Tomorrow’s Full Moon arrives mid afternoon, which means the Moon will appear full both tonight and tomorrow.
If you live where you can see this Full Moon, or can get to a place where the Moon is visible, try to make that happen.
Our July Full Moon is a supermoon, the third in a row and the biggest and brightest of the series.
The Moon appears larger in the sky because she is close to the Earth. Close to us. To our emotions, drives, desires. To the pain we carry. All of which happens in our bodies.
This Full Moon in Capricorn opposes the Sun in Cancer, the Moon’s home sign. Traditionally, Cancer and Capricorn, ruled by the Moon and Saturn, can be seen as Mom and Dad, the guiding lights of the “traditional” (I have traditional in quotes here) nuclear family.
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In Cancer, the Moon mother is nurturing. She creates the home, feeding and supporting the family. In Capricorn, the Saturnian Dad goes out into the world of work and money and power to strive and achieve and bring home good things for the family. When home, Saturn Dad is the task master. The disciplinarian. The one who instills the values of hard work and patience.
OK so far, but how many homes and families are really like this? How many were ever like this?
The patterns surrounding this Full Moon will have us diving deep into this very question.
The Moon is conjunct Pluto, a strong, applying conjunction. The Sun sits between Mercury and Ceres. The Sun opposes Pluto as well as the Moon. The Moon opposes Mercury and Ceres as well as the Sun.
Neptune in Pisces trines the Sun, Ceres, and Mercury and sextiles the Moon and Pluto.
Uranus and the North Node trine the Moon and Pluto, while sextiling the Sun, Ceres, and Mercury.
Eris, the chaos goddess who reminds us of the challenges our world faces these days, squares the Full Moon, creating a T-square.
There’s more. The Moon, Mercury, and Ceres are all out of bounds. In other words, they have traveled beyond the celestial latitude of the Sun. All three are free agents, behaving as they choose, perceiving and expressing things beyond the norm, outside expectations.
We feel the potency of this Full Moon. Let’s explore the dynamics.
Pluto is power. The power to disrupt, reveal, alchemize, transform. Pluto rules what is hidden and can serve to bring what we cannot see, or refuse to see, forward in a way that cannot be denied. This is generally not comfortable. Sometimes downright dangerous. It’s also part of life.
We all have Pluto somewhere in our charts. When Pluto sits with the Moon, we feel the presence of power in our bodies. We become wary. We don’t like to sit with our back to the door. We’re also good at sussing out where power actually lies. Who has it and who does not. Who can be trusted.
Pluto and the Moon in this chart are ruled by Saturn, suggesting that Plutonian revelations might focus on Saturnian things like the structures of power in the world, highlighting the difference between what we are expected to believe and how things actually work.
Let’s revisit that traditional model of Cancer and Capricorn in the nuclear family. And here let’s remind ourselves that Capricorn, in the traditional Greek system, in a feminine sign. This is an Earth sign, cardinal Earth, a receptive, grounded energy.
Does that seem odd for Saturn’s home place? If so, maybe we’ve gone too far in identifying Saturn and Capricorn only with business and political structures. Getting back to basics (Pluto loves getting back to basics), Capricorn is the ground of all of our structures. Cardinal signs initiate. They start things.
If Taurus plants the seeds and tends their growth. If Virgo focuses in on key details, making sure the scaffolds supporting growth are appropriate and well built. Capricorn initiates growth itself. Here cells divide, grow, divide again, differentiate. They also die and are absorbed back into the matrix to begin again.
Cancer, cardinal Water, nourishes and supports. Water, blood, sweat, tears, all are Cancerian. The Moon, ruling Cancer, is the matrix. The body. The place where growth and development happen.
Pluto, at this Full Moon, and in the days ahead as the planets perfect their aspects to Pluto, illuminates how all this happens.
Pluto is often disruptive, but this is not an essential quality of Pluto. What Pluto does is highlight the deepest realities. The disruption comes in when the deep truth Pluto reveals doesn’t match the stories we’ve been told–or the stories we tell ourselves. There’s a disconnect, a disjunction, and that’s where dramatic change can happen.
Mercury’s presence might suggest we can more easily perceive and process what Pluto shows us. Except right now,Mercury is not well situated to communicate at all.
The Water signs feel more than they talk. In the sign of Cancer, Mercury helps bring some clarity to what we’re feeling more easily that they can find words to talk about it.
In addition, this Mercury is combust. Already very close to the Sun and hidden in the sky, Mercury reaches cazimi in a few days. Planets this close to the Sun cannot speak out. They are overwhelmed.
Neptune’s presence also intensifies feeling and makes clear perception and communication difficult.
At this Full Moon, we can find ourselves feeling deeply while struggling to articulate what we sense in our bodies. This is ok. Sometimes, it’s essential. Welcome this opportunity to experience with the body, not against, in spite of, or ignoring our physical selves. Feeling comes first. Language can wait a bit.
What are we likely to feel?
If you look to where the axis of the Full Moon falls across your chart, you will see two houses, opposite each other, being activated. These houses represent areas of life where we might feel this Full Moon. Does the Full Moon connect with any of your planets or chart angles? If so, this Moon will feel more powerful and personal.
Considering the wider world (which Capricorn likes to do), there are so many things that might come up.
Questions could include:
• Where are the powerful claiming their actions are justified by tradition?
• Are those traditions real?
• What are the power dynamics underlying claims to tradition, history, and the way things have always been?
• Who stands to gain by making these claims?
• Are the reasons given for these claims consistent with what the claims actually are?
These questions can apply to war and other conflicts. To patterns of systemic discrimination against marginalized groups. As one specific example, to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by a Supreme Court steeped in history, tradition, and power that ignored both legal precedent and actual history in reaching that decision.
Uranus and the North Node point to the chaotic times we live in, when things that seemed secure now are not. When we don’t know what we can count on.
Looping back to the luminaries, Sun and Moon, both in feminine, yin signs, let’s ask what would mama bear do?
Bear Moms are among the most dangerous creatures out there. When her cubs are threatened, she becomes fierce. Her power seems almost unlimited. Yet she is also playful and caring. It all depends on the circumstances.
There is evidence bears have been revered in ancient cultures all across the northern reaches of the Earth. In fact, some suggest bears were honored by Neanderthals as all as cultures we know today. Mother bears, recognized as powerful, are also associated with healing.
As the United States experiences its Pluto Return, we see the rank underbelly of power in this country. We’re given graphic evidence of how far those in power will go to retain it, and how far others will go to support them, if it seems in their interest.
It’s tough. These are difficult times. And at this Full Moon, I suspect that in the face of displays of power, we are likely to feel our own visceral response. Sometimes that response is fear and a lack of power.
Yet something else might happen. We, individually and collectively, may wake up to realize we have more power than we thought. We may feel the presence of deeper traditions of protection and care than the claims of “we’ve always done it this way” which are in fact not even true.
Use this time to center and ground yourself in your body. Seek for what is deeply true and authentic for you, without pushing to put it into words yet. This deep knowing will provide a solid structure for moving into the times ahead.
Title adapted from Marc-Olivier Jodoin