“The constellation Orion is, therefore, an archetype of god. We humans have modeled our male gods on the constellation for probably well over eight thousand years. This is in contrast to the never-setting circumpolar Ursa Major and Minor, the goddess, for goddesses do not die in our philosophy. Goddesses may fade, but they are immortal. The She-Bear never sets as she circles the pole. However, the male god on the equator and the gods of the ecliptic are subject to the hero’s journey of the whirlpool. This one constellation [Orion], more than any other group of stars, has affected the human race in a most profound way.”
So says Bernadette Brady, in Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars (pp.165-6). We’ll see why this is the key to the 10 May (3pm PDT) Full Moon in a bit.
Have a look at the third picture in May 3 (https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/may-3/). This (the whole chart, but specifically, the central Opposition, or the long red line splitting the heavy red X) is the Sappho-Sedna Yin Gate that we’ve been working with for several months, the one meaning that we are Transforming our Fear into Self-Love. The heavy blue box which contains it is the Golden Rectangle we’ve also been working with.
When a Yin Gate, or Mystery School introducing us to the Wisdom of Paradox, appears, it’s always embedded in a Golden Rectangle. A Golden Rectangle symbolizes Great Blessing, as the two Dualities in it (the heavy red X inside the heavy blue box) complement one another very Gracefully. In this case the two Dualities tell us that we can achieve Rebirth by Living Our Own Truth, and we can Recover the Hidden Genius that will Transform our Lives by Recognizing, Embracing, and Transcending our Limitations. The Configuration persists into the Full Moon and beyond.
Now look at the second picture in the May 3 post. This Configuration persists into the Full Moon as well. In this one the Yin Gate pairs Haumea with Eris-Uranus-Mercury – we are facing down the Paradox of Rebirth into our Soul Self made Manifest. While the Yin Gate is new, the Haumea-Eris/Uranus Opposition isn’t – we’ve been working with that for a year or so. But not till now on the level of Paradox. Rebirth requires an Ego Death, which we by nature Resist. The Paradox here is how we can Both/And it – Accept our Rebirth while Fully Loving our Existing Self.
The two Cooperating Dualities in the Golden Rectangle in this second picture are Sappho-Sedna and Chiron-Hopi; Self-Love and Fear, and Pain and Non-Judgment. The Golden Blessing lies in Recognizing that we can Heal our Despair, and so Create Miracles, by Empathizing with the Objects of our Judgements (including parts of our Selves), most especially our Judgments of Our own Fear.
Here are the two interlapping Yin Gates…
So much for the background. Now let’s have a look at the Full Moon itself. The first thing we might want to notice is that the Moon crosses Sappho a few hours later. The Full Moon is less than four Degrees from Sappho, and the Full-Moon Sun less than five and a half Degrees shy of Sedna. Even if we insisted on our three-Degree Sensitivity, we’d still spend the next several embroiled in the Fear-and-Self-Love Paradox, as the Moon Dances with Sappho and the Sun with Sedna.
The planets move counterclockwise, slowly; it’s the circle behind them that moves clockwise, rapidly. The location (longitude) of the planets is determined by taking a snapshot at the same time every night, while the Earth spins beneath us; the planets actually move from west to east, while the Earth spins from east to west. The outer circle on the chart represents the background Stars, which are, except on the scale of centuries, Stationary. Otherwise, the chart represents the Earth. The inner ring and center spin clockwise past the outer ring every 24 hours, while the planets in the middle ring tick slowly in the opposite direction.
To relate the chart to hardcopy reality, hold it vertically while you face south. The left side of the chart is the eastern horizon, while the top of the chart (where the arrowhead is, between the middle and outer rings, next to Mars on this chart) is straight up. All the planets above the central horizontal axis are in the Sky in the PDT time zone at the moment the Moon is Full, while all the planets below that axis are below the horizon, on the other side of the Planet. We won’t see Mars overhead because the Sun is too bright.
