This is an excellent article on todays Full Moon Borderlines: THE CANCER FULL MOON GRAND CROSS January 5, 2015 at 3:54 Pm AEDT The Moon and Sun Opposed at 14°31 Cancer/Capricorn By Elaine Kalantarian A sensitive, intuitive water sign, Cancer, is one of the four cardinal signs, along with Capricorn, Aries and Libra. Gateposts of the year, they mark the four seasonal turnings: our two solstices and equinoxes. With the Full Moon shining from its own sign, all things Cancerian are highlighted right now: home and hearth, children and offspring, sustenance, nurture, safety and security — and all the ways those concerns can become emotionally distorted, and used to manipulate. Capricorn, the sign of the Sun — whose light the Moon reflects at this high tide in its cycle — is also emphasized. Capricorn is the upholder of tradition; ruled by Saturn, it is a practical earth sign preferring the tried and true and the well established. So issues around ambition, power, preserving the status quo, reputation and calling are being brought to an important illumination point by this especially potent, turbo-charged Full Moon. As Cancer and Capricorn are signs of the two solstices of the year — the Suns extremes — embedded in their zodiacal symbolism are issues associated with just that: going to extremes in all the ways we humans tend to do. But this Full Moon is much more complex and powerful than most. All four cardinal signs are emphasized. As the Cancer Moon waxes today towards full, it will at the same time square off — and tightly so — with the Moons own nodes, which fall in the cardinal signs of the equinoxes: Aries and Libra. Forming a tight cardinal grand cross that also (as if that wasnt enough) includes those two outer-planet dynamos, Uranus and Pluto. Just past their sixth exact alignment and still held in a tight square, at the time of the Full Moon, Pluto will be conjunct the Sun and Uranus will square the Full Moon opposition from Aries while simultaneously conjunct the Moons south node. Gliding into place, the Cancer Moon, at its Full Moon culmination point, will transform a t-square, an off-balance formation thats been building between the Sun, Uranus, Pluto, and the lunar nodes, into the more stable grand cross — that is if you can call anything involving Uranus and Pluto stable. As I wrote last April when another grand cross was forming also involving these two, its probably more accurate to say unstable energies locked in a stable formation, an apt description of a bomb perhaps before it detonates. Both the grand cross and the t-square are stressful chart patterns, stable or not. They also impart great determination and focus — for good or ill. T-squares and grand crosses are FORMIDABLE sources of power frequently found in the charts of our most highly successful individuals, successful perhaps, not necessarily benevolent. Both T-squares and grand crosses require careful handling else the energies build up internally; therefore, one must have worthy projects and goals through which to direct and discharge this considerable energy in productive ways. There is also the need to watch out for either-or black-and-white thinking, and stubborn defensiveness. There is the sense with all crosses that we are holding the reins of a very powerful team of horses, stagecoach drivers barreling down a rutted, dusty road. True for you personally if you have one of these configurations tucked in your own chart, true collectively when one is building, as it is now, in the heavens. Grand crosses often result in a feeling of being pulled in four different directions, symbolized in the configuration by those four points/planets, shown in this simplified chart for todays Full Moon. With the grand cross, made up of two interlocking oppositions, there is also the need to examine the function — and dysfunction — of the polarity effect in life, to better integrate and balance contradictory forces and facets of experience represented in the cross, so that these various planetary impulses are not working at cross-purposes. They live as if trapped in a room with four locked doors, astrologer Tracy Marks wrote of the natal grand cross experience, and frequently try to force each door open by pounding upon it until they have exhausted themselves. Marks adds: Yet their situation is not hopeless, for if they position themselves in the middle of the room, they will discover a central staircase which will lead them to the roof and open air. These people often feel stuck, paralyzed by their problems in their lives which seem to be unresolvable, until they turn inward and discover their own inner center. Then they are able to attain a spiritual or creative state of consciousness which allows them to rise above their mundane conflicts and view their life with clarity and objectivity. The suggested resolution Marks makes here for native grand cross folks is good advice for us all, especially right now. For when we stop struggling, often it is only then that the best options materialize, options we couldnt, in our prior, stressed-out, polarized state, and somewhat blind state, see at all. As the Full Moon signals a time of revelation, when we can sometimes more easily gather objective insights into our lives and the world around us, this is a good time to see how you fall prey to the kind of faulty thinking which can lead to limiting extremes in attitudes