May Full Moon 2016

I took a heavenly ride through our silence I knew the moment had arrived For killing the past and coming back to life

I took a heavenly ride through our silence I knew the waiting had begun And headed straight... into the shining sun – Pink Floyd

This is a moment to not look back. And yet with this forward-looking Sagittarian full moon (22nd May at 0.16 Greek time) in the arms of retrograde Mars, our energy is being tugged backwards as well as forwards, as Mars trawls the deep waters of Scorpio to clean up any remaining shadows of old anger or disempowerment. Scorpio signifies a death and rebirth process: we may feel ready to be reborn but first we have to ‘kill the past’, to let go of the old stories, old identities and the emotions which glue us to the karma of our history.

Mars tips backwards into the sign of Scorpio on the 27th May and slowly through June and July performs a U–turn to arrive back to where it is now in early August. This slow motion action replay offers us a chance to review feelings and reactions that were triggered bym events of late February and early March, to create healing and a new perspective. Ripples from 2014 may be stirred up, especially from February-March and October-December 2014 when Saturn was passing through this same area.

Abundant fresh energy can be released through this deep dredging and purification process if we can find a way to take these feelings into stillness and bear the inner silence that follows. There is no way forward without cancelling the debts of the past!

While Mars moves retrograde through Scorpio there is a real risk of shooting oneself in the foot! So take this time to check you are aiming that Sagittarian arrow in the direction of your highest vision and to disentangle your intent from any emotional payback. Venus is opposing Mars and lined up with that sinister blinking eye of Medusa, fixed star Algol, which symbolises the unappeased pain of the feminine. We are carrying the archetypal energies so don’t be surprised if old relationship issues surface out of the blue to be healed, underneath the anger there is sadness which needs to be unfrozen and dissolved for the heart to open again.

The tug between past and future may palpably increase through June as the trailblazer Uranus speeds ahead into a new span of the zodiac while the energy of Mars still pulls us back. The next new moon on 5th June highlights this dilemma with a ‘grand cross’ pattern as it aligns with heavyweight planets Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter and the Moon’s node (mass destiny) pushing us towards another massive global choice point around the full moon at solstice.

Saturn (structure, boundaries) is in stand-off with Neptune (chaos, oneness) exact on 18th June and again on 10th September and previously on 26th November 2015. Bearing in mind that the beginning of this Saturn-Neptune cycle was in November 1989 exactly when the Berlin Wall came down and also the first dial-up internet connection was made, it suggests we are facing new questions around definitions of boundaries and connectedness on many levels. Reference points may blur or collapse, and what looks like a surrealistic landscape is on the horizon... But this very strangeness is part of the wake-up call:

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain. Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell? - Pink Floyd

Just hours after full moon Mercury ended its retrograde journey and by 8th June arrives back where it was on 28th April. Communications loop: we are going again over decisions that were first discussed back in late April. Perhaps we pick up the real meaning or the right direction the second time around. Not for nothing are the retrogrades stalling our progress!

Thankfully there is a steady grounded energy over the next weeks with a powerful planetary line up in earth signs to support us through this breathing space in the gap between past and future with our feet firmly planted on the ground.

A soul in tension that's learning to fly Condition grounded but determined to try – Pink Floyd

The challenge of this Sagittarian full moon is how to create a magnanimous, wise, passionately inclusive leap of faith into a new world. The shadow can manifest as impatience, preoccupation with egoic agendas fragmenting the energy of the present moment through desire for better, for different or for more.

Only by observing the root of desire itself in stillness patience is born, which is timelessness, pure presence, where there is nothing to lose, nothing to gain and nothing to fear. Only then the movement forward is free from repeating patterns of the past. Here finally is where we can live in the heart and shine our unique gifts and Soul purpose in expression and action:

'The unborn absolute body is like the very heart of the sun; there is no waxing or waning of its radiant clarity' - Padampa Sangye

'Set the controls for the heart of the sun' – Pink Floyd