The Moon is about to oppose the Sun and become full of its light in the sign of Capricorn. As the Queen of Heaven stands in stark contrast to the king, the energy of this lunation will reach a climax, and the resulting dynamic tension will stir up a great deal of activity. This will occur on Friday,June 21st at 9:07pm eastern time.
The Full Moon signifies the apex of current celestial cycle - it is the terminlization of the energy that has been slowly crescendoing in the aethers since the New Moon. As the Moon fills with the light of the Sun and the celestial energy peaks in intensity for the season, the astral energy around us peaks as well. The themes, lessons, and emotional timbre of the lunation reach a climax begun by the new moon.
On earth, we experience a corresponding culmination in response - both at an individual and collective level. The new seeds, patterns, and intentions sown during the new moon two weeks ago will likewise come to fruition.
Just as the Sun illuminates the Moon in her totality, our own inner, unconsicous patterning has the opportunity to become completely revealed by the light of our awareness. Like all revelations of the unconscious, this can often create a great deal of chaos, as heretofore unexamined or repressed behaviors and attitude becomes explicit.
For this reason (and in keeping the fact that the full Moon initiates the waning half of her cycle), the Moon’s zodiacal placement indicates circumstances and behaviors in our lives that we often need to release. As she wanes and separates from the opposition to the Sun, so too should we wane and separate from the things in our lives that do not serve us.
This full moon occurs in the pragmatic, industrious, world-weary sign of Capricorn. Traditional astrologers associate Capricorn with limits, negation, contraction, and asceticism, as well as the greatness and material success that can be achieved through self-denial and sacrifice.
Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the God of death, loss, darkness, and time. Known in Astrology as the greater malefic, Saturn creates obstacles, challenges, and struggles that assail us as we pursue our purpose in life. While these difficulties ultimately exist to temper our souls, the ego-death that he facilitates and the reflectivity he cultivates are by no means pleasant experiences. In the cycle of the year, the Sun occupies Capricorn for the winter solstice, at the very beginning of winter. They days are dark. The wind is cool. There’s no light, no flowers, and no food. It’s humdrum and miserable.
Clearly, this is not the most comfortable placement for the Moon, who is in detriment in Capricorn. The Moon, as the celestial mother of the heavens, desires to meet our needs and wants; less goal-oriented and outcome-oriented than Capricorn, the Moon’s intelligence lies instead in its capacity to adapt to the circumstances of the present moment and flow with the needs of the immediate. In Capricorn, this capacity is severely stifled.
While going full, the Moon will oppose the Sun in Cancer. The topics and themes of Cancer are much more in keeping with the Moon’s disposition: Cancer is nurtering, compassionate, and deeply accepting of people. Cancer privileges the dreamtime, intuition, and messages that come from non-linear, non-physical sources. Cancer feels its way through life like following a breadcrumb trail of intuitive rightness without any attachment to results or final outcomes. All the wisdom is found in deeply listening to the present moment.
Whereas Capricorn lives in the future, Cancer is immersed in the here and now. Capricorn emphasizes concrete results and tangible outcomes, Cancer privileges intuition and emotional intelligence. Capricorn pushes where Cancer would coddle. Capricorn strives; Cancer has achieved. Capricorn works, cancer celebrates.
Thus, with this Full Moon, we see the antithesis between the celebratory, in-the-moment, intuitive sensibilities of Cancer and the dour, goal-oriented, matter-of-fact realm of Capricorn. The current zodiacal emphasis on intuition and celebration of the present moment is interrupted and contrasted by the Capricorn’s orientation towards work and goals.
As a result, the brightness and warmth of early summer become marred at this point by anxieties and stressors about the future. What should be carefree contentment becomes muddled by feelings of neurotic insufficiency - insufficiency with one’s bank account, one’s external life, and even core aspects about one’s self that cannot be changed.
Thus, this full moon illuminates the unconscious, shadowy aspects of Capricorn that we harbor within us: our tendencies towards control and obsessively chasing outcomes and goals instead of resting in the truth of the present moment. We become fixated on what must be built, adjusted, or improved, instead of celebrating the way things are. Instead of meeting our surroundings and ourselves with love and complete acceptance, like the archetypal maternal, cancerian figure, we just see things that are wrong and need to be fixed.
You may find anxieties and fears coming to the surface, rooted in childhood trauma. It’s common to experience feelings of scarcity and a deep-seated fear that you don’t have enough or that you yourself are not enough. We rob ourselves of joy by letting our minds fixate on things that we oftentimes cannot change, or don’t even need to be changed in order for you to be whole.
What goals and intentions for your life, though noble, have you become overly fixated on? What unrealized futures are you worrying about unecessarily? What obsessive agendas and intentions are distracting you from the present moment? What fears of inadequacy are robbing you of your joy?
Aventurine is a good stone for calming the nervous system and letting go of negative thoughts. Rhodocrosite is a good stone for self-love and self-acceptance if you find yourself quite inadequate.
Take a deep breath and settle into the present moment. Notice your fears and insecurities as they and let them go. You will return to the Cancerian wisdom that only comes through deep surrender to the present moment. As time passes, you won’t feel so compelled to ruminate in worry. Allow this process to unfold on its own without too much attachment, and you will find that the universe provides you with far more support than you could ever claim with your worrying mind.