Capricorn Full Moon, July 18, 2008
Full Moons generate awareness. When the Moon stands opposite the Sun and fully reflects the Sun's light in the darkness of night, we are stretched to understand this central mystery of human life: to be fully human, we must be fully aware of the two sides of our nature. These two sides have their correspondence in the two different lights of the Sun and the Moon.
Look around you and tell me if we can afford to continue to only live in our rational, egoic state of consciousness. I believe we also have to integrate the silent depths of our feeling nature. Perhaps our ability to ignore those depths is what calls forth the 'craziness' we feel at the full moon – werewolves and vampires live within us when we repress our feeling nature. The full moon calls out those feelings, whether we want it or not.
The Sun initiates and controls the cycle of life on Earth: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. The amount of light sets the limits of life experience – summer is for growth and expansion, just as winter is for rest and contraction. Psychologically, the Sun symbolizes your rational ego consciousness and also represents your unique Self and purpose in life – your true Identity.
The Moon initiates and controls growth and transformation. While the Sun enables the photosynthesis of plants, the Moon's light is what makes plants grow. The energies of the Moon are tied to tides and emotions and our Unconscious depths. Psychologically, the Moon is your unique personality, the way you live out your life. The Moon symbolizes your instinctual, intuitive, feeling nature and your ability to 'reflect upon' what you're learning from the Sun.
So, what's been happening in your life during this month when the Sun in Cancer, here in the northern hemisphere, brings us summer? This is the time for growth and expansion, the time of year to live life to the fullest. 'Summertime, and the livin' is easy.' Are we really enjoying it? That is the question this full moon in Cancer/Capricorn is asking us.
As I mentioned in my Cancer New Moon newsletter, Cancer energizes the Great Mother archetype, the instinctual energy of nurturing and caring. Ruled by the Moon, Cancer sensitizes you to your life's needs. Did you go inside yourself this month and pay a visit to the Great Mother within as frequently as you paid visits to the beauty and bounty of Mother Nature? Did you let one feed the other? Our inner 'personal' mother can enhance the bounty of the outer world, or cut us off from it. When we connect to our inner Great Mother we come home to ourselves. Then we find out what we are made of and what we really desire.
The full moon is in Cancer's opposite sign – Capricorn. Capricorn carries the energy of The Great Father archetype, the energy of law and order and culture. In the patriarchy, the Father archetype has become the rational energy that devises the laws and structures for group interaction. That's why Capricorn rules our government and corporate structures.
But Capricorn also rules our Dharma – our righteous duty in the world. What do you think your responsibility is to our collective life? Are we here to work and consume, or are we here on Earth to become a grown-up human being, with talents, gifts and responsibilities to ourselves, our families and our world? Our Capricorn Moon reflects on the Cancer issues of what will really nurture your inner, feeling life through the filter of your Capricorn sense of authority, autonomy and personal power in the world.
This full moon calls us to our Integrity, to live out our essential nature in the public arena. It evokes a sense of freedom – the freedom to live according to the laws of your own essential nature. Are you a feeling type? Then don't be afraid to show people what those feelings are telling you is of value. That's a hard one in our society, even though we elevate that ideal in our country. We are still a country impressed by collective attitudes and perceptions. The true individual is often ignored and sometimes despised. But this is the freedom essentially promised to Americans in the Constitution.
Be your original Self! Your public image doesn't need the approval of society – make your inner knowing and your public 'showing' one.
The shadow side of Cancer is over-protective mothering, while the shadow of Capricorn is materialism, dominance, and depression. These two shadows combine to ensure that you're only out for yourself. Power in the world become the illusion of safety.
We are seeing some of the effects of the shadow side of these two signs: a strained banking system, housing markets in chaos, food contamination and energy scarcity. And Integrity lost in the shuffle.
The (new) dwarf planet Ceres is in Cancer and she plays a role in this full moon, just as she did in the Cancer new moon. Ceres symbolizes the archetype of the Great Mother who creates and supports life. She is an agricultural Earth Mother, goddess of growth and food. Ceres in Cancer can teach us the self-love and self-acceptance we need to nurture ourselves.
Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn asks us to reconsider the best way to expand our worldly power. Ceres opposite Jupiter makes us aware that we need to nurture a social vision if we are to be nurtured ourselves. Ceres conjoined with Mercury sharpens our intuitive sense about what is life-affirming for ourselves and others. We are all interconnected. We need to make that conscious and act on it.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 27 Cancer: A violent storm in a canyon filled with expensive homes. This symbolizes a confrontation with a social upheaval demanding the reconsideration of static values. Our cultural values are under attack by environmental hazards, war, food shortages and economic recession. Now would be a good time to rise to the occasion and meet the crisis with integrity, intelligence and spirit.
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