Wednesday's Full Moon in Capricorn (2:37PM EDT) is a particularly demanding and ambitious one. Capricorn Full Moons are always heavy. Our emotional Moon, challenged in cold-as-ice Capricorn, is opposed by the Sun in the Moon's sign of Cancer. This one, conjunct powerful Pluto and on an uber HOT degree is particularly hard-core.
In Capricorn the Moon is cold and practical, reserved and quiet. Picture - Mama-bear CEO or maybe better yet, Mama-bear GENERAL.
This is about the collective Cancer/Capricorn polarity AND the themes of our natal Cancer/Capricorn houses. Both Cancer and Capricorn are concerned with issues of SAFETY, both value TIME and are guardians of the legacy of our ancestors. The polarity is about family vs. work. The security that comes from nurturing ourselves, nurturing others or being nurtured vs the security that comes from having work in the world and money coming in/in the bank. Our nest at home vs our place in the world. Summer vs. winter. Preparing for birth vs preparing for death. Babyhood vs old age. Mom vs dad.
There is so much contradiction here, but like all
polarities this is really just two sides of the same coin - maybe something
labeled SECURITY. We can't own a coin without owning both sides. But we can only look at (focus on) one side at a time. The other
side is in the shadows - so we have to flip back and forth and balance
this stuff out with our time, attention and resources. There isn't
really an end to this or a way to "win" here. We just do the best we can with what we have. Spend too much time with one side of the coin and the other side gets
all gunky like those pennies stuck in our car cup-holder that have had
coffee dripped on them. No matter how shiny the other side looks that
gunky side means we never get to actually spend the money.
(yes, this might be one of my strange metaphors that don't get us
anywhere - except maybe out to the car with a squirt bottle of vinegar
and a cup of soapy water)
Full Moons bring things to a peak or a culmination, so maybe something ends now.
Full Moons bring things to light (conjunct a retrograde Pluto maybe old secrets or something that has been hidden, the Webb telescope's images certainly fit the bill here and as above, so below, so something in our own life comes out of the shadows, too). Capricorn themes (and your personal Capricorn/Cancer house themes) will be highlighted - tradition, structure, work, obligations, responsibility, authority, ambition, limits, boundaries, restrictions, goals.
Let's unpack the chart!
The Moon at 21 degrees Capricorn opposes the Sun at 21 degrees Cancer. She is in the sign of her detriment, out of bounds and sitting on some pretty devastated real estate. The Sun is nestled uncomfortably between Ceres and Mercury. The Moon is conjunct Pluto, trines (brakes off) change maker Uranus and the North Node of Fate, sextiles Juno (EXACT) and Neptune, inconjuncts Saturn and squares Chiron and Eris. Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn and so ruler of this lunation trines Venus (EXACT). The Moon is conjunct asteroid Hylonome (EXACT) and ruler Saturn is conjunct asteroid Polyxena (EXACT).
Where do we start with this one? I think with the 'devastated real estate'.
21-22 degrees Capricorn is where Saturn met Pluto (and Ceres and Mercury and the Sun) back in mid-January 2020 - the astrological start of 'time runs out', which I had been calling "winter is coming" all throughout 2019, now better known as 'the pandemic'. Mars (the trigger) crossed the degree in March 2020 as the world shut down. Mars crossed the degree for a second time in late February 2022 as Russia bombed Ukraine (within hours, also within hours of the first U.S. Pluto return, also in play this week through Pluto's retrograde).
(this being the degree of my natal Mercury, I knew this was also the degree where Uranus met Neptune back in 1993 at the peak of the AIDS epidemic as my life was imploding - not from AIDS - so I should have been thinking 'epidemic' for 2020 pre-covid, but my brain - which Pluto was criss-crossing mercilessly - was thinking 'time runs out' because once Saturn stationed direct in the fall of 2019, whatever was going to happen would not be stopped)
The Full Moon answering to Saturn and conjunct Pluto at 21 degrees Cappy takes us back to the Saturn/Pluto (time runs out), but now pulls in Uranus (both the future and the chaos, humanitarianism, equality and tech that gets us there) - through Saturn in Aquarius. Think of us in a higher level of the game now. We don't know what we're doing because we've never been here before and these massively important degrees have been 'wiped out/reset'. This is probably part of what the 'great resignation' is about. It is very hard to keep doing what we were doing, or return to what we used to do, maybe especially in terms of Capricorn ruled careers/goals.
The Moon is quite stressed here. Looks over-worked. Over-stimulated. Out of the control of the Sun, but also maybe herself (multiple out-of-bound planets right now). This might indicate the need for a break. There is a nice applying sextile to Neptune - rest, make art/music, get into the water/a movie, take a relaxing vacation. It's summer. Life is short. And we only get so many of them.
The Moon's conjunction to Pluto is intense. We've had a bunch of Full Moons in conversations with Pluto and now here is where the Moon finally meets up with Pluto. And now, Pluto is retrograde, so still an old story from the old world that needs to be finished. A closing chapter about POWER and how we have been conditioned to deal with competition and ambition and tradition and the people who hold/have held power over us and the way we hold power over other people.
