Tomorrow (Monday) we reach the Full Moon in Cancer, which aligns with the ongoing Mars–Pluto opposition.
This Full Moon also trines and sextiles the outer planets Neptune and Uranus, as well as the Nodes of the Moon, while also squaring Chiron.
The Cancerian Full Moon is illuminating weighty matters that relate to how we act in the world, what motivates us, and how we feel about these things.
This all happens in the context of a present and future that carry more and more weight of their own, in a time when so much is changing and so much feels at risk.
All of these planets and points are at the ends of their signs, signaling a time of culmination and change. The one exception is Pluto at the beginning of Aquarius, lighting the way into our uncertain future.
The Sun rules the last face of Capricorn, a place of power and dominion. In this decan, we have a chance to claim our rightful place in the world and shine there.
The Moon rules the last face of Cancer, also powerful in desiring and acquiring everything she needs for herself and her family.
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Mars, not well placed in the last decan of Cancer, feels hunger for what he cannot have, or perhaps sees himself as the victim of others who take things from him.
This is, however, a retrograde Mars who just reentered Cancer from Leo, where he stationed retrograde. So we’re in the midst of a reflective period with Mars that contrasts the regal strengths of Leo with the emotionally-motivated desires of Cancer.
Adding another layer of intensity is the fact that the Moon, Mars, and Mercury are all out of bounds and aspecting each other by declination, which measures distance from the celestial equator.
The Moon and Mars are parallel, one degree apart and north of the celestial equator. This is like a conjunction, so, already heightened emotions and energies now head off in odd or unusual directions. We could feel more determined, aggressive, or passionate in good or problematic ways.
The Moon and Mars are contra-parallel Mercury, which is like an opposition. Mercury, now in pragmatic Capricorn, wants to be sure our actions are well grounded–while now being willing to explore new and unusual territories.
Pluto in the first face of Aquarius bears the mark of exile, sometimes an unwilling or forced exile, but sometimes a chosen path that feels appointed or destined. We may indeed be on journeys to strange places.
With these patterns, we actively explore what it means to have power, to have the strength and the right to acquire what we want and need, and how we feel about it all.
These patterns invoke the archetype of the hero, a path that brings us into knowledge and skill, and potentially wisdom and achievement.
There are many kinds of heroes, though. This Full Moon in Cancer illuminates the hero who is a protector, whose drive is based in love and connection.
Sometimes, feeling a need to protect our own leads us to be against others who are not really enemies at all, but only those we don’t know, don’t understand, and perhaps don’t like.
One potential for this Full Moon is a chance to see beyond the limits of our caring, and consider a wider view of family, and how we can best take care of those we love.
Being heroic in this personally-motivated way can look like the Chinese heroine Mulan, the daughter who hides who she is to become a soldier to help defend her homeland.
Or Sarah Connor, who plays a heroic role in the Terminator series. Sarah begins her quest to defend her son, but over time develops the skills and commitment to defend all of humanity.
Historical figures like Boudicca queen of the Iceni in ancient Britain, took arms against the Romans to defend her family and tribe. Then her actions became a wider rebellion against imperial Rome.
Fighting is certainly something that appeals to Mars, but is not the only path to becoming a hero who defends home and family.
There are quieter heroes.
Rosa Parks was a seamstress whose action in refusing to give up her seat on a bus helped spark a nationwide Civil Rights Movement.
Or Ruby Bridges, whose quiet heroism began when she was six years old. Ruby was the first black child to attend a whites-only school in Louisiana, where she needed to be escorted each day by federal marshals who walked her past a crowd of people shouting hateful insults at this little girl.
Raoul Wallenberg was a special envoy from Sweden to Hungary during World War II. He quietly issued passports to Jewish families, helping thousands escape persecution and death. He disappeared during the war, and is thought to have perished in a Soviet prison.
But actions motivated by strong emotions can be problematic. We can seek to harm people who are no danger to us because we see them as a threat. Or actions motivated by revenge may become difficult to justify beyond our own narrow view of “what we needed to do”
Medea, a tragic figure in Greek myth, killed her own children after her husband Jason betrayed her. Arya Stark, one of the most popular characters in Game of Thrones, is largely motivated by revenge, preparing herself by seeking out training as an assassin.
These are dramatic examples. Yet they represent the forces at play in this Full Moon in Cancer.
What are we called to do, in this time in history? What inspires us, or impels us, to act in certain ways?
Uranus at the end of Taurus trines and sextiles the Full Moon. This last decan of Venus’ sign of fixed Earth is a place where we face squarely into the misfortunes of the world.
Taurus is a sign of slow, careful growth, of investing carefully, of tending what we have. Yet in this last decan we can experience the ways larger forces of, say, climate change can destroy what we’ve so carefully built.
Mercury, contra-parallel the Moon and Mars, and so also a player in this Full Moon, is in the first face of Capricorn. Here we understand what “place” can mean. We have a chance to learn about where we are in the world. Are we in the right place? What is the lay of the land here?
We find Neptune and the North Node of the Moon at the end of Pisces, trining and sextiling the Full Moon. This is a place of wild dreams and crazy quests that take us far from the familiar in search of — of what? What inspires such journeys if not something or someone we love?
At the end of Pisces, we can risk it all and succeed beyond our wildest dreams, or fail spectacularly.
If these images feel extreme, it’s because they are. Most of us lead much quieter lives in which we hope to find purpose and happiness without confronting huge challenges or major issues.
We find Venus and Saturn conjunct in mid Pisces. The middle decan of Pisces is a place where we look for balance between our ideals, our biggest goals, and the reality of things–which is pretty much what we’d expect with a Venus–Saturn conjunction–the intersection of our dreams and the reality of our lives.
These two square Jupiter in mid Gemini, which is a place of learning to live with contradiction. Gemini is always about dualities of all kinds.
Perhaps we ordinary folk resonate more with the balancing act that Venus and Saturn square Jupiter represent.
Yet whatever the facts of our lives are today, this Full Moon is likely to bring up emotions that are intense and far-reaching.
Even if we and our families–which includes found and chosen families as well as birth families–even if we all are currently safe and well, we have only to glance at the news to know that others are not. We live in sobering times.
Yet this Full Moon is not about feeling bad. It’s certainly not about despair, or giving up, giving in. This Full Moon invites us to feel, to explore the emotional landscapes of what it takes to be a hero.
Heroism can sometimes be one small action that sparks something larger, or saves something or someone, or somehow shifts the balance in a way that allows something good to survive and grow.
How might each of us take heroic action? What do we most wish to safeguard? How do we feel about this? Because the fact is, in the right circumstances, we all can be heroes, even if just for one day.
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