It is uncanny that the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8th, contains several nearly identical planet placements and emphasizes the same themes as the Full Moon in Aries taking place this Thursday, October 17th. Six months ago that Solar Eclipse inaugurated a phase of learning and healing, both personal and collective, that has ripened at this Full Moon.
In case you want to refresh your memory of the April eclipse, here’s the link to my post.
This year the USA is having its Chiron return and on April 8th, the eclipse was exactly conjunct transiting Chiron and one degree away from its natal placement in Aries in our 4th House. The exact return occurred on April 20th, twelve days after the eclipse. At this Full Moon, retrograde Chiron is again within one degree of its next exact return on November 8th, three days after the election. The final return for the next 50 years occurs on February 18th. We’re only half-way through this Chiron process.
We all know that Chiron is a healer and functions in our psyches to bring up old wounds and unresolved issues. But Chiron is also a teacher and mentor. He wants us to grow by learning the lessons our wounds hold for us. The deepest wounds are karmic themes that have gathered momentum through successive incarnations and are ripe for healing and release. Chiron helps us remove the blockages to living our best lives.
I probably have bored you to sleep with my constant encouragement to heal the wounds from the past, to forgive and let go of the attachments that have locked our identity into mediocrity. What we can become, together, will be something so amazing we can’t even conceive of it yet, because we are still stuck to the flypaper of scarcity. And the belief in scarcity is what drives our passion to consume goods and hoard resources, all of which are threatening the viability of our planet. Abundance flows through good will and gratitude keeps it coming.
Our nation has Chiron in Aries, suggesting that one of our deep collective wounds involves the masculine archetype. Aries is the god of war and all things heroically masculine. This energy contributes to the phony image of what it means to be a man. According to the conditioned definition, men fight, they compete and conquer, they are the dominant gender. When they don’t engage on the battlefield, they take their aggression into the workplace and release their frustration all too frequently by abusing women at home.
Notice how so many of our national ventures are described as wars – the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war against women. Men are taught early to suppress their gentle side, to hide their vulnerability. I believe part of Chiron’s mission is to heal the misconception that has turned masculinity toxic. I’m not just talking about men. Women have been conditioned by the same beliefs. We all carry a distorted image of what constitutes strength and power.
Our natal Chiron is opposite our natal Juno in Libra. Juno is about partnership, marriage, cooperation and commitment, feminine qualities that give meaning and depth to our lives. Natal Juno is also conjunct our Saturn. When we remember that Saturn is the planet of maturity, we can see how important the qualities of Juno are to our nation’s growth. In the sign of Libra, the focus is on balance.
At this Full Moon, transiting Juno is conjunct the Sun. Her energy is tied up with Spirit and reflected in the fullness of the Moon which is conjunct Chiron. Our Juno return was on October 7th, another archetype closing out one cycle and beginning the next.
The Full Moon axis forms a T-Square with transiting Mars and a second T-Square with our natal Mercury, both in Cancer, the sign of our natal Sun. What is Cancer? Home, motherhood, nurturance, emotional safety and security. We are being asked – both sexes – to evaluate our expression of Mars. As if the message needed repeating, transiting Jupiter is within minutes of conjunction with our natal Mars, advising us to expand our conception of what constitutes the healthy masculine.
Need I mention that this election is really a choice between paradigms? Do we want to continue with toxic male domination driving us to the edge of extinction? Or would we prefer a balanced society in which both forms of Spirit live in harmony with each other and with all life on this planet?
Chiron is the star of this Full Moon, but he has a few major costars.
Big Shift for Pluto
Pluto is about to close out its Capricorn transit and enter Aquarius for the final time within our lives on November 19th, two weeks after our national election. Pluto made its return three times in 2022, bringing the first phase of our nation’s growth to completion. It has been straddling the threshold between Capricorn and Aquarius since then, revealing how far we have strayed from our original path as defenders of the spirit of democracy.
I think of this first Pluto cycle as the childhood and adolescent phase of America’s development. Pluto entering Aquarius at this point in our history suggests that it’s time to grow up, stop our squabbling, surrender our self-absorption and think on a bigger scale – consider the welfare of the whole, not the interests of the individual. No one can thrive without the whole and when the core of the collective consciousness is absorbed in self-interest, the core begins to rot as the disease of competition spreads throughout, causing faults like those in our tectonic plates, that become stressed to their limit and finally break wide open causing devastating damage.
