This Full Moon has quite a gentle feel to it, although as with all Full Moons, we could experience things coming to a head emotionally, as whatever has been simmering beneath the surface is illuminated by the light of the Moon. Full Moons tend to play out in the realm of our relationships, bringing up some kind of a clearing or a peaking of energy that demands release. This Moon involves the Sun in Cancer, the sign of the Mother, family, home, roots and our inner emotional life, while the Moon is opposite in Capricorn, the sign of the Father, authority, success and failure, responsibility, parental and societal conditioning and our outer career life. We may experience some tension between the energy of the two signs, but we can make the most of this Moon by doing our best to integrate the energies instead of veering too far one way or the other.
While the Cancer part of us is very much in touch with our emotions and able to show our vulnerability, our Capricorn side may hold emotions in, keeping them under control, suppressing them and even putting walls up. However, our inner Cancer can fall into feelings of insecurity, child-like behaviour and neediness, expecting others to somehow make us feel secure and meet our emotional needs. Our inner Capricorn, however, teaches us maturity and the capacity to take responsibility for our emotional landscape, needs and reactions. We cannot control how others behave, treat or react to us, but we can control our own reactions and develop healthy coping mechanisms. Cancer is the part of us that may tend to dwell in the past and could get stuck in behavioural patterns formed in childhood, while Capricorn urges us to grow up and take our place in the world as a mature adult, able to truly embrace responsibility and commitment.
Cancer season will begin with the Solstice on Monday 21 June and this often brings a search for our roots, our home and a sense of belonging. Who is our tribe, our soul family and where feels most like home? How can we find the sense of emotional security that we need? Where is home? Is it an inside job, or are we seeking it outside of ourselves in the form of a relationship, job, house or situation? This Capricorn Moon may ask us how we can become more accountable for ourselves and our emotional states, and also to work steadily and patiently towards whatever personal goal we may be striving towards. Our inner Capricorn isn’t afraid to roll up its sleeves and do the hard work necessary to fulfil our need for emotional security and a sense of home.
The danger with Capricorn is that we can get too caught up in striving for our goals and trying to make a success of ourselves that we forget to take care of ourselves and neglect our family life. What constitutes being a successful human being when it comes down to it? Is it having a high-powered position, status, money and possessions? Or is it having fulfilling relationships, friendships and a healthy relationship with our family? With Uranus currently in Taurus, the sign of values and financial security, we are currently being asked to really question what truly holds value in our lives. Of course we need money to survive in the world and our jobs give us purpose and help to keep society functioning, in one way or another. However, when it comes down to it, that is all meaningless without loving relationships with friends and family and a sense of sisterhood and brotherhood.
The ruler of this Moon is Saturn, the planet of authority, control, discipline, commitment, reality and structure. Saturn is currently in humanitarian Aquarius, the sign of friendship, the group, community, revolution, technology, rebellion and visions for a better future. On the one hand Saturn can feel quite limiting, constricting and fearful, so that we might be finding it hard to envision a brighter future or could feel some kind of barrier or insurmountable wall between where we have been and where we are going. With the Uranus Saturn square in effect for the whole year we may be craving change and a greater sense of freedom, but finding ourselves somehow unable to actually see what the change might look like and how to make it happen. We may have fears that are holding us back from the sense of change and freedom we seek, or a realistic attitude and a sensible need to be cautious, or it could be something more tangible, such as authoritarian control, rules and restrictions. Or it could be all three of these things!
Saturn is also moving towards a tense opposition with Mars in Leo during this Moon, which will be exact on 1 July. Mars in Leo can help us to have fun and express and act upon our passions and desires. With Saturn opposing it we could feel a push pull between our desire to express our inner fire and the sense of control, limitation and fear we may also be feeling. Saturn in Aquarius is also inviting us to become more accountable for helping to create the kind of world that we would want to inhabit. This opposition between Mars and Saturn could be an opportunity to have the courage and motivation to really take action, follow our hearts and create a better reality for ourselves.
