FULL MOON at 29 GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS 32
June 20, 2016, 7:02am EDT, 4:02am PDT, 12:02pm,
GMD, 9:02pm AEST
Image:
FEATHERS IN THE MOONLIGHT, painting by Judith Wheelock, 2016.
“How do you know but ev’ry Bird
That cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight,
Clos’d by your senses five?”
—William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
This Full Moon announces the June Solstice, one of the major thresholds of the year— the height of summer in the northern hemisphere and the deep of winter in the southern. This rare Zodiacal Full Moon is the second successive Full Moon with the Sun in Gemini and the Moon in Sagittarius. Not quite a Blue Moon, which is a second Full Moon in one month, can we call it an Indigo Moon? On May 21 we had a Full Moon in the first degree of these signs, this time it is the last degree. We have had a lot to learn in the last month’s time. What feathers have floated down in your path, like particular clues that indicate the direction forward?
Gemini and Sagittarius make one of my favorite oppositions, with the flavor of a sports match, both sides keeping the ball in play. Their interplay is a kaleidoscopic dance of whimsy and intent, a jigsaw puzzle we arrange to reveal the larger picture, with multivalent questions about truth and consequences. And, by the way, some of the present pieces don’t belong in your puzzle any longer. This Full Moon is a call to adventure, rather like in a faerie tale with plenty of dragons. What’s your story? This is a rather Big Question right now.
With MARS still retrograde in SCORPIO, we dive deep down into the bottom of the well, into the mouth of the Dragon to find a new spring of life-giving water. We are releasing almost more than we think we can, stripped of comfort, illusory safe havens and expectations. Mars turns forward on the 29th, when the underground waters bubble up from below or, for some, gush forth like geysers. It is soon time to feel our way forward.
The PLANETARY SQUARE DANCE of 2016 is at its peak this month of June, especially under this Full Moon with its Solstice revelation shining down. This is the obvious discussion that claims attention, but we will find more subtle tones as we go on.
- MERCURY in GEMINI, its strongest suit, fills in the 4th corner to complete the dance with messages tinged with the sacred flames of Vesta. Find a moment of stillness to sit and listen. Hear the winds whisper, the inner melody tune your heart, whatever it is that you specifically need to know. The messages are coming in all sorts of ways and by all sorts of means.
- SATURN, still retrograde in SAGITTARIUS, seeks inner vision. Use your intuition.
- NEPTUNE, still retrograde in PISCES, stirs the deeper currents into a froth of inspiration or craziness. Remember that Venus was born from sea foam. Continue to fine tune your frequencies, rather than be pulled into the morass.
- JUPITER in VIRGO joins the North Node, the Dragon Head, indicating an embrace of simple priorities to eliminating extraneous frills. We complicate our lives with all sorts of unnecessary complexities that tie us up in tangled webs. This is a Wise Dragon. Virgo’s common sense brings us down to the basic truths of Nature’s wisdom. “Tis a gift to be simple.”
We are in a major shift of the aeons. Let’s not forget or dismiss the impact of the 2012 threshold we have crossed. Indeed, this Full Moon clips that 2012 tipping point at the Solstice cusp. It was not just another false flag Y2K event from the turn of the millennium. We’ve been wondering and concerned for a while now if, when or how the world was going to end. Ecologically we are now facing that real possibility, though I believe Earth knows how to survive and renew Herself, bathed in the increasing light from the Galactic Center. This Full Moon at the far edge of Sagittarius is tuned to the Galactic Center, the Heart of the Milky Way. We have been close to the edge before. Something in us retains that distant memory, in such universal myths as that of the Great Flood. The world as we have known it is changing and we have no choice but to change our ways of living in it. It is the power of the feminine (in us all) to give birth to such a fresh new life.
The Moon in the last degree of Sagittarius suggests an imagic fusion of Sagittarius, the Archer aiming a gold-tipped arrow, with the mythic Sea Goat of Capricorn. Can you imagine that a Unicorn emerges from this cusp between signs, a mythical beast with the one-pointed horn? That’s what I see here, and I’m sure it’s real. And did you catch that new word, IMAGIC (at least it’s new to me), which refers to the magic of our imagination, the language of the heart?
Magic is a’plenty under this Full Moon, and comes with a challenge. In this ever-changing world, we seek “Truth” through thick veils of illusion. Classic fairy tales tell such stories. Above, I spelled Faerie with an “e” instead of “i”. Gemini loves to play with words. For me the Land of Faerie is that OtherWorld across hill and dale that reflects our own, and through which we pass when we are called to the Eternal Quest, encountering wicked witches, goblins and dragons along the way.
“Faerie is a great circle and it is far to the center.
The world is an outside circle.
They are made in each other’s likeness.
The likeness grows greater and greater, the nearer
we draw to the centre; for this is the source of both.
O the wild ways of Faerie, lightness and darkness,
Amber deeps of brightness and violet shadows.”
—A.E.Waite, The Quest of the Golden Stairs
In addition to the Planetary Square Dance, there is an unusual undertone created by squares to the Sun and Moon from CHIRON in PISCES and SHADOW MOON LILITH in VIRGO. The presence of Chiron indicates a quantum passage, a foot in two worlds, like the healing journey of the Shaman or even the Fool. Innocence and integrity are required, and a great deal of Faith, Compassion and Forgiveness. This is an opportunity for a Quantum Leap.
