By Len Wallick
We will have a Full Moon in Libra on Sunday night for most readers, about 10:44 EDT. If you are expecting it to be typical or average in any way, think again. This is the continuation of a superlative set of patterns that started last October. This is also a clue that could reconcile the energetic polarities generated by that long period of extremes. Finally there is a hint of developments to come.
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A Full Moon is an opposition of the luminaries. On a zodiac chart, it is depicted by Sol and Luna in the same degree of opposite signs. From our perspective on Earth, the Sun and Moon are in opposite parts of the sky. In other words, the Moon will be rising in the East at about the same time the Sun is going down in the West. If we were out in space viewing the solar system from above, we would see it in yet another way with our planet, its natural satellite and the center of our solar system arranged in a straight line with us in the middle.
There are three things to remember about an opposition. First, it usually happens about midway in the cycle of two objects forming a conjunction and then next time they do so. In the case of Luna’s monthly cycle, which takes about 29 days, the Full Moon is about two weeks after the previous New Moon and about the same length of time before the next one. When the whole cycle is considered, an opposition might better be called a compliment. It is a place where half of the circle ends and the next half begins.
The next thing to remember is that synchronicity nearly always finds us more engaged with relationships when meaningful oppositions occur. It is not always unpleasant. It is not always confrontational. It is nearly always a time when we are obliged to think about at least one ‘someone’ as much or more than we think about ourselves.
Which leads to a third and very practical feature of oppositions — the bind. Almost no relationship takes place in a vacuum. For example, a person you live with may not know another person you work for. But there may be times when their expectations of you will conflict. That’s a bind. You can visualize this by going back to the perspective of being out in space, looking down on the Earth with the Sun and Moon on opposite sides. Imagine yourself as the pickle in the middle, being pulled in two directions.
When you experience a bind, it’s not usually an appropriate time to introduce the two parties who only have a competing interest in common. Rather, the most productive protocol is to negotiate with each party separately, because it is the one in the middle who actually has an ongoing relationship with each side. Participation is what creates the basis for negotiation.
The negotiations attending Sunday night’s Full Moon may be especially sensitive because it involves the culmination of a pattern of extremes. Beginning late last year, we had five months in a row when the opposition took place with the luminaries occupying the very last degree of their respective signs. That overlapped with and was followed by three successive months (of which this is the third) when the Moon was about as close to Earth as it gets. And you thought there was just one ‘super Moon’. In fact, the lunar maximum has been maxed out in one way or another every month going back three quarters of a year. This has probably left a lot of us feeling same way, extended to our limits. Taking a look at the bigger picture of world and domestic politics, one finds a corresponding litany of events that have been taken to the edge of precedence and beyond.
With the Sun in Aries and Luna in Libra, the pattern of extremes reaches a symbolic climax. Aries is the sign most extremely associated with the self, its assertion and one-sided perspective. Libra is the place in the zodiac where equity, balance and fairness find their greatest emphasis with the imperative to see both sides from a detached point of view. The theme of relationship that, to some extent, underlies every Full Moon reaches its highest expression. What the self wants, and what the other (or more likely, others) will want for their own part from the self will be ripe for resolution through negotiation.
The Full Moons that follow will gradually pull back from the edge of each respective sign and take place further from the lunar perigee (its closest approach to Earth). The symbolic pattern of extremes is thus drawing to a close. This opens the way to a new cycle of patterns, a period of eclipses. In the meantime, remember that where half the circle ends, the other half begins. Look for compliments and give them in order to be in harmony. Above all, stay in the game, don’t withdraw. The door to negotiation is participation. If you can stay actively, constructively and productively engaged with others long enough, you will see the other side, both theirs and yours.
Offered In Service
Re: staying in the “game” I’d like to add my note here about a relationship that I would have thought irreconcilable at best is now in a place that I would call nourishing. I know! When my parents died, years ago, my sister and I were strangers in the good times and enemies most others. Now, having “stayed in the game” I am filled with pride as we both have built this relationship that works for us … it is a grand grand thing and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate this wonderful feat than here @ Planet Waves. Yea!
mm.
