The Sagittarius Full Moon occurs at 4.12 am on Friday 13th June 2014. As the Sun in Gemini disperses us into all directions, the Sagittarius Moon asks that we take a look at the bigger picture. Here we have Gemini diversifying energy together with the big picture and greater perspective. Sagittarius likes to look into the distant horizon. Gemini likes to look at what is right in front and close up.
On a superficial level, there’s a tendency to talk about what we want, and perhaps talk too much, rather than taking real steps towards making things happen. Mercury is also retrograde now until 1st July – although wait longer than that to make big decisions or sign contracts, as it will still in in the shadow period for a while. More on Mercury later.
We have quite a complex array of aspects so to help delineate: Moon quincunx Jupiter, Venus opposite Saturn with Chiron trine to Saturn and sextile to Venus, Moon conjunct centaur Pholus.
Firstly the Moon in Sagittarius is making a quincunx to Jupiter in Cancer. A quincunx aspect essentially means the signs occupied have zilch in common; they are of irreconcilable elements, different polarities, and different modalities. In the case of Sagittarius and Cancer, we have fire with water, yang with yin, and mutable with cardinal. With no common ground they can’t communicate. It’s like two warring couples who no matter what can’t find any shared ground to agree.
If you are feeling any vague or palpable inner or outer sense of this in your life right now, this full moon will help highlight this so you can get more clarity on it. The feeling this generates within is that you are somehow being suspended between two very different worlds or ideas – possibly potential future worlds, both of which you want or feel you must satisfy, but if you fulfil one world, the other is lost or sacrificed.
This potentially manifests through what we might recognise as over thinking, over-analysing or nasal glazing, as every option seems untenable or impossible to fully commit to. Perhaps there’s a sense that something needs to give, even possibly a cherished dream. It’s helpful to remember that sometimes when we let go of something, or give up the fight, it comes to us easier or in a different way. That’s not always the case, sometimes we need to fight for things too, but it might be that you need to give up the fight and let time do it’s magic. This is especially the case if we aren’t quite ready for things, and we can’t quite see that as we want it so dearly. It might feel like an unfair choice is being forced upon us, but at some deeper level, it’s just perfect the way it is right now – we probably just need to mature in some way.
With a quincunx there’s always the sense that what’s on both sides just cannot be together, the feeling of being divided and pulled in two different, incompatible directions, feeling unable to make a decision. So finding a solution between these two realms of Moon – personal, home, feelings, motherhood, nurturing, and Jupiter – expansion, dreams, philosophy, teaching, is tough.
There’s no set rule for resolving this tension. This full moon, particularly since our priorities and needs are in the spot light, might raise uncomfortable feelings – the full moon is the domain of feelings and needs anyway, and ironically these feelings might be preventing us from connecting with the greater perspective held within these themes.
Sagittarius isn’t interested in personal safety and needs, which the Moon represents, it wants openness to possibility and miracles. If we get too caged in by a consensus reality view point, the subjective world of the Moon, that pulls and tugs us this way and that, then we forget that at a deeper level, or more detached level perhaps, everything can connect and be at one with each other.
On an essence level, where everything is connected, these two distinctly different realms might be more compatible than we initially think. For example you have your plans, desires and dreams (Sagittarius), then there’s other desires or needs, for example, being a mother (Moon). Seemingly incompatible worlds, how can we be a mother and teach, but when you start thinking about it, somehow occupying one for a time might be supporting the development of the other, one side provides the other with deeper growth so that both sides/parts are somehow more whole. With quincunxs we need to drop into an essence level type of thinking of these two worlds a little more and connect with a deeper understanding of how these two realms might need each other.
There’s need for more flexibility too with the quincunx. True, we can’t have all we want, but we can have all we need. We forget this, so allowing a degree of flexibility is helpful. But we also need to journey beyond flexibility, which can imply that we are uncomfortably sacrificing one thing for another. But before we go there, we need to learn to be flexible with our thinking. While approaching both sides flexibly and getting more interested, something the Gemini Sun supports, you might begin to sense the underlying compatibility. There’s always more depth and possibility within a quincunx aspect than on first appearance.