The Shadow Moon Lilith is not the Black Moon Lilith, but a rumored dark moon that circles the Earth. It absorbs light rather than reflecting it, like the Moon we will see so bright in its fullness. This moon may be “real” or not; it may exist on the astral plane, veiled, hidden, occult. It is also called the Dark Moon or the Waldemuth Moon (for the mathematician who discerned its orbit). In any case, it carries the mythic themes of Lilith, but operates, perhaps, in a different realm than Black Moon Lilith, with which it is often confused. Delphine Jay has the best book about it, INTERPRETING LILITH, recently republished by the American Federation of Astrologers. She busted me, articulating a personal issue that I recognized but had never consciously acknowledge.
“Can that be true that loves the night?
The darkness is the nurse of light.
Can that be true which mocks at forms?
Truth rides abroad in shapeless storms.”
—George MacDonald, “The Shadows”
A friend of Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) and inspiration to C.S. Lewis (“The Chronicles of Narnia”), writer George MacDonald had a rare genius, an ability to invent fairy tales that open windows into other-worlds that shine with delight, letting in a special magic spark that tickles the soul. Perhaps you have read THE LIGHT PRINCESS or IN BACK OF THE NORTH WIND. He had his North Node conjunct this Dark Shadow Moon, at the Sagittarius-Capricorn Unicorn cusp, where we see this Full Moon.
His story, “The Shadows,” is written about a man whose illness sends him into a delirious dream state between worlds, where he has been named King of the Fairies. He is petitioned by beings called the “Shadows,” who “go through the unseen, and only by a passing chill do men recognize an unknown presence.” They shapeshift in moonlight, in firelight and starlight, from humanoid to grotesque forms. Their existence is in danger, they state, because of increasing use of artificial light. Such unnatural lights “blind the eyes by which alone we can be perceived.” Their petition is “to restore us to our rights in the house itself, and in the hearts of its inhabitants.” Their purpose is not to cause fright, unless it is for the good, they assure, but rather “to make people silent and thoughtful; to awe them a little,” to make common things reveal the wonder-full through shadow games, and to disclose the truth behind the appearances with a light touch of a wavering shadow.
Patricia McKillip, my favorite fantasy writer, often refers to the shadow worlds of this obscured moon. In her book, OMBRIA (meaning “shadow”), she writes of:
“The Black Pearl…a piece of the underside of history. The dark side of the moon. The shadow it casts across the earth when it eclipses the sun. She is, shall we put it, something that we should have banished long ago, but didn’t.”
And describes it again differently:
“A voice, more wind than human, or the angry hiss of an enormous reptile, swept through it; the words it spoke seemed of some ancient language, only half-human and completely incomprehensible.”
This Shadow Moon has a dangerous edge, as Harry Potter and Bilbo Baggins well know. In addition to fairies, its realm includes vampires and other such creatures of the twilight worlds— very popular these days! This Shadow Moon faces us with our own shadows. It denies personal satisfaction shaped by illusions, delusions and confusions, insisting that we move beyond the obfuscations of ego-driven desires and raise our expression to a creative, service-oriented, or spiritual level. Opposite Chiron on this Solstice Moon, the Shadow Moon offers a path to healing the shadows and reinstating their true place of remembrance in our lives. Since it is in Virgo, I wonder if there is even a potential to relieve our bodies of subtle pain and stress. Are we able to get out of our own ways and rise to this task?
We won’t get there if we take things too personally. When we attend to our Shadow Moon work, we start to envision “the road not taken,” that paradox that may become an enchanted way with immense potential for delight and awakening. Our subtle senses open beyond the basic five and alter our perceptions into realms of imagination, intuition and mystical insights. We find ourselves in Faerie or Wonderland or Neverland, Krishna’s heavenly realm or some other dimension that underlies or overarches our flat mundane lives, now infused with serendipity and feathers on our path. As we each follow our own yellow brick road, we may come round right back to the place we began and see it for the first time, clear as crystal, radiant as the Full Moon.
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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
There are so many resources these days. We are very fortunate. These are two that occur to me from my roster for this Full Moon.
SIGNS OF INFINITY, a new book by Paula Diane Upton, offers “Keys to Awaken the Soul”. Her writing is uplifting like a wisdom transmission, suffused with rich imagery. Chapter titles include: “The Whirl of Spirit,” “The Wake of Illumination,” The Mission of the Mystical Heart.” Her chapter, “Dragons at the Gates,” discusses a variety of obstacles on the path to enlightenment, very much along Shadow Moon themes. I found some pinpointed ones for me. If you are having questions about your “stuff” and if something in you is stirred, look into this book (on Amazon).
LIVING TREE ORCHID ESSENCES have several essences and combinations that address shadow issues. Search “shadow” on the website: http://www.healingorchids.com and search for “shadow”.
As indicated on the site, in the U.S. you can order these essences at www.southernherb.com.
SHADOW MOON SPECIAL READING:
We will look at the placement of your Shadow Moon and its interactions to find suggestions, clues and insights for addressing particular issues indicated. One hour, $125, through July.
Email me at kellhunter@earthlink.net.