Can I just add one more thing Len. This business of “love” ending. It’s not the love that ends, but the needs that change. There’s no shame in not able to fulfil someone’s needs because that’s a way of honouring yourself. That’s just saying, sorry, what you want, I can’t give, and what you have to give is not the thing I need. Sometimes we don’t know what we need, and so we call it a day. Sometimes we work it out, but the other person’s moved on, and sometimes in a moment of synchronicity, we discover what we want and find that’s what the other person wants too. Pride or fear can’t be allowed to get in the way of needs – that makes for lonely times, and in a world full of people we don’t need to be lonely. People keep saying “I can’t find love, I can’t find love/I want love, I want love”, and when the thing slaps ’em in the face, they don’t want it. Maybe it’s not the sort of love they need, maybe they think if they take it, they’ll have to give something back – they may have to take some responsibility for something – so many “reasons”. But OK, what does that tell us? That the thing you have to give is not the thing they need, and vice versa – nothing personal – it’s just not the thing you need. Was it bkoehler who wrote about this period in time and endings and beginnings as being less “personal”. That just feels so right, and it’s a good time to LEARN that, and take that lesson with us into the future, so we all suffer a bit less, because man, life’s fuckin’ tough enough!
Loads of love your way matey, xox
Indrani 🙂
More applause from the gallery Len
Susun Weed – talks about wisewoman healing methods – nourishing, no flagellation! (sorry guys), no death life etc opposites or the cure involves pain, just following the the spiral with its individual quirks (wisewoman’s herbal) looking for what and how to nourish – including life, death etc. The other two (packed with info) books if you’re interested are the child bearing year, and menopause. Well woman books really all through (men included more generally).
Well impressed.
Hi Len, I would agree, yes, that a mutual exit is not be excluded either. It’s the mutuality thats important here. But that can still be a beautiful thing – that’s two (or more) people effectively agreeing to disagree, if you take my point? Some philosophical divides cannot be reconciled, and I think it’s important to recognise that, and therein lies the beauty of the moment. It doesn’t have to be ugly, and the mutuality of the separation honours the relationship as opposed to denying it. It’s when people deny things that ending get ugly. Things end, and that’s a fact, but I’ve come to discover that it’s not the ending that hurts so much, but the way in which its handled.
I’ve always been a “soft-landing” person myself, and I work on the premise that at some point people in a relationship loved each other enough to try to make the thing work. I’ve also come to discover that love itself doesn’t end, it simply shifts its focus – sort of chooses a new “vessel” where it mingles with new waters and takes new form, but that doesn’t mean the old mutual love needs to be discarded, au contraire Humphrey Bear, it needs to be honoured, and given a proper send off – a loving end to match the loving beginning. Only then can the parties involved get “closure” – that all important feeling of completion – and prepare for the next journey.
I think the nastiest thing that people do to each other is deny closure, and I think they deny closure because they deny the realites of the relationship itself. That’s sad, and makes for hard landings and unnecessary suffering.
It’s a good time for soft-landings at the moment, and if we’re coming back from the edge, well, I am truly thankful, because it has been a rough ride, and we fragile little beasties can only deal with just so much. The stronger among us are helping the more injured along, and paying it forward, and thank God, because Atlas can only take so much before he shrugs, and when that happens things can get pretty awful. Best to reduce the weight as we go along – problems that arise should be dealt with asap. That’s the charm of Saturn in Libra – we learn – sometimes the hard way, but we eventually learn…
God bless.
xox 🙂
Len, Game; Negotiate; Other Side.
Got it. (heh-heh…..isn’t everything just oh so super-cool right now? well, not really, but I’m just riding it out belly-surfing…..)
🙂
Be,
Yes; I released some furniture just today….
(As you know) I’ve been on the “clearing out” path for some years now, very cyclical; very like the tides – but over all a clearing and a cleansing.
My “eyes” are not always so good at “seeing” what I need to let go of – and why – and a friend who always sees what I cannot has found some mysterious sudden reason to spend considerable time at my place ; thus my “releasing” today was very much a bigger-than-me experience.
I always feel so GOOD when the clutter is gone; and most importantly when some old-emotional-baggage which is what keeps me holding on but that I cannot put-my-finger-on-specifically has been “outwitted” by way of the stuff going bye-bye.
I just thumb my nose at it (the emotional baggage) and LOL for the joy the material stuff will bring someone else.
“Above all, stay in the game, don’t withdraw. The door to negotiation is participation.”
Thank you for the reminder. xx
Hi Len and all,
Wish I could have gotten here sooner as this Full Moon is important (probably) to me personally. If anyone remembers, 6 months ago in October the Full Moon (the start of the pattern you talk about Len) was at 29+ Aries. On Sunday the moon will be full at 27+ Libra, so pretty much an opposition right there. My Saturn is 29+ Aries and every year my out-of-state brother and his wife come to visit me late in October and April, and this past year has been very Plutonian for me as I release “things” that have become (more or less) baggage. Brother will be here in a few days and will be taking with him the last of some things (some family hand downs and some not) as I approach the end of a major overhaul of my personal space.
