Full Moon Question: What are you all monkey-minded about? What's the chatter about, anyway?
So one full moon down and one to go. Sorry about the delay, but my own child (whose moon is in Gemini) was a bit loony yesterday. Natch.
As you can expect from a Full Moon in Gemini, those parts of you that respond to mutable themes of adaptability/mobility (any parts of your chart represented by Gemini, Saggitarius --especially-- but also Virgo and Pisces), you might be a bit monkey-minded this week. Full Moons tend to polarize our thinking though, so beware pushing yourself into a mental corner and thinking "no, no, I want this and that but I can only want this..." Why does it have to be one or the other? Oppositions demand we find some mid-point and integrate the two impulses. Otherwise we hurl ourselves from one desire/force to the other --and drive ourselves batty-- or we camp out on one end of the polarity and throw rotten tomatoes at our "other" self, the one we don't want to deal with.
Today's talk about President Obama's Afghasnistan speech is a good example of a Full Moon Gemini moment on a public/nation scale. You have the theme of duality (Gemini) two approaches to the conflict, and then you've got a big moment of awareness with this defining speech (the full moon effect), and then you've got the polarizing debate (Sun/Moon opposition that occurs each full moon) about more or fewer troops, definite time limit or indefinite time limit.
The Sun is in Saggitarius, emphasizing foreign affairs, and the Moon (which in mudane/political astrology usually represents the people at home --Us in the US) is in Gemini. So the people at home are polarized/divided/a bit monkey-minded about the situation overseas. We're getting a lot of numbers and dates, but no one's sure what to believe or what we really need. 30 thousand troops? Is that enough? Enough for what? ...the debate goes on.
But I think Obama got it right last night. Here's my two-bit summary of the speech--and note the background emphasis of the Saturn/Pluto vibe: This really, really sucks, but we have to do it and I'm not going to make anyone happy about the way I'm going to do it. Because, hear me clearly: this sucks.
As I say, you don't need an astrologer to tell you this, but it's nice to see the symbolism in action.
Okee...And one full moon to go!
December 31st brings us another Full Moon along with a partial lunar eclipse. (!) Yes, New Year's Eve. This time the full moon is in the sign of Cancer, the home, family, ma, comfort food and yer roots. This will land on the same degree (10+), but in a cardinal sign, not a mutable. So less waffle room.
I'm anticipating this bringing some larger understanding of what truly feels like "home" to you. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is a clown making faces. Pretty good, there, because I feel most at home with people who share my sense of humor.
But keeping a good sense of humor is difficult over the holidays. Can you laugh with (at?) your own neurotic/crazy/dysfunctional family of origin? Oh lord, that's a good question. Can I? Some days, yes. I won't talk about the other days.
Now about that eclipse.
The eclipse will happen on the degree the Sun occupied when Uranus turned retrograde last summer (10+ Cancer). Now the Moon will pass over this degree (as it already has four times since July 2, 2009), but this time an eclipse will happen on that point. Eclipses, as I've said, close out something in our lives to allow a new influence or expression to emerge. They are like chapter endings/beginnings. Lunar eclipses bring emotional developments, like releasing old hang-ups and hurts. Lunar eclipses rip up old mental scripts and tapes, too.
If you've been tracking your personal growth path from last summer's eclipse season, think about the changes you've experienced or the risks you've taken since last summer. They might be subtle, but that's okay.
The way I'm looking at the December 31st eclipse as it ties to the earlier Uranus retrograde is like this: last summer you may have thought to yourself "I want to look/be/express myself like this". That's the Sun getting you aligned with a new development in yourself as an individual (Uranus). But you've encountered a bunch of hang-ups and blocks in being this new person, which, you know, is not unusual or unexpected when you're trying to develop yourself. Now comes this December Lunar Eclipse to knock down one (or a bunch) of those hang-ups and blocks that are hindering whatever you identified with or hoped to be last summer.
So often we get the vision (the Sun) of ourselves when our emotional development lags behind (the Moon). Yep.
AND THERE'S MORE FOR DECEMBER. Much more. Alas, here endeth the lesson of the Full Moons. Be back later for the rest of the story...
Art: James Grashow, "The Great Monkey Project," 2006, detail; DeCordova Museum.
Photo, middle: The New York Times, December 2, 2009.
Below: Art Durkee, Japanese brush.
