In recent years, maybe one or two, there has been a noteworthy phenomenon concerning the astrological interpretations that deal with the subject of the Full Moon. Each month’s Full Moon is (or was) customary named after the zodiac sign in which the Sun is during the Full Moon. Hence “Sagittarius Full Moon” in start, mid-December, “Taurus Full Moon” in end April-mid May and so on. However, recenty there has been a trend whereby the Full Moon is named after the zodiac sign where the Moon is to be found at the time of the Full Moon. One reads/hears about the “Taurus Full Moon” in November (maybe the great eastern festival of Wesak should also be moved, maybe) and the “Gemini Full Moon” in December (the festival of Humanity should probably also be moved to December).
That would be a technical, inconsequential and boring subject, had it not clear symbolic implications. It is good to remember that, in the end, everything in astrology symbolises something. Astrology itself is the interpretation of symbols which stand for energies and forces of specific quality, and of the effects that their interrelation can potentially cause. Man is such a symbol, the Sun as well, same goes for the Earth and the Moon. The phrase “can potentially cause” particularly concerns man as an individual, each human group, and their relationship with the energies and forces that constitute their evironment. Man has a choice, groups have a choice. They continuously exercise this right to choose, consciously or unconsciously.
If astrology wants to be what it claims, that is a body of knowledge and a practice that promotes self-knowledge and the betterment of man as a unit or as member of groups, from the family group, to the professional, national and global group, astrology should rise to the occasion and interpret accordingly. In astrological intepretation everything is conditional because man, his actions, thought, emotion or his inaction, nonsense, apathy, are decisive factors for any result in his life, personal or collective. Nothing comes from nothing.
As for the technical part, the phenomenon called a Full Moon is the product of the specific relation in time and space of three heavenly bodies: Sun, Earth and the Moon. It is not something the Moon does on its own. Of these three bodies, the most significant in terms of size, energy emission and of course, importance, is the Sun. Let’s not forget it is a star. The Earth comes second, a planet rotating around the aforementioned star and particularly important for humanity because on it, humanity dwells. Last comes the Moon, a satellite of planet Earth, which – let’s just repeat it for the sake of clarity – emits no light of its own. The light of the Moon is the reflection of the light of the Sun. These, as far as the techical part goes. The most significal factor in the Full Moon-trio is clearly the Sun.
As far as astrological intepretation is concerned now, western astrology, for about two millenia, has primarily been solar astrology. The so called “my/your/her/his starsign” concerns the transit of the Sun through a specific zodiac sign at the moment of birth. And it is most right that western astrology chose to be solar astrology because the symbol of the Sun is related to life, the spirit, the soul, the vehicle of the good, the true and the beautiful in man. It is quite clear why it is important to stress this factor. It is this that pushes men upward, forward, toward something nobler, brighter, kinder. This is the quality of solar energy and during the Full Moon it is highly available as the Sun – Earth relationship is not hindered by the Moon.
The Moon is linked to the comfortable, the learned, the past, the familiar, the body as opposed to the soul, the form as contrasted to quality. The Moon is the force of inertia, of habit, of irrational and non-thinking mass, of materialism, of the many that devour the one. Its force is the easy and the known, the automatic and unconscious. Naturally there is the right use of lunar forces in a horoscope but that is neither their idealisation nor the unconditional surrender to them. For that would mean regression, stagnation, absence of cosciousness and of course, the idealisation of the material aspect. Let it be stressed that the lunar forces are not carriers of joy, creativity (bar the reproduction of the already known), exaltation, light. The Moon neither has nor will ever have its own light. Man does not need to follow its example.
Western astrology has never been lunar astrolgy and the simple fact that very few people know their lunar starsign as opposed to the many more people that know their “starsign”, their solar starsign, testifies to that. The recent trend in the astrological interpretation of the Full Moons most certainly reflects the overal “scenery” in humanity these days. It is a scenery of materialism, inertia, regression, the pursuit of quick satisfaction and constant distractions in the form of endless business, dizzy minds, unprincipled and extreme emotions, bodies that are considered to be everything and suffer from illness. These circumstances are produced by the identification with and blind reproduction of habits, rules, systems of though and relationship, which have created the problem to begin with. Every analysis of the Full Moon that praises and focuses on the lunar aspect, is essentially an analysis that presents the problem or the mechanism that created the problem, as the solution. This is at best foolish at worst, dangerous.