What piqued my interest in this time period was that 6 months ago we were having a gathering of planets in Scorpio and we knew something was up with that. Len, you called it “a stellium in the sign of metamorphosis and transition.” Well now the gathering is in Aries, the sign of new beginnings, and this time it includes Jupiter and Uranus, so it’s a lot less “personal” than what we normally expect with Aries this time of year. It implies a larger scale of beginning of course and, for me anyway, more cyclical in nature than I’ve been cognizant of in previous years.
Also in last October’s gathering, Venus and Mars had begun their cycle and now next month they will start a new cycle when they conjoin in Taurus, the opposite sign from Scorpio. I am curious if others have experienced anything like this; a sort of preparation for a new phase of your life that includes releasing “stuff” (people or ideas or furniture) so as to free up your situation. It seems to me like this new freedom is in order to be better able to focus on the new that is developing.
be
Amanda:
Thank you. In the storm period before Mercury stations forward one should not be surprised to find the electro-technology taking things into its own cyber, eh, hands. If it can’t be helped, it can’t be helped.
hey Len —
that chopped off word is fully there when i go to the edit screen for this post. no idea what’s going on there, but i’ll see what i can do. weird.
You know… Already the energy is building. But it’s a slow-wild energy. And it feels new to me. I was sort of expecting crazy shit… as lately full moons have been making me vibrate and retreat. I was expecting this one to be the same. My sun is late 28 cancer and my moon is 26 capricorn… So, something cardinal in the air, eh?But it seems like people are coming to me for all sort of reasons… And I’m finding I need to be present for them. Or, rather, I WANT to. And I can.
My point to noting this is I’m not sure I’d be handling it as well as it feels I am if it was not for the amazing insights to be found here (that includes Light Bridge – the book and the annual) and the columnists, the weekly subscription, and the comments. Just feels like there’s a foundation of sanity in all of that.
SO, you know, thanks so very much. (And I mention this site to the people who are coming to me. Because surely this living is not something we do alone.)
xm
I have triplet grandkids born 18 months ago October 19, 2009. How might this full moon opposition effect them? Triplet A continues to have some health issues…
Jere,
Thank goodness for smiles and thank you for one in return. For a minute there i thought you were trying to get me excited.
Len, you will only be ‘forgiven’ if you flog yourself with a cat of nine tails while wearing a hair shirt. You must also be bound in briar binds while undergoing light deprevation. Then, and only then will you gain favor, and it’s only a probationary period at that! 🙂
(Had to do it man, I needed the smile!)
Love ya,
Jere
erratum corrections:
(1) In the third paragraph, the word “usually” was somehow omitted from the second sentence. Obviously the lunar nodes are in perpetual opposition and would thus be an exception. Also, in case of outer planets especially, a retrograde of one or both objects might create several oppositions widely separated in time, and obviously all of those oppositions cannot be considered to be the singular instance of a mid-point.
(2) In the last paragraph, first sentence, the furtive phrase “furth” should read “further from”. It should also be noted that the mean perigee is implied here.
Your Humble Servant accepts full responsibility for these errors and begs your forgiveness for these and any others not addressed.
michele: Thank you for lending a hand with a full measure of wisdom and awareness.
indranibe: Thank you for your kind words. Sure you would agree that a mutual exit is not to be excluded out of hand as among those things amenable to negotiation.
*writes on palm with a sharpie*
“resolution through negotiation,” “look for compliments and give them,” “stay in the game and don’t withdraw,” “the door to negotiation is participation,” and… it’s ok to be the pickle in the middle.
thanks, len. armed with wisdom, open heart, and… a full hand.
full hand: “when a palm has lots of lines it is called a full hand. It means that the person is more sensitive to the situations and events in their lives on a deeper level … The sensitivity I speak about here is not being too personal about situations, but being ultra aware of the energies and interactions of these energies…”
Thanks Len, that is great advice, especially the bit about “stay in the game, don’t withdraw”. Your advice co-incides with my own feeling. Now is not the time to leave relationships that are important to us, it’s the time to hold position and perhaps, as Sarah said in her tarot article, remove the blindfold. Time itself is what will take the “stationary” body into the “future”.
Cheers.