A Joyous Gear Grind With Mercury Direct!

This Full Moon is a reprise of the Jupiter square Saturn period in August, with a Mutable T-square throwing the void into Virgo!

Get a plan, review the plan, rehearse the plan, and be happy as you ice skate through the external “cold” circumstances. Power is found in flexibility. This Full Moon is the first with Pluto in Aquarius, and brings an expansion of understanding and a renewal of love despite disappointments.

This distributive, expansive, adventurous, and liberating Full Moon promising us forms of “good fortune” occurs at 1:02 am PST, 9:02 am GMT on December 15 and falls at the 24th degree of Sagittarius and Gemini. We are now in a several month run of Full Moons with an emotional-social emphasis, and this one will bring renewal as we refuse some things and see the good in others. Be clear about what roles you are and are not playing, and see how to clarify what needs focus when others are confused or running in circles.

Today’s Full Moon post will be an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In parts 2 and 3 we’ll cover the Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

An Overview

This Full Moon is liberating us from the “death spiral” of the past three Lunations, so make all the progress you can as you adapt to the slowed pace of Mars retrograde and the simultaneous quickening of Mercury going stationary direct! The numerous oppositions in Mutable signs indicate that we should come into awareness of the bigger picture as we approach the polarization with flexibility and an awareness of our power to steer the process by utilizing Virgo energies effectively.

With the numerous squares all throwing void energy into Virgo, be discerning of the place and function of systems, including what’s core and what’s peripheral. We’re all being educated these next two weeks to find techniques of overcoming preconceptions and learning to focus the power of our personality and/or spiritual Will.

This is going to be a very dynamic Full Moon due to the two Mutable T-squares involving the Moon, Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune! You can see this will bring the need for multiple forms of “right action” so be clear about the priority of what needs to be done.

Jupiter square Saturn is a challenge to allow our Soul to take charge of our personality conflicts, finding a clear ideal and a worthy challenge for our creative abilities. Decrease your rules and fears to see a greater vision, adventure or truth. Decrease your ambivalence and scattering tendencies to find the “camouflage” you need to do your Dharma/Tao in the world.

Stop selling yourself short or placing unnecessary stipulations and stumbling blocks and open your imagination to a better, wider, more liberating future. This is an aspect Grant Lewi says to approach by realizing that “not failure, but low aim, is sin.” ("Sin" being an archery term for "missing the mark.") The venerable Mark Edmund Jones says this requires us to overcome any tendencies to defeatist thinking or believing the price of success isn’t worth the effort. “Success will come from a discovery of a genuine justification for some cherished ambition. You will be able to hold steadfast to some line of effort through every possible discouragement.”

As with all Full Moons, use the light you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus through anchoring those themes in expression. This Full Moon brings the Light of the Sagittarius New Moon themes of freedom, accelerated growth, spontaneity, letting go of lesser things and accepting greater things, moving it into the happiness of “the blessings bestowed upon all those who are true to themselves.”

Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?

This Lunation is the sixth Full Moon in the current cyclic sequence where the Sun is in the same sign (Scorpio) as it was in the Scorpio New Moon two weeks ago. We have now returned to “the normal order” of the Sun/Moon relationship cycle, as the Light of the New Moon is now in the same sign as the Light of the Full Moon.

There are two patterns; one is when the Full Moon Sun is the same sign as the previous New Moon Sun, and the other is when the Full Moon Sun is in the next sign from the Sun in the previous New Moon. The Sun was in the same sign in both the New Moon and Full Moon, the so-called “natural” order, from August 2021 with the New Moon Sun at 17 Leo and Full Moon Sun is at 30 Leo to late March 2023 with the New Moon Sun at 1 Aries followed by the Full Moon at 17 Aries/Libra.>

This shifted back into the “reverse order” sequence in April 2023 with a New Moon at 30 Aries followed by the Wesak Festival Full Moon Sun at 15 Taurus. That ended in June 2024 with the New Moon at 16 Gemini and the Full Moon at 1 Cancer/Capricorn. The new period began as the New Moon in July had the Sun at 15 Cancer, and the following Full Moon Sun was at 30 Cancer. You can find out more about the “seed forms” of the Libra New Moon two weeks ago by going to the archives.

