“You can never love another person unless you are simultaneously involved in the difficult but beautiful spiritual work of learning to love yourself.” John O’Donahue
On Saturday September 10th, just before 3 a.m. Pacific time, the Moon comes into opposition with the Virgo Sun from 17+ degrees of Pisces. In typical Pisces fashion, this Moon illuminates and weaves together all the heavenly archetypes into a picture of Oneness.
The major configuration between the lunar axis and nodal axis forms a Mystic Rectangle revealing the way to heal and integrate the polarities in our lives. Let’s take a closer look at this in the USA natal chart.
Mystic Rectangle
Astronomically a Mystic Rectangle or “Harmonic Rectangle” is made of up two oppositions, two sextiles and two trines. The Lunar Axis consists of the Sun in Virgo in the 9th House and the Moon in Pisces in the 3rd. We take in information in the 3rd House, color it with our beliefs and attitudes, then sift through it in 9th House, Virgo fashion, to create a story about reality, a framework within which to make sense of the world. Information and vision are two of the themes.
The Nodal axis reveals the energies through which we are evolving at the moment. The North Node is in Taurus asking us to get grounded and bringing our attention to our bodies, our planet, and issues of wellbeing. The South Node is serving up memories of the past, carrying wisdom and skills that we have accumulated through a thousand lifetimes and reminding us of unfinished business that is holding us back from our potential in this lifetime. In Scorpio it calls us into our depths for regeneration.
In the USA chart the North Node is in the 5th House of creative self-expression. This is where we display our uniqueness, finding forms through which to manifest our consciousness. This is where we innovate, discover creative solutions, experiment with intriguing new ways to express ourselves, and when our creations are inspired by love, we embody and allow Spirit to manifest in the world. Our life is our major work of art. Living the love in our hearts creates a beautiful life, inspires others, leaves a lasting positive impact and brings us personal fulfillment.
The 11th House takes us beyond our personal lives into the realm of cooperation with others. Here we interact with collective consciousness through groups, work relationships, organizations, alliances. With whom do we align? Have we found our “tribe?” What talents can we bring to the collective table?
These two axes form a Mystic Rectangle. Sun is sextile the South Node, sending light and energy into our inner darkness. The Moon in Pisces is sextile the North Node, stimulating our need to connect and belong, sparking our imagination with visions of a better future, dreams we have not yet dared to dream.
The Sun is also trine the North Node while the Moon is trine the South Node. While sextiles activate and initiate, trines are supportive and harmonious. The Mystic Rectangle therefore is a solid foundation upon which to bring harmony and reconciliation to polarities – opposite points of view, inner and outer conflict, two different parts of our personality or areas of our lives.
This Mystic Rectangle brings together two Earth signs and two Water signs – body and soul, mind and emotions, personal and collective, past and future. These are the themes for the chart of our country, but each of us has this configuration in our personal charts as well. The planets and signs will be the same, but Houses will vary.
More Themes
The lunar and nodal axes are not the only oppositions at the Full Moon. Saturn in Aquarius in the 2nd House of values is opposite Ceres in Leo in the 8th House of collective creation. In the case of our nation, the 8th House is concerned with the reality we create together and mirrors to us the psychic state of our population. Ceres is there at 21+ degrees of Leo calling attention to the challenges we face with the mess we have made on our planet. With Saturn in the 2nd house we are being asked to consider our values – how much do we love Mother Earth, our life support system? Can we recapture the love and connection that is mandatory for survival? And then there’s the rift in our national family. How can we nurture ourselves, and each other, back into harmony?
Saturn is square the Nodal axis and has been all year. We’ve made a start at addressing our climate crisis, but we need to consolidate this effort world-wide. Aquarius is about all humanity learning to work together. We need to wake up and tend the Garden we have been given. We must put our collective feet down and stop the incessant fouling of our Earth’s precious air, water and soil. No exceptions, no more delay. The problems that are on the horizon are so much more threatening than our domestic squabbles. We have reached and probably passed the point of no return.
We need to plan for countless displaced persons. We need to look ahead to how we will feed everyone, where we will house them. We need to live in harmony with our world, in appreciation and gratitude and humble respect for all of life which means we have to create a new way to relate to one another. Change is inevitable and we can either embrace it, go with the flow and make the best of it, or be dragged through the worst disaster our world has known since the Flood.
Saturn and Ceres form a Fixed T-square with the nodal axis and therefore connect with the Mystic Rectangle. A Fixed T-square is an aspect of great tension and something has to give. Our very future depends upon it.
That brings me to the opposition of Mercury and Jupiter. Both planets are retrograde. Mercury has just begun his return toward the Sun at 8+ degrees of Libra. The two will conjunct on September 22nd on the very day that the Sun crosses the equator on the Autumnal Equinox at 0 degrees of Libra. This begins a new phase of the year as well as a new Mercury cycle, with a focus on relationship. This Full Moon chart is showing us where to put our attention as we move toward a national election, one that will determine the future of our country, the democracy we cherish, the autonomy of women, and our ability to meet the challenges on our global horizon.
