This stabilizing, transforming, and highly magnetic Mercury retrograde Full Moon occurs at 5:34 am PST, 1:34 pm GMT on November 12, and falls at the 20th degree of Scorpio and Taurus. As with all Full Moons, use the light you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus to see how to anchor those themes in expression. This is the Light of going into the unknown expressed in ecstatic states of consciousness, an honesty which leaves us free to express ourselves in our most natural way.

We’re now almost done with the practical skills and reorganization of our lives we began in late August, and this Lunation will be extraordinarily harmoniously integrative. This Full Moon is also very intense, with a focus on our expectancies, both those achieved and those surrendered. This Full Moon liberates us from some old inhibitions, gives us a new (but also familiar in some way) dedication to a group effort, and many will achieve a very high state of consciousness these next two weeks.

Today’s Full Moon post will be an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In parts 2 and 3 we’ll cover the Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

An Overview

We’ve all been practicing forms of spiritual service for the past 7 months, and are now on the threshold of a new life. This Mercury retrograde is one of looking back to see how to reconnect with Source, or old friends, or seeing why some relationships had to end when they did. Because of the focus on Scorpio, honesty is a major theme, whether being honest with ourselves or with another or about how something came to be.

At this Full Moon, Mercury is on the same degree as the Mars conjunct Jupiter in January 2018. The theme of that degree is transfiguration, whether at the end of a process or a promise of fulfillment to come. Take a look back on all which has culminated in a transfigured life since early 2018 to understand how everything has conspired to lead you to the end of an old service and the beginning of a new one.

The August Full Moon stellium in Leo gave way to the multiple conjunctions in Virgo at the beginning of September, which led us to understand the “venerable standards” we care about and will live from now on. We’re still refining many details of our new lives until January. As all the inner planets are now in Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, we continue to approach the Grand Compression leading us to radical new developments beginning January 2020!

This Full Moon features a very tight opposition/sextile/trine by Pluto to the Lunation, giving us great opportunities to have fun over the next two weeks in festive circumstances. This is another Full Moon opening doors on caring and being cared for, and seeing how to satisfy some need. We’ve examined what “success” might look like, and learned a lot of flexibility these past 2 weeks. This continues our personality integration through actions which have social impact.

Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?

There are two patterns; one is when the Full Moon Sun is the same sign as the previous New Moon Sun, and the other is when the Full Moon Sun is in the next sign from the Sun in the previous New Moon. We are now in a period when the Full Moon Sun falls in the same sign as the Sun in the previous New Moon.

We last had the Sun in the same sign in both the New Moon and Full Moon, the so-called “natural” order, between June 2016 and the late July 2017 New Moon in Leo, when the Full Moon Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon. We finished the period of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns at the August 2017 Solar Eclipse in late Leo and began the last period where the Full Moon Sun was in the sign following the New Moon Sun.

We were in this “reversed pattern” of the Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun for 20 months, and now are back to the “natural order” of the Sun in the New Moon being the same as the Sun in the next Full Moon. Our recent New Moon Sun was at 5 Scorpio, and this Full Moon has a Sun at 20 Scorpio.

Since the New Moon offers us seeds in the first half of the month’s lunar cycle, and fulfillment in the second half, we now are in a sequence with the “Seed Light” of Scorpio coming to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Scorpio and Moon in Taurus. You can learn more about the recent New Moon at 5 Scorpio by checking out those two articles posted 2 weeks ago.

Planetary Distribution

In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Mars at 26 Libra through Venus at 14 Sagittarius spans 47+ degrees. This span will be the focus of specific activity in our charts. When we add the nearest planet (Jupiter), it expands the active span to 5 planets in 60+ degrees.

Now that the inner planets plus Mars are closing in on the outer planet span, our occupied planetary spread extends through 6 signs. We last hit maximum compression in March 2018, with all planets between Jupiter at 24 Scorpio and Uranus at 27 Aries, making a very powerful triseptile between the bookends. We’re now entering another major period of planetary compression because currently the widest span is between Mars in Libra and Uranus in Taurus, bringing us back into an imperfect Bowl Jones pattern, which like last month begins in Air and ends in Earth.

At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, in a fairly balanced if widespread distribution. Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in late Sag, then moves through Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in early Taurus, with the inner planets now occupying Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. In this chart the Moon in Taurus is just outside the occupied span.

The Jones patterns in the sky now change mainly due to the position of the Moon. With the Full Moon in Taurus and Mars closing in on its opposition to Uranus, the Locomotive of recent months has now given way to a Bowl pattern.

So What is a “Bowl Pattern” and how does it work?