Past As Prologue

The 2020-23 Eclipses moved us all in new directions, reorienting wherever we have Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius in our charts. All Eclipses are “Cosmic recyclers,” removing what is obsolete in our lives. These losses clean out psychic and physical spaces so we can find new life substance. Due to what we’ve eliminated the past 4 years we now have a wider view of our life and the Life around us as humanity begins a new 20 year Aquarian era.

As you know from other articles, 2020 was the last year of a 200 year Earth era, with Air power building that year launching a 200 year Air era on the December Solstice with Jupiter conjuncting Saturn at 1 Aquarius. However, we will still be “under the beams” of the powerful conjunctions in Capricorn, since between January and March 2020 we began new Saturn/Pluto, Jupiter/Pluto, Mars/Jupiter, Mars/Pluto, and Mars/Saturn cycles. The first of these launched a new 33 year era into motion.

Due to these conjunctions in late Capricorn and both Mars/Saturn and Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions at 1 Aquarius, as well as several very important conjunctions since then at the same degree, we are in a long term period of finding wisdom by understanding transfiguration and enlightenment as verbs rather than nouns. We’ve now officially taken the first step into the coming Aquarian era.

While this is not yet “The Age of Aquarius,” this is the final intensification of those energies which will sprout seeds in the second quarter of the century which will take us across the threshold of the Great Age soon after 2050. And to note, there will be plenty of people and ideas from the Age of Pisces which will continue into the next century as part of the bridging process from past to future as humanity discovers new Aquarian ideas and sheds old Piscean ones.

Planetary Distribution

At this Full Moon, the inner planets have already begun to move into the occupied outer planet span. We now have all the planets in 6 signs with a wide and somewhat random distribution. We have all the planets between Sagittarius, Aquarius, Pisces, Taurus, Gemini, and Leo.

This creates a situation where we have planets occupying places between Mercury at 7 Sagittarius around to Mars at 6 Leo, with an open empty span of 120+ degrees, creating a classic “Locomotive” Jones pattern.

So What is a “Locomotive Pattern” and how does it work?

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying 2/3 of the signs with an empty third, creates an imbalance that leads to power if we can find the compensatory “weight” to make things move forward smoothly rather than rock side to side creating friction. Target what is needed, and provide compensatory energies accordingly.

As Marc Jones put it, “this type of horoscope reveals a balance of this sort in the life. A third part of things… consisting of a free span in experience, is set against a two-thirds part, embracing a related but limited span in experience…. The basis of the dynamic is found in the native’s resulting strong sense of a lack or a need, of a problem to be solved, a task to be achieved in the social and intellectual world around him.”

Dr. Jones states “The temperament reveals a self-driving individuality, an executive eccentricity that is not … unbalance but rather is power. It exhibits a dynamic and exceptionally practical capacity which is neither the broad universality of the Splash pattern, nor the special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience characteristic of the Bundle people.

He goes on to state “The Locomotive classification is … moved more by external factors in the environment than by aspects of its own character. The point of application for the powers of the self is shown … by the “leading planet,” or the one of the two in the empty trine which forms its aspect clockwise in the zodiac, irrespective of any distinction as “applying” or “separating.”

Mercury at 7 Sagittarius is the leading point on a degree of “the happiness which awaits everyone willing to accept fullness” and “a call to love’s feast.” This shows we must open to the spontaneity of Sagittarius energies at the counterpoint degree of the emotional and social level of “abstraction.” This entry to the Locomotive tells us we are now opening to a new freedom, a new adventure, a turning point of leaving lesser things behind as a result of our Mercury retrograde review we’ve just completed.

With Mars in Leo closing the Locomotive, we’ll finish experience with a sense of heart power as we admire differences and avoid heated confrontations. This can undo previous fixed patterns around resistance rather than acceptance, refusal rather than admiration of differences. While there’s still polarization, it’s only a preparation to move the next level of our Aquarius group work forward in late April. So we open with a new freedom to love and to embrace an adventure “being called to love’s feast” and finish with actions which express our creativity or heart knowing.

