Friday is the Solstice, the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which is marked astrologically when the Sun enters Capricorn. This year, this happens on the calendrical Solstice, which is December 21.
At 5:22 pm EST, the Sun reaches one of the limits of its course, relative to our Earth. The Sun’s declension, a sort of celestial latitude, is 23 degrees 26 minutes South, the farthest it travels in that direction.
In June, the opposite occurs. The Sun reaches 0 Cancer and 23 degrees 26 minutes North. Another limit. In fact, when any planet escapes farther north or south than that, it is said to be “out of bounds” and can behave in wild, uncontrolled, unexpected ways.
These limits of the Sun are inscribed on the Earth (as we humans map things) as the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the two signs of the zodiac that represent limits.
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Capricorn, where the Sun is now, along with Saturn, Pluto, and the South Node of the Moon, represents traditional ideas of authority. This is the sign of hard work, of perseverance and patience, of staying the course. This is the sign of the ruler, the pater familias, and the patriarchy.
Cancer, where the Moon will be when it is Full, is the sign of traditional nurturing. This is the sign of care taking, protecting, supporting, feeding. This is the sign of the mother, the nurse, the caregiver.
These are traditional signs, ones that value the old ways, the ancestors, the tried and true, the already proven. So it’s interesting to realize that these two signs begin when the Sun has gone as far as it can. The territory traversed from 0 Cancer and 0 Capricorn to the end of each of these signs starts at the outer limit and heads back toward the center.
But what happens when, as Yeats said, the center cannot hold? What happens when the ways we have been living no longer meet our needs, the needs of our communities, or the needs of our planet?
We are living through such a time and we don’t know the answer. We know things are changing. We each have ideas about which changes are good and which bad. But we don’t know how things are going to turn out.
At this Solstice Full Moon, we can expect a glimpse. That’s what kind of Moon this one is.
We’re in an intensely Capricornian time and will be for several more years. Saturn entered Capricorn, the sign he rules, in early 2017 and remains through the end of 2019. Pluto continues his long slog through Capricorn, and the Nodes of the Moon are making their way through the solstice pair.
Note, though, that it is the South Node of the past that travels through Capricorn. The North node of the future is in Cancer.
At the Full Moon, both nodes are squared by Uranus and Eris in Aries, who are the ace disrupters of the status quo. These two are actively agitating for change.
It would be easy to paint a picture of a simple flip. Like the opposition of the solstice themselves.
Patriarchy out, matriarchy in. Women in charge for a change, men pushed down as women have been. Easy, maybe, but a cheap shot that doesn’t reflect history (ancient or modern), psychology, mythology, or any of the other ways of knowing we’ve got.
We need, we are looking for, new ways. Mars in Pisces is supporting both Nodes of the Moon right now, flowing easily with the Cancerian North Node and enlivening the Capricornian South Node. But Mars doesn’t like to be in Pisces, which is too diffuse, too foggy, not action oriented enough.
So Mars has some things to learn too. New ways to act and interact. New ways to choose, decide, and move forward.
A Solstice is a liminal place, a threshold. When we step through, we will be in a new place.
Sure, we have solstices each year. These transitions have been tracked with stone monuments that still work after thousands and thousands of years. Tradition!
Yet each turning is subtly and sometimes dramatically different. This is the time of year when Scrooge, confronted by his past, present, and future, declares, “I am not the man I was. I will not be as I have been.”
I believe this Full Moon Solstice offers us an opportunity to recognize the changes we have already made and set a different course for the time ahead.
The Nodes of the Moon have only recently entered Cancer and Capricorn, so that, with the Sun and Moon at 0 and the Nodes at 26, we are presented, in a way, with the full sweep of tradition.
But one practical implication of this is that we are entering a year of eclipses in these two signs. Remember that eclipses are especially intense New and Full Moons. Celestial events that bring the unexpected. That can shock us. Change our course. Change the world.
In fact, the first of these eclipses will be the first New Moon of the new year, a partial solar eclipse on January 5.
The chart for the Full Moon has plenty of Earth and Water, has a strong representation of Fire, and no Air. This suggests that the illumination we experience at the Full Moon will be visceral and emotional rather than verbal or intellectual.
In other words, we will experience feelings, either sensations in our bodies or emotions, or both. What we feel may be difficult to put into words. It’s possible we’re not meant to try, not yet.
Both Cancer and Capricorn are about structure.
Capricorn rules the skeleton and is also concerned with various kinds of infrastructure, the supports that, in various ways, hold us up.
Cancer, which its tough shell and vulnerable insides, is more about the external supports we need. Do we have food, shelter, and people who care for us and look out for our welfare?
At this Full Moon, in the absence of the logical thinking and clear communication that Air brings, perhaps we are meant to feel, physically and emotionally.
Where do we feel secure? Where do we feel vulnerable? How do both of those states—security and vulnerability—feel? Are there times when vulnerability is good, even valuable and necessary? Are there ways in which security is an illusion or a trap?
Maybe our feelings can guide us to new understandings. Maybe our feelings can help us find new ways.
In the year ahead, our traditions and expectations are likely to get shaken up.
As we stand at this Solstice doorway, let’s take this time to settle into our bodies, get really grounded, feel our feet on the earth, our roots reaching deep into the ground.
Let’s also allow emotions. Let’s feel what we feel, not what we’re supposed to feel, or we’re told we should feel, but what emotions are actually arising within us.
As we head into a year of change, we need these anchors, these reference points, of the physical body and the emotional body. We don’t need to talk right now.
I am thinking of Mary Oliver’s poem, Wild Geese. I will borrow some of her phrases from that poem, which I love.
At this Solstice Full Moon, let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Pay attention as the world offers itself to your imagination. In this way, we can see our place in the family of things and from that place, find good ways to move into the uncertain future.
May it be so for all of us.