Mercury suggests we take a pause and find our equilibrium. Take time to review, remember and reassess. Our world has changed drastically in just a few years. How can we contribute to the healing? We are all waiting for the other guy to change, but we can’t make that happen. All we have power over is our own response. Jupiter is headed back for a last dip into Pisces where we can reconnect with our deepest selves, remember our dreams, shore up our faith, and open ourselves up to the immense Love in which we swim.
Mercury is conjunct Makemake at this Full Moon. This is the dwarf planet that helps us see a bigger picture, to look beyond our personal lives to the culture in which we live. The axis of Mercury/Makemake opposite Jupiter bisects the Mystic Triangle. We are invited to expand our view and engage in determining our future. Jupiter is there to support our growth. What a great time to have a long conversation with the Self!
The Context
The personal planets engage our private lives. The social planets influence our collective interactions. The transpersonal planets create the psychic environment, or context in which we operate.
The general cosmic weather for the next few months is cloudy with storms ahead. Uranus is still conjunct the North Node stimulating change in sudden shock waves, nudging us into the future. Neptune is in a wide conjunction to the Moon, but they close in on one another throughout the day. Are we facing reality or escaping into an illusion? We’re seeing underwater here. Lines are blurred.
Neptune is also moving back toward an exact opposition to its natal point when we became a nation. Neptune opposition is about taking a good look at one’s spiritual life. How wounded are we? How can we heal? How authentic are we? How kind? How devoted? How do we feel about others? This is the heart of the matter. We are a nation of squabbling children, suffering from separation yet refusing to make peace. We can all benefit from a good look at ourselves.
In the past few weeks I have seen things about myself that made me deeply sad. I’m in the process of letting go of the pain, and I’m glad to see the truth, but some of my illusions are bursting like tight balloons, and it shakes my world. Now my lessons lie in self-forgiveness and releasing the past.
Pluto is still doing a square dance with Eris. This promotes a climate of ill will and discord, but only because egos are activated. And that’s the whole point – to bring those egos out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Eris creates chaos, destabilizes the status quo bringing up all of our ego defenses. The challenge is to own the ego’s projections – all of them. A great place to look is at our judgments. We see the flaws of others so clearly, but in truth the ones we react to are the ones that lie within our own shadow. As we become aware and integrate those projected parts of ourselves, conflict subsides. There is less judgment in the world and more authenticity.
The environment of polarity and separation will continue to cause anxiety and stress. We are reaching the breaking point or rather the point at which there is so much stress on the grid that we burst into spirals. That’s a reference to Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine for his Theory of Dissipative Structures. In layperson’s terms, he discovered that when you add energy to a system there comes a point when the structure can no longer accommodate the energy. It breaks down and chemically explodes into what looks like spirals when seen through an electron microscope.
Not only is this a great metaphor for what is happening in our world right now, but it has applications at all levels. Think of breaking points – breakdowns, break-ups – when the structure of our lives falls apart. It feels painful at the time, but it gives us a chance to recreate ourselves and a new life.
In the midst of this crisis soup, Mars has begun its seven-month tour of Gemini. It’s thinking and re-thinking time. A new paradigm is about to emerge and Mars is cultivating the soil. Meditation will ease this passage, helping us to bypass the constant ego chatter and get into deeper truths that lie beneath the noise.
The Full Moon is conjunct Juno, asteroid goddess of marriage and partnerships – devoted relationship.
Orcus is conjunct the Sun. This dwarf likes to get to the bottom of things. It encourages deep inner dives to bring the shadow into the Light. Some say Orcus is about punishment. I think that’s harsh. It’s more about karmic comeuppance. Lack of integrity brings consequences. That’s why we do shadow work – to integrate all the parts of our humanity and be at odds with none.
Activating Empathy
Between now and December things are going to heat up in our country. This Full Moon in Pisces is bathing us in the light of compassion. We are going through this together. People all over the world are already migrating, either to escape war, or famine. Many have lost their homes to flood, fire, financial hardship. Millions have lost loved ones to the pandemic. We’re all trying to deal with the same energy that is creating uncertainty and anxiety in our world. Our human family is traumatized.
Pisces is about love – universal love, unconditional love, compassionate love. If we must escape from the harshness of reality, we can do it through love. A United World is still a way off, and while we need to think globally, we need even more to feel globally. We can knit our population together through a web of compassion that will heal our collective consciousness from within. Empathy takes compassion into a psychic realm in which we can feel the pain and suffering of others.
I’ll end on a note of optimism. Haumea is the apex of a Yod, or Finger of God, with Neptune in Pisces and Sedna in Taurus that will last well into next year. Haumea is the goddess of creation and regeneration. She brings rebirth with each creative act. On October 22, 2022 Venus will make another star point when she conjuncts the Sun at 29 degrees of Libra, exactly where Haumea lies. The message I get is that love is a creative act. It carries the will of the Divine. And with every act of love we regenerate ourselves and our world.
Key Dates:
Sept. 9 Mercury stations retrograde
10 Full Moon in Pisces
11 Sun trine Uranus – another shock wave?
16 Venus in Virgo square Mars in Gemini
18 Mercury opposite Jupiter
Sun trine Pluto
19 Venus trine Uranus
22 Mercury con Sun – new Mercury cycle
Sun moves into Libra – Fall Equinox
24 Venus opposite Neptune
25 Venus trine Pluto
New Moon in Libra
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