CAPRICORN FULL MOON / LUNAR ECLIPSE - 16 July 2019

Exact at 10.38pm BST, 5.38pm EDT

Eclipse season is well and truly upon us with this powerful, transforming and potent Full Moon/Eclipse in Capricorn! There could be a high degree of emotional intensity accompanying this Moon, with our emotions rising like the tides and swelling like the waves. Eclipses can bring major endings and beginnings, whereby one chapter ends and another begins.  With the North Node currently in Cancer, the theme of this Eclipse season is on us finding a sense of home and belonging and finding our roots. This can, of course, mean uprooting! We are being prompted to contemplate and even make big decisions around what truly nourishes us and what represents home. The last Eclipse, on 2 July, would have started the process off, and this one calls us to bravely face our fears and make a deeper commitment to whatever decisions we made then. This Moon is in Capricorn, after all! Capricorn is the sign of responsibility, commitment, maturity, integrity, discipline and control, so these are all issues and themes that could come up for us during this time.

The Cancer/Capricorn polarity is very much in the spotlight at the moment, with the onus on us all to find some balance between the energy of the two signs. During this 18 month period, from November 2018 until May 2020, we are invited to leave some of the less desirable qualities of Capricorn behind.  Do we have a need to maintain a sense of control to feel safe? How are our behaviour and decisions still influenced by our conditioning, or by fear? Do we tend to suppress our emotions rather than allowing others to see we are hurt or in need or help? Do we tend to put up a capable front, holding it all together rather than allowing others to see that we are struggling?  How might we allow the sense of responsibility to weigh us down and hold us back? Do we tend to retract, withdraw or put walls up out of fear? Ultimately we are not in control, so holding on too tightly or trying to steer from a place of fear doesn’t allow us to flow in the right direction and can cause us to make the wrong decisions. Likewise, sometimes our sense of duty and responsibility can go too far and cause us to take on more than is healthy for our emotional wellbeing.

The Cancer North Node shows us that we don’t have to shoulder everything on our own and that is ok to admit when we can’t cope or need help. It is far better to share our feelings and risk being a bit vulnerable rather than putting up walls and pushing people away because we are scared. People love to feel needed anyway, and a problem shared is a problem halved!  While Capricorn represents societal expectations, our career, outer success and the “rat race”, Cancer invites us to contemplate what we need for our emotional wellbeing; what nourishes us and makes us feel fulfilled and whole on the inside. What is true success in terms of being a human being, when you take societal expectations and pressures out of the equation? Is it measured by the job we do and the things we own, or by the love that surrounds us, our quality of life and our relationships? What is more important to us? Are we supposed to work all the hours of the day and not have enough time to spend with our loved ones? How can we better take care of our needs and nurture ourselves more? Indeed, how might we soften a bit and allow others to take care of us too?

Venus in Cancer is sitting right next to the North Node during this Moon. Eclipses involve the Nodes of the Moon and signify an important time in our destiny, so any planet sitting on the North Node of the Moon will help to pull us forward on the path to our true destiny.  This destiny is also linked to the sign and house that hold the North Node in our natal chart, as they represent what our soul yearns for in order to grow in this lifetime.  However, we also resist that which we yearn for, as it calls for us to step out of our familiar South Node tendencies and patterns.

With Venus, the planet of love, attraction, beauty and relationship activating the North Node, there is a sense that love will show us the way. Ultimately if we act and make decisions based on love, rather than fear, we are bound to be guided in the right direction. Interestingly enough, Saturn is sitting on the South Node, as is Pluto, making us all too aware of the old patterns that might hold us back from moving forward and keep us bound by fear. It couldn’t be clearer – do we choose fear or love? Do we stay in our old patterns and make decisions from a place of fear and contraction or do we open our hearts and trust that we are being guided in the right direction?

Luckily Neptune is lending a helping hand with a harmonious trine aspect to Venus, which helps us to put our faith and trust in love and go with the flow. Neptune helps us to see past each other’s walls and protective barriers and relate to one another’s true spirit and essence.  While Saturn on the South Node could cause us to get stuck in fear, desperately clinging to a rock in the river out of a need to maintain a sense of being in control, Neptune is the water that simply allows us to flow gracefully around whatever obstacles may be in the path until we get to wherever we need to go. And sometimes what looks like a disaster is actually a blessing. We are invited to see the magic, beauty and wonder of life and trust the process, no matter where it may lead us. We are encouraged to open our hearts, let go and see where the flow of the river may take us. Neptune and Venus urge us to surrender and to allow our hearts to show us the way.

It is very interesting that we have Mercury Retrograde at the same time as Eclipse season. While some of us may be experiencing big shifts and changes as a result of the Eclipses, Mercury encourages us to reflect on our process and any decisions we may be making, and to consider all of the implications. We are asked to take a step back and make sure we have all the information we need, dotting our “I”s and crossing our “T”s before Mercury goes direct on 31 July. It is important that we make an effort to be very open and clear in our communication, so that we avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. When Mercury shifts back into Cancer on Thurs 19 July, we may be prompted to consider the emotional implications of whatever we are currently facing. It is all part of the process, and sometimes it is very important to go back over the same ground in order to solidify things and make sure that we have looked at it all from every angle. There may be something important that we haven’t noticed; a missing piece to the puzzle. Similarly, while Mercury Retrograde can cause delays, often there is a very good reason for it that may reveal itself later as a gift.

The Nodes of the Moon certainly are getting a lot of action at the moment! With Pluto, Saturn and the Moon all straddling the South Node, representing the past and the old, entrenched, familiar patterns, habits and fears, there is a sense of us having no choice but to face ourselves and to see these old patterns exactly as they are. However, we may still find ourselves in their grip if we are not careful. Luckily Venus and the Sun in Cancer are on the other end, next to the North Node, calling us home and helping us to take a leap forward in our destiny. Pluto and the Moon are sitting very close together during this Eclipse, which could bring up some very intense and powerful emotions and compulsions  for us to contend with which come from a very deep place inside of us. This has the potential to be a deeply transforming Full Moon and Eclipse, helping us to face some of our more deeply entrenched emotional patterns and confront our greatest fears. Capricorn invites us to commit deeply to the process and to take responsibility for actions and responses from a place of maturity and integrity. The only control we have is over our own response to whatever comes across our path.

Much Love

Amy

Xoxo

Picture: Elbow River Rocks 4 by Madeleine Arnett

My website: www.amybirdartandastrology.com