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying approximately half of the signs with an empty half opposite the occupies half, creates a “special type of conscious selfhood,” which Dr. Jones says “marks the Bowl type of temperament. He goes on to state “Fundamentally it is an extreme self-containment,” which “holds things, and a Bowl individual is one who always has something to bear.”

He goes on to state that with the Bowl, “the whole dynamic of man, his total power of achievement, arises in his instinctive realization that he is set off against a definite part of the world, that there is a complete segment of experience from which he is excluded in some subtle fashion. The Bowl not only holds something, but also places whatever it holds into relationship with a larger consideration.”

Dr. Jones continues that “the occupied segment of the Bowl horoscope reveals the activity and organization of the self, since planets are significant according to their place by sign and house, and the unoccupied segment becomes a challenge to existence, or the need and emptiness to which the native must direct his attention. The outstanding characteristic of the Bowl temperament is its marked sense of what is self-contained in contrast with what the self cannot hold, and this take an everyday form in an advocacy of some cause, the furtherance of a mission, an introspective concern over the purpose of experience.”

He concludes his explanation of how the pattern works with “The Bowl native always has something to give to his fellows, whether literally or psychologically, whether constructively or vindictively, because his orientation to the world arises from division; that is, frustration and uncertainty. The leading planets, determined in exactly the same way as for the Locomotive pattern, give a point of application, and shows where and how the native seeks to carry out his mission or gain his everyday justification for existence.”

He brings up another important point of analysis, as he states “the leading planet is of secondary importance in the Bowl pattern, unless it is found in a strong opposition or cosmic cross. The fundamental attack on the problems of life by the Bowl individual is indicated more significantly by the tilt or house-position of the Bowl-segment.”

He concludes this section by stating “the Bowl character is definitely more self-expending, or self-seeking, and more practically interested in what things mean and what they are. It continually throws the emphasis from the signs into the houses. It a general way the Bowl tends to ‘scoop up’ things and initiate experience when the position of the leading planet ranges from the fourth cusp, up and over the ascendant, to the midheaven cusp, and then inclines to “capture” things or consummate various phases of life when the leading planet is placed similarly from the tenth angle down over the descendant to the nadir.”

At this Full Moon, Mars is the opening planet and Uranus the closing planet in the Bowl. Find rhythmic and balanced approaches to initiate experience, figuring out what needs protection and what needs “taming.” With Uranus closing, keep everything on track as you rediscover “pots of gold at the end of your rainbow.” This leads with individual, mental, and spiritual transfiguration, and closes with actional substantiation.

Allow balanced Martian focus to help you pay your dues as you eliminate all which would block your “new quality of Being rendering the old patterns obsolete.” This is the theme of Uranian awakening we’re dealing with for the rest of this year, and the practical adjustments and efficiency of the last few weeks now require recalibration on the basis of current events and perspectives.

The Rhombus

When Uranus went retrograde at 7 Taurus, it again began to semisquare Neptune, anchoring the off-again, on-again friction Rhombus Diamond configuration. We have to deal with this “cutting, grinding, and polishing” quality each time the Moon or another planet moves through the middle of the mutable signs and the end of the cardinal and beginning of the fixed signs.

In this chart it’s not really activated, despite Venus square Neptune. At this time, the Rhombus is off-set, but it will be very powerful once Neptune again goes direct in motion and begins to form a new semisquare with Uranus. It’s most active for those with planets around 2-6 degrees of the Fixed signs and 17-21 of the Mutable zones. If you have a planet in any of these 8 zones, you’re being polished to perfection.

The perfect Rhombus Diamond is made every September when a planet is in mid-Virgo opposing Neptune at the same time another planet is opposed Uranus, with double semisquares and sesquisquares created between those planets. This creates a massive Octile frictional configuration, which was most recently activated during Mercury and Venus opposed Neptune and sesquisquared Uranus in early September.

This year it was perfected when the Moon was in early Scorpio on September 2-3, exactly when Venus in Virgo squared Jupiter and opposes Neptune. At that critical juncture we had tremendous friction due to SEVEN planets all in conjunctions and octile series aspects to each other! That friction continued for several weeks, since the Full Moon at 22 Virgo-Pisces had Mars square Jupiter and opposed Neptune, keeping 3 legs of the Rhombus active through late September.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?

First, what it is. The Grand Irrationality is a phenomenon we’ve been living within since 1993. Since then, we’ve been in an extraordinarily irrational period which continues to this day. To refresh you, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave configuration set into motion every time a planet makes a conjunction, septile, biseptile, or triseptile to Neptune and/or Pluto. Septile series aspects show us points in time when our future destiny is precipitated by critical choices made in the present.

