The full moon is at 23° of Cancer. Cancer is the sign of emotions. It rules family, tribe, and nation. It also rules real estate and homes. It’s all things related to our lineage; archeology, museums, family trees, antiques and heirlooms. It’s history and places that we are emotionally connected to. The moon is Mother and nurturing.
At this Full Moon, the Moon is involved in two configurations, a grand trine and a mystical rectangle.
Grand trines are flowing energy, and this one is in water signs, creating a flow of emotions. Whether positive or negative feelings, a grand trine will open them up like a tap, with nothing stopping them! This may make this Full Moon somewhat overwhelming. The grand trine comprises the Moon in Cancer conjunct Mars, in a trine to Neptune and the North Node in Pisces, and Juno in Scorpio. Mars with the moon will make us sensitive and quick to react. We are likely to act without thinking, unleashing our emotions without restraint. It’s also in an aspect to Juno, the asteroid of marriage and partnership, which means this energy will likely play out with our partners. This brings out competitive energy in our relationships, but if channelled properly, we can easily work together instead of against each other. The challenge will be to focus on productivity, and the best way to channel our emotions is by protecting and defending one another. Juno is in Scorpio, which makes us open to intimacy and intensity. The Full Moon is also in a trine to Neptune which is closely approaching the North Node newly in Pisces. This invites us to channel our emotions into creativity. Together you can write the play of your life, the poetry of your heart, and the film you want to act in! This is a powerful time for envisioning your future together and the life and home you want to create.
The mystical triangle is formed with the Sun and Moon making aspect to Uranus in Taurus, and Juno in Scorpio. Mystical rectangles are fortunate because they allow the tensions created within the X of the rectangle to find an outlet. Full Moons are tensions; the Moon is opposite the Sun. It means our emotions are in opposition to our sense of self. The head is opposite to the heart. At Full Moon’s we are always releasing something in order to bring harmony between the two poles. In this case, all things Cancer, such as emotions, and things from our past or lineage are in opposition with the Sun in Capricorn, which wants to go out into the world to work and achieve and fulfill its ambitions. The other tension is Uranus opposite Juno, which causes a conflict between the safety and security of the relationship as well as the need for intimacy and comprises, with wanting freedom and independence. Added to this mystical rectangle, with the Sun, is the asteroid Tantalus. Tantalus comes from the word tantalize. We are tantalized by something we desire. A piece of cake, a pair of expensive shoes, a moment of popularity for example. We want them so badly, but they are out of our reach, and impossible to attain. We are so close but cannot seem to get what we want! This is where the connections to other planets can help us solve the issue. Juno and the Moon encourage us to focus instead on nurturing our partners. Uranus and the Moon encourage us to brainstorm and nurture our creative ideas. Sun with Juno encourages us to see and acknowledge the identity and life purpose of our partner, and Sun with Uranus encourages us to express our individuality and unique talents. Combining these energies in this way can help us to bring out the creativity and artistic talents within our relationships while having sensitivity to each other’s feelings and emotions, and most importantly, channelling them into our creations. Together you can also assess what needs to go and is no longer serving you, your home, and your future family foundations.
What if you do not have a partner? Our partners are just reflections of ourselves. They are often projections of aspects that we have not yet integrated and can also be reflections of the wholeness of ourselves. If we don’t have a partner, we still have a partner within. Go within to work through the conflicts. Nurture yourself and your identity. Recognize what your heart and head need… then allow yourself to channel it into creativity and your dreams!
The Sabian symbol for the Full Moon is “A woman and two men on a bit of sunlit land facing south” This brings to mind the idea of three. Dane Rudhyar identified the woman as emotions, and the two men as spirit and mind. In a relationship, there are two individuals and a third entity, the relationship. The two are separate, but together they create a third. The Sun and the direction of the south are associated with the element of fire. They signify enthusiasm, passion and life. This is the energy that moves through to connect the head and the heart to the spirit of who we are together!
