Sagittarius Full Moon conjunct Jupiter - May 31, 2007

Philosophy, the Ivory Tower ... the academy can be pretty dry. Professors in their tweed jackets at the lectern, discoursing on their topic of expertise, can either induce sleep or inspire one to take up a new course of study. One is unlikely to finish a Ph.D. without passion, but expressing it -- so that it becomes contagious -- takes a special talent. I'm sure we've all had at least one teacher who has sparked our quest for knowledge, someone whose course stood out amongst our mostly tedious classes. We study, not just to learn, but to find meaning in the theories that we digest. However arcane the Law (legal, religious), it just "clicks" for some people, and summons them on a path most of us would never take. It may not be apparent from the outside while they spout obtuse jargon, but the fire is inside.

But what good is that fire if it does not spread? Sure, personal fulfillment is important, but many spiritual explorers want to share the Word. They have to tap into our emotions to convert us. Logic alone will not do. Facts do not persuade us. We need to be inspired, to feel the call in our bodies. When you listen to a teacher and feel the heat -- that is how you know you have been touched. There is a convergence of mind and spirit, a bell ringing both in our heads and our hearts.

This Full Moon is an especially ripe time to be seduced by the Call. The Moon is in Sagittarius, conjunct Jupiter, the sign's ruler. Jupiter is retrograde, so you may feel drawn to re-evaluate an old philosophy or religious practice that you had previously discarded. Or an old teacher may come back into your life. It is time to be open to that which you had been closed. Let your feelings be your guide, don't reject on the basis of thought. However, don't let yourself get carried away, either. Jupiter expands the Moon, and you can ride on an emotional high, neglecting the fine print because you're so lost in the Big Picture.

The Fine Print: This Full Moon is at 10 Sag. If you have any personal planets or angles around 10 degrees of mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), this lunation will have a strong impact. In addition, Venus at 25 Cancer is making a stressful 135 degree angle (sesquiquadrate) to the Moon, so planets around this degree in the cardinal signs may also be affected. Your attraction to family traditions may inhibit you from being open to expansive ideas.

The Upside of Saturn

At the closing of dance class last night, one woman was sharing that she felt she had just come out of a "winter" that started in August -- a real hard time. As difficult as it was, she said that she was grateful for the experience of heaviness, for last evening her dance -- instead of being fantastic as it usually is when she is feeling "normal" -- was "friggin' fantastic." That is, it probably was no different from her dance before her "winter," but the sheer delight in not feeling so constrained by life made her experience subjectively all the more powerful. It's like breathing normally after having been short of breath for a long time.

I didn't ask for her birth data, but given the length of a typical Saturn transit -- at least 9 months if Saturn goes retrograde over a natal planet -- and the dreariness of Saturn, I gather she had just come out from Saturn's burdensome weight. Life is sunshine again, and it's all the brighter after having been in the dark.

I'm going through my own Saturn transit right now, as it is hitting my 19 Aquarius Moon for the last time (at least this time 'round!). Earlier during this transit, I was probably walking half the speed I usually do, dragging my feet across the pavement to get wherever I had to go. Nine months to a year is a long time to carry the weight of a Saturn transit, and one can easily forget what life was like before. Perhaps an inkling that one was once alive and happy ... but it's so hard to access such feelings now, they feel more theoretical than anything. Thus, after having listened to my dancing friend last night, I feel there is hope, that come this summer I will be a free man, feeling that a walk down the street is like jumping on a trampoline.

Taurus New Moon Square Neptune in Aquarius - May 16, 2007

This New Moon, your security needs conflict with the needs of the collective.

Nearly all of us are attached to our possessions and our preferences. But there is a whole world out there, one in which millions of people have less (materially) than you. And not to romanticize poverty, but those anecdotes -- about the poor in India who are more in touch with the divine in daily life than we are -- can challenge your value system.

Comfort is important. But we blog-readers take many of our affordable Western luxuries for granted. The price of a laptop and high speed internet access is beyond the reach of most.

This New Moon, you may have to sacrifice some of your money or possessions for humanitarian causes. The pull of compassion may result in an awakening to how good you've got it, and how easy it would be for you to do with less, if it means giving someone else more.

Or, your material stability may feel like it is being pulled out from under your feet. Financial transactions over the internet may be sabotaged by deception or confusion. Groups that encourage fuzzy boundaries may attempt to change your personal preferences for the benefit of the whole.

This New Moon occurs at 25 Taurus. Neptune is at 22 Aquarius, about to go retrograde later this month. If you have any personal planets or angles around degree 25 in fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), you are undergoing the beginnings of a Neptune transit, in which you are likely to be feeling confused, mystically-inclined, lost in fantasy, martyred, escapist, and so on. This New Moon will serve as a trigger to this longer process of dissolution of whatever area of your life is being affected.

Now I believe in semi-squares

The past few days, I've been overcome with anger and resentment -- which would make sense, since today is a Scorpio Full Moon -- but it hasn't until now, because I didn't see the Full Moon making any hard aspects to any of my chart points. I play by a hard-and-fast rule that a lunation doesn't have much of an impact unless it's making a conjunction, square or opposition (and maybe a quincunx) to a planet or angle. Trines and sextiles just don't force one to get out of bed in the morning, you know? So I've been confounded all day ... why do I feel so pissy? The Full Moon is making a not-so-tight trine to my Pisces Sun. Big deal.

But now I know. This Full Moon is exactly semi-square my natal Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio. When I was studying astrology with John, I was amazed that he could immediately identify semi-squares and sesquiquadrates, because unless they're identified by those little symbols in the center of a computerized chart, they don't exactly pop out at you. All the Ptolemaic aspects are pretty easy to notice, because they're in the same degree areas, unless you're looking the last degrees of one sign and the first degrees of another. But 45 and 135 degree angles don't share that heuristic. 26 Virgo and 11 Scorpio don't scream out, "Aspect!" You have to do the math in your head. 26 Virgo (my natal Pluto) + 30 degrees = 26 Libra. 26 Libra + 15 degrees = 11 Scorpio (today's Full Moon). Therefore, 26 Virgo + 45 degrees = 11 Scorpio.

The math isn't so easy, but it's worth it, because now everything has fallen into place. The tension, the seething underground rage ... there's a precise astrological corollary to it. All is right in the Universe.