Almost as a counter weight to the masculine emphasis of the Sun/Moon/Mars T-square, Pluto is involved in close aspects with Venus and Hygeia. Pluto at 29+ Capricorn is sextile Venus at 29+ Scorpio. If we remember that Pluto’s domain is Scorpio, Venus is in the underworld, but about to emerge into the fire and light of Sagittarius, the dreamer and visionary.
Pluto is also square Hygeia which has just left 29 Aries and entered Taurus. Hygeia brings in themes of health, suggesting that we focus on the health of the feminine. This is a huge issue in our election, the right of women to be sovereign over their health and their reproductive decisions; but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. At the heart of this issue is the value of the divine feminine in our society. Are we to be kitchen slaves and baby-making machines so our men can run the world without protest? Will we have a say in our future as a society? Will all our wisdom, compassion and creativity be shackled to housework? That’s what J.D. Vance proposes, along with the establishment of a Christian state much like Islamic dictatorships.
On this Full Moon in Aries, Hygeia is opposite Haumea, the goddess of regeneration, rebirth and prolific creativity. The health of our divided nation can be renewed and reborn under Haumea’s influence.
Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and has been tilling the soil of our social and political institutions for sixteen years, revealing what isn’t serving us along with the corruption at the heart of our capitalist system that has spawned untold greed. Under the domination of toxic masculine values, we have driven our very home planet to the brink of collapse. As the richest nation on Earth, we carry the shame of poverty, chronic disease, racial and ethnic prejudice and the suffering of the majority who are still struggling to survive. There’s no excuse for that when our corporations boast profits in the billions and a select few are rich enough to purchase political power.
Pluto’s transit through Capricorn has shown us what needs to change. Aquarius is famous for reform because it’s about the welfare and power of the people. We have witnessed signs of that growing power as Unions are re-energized, as people come together with common causes, as the minimum wage increases and the current administration supports an economy based on strengthening the middle class which has been shrinking under “trickle-down” economics, the curse of the Reagan legacy which widened the gap in wealth.
In November we will be choosing the world we want to live in: one of fear or love? of domination or equality? of cutthroat competition or amiable cooperation? of nightmare or our finest dreams? This is a tender moment in our evolution and if we make the wrong choice, if we surrender to fear, if we shun responsibility and are willing to hand our power over to a candidate who has told us he will be a dictator wreaking revenge on all his enemies, we could end up repeating the history of the last Pluto cycle, if we survive that long.
Eris
The Sun and Moon are in the Cardinal signs of Libra and Aries. Both are closely paired with powerful feminine energy. The Sun at 24:35 Libra is conjunct Juno half a minute behind at 24:02. The Moon in Aries is even closer with the dwarf planet Eris. When this cycle began back in April, Mercury was tightly conjunct Eris, advising that we check our beliefs and perception, and work out the shadow side of Eris. Now Eris is in the spotlight again.
Remember that Eris is in our 1st House. She is part of our identity. Eris has played a big role in our Pluto process. She is the sister of Mars, equally aggressive but with a different agenda. Eris is a warrior for equality and inclusiveness. While her goal may be admirable, her means can wreak havoc. The themes of rejection, alienation, social stigma and diversity play out in our reality every day. The haves and have nots. The celebrities and the homeless. Our society is becoming more diverse as gender boundaries blur and this stirs up fear. Somehow our paradigm includes the false belief that conformity is necessary for peace, ironically something we must fight for.
Mythical Eris was vindictive. She was also instructive, but the goddesses involved in her mythology missed the point. Embedded in their entitlement, they thought only of themselves. Eris creates chaos, throwing everything into confusion while generating endless new possibilities. Chaos is rich with potential. During our Pluto passage, Eris has been squaring Pluto. Squares activate planetary themes through tension. You can see how helpful Eris was in stirring us all up. We’ve been bitching about it for years.
We have suffered the shadow side of Eris – blaming, conniving, vengeful but clever, knowing exactly which button to push to elicit the greatest reaction. Now is the time to integrate the lessons, to let go of our lesser selves. The new challenge of our next evolutionary era will be resolving the paradox of self and other. Can we learn to honor and accept diversity? Can we put the welfare of the whole ahead of our personal desires? Can we work together, unleash all that pent-up creativity, innovate in the spirit of good will?We certainly have the potential, and with Salacia squaring our natal Eris, we have a good shot at choosing a positive Eris outcome.
We are less than three weeks away from election day. The next New Moon will be on November 1st at 10 degrees of Scorpio. I want to close with a poignant quote from the 20th century journalist, novelist, war correspondent and third wife of Ernest Hemmingway, Martha Gelhorn:
“People often say, with pride, I’m not interested in politics. They might as well say, I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future. If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.”
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