The new moon is at 9° Capricorn falls on the 30 December just one day before the end of the year, giving this New Moon a feeling of beginnings and endings. This is the day to review your 2024. It’s also the day to set New Moon intentions, which can also be New Year Resolutions. Things put in place today will be long and enduring. This is because this New Moon has durability and staying power.
Capricorn is the sign of durable, enduring, stable structures. Achievements are arrived at through discipline and hard work. Luck results from rules, structures, boundaries and putting in the effort. Of course, structures can break down, buildings can become no longer useful, and ambitions can lose their meaning. Now is a time to examine your foundations, check your supports, kick the tire and wiggle bolts. If something is outworn and no longer serving us, It needs to stay in 2024. If we realize there is nothing supporting the structures of our lives, it’s time to put in reinforcements, or new structures altogether. Do we need to be more disciplined? Is a schedule needed? Set intentions for creating needed foundations. Set up the scaffolding and invest quality time, materials and workmanship.
The New Moon is Sextile to Saturn and Saturn is the ruler of the New Moon. This is a time for being realistic and taking responsibility for what must happen. We know it will be hard work and we are up for it. This is good news because there will be challenges. The new moon is also conjunct Pallas, Lilith Pholus and Quaoar which is a dwarf planet. This makes it a very creative, but complicated time for setting our intentions. Creativity and wisdom are available, but so too are fear, blocks and unintended consequences if we are led astray…
Quaoar is a dwarf planet. Quaoar was named after a Native American creator God. Quaoar was the primordial god with a song in it’s heart. It began to sing and dance and whirl, and in so doing it created the sky and earth. Quaoar created a three-part harmony with the Sky and Earth and this helped to create the Sun and Moon and all the other planets. In astrology Quaoar represents creativity. It’s that thing that is in your heart, that wants to burst forth. Quaoar encourages us to find the harmony, resonance and vibration of your creative urges, and to strum, whistle and whirl them into being.
Pallas is also connected to creativity. She was said to be the goddess of crafts. But Pallas is also the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategy and war. She helps us to lean into wisdom, either on our own or from those we trust. This is a feminine wisdom, one that guides us strategically. What alliances do we need to make? Who can we trust and who do we keep at a distance? What actions should we take and when? These are the needed ingredients at this time for manifesting our creations.
You cannot have a New Moon in Capricorn without a little fear and blockage. Lilith is there to remind us of this. Lilith is blocked creativity. Lilith’s first appearance in Mythology is in the story of Lilith and the Huluppu Tree. Inanna had planted this sacred tree in her garden but wanted to harvest it into a bed and a throne. It had a serpent at its base and a bird on its branch and in the middle was Lilith. Lilith in those days was a sexually frustrated or infertile woman. So sitting in the middle of the tree she represents the blockages we may face in birthing our creations. By the time Lilith reached the Talmud/Bible, she was Adam’s first wife who wanted equality and was tossed out and replaced by Eve. Lilith angry and furious lived a banished life stealing children and making fertile women fearful she would take their creations. Lilith Is therefore the thing that threatens to ruin our creations. What would relieve her infertility? What would allow her creations to come forth? Sometimes we need to work a little harder to create the right conditions. For example, technology has allowed us skills that were completely beyond us years ago. Technology created the first test tube baby (check out the movie Joy if you haven’t already) Creating the right conditions may also mean stopping doing one thing (for example drinking) and starting doing another (for example working out or losing weight). Blocked creativity or infertility can be overcome! But it will require some work.
We also cannot have a New Moon in Capricorn without a little sabotage….. In astrology, Pholus represents the ways in which we sabotage ourselves. Actions we take can grow out of control or have unexpected turns. Pholus is a mild-mannered Centaur who while hosting Hercules neglects to give him anything to drink. Hercules sees a cask of wine and convinces Pholus to open it. But once he does, the smell of it attracts the not-so-mild-mannered Centaurs who arrive to fight Hercules for the wine. Hercules starts shooting them with poison arrows, which is effective in killing them off. Pholus is somewhat curious at how a little arrow can kill the centaurs and he picks one up only to drop it on his foot. Pholus ends up killing himself. Pholus is there to remind us to not be careless, to not give in to pressure nor to go in a direction we don’t want to go. It’s there to remind us to trust our intuition about things. Our actions may seem impolite to others, but it is important that we listen to our own guidance.