The Moon's trine to Uranus and the North Node is pulling us into the future - drawing us closer to the end of July/beginning of August's BIG PUSH FORWARD. The Full Moon's illumination or ending is also freeing/liberating. Something now is in flow with whatever we have STARTING then.
The Moon's most exact aspect is her sextile to Juno in Pisces. This is about serious partnerships. Creative collaborations that can last. Capricorn and Pisces at first glance seem to make strange bedfellows, but they NEED EACH OTHER to make anything happen. The dream and the hard work. The reality and the vision. Partnerships, contracts - whether this is a beginning or an ending, there is an OPPORTUNITY here somewhere.
The Moon's square to the mid-point of Chiron and Eris give us multiple kicking off points - that only look like our back is against the wall. Squares are under-rated activators. They create tension/frustration, so we MUST move. For some that Chiron wound - fear of being able to take care of ourselves/be ourselves/our personal Chiron wound - will be pushing us in new directions. This is already in play.
Eris's push here comes from a different place. Eris's discovery opened up a HUGE scary can of worms for science. A Goddess as an outer planet?! WTH! "Not so fast," says patriarchal conditioning. Time to constrain. Time to control. Time to set some new rules. And, so as not to promote Eris and Ceres and their ilk (this all being done somewhat unconsciously) Pluto, arguably the most powerful planet in astrology gets demoted by astronomy! And we all know Eris's 'apple' story. Squares to Eris can bring situations where we are pushed to act because of something like a snub. Our action can likely snowball into something much bigger than we intended, for better or worse, so keep that in mind.
Saturn, rules the lunation from 24 degrees Aquarius and is EXACTLY trining Venus in Gemini. Venus rules the North Node (way forward). Something here about multiple options when we get real/deal with the reality of where we are now. Don't cling to what's leaving/maturing/the past. A smooth connection to sober and stable Saturn makes Venus in Gemini's usual fleeting attractions more STICKY.
The Moon's opposition to not only the Sun, but also Ceres and an out-of-bound, combust Mercury speaks of challenges/situations outside our control. Ceres/Sun opposing Pluto/Moon brings up resource issues, season of life situations or over or under nurturing. The Ceres opposition is part of this summer's Cancer chapter about dealing with 'mother and childhood wounds'. Maybe with the Moon in its fullness and conjunct Pluto we are reminded things cannot stay young/green. With Mercury here, we are able to think/talk 'outside the box', but also outside the constraints of normal rules/boundaries of conversation, others can, too, so keep this in mind. We literally aren't thinking straight/are seeing things we've not seen/noticed before, which can be a good thing or not so good depending on what we do with this. There could be some intense/uncomfortable conversations as the Full Moon energies play out.
The Moon is EXACTLY conjunct asteroid Hylonome, a female centaur famed for tossing herself onto the arrow that had just killed her centaur husband in battle. Saturn (ruler of the Moon) is EXACTLY conjunct asteroid Polyxena, also famous for her sacrificial death. Since the Moon is conjunct Pluto and Pluto 'rules' death (and transformation because death is only transformation) this whole 'sacrificial death' thing is a thing here.
Mostly this is speaking metaphorically - as all archetypes do.
Although there may be people who have lost partners, for example, or who have "done their job" and unconsciously 'let go' now (the Moon/Hylonome exact on Queen Elizabeth's Ascendant/South Node with the Sun opposing from her 6th house of health and Mars - the trigger - on Charles' Moon/North Node of Fate mid-heaven 10th house of career/public life).
We don't want to be sacrificing ourselves to our work/to our goals in unhealthy ways. We don't want to be killing ourselves - again I am speaking metaphorically - following footsteps that lead us absolutely nowhere in this new world. The patriarchy is ending and I am not talking about old white men in suits. The stuff that is leaving still feels very much needed because it is the structural stuff we (and our ancestors) have built our lives with. There is no Plan B for the patriarchy because in reality it has already ended. We are looking at/holding onto something that no longer exists. Most of us are carrying karma and old contracts and commitments that have already ended.
We have to trust that everything is happening for a purpose. Even the scary ass sh*t.
And, as for Polyxena on the Cancer Sun, well, this, coupled with Saturn's awkward inconjunct to Ceres and Ceres opposing the Moon makes me think of the ways unconditional giving is no longer appropriate. We don't need to celebrate sacrifice. This 'valuing all life' thing includes ourselves. Yes, even if you are an old white man in a suit. Maybe all this 'sacrifice' is asking us what we are willing to sacrifice to succeed or to feel safe? Or maybe for some there is a very real need to 'fall on their sword' gracefully.
One thing for certain and not much is these days - we don't need to catastrophize endings. The Moon's conjunction to Pluto retrograde isn't bringing any losses/illuminations or outcomes we couldn't see coming. What we need - Jupiter in Aries - is some faith in the new beginning.
I hope something here is helpful now and over the next couple weeks and even the next six months as this Full Moon fully plays out.
Be sure to get out and walk in it!
xo all