Preparing for Launch
This chart is extremely complex. I must admit that I found writing about it a very challenging task. There are many connections on many different time-lines happening here, and the main thing to keep in mind as the reader goes through this article is that Mercury retrograde, also the scout planet in this full Moon, invites us to let our consciousness sink deeply into our inner knowing, instead of trying to understand everything intellectually. Another characteristic of this time that we should keep in mind is the actual character of the full Moon in Cancer, which puts emphasis on our relationships, especially those close ones like the family and the mother in particular. During this time we experience the unconscious memory of our entry into the physical world, and the longing for the oneness with creation we left behind. It is our task to create an inner atmosphere for a remembering to take place, and through it unlock our independence.
There are two very significant oppositions happening during this full Moon. One is the full Moon itself, and the other is the opposition between Venus and Sedna.
Venus / Sedna opposition
Sedna is a planet with an orbit of over 11 millennia. It orbits our Sun, but at the farthest point from the Sun, it moves so deep into the vastness of space that it could be considered a herald of the unknowable. Her being in the sign of Taurus emphasises her present importance, as her orbital period suggests a connection to the evolutionary stage in which humanity began to cultivate its environment through breeding of animals and agriculture. So the theme of control and domestication figure in her Taurian position, as mankind pivoted into the quest for stability.
Sedna is now in the last degree of Taurus (the anaretic degree), in the process of completing a cycle and kicking off a new one. Her opposition to Venus gains great importance because of various factors. For starters Venus rules Taurus. This aspect brings a planet with an orbital period that vibrates on the level of the evolution of civilization in complete and direct view of a personal planet. Two goddesses of a very different kind, and acting upon different dimensions, come up in full view of each other, connecting an inconceivable distance. The role of Sedna in giving birth to an agricultural civilization and the concern of Taurus / Venus for a stable source of sustenance for organic life, overlap in this opposition. That this opposition is happening during a full Moon in Cancer puts the spotlight upon the fact that this cocoon that the human family has built for itself is coming to some sort of completion, and therefore to an end of some form. When one thinks about this it is almost inevitable to experience existential fear. And this is very consistent with a full Moon in Cancer.
This Venus/Sedna opposition forms a T-Square with an 'out-of-sign' Saturn. In other words, a normal T-Square would have Saturn in Aquarius, and not in Pisces; and this is a significant fact. The T-Square is still happening, but Saturn is in the sign of dissolution. This softening of Saturn's world, with all the chaos and opportunities it comes with, is in perfect consistency with Pluto's transition from Capricorn to Aquarius, the two sides of Saturn.
The subtle connection of Sedna to Saturn's unenviable position is that Sedna's mythology is about how she became the Goddess of the Sea after having been betrayed by her husband and father, and deprived of her fingers, thus made unable to hold on to the world that she knew. In losing everything she became a goddess. Without going into too much detail I wish to point out that Sedna is also, like Pluto, in the anaretic degree of her sign, Taurus. In fact they form a tight Earth-trine that is bound to last a while. The Plutonian process is therefore revealed in a much larger context represented by Sedna. 2024 is marked by this, and an understanding of Sedna's movement as she moves toward her ingress in Gemini in 2024 can help us make more sense of what Pluto's ingress in Aquarius should mean. One main clue is that the movement is from the Earth to the Air element. But this is for another article, hopefully in the very near future.
We now move carefully into the trine of Chiron and Ceres.
Ceres, connected to Sedna through agriculture, and to Cancer by the theme of motherly commitment and nurturing of child and family, has a clear and pointed focus on new beginnings, growth, and the return to the natural state of oneness. It suffices to point out that she was discovered on the 1st of January of 1801. 1st day, 1st month, 1st year of the century (1801 in numerology is also 1). Her trine with Chiron points us toward the necessity of engaging in a deep healing process, on both the individual and the collective level. Chiron stations to turn direct with this full Moon (making it an important influence in this chart), and will conjunct the north Node in the coming months. We can therefore safely assume that humanity is in the process of dealing collectively with a deep and persistent sickness. This trine to Ceres in the context of the whole complex of this chart seems to indicate that this sickness is the terror that underlies and maintains the human attachment to the practice of dominating the natural order.
Full Moon in Cancer + aspects to Jupiter
On a personal and individual level this terror falls precisely into the purview of Cancer. It might be said without exaggeration that everything a human being does or doesn't do in his life stems from the need to escape or face this terror. Here, the ego-shell has its birth, a sort of operating system for defence mechanisms. But this terror is the shadow side of the fact that Cancer remembers the state of unity, before the fragmentation of reality into physical multitude. And in facing this terror, all in our different ways, we participate in a process of healing that far transcends any of us.
Jupiter's trine and sextile to the full Moon provides the energy and promise of success in this journey. The planet that emits as much heat as it absorbs, enough to be considered by some as a 'second Sun', occupies the same degree as the lunar eclipse of the 28th October 2023. It therefore acts as an echo of that important lunation, and reiterates Jupiter's dance with Venus, which will come to a fertile completion with a conjunction in Taurus during the full Moon of the 28th May 2024. In the meantime, after Chiron stations and turns direct, Jupiter, Mercury and Uranus will follow. By the end of January 2024 none of the main planets will be in retrograde. Mercury's return to direct motion will coincide with the Earth's perihelion (closest orbital point to the Sun), which happens to act as a catapult as it reaches the highest speed of its orbit. So the Universe is moving forward, catapulting us into the future. Let's heed Mercury retro's invitation to drop deeply into our inner being through meditation and conscious contact with nature. Let's prepare for launch.
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