The central horizontal axis is drawn for PDT; in your location the planets will be in the same places relative to one another, but the middle ring (and the central axis with it), would shift. We don’t comment on the astrological Houses, because at the same Full-Moon moment, the middle ring shifts for different time zones, so the Houses all move relative to the planets. For instance, in South Australia at the moment of the Full Moon, the Sun has just Risen (just above the left side of the chart) and the Moon has just Set (just below the right side of the chart) – depending on your local line of sight of course.
In fact, by the time the Sun gets to Sedna on 16 May, the Moon has moved across from Varuna, and instead of the four aligned Oppositions like the chart above, we get six such Oppositions (as the Nodes also begin to fill in the Leo-Aquarius axis) – a Grand Unx! Pattern-Breaking galore, as an Unx is one twelfth of the Zodiac, and the Twelfth Harmonic is the Hanged Man, who hangs not by the neck or the fingernails, but by the heels, so he can see the World through a New Perspective.
But yes, we are stretching our Sensitivity just a bit. If we want to strictly adhere to the notion of What’s the Energy like at this moment? then we’d do best to stick to three Degrees of Senitivity. But if we shift to What will be the Future for Projects begun just now? then six to eight Degrees of Sensitivity is more appropriate. Well, with Haumea very much involved in the Yin Gates, the biggest Project we’re starting just now is Rebirth.
Sensitivity is like “slop,” or acceptable error margin. For instance, Haumea is four Signs, one Degree, and 58 arcminutes ahead of Chaos: 23:11 Libra versus 21:13 Gemini. The difference of 1:58 is less than our Sensitivity of three Degrees, so we consider them close enough to be four Signs apart, or Trine to one another.
The Full Moon is also Conjunct asteroid Klotho – she who cuts the cloth for a new Lifetime or Timeline. And as we mentioned at the beginning of the month, the Full Moon is accompanied by a Station of Juno, she who rules the Edges of Consciousness. What better Rebirth could we have than one that stretches the Edges of our Consciousness? In fact, could we even have a Rebirth without stretching the Edges of our Consciousness? I don’t think so.
And Juno’s Station Conjoins Pluto, symbol of Tranformation or Trance-Formation. The Trances that run our daily Life are the Archetypes in the Unconscious. A New Trance means that we’ve stretched the Edges of the Unconscious! And the Juno-Pluto Conjunction Trine-Bridges the Full Moon, lending a Grace-full flavor to the Adventure.
A Trine Bridge represents an “Easy Way” to “do” an Opposition such as a Full Moon. An Opposition is a Duality, and if we neglect to move from Heads/Tails to Coin, we get stuck in Either/Or. The Trine Bridge contributes Grace. A Quincunx Bridge contributes Curiosity. As long as we Celebrate our Curiosity as an ongoing sense of Enjoyable or even Blissful Wonder, rather than trying to Limit it by “Figuring it out,” this is another fabulous alternative to Either/Or.
The Full Moon also has a Quincunx Bridge – to dwarf planet Chaos. Well, we know Chaos, it’s a big part of one of our Golden Rectangle-Yin Gates, the Love-Fear Yin Gate. Chaos, symbolizing Limitlessness, will bring up our Limits, specifically, the Forbidden part of our Forbidden Genius. Is Love-Fear even really an Either/Or? The Emotions certainly seem that way. But many define Fear as the Absence of Love, and it’s certainly Fear that inhibits our Stretching into Unconditional Love, isn’t it.
What happens if we Decide to Learn to Love our Fear? We can reduce the intensity of the Emotion with Tapping. We can Revert Fearsome thoughts with Cancel-Neutralize-Upgrade. And if Fear is the Absence of Love, and we Learn to Love our Fear, where does that leave Fear? It dissolves, doesn’t it. So, we have Free Will, we can make such a Decision (or better yet, a PIAVA) to Learn. Can we follow through with the Learning part? Well, looky here at the Full Moon chart…
See those heavy orange lines? That’s a Grand Quintile – five planets equally spaced around the Loop. The Fifth Harmonic is about Learning. So there is no better time to make a Decision to Learn – all we actually have to do is Decide to Allow Learning, we won’t even have to work at it!