The Sabian symbol for the new moon is an albatross feeding from the hand of a sailor. An Albatross is a fairly large bird. interestingly, It is also the word for an obstacle to success. This Symbol encourages us to build a relationship with our obstacles, understanding them and building trust with them. Only then will they be eating out of our hands!
Happy New Moon in Capricorn. And Happy 2025.
If you are in business, I hope that you will join me on Jan 8th for a planning workshop for entrepreneurs for 2025. 2025 will have many shifts with two major planets (Neptune and Saturn) moving into Aries the sign of the entrepreneur. If you’re not in business, please share with your entrepreneurial friends!
Invoking the spirit of creation, I leave you with the Aulos Flute. The flute was created by Pallas Athena, and in this animation is used in the creation of wine!
Bass Relief around the front door of Notre Dame de Paris depicting alchemical prima materia (mother)
There is a passage in the bible that seems to describe the symbol for the sign of Aquarius:
As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there. Luke 22:7
Astro-theologists have interpreted this passage to be a nod to the Age of Aquarius. Aquarius is the man holding the jar of water. This is particularly so because women did not carry water in biblical days, but the sign of Aquarius has been represented by a man holding a jar since ancient Mesopotamia.[ Babylonians identified Aquarius as Gula, “The Great One.” Gula was also known as “the Irrigator,” who harnessed the power of rain and floods. Gula was often depicted with fish swimming in the streams flowing from his shoulders. He’s also seen pouring water from an urn or holding an overflowing vase over the earth.] In fact, as an astrologer, if you read the bible you will see astrological symbols littered throughout. Easy to miss for those who don’t study the stars, but obvious for those who do. This is likely what is meant by ‘for those who have eyes to see’. Everything is hidden in plain view.
On December 7th, 2024 a ceremony to re-open Notre Dame de Paris was commenced with dignitaries which included the President of France, Marcon, President Trump of the USA, Prince William, and many others. The Cathedral dramatically burned almost to the ground in 2019 in an event that many saw as a massive sign of the times. The Catholic Church had been experiencing a dramatic loss of status in the eyes of the faithful with countless scandals involving sexualized abuse of children and other scandals.
Shortly after the fire, many discovered that lying beneath the Cathedral was the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter. The truth however is that Notre Dame was the location of a Celtic/Gaul place of worship before that. It is said that the Gauls named it Parisi after the Gaul word meaning a boat; depicting the shape of the island that the Cathedral sits on. Some, however, have claimed that Paris is Par (for) Is (Isis). Notre Dame means “our lady”.
The day of the re-opening was highly significant. Pluto, Ceres and Venus lined up at 0 degrees of Aquarius. Aquarius has been consistently associated with technology, machines, and anything futuristic. It’s also been associated with communism, groups and friendships. Some have linked Pluto in Aquarius with secret societies. And secret society has been associated with the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Ceres is the mother of Persephone, who Pluto stole into the underworld. She is nurturing and in Aquarius, she nurtures individuality and accepts our uniqueness. As a mother, she provides freedom to be. Sometimes too much freedom, which results in us needing to define our boundaries and limits.
Pluto is the planet of transformation. He drags us, as he did Persephone, into the underworld. He’s only just arrived in Aquarius and over the next 19 years will transform our experience of humanity; our freedoms, uniqueness, innovations, individuality and individual expression. Our experiences of groups, friends and associations are also set to transform. Pluto newly in Aquarius is why we care about what happens around the re-opening of Notre Dame as the events in the early days are a setup for what we can expect over its duration.