Saturn is also forming a helpful sextile aspect to Chiron the Wounded Healer in Aries, which brings the potential for some profound healing, whereby we are able to be really honest and self-reflective and to face our deepest wounds and insecurities, taking full responsibility for whatever comes up even if it isn’t pretty. Possibly there will be some healing around authority. Saturn in Aquarius could help us to take a step back so that we can see ourselves more objectively, in a realistic light, while Chiron in Aries helps us to be really honest about what we find. This aspect also brings the potential for the use of greater authoritarian control, censorship and restriction in relation to the current crisis we are facing. As we feel the squeeze of tighter restriction and control, it may bring our Sacred Warrior to the fore as our inner Aries seeks to assert its will.
Anyone with personal planets or angles close to 12° of a sign, especially the Fixed and Cardinal signs, will feel the energy of Saturn, Uranus, and Chiron most acutely.
Jupiter is still in Pisces and is also a big part of this Moon, as it is forming a helpful aspect to the Sun and Moon. This helps to bring a good dose of faith, hope and trust that we are being guided in the right direction. While we may be finding it hard to envision the next step, Jupiter encourages us to simply let go of the need to control things and allow things to unfold as they will. Our inner Capricorn and Saturn may be feeling fear, trepidation and a sense of limitation or constriction, but Jupiter in Pisces encourages us to simply surrender to the flow of life and to loosen our grip and the need to control the outcome. Jupiter in Pisces helps us to trust our intuition and our inner guidance, heeding the signs, synchronicities and omens that can help us to find the way forward. This expansive Jupiter in Pisces energy is very strong on the Solstice, which is really rather lovely, because that is when Jupiter turns retrograde and starts to work back towards Aquarius.
Another opposition to note during this Moon is between Pluto, the planet of soul,power and transformation and Venus, the planet of love, beauty, relationship and values. This could bring an element of drama and intensity to our relationships, as we may be forced to recognise our more compulsive tendencies and psychological complexes when it comes to the way we relate to our loved ones. Issues around trust, jealousy, insecurity, obsession, loss and power/powerlessness could come up, so it is important to be as self-aware as possible. We may find ourselves being forced to be emotionally honest; to face our shadows and own up to our deepest, darkest feelings and tendencies. It could be quite uncomfortable and we could feel quite exposed, but it could also lead to greater growth, trust, closeness and intimacy within our relationships.
This opposition will peak close to midnight on Wed 23 June, but will still be very strong during this Full Moon. Those of us with personal planets within a few degrees of 26° of a sign, especially the Cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, will feel the energy most acutely.
The Sabian symbol for this Moon, at 4° Capricorn, is: “A group of people outfitting a large canoe at the start of a journey by water” which Dane Rudyar describes as “ The ability to use natural resources and basic skills in order to achieve a group-purpose. We see here a common enterprise which may be an answer to the need for a change of locality. A social group more strongly than ever reveals its homogeneity and common will when it decides to move away from its familiar habitat. The zodiacal sign Capricorn brings this common will to a focus in concrete actions. It does so in terms of socio-political expediency and under a definite type of executive direction, even though the decisions are arrived at by common consent. The “canoe” may also have a special technical meaning, as it uses water in order to move. A common feeling-response to a specific situation may be implied. The main emphasis is nevertheless on GROUP-ACTIVITY in circumstances implying a need for change”.
This symbol reflects the symbolism of the Cancer/Capricorn polarity combined with Saturn in Aquarius quite nicely! It seems to imply gathering together with our “tribe” in search of greater emotional fulfillment and a need for change. There is a sense of us needing the power of the group in order to make things happen. Water always represents the emotions and the intuition, while the boat represents some kind of order and a structured approach to help get us started on our journey towards the change that we seek. And yet the water does also invite us to go with the flow of the river, which is very much what Jupiter in Pisces is showing us right now!
Cancer feels the feelings and makes us aware of our emotional needs, while Capricorn actually takes responsibility for those feelings and needs, setting tangible goals and a structured approach to achieving them. Cancer season may well bring a search for home, our tribe and a sense of belonging, and while Saturn in Aquarius could be making it a bit difficult to see a way forward, it can also help us to seek out like-minded souls with whom to align ourselves. Possibly the more we try to force or control things the harder it will be to see the vision of what is possible. Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces, however, invites us to open our hearts, trust our intuitive knowing, surrender to flow and allow everything to unfold naturally. Capricorn doesn’t give up and just keeps making its way up to the top of the mountain, no matter how steep the climb is and no matter the obstacles. And so must we.
Much Love
Amy
xoxo
Picture: Ascending Mountain Goat, by Stefan Baumann