By Eric Francis
Dear Friend and Reader:
The Aries Full Moon takes place at 5:05 pm EDT, Thursday, Oct. 1. This is a peak moment in the Mars retrograde process, with the Aries Moon highlighting all that’s happening in Aries and making a connection to retrograde Mars and Eris the next day (early Saturday in the U.K. and all points east).
The Full Moon is conjunct Chiron, which will call forth some emotional intensity and turn up the energy overall. As Barbara Hand Clow said about people who have this aspect in their natal chart, they are the kind of person everyone notices when they walk into the room.
We will all be feeling a little of this. Combined with Uranus in Taurus, this is a good time to sing the body electric, as Walt Whitman (who had Aries rising and Mars in Aries) once wrote:
The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
The expression of the face balks account…
The Full Moon feels like a rising tide coming in a little faster than you were expecting it, sometimes combined with an energy wave that seems to crash the next day. That’s what we’ve got going on now.
We are at the peak of Mars retrograde. Tuesday, Mars will make its retrograde square to Saturn, right as Saturn stations direct. Through the week, Mars is within one degree of its retrograde conjunction to Eris, which is the heart of the matter as far as the self-actualization quest of this process is concerned. The conjunction is exact at 1:52 am EDT on Sunday, Oct. 4. I see this as an illustration of reaching inside for some missing piece — that is, an aspect of character or consciousness that has gone missing in the time of full digital conditions.
Here’s the thing: self-actualization can be messy. It involves exceeding one’s prior limits, which can be perceived as stepping on the toes of others. So in an environment where people are waking up, there must also be tolerance and acceptance of that process in others. Mostly, though, you must give yourself permission to exist and to explore your reality. That means not letting others place limits on you, or accepting the ones you discover are there. Note, this takes both energy and discipline — in the spirit of Mars square Saturn.
Mars the Physical, Eris the Disembodied
Mars is the very sigil of desire, physicality, and expressing oneself in the 3D world. Eris represents the disembodiment of our times: the chaos of identity and of the psyche itself; the destabilization of intellect and culture; the whirlwind of technological progress, and of technology weaponized against individuals and all of society.
Eris has a lot on her shoulders these days. Remember all that happened under the influence of the Uranus-Eris conjunction of 2016 and 2017? Remember that sensation of rolling disaster? The sense of destabilization? Does anyone remember the aftermath? It was a long time ago, I know.
I observe that we are still living in the aftermath of that conjunction, which shocked many out of their bodies, their senses and their common sense. We watched the impossible and unthinkable happen over and over, and a boundary was broken in the process. We are still in a state of collective shock, though if you’ve ever treated someone for shock related to an injury, often they don’t know that’s what they’re experiencing.
We could go a long way toward solving our problems these days by asking how we might approach them if we considered that we are doing so from the position of being in bodies. While disembodiment is an effect of electricity in general and of digital existence in particular, we are still incarnated. The disembodiment effect merely describes our relationship to incarnation, our acceptance or denial of it, and what we think the body is for.
Currently, evidence of our discarnate state is the panic that is surrounding the body and its ability to get sick. For some reason, the conversation omits the ability of the body to heal and also to process its experience as part of its environment. Part of what seems to be happening now is an assault, in general, on our ability to trust our bodies at all; and to trust them to take care of themselves if we do our part and take care of ourselves.
Being “not disembodied” means being where you really are, connected to your feelings and your senses. It is the opposite of being in a stupor (stupid) or disconnected from your senses (senseless).
Being disembodied means being caught in the future and the past, driven by fear in its many forms, and the sense of the body as a thing of disgust and division rather than of experience and communication. In this frame of reference, anxiety over outcomes related to the body is a manifestation of the fear of death.
However, fear takes other forms, such as guilt, panic, anxiety, distrust, suspicion, and resistance. Guilt is not often recognized as a form of fear, though it is one of the most prevailing forms, and is associated with the fear of one’s existence being wrong. Another way to see this is that guilt and its subtle form, embarrassment, are the substance that holds together the negativity of our world.
To many, the notion of transgression (enforced by guilt) is terrifying. But what is the scary part? The transgression, or the fear of guilt?
The Full Moon is Conjunct Chiron
The Full Moon is conjunct Chiron in Aries. When it comes to the disruptive effects of our digital environment, Chiron is offering a key back into physical reality. It always does, though the opportunity is rarely taken.
At its essence, Chiron is about healing and awareness: healing through raising awareness and then using what you learn. Self-awareness is extremely uncomfortable to many people, often manifesting as the sensation of being self-conscious in that irritated sense of the idea.
This is a state of being that most people readily avoid, mostly by hiding their light and by refusing to do anything that might actually make them vulnerable, visible, or seen as different. Yet it is the same as placing an obstacle between you and your sense of being alive.
It is that little hump that seems to make it so difficult for people to be present, to tune into their senses, and to respond to what they experience. This can seem to be especially shocking coming from a state where someone doesn’t know they were floating around on the astral plane, and their only indication is some form of physically associated stress.
This can also feel like “not knowing what to do” or “not knowing what to believe.” If you tune into your physical senses, you will have all the information you need; all the power you need to orient yourself within your reality. Disoriented is disconnected.
Navigating the Landscape With and Without a Robot
There are people who prefer to figure out physical directions, using maps and landmarks, instead of having a robot tell them where they are and where to go. The distinction is similar. To navigate by memory, maps, and eyesight, you must be present for what you’re doing, and you must be willing to make mistakes. Actually learning the roads involves the willingness to get lost; the willingness to wander a little and see where this or that turn might lead. That is a natural part of the adventure of being in physical form.
The landscape looks different at night than it does during the day, and you must take note. This requires experience. As Ron Kurtz once said to me, “If you want to be an author, you must be observant.” The same goes for wanting to be the author of your own life. However, you have a lot of competition for that role right now. And you have a lot of factors that are designed to numb your senses, your mind and your awareness.
We have spent so much of our lives being convinced we are powerless that most people have little connection to their freedom of choice, even in its limited form. The way someone gets control of another person is either by frightening them, making them feel guilty, or by convincing them that they do not have a choice.
This would be directed even at the most rudimentary matters of our lives — such as our ability to take care of ourselves and make our own decisions and seek our own options when it comes to health and wellness. As has often been said, it is your body.
You might call this disconnect the big sleep.
Waking up to who you are is what Chiron is all about. The sooner the better, even if it’s challenging. The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction is approaching. Look up in the sky and you can see it coming.
With love,
