandora- whose story has a very uranian energy to it (and some say uranus should have been named prometheus)- we don’t know what we are going to get. i will say my own take on the story is that if there is a box with hidden evil and shadow in it- until it is opened and looked at and dealt with it can sabotage us and wreak havoc on our lives. as astrologer leah whitehorse has written in her blog on pandora- whistleblowers like edward snowden and julian assange have pandora prominent in their charts. whistleblowers are people who open up the box of darkness and shadow that previously was sealed and hidden. in opening up that box chaos ensues- but as eris the Goddess of Discord and chaos is here to teach us- if it’s hidden in the dark but still operating in the Unconscious it’s even more destructive. this is why i am such a big proponent of shadow work right now. the more of us willing to open our own boxes of shadow and darkness (in a healthy container with support and deep compassion for self and others) the better it will be for the collective!
i leave you with ellias lonsdale’s star sparks degree for the full moon and the degree of the sun- both of which are SO ON POINT! in the full moon degree he talks about how we are absorbed in shadow and unless we have gratitude, humility and deep compassion- we will not be able to navigate the territory ahead in the most healing way. he talks about how ego is the poison and subtle snare (the scorpion stinger) and how we need to be transparent- honest, direct and devoid of guile. with the gemini full moon square neptune- steering clear of dishonesty and deception (of the self/of others) and also being willing to see reality on it’s own terms (personally and collectively) is the key to awakening. there is no other way! and in the degree of the sun he says what is arising right now is ‘everything we left out of the picture which will not stay dead and buried’. we have to ‘come out of the trance and recognize what is happening- that it just won’t go away’.
the only way out is through. when we are all showing up in this together- the paradigm shift happens!! (just remember it is darkest before the dawn)
blessings to us all as we navigate this portal of trans-form-ation…
~divine harmony
p.s. portia nelson’s poem below is a good one to contemplate as the year ends. am i/are we collectively ready to stop falling into the same hole? am i/are we collectively ready to find a new, more integrous path to go down?
Autobiography in Five Chapters
by Portia Nelson
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost…
I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit
My eyes are open; I know where I am;
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
STAR SPARKS by ellias lonsdale
FULL MOON DEGREE
Gemini 12 Many huge urns filled with wheat
Endowed with Solar power of a great radiance and range. Prodigal in tapping this resource at will. Granted the capacity to bring all of it to bear, to bless, to make whole.
Also absorbed in a great shadow. Unless gratitude, humility, and a deep compassion accompany the transmissions, there is a habitual propensity here for taking it all on as self, as a glory that I can claim as my own. Self-importance of this dimension is dangerous and hard to shake.
Destiny battles a karmic struggle between surpassing light and pervasive shadows. Everything shifts, moves fast in so many directions at once. The terms always change. You never know what may turn out to be goodness and simplicity and what will prove to be greed and lust for something that makes this one here the center of it all.
From the outside, it can seem that the categories hold, the structures are in place. But from the inside, the feeling is that every moment is different, and tracking with various divergent facets of what is coming loose is an immense undertaking. The style belies the contents.
When so much action and energy, awareness and desire are all there together in a jam packed package that never rests, the mastery required to wield effortlessly the almost superhuman gifts is a whole lot to ask. If we fall short of the mastery, we tend to be stimulating, provocative, scintillating, but divisive and even perhaps destructive if we let ourselves go that way.
Any true striving toward the inner mastery reaps immense gains. We can here become so many worlds converging at peak power. But ego is the poison and it’s a subtle snare.
We are learning transparency in the midst of plenty. We need to be clear and wide open and devoid of strategies. When the stakes are this high, you gotta become honest, direct, and devoid of guile.
SUN DEGREE
Sagittarius 12 Icicles melting
The way it is happens in slow time. It happens in hidden depths. It happens where you’re not looking. It shows up anywhere and everywhere except the usual obvious places.
This way, mind can’t get on top of the situation and coast. You gotta show up for all those gaps and fissures and missing breaths. You are compelled to become more receptive and responsive to a flow and a meaning which will still escape you, but at least you are getting closer.
Something strong and powerful, enigmatic and elusive is pulling you right through the middle of your own version into everything you’re missing, all the places you pretend don’t add up. An irresistible force is getting a hold of you and checkmating your desire to do it your way, your will to get on with the show.
Yes, it has a lot of shadow to it. Lots of pain and discomfort and awkwardness. Too much to see and feel and stay present to. Way too strong a dose of earth duality for one soul to metabolize and keep going with.
But you call it in. With longing and desperate cursing, you call every bit of it in. Because being just yourself enacting the way you do things from gut instinct turns out to be a blast and to be just a fragment of what you need to come in touch with if you are ever to ripen and come through.
Nobody wants, nobody likes, nobody claims the territory which here is dreamed up and shadowed forth. We can look away. We can say it’s happening to us. We can chalk it up to categories and try to distance it that way. Good luck.
What comes in the slow time, is the waste places, is everything we left out of the picture which will not stay dead and buried. What we are meant to do in the thick of this action is to begin to affirm our resource to work into and beyond the morass. But the very first thing to do is to come out of the trance and recognize what is happening and that it won’t just go away.