As the Locomotive keeps things out of balance, Mercury stationary direct in Sagittarius is now the front end to finding the way of initiating activity that must be accompanied by a compensatory “weight” to keep things moving forward rather than sideways. The empty span gives the clues. The more we work with the imbalances by making efficient, energy saving reorganizations, finding a balanced perspective on the transfigurations in motion, and eliminate toxic feelings and responses while moving away from these in others, the easier it will be to navigate the imbalances in this pattern.

What is needed is Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio energies to complete the empty span. Accept the opportunity to see what’s core and what’s peripheral, educate and/or be educated, any transfiguration of forms and “repair work” which needs to be done. Then focus, eliminate, open, and see a wider view. As we find the appropriate ways to channel the spontaneity of Mars in Leo, and then move into healthy Virgo, Libra and Scorpio expression, we’ll naturally find ourselves at the next Sagittarian entry into the next phase of experience.

This leads with emotional and social abstraction and closes with emotional and social combustion. Because the leading edge is Sagittarian Fire, approach experience with humor, openness, and a willingness to experiment with different approaches and interpretations. With Leo Fire closing, our experience should lead us to expressing our heart, our playfulness, or our creativity.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?

No, and blessedly, will never be a factor activating the collective for the rest of our lives. This was a 30 year phenomenon which has now passed out of orb, and we are finally back to Neptune sextile Pluto and the coming Uranus sextile Neptune and trine Pluto. The spiritual field has shifted for the better!

If you want to know more about this hard edged Special Evolutionary configuration in play for three decades, I created an article which sums up the three versions of the Grand Irrationality in play during those years. I discuss what it is and which zones of the zodiac have been most impacted and when. You can find all you need to know about this configuration associated with widespread irrationality and hard-edged “forks in the road of destiny” we’ve all confronted at various times by going to The Grand Irrationality is Over (1993-2023).

This evolutionary configuration has been activated over the years when any planet moved through any of the hot zones of the configuration. However, even though it’s ended remember that almost everyone on Earth born the past 30 years has this in their charts! And all the eclipses these past years have also had it, including previous eclipses which are still active. So we’ll still have it working in the background for years to come. I’ll speak more about the aspects in part 3 when I cover the special configurations.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

We are now solidly in the long voyage of Saturn’s transit of Pisces. While in Aquarius 2021-2022 it taught us shortcuts to illumination and instructed us in the wise use of spiritual energies and the spiritual power of gratitude and appreciation. Now we’ve been learning about compassion and forgiveness in Pisces, and now must show courage in focusing our spiritual power. Just be centered as you flow with the universal current.

Saturn, ruler of our Capricorn and Aquarius sectors and any natal or progressed planets we have in those signs, is now stationary direct and transiting the span between 13 and 20 Pisces for the third time over the next few months. Between June 2024 and March 2025 we’re finding what nourishes us after our metaphoric “day of labor is done.” At this time, we are encouraged to find a new “skin of personality,” or “camouflage” so we may do what we have to do without being exposed to aggressive social elements.

Because the Saturn semisquare Pluto continues to be active, if you’re confused by a swirl of activity around you, do not look outside yourself for guidance; BE the way-shower, BE the pathfinder you need to translate your compassion into functional understanding within the new role you’ve been playing since January. Go deep within to know what to do and when. Keep using Saturn’s patience to flow into spiritual growth through “feeling-knowing.”

Because of Jupiter's dance with Saturn, they're competing for dominance. Jupiter in Gemini is opening new ideas, new perspectives, and new adventures even as it finds new ways to break free of any Saturnine ambivalence. Jupiter should help us let go of a lot of ghosts of the past during the next 4 months, so embrace the adventure!

Though Saturn can feel heavy and bring serious life lessons, it is the part of us which can take charge of our lives and destiny by using Saturn’s virtues in the right way and time. Our ability to steer our “ship of personality” into its rightful “role of destiny” has brought us to the threshold of new parts to play on the stage of Life.

Saturn makes favorable aspects to Uranus for many months to come, helping us blend understanding with originality. I explain how Saturn and Uranus work together to awaken us to our Higher Powers so we can embrace our destiny in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give structures so we can find greater awareness and effectiveness. In recent years we learned how to make a greater contribution to our world. Coupled with Uranus having awakened us to a new time, a new way, and a new day, we’re “breaking on through to the other side” into an unfolding Higher awareness.