Because this configuration involved Neptune and Pluto, two powerhouse Transpersonal planetary representatives of Spirit, they have symbolized the long wave planetary crisis the entire human race has been going through since 1993. From then to now, at one point or another, everyone on Earth has experienced a nonstop energy of having to choose, at the bottom of our beings, the path to evolution or devolution, progress or regress, love or fear, joy or control. It’s why things have been so weird, irrational, and hard-edged.

The Grand Irrationality V.1 was the period when Neptune was septile Pluto. It began in 1993, was very strong and in constant movement the last 5 years of the 20th century and the first 15 years of this century. This phase has now waned, since Neptune no longer makes a forming or partile separating septile to Pluto and won’t again for many centuries.

However, we have now moved into a new phase of The Grand Irrationality! It’s not the configuration as we’ve known it since the 90s, since the Neptune part of the equation has faded into a “pulse” that is triggered after the main configuration is set into play. I explain more downstream.

Uranus began to biseptile Pluto in the Summer of 2017, briefly setting the new configuration into play. That began the current “never-ending revolution” since Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener, is dancing off and on at its “fork in the road of destiny” with Pluto, the Lord of Transformation. I term this phase The Grand Irrationality V.2!

This particular larger period in time is even stranger than it was during the Grand Irrationality V.1, since this period combines the on-again, off-again Uranus’ semisquare to Neptune with Uranus biseptile Pluto. So along with the hard edge of the Grand Irrationality involving Uranus and Pluto in a 7th harmonic aspects, we also have Uranus in the Rhombus 8th harmonic frictional aspect to Neptune. So we have all three traditional Transpersonal spiritual planets in dynamic activation at this time in history!

In this chart the configuration is not activated by any inner planet or Mars. Uranus is back in a biseptile to Pluto, showing the general irrationality in the larger atmosphere. I give you all the active zones a few paragraphs down, and if you have a planet or point in one of those zones, the Wisdom Forms coming forth for you this year and early 2020 will find you've navigated a fork in the road of your greater destiny, leaving you ready for a greater adventure and group work in 2020 and beyond!

Saturn’s Dance With Uranus

Saturn made the first of its long wave biseptiles with Uranus between January and May 2019, bringing the configuration into mass consciousness, triggering major life changes and realignment of responsibilities. Then in June and July, Saturn made a very favorable tredecile with Uranus, while in August neither Saturn nor Pluto made septile series aspects with Uranus. In this Full Moon Uranus and Pluto are again in the biseptile, indicating some pretty crazy times!

Adding to the basic pattern, in late November Saturn again biseptiles Uranus, creating the structure for radical change in December and January when transits activate various biseptiles to Uranus. These will in turn lead to new initiatives in March when there are a huge number of conjunctions, septiles, and biseptiles created by the transits!

What Saturn structured earlier this year is now going to be part of the larger irrational shifts in destiny indicated by the transpersonal transformational energies again in play. Saturn is giving structure to the Plutonic seeds of the zones it occupied the past few years. Each time any inner planet transits the 7 active zones, choices, changes, and forks in the road of destiny are set into motion!

The first Saturn biseptile was active in February and March, and activated a second time between late April and the end of May. These were our dress rehearsal for the third and final one happening in December. We also had a tremendous number of 7th harmonic aspects in play involving 6 planets in the Christfest Full Moon indicating this year’s World Teaching, indicating that humanity in general, and we individuals specifically, will be making major choices related to shaping our destiny this year.

More on Uranus Biseptile Pluto

We have now moved through the second major phase of radical choices and changes associated with these two planets in a 7th harmonic aspect. As I offered in May 2018 when Uranus first entered Taurus, “.... they will soon make a biseptile, guaranteed to be a very unstable and irrational time!” That prophesy has certainly played out in the news this year with trumpets blaring, thanks to other transits triggering these 7th harmonic non-rational energies.

We first encountered Uranus biseptile Pluto very briefly in August 2017, and it went into nonstop pulses beginning at the end of June 2018 with Uranus again 101+ degrees from Pluto. This lasted through October when the orb became too wide. We experienced the return to the trielftile between December 2018 and April 2019 with the biseptile exact between May and July. As just noted, it is now back at full volume between October 2019 and December 2019.

