The last major Moon phase of 2020 is a Full Moon in Cancer (8.88°) which occurs at 7:28p PST on Tuesday 29th December here in the west, but on Wednesday 30th December in most of the world. This Full Moon occurring in the Cancer-Capricorn polarity actually highlights a question that has been coming up for many of us throughout the year’s events, and may be coming up even more powerfully now – what is Love?
The Sun is positioned in Capricorn, which is focused on public and/or professional persona, societal structures and institutions, and our individual standing within those groups. Accomplishment, achievement, and “success” by physical, material, and/or financial standards are a big deal in Capricorn energy land. As a cardinal earth sign, it’s important to not only set intentions, but to have something to show for that work. Capricorns often like having trophies or plaques to show their accomplishments, though receiving a monetary award or bonus is better as they’re able to increase their societal/class status in culture or world which places status by financial and material wealth above all else.
Yet the Moon fully reflecting the Sun’s light is positioned in Cancer, a cardinal water sign. Cancer’s energy is focused on individual emotional needs – how one feels emotionally supported, nurtured, encouraged and cared for. This is often where and how one expresses their emotional truth most freely and comfortably, which for most people is at home, or with family and/or close friends. In contrast to Capricorn’s representation of public persona, Cancer of represents the private persona. As a cardinal water energy, its objective is to feel loved by actually being loved.
Which brings us back to that initial question – what is Love?
Here’s the dilemma.
There are quite a few people who believe societal success will buy them love.
There are other people who believe social and/or societal status will make them appear more loveable.
There are people who believe they are unlovable because they aren’t financially or materially wealthy.
There are people who believe they aren’t loved by others because they don’t have physical, professional, public, material, or financial success.
There are people who believe they aren’t loved because they are successful by societal standards of success, wealth, and/or status.
All of these beliefs may have you wonder – why are these people looking outside themselves for Love or a measure of their lovability?
The answer to that question is the power of this 2020 Cancer Full Moon, if people are willing to accept that answer.
And that’s the thing – people must be willing to accept that their ability to be loved or not loved isn’t measured by how much money and stuff they do or don’t have. Their ability to be loved is measured by how much they are emotionally aware of themselves and their emotional needs, how much they’re willing to support and care for themselves emotionally, and how much they’re willing to allow others to know what their real and True emotional needs are so others can care about, care for, support, and/or nurture them. In other words, they must love themselves so they can allow others to genuinely love them.
This gets even more complicated when we look at the numerology for the day.
Though this 2020 Cancer Full Moon phase will be felt from 26th December through 1st January, in the majority of the world, this Full Moon reaches maximum phase on a 1 Universal day of initiative actions, new beginnings, and fresh starts. This will be a powerful day for making choices to align (or realign) yourself with your inner emotional Truths and your individual/personal emotional needs. This is a time for you to be honest with yourself about how you want to feel about yourself emotionally, what you can do to help yourself feel that way, and maybe what you can ask or share with others to enable them to support your emotional needs. It’s an intention-setting day, though. It would be wise for you not to expect instant results from your initial efforts. If they come, great! But if not, don’t be discouraged – you’re just getting started.
If there’s a challenge in the 1 energy, it’s in the caveat that for a shift to occur, action must be taken. This is not a passive motion into a new emotional state. It cannot be. You must be willing to do something for yourself in order to improve your emotional honesty. Even if the choices you make are internal ones, taking action in some (ideally positive) way gives you a way of affirming the choice you’ve made for yourself, supporting your new emotional intention.
Yet for pretty much everyone in most of the Americas and west of them, this Cancer Full Moon is occurring on a 9 Universal day of fulfillments, completions, and endings. This will be a powerful day of recognizing making decisions about what you are and aren’t willing to experience emotionally, and to take steps to bring what you don’t want to feel to an end. This will be a big step for those of you who are willing to acknowledge what doesn’t serve you emotionally. For some of you, that may mean coming to terms with the fact that some of your circumstances and connections are the result of you not attending to your own emotional needs. For others, it may be realizing that some of your circumstances or connections are not simply meeting your emotional needs, no matter how much you may be trying to get them to become what you need. Either way – whether it’s within you or around you – this will be a day of being honest with yourself about what you need, and letting go internally and externally of what doesn’t emotionally nurture, support, and encourage you. This could be a rough time.
That’s because the challenge in the 9 energy is both acknowledging what is not meeting your emotional needs (whether it’s a self-belief or an external situation), and choosing to bring that belief or condition to an end. Again, action is needed to affirm your decision and align with your emotional honesty. But there in lies the rub – you’ve got to be emotionally honest with yourself. You’ve got to be loving of yourself enough to be honest about what or who is meeting YOUR emotional needs and what isn’t. What could also make this difficult is if the sources of our emotional pain and suffering are external and are people society tells us we should be emotionally connected to/with. Recognizing relationships with family members, long-time friends, or long-time social or professional connections and colleagues could be what need to be released for you to begin your journey to a healthy and earnestly loving emotional self-consciousness.
The numerological energies truly set the tone for how the astrological energy will flow during this 2020 Cancer Full Moon. There aren’t many transits within 3° orb for this Full Moon phase, but let’s take a look at the ones we have for the deeper energetic details of this current phase.
