Simple and Deep — Leo Full Moon

Meaning is not in things, but in between them.
— Norman O. Brown

The entire side of the Moon facing Earth will be fully illuminated at 11:38 PM EST Saturday. That will be a Leo Full Moon, reflecting the Aquarius Sun’s light from where the Sun rules. It happens nearly every year, revealing all of the lunar from the solar dominion. It is a luminous image both simple and deep, of you looking out and in at once, seeing corollary and complement, finding meaning in between.

This year, the luminary image of corollary and compliment is taken deeper by what will be equidistant on either side of the Full Moon. From Virgo, the asteroid Dionysus will sextile the Uranian point Kronos in Cancer.

The sextile from Dionysus to Kronos will form the angular base of an aspect called a yod. The opposition of the luminaries (Sun and Moon) will form either end of the linear axis in the yod’s peace symbol shaped motif. Late last year, Eric observed that “In a yod pattern, the planet at the end is sometimes thought to resolve the issue described by the aspect structure.” This weekend’s Full Moon yod will have two ends, which, in a manner both simple and deep, will constitute both the issue and its resolution.

Appropriately, the basics of the issue are illustrated by the sextile at the base of the yod. Kronos is not an object. It is a point in space, calculated to be interpreted as though it is an object. It is named after the Greek equivalent of the Roman Saturn, and it is calculated to, in the words of Arlene Kramer, represent “the ultimate in authority.” Like its material compliment and counterpart, Saturn, the authority of Kronos is ultimate because it is the personal authority individuals invest in a group.

Not surprisingly, there is thematic connection between Kronos and the Sun’s end of Saturday’s Full Moon yod. Aquarius, what Eric referred to on Monday as “the sign of groups,” is originally ruled by Saturn. That is how the Sun, which Robert Hand called an expression of “day, light and consciousness,” has an issue while traversing Aquarius.

The Sun’s issue, and one side of the aspect structure’s issue at the Leo Full Moon, is how the consciousness of an individual and a group relate to each other. In practice, the authority of the group often prevails to sanction madness such as war, or money. Individuals who retain no personal authority, yielding all to the group, express the group’s madness outside of its container, in the conduct of their personal lives. Ultimately, that robs the group’s authority, and the individual life, of any meaning.

Dionysus represents the other side of the sextile at the base of the Leo Full Moon yod, and the other side of the issue described by the yod’s aspect structure. It is an asteroid that was discovered in 1984, the year that George Orwell chose as the title to his most famous novel — a story of how absolute group authority renders the world absolutely mad and void of meaning. Because it is an asteroid, however, Dionysus’ name means a great deal.

As least thus far, astrology’s experience with asteroids has demonstrated an incredible serendipity between the name and the nature of the object. Dionysus is named after a mythical figure that represents the corollary and compliment to Kronos, just as the Moon does for the Sun. Rather than the ultimate authority of groups, Dionysus represents group authority’s ultimate source in the individual, and the consequences of its intemperate indulgence.

It was the intention of Dionysus and his followers to seek madness through the ecstasy of intoxication on their own authority, based upon a compelling premise. The premise was that madness was unavoidable and, when consciously chosen, divine. The downside is that the individual consciousness is lost to reflection, which, in practice, is no better than being quashed by group expression. Not surprisingly, Dionysus and its nominal interpretation resonates with the lunar end of the Full Moon yod.

The Moon’s issue, and the other end of the aspect structure’s issue when the Leo Moon is fully exposed by the Aquarius Sun this weekend, is how the consciousness of an individual relates to itself. While most people find it necessary to have time away from others to reflect and think, no human being can remain healthy on a diet of isolation. As Planet Waves correspondent Enceno Macy eloquently described his own experience in prison, segregation from others is a “poor imitation of death.”

The resolution of the Leo Full Moon yod this weekend is therefore not on either end, but in between — which, meaningfully, is where Earth and all of its beings will be. The Full Moon will place everybody between the Sun and Moon at the same time. For those of us in between who have totally lost ourselves to group consciousness and are lost without it, that will be an opportune time to create meaning for everybody, but it will not be easy. In fact, it will require both individual and group consciousness without precedent.

In order for you or the groups you identify with to avoid being lost, you will need to both reflect and express the light. You will need to reflect on what you have contributed to through your acquiescence to others. It will be a difficult, and for many an unprecedented, responsibility to accept.

Even more difficult, however, is the challenge of being the light for others. For most of human history, only a few have stepped up to that challenge, and most of them have paid the ultimate price. What is called for is an unprecedented many who will, on their own authority, act in unison to judge only themselves and change only themselves, creating a group with unprecedented authority.

Just because there is little or no precedent of it having been done does not mean it cannot be done. Indeed it may have already started, and if it has, the astrology of this weekend’s Leo Full Moon will favor its revelation in all of its simplicity and depth.

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Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.