So somewhere along the line its helpful to loosen our grip on the linear thinking, rational mind, which creates polarisation. Which is handy since Mercury is retrograde which makes linear processing less available to us. Mercury retrograde periods allow us to connect with a more creative, sensitive part within. It’s time for the rational brain to sleep a little more so we are given the opportunity to flex other channels of understanding, which the right brain inspires.
Now, we can sense and perceive things through different eyes, from a more inwardly connected place and this gives us new information that inspires us to reconsider, re-examine and recreate our lives anew. With Mercury retrograde we are offered access to a more creative, inward experience of what’s really right for us, through a deeper congruence with the body and the earth.
The Moon is also in mutual reception with Jupiter. That means we have a situation of reversed rulership, where in this case the Sagitarrius Moon is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter in Cancer, ruled by the Moon. The planets are in some way magically allied, reflecting similar issues, that might not on the surface be so apparent. So ask more questions of any dilemmas you feel cast in. If you have any personal planets at 22 degrees, or close to that (21 or 23) then this quincunx aspect will particularly apply to you, but all of us to some degree will tangibly feel like there’s areas of our lives that simply can’t be together.
The other aspect pattern occurring at this full moon is Venus opposite Saturn, with Chiron trine to Saturn and sextile to Venus. Here the earth/water elements of Venus in Taurus and Saturn in Scorpio help to counterbalance the fire/water of the Moon/Jupiter. Venus opposite Saturn emphasises a certain amount of waiting and realism is in order. Saturn in Scorpio reinforces Venus in Taurus earth even further – saying go deeper with your roots, perhaps even beyond this life, into your ancestral roots, as we will see in a moment.
But the Chiron in Pisces aspect provides us with the spiritual belief that we need within all these other aspects. When you know your dream so intensely and deeply (Sagittarius) then it has to manifest, even if you need to go around the houses first. Feeling thwarted creates frustration with our situation and this creates a whole lot of other things. Whatever the feelings, it’s going to be supportive to follow Mercury retrograde’s advice and take a slow, deep, inward look at where you are.
There’s one more interesting, complex aspect that I wanted to leave till last, and that’s Pholus conjunct Moon. Pholus is one of the Centaurs – and in a nutshell the centaurs mediate between different realms – the more unfathomable transformational processes happen under the centaurs, ones we can’t always understand, contain or put in a box.
Melanie Reinhart’s tagline for Pholus is “the lid that comes off”. Pholus, in contrast to Chiron which describes rather long healing processes, acts piercingly quick when it wants to work with us. In the Pholus myth, and I won’t go into detail as its a long story, Pholus takes the lid off an intoxicating drink whose smell causes all manner of devastation, centaurs die and even Pholus himself accidentally dies.
Here the sacred liquid represents everything Neptunian or 12th house ruled – vague feelings, collective unconscious, everything intangible – the dreaming or ancestral world, chaos, disintegration of the psyche. These are all kept safely sealed (buried within us) in a jar until it’s the right time (fate) for it to be opened. If you put this into the context of our soul journey, its clear that there’s a right time for fate to reveal to us what we are keeping hidden from ourselves and perhaps others.
Our ancestral karma, which is is also humanity’s collective karma, leaks out often without our choice or foreknowledge creating seeming chaos. Pholus urges us to enter into the chaos knowing it will bring disintegration, sometimes even devastation, but ultimately transformation and a new level of awareness. We must trust in this at these times.
Pholus conjunct the moon brings a new level of understanding to the other aspects. He urges us to identify really what in our lives is creating havoc and chaos, and instead of splitting it off in some way, get interested in where it comes from and how we can work with it. Often that which causes chaos is rooted at a deeper level, stemming from misplaced values, a lack of integrity to support to whole, our separation consciousness – all of which we must own collectively.
This doesn’t mean that the lid might come off in our lives so that all manner of things can escape, but it could mean that you need to start looking at what you so desperately hide from others and start being honest with yourself. The thing we hide away is what we need to start looking at, so that we don’t get the Pholus experience one day. We create more fear in ourselves and in others when we hide and conceal the darkness within. What is in the light to be examined is no longer so scary.
So the last thing you want other people to see is possibly the thing you need to know most intimately in yourself and perhaps even put on display. Something might need to fall apart and, if you are one of the fortunate people whose ripe and ready for deep healing, perhaps consider welcoming and walking towards it – it’s always the path to freedom, which is what the Sagittarius Moon wants for us too.