The long red line is the Full Moon itself; the blue lines connecting the Sun and the Moon through Juno-Pluto is the Trine Bridge, and the green lines connecting them via Chaos is the Quincunx Bridge. Notice that there’s one other green line, connecting Juno-Pluto and Chaos.
We even have a Finger of God pointing at Chaos, telling us to Pay Attention to (and be willing to Transcend) our Limitations! While Chaos links the Full Moon to the multiple Yin Gates, the Sun itself – signifying the Essence of the situation, links the Full Moon to the Grand Quintile. So far, this Full Moon chart is pretty amazing – Rebirth into our Soul Self, Recovery of our Genius, Abandonment of our Limitations, Expansion of our Consciousness, all with a “Get Out of Ego Death Free” card, and all we have to do is Surrender into Learning! We don’t even have to find our homework, all we have to do is Pay Attention!
But we aren’t done yet. Look at the light orange lines – a second Grand Quintile! Well, almost. One corner is missing, the one marked with the circled “V” for Vacancy. When we have an almost-Grand-Whatever, the Vacancy becomes the Most Important corner, because if we can fill in that corner, we can Manifest the “Grand” part of the Whatever. The “Grand” part is like going from Wheat Berries and Sugar Beets to Cake and Frosting.
The Vacancy is 27 Degrees of Gemini, and the “Sabian Symbol” or interpretation for that Degree, is “A Gypsy emerging from the forest where her tribe is camped.” Well, if we can discount any racism inherent in that (the Sabian Symbols were Channeled in the 1920s or ’30s), we could maybe picture ourselves as a Footloose Soul Emerging from the Trance that our Family of Origin and other Acculturation installed in us to reinforce our Karma so we wouldn’t be tempted to ignore it.
Trances are kind of like that – you can’t see the Trees for the Forest. We see it all the time in politics. When something doesn’t match our Trance, to us it’s fake news. Emerging from the Forest is Coming into the Light – Illumination (which is the meaning of a Full Moon itself after all!), Enlightenment, Leaving behind in the Woods the Archetypes that used to run our Lives and constrain our Freedom, becoming a Free Spirit, a Gypsy. (Not to disparage the Woods; they can happily Compost our krap.) That just may be doable here.
But we still aren’t done. Are there any asteroids or Fixed Stars near 27 Gemini? Well, yes, two very significant Fixed Stars. The first is Betelguese. Brady says “it is my own opinion that Betelguese is the most auspicious star of all, for the fulfillment it offers seems to be totally uncomplicated by trials and hassles. The presence of one of these stars [the Stars in Orion, the best of which is Betelguese] will be of great benefit if you are striving to achieve something at any level of your life” (p.31).
Of course, giving up Striving is a key to Loving ourself fully just as we are, eschewing Judgment and achieving Neutrality, and reaching Enlightenment, but we aren’t quite there yet, are we. So we can use one last helping hand here, can’t we. As Goethe put it, “Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, Den können wir erlösen,” meaning something like “With Intention and Persistence you can’t Lose.” (Well, assuming you remember to Change the Subject and Pay Attention if necessary.) Betelguese is Orion’s left shoulder, virtually the Hand of God.
The other Fixed Star near 27 Gemini is Polaris, the Way-Shower, symbolizing Guidance. The eye of the She-Bear Goddess. Polaris itself is only visible in the Northern Hemisphere, but translated to a chart, the symbolism isn’t Limited that way. So besides all those other Blessings, we’re Guided!
Oh, almost forgot one more thing. That second, now-complete Grand Quintile sits exactly aligned with the middle of the first Grand Quintile, so we end up with a Grand Decile! The Tenth Harmonic is the Wheel of Fortune, the “universal principle of abundance, prosperity and expansion… the experience of awakening to the possibilities that can turn our lives in more positive and expansive directions… with the willingness to change and keep things moving by taking risks and being open to new opportunities” (Angeles Arien, Tarot Handbook, p.63). I don’t recall ever seeing a Grand Decile in the five decades I’ve been doing astrology.
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