“Human dignity demands courage to defend oneself.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
FULL MOON 2 degrees 0’ Aries, 7:52 PM PDT. Moon square Saturn at 2 degrees Capricorn, 9:27 PM PDT, September 24, 2018.
I wanted to send out good vibes for the upcoming Full Moon tomorrow, September 24, at 7:52 PM PDT. It might seem odd in a blog about a fiery, feisty Aries Full Moon to include a few photos I recently took in India of a memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, but I think if you read a little more, it might make sense…
This particular Full Moon in 2 degrees Aries will be followed about an hour and a half later by the Moon forming a square (90-degree) aspect to the planet Saturn in Capricorn. It might be helpful, if you know your birth chart, to look to see where Saturn has been transiting in recent weeks. Those folks with planets, the Sun or Moon, or other critical degrees in early Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn) might want to pay particular attention at this Full Moon, using the time to better understand the much slower moving Saturn transit in your life and evolutionary soul journey. I, myself, have my natal Sun at 6 degrees Capricorn, in the 10th House (House of “career” or “mission”). Saturn often calls us to work hard and mature in the area of your chart where the planet currently travels. I’m writing just a short reflection here, rather than a longer blog, because I am feeling the limitations of my own “solar self,” my core sense of who I am, what has value to me, what I need to be doing.
I suppose most of you know I have been traveling in India for the last month; my body is so exhausted and, frankly, my spirit feels weak. I am questioning my own abilities of what or where my “mission” is…what I am meant to pursue or even if I have the desire or energy to do so. All of this occurs while the college where I work goes through a major restructuring, the classes I teach are changing, and, meanwhile, I am questioning what I write, if evolutionary astrology is worth my time - or perhaps more real, if my writing is worthy of evolutionary astrology - if I have anything at all to contribute to astrology, a discipline gifted with so many worthy voices and talented writers, and yet so ignored by most of the larger world.
So this is where the three photos I add fit in: While I was in Delhi, I visited Birla House, the Gandhi Smriti, the place where the “great soul, “ Mahatma Gandhi lived later in life and where he was shot by a religious zealot in 1948. These pictures show a few of his personal objects and the walk he took to the place where he was shot. I didn’t share the photos with others at the time of my visit. In part I guess because I felt a deep, inner reflection that I wasn’t ready to put out there on social media. Instead, I spent some time sitting with Gandhi’s birth chart over the several weeks after as I traveled. I have a lot to write about it; no confidence or energy to put most of it down. But I would like to briefly share my thoughts about Gandhi’s natal Neptune, 18 degrees 25’ Aries in his 6th House, house of daily work, mentorship and service. I realize this is pulling out piecemeal just a little bit of a very complex natal chart, however a few words about Neptune in Gandhi’s birth chart allows me to make a loose connection to the current Full Moon in Aries for all of us when considering Saturn’s slower movement through Capricorn in our charts.
A few of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal items at Gandhi Smriti
Neptune, the spiritual planet, often represents the avenues, places or activities in our lives where we can best connect with the Divine, with a sense of universal love, and with compassion. Aries, ruled by Mars, is the sign of the one who initiates, takes action; the warrior who fights the battle. Neptune in Aries in the 6th, in a very loose opposition to Gandhi’s 12th House Libra Sun and a trine with Gandhi’s Leo Moon in the 10th House, infused Gandhi’s daily life, work and service with the love, commitment and humility of a Neptunian warrior, preaching passive resistance to lead a massive collective transformation in basic human rights and equity for the people of India (Again, there is so much to write about in Gandhi’s chart: it also features a strong opposition between a conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto in Taurus in his 7th House and a Venus, ruler of his chart, and Mars conjunction in Scorpio in his 1st House - he clearly was a leader of collective change in how people relate one-on-one, how we can learn to recognize the Divine in one another, and how a core part of his ‘self’ was revealing the deeper truths of how people treat each other unjustly and why).
So how does this help us with a Full Moon in Aries meditation in the hours that currently lay ahead?
Having the courage to be the warrior in the area of our birth chart where the Full Moon will be - look to see where 2 degrees Aries falls in your chart. And how might there be tension or a critical awakening to that part of our chart where Saturn now asks us to acknowledge our limits, have patience and endure, keep focused and work hard. We may not be Neptunian warriors in the sense of non-violent action of Gandhi’s great mission. But all of us have a part of ourselves where we need courage to use our inner warrior, where perhaps finding the spirit of the warrior will help bring into critical focus that area of life where Saturn is challenging us and where we need to mature, and where perhaps there just may be a worthy harvest.
Wishing you a great Harvest Full Moon!