and approaches to life. Look out for certain familiar frustrations, and notice when stubborn defensiveness and polarizing situations arise. Theres an opportunity right now, to not only acquire better insights but also transform the way in which we handle conflicts that tend to bring up these less-than-ideal reactions. Todays Full Moon grand cross involves those outer-planet dynamos Uranus and Pluto, just past a sixth exact square and still within tight orb, adding greatly to the importance of releasing the old to make way for the new, untangling old knots that have kept us bound, personally and collectively, in unhealthy, divisive ways of thinking and relating for too long. The harmonious aspects to both Sun and Moon from Chiron in transcendant, seeking-unity mutable Pisces is yet another indication in this chart of the potential to heal separations and learn to better recognize ourselves in others, and respect the rights of even those very different from us. If anything signals an influx of evolutionary energies, and an important turning point for Mother Earth, this grand cross — with Sun, Moon, Uranus, Pluto and both of the Moons nodes (fateful events, soul growth, evolution) — is it. Webster defines the word cardinal (adjective) as meaning of the greatest importance; fundamental. Whether we meet these wave upon way of cardinal crises that have been breaking shore over the last few years kicking and screaming, hanging on to the old life for dear life, or we bravely let go and allow those wild winds of change to take us to greater heights, is entirely up to us. Heavens way is round, earths way is square. — Lu Wu-pei (Chinese poet) Revisiting the sacred geometry inherent in the grand cross, and other insights into this interesting squaring of the zodiac circle, perhaps can help us move towards that central staircase. Jung felt that the square, which the cross is one aspect, represented the polarized, fractured state that occurs prior to achieving inner unity — a unity which is in turn symbolized by the circle, the ultimate and infinite state of wholeness. The cross is an ancient symbol of the squaring of the circle signifying the marriage of human and divine, heaven and earth. The vertical line of the cross represents the male sky god crossing the horizontal line of Mother Earth, Gaia — the cross itself a symbol for the fertile intersection of these two planes of consciousness. Representations of the relationship between the circle and the square are common and universal, found in religious and spiritual iconography the world over. The symbolism illuminates a deeper dimension of meaning beyond the typical astrological perspective that a square is a tense and stressful aspect. It is indeed on one level, yet if we lift ourselves up to the second dimension to include the circle a grand cross suggests, its meaning transforms. We see the context, the entirety of the circle it divides, rather than the separation, the divisions. A conflict erupted this past week right here in my own neck of the woods that serves as a case-in-point for the tensions and divisions inherent in todays Full Moon grand cross, as well the grand cross challenge to heal divisions, and see conflicts and problems from the more objective, bigger picture. The boys and girls basketball teams from my daughters school, Mendocino High, were banned from a local holiday tournament (in neighboring Fort Bragg) because they were wearing black and white I Cant Breathe t-shirts in solidarity with nationwide protests over police use of excessive force. Although tournament officials stated that they respected Mendocinos teams for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them, they claimed they had to ban the shirts as a security precaution. Fort Bragg High principal elaborated further in an official statement: To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament. We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out. As reactionary and wrong-minded as was this ban for athletes, school officials took an even more extreme step decreeing NO ONE could wear the shirts, not even spectators in the stands. Anyone wearing the words I Cant Breathe would not be allowed in the gym. Shirts and signs with this same message, as you are no doubt aware, have become a common feature at protests and rallies after a New York grand jury voted against indictment of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner. Unarmed and arrested for selling loose cigarettes, Garner was heard saying I cant breathe after being put in, what became, a lethal chokehold. The upset over the kids shirts however has less to do with public safety and much more to do with a few locals who complained that athletes were being disrespectful of area law enforcement and insensitive to the Fort Bragg community still mourning the loss of a deputy sheriff, killed last spring by a fugitive on a crime spree. The Mendocino varsity teams first sported their I Cant Breathe shirts when they played Fort Bragg on December 16th (two days after the Uranus-Pluto square perfected) without incident or censure. The girls team also wore the shirts before games at two other tournaments, also without incident. Numerous other high school and college athletes have been wearing the shirts as well, also without any problems or censure. Moreover, professional basketball players LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore I Cant Breathe shirts during warmups last month without repercussions from the NBA, nor were there any disruptions or other security problems as a result. After Kobe Bryant and other Laker players wore them before a game and on the bench early last month, Lakers coach, Byron Scott, viewed their action as a matter of freedom of choice and freedom of speech. The death of our local Deputy Ricky Del Fiorentino was a terrible tragedy. He was well known as one of the many good cops out there. Also tragic were the shooting deaths of New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, ambushed by a gunman who later took his own life. But we should be able to mourn the brutal killings of those in uniform and also mourn — and seriously question — the needless deaths of unarmed civilians. Running along the ruts of old racial lines to yet another false, youre either with us or against us fallacy, people too often circle their wagons to shut out important criticism that cripples their ability to think clearly, solve problems, and work towards reform and progress. False dilemmas/false dichotomies are a shadow aspect of the oppositions and squares of the grand cross. Its important to become more aware of these, often deliberately-crafted statements that are used to manipulate and force a choice between two polar alternatives. Our local high school controversy is a good example: the fallacy that protesting the behavior of bad cops is somehow a universal condemnation of, or disrespect for, all law enforcement. We must, together as a nation, stop watching Fox. —Jon Stewart Unfortunately, and thanks largely to distortions served up night and day by media that manipulates rather than informs, as a whole, weve developed a bad habit of black-and-white, intensely polarized modes of thinking. Oversimplified models of machine-like binary opposites are presented as the only alternatives and veil the natural complexity (and wealth of options) inherent in any human problem or conflict. The mind becomes a cold, hard metallic thing, shades of grey cannot be computed, and two polar extremes continue to battle it out. So how did it all work out around here? School officials dropped the ban, but only after threatened litigation from a First Amendment lawyer (from the ACLU no less), as well as pressure from local protests and growing, international attention and opposition. The district did rethink its policy, Fort Bragg School Districts legal counsel stated, and then added (in typical C.Y.A. fashion), but that doesnt mean they believe it violated any laws. It would take years to litigate such a case, he added, suggesting that the decision to reverse the ban was based more on saving money than acknowledging and apologizing for an obvious violation of First Amendment rights. And in an odd twist, just as Mendocino teams were ready to celebrate their victory Monday, it was snatched away by the boys own varsity coach who continued the ban, threatening to bench any athlete who wore the shirt. When pressed about his own move to ban the shirts, even after all the hullabaloo, ACLU lawyers placing his name on an official restraining order, along with Fort Bragg officials, the coach stated that he wasnt banning anything, merely requiring athletes to wear their uniforms. The Mendocino boys basketball team took to the court last Tuesday, having decided as a team not to wear the t-shirts, but they also came sans coach, who bowed out after Mendocino superintendent Jason Morse overrode his no-shirt mandate. And although they were offered a conciliation game, the girls team did not play in the tournament at all, having already been replaced by another local team. And I think youll find this an interesting, poetic synchrony: the mascot for Mendocino High School is that bright red song bird, the cardinal. Borderline Everybody looks so ill at ease So distrustful so displeased Running down the table I see a borderline Like a barbed wire fence Strung tight strung tense Prickling with pretense A borderline Why are you smirking at your friend? Is this to be the night when All well-wishing ends? All credibility revoked? Thin skin thick jokes! Can we blame it on the smoke, This borderline? Every bristling shaft of pride Church or nation Team or tribe Every notion we subscribe to Is just a borderline Good or bad we think we know As if thinking makes things so! All convictions grow along a borderline Smug in your jaded expertise You scathe the wonder world And you praise barbarity In this illusionary place This scared hard-edged rat race All liberty is laced with Borderlines Every income every age Every fashion-plated rage Every measure every gauge Creates a borderline Every stone thrown through glass Every mean-streets-kick ass Every swan caught on the grass Will draw a borderline You snipe so steady You snub so snide So ripe and ready To diminish and deride! Youre so quick to condescend My opinionated friend All you deface all you defend Is just a borderline Just a borderline Another borderline Just a borderline Lyrics by Joni Mitchell, from her album, Turbulent Indigo Notes For a thoughtful perspective, I liked Peter Van Burens opinion piece on the issues around Eric Gardners death. © Elaine Kalantarian, all rights reserved
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 20:13:19 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015