CANCER FULL MOON / LUNAR ECLIPSE - 10 January 2020
This is an especially potent and powerful Full Moon which is
occurring at an extraordinary moment in time. This Moon peaks only 2 days
before the much anticipated Saturn/Pluto conjunction is at its strongest on
Sunday 12 January. The energy of the conjunction has been building over the
past month and will continue after the 12th, although its strength
will recede with each day afterwards. It is also Eclipse season, which has the
potential to bring a new chapter and a significant shift of some kind. This is the
second of the two Eclipses in the signs of Cancer and Capricorn, the parental
axis. Cancer is the mother, the Matriarchy,
while Capricorn is the father, the Patriarchy. The Moon is very much at home in
her own sign of Cancer, so this Moon could have a particularly strong emotional,
nurturing quality, helping us to access our emotions and truly express what we
are feeling. However, it is very important to note that there is a HUGE
emphasis on Capricorn at the moment, with 6 astrological bodies sitting in this
ambitious, industrious and authoritative sign. As such, we are staring Capricorn
squarely in the face at the moment, which enables us to see and experience both
its darkness and light.
With the North Node currently in Cancer we are being
encouraged to develop our Cancerian qualities and focus more on taking care of
one another and nurturing community spirit and grass root endeavours. Cancer
encourages us to allow ourselves to be more vulnerable, finding the courage to
ask for help, revealing our real emotions and sharing our fears and
insecurities rather than any Capricornian fear-based tendency towards emotional
coldness, putting up walls, stiff upper lip, emotional withdrawal, shutting one
another out and acting like we have everything under control. Capricorn is the
part of us that has been taught to suppress and keep our emotions under control,
stuffing them down so we don’t feel, while Cancer helps us to access and honour
them and recognise the needs of our “inner child” and what it is telling us. It
is very important, at this time, to actively and consciously work on this,
keeping our hearts open to one another and recognising when our old Capricornian
conditioning is running the show. It takes considerable courage, trust and
effort to remain open instead of closing down, but it makes all the difference
in the world if we can do so.
With Saturn and Pluto joining forces in Capricorn we are
currently being shown the dark side of Capricorn, in no uncertain terms, both in
our personal lives and on the world stage. We are at tipping point. Issues
around hard control, patriarchal dominance, suppression, repression,
oppression, governmental structures, dictatorship, power, status, greed,
intolerance, borders and boundaries, judgement, extreme conservatism, divide
and rule, fear-based control, exclusivity, tyranny, prejudice and nepotism are
rife at the moment. While the light side of Capricorn has very strict morals
and seeks to obey the rules, the shadow side of Capricorn and the patriarchal
system will do anything in order to gain and maintain control, status and
power. We are seeing evidence of this wherever we turn at the moment. Fear is
rife and can easily be used to control. It is very important for us to
recognise when we are feeling fearful, as it is a very destructive force.
Pluto exposes the rot, while Saturn gives us a very harsh
reality check, and so the darker side of Capricorn is being shown to us,
without any kind of softening filter. Historically, when these two powerful
planets come together there has been some kind of war or threat of war. Pluto
is a powerfully transforming planet which has the potential to bring the dark
side of the system and power structures to light and detoxify them so that
something new can rise up in their place. However, Saturn’s energy may resist
this process and cling on for dear life. An old order is passing away so that something
new can be born, but it won’t go down without a fight! This applies both
personally and collectively. It is better to allow whatever structures,
patterns or habits in our lives that or old and outworn to pass away rather
than holding onto something that simply isn’t working anymore.
Both personally and collectively we are no longer able to
live in denial of the reality of what we are facing. Possibly nothing has
actually changed, rather we are facing the stark reality and being forced to
see things as they really are. This is
extremely helpful, for then we are better able to take responsibility for and
become more accountable for whatever we find. Pluto can help us to empower ourselves
and really get to the bottom of whatever it is that we are confronted with,
leaving no stone unturned! Saturn in Capricorn helps us to slowly and steadily climb
to the top of whatever mountain we are facing, helping us to harness the
necessary discipline, patience, integrity and resilience and to keep our sights
on whatever goal we have set ourselves. The key is to take responsibility for
ourselves, to recognise where and how we can empower ourselves and each other,
to act with maturity and to knuckle down and do whatever work is necessary,
both internally and externally, in order to move past whatever obstacles arise.
We may be asked to make a deeper commitment in whatever area of life that the
conjunction is found.