The book was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life in profound ways.

Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your power to throw off all the attitudes and memories which hold you back from finding and living the life and purpose. If you’ve haven’t already gotten your copy, you can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page on Amazon and this should be all you need to order your copy. It’s also available on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, so if that’s more to your liking, go for it! If you would, whether you’ve gotten the ebook or the paperback, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the more of a boost they give it.

On A Final Note

See you in the near future with parts two and three on this culminating Full Moon which promises freedom, happiness, a new intensification of love, and an ability to move through binding situations by demonstrating graceful rhythmic balance in “pushing off and gliding, pushing off and gliding.” Accept “the mantle of power” if one is offered while continuing to pay your dues and see every death as an omen of rebirth.

Try to relax as much as possible, as this is a hard-edged time. Slow down, and be as non-assertive as possible amidst the heightened tensions of the numerous oppositions in play. Flexibility is a virtue with all the Mutable squares and oppositions in play, as long as you understand that Virgo’s attention to order and details is what is needed to exercise productive power.

Share information, unlock your caged up power, cultivate tendencies to telepathic connections, trust your ancestral wisdom, and take a moment to breathe, being “alertly ready to act” while not falling into distress at not knowing what’s happening next. There will be a lot of friction and tension these next two weeks, be clear about what works and what doesn’t. Postpone, defer, delay, and stave off assertive or aggressive people. Shake off unnecessarily limiting views.

The outer planets maintain the entry into a transition between the old spiritual field and the emergent one, so practice empathy, compassion, intuition, and release all which obstructs your ability to swim in the ocean of collective consciousness. We have begun a “genuine rejuvenation,” a renewal where we can appreciate our mature experience as we find new life, light, and/or love in what is awakening. Just keep in mind we’re all challenged to be as patient and strong of heart as Mars continues to slow in its retrograde period.

Venus is a key player due to it ruling Uranus and sextile to Mercury, ruler of the Moon and Jupiter. Venus encourages us to plan anew, pull back from old projections put on us or those we’ve put on others, shake off disappointments, or see past disappointments in a different light.Be clear in the middle of the confusion, and She should deliver some very pleasing events via Her forming trine to Jupiter.

If you want to know more about your Venusian power to shape your likes and affections into enjoyable interactions and friendships, please consider getting a copy of my book The Magic of Venus: Friendships, Soul Mates, and Twin Flames. It is the most comprehensive book on Venus ever written, and explains why we attract who we do and how to create more satisfying relationships in the future. You will understand the foundations of long term healthy relationships and friendships, why Soul Mates come into our lives, and how to dance with your inner Beloved and mirror that to your world.

And now, a bit of final backstory to where we are today.

A View of How We Got Here

Where we have late Capricorn and early Aquarius in our chart is the focus of future decades due to a tremendous number of important conjunctions there in 2020 and 2021. The compressions in Capricorn led us to personal power and very long wave cycles showing our work for years to come.

We’ve entered a new chapter in our spiritual journey at a fork in the road of our collective destiny. 2020 was about forging our connection with the World Soul, our Wisdom, and our greater dedication. 2021 began the new era in our lives. We’re all wiser than we used to be, have been given ample opportunities to value our heart connections with our friends, and display the vaster spiritual awareness we share with our Brothers and Sisters.

See you soon with parts two and three on this Full Moon which will bring us to a new way to understand life’s passages, and the value of patience in receiving what we were promised long ago. We’re now consolidating a lot, preparing to slow down through February while taking a look back at what we’ve accomplished this year in our new land, new life, and new understanding. A new era began with our seeing the “white dove flying over troubled waters,” showing us a new time, new way, and new day is upon us. You can find out more how all signs are affected by going to Jupiter Conjunct Uranus at 22 Taurus in April 2024 – How Are All Signs and Planets Affected?

Next up, Sabian Symbols, evolutionary configurations, and other important chart factors.

This article explains past, present, and future compressions, where they fall, and who they affect. The Great Compressions of early 2020, 2021, and 2022

This one explains the January 2020 compression and the multiple conjunctions setting themes for decades! The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson

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