Engaging the Heart: Full Moon in Cancer 2018
By Richard Hurd from Madison, USA - Wingra moonrise {NAME}Uploaded by ComputerHotline, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19125086
Full Moon @ 0 degrees Cancer 49’
December 22, 2018
9:49 AM Los Angeles
12:49 PM New York
5:49 PM London
December 23, 2018
1:49 AM Beijing
4:49 AM Sydney
As it is with every Full Moon, this is a moment of completion, resolution, and endings. Occurring at the cusp of the new year, and in the cardinal, water sign of tropical Cancer, we rise into this Full Moon with the desire to release and let go of the past, perhaps through the necessity of surrendering accumulated emotional burdens. With the Moon in its domicile (ruling) sign of Cancer, this is indeed a powerful lunation that can deepen our access to feelings, healing, and emotional honesty.
The lunar nodes have recently moved into the Cancer/Capricorn axis, and thus the next series of eclipses will occur in these signs throughout 2019 and into mid-2020. The lunar north node in Cancer calls us collectively toward the opening of the heart as a spiritual necessity, to offset the burden of external challenges and responsibilities. With the Sun now in Capricorn, it shares space with Saturn and Pluto, two planets set to conjoin in early 2020.
The building Saturn/Pluto conjunction will occur within the field of eclipses, marking this encroaching period as a time of significant changes to social, political, economic, and domestic structures. The dominant Capricorn archetype opposing this sensitive and intuitive Full Moon presents us with the challenge of striking a balance between the relentless pursuit of goals or ambitions with the requirement of self-love, care, and nourishment.
The predominant (and yet failing) cultural ideology of the western, corporate-dominated world continually pressures us to ignore the inner life to prioritize productivity. Yes, tending to our material needs is essential for survival, but its overemphasis can leave many with an internal void and physical and emotional depletion. The Sun in Capricorn moving toward Saturn and Pluto represents a foreshadowing of the global challenges which lie ahead.
Thus, it is imperative that we learn to listen to the body, the inner self, our dreams, and feelings. And yes, this Full Moon can help create a safe space for us to acknowledge or identify what it is we need to both nurture and nourish. Mars and Chiron's vast square to the Full Moon axis add to the prodding nature of this cardinal lunation on the Aries point. For some of us, self-neglect or subjugation of the inner life can erupt as a crisis, where pain is used as a catalyst for change and action.
The t-square tension within this lunation makes it difficult to ignore those things which need our compassion, sensitivity, and kindness. And it would seem, that in the current moment, kindness can be a form of activism, a tool which can be used to fight against a cultural surge of apathy and cruelty. The negative face of this Full Moon can tempt us into complete withdrawal, avoidance, defensiveness, or obsessive worry.
Uranus' out of sign sextile to the Full Moon creates a desire to break free of the past, to shake something up, or embrace a new path. Under this Full Moon, anticipate less tolerance for stagnation in your inner life, and the sudden stimulation deep feelings, memories, and emotions. The Cancer archetype highlights a culmination or breakthrough in the psychic or domestic life, areas which will undergo profound changes and transformations in the coming year. Remain sensitive and engage your heart.