By Len Wallick
This week, the Moon continues to conform to a couple of recent patterns. The Full Moon in Cancer on Wednesday will take place with the Sun in the very last degree of Capricorn. This last degree (29-30) also called the anaretic, has been the location of the Sun and Moon for every Full Moon since October of last year. The pattern will continue next month. Today, Luna continues its pattern for the year 2011 by moving into the cardinal sign of Cancer to start the business week.
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Remember that both the tropical zodiac and our Gregorian calendar are based on the movements of the Sun and that the Moon follows a different schedule, a pattern all its own. Taking that into consideration, it is rather remarkable that Sol and Luna should be as synchronized as they have been and will continue to be for a little while longer.
Breaking it down and putting it back together, these two lunar patterns have some clues for us. Let’s start with the Full Moon — a longitudinal opposition of the Sun and Moon with the Earth in the middle. You can visualize this in two ways. On the zodiac as portrayed on a piece of paper, longitude is all that matters. The degree of any object above or below the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, does not figure into the snapshot as it stands alone. When portrayed in this way, a Full Moon is when Sol and Luna are at the same degree of opposite signs.
Another way to look at the aspect of the Full Moon is to picture yourself either above or below the the solar system, looking straight down upon or straight up at the ecliptic. From this perpendicular point of view, an imaginary line from the Sun to the Earth would continue directly on through our planet to intersect the Moon. In other words, all lined up with us being the pickle in the middle.