We have a Full Moon in the first degree of Taurus on 24th October 2018 at 5.45 pm. There’s a huge presence of planets in Scorpio with the Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. The Full Moon in Taurus is conjunct Uranus which is making it’s way back into Aries having spent the Summer in Taurus. The Sun is preparing to form a rare conjunction with Venus (with Venus still retrograde). The Lunar Nodes at the cusp of Leo, are all this of this, forming a T-square, getting ready to move into Cancer (in early November).
Next week has a lot happening astrologically with Venus forming an exact conjunction with the Sun, known as an interior conjunction. This is where Venus passes between the Earth and Sun and all three align together. This is a rare astrological event, but particularly potent because it is also forms a challenging square to the Lunar Nodes.
At the end of the month (29th-30th) Mercury forms a conjunction with Jupiter, which also makes a flowing trine to Chiron and the Lunar Nodes. This altogether forms a supportive grand water trine, hopefully a release point of all the challenging energies experienced throughout October.
The focus is on relationship, connecting, joint resources, sexuality and deep intimacy – or lack of. The wider issues draw in that of gender, sexuality, equality and harmony in relationships. But with Venus in Scorpio, it’s sign of detriment, and in retrograde motion, we are experiencing a deeper level, where we are asked to pick up more responsibility for our side, our feelings and how we act. If done with awareness, this can be a very uniquely healing time.
New patterns are trying to emerge, and hopefully by the month’s end some of these will feel clearer, although expect the end of November for things to feel like they are really making sense. At the moment, there is a strong drive for exploring, exposing and exploding stuck patterns of relating to get us connected to more authentic expressions of relating. Use this energy by having couple therapy, taking about the things you usually struggle to talk about.
Uranus’ intensity at this Full Moon acts as an element of surprise or shock into our relationships. This could go either way, but it’s good to pick up that energy and let the energy be expressed. Perhaps with a bit of foreknowledge it can be expressed with awareness, care and consideration of the other, even if in the moment it feels very unexpected.
The presence of Venus retrograde brings into the equation all past relating or relationships also. Usually old lovers or potential lovers return into our lives in one way or another. Perhaps there is something unfinished or more to learn. Perhaps its just an awareness of life themes or patterns of relating being emphasised. Either way it’s good to look to a deeper plane around this relationships. In some ways, they are there to help to reflection process, help us see what we need more or less of and value most in our relationships.
With the square to the Lunar Nodes, there’s a sense of being in between worlds, again, this sense of not being able to make clear decisions, but being forced to follow the deeper process and stay in the present moment. We cannot be sure where we are going, we just know that while a lot is on the table, we can only make decisions according to the present moment and what is available to us right now.
Essentially, this is about being aware of how the past, particularly our past relationships, and/or our karmic history, influences our present relating and choice of relationships. It might feel like we are being asked to choose between one or another or even multiple relationships at this time. It might be that we feel there’s a choice to make, but in actuality there no choice because the conditions do not allow for a choice.
How can we stay with the present level of relating that we are in, with all it’s challenges, obstacles, limitations and lack of fulfilment without spinning off into future or alternative realities or possibilities.
This is part of the dilemma of what it means to be a soul in a human body. We fall back into living in isolation and separation because it’s so much easier than real relating. Because then we don’t get hurt, rejected, betrayed or abandoned.
We need time for ourselves to be by ourselves as that relationship is crucial and the foundation of all other relationships, but if we don’t bring awareness to what holds us back in forming honest, connected, open and trusting relationships, then we are not bringing our spirituality into practise. We are bypassing.
It’s a time to stay with the challenges in our relationships in spite of how they feel, even if they don’t feel entirely right or reflective of who we are right now or growing into. This isn’t to stay we should stay in abusive relationships, or any other relationship that is detrimental to our wellbeing, but there is sometimes a fine line between conditions and circumstances that force us to face our edges and fears in relationships and those that take something away from us.
In many ways, we are transversing that fine line right now. We are in a process of differentiating between what we must stand for as important to us for our relationship happiness and fulfilment, and what is a projection of our own, something we put on, disavow in the other, reject or refuse to accept in the other.
Most of the time we are in a place of projection or rejection. We are aligned with blaming the outside for things not right. This is especially the case if we claim also spiritual awakening. Although even that term is dubious these days. Some of the most enlightened people have no concrete belief in spirit.
We need grounded conversations that allow in feelings and the other, listening, space, awareness and empathy to claim a degree of enlightenment.
We have to drop some of this safety we hide behind in the term of ‘spiritual awakening’, or ‘our truth or knowing’. I hear these terms most frequently applied when someone fears being in relationship with others.
We need to learn how to step into what it means to feel the other, with all their fears, beliefs and values. What is that actually like? Do you listen to how your partner, friend, kid or boss feels about you? This is the place when it starts to get ‘hot’, as our very core identity feels threatened when we allow the other to reflect upon how they feel in relationship to us. It awakens the fear and fury of ego being thwarted on it’s path of differentiation.
This is where we need to drop the idea of separateness, in very real, relating terms. This is ‘oneness’ applied. That we really are the other, as much as we are also not. It’s a heart opening experience to listen to another person without simultaneously listening to your own voice in your head and running to defend yourself.
Much of this current energy is taking us into the places within ourselves where we simultaneously risk losing ourselves but gain accessing more of ourselves. We are looking at who we currently are – which is an amalgamation of past values, beliefs and expectations.
Perhaps it can help if we can pick up the warmth and creativity of the Leo North Node and really decode a bit of what that means. Leo is about presence, engagement, leadership. Leadership though is not ‘me being first’. True leadership is about letting others stand in their values and beliefs and being prepared to hear why. It’s about being prepared to get closer to people, being on the same level, not more separate. To learn how to lead you need to learn how to follow. It’s often a humbling experience when you learn true leadership.
This idea that there’s some destiny that we are stepping into, some ultimate purpose that’s outside of ourselves, that we need to find, is under the spot light. There is no meaning and no purpose outside of what we make it, life will go on with or without us. We are nothing except what we create, this is a big step for humanity to grasp, as well as for us individually. How do you live that?
It feels like it’s about connecting to our deepest nature, whatever has always been there and letting that part create anew each day. As opposed to finding ourselves in some distant future. This all needs to happen especially in our relationships with one another. The more we can go within ourselves and tap into a source that wants to emerge and birth through us the more we are in the flow with the deepest part of ourselves.
Our purpose unfolds slowly, like a good detective novel. Each moment is an opportunity for our purpose to be birthed. It’s not anywhere else. It’s not a goal. It’s a deepening experience of ourselves.
This deepening is about participating and engagement with ourselves, our relationships and the world at large. It doesn’t work for us collectively to be detached observers of all the suffering, as though there’s some truth we know that nobody else who suffers knows. Neither does it work for us to lose ourselves in our suffering, or anyone else’s suffering either.
Being present, feeling, communicating and engaging in our own depth fully supports us to be able to take the other side. When we feel our own pain deeply, we are able to really feel another’s.
At the end of the month, with Mercury-Jupiter forming a conjunction and forming a trine Chiron and the Nodes, the suggestion is that all the sharing and exploration of the depths that’s taken place brings us an opportunity for healing and forgiveness. But don’t hold your breath, the process of healing our relating and relationships is ongoing.
Shortly after that conjunction of Mercury and Jupiter, Venus forms a retrograde opposition to Uranus, which could just as easily bring up another layer of challenge in our relationships – with ourselves and others. So see this as an ongoing process, as all processes are. It’s going to feel full of highs and lows if you try and put the issue in a box and expect an easy answer. See it as a process, stay engaged, participating and keep a level of detachment too.