By Sara Diamond
On July 21—a day before the Sun enters the sign of Leo on July 22—we’ll have a Full Capricorn Moon, the second in a row in this sign. The first occurred when the Moon was at just 1° Capricorn, on June 21, a day after the June Solstice. Now on July 21 at 3:17 a.m. on the Pacific coast, the Moon will be fully illuminated by the Sun at 29° 08’ Capricorn/Cancer.
In my post a month ago for the first of these two Capricorn Full Moons, I emphasized the cardinal, forward-moving mode of watery Cancer and earthy Capricorn. What these two signs share is a drive to take care of business, at home and out in the world. The challenge is to balance one’s life in these two domains.
With this second, July 21 Full Capricorn Moon at the 29th degree, the Sun is making its last hurrah in Cancer for this year. The 29th degree of any sign is called the “anaretic” or “critical” degree. It’s like a final chance to do or say something, at least until the next cycle. The anaretic degree is powerful and tense. Imagine the moment before you jump off a diving board. There’s still time to turn back, but you’re not going to.
Tension and power are themes for this July 21 lunation. The Full Moon comes less than a week after the July 15 Mars/Uranus conjunction, a time frame when the forces of aggression, shock-and-awe, were united as a backdrop for some astounding events.
At the July 21 Full Moon, the most prominent transiting aspect is the out-of-sign conjunction between the Moon at 29°08’ of Capricorn and Pluto at 0° 54’ Aquarius. Plutonian power is edgy, raw, and subterranean. Pluto has a long, slow orbit, staying in each sign for a generation’s span, moving forward and back over a couple of degrees in a given year. Pluto is now betwixt and between. It entered Aquarius in January, will move back into Capricorn briefly from September 1 to November 19, when it will then settle into Aquarius until 2043.
Pluto’s dance between Capricorn and Aquarius reminds me of Italian anarchist Antonio Gramsci’s famous quote:
The old world is dying and the new world is struggling to be born; now is the time of monsters.”
What might we as individuals, and society, create when the power of death and (re)birth is so uncertain and, always, so consequential?
While Pluto’s transits are long and slow, the Moon is the fastest moving body in the sky. The Moon meets up with Pluto for just a couple of days each year, this time when the Moon’s in its phase of full light from the Sun. The astrological Moon reflects our deepest emotional needs and strivings for security. Illuminated and widely conjoined with Pluto from about July 20 to 23, don’t be surprised if some shadowy feelings rise to the surface. That’s uncomfortable and also healing, because only in the light can one transform unconscious drives into conscious choices.
The Moon will make other aspects at the July 21 lunation. The Moon is now separating from a friction-y square with Chiron, suggesting some kind of emotional quandary that needs to be resolved. The Moon at the 29th degree of Capricorn is making an inviting sextile with Neptune at the 29th degree of Pisces, meaning that some sort of idealism—if not illusion–may color whatever feelings are provoked by the Full Moon’s proximity with Pluto.
In the theater of July 21, the outer planet Uranus plays a supporting role. The Moon will be moving away from a harmonious trine with Uranus, now in the late degrees of Taurus. Mars, traveling a bit ahead of Uranus, is now at 0 Gemini, in an out-of-sign conjunction with Uranus. Mars is cooling off, in a sense, from the perfect conjunction Mars made with Uranus on July 15. Mars’ domains are fear/bravery, force, aggression, even violence. Uranus brings breakthroughs and shocking events. Their conjunction every couple of years can be extreme and perilous, as we witnessed with the July 13 assassination attempt on the life of a U.S. presidential candidate.
All of this is to say that the alignments in the sky at the time of the July 21 Full Moon feature two tense conjunctions among powerhouses: one between Pluto and the Moon and the other between Mars and Uranus. Each of these pairs is in trine to the other, exaggerating the feeling one might have if one were caught standing on the precipice of something big, not knowing what is to come.
Blessings for the July 21 Capricorn Moon, and with prayers for peace!
~ Sara
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