January Full Moon: The Great Mother Within.

About a week into a new Venus cycle and the divine feminine signature is gaining momentum.

Today’s Full Moon is at 27º Cancer- the sign of the Mother- is in opposition to Pluto at 26º Capricorn, sign of the Father. Right next to Pluto is Juno at 24º Capricorn; Juno in her higher aspect represent the divine consort, one half of the sacred marriage, while in her lower polarity expresses the shadow side of relationship where issues of power and manipulation may play out.

Particularly in her conjunction with Pluto this full moon, relationship power dynamics may come to the fore in order to be acknowledged and transformed. If you are in relationship, it might be a good time to check that the power structures of your relationship are balanced and that both you and your partner are giving and receiving in equal measure.

It could also be a time to recognize that you are now ready for something new in relationship, particularly a move into sacred union as many of us are being called to. Whether that is possible in your current relationship or not depends on the awareness willingness of your partner, and as with many things on timing.

Venus is still in her retrograde phase emphasizing the theme of relationship separations and returns… this is highlighted with a Pluto Juno conjunction.

With Moon opposite Pluto and Juno there may be some relationship drama or turmoil to contend with. If you are feeling ready for a new level of relationship however this may now feel tiresome and old hat to you. It is up to you how much you wish to participate in emotional drama.

Exactly conjunct the north node at 28º Taurus is Ceres, representing the Great Mother, nurturing, unconditional love, self-worth, attachment issues, rejection, loss and at the occult level, the blood mysteries, death/rebirth, and transformation. Next to the north node she is highlighting our collective needs and attitudes to this regard. How we were personally mothered, and how we mother (including self-care), what we need to feel loved and nurtured and how we can do this for others is under review as the north node, our collective destiny, moves through the fixed earth sign of Taurus under the rulership of harmony focused Venus.

Less than 2 degrees away from the lunar north node and Ceres, is the maiden daughter, turned Queen of the Underworld, Persephone. This Mother Daughter conjunction speaks to the esoteric mysteries of Eleusis where a descent to the underworld in the house of Hades facilitates an initiatory confrontation with death and offers the promise of renewal. In modern psychological speak, facing and integrating our shadow… and maybe freeing ourselves from the shackles of a spiritually ruptured society.

The Mother Daughter merging at the point of the lunar node, for me, highlights a need for collective surrender and willingness to let go of all that we are holding onto through attachment, emotional insecurity, unresolved trauma patterns from being raised in a society where in many cases the mother principle has been weakened. Clutching to old patterns and wounding prevents breakthrough to a higher level of self hood where the invitation is to merge with the Great Mother within as well as without. In the gnostic teachings it is said that the ‘Kingdom of God is within’, and so it is that the (wild) Garden of the Mother is also an inner condition.

Learning to mother ourselves and to trust the universal Mother has been a feature of our time. In the myth of Persephone, the maiden’s descent is an inevitable if painful necessity on the path of individuation- life and death, Eros, and Thanatos, dark and light must finally co-exist as fertile ground for the sacred marriage to take root.

Remarkably these sacred feminine essences, involving the nodal axis of collective karma, are creating what is known as a ‘Mystic Rectangle’ at today’s full moon.

A mystic rectangle is comprised of two oppositions (Moon opposes Pluto and Juno, and north node, Persephone, Ceres, opposes the south node; two sextiles, north node, Persephone, Ceres sextile the Moon, and Pluto, Juno sextile the south node; and two trines, Moon trine south node, and north node, Persephone, Ceres trine Pluto Juno. This Mystic Rectangle is within a tight 2-degree orb.

If this all seems a bit baffling to non-astrologers, we can take comfort in the words of Dane Rudhyar who says that a Mystic Rectangle denotes ‘Practical Mysticism’ where oppositions that would normally be challenging are alleviated and made smoother by the sextiles and trines.

In short, the above-mentioned dynamics – and let’s face it some of us have been struggling with these issues for a long time -are blessed with a divine opportunity to be worked through much easier and quicker than we have previously believed.

These are super accelerated times and just by bringing our awareness to the issues, having faith in our divine nature, our connection with the planets and asteroids (or gods), and a willingness to raise our vibration as we head into a new age, can trigger profound change.

To recap-

This full moon is shining a potent light on a transforming feminine consciousness particularly as it relates to:

~Partnership/ Sacred Partnership

~Nurturing of Self and Others

~Power balance within relationships

~Attachment issues

~Unresolved emotional mother wound issues

~ Relationship with the Mother god within

~Relationship with the Mother god without

~Our willingness or lack of it to surrender to the depths

~Our collective past in terms of the feminine principle

~Where we are collectively headed in relation to the divine feminine principle

Mythically the essence of Demeter (Ceres) and Persephone is a story of death and renewal- what is within us that can now be metabolised and alchemised into new life (consciousness).

Juno brings to the surface our relationship patterns, hope, desires, and dynamics that will elevate us into our highest potential of sacred union. In doing so Juno will first express any unresolved shadow issues particularly of a power-based theme in her conjunction with Pluto. Are we ready to let go of the drama and fully open to love?

And finally, while it is not included in the mystic rectangle, Vesta is conjunct Pholus in the early degrees of Capricorn offering an opportunity to address sexuality, the presence or absence of sacredness within our sexual relating and reflecting on how our sexual attitudes, behaviours, repressions, or neurosis may have been influenced by our ancestral lineage.

It is a potent time to let a lot of ancestral karma fall way, not through bypassing or rejection but with love and compassion (Ceres) and staking claim to our soul’s unique calling. It is a powerful time to rise above all that has previously defined us.