The planet Venus represents love, our values and relationships. In various times and in various cultures Venus has been Aprhodite, Istar, Inanna, Isis. In esoteric Christianity, Venus is associated with Mary Magdelene and the divine feminine. Some have equated Venus in the underworld (when she has transited too close to the sun to be able to see her) with Persephone (Rome and Greece) and Erishgigal (Mesopotamia). Venus right now in Aquarius is high in the night sky shining brightly and she can be said to represent a version of Venusian energy that is in her power. Unique. Individual. Filled with love, peace, and compassion for humanity. Confident and rebellious she is individualistic, non-conforming and a seeker. Esoterically she loves astrology and she can show us the meaning of the man with the Jar. In so doing she expresses the side of Aquarius that is electric energy; tulluric, and cosmic.
But this is the expression of each of these planets in Aquarius on their own. What do they look like operating together?
Ceres is associated with food and grain and it’s where we get the name cereal. During her sorrows, when she was mourning the loss of her daughter, Ceres starved the nations, causing drought and famine. Many with Pluto and Ceres conjunct in their charts suffer from food disorders. With these two together in the sign of Aquarius, we may see her lash out and reverse her Aquarian nurturing, limiting our uniqueness and freedom instead. Ceres stands beside Pluto in Aquarius at a critical degree making what happens here of even more importance. However, Venus combined with Ceres brings together a value and love of nurturing freedom, creative innovation, unique beauty, and uniqueness of thought and style. Venus gives Ceres what she needs, and fulfills something inside.
The truth is the three of them together may swing back and forth between the extremes of loss and loving.
But Pluto is also alchemical. Alchemy requires processes of calcination, dissolution, separation, conjunction, fermentation, distillation and coagulation. The entire process is meant to transform material or us into purified gold.
The moon makes an applying conjunction to Saturn. Saturn in Pisces is weakened while the Moon in Pisces is strengthened. Cancer is rising and the Moon it’s ruler is in the 9th house of religion. Pisces, the sign of the moon in this chart, is the higher octave of Venus. It’s unconditional love, but Pisces ruled by Jupiter, is in the 11th house of groups opposite the Sun and Mercury retrograde. Jupiter, the Sun and Mercury retrograde are in the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity, which is about religion, belief, and thought. This entire combination with the Moon, its ruler and the aspects to its ruler points to a struggle that remains with belief and fanaticism, church and the true meaning of faith and spirituality. It feigns unconditional love and still needs to figure out its true meaning. After all, it was Jupiter that the Romans built their temple to remind us of the remains of the Roman empire. Jupiter is in the twin sign of Gemini; The twin towers of Notre Dame did not fall during the fire of 2019 so structures of Catholicism remain. But while the exoteric Catholic structure remains, so too does the esoteric… the hermetically sealed as revealed in the Picture of the Archbishop banging on the doors.
The ceremony for the re-opening of Notre Dame consisted of singing Psalm 121[ On the church’s website they post Psalm 121 (it’s Psalm 122).] three times in response to the Archbishop banging on the front door with his staff (or crozier). He then entered followed by President Macron (Pluto)? his wife (Venus)? and Jill Biden (Ceres)? This may have been the Church’s (and the elite’s) attempt at the embodiment of this energy! But we notice something else. As the Archbishop bangs on the door with his electric blue glassed crosier, beside him is the iconic bass relief depicting what Fulcanelli calls the primitive substance or elementary matter (mother), the Prima Materia in alchemy.
