Coming Together, Back from the Edge

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.

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.

In three-dimensional reality, Luna is usually above or below the ecliptic at the time of opposition, making it possible for us to see sunlight reflected off the entire side turned towards us. The relatively rare exception — when the opposition is one of latitude as well as longitude — is known as a lunar eclipse. We had one of those last month. More on that later. Astrologically, the longitudinal, generic Full Moon represents a culmination of sorts, a full ripening of whatever the contextual trend was for that lunar cycle.

The pattern of Full Moons on the anaretic degree really started Sept. 23 — the autumnal equinox — when the luminaries opposed each other in the very first degree of the Libra-Aries axis. This set the stage for what your faithful reporter then referred to in October as the “astrological blue Moon.” Sol and Luna opposed each other in the very last degree of those very same two signs. This was the first of the anaretic events.

Since that time, the subsequent NEW Moons, the monthly longitudinal conjunctions of the luminaries, have taken place a day or so earlier every month. This has functioned to temporarily cancel out cyclical differences between Sol and Luna. This in turn has effectively acted to keep the oppositions out on the temporal edge, so to speak, resulting in six anaretic Full Moons in a row.

Pretty gosh-darned amazing, huh? There’s more. Last year you may recall that your curmudgeon correspondent received some well documented and much-appreciated backup from Tracy, the astrologer who brings you the resources at Serennu.com. This backup supported that the monthly retreat of the New Moon on the calendar was associated with retrograde motion of the lunar nodes towards the first degree of their respective, opposing signs. This association is approximate and shifts a bit every year, following a longer and larger cycle. All the more reason to find the current synchronicity astonishing.

Now, take a look at what has played out. At the time of the Aries Full Moon at the equinox last September, the mean node was at 7+ degrees Capricorn and the previous New Moon was at 8 degrees. By the time of the Aries “astrologically blue” Full Moon of October 2010, the averaged-out lunar north node had rolled back to 6+ degrees and the previous New Moon was at 7 degrees.

And so on, until this week, the mean node will be in the early second degree of Capricorn for the anaretic Full Moon in Cancer, following the conjunction of the Sun and Moon on January 4. Next month, Groundhog Day’s Aquarius New Moon will be the last hurrah for the mean lunar nodes on the Cancer-Capricorn axis. As the February Full Moon takes place in the auspicious anaretic degree of Leo, the averaged-out position of the lunar north node will have slipped over the cusp.

After that the nodes will gradually roll back into Gemini and Sagittarius and begin a whole new cycle of their own aggregate retrograde through those signs. And lookie here, the Full Moon in March then breaks the anaretic pattern, starting a new one that takes place at an earlier degree each month.

To reiterate, a Full Moon constitutes a culmination of sorts, a ripening of the theme for that particular lunar cycle. The anaretic degree of a sign has a corresponding astrological interpretation. When any object, particularly the Sun, reaches the last degree of a sign we tend to experience the condensed energetic essence of that sign. This often comes with perceived pressure that we are under some sort of deadline to integrate that essence to meet the prerequisites to move on. This can be stressful or enlightening depending on your point of view.

If you have been conditioned by, say, formal schooling to see this as a time to pass or fail, of course you are going to be stressed. One would recommend that you not accept that sort of burden. Astrology is not about you being worthy or unworthy. There are no tests required to prove your proficiency. Life goes on, the Sun moves on, go along with it. Take along the awareness of what you have mastered as well as the perspective on what you have left to learn.

These are cycles, and there will be other chances. Be kind to yourself and you will be better equipped to absorb the lessons yet to come. This will also have the side effect of making you more tolerant of others as we each wend our own paths to more or less the same destination. In turn, you will have made yourself a more welcome companion to others in this journey we call life.

If you reject this pass-or-fail, worthy-or-unworthy approach to the temporal concordance of lunar and solar cycles, what would be a productive alternative? First, dig how cool it is. The Sun and Moon in sync for half a year, each reaching their climax at the same time. If they were lovers, that would be a pretty good thing, right? If they were musicians, ending on the same note and the same beat would provide some satisfaction, what? In a way, that’s what they are, and us along with them. With each of the luminaries repeatedly ending their separate and different cycles together, we have had an opportunity. Rather than experiencing some sort of an exponential increase in pressure, we have been shown, against all odds, how cycles can inform and reinforce each other.

And where is this synchronicity pointing us? First note the continuous and timely role of cardinal signs, especially their first degrees. When the whole thing started at the autumnal equinox in September, the Full Moon was literally at the Aries Point. Since that time, the very next thing after the mutual climax of the luminaries is for them to change signs. Each time they aspected the Aries point, not as an ending, but as a beginning. This culminated at the winter solstice of 2010 when longitude met latitude and timing, resulting in a total lunar eclipse. Told you we would get back to that.

The eclipse demonstrated that space and time are one and the same. Just minutes after the eclipse, Sol and Luna mutually squared the Aries Point, crossing over into Capricorn and Cancer, respectively. In doing so, they connected tropical, luminary and planetary events of the past and future into one moment as the Sun paused over its southern-most extension, taking it all in. The Sun and Moon have been literally pointing our attention to the Aries Point.

This is keeping our awareness and consciousness on the Aries Point during this transition time: the cardinal T-square of 2010 and the return of Uranus to Aries. Uranus will square Pluto five more times while we transition from our own personal climaxes to begin co-creation of a political-musical improvisation constituting the future of our kind.

As to the nature of the Moon itself, while it has been the temporary actuator of this series of luminary climaxes, we must not lose sight of what it has always been: a reflective body, the night’s counterpart to what the Sun is during the day. The Moon is complex, subtle, mysterious and under-appreciated, yet without it life as we know it would not be possible. Luna represents the yin, or feminine principle on a cross-cultural basis for the uncounted millennium of human consciousness. It is the undivided continuity, the cosmic mitochondrial DNA passed on through time as if from mother to daughter.

That, as much as the Aries Point, is what we are being pointed towards by this extraordinary series of Full Moons which will be drawing to a close next month, and the start of a new pattern in March. The lunar nodes will move on to different signs. Uranus moves from Pisces to Aries to stay for seven years. We are having our attention directed towards a re-emergence of the feminine principal of productivity and cooperation. A re-balancing of the force. Not only with each other but with the Earth itself.

How this will manifest will depend on how we can handle this little thing called grudge. That’s where we will begin again tomorrow.

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