Full Moon in Sagittarius 2016: Bridging the Rational & the Mystery

Full Moon in Sagittarius 2016:

A Sacred Bridge Between the Rational and Nonrational Spheres of Life

exact May 21, 2016 @ 2:14 PM PST

During this Full Moon in Sagittarius, the Sun in Gemini will be conjunct Vesta, keeper of the hearth and sacred flame and illuminating the Moon in Sagittarius conjunct Mars, who is retrograde in Sagittarius. Asteroid Pallas Athena, the war strategist —will be squaring the Full Moon axis from the sign of Pisces. If we examine her relationship to Mars, we come upon some interesting questions for this time about how we are choosing to channel or focus our will.

Athena reminds me of the Swords suit in the tarot, she is a fierce intellectual, and able to execute her actions based upon her ideals. She is like Justice too, or the King of Swords — very acutely aware of cause and effect, the overall lay of the landscape, and how to act in the most strategic and advantageous way. While Mars can be overtaken by himself, Athena knows exactly how to win— whatever her AIM is— and she will do it.

“At this the grey-eyed goddess Athena smiled, and gave him a caress, her looks being very changed now, so she seemed a woman, tall and beautiful and no doubt skilled at weaving splendid things. She answered briskly, ‘Whoever gets around you Odysseus must be sharp and guileful as a snake; even a god might bow to you in ways of dissimulation. You! You chameleon! Bottomless bag of tricks! Here in your own country would you not give your stratagems a rest or stop spellbinding for an instant?… Two of a kind, we are, contrivers, both. Of all men now alive you are the best in plots and storytelling. My own fame is for wisdom among the gods – deceptions, too.” – The Odyssey, Homer

This facet of Athena seems like a superpower, and it is — but it can come with a cost. While Mars can be overtaken and take something too far, fall on his face, get back up again and feel empowered even by rising above adversity, Athena is limited or at times deluded by her goal, or whatever her aim is. She may get to the goal – but (now since we are looking at Athena in Pisces) what is she sacrificing to get there? Since Athena knows how to “win” all the time, at every moment, every step of the mission, she must deny certain parts of her nature or feeling nature IF this is what her goal requires.

So Athena, this force of being able to win — in Pisces – can be very much in tune with some transcendent Universal truth or way, the Tao, or she could be off in another dreamland of her own making. Pisces can go many ways. And she hangs in the balance between two polarities: The Sun and Vesta in Gemini, and the Moon and Mars in Sagittarius.

With the Sun and Vesta in Gemini, we are looking at the sacred nature of ideas and of the intellect. Since ideas and thoughts influence, and are in relationship to, our reality, thoughts can very well be looked at as sacred (or profane – and where we draw that?). In Gemini, ideas are mutable and the intellect can shift into many different forms – it can mimic or adapt other existing ideas, it can skillfully generate ideas nonsensical and brilliant, as well. Gemini, unlike its polarity Sagittarius, does not tend to value ideas based on their truth – instead Gemini is more like a constant changing of the filter, a continual experimentation and exploration of connections and new information. With this combination of Sun and Vesta in Gemini, I could see there being such a joyfulness to intellectual discovery & being open to perceiving new facets of reality.

The Moon and Mars in Sagittarius is a more loaded or tense energy – it’s the place where we are acting on emotions. Which, from Athena’s point of view, is possibly… disadvantageous. But, why? It’s messy? What has The Age of Reason done to our collective interpretation of the value of the nonrational, nonlinear, feeling-oriented lens? How much do we intellectually sort through and judge the emotional reality as to express it in culturally, tribally sanctioned ways? As we are building up to this Full Moon, emotions take on an extra kind of urgency — Full Moons are, to start with, emotional times, but when we add Mars into the picture, we also take out the element of patience, or add an element of agitation.

Emotions are just a part of nature — and in our rejection of the feeling nature, society has built this kind of intellectual construct that in order for reality to function, it must be done in this linear, rational, sterile way. That emotions, or feelings, are an interruption somehow, to reality functioning. And the ways we are working through that culturally are just the tip of the iceberg of what could actually be done – it’s like some sleeping beast below the ground we politely chat about.

Athena is also a woman who played in the man’s world – and she is a bridge between the sacred feminine and sacred masculine. If we identify the feminine as nonlinear, and the masculine as linear – to look at it broadly in terms of the lost divine feminine (making a resurgence), and the rise of and falling patriarchy, there is no past to return to, instead we are building something new where we could ideally integrate both spheres. The strides we have made because of our focus on the linear, rational mind can harmonize with, and be in relationship to, the mysterious, nonlinear realm, rather than one being privileged over the other.

This New Moon, see if allowing your emotional response to be part of your environment bring back to life the flow of nature – if, for example, at the time you happen to be having an intense thought or question, a totem animal appears (have you heard of Animal Speak by Ted Andrews?) — and its shamanic meaning happens to validate the very feeling or vibration you were engaging in?

One reason that the linear mindset fears ~the mystery~ so much is that the linear path involves an ending that does not involve a rebirth. The nonlinear, nonrational, feeling based orientation to reality is more circular in nature, and every ending implies a rebirth. The nonrational frame of mind can handle not knowing, and can walk into the darkness with faith that the dawn will come. Reason can only foresee events turning up if the evidence is present – but sometimes that information hides in the dark, mysterious spaces, and cannot be seen at the very moment it is desired.

This New Moon, examine the feelings that your ideas support – do you have room to explore reality based on both rational and nonrational lenses? And if you can integrate the two, how much more flow and ease (mutable astrology!) and straight-up magic can be accessed in your life? Mercury will go direct the day after this Full Moon – expect a message regarding this: but how you interpret that message will be part of its unfolding… Mercury is a trickster, who allows us to be present with what is right in front of us, which could just as easily be obscured by too rigid, or too limited, the mind.

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~Sabrina Monarch

(Images: Sandra Dieckmann, Peter Blake, Elena Pancorbo)

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