We’ll have a Full Moon in Cancer on December 26 at 4:33 p.m. on the West Coast, when the Sun and Moon will meet at almost five degrees of Capricorn and Cancer. This lunation is called the Cold Moon.
There’s a sense of completion each month, when the Moon reaches its full phase with the Sun. Fully reflecting the Sun’s light, the Moon is unobscured and seen as it truly is, fully round. We take it for granted now in our 24/7 electrified worlds, but for most of human history, the darkness of the night sky was a force to contend with. Under the light of a Full Moon, our ancestors could enjoy spending some time outdoors more safely, and worshippers of the Moon would rejoice.
The Moon making its way through the sign of Cancer is said to be in its own domicile. There’s no place like home. It’s where you can breathe a sigh of relief, cook, eat, relax under a blanket. The Cancerian path is one of heightened emotional sensitivity. That can mean whining, or it can mean practicing conscious self-care. There’s always a choice.
At any Full Moon, the luminaries face each other in opposite signs in a display of balance. Whereas Cancer’s agendas are home and hearth, Capricorn’s drive is to work in the worlds of accomplishment. Being and doing. Finding balance these days is not easy.
When the Sun makes its annual sojourn through goal-oriented Capricorn, from December 21 until January 19, it is wise and mature to take stock of the year’s achievements. Look at the calendar, make an end-of-year review, set targets for the year to come.
The chart for the December 26 lunation points to some measure of ease in such review and planning, as the Sun, Moon, and planets are transiting in mostly harmonious aspects with each other. An aspect between two or more planets—in a birth chart or, fleetingly, by transit—is an angular relationship. The Sun, Moon and planets cast their light onto each other, in geometric patterns to which astrologers have correlated particular meanings over millennia. (The root of the word aspect is spect, to see.) Planets and luminaries are in each other’s lines of sight, strengthening each other’s symbolic power in spectacular ways.
At this lunation, Mercury is in Sagittarius and still in a period of retrograde motion until January 1, and Mercury is also conjoined with Mars in Sagittarius. One might be reviewing one’s value system and action plans for moving forward upon the New Year. There’s also at this time an edgy, tense square between Mercury and dreamy Neptune, suggesting that one’s thought processes may be cloudy, for better or worse.
On December 26, the Moon will be moving toward an approximately 60-degree sextile aspect with beneficent Jupiter, ensconced now in earthy Taurus until May of 2024. Cancer and Taurus, water and earth, are compatible and supportive friends, like when the rain falls onto earth where it is welcomed.
Jupiter is currently in one of its regular periods of retrograde motion, moving slowly backward and making another sextile with Saturn, now in the waters of Pisces. Saturn, the force of stability, growth, and maturity, is a co-star of the December 26 Full Moon because Saturn is the guiding planet of the Capricorn Sun. What this means is that the Full Moon sheds light on Saturnian themes such as taking responsibility for oneself and getting serious about getting things done.
On December 26, Saturn and the Full Moon will be traveling in a harmonious 120-degree trine aspect with each other. At the same time, both the Moon and Saturn will be sextile to Jupiter. Together, Saturn, the Moon, and Jupiter will cast their light in the form of an isosceles triangle, called by astrologers a Minor Grand Trine or a Small Talent Triangle.
The trine, in general, is thought to be a Jupiterian or lucky aspect, while the sextile is an expression of Venusian beauty. The trine/sextile combination of the isosceles triangle is an invitation to develop a beautiful talent or gift that you already have.
There’s another triangle at play now, too, as Saturn in trine with the Moon will be making a sextile with the Capricorn Sun while the Sun faces the Full Moon. This aspect involves a sextile, trine, and an opposition, an unusual combination called a Triangle of Potential.
I’m telling you about all this geometry, and the details may be dizzying. There is no definitive, predictive meaning to it. The Sky gives only clues. Harmonious aspects are an invitation, not a given.
Earth, our mother and home, is suffering no less than at any time before. These times are grim, full of shocking brutality, with unspeakable crimes being waged against sentient beings, against Gaia Herself, and with no end in sight.
And so, it is easier to say this than to believe it: There is, still, light.
Blessings for the Cancer Full Moon and with prayers for peace.
~ 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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