At the moment when the Saturn Pluto conjunction is exact on
the 12th we also have the Sun, Mercury and Ceres sitting right next to
these two powerful planets, giving us a five planet stellium in Capricorn. The
Sun, Ceres, Saturn and Pluto are sitting at 22° Capricorn, while Mercury is one
degree ahead at 23° Capricorn. This is incredibly powerful! With the Sun
involved this powerful stellium has the potential to bring into question our
very purpose in life and how we express ourselves in the world.
Mercury’s involvement means that it is important to be
careful what we say during this time and mindful in terms of what we hear or
listen to, as it could be extreme. Mercury in Capricorn can be quite hard-nosed
and deliver some harsh blows, not to mention forcing us to confront reality and
potentially making us a bit rigid in our thinking. Mercury is the planet of
communication, and combined with Saturn
and Pluto and opposing the Moon we could either give or receive some messages
that are psychologically hard to stomach but which may hit the nail on the head
somehow. Indeed, we could have some profound psychological realisations about
how things really are! It is important to watch out for power games, mind
control, manipulation and conflicts of opinion. During the Full Moon and
leading up to the conjunction, some very big decisions may need to be made that
could have a far-reaching impact on our lives, both personally and
collectively. It is very important to be mindful in thought and deed, and to
take a step back if we feel upset or over-heated. The Cancer Moon and North
Node remind us to remain open to one another rather than withdrawing
communication or putting the walls up.
Ceres, sometimes known as Mother Earth, is the goddess of
food and agriculture and represents the way we give and receive nurturing. Ceres
(otherwise known as Demeter) was mother to Persephone, who Pluto took a fancy
to and took her away from her Mother to live with him in the underworld. It
seems that Ceres could be quite a controlling, smothering, somewhat
narcissistic mother, so on some level it may have been quite a relief for
Persephone to have some time away from her to become her own person. Ceres’
grief was so severe at the separation from her daughter that in her agony and
mourning she stopped the crops growing, so much so that after a year the human
race was in dire straits and in danger of extinction. The humans started to
lose faith in the Gods, so Jupiter intervened and decreed that Persephone would
spend half the year in the underworld with Pluto and the other half in the
company of Ceres. This is how Summer and Winter were created, for when
Persephone went underground Ceres went into mourning.
With Ceres being so closely tied in with the Saturn Pluto
conjunction, we are receiving a heavy dose of reality in the areas of life that
she represents. Ceres represents the mother daughter bond and/or lack of it,
highlighting issues around control and the need to break free. She also represents the ancestral inheritance
and genes we receive through the maternal line. She represents agriculture, food
supplies and lack of it. Ceres has a correlation with the overall well-being of
ordinary people, and is a very important symbol of the spirit and practice of
democracy. She represents deep loss, grief, separation, death of a loved one
and bereavement. She also represents the natural cycles of life, both in the seasons
and in the cycle of birth, life and death, the Maiden, the Mother and the
Crone. Her story points out that Persephone actually didn’t mind being with
Pluto in the underworld, which could help us to see our own shadows and
“underworld” in a different light. These are all issues that are being
highlighted and brought to our attention at the moment, especially as Pluto
himself is involved with this conjunction!
We are currently being asked to really step up to the plate
and become accountable for whatever we are facing in our lives. And some of
this is not easy material to face. We could be faced with some very big
decisions, as we are asked somehow to make a deeper commitment as a new chapter
begins. It is Eclipse season, which is a profound time of endings and beginnings
and signifies a big shift in consciousness. The Moon/Eclipse could definitely
bring things to a head for us emotionally and within our relationships, which
ultimately could be exactly what we need, as challenging as it may seem at the
time. Saturn and Pluto are forcing us to recognise things as they really are,
not as we would like them to be. There is the potential for darkness here, but
it is important to remember that there is no shadow without equal amounts of
light. In fact, the brighter the light shines the darker the shadow seems in
comparison. It is very important to be mindful, conscious and aware of our
actions and reactions during this period of time, especially in the face of
adversity.
It does indeed feel like we are at tipping point, on many
levels; a karmic time of reckoning, when we reap what we have sown. It’s Judgement
day! Old, entrenched patterns and our “armour” are being broken down and the
process could be painful. How we respond to it all, however, is the most
important thing. The Cancer North Node and Moon asks us to keep our hearts open
and to honour our emotions rather than stuffing them down and shutting each
other out. And if we can take anything from Capricorn, it is to always act from
a place of maturity and integrity. Choose love, not fear.
Much Love
Amy
xoxo
Image: Inner Child sculpture from Burning Man
My website: www.amybirdartandastrology.com
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