Full Moon in Gemini — December 12, 2008, 16:37 UT
The sky is vibrating like a Finnish kantele, the musical instrument masterly played by the magician Väinämöinen, one of the main characters in Finnish mythology.
The Full Moon at 21+ degrees of Gemini on Friday, Dec. 12, arrives with intense aspect patterns including a grand cross, a yod, and several main planets and important minor planets around 19-22 degrees of the signs they occupy, tightly aspecting the luminaries.
The dramatic grand cross falls in the mutable signs: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. The Moon in Gemini opposes the Sagittarian Sun, and both the Sun and Moon are squaring Uranus in Pisces and Saturn in Virgo. The Sun is in conjunction with Mars.
Mercury, the ruler of Gemini and Virgo is sharing the first degree of Capricorn, one of the cardinal points, with Pluto. Together they sguare the Aries Point, a point which tends to connect us to the larger events and movements in society around us. It’s the point where we go beyond ourselves.
Oppositions are aspects of confrontation, and also they can bring awareness. Squares are producing action and growth. With a grand cross we can feel like we’re pulled in four different directions at once, especially now with the restlessness of the mutability prevailing. The Full Moon in general can be stressful, and this time the planets involved will, no doubt, add some extra tension. It is important to find a constructive means of action to unravel this tension.
In Sagittarius are asteroid Astraea, the trans-Neptunian Quaoar and the Centaur planet Crantor in conjunction with the Sun and Mars. In Virgo, Saturn is conjunct two trans-Neptunian binary planets: Typhon and Logos.
Two weeks ago at the Sagittarius New Moon I was writing about Typhon, so now I am just offering a link to that article from November. About Logos you can read for example in the article on the Virgo Solar Eclipse of Sept. 2007 conjunct Logos.
Other minor planets in tight aspect to the Sun, Moon, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — and also to each other — are Eris (the goddess of discord) and 1992 QB1 (the cosmic bridge) in Aries; Sedna (the goddess of the Arctic Ocean) and Thereus (the Centaur who catches angry bears) in Taurus; and Varuna (the great equalizer) in Cancer.
A yod pattern is composed of two planets in sextile to each other and both forming a quincunx (an aspect of 150 degrees) to a third planet. Quincunxes are irritating aspects that require adjustment. The orb allowed for a quincunx is very tight. The apex of a yod is always the place where the focus is turned.
In this Full Moon chart the sextile of the yod is formed by Sedna, the namesake of the Inuit goddess of the icy waters, and Varuna, named after the Hindu deity of the celestial ocean. Sedna is something very unusual in our solar system with her extremely long orbital period. Varuna can be thought of as an energy which is too large to comprehend, but which somehow touches us personally. The properties of these bodies suggest that the influence of the Full Moon is far-reaching.
The Sun and asteroid Astraea are in quincunx aspect to Varuna and Sedna, forming the apex of the yod. The yod is pointing to Sagittarius, the sign associated with education, exploration, religion and search for truth. This is the corner of the grand cross wherein to vent the accumulating pressure. The yod is like a Centaur’s arrow and the Full Moon is the trigger. The Moon moves into the midpoint of Sedna and Varuna opposing the Sun located near the core of our galaxy and sets the arrow off.
Astraea is a Main belt asteroid and the fifth asteroid discovered. After its discovery in 1845, thousands of other asteroids were found, and the four original ones (Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta), which were regarded as planets at the time, were demoted to the asteroid class.
In mythology Astraea was a personification of justice. She was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age. As mankind became wicked, she was the last to stay on earth. Zeus then placed her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. The scales of justice she carried became the constellation of Libra.
Martha Lang-Wescott suggests that Astraea may have something to do with the difficulty of letting go of things, people or events. She writes:
“Astraea is that place where (and those circumstances under which) you ‘go down with the ship.’ You may know, at Astraea, that there’s an impending disaster, but you tend to see things through anyway; you wait past the embers to the ashes.” She continues: “…you can’t stop short of seeing the situation all the way through. In aspect, this kind of persistence is often rewarded, and, of itself, a virtue: you don’t quit just because the going (as described by planets or points in aspect) gets rough.”
References:
The Kantele – Finland’s national instrument
Eric Francis, Aries New Moon, and the Radha-Eris Conjunction
Sue Tompkins, The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook, 2006, Flare Publications
Eric Francis, Through the Spiral Door — and Into Capricorn
Martha Lang-Wescott, Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids, 1996, Treehouse Mountain
December 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I have spent over 20 years reading Rockie Gardiner: “Rockie Horoscope”
She died, but she left me hoping somebody could interpret like she could. I am a first-time visitor to this info — if you understood Rockie, you can see why I hesitate to commit to any body else on the planet.
Don’t know who truly is responsible for the above interpretations. I am looking for weekly/ daily news & would appreciate a year-ahead roundup. Rockie always did one; I always marked Mercury retrograde on my calendar.
Best wishes to you.
Genie
December 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Thanks again, Kirsti for the orientation. My son was walking to the bus this morning and called me to come out and see the last hours of the waxing moon on the Western horizon. It was overwhelming, throwing a blue light over the waking world, even as the sun was still invisible in the east!
The beautiful mobile you describe only made it that much more impressive.
M
December 13th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Dear Mysti, thanks for your comment. I’m glad that you and your son were able to witness the impressive Moon! I wasn’t as lucky, it has been cloudy here.
Kirsti
December 13th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Dear Genie,
Thank you for stopping by. Lunations is usually published every other week at the New Moon and the Full Moon, and I pay attention also to Mercury stations. On my website Sphinx http://www.sphinx.planetwaves.net/ I publish a monthly astrocalendar, noting Mercury stations and echo phases, too. The next echo begins on Dec. 26, by the way.
Planet Waves Daily Astrology & Adventure http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/ is an excellent source for daily astrology and for upcoming astrology events, including Mercury retrograde.
Eric Francis’s horoscopes for 2009 will be published on Jan, 5 in the Planet Waves annual edition called Next World Stories, which is a pay service.
Thanks for writing!
Kirsti