The Moon will reach its full phase of illumination November 27 at 1:16 a.m. on the West Coast. One of the traditional Native American names for this lunation is the Beaver Moon. It’s almost winter time, and there are industrious animals are busy building dams and stockpiling food.
This late November lunation, with the Sun at 4° 51’ Sagittarius and the Moon at 4° 51’ Gemini, highlights the mutable or changeable zodiacal signs, along with the mental processes of learning, thinking, communicating, and searching for what’s meaningful.
Just a few days ago, on November 22, the Sun made its way to the sign of Sagittarius. The glyph for Sagittarius reveals its message: an arrow traveling upward, to parts unknown. This is the fire sign ruled by Jupiter, full of big ideas and projects. Someone with Sagittarius as their Sun, Moon, or rising sign might be one to take on too much, in a world full of endless possibilities.
The opposite sign to Sagittarius is Gemini, and it is hardly a grounding force. Gemini is the mutable air sign, loving change and variety, even to the point of indecisiveness. It is the sign of duality, its glyph appearing as two longish vertical lines, parallel, held together with two short lines, like the roman numeral II. Insatiable curiosity is Gemini’s key note, as is holding more than one thought in mind, like a juggler. Do you remember when “web surfing” first became a thing? It’s food for a Gemini mind to move from one data point to another. Like Sagittarius, Gemini is buoyant and expansive, though Gemini likes to drill down into detail while Sagittarius asks: what does it all mean?
Each member of a pair of opposite signs needs the other for balance. Full Moon time, in particular, highlights the balance between the Sun and Moon. The Gemini Moon wants more information and facts, and wants to share them. Sagittarius wants to know what is true, and what can one have faith in.
At the November 27 lunation, Mars is a major player adding to the Gemini/Sagittarius focus on knowledge and meaning. Mars, the planetary force of assertive action, recently moved from Scorpio into Sagittarius. It is now conjoined with the Sun, fueling Sagittarian ambitions to know and experience what is true.
But this means Mars is also opposite the Gemini Moon, and that’s not easy. The Moon, by sign and aspect, reflects one’s emotional state of being. With a Moon/Mars opposition, albeit for just a few days, things might get emotionally and verbally volatile. Frustration may trump patience. While the Moon is in Gemini, flare-ups may be about whose version of reality is correct. In the midst of the late autumn holidays, doesn’t this sound like fun?
The most prominent transiting aspect at the November 27 lunation is a t-square formed by the Sun/Mars combo and the Moon, both making in an approximately 90-degree angle with Saturn in Pisces. A 90-degree square between planetary forces is an aspect of dynamic friction for the purpose of growth. Two planes of reality are butting heads with each other, and something’s got to give. The pressure is on themes of the planet receiving the square from the other two. This is the “focal planet.” In this t-square, that is Saturn.
Saturn moves slowly, spending about three years in a sign. It is in Pisces from early 2023 to early 2026. Saturn is a profound symbolic force with many meanings, including individual and collective growth processes, what we’re learning about how to get wiser and not just older, often through limits and hardships. Saturn is a teacher and an authority figure. It gives form and structure, rewards from hard work. Pisces is a curious place for Saturn because Pisces, the last of the signs in the zodiacal wheel, is vast water, like an overwhelming ocean. It is uncontainable and non-discriminating. While Saturn’s in Pisces, it’s an excellent time to cultivate new habits and disciplines, perhaps in realms of art, spiritual practice, or humanitarian service.
More pointedly at this Full Moon time, symbolic pressure on Saturn from the Sun/Mars in Sagittarius and the Gemini Full Moon makes these days around November 27 an excellent time to study something detailed (Gemini) and to plug information gathered into one’s big-picture thinking (Sagittarius.) With Saturn in Pisces as the focal point of the Full Moon t-square, there’s a challenge to do something hard, and to trust that sincere effort will yield delayed gratification.
One looks for guidance at this time to the dispositor or “ruling planet” of the Gemini Full Moon. It is Mercury, Gemini’s ruler, the winged Messenger, long associated with the enigmatic Greek god Hermes and an earlier, Egyptian incarnation, Thoth. Mercury is now also traveling through the sign of Sagittarius, ahead of the Sun, like a forerunner to the wisdom one may earn and abide by—if only one can keep a mind that is open and bright, like the full Gemini Moon.
Blessings for the Gemini Full Moon!
~ Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
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