- Capricorn 7 Sun trine (Taurus Uranus Retrograde conjunct Black Moon Lilith) sextile Cancer Moon (6-8°) – The more this Capricorn Sun shines light on the way our societal structures, systems, and institutions operate, the more we also see how much many of us are invested in our physical, material, and financial resources. Almost everyone is hyper-aware of their current health, home, and financial statuses more than anything else right now. Yet as things continue changing, there’s also an ego-driven fear of losing their sense of safety and security as it’s becoming more and more inevitable that things are, indeed, changing and not ever going back to the way they were. This fear creates a seeking of emotional comfort, ease, and familiarity; knowing these collective changes are ultimately for the better good, but also knowing egos will be pushed to their limits as “safe spaces” and “comfort zones” are no longer as safe or comfortable as they once felt.
- Aquarius Pallas Athena square (Taurus Uranus Retrograde conjunct Black Moon Lilith) (6-7) – Patterns of human behavior are being challenged by shifts in physical, material, and financial resources. Social norms are not holding up to these fundamental lifestyle changes. Celebrity is losing its shine; survival is now the focus for some while luxury is the focus for others; technology is making is harder for us to pretend we are people we aren’t. There are new rules being formed, and until they take form, it’s difficult to know how to define ourselves. But one thing’s for certain – the days of defining oneself by money and stuff are likely over, and how people choose to use their lifestyle resources to the benefit of themselves, others, communities, and humanity-at-large is becoming the new standard of social consciousness, which is very challenging to those who are heavily ego-invested in their current lifestyles, whether they are lifestyles of wealth, lifestyles of poverty, or lifestyles somewhere in-between.
- GRAND SQUARE: Gemini North Node square Virgo Vesta square (Sagittarius South Node conjunct Venus) square Pisces Neptune (18-19°) – Just as during the Solstice and Great Conjunction, this Grand Square is still in effect with an added twist – Venus. There’s still a determination to implement new ideas and pragmatic solutions to the problems we’re individually and collectively facing in this moment. However, there are challenges from those who believe they “know better”, trying to stop any changes to the status quo, refusing to accommodate the ideal of serving All-That-Is. But now, those “know betters” are finding other “know betters” to partner with – a “tag teaming” of sorts in order to deflect blame while still moving toward a common goal. Though they may present themselves as “different” from one another, all of them are still refusing to open their minds or their eyes to the massive (and increasing) need for changes, still accusing those calling for service to the greater and larger good of being idealistic and “pie in the sky” thinking. Yet the ones believing they can stop the changes, they will soon realize they cannot delay humanity’s awakening and evolution any longer.
- Capricorn Pluto square Aries Eris (23-24°) – As society continues on its transformative path, individuals become more frustrated by the massive changes they see on the horizon. It’s important to understand that the chaos various individuals are stirring up in meant as an attempt to stop these changes from occurring. It would also be important for those who want these changes to occur to recognize the value of “intentional chaos”, or in other words, to plan to disrupt the status quo.
- Capricorn Pluto square Aries Mars (24-26°) – Of course, these transformative events aren’t only causing frustration – they’re generating anger, which is born of fear. The more people feel helpless to stop the changes they say the don’t want, the more they act out to stop them. Be ready to see more individuals “taking matters into their own hands” by taking bold actions to make themselves seen and heard. Of course, they may not realize they may be creating what they claim to be most afraid to see manifest.
- Aquarius Saturn conjunct Jupiter (1-2°) – Disciplined growth and expansion of humanitarian efforts and goals, and social evolution. Yet don’t be surprised to see the old guard trying (what they think are) new tricks to stop that growth and expansion from occurring. Those committed to evolving society and humanity will need to come up with some truly new insights and ideas to circumvent or grow beyond these old beliefs and behaviors.
- Sagittarius White Moon Selene conjunct Juno (2-3°) – A growing commitment to explore and expand one’s life experience of new and different peoples and cultures for the Highest good of self and all – to open one’s mind and heart through first-hand experience rather than on anecdotal information or hearsay. In other words, this is a strong indicator that people are ready to find out for themselves.
What I find fascinating about these transits is that most of the action isn’t happening in Cancer or in water signs. Most of the action is happening in earth and fire sign energies, meaning the focus of this Full Moon phase really is on our self-identities, our social and societal identities, how our lifestyles support those identities, and ultimately, how we feel about it all.
… which brings our focus back to this 2020 Cancer Full Moon phase – one in which we are being asked to become present to and allow ourselves to feel the emotional impact of our societal standards of success and status. Does what society tells us we should do in order to be loved align with the truth inside of each of us that tells us what we individually need to feel loved? Are we truly feeling loved, or are we feeling empty because the money and stuff doesn’t truly address our emotional needs?
And do we need to have an external measure for it, or are we finally being pushed to find Love within ourselves?
Ponder that in these last three days of 2020, and the first day of 2021.
And use this time to reflect upon whether or not Love is truly present in all areas of your life, starting with having and feeling Love for yourself.
Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Wishing you Light, Love, Blessings, and an incredible new calendar year,
Grace
