December 29 10:28 PM EST
The final full moon of 2020 is, fittingly, in the domestically-oriented sign of Cancer, apt as that part of our lives has been deeply magnified in 2020. Indeed the balance between public (Capricorn) and private (Cancer) in our lives has been front and center for us individually and collectively for the past several years, and we had a potent solar eclipse in Cancer in June 2020. We have been grappling with questions pertaining to how well our public institutions and rules/procedures (Capricorn) support us and give us a firm foundation of safety and well-being (Cancer). All of these topics are once again on the table during this full moon.
The sun is at 8 degrees of Capricorn, opposite the moon at 8 degrees of Cancer. All opposite signs represent flip sides of the same coin, energetics that need to be harmonized in order for them to function optimally. In the case of the Cancer and Capricorn polarity, we are again dealing the paradox of our private (Cancer) and public (Capricorn) lives. Dealing as it does with nurturing and early childhood, Cancer teaches us that we cannot thrive and reach our full potential in society (Capricorn) until we feel safe, secure and nurtured within ourselves (Cancer). And as a society, the highest function of our bureaucracy and institutions (Capricorn) is to give us a firm collective foundation (Cancer) of stability and peace. As individuals and as a collective we are in the midst of deep change when it comes to these matters. Society is being re-written, and our expectations of institutions are changing, as in many ways was shown by the Saturn Pluto conjunction in January 2020, and Saturn’s ingress into Aquarius.
How are we personally (Cancer) handling all of this change? That is our focus at this full moon. Are we starting to feel better about all of the shifts in our lives? Have we taken the invitation of the Cancer solar eclipse in June to learn new ways of mothering and nurturing ourselves through challenge and disruption? Going within to look at some of the answers to these questions will be helpful, and healing, for us right now.
The sun and moon are squared by Chiron, the asteroid related to healing, at 5 degrees of Aries. It’s another reminder that the deeper we dig into this work now, the more powerful our healing and rewards can ultimately be in the long-term. It can feel uncomfortable to sit with our emotions- the good, the bad, and the ugly- but it is a worthwhile process. And this full moon shows us that the pull of the old ways and conventions (sun and Mercury in Capricorn) are still present, but we have access to new levels of understanding about how they make us feel (Cancer), and new levels of access to healing those old ingrained patterns (Chiron).
We are now past the grand conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, and both of those planets are firmly ensconced in Aquarius, at 1 and 2 degrees of that sign respectively. They are square to Mars (still in the late degrees of Aries) and Uranus at 6 degrees of Taurus. While the tug-of-war between the old (Capricorn) and the new (Aquarius) was very much at the forefront in 2020, one of the big astrological signatures of 2021 is the fixed sign square off between the newly minted Aquarian planets (Saturn and Jupiter) with unpredictable Uranus in Taurus. Uranus is also joined by Mars in this sign for the first several months of the year. Those in power do not give it up easily. And there is an intractability to this aspect that can feel like a challenging stale mate. Changes may ultimately be forced through dramatic external influences or surprises (Uranus) rather than evolving ‘organically’.
Venus, at 18 degrees of Sagittarius, is closely conjunct the south node of the moon at 19 degrees Sagittarius. This is another lovely healing aspect. The South node represents our past karma and with love and harmony related Venus connecting there, we are supported in the shedding that takes place now.
The full moon in Cancer can want to hold on to its stories, its memories, its history. But the invitation is even greater now to work in the highest vibrational sense of Cancer moon, feeling our CURRENT feelings even more deeply (and accurately) so that we can choose what is best for us NOW, not based on prior expectation or nostalgia. Chiron is encouraging us to make this leap and to heal. And Venus is smoothing our passage away from the old and towards the new. We may not be fully in our next chapter yet, but this full moon is a major ally in terms of helping us FEEL our way through each step and all of the options that are available to us in the present.
*Art by @hheinge
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