In the place of honour, facing the parvis, alchemy is represented by a woman, with her head touching the clouds. Seated on a throne, she holds in her left hand a sceptre, the sign of royal power, while her right hand supports two books, one closed (esotericism), the other open (exotericism). Supported between her knees and leaning against her chest, is the ladder with nine rungs-scala philosophorum-hiero-‘\ glyph of the patience which the faithful must possess in the course of the nine successive operations of the hermetic labour ‘Patience is the Philosophers’ ladder,’ Valoisl tells us, ‘and humility is the door to their garden; for whosoever will persevere without pride and without envy, on him God will show mercy.’ That is the title of the philosophical chapter of this Mutus Liber, the gothic cathedrai; the frontispiece of this occult Bible, with its massive pages of stone; the imprint, the seal of the secular Great Work on the very face of the Christian Great Work. It could not be better situated than on the very threshold of the main entrance. Thus the cathedral appears to be based on alchemical science, on the science which investigates the transformations of the original substance, elementary matter (Lat. materea, root muter mother). For the Virgin Mother, stripped of her symbolical veil, is none other than the personification of the primitive substance, used by the Principle, the creator of all that is, for the furtherance of his designs. This is the meaning (and, indeed, a very clear one) of this strange epithet, which we read in the Mass of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, of which the text reads : The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his ways. I existed before he formed any creature, I existed from all eternity, before the earth was created. The abysses were not yet and already I was conceived. The fountains had not yet come out of the earth, the heavy mass of the mountains had not yet been formed*, I was begotten before the hills. He had created neither the earth, nor the rivers, nor strengthened the world on its poles. When he prepared the heavens, I was present; when he confined the abysses within their bounds and prescribed an inviolable law; when he confirmed the air above the earth; when he balanced the waters of the fountains; when he shut up the sea within its limits and imposed a law on the waters, so that they should not pass their bounds; when he laid the foundations of the earth, I was with him and I regulated all things.’ Obviously what is dealt with here is the very essence of things. Indeed, the Litanies tell us that the Virgin is the Vase containing the Spirit of things: vas spirituale. ‘On a table, breast high to the Magi,’ Etteila 2 tells us, ‘were on one side a book or a series of golden pages or plates (the book of Thoth) and on the other side a vase full of celestial-astral liquid, consisting of one part of wild honey, one part of terrestial water and a third part of celestial water. . . . The secret, the mystery was therefore in this vase.’
And here we return to the Aquarian jar (vase) and its contents – The divine feminine. The Goddess! In the Jar of Aquarius is the spirit, found in water. Notre Dame, as with all of the Gothic Cathedrals, was built on “clear waters”. Waters that Fulcinelli calls “dry”. Waters that the Druids/Gauls/Celtics all accessed before the Catholic Church and before the Romans without the need for a building. The waters consist of “everything needed for the great work”
In the Church are world leaders, celebrities and billionaires. Salma Hayek was there with her billionaire husband who donated millions for the rebuilding. They, the leaders and elites, are represented in the chart by Mars which is stationary retrograde in Leo. They oppose the transformative Aquarian energy and bring a domineering, thwarting energy. They see themselves as the needed parents of society and create a suffocating presence. Mars is retrograde though and so their attempts to control will be greatly debilitated. Actions that are egotistical and narcissistic will not go over well.
Interestingly, Salma Hayek played the character Esmeralda in the 1997 television film adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In the story, Esmeralda is a woman who both the hunchback, Quasimodo and the priest fall in love with. Esmeralda gets into trouble and Quasimodo gives her safety in Notre Dame to prevent her from hanging for a crime she did commit. The Priest in love with her, turns to dark ways in an attempt to own and control her. When he cannot, she is thrown out and meets her death. Esmeralda represents the divine feminine who society condemned and the church sought to control. Those days are on their way out!
The Sabian Symbol is An old adobe mission. This speaks about projecting ideals onto structures of beauty in the search for an ideal. The adobe mission like Notre Dame are structures that seek to create a temple for the pursuit of an ideal.
But the true temple, the true cathedral is the individual!
You can visit Notre Dame, and you can even seek out the esoteric knowledge hidden in plain sight on the front door base relief (the door is canopied with seven spheres depicting the way through the seven spheres and is surrounded by base reliefs providing knowledge of the path of true spiritual growth) the truth is we are the temple and the land, the clear waters of Notre Dame, like many of the lands where Cathedrals are built, will provide us all the support we need in our transformation and personal growth, whether there is a cathedral of not!