This is the first biseptile in the larger Uranus/Pluto cycle that began at their conjunctions in the mid-1960s. The waxing septile occurred 1989-1991, so this is the next point in that larger “Pulse of Destiny.” The hot zones, measured from the October through December Uranus biseptile Pluto positions, are around 19-23 Capricorn, 11-15 Pisces, 3-7 Taurus, 24-28 Gemini, 15-19 Leo, 6-10 Libra, and 27 Scorpio- 1 Sag. If you have anything near these zones, your life has had some abrupt transformational experiences in late October and early November 2018 when Jupiter activated both Uranus and Pluto!

As I’ve offered many times during this era of the Grand Irrationality, if things don’t make sense, they don’t have to. The only thing that matters is to know how to focus and not get distracted by the craziness in the atmosphere. Sometimes, when we keep our heads when all around us are losing theirs, we come out on the other side looking and feeling good!

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Because Saturn is in its home sign of Capricorn, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. That makes it a dominant force through April 2022 beginning later this month when Venus enters Capricorn immediately followed by Jupiter entering Capricorn for a year, after which it transits Aquarius, also ruled by Saturn. Remember that while Saturn can feel heavy, it is also our ability to take command of our lives and destiny by using Saturn’s virtues in the right way and time.

We now enter a very important period, since Saturn has again been making the serendipitous tredecile to Uranus between late October and late November, with the next fateful biseptile happening in December. Then comes a series of conjunctions with Saturn in January, all preceded by their biseptiles to Uranus. This is shaping our future through our choices.

Saturn has been preparing us for a “role of destiny” later this year and next. We’re still rehearsing and perfecting our new roles and skills we’ll need in 2020 and beyond as part of the Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our lives. This month we get a new “historical perspective” so we may see what we can let go of, and what’s important in our “hero’s journey” into our new quality of Being awakened by Uranus.

I explain how these two awaken us to our Higher Powers to take conscious command of our destiny in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, teaches us how to construct an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies making our spiritual life come alive.

It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life in profound ways.

Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your power to throw off all the attitudes and memories which hold you back from finding and living the life and purpose. If you’ve haven’t already gotten your copy, you can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page on Amazon and this should be all you need to order your copy. It’s also available on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, so if that’s more to your liking, go for it! If you would, whether you’ve gotten the ebook or the paperback, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the more of a boost they give it.

On A Final Note

See you in the near future with parts two and three on this Full Moon which will help us understand how to go beyond the known and familiar to get beyond ego traps and weaknesses. We now are living our “venerable standards” as we get alternative views of the past month, as well as the past 11 months. We’ve been training to “pick up and deliver spiritual power” in 2020, 2021, and 2022 in some form of effective group work or responsibility.

We are now quickening in our movement toward new roles, new power, new influence, and new responsibilities in 2020. As we are finishing Jupiter’s stay in Sagittarius, keep facing and accepting the truth, and trust the power of your ancestral wisdom you explored all of 2018. When we can be flexible when others aren’t, and stable when others are too flexible, we have mastered the secret of the Wheel of Ezekiel and the Four Holy Creatures.

The next two weeks gives us a practicum in the use of soft power and hard power in alternating applications. Move between heart and mind, love and will, and become the living Tao you are. We’re going to be offered new a dedication, and opportunities to “perform beyond our native endowment.” This is an exceptionally favorable Full Moon, since there are almost no frictional aspects but there are a lot of favorable ones!

Since the Rhombus will be activated by planets squaring Neptune and then sesquisquare Uranus for months to come, remember when it comes to using friction productively, it takes pressure to turn carbon into diamonds. The more skillful we become in dealing with life’s aggravations, annoyances, disruptions, and unexpected diversions, the less these are a problem in the future, and the more we are able to keep our cool in the midst of the generic atmospheric conflict. That way we can fulfill our destiny and enjoy the journey!

Again, our entry to experience during these weeks and months is the elegant and rhythmic Mars in Libra, helping us all “cut to the chase” in balanced ways. We are now in a time when we can experience some very high states of consciousness if we allow ourselves to let go of fear and too many mental gymnastics related to “attaining higher awareness.” Get out of your own way, and experience “the uplifting lightness of Being!”

See what you’ve done well since 2016, see how your life has been transfigured since then, and accept the blessings of being ready to move into the unknown. Let go of fear, let go of egocentricity, let go of any feeling which would hold you back from becoming greater than you ever thought before now. Release your inhibitions, and you could find yourself healing into your Higher Self through the humor in daily interactions.

As we approach the Grand Mutation of 2020, stay open to your Sagittarius dance with life, love, humor and freedom. Keep laughter in your heart as you move into the future, and claim your power to live a more effective life!

I’ll see you soon when we’ll discuss Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.