Friday, June 5, 2020
SAGITTARIUS FULL MOON & LUNAR ECLIPSE
This year, 2020, has upheld its anticipated reputation for being radically intense.
Week twelve, month three of mandatory shelter in place. A global pandemic. Police brutality, and the murder of George Floyd on camera one week ago. Marches and protests. More police brutality. A curfew. An unfit and dangerous person in power tear-gassing protestors and being constantly abhorrent and dangerous.
The revolution won’t arrive to us humans, Americans, tidy and welcoming. This upheaval that is tearing through hearts and streets and online has been building for too long. We’re at a collective societal tipping point. Complete dismantling is required to move forward. Tear it all down and begin again. (And white people specifically must practice daily, conscious anti-racism, not just cling to the white liberal refrain of being “not racist…”).
Venus has been retrograde since May 12/13, inviting us to rethink and recommit to our values and to reexamine our relationships. Venus represents beauty, harmony, connection, relating. It rules our aesthetic, seeks to restore balance, and governs how we love. On June 2 Venus made a square to Mars in Pisces, bringing an opportunity to fight for what we value and what matters most, for hearts and wills to be stirred and used courageously. On June 3 was the Sun-Venus conjunction in Gemini, which could have set your heart ablaze… or maybe consumed you. Healthy Venus seeks balance and connection through relationship, while unhealthy Venus can get caught in hypocrisy.
This will be the first of a series of eclipses on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis this year and next. Our first eclipse of 2020 was part of a pair: the December 25, 2019 eclipse in Capricorn and the January 10, 2020 eclipse in Cancer. The lunar nodes recently relocated from Cancer/Capricorn to Gemini/Sagittarius, which provides a new framework through which we can work, building on the inner child and reparenting work that we did, potentially, while the nodes were in Cancer and Capricorn. Now we’re pushed into new growth. We’ll be working to unlearn and release with the South Node in Sagittarius and welcoming in, opening to, and moving toward the energies of the North Node in Gemini. The Gemini North Node prompts you toward endless curiosity to gather information, learn, listen, and discuss, and the Sagittarius South Node invites you to unlearn and shift patterns and behaviors that are conditioned and automatic, to release blind trust and naivete’.
It is Gemini season, which means the Sun is in the sign of Gemini. This eclipse and Full Moon are in Sagittarius. Along with the Sun and the North Node, Venus is in Gemini, and they’re all sitting opposite the Moon and South Node in Sagittarius. Gemini energy is impeccably perceptive, infinitely curious. Sagittarius is about having an expansive perspective, high adventures and philosophical learning. It’s helpful to remember that each sign has a healthy and an unhealthy expression, and the same for planets.
This eclipse portal includes three eclipses rather than the usual two (it happens sometimes). Friday’s eclipse is at 15º Sagittarius. We’ll have a solar eclipse New Moon in Cancer (0º) on June 20, which is Solstice, when the Sun enters Cancer. And then on July 4 we’ll have another Full Moon lunar eclipse (13º Capricorn). (June 20 and July 4 will be the last of the Cancer/Capricorn eclipses). We last had Sagittarius eclipses in 2001-2003 and 2011-2013. Eclipses tend to bring acceleration, revelations, and often much needed disruptions; the eclipse itself represents the moment the initiation takes place, but the effects and details of the eclipse unfold over a period of time, for the next six months to a year and a half. When an eclipse occurs it’s like we experience a cosmic power surge. The lights go out and then come on again, but things have shifted, been rearranged. Things come to light, are uncovered, revealed. We can’t predict the outcome of this eclipse portal, but we can see what’s happening around us, and we can also reflect on events and themes of the last Sagittarius eclipse years mentioned. If you have your birthchart you can look to where Sagittarius is to understand more about the context into which the eclipse arrives for you personally.
Sagittarius seeks the Truth. It is plugged in to existential questioning, spirituality, and philosophy. With this Sagittarius eclipse opposite retrograde Venus and square to Mars in Pisces, which stirs up volatility and empassioned feelings, we’re pushed to examine everything, especially how we relate to others, from a new perspective. We must stay open to new ways of thinking and expand our awareness, to educate ourselves about others’ insights and perspectives, to seek truth and meaning, and to have faith. Truth will be a likely theme and catalyst associated with this eclipse. Retrograde Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius and this eclipse, is in Capricorn, right there next to retrograde Pluto; Capricorn represents maturation and integrity in its healthy expression and the domineering authority figure in its unhealthy expression. Pluto’s death and rebirth motif is undeniable and will continue to be felt, as well as Jupiter’s insistence on not being underestimated, as these two planets connect and call attention to the deepest injustices and evils of our society. The healing Pluto brings is total transformation, and Jupiter’s highest expression is deep, unwavering faith. Pluto and Jupiter’s exact conjunction is on June 29/30. And Mars and Neptune’s exact conjunction in Pisces happens on June 13.
There will be six planets retrograde this month, after Mercury stations on June 17 and Neptune turns retrograde on June 22. Venus will turn direct two days later, so we’ll have five retrograde planets as we move into July. The retrograde turns the power and medicine of the planet more inward. We’ll have to listen more intently and tune in more intuitively, take time to reflect and integrate, process and understand, so that as the planets turn direct and regain strength, we’ll be prepared and empowered to act precisely and to implement meaningful solutions.
Have faith.
Seek truth.
May the oppressive racist and patriarchal systems be dismantled actively and swiftly.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
I recommend the work of Rachel Cargle and participation in her curriculum called The Great Unlearn, which you can find on her Patreon page (with membership as low as $5 monthly). You can also make a donation for her work at Paypal.me/rachelcargle.
Follow @thegreatunlearn on Instagram.
Please see my instagram stories on @wildmoonwisdomastrology for anti-racist educational resources and to hear Black voices at this critical time. My social media is muted June1-7 in support of #amplifymelanatedvoices suggested by Alishia McCullough @blackandembodied and Jessica Wilson @jessicawilson.msrd. Find them on instagram.
The artwork featured in this post is by artist Deborah Roberts (@rdeborah191 on Instagram). The piece is of George Stinney Jr, and is currently in the Smithsonian National Portrait gallery. Her website is www.deborahrobertsart.com.
