Contradictions and Convictions
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
A soft, safe place
Lately, I’ve taken to writing these weekly thoughts in bed, scribbling them in longhand on the back of used paper. I’m doing that right now with an assist from Violet, who’s lying on my side and grabbing my purple Sharpie as it flies across the page.
As the Sun and Pluto come together in flinty Capricorn, this Full Moon in Cancer (Jan. 17, 2022, 3:48 pm PST), Capricorn’s opposite sign, is just made for writing in bed with a cozy cat. Cancer symbolizes home, the soft, safe place where we retreat from a harsh world, and our nurturing relationship with the creatures who share that place with us. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a farmhouse in the country, an apartment in the city, a camper van, or a yurt. If your home shelters and protects you, if you feel safe and nourished there, that what matters.
We’ve spent a lot more time in our homes these past two years. Some of us have, by necessity, converted our homes into makeshift schools and workplaces; in many ways, spending so much time together in one place has made it tough to remember that ties of love are what define home. This is the Full Moon each year when we ask ourselves whether we’re working as diligently to create a happy home and family as we are at earning money and getting ahead in the eyes of people we don’t know well. That question is the same this year, despite the number of hours we’ve spent together.
Last week’s First Quarter Moon in Aries reopened some wounds that weren’t healing properly. Now’s the time to retreat and heal, and to take care of our loved ones, too.
Degassing
Uranus, retrograde since August 19, 2021, stations to turn direct this week (Jan. 18, 2022, 7:26 am PST) at 10.49 Taurus, still within a few degrees of its final square to Saturn. I’ve come to expect a whoosh of energy when the outer planets change direction; in this case, there will be some degassing, too, from that final exact Saturn/Uranus square at Christmas.
We’re not completely out of the Saturn/Uranus woods, so any discussion of one must include the other. They will continue to follow each other closely throughout the year, coming within half a degree of another square on October 1. As in any square, both these very different planets must be heard and respected: society’s rules and institutions need to change, and change must be focused in a productive, not chaotic, direction.
But as Uranus stations, it momentarily has the upper hand in this struggle. Feeling unsettled and rebellious without cause are hallmarks of a Uranus station, along with an irrational impulse to do something that can’t be undone. There are moments in life when that’s just what’s needed. But a few days either side of this station, extremity and overreaction are in the air. Stay grounded.
The Shift
The Lunar Nodes travel backward through the zodiac in an 18-year cycle, spending about a year and a half in a pair of signs before retrograding into the next pair. Vedic astrology takes a generally dim view of the Nodes, but in modern Western astrology, the view is less dire. A common delineation is that the Moon’s South Node symbolizes negative qualities we should seek to release, which the North Node represents a positive ideal we should seek to embody.
Since May 2020, the Nodes have moved through the signs of Sagittarius (South Node) and Gemini (North Node). My all-purpose mantra for this combination has been to let go of the conviction that one knows everything, and to seek to be more open-minded and curious. But if anything, folks seem more opinionated than ever as the Nodes leave Sagittarius and Gemini. Let’s hope we do a little better with the next Nodal axis, which shifts to Taurus (North Node) and Scorpio (South Node) on Jan. 18, 2022 (10:50 am PST).
This nodal pair asks us to pry our fingers away from negative Scorpio qualities like suspicion, fear, jealousy, and vengeance, and to reach toward the Taurus brass ring of practicality, security, common sense, and willingness to take things at face value. Both Nodes, however, get tangled up in the still-resolving Saturn/Uranus square throughout this year, especially in April and early August. Both as a society and on a personal level, we continue to struggle to integrating established rules and structures with freedom, innovation, and change. Look to the eclipses in April/May and Oct./November for turning points in this struggle.
Contradictions and convictions
The Sun enters Aquarius this week (Jan. 19, 2022, 6:39 pm PST), a sign that popular astrology tends to paint in eccentric colors. But something much closer to the truth can be found by combining Aquarius’ element, air (intellect and communication), with its fixed modality and traditional ruler, Saturn. Put these together and you get a profile of a sign with fixed ideas and a certain intractability.
In Aquarius, we find the contradictory qualities of policy making (Saturn) and revolution (Uranus). Those with a strong Aquarius signature in their charts are steadfast; they don’t tend to suffer from self-doubt, and they don’t consider their convictions to be opinions, but rather objective truth.
Aquarius is the sign of the Moon in the Sibley chart for the United States, and we do tend to be an opinionated people. A relative of my New Zealand-born husband marveled that you could pull any American off the street, put them in front of a camera or microphone, and they’d answer questions about matters of the day at length and with confidence.
While that’s a generalization, it does get to something true about our national character. Our confidence in what we know is a quality that has allowed us to achieve real breakthroughs and innovations, even if it has sometimes stood in the way of collaboration and even greater progress – especially as Aquarius’ traditional and modern rulers, Saturn and Uranus, continue their long-running feud.
Writing and collages © 2020-2024 April Elliott Kent
