Between a Rock and a Hard Place

 In the early hours of the morning of July 24th there will be a Full Moon in the sign of Aquarius.   A Full Moon is just one of the cyclical rhythms that mark our time on this Earth.  Each morning the Lord of the Day, the Sun, rises and shares his vital warmth with us until the Lady of the Night, the Moon, comes in to oversee the hours of darkness.  All the planets have their own individual ‘energies’ and their own individual ‘‘dances’– some are fast moving (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars), and some slow (Jupiter and Saturn), and some very very slow (Neptune, Uranus and Pluto). 

 The signs that the planets occupy colour how the planetary energy behaves.  Right now we have Neptune currently in his own sign of Pisces and a planet in its own sign is very strong – he’s on his throne.   Neptune in Pisces is huge spiritual, compassionate energy but it is also confusing energy which veils and creates illusions.   Neptune can allow us to go beyond into infinity and access the deepest parts of our intuition and instincts, but in Pisces he can facilitate susceptibility to hypnotic suggestion and big time deceit - that ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ moment.   As I write this in London we had so called freedom day – felt more like a damp squib than a giant firework. 

 Saturn (rules, limitations and authority) is also in his own sign of Aquarius.  Saturn brings us our life lessons to teach us to take our own responsibility, but right now he speaks volumes about the very authoritarian controls we are experiencing, particularly technological ones. Saturn is also at the Last Quarter point of a dance with Uranus and as such is the dominating energy this year.  This is a force of conflict between the old and revolution, freedom versus control, sticking with what we know versus waking up to the new.  This particular dance between these guys began in 1988, reached a First Quarter in 1999 and the ‘Full Moon’ point in 2009.  These three points were all periods of financial crisis – is this where we are heading again?   But the fact that we are at a last quarter point before a new dance begins in 2032 signifies to me that something within our system is massively broken – both financially and socially - and needs to be renewed; it’s the last gasp fight for control before the ending and a new beginning.  Saturn represents the rules and, therefore, Government.  He becomes ‘Papa Saturn’ who keeps us safe, whilst bolshy Uranus who just won’t follow any narrative takes on the role of conspiracy theorist.

 The cycles of the very very slow planets shine a light on the slowly evolving backdrop of society and culture, informed by the collective unconscious or the Soul of the World.  Evolution within societies takes a long time.  The slightly faster movements of Jupiter and Saturn bring about periods of expansion and contraction, which in turn spark socio-economic structural changes within society.  And then the quicker moving planets trigger events that allow the changes within this backdrop to occur.  Every little aspect of the dance has a part to play.   For instance Mars and Venus have come together in ‘fiery’ Leo, triggering the Saturn Uranus square with a sense of ‘hotness’.  And we can see this – physically in terms of wildfires and socially in terms of the people becoming disillusioned with the status quo allowing tempers to flare and protests to begin.

 The New and Full Moons are marker points and trigger points that shine a light on times of beginnings, climaxes and endings.   New Moons are when we make our intentions for what we wish for at the beginning of a new cycle, whilst at the Full Moon events are reaching a climax of exposure and endings.  

 All this takes place in the context of our own individual planetary dance, which sits within us as a cellular memory – the moment frozen in time of our birth.  This is an instinctive memory that resonates to the continuing and ongoing cycles.  And this is added to the collective memory that we all contribute to and draw upon.  Rupert Sheldrake elucidates this collective memory when he writes that, as humans learn new skills, these new skills enter the collective memory making it more likely and easier for other humans to learn this new skill or new behaviour.  This then acts like a ripple or butterfly effect.  And it is by this means that the behaviour that has come about as a result of the crisis of the last 18 months or so has filtered into the collective memory producing a ‘herd’ response.  This is how the past becomes the present and the present becomes what is required for the future to happen.

 Why am I rambling about cycles?  Because this is what this Full Moon, in fixed masculine signs, is highlighting.  She sits virtually on the point of the beginning of the new Great Jupiter Saturn cycle, which began in December 2020. This was the point when the 20 year cycle of meeting points of these two planets changed element for the beginning of a new 200 + year cycle in Air.  This Full Moon is, therefore, a reminder echo that we have entered a new socio-economic era of civilization.  There cannot be a going back to the old whatever our individual desire may be.   We have entered the new and, hard as that may be, there is no choice but to go forward and meet our destiny.  As we do so we must confront the Moon’s shadow side that appears in the form of Black Moon Lillith, the temptress, who churns up the emotions and feelings of our own shadow or dark sides that we are all experiencing as we step into the unknown.

 This Full Moon feels as though we, the people (the Moon), are between a rock and a hard place – almost like a ‘dark night of the soul’ moment.  For the UK this Moon sits in the 8th house of crisis, sandwiched between Pluto (God of the Underworld) and Saturn (the rule maker).  The Moon has managed to get away from the grips of the evil guardian of the dark side, Pluto, who abducted and raped Persephone leading to the creation of the dark and the light of the seasons.   The Moon and retrograde Saturn are now coming towards each other like lovers with open arms. Perhaps this Moon thinks Saturn’s rules and boundaries will help her to stay safe as she escapes from the intense manipulatory control issues.   But will ‘Papa Saturn’ deliver what she wants or will she find herself instead embroiled in unpleasant issues of rules, laws and authoritarian control?   So this ‘trapped’ Moon becomes part of the Saturn/Uranus dance and aids the triggering of the conflict and the people’s revolt.

 This ‘sandwiching’ of the Full Moon also highlights another cycle which began in January of this year – the start of a new Saturn/Pluto cycle auguring harsh times, times of austerity, times of rules, laws and authority issues.  The 8thhouse is also the house of ‘other people’s money which includes pension funds and bonds, etc.  What is being concealed as well as artificially propped up (Neptune) is the fact that huge swathes of the world are actually ‘broke’, so what better time for both a distraction and something to blame this upon.  At such intense times we need to be more vigilant for what is going on under the surface when media and governments want us to focus on just one thing.

 After the ‘dark night of the soul’ eventually always comes the light and we have no choice but to move forward to find this light.  What is important is that at such a critical point in society’s evolution we continually question our circumstances with an awareness of the energies in play.  We must use the positive sides of those energies, such as Neptune’s potential for huge spiritual and instinctual consciousness, whilst guarding against looking only at the image put before us.   If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it’s probably a duck.  If the Emperor looks as though he is naked then, despite everyone around you believing him when he says he is wearing a new outfit, he’s probably naked.  So have the courage to go with your instincts.  Some already have – there are distinct signs that the people are really beginning to feel the sense of oppression that this Full Moon is signifying and they are fighting back in a very revolutionary way.   They are fighting back against the authoritarian top down rule makers (Saturn square Uranus).  We see already huge unprecedented protests in Cuba, South Africa, France, Greece.  So many of our political systems are broken and corrupt – will they, their leaders and organisations such as the EU survive?   They would do well to remember that the people are the 99%.

 The revolution has to be based on new terms and new solutions.   The planetary alignments of last year were signifying a breakdown in what is traditional, and that these traditional ways were decaying and crumbling through greed and the desire for power.   It is what does not conform to the old that will bring the ‘breakthrough’ moment.  So fear not if you are branded a conspiracy theorist just because you question and you think differently - that means you are here to try and bring about change, which hopefully can save humanity.  You are a vital part of the planetary dance.  Whilst there may be no going back to the old way of life we had, we can strive to find clues as to how we can live our best life for the future.  Passivity is the enemy – it’s not an option to do nothing.