by Robert Wilkinson

This distributive, inspired, and freeing “Christfest” Full Moon opening the world to a new form of Wisdom Teaching occurs at 7:19 am PDT, 3:19 pm BST May 29, and falls at the 9th degree of Gemini and Sagittarius. It is the third of the “Three High Moons” of the Northern Hemispheric Spring. As with all Full Moons, use the light you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus through understanding the available power, and renew your life!

The importance of the Christ Fest Full Moon is explained in greater detail in the article Spiritual Astrology – the Three High Moons of the Northern Hemisphere Spring. Briefly, the Life Force of Earth re-emerges at the Full Moon of Aries-Libra, and this Life Force is expressed as a form of “Buddha Wisdom” of some compassionate form that helps us all to end suffering. This Wisdom is then shaped into a form of expression by the World Teacher at this Full Moon of Gemini-Sagittarius, and expressed the “world teaching” for the next year.

As with all Full Moons, use the Light of the New Moon themes, and give them form and focus to see how to anchor those themes in expression. This is the Light of Mind expressed in widespread forms of Truth and vision that opens a wisdom adventure in each of us.

Since the Christfest distributes the “Buddha Wisdom” of the last Full Moon in some compassionate form helping us all to end suffering, it would seem the next two weeks can help us glimpse wider truths and future. We have seen a form of worth or value, we’ve seen what had to be renounced or buried, and since the New Moon, have an awakened mind. This Full Moon will put these in a wider perspective, with great truths to be externalized over the rest of this year.

Today’s Full Moon post will be an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In parts 2 and 3 we’ll cover the Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

An Overview

This “World Teacher” Full Moon brings forth Wisdom expressing something eternal about the relationship of mind to Life. This chart is both expansive and sobering, with the primary lesson involving taking careful aim at our target, and letting our arrows fly! Many will learn an “unnatural skill” required for life in society, and deepen in their connections with others. The Wesak introduced us to a new wisdom, as well as began a process of eliminating all that is obsolete or useless in our lives.

This is an exceptionally spiritual Full Moon, and many things will “come out of gestation” and lead us to major realizations. Some will have to accept relationships for spiritual purposes, while others will have to reject relationships, again for spiritual purposes. This is a spiritual “separation of the wheat from the chaff,” with the entire world at a “fork in the road of destiny” due to Jupiter again septile Saturn.

The Grand Water Trine will allow us all to understand the flow of favorable tides, leading us to a great “Mystery” of our own Self-revelation. This can prove very favorable in the realm of relationships, where much can be known through the astral (emotional) mechanism, bypassing the mental mechanism. Those who are involved in a larger service will experience forms of collective rebirth.

As Uranus is still semisquare Neptune, anchoring the off-again, on-again friction Rhombus Diamond configuration, we’ll have to continue to deal with this “cutting, grinding, and polishing” quality each time the Moon moves through the middle of the mutable signs and the end of the cardinal and beginning of the fixed signs. The complete Diamond happened several times last year when planets transited mid-Virgo and late Libra at the same time, and will happen again this September when all four points will be occupied by 4 planets making two oppositions, two semisquares, and two sesquisquares to other planets in the diamond.

Get used to this agitation in the general atmosphere, since we have had planets conjunct Uranus while semisquaring Neptune in April and May, culminating in mid-May when Mars entered Aquarius and semisquared Neptune and squared Uranus. This generated major friction!. The difference is that the semisquares are internal friction, whereas sesquisquares are external friction.

We are now in phase two of Jupiter septile Saturn, marking a second point of decisions about which Jupiter and Saturn energies will be carried into the twilight of their long wave cycle. We had the first septile in late October 2017 with Jupiter at 3 Scorpio and Saturn at 24, both very important points. That "fork in the road of destiny" involved a more expansive connection with life. This second septile features Jupiter in the Scene of Faith on the actional level, so consider this a time of choosing how you want to express your Faith, whether in yourself, a circumstance, or Life in general.

This is the second in the sequence during a period in time when the Jupiter-Saturn cycle which began with their May 2000 conjunction at 23 Taurus is beginning to disintegrate. Consider this the next big turning point of choice and change for humanity, with the third and final “fork in the road of destiny” to come at their last septile exactly when Jupiter goes stationary direct at 14 Scorpio and Saturn’s at 5 Capricorn.

Still, the seeds of what will commence at the Great Mutation of 2020 are beginning to take shape. 2020 features Saturn conjunct Pluto at 23 Capricorn, followed by Jupiter’s two conjunctions with Pluto at 25 Capricorn that Spring and Summer, culminating in the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 1 Aquarius in December. I’ll write more about that very important period in coming months.

We’ve now moved into a time period of shifting Jones pattern. The patterns change mainly due to the position of the Moon, and at this Full Moon, we’re back in a combination of a “Splay” pattern and a “Locomotive,” with the Splay indicated by the Water trines and the open 1/3 indicating the Locomotive effect. I’ll explain more later in this article.

With Saturn in Capricorn and Mars in Aquarius, we continue a stable pattern of dispositors. I’ll discuss the ruling dispositors in another article. The bigger shift is that at this time, Mercury in Taurus again leads the Sun, showing that our ability to enjoy our Soul life will fulfill and confirm “the worth of our Light” awakened at the past New Moon.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?

The Grand Irrationality, along with the other outer planet non-rational configurations that happen off and on throughout the year, indicate that we’ve been living in an era of very heavy decisions determining the future destiny of humanity since 1993. To refresh you, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave configuration set into motion every time a planet makes a conjunction, septile, biseptile, or triseptile to Neptune and Pluto. Septile series aspects show us points in time when our future destiny is precipitated by critical choices made in the present.

In this Full Moon, it’s not active. However, it will be triggered again June 9-21, when transiting Mercury and then the Sun make triseptiles to Pluto and biseptiles to Neptune. It’ll be triggered again when Venus moves through the Leo zone at the end of June and beginning of July. It would seem that the entire last half of June is another “fork in the road of destiny” for people and nations, based in where this falls in the chart. That two week period will be the next action beat in the cycle, which at this time of the year is very weak, as Neptune and Pluto are now 55+ degrees apart. To note, Mars won’t trigger this configuration until it septiles Pluto in early December 2018.

At this time, the current seven “hot zone” spans that trigger the Grand Irrationality are approximately 16-20 Leo, 7-11 Libra, 28 Scorpio-2 Sag, 21-25 Capricorn, 13-17 Pisces, 4-8 Taurus, and 25-29 Gemini.

We’re now slowly moving out of the configuration, and we’ve already hit a point in time when Neptune and Pluto are beginning to form a long term sextile, as they were for most of the last half of the 20th century. At this time, the Grand Irrationality gains strength as we move through Autumn and into Winter, and will again lessen in strength in the late Winter into the Spring and Summer. (Right now they’re 55d 24m apart, and by the Solstice will be 56 degrees apart, closer to a sextile than a septile.)

As I’ve explained in other articles, that means that in the Autumn and Winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) they operate as a simultaneous “pulse,” since they’re both aspected near the same time. But in the Spring and Summer we experience it as a rolling influence, with first Pluto aspected, and then Neptune at some time after that, depending on which planet is doing the aspect to these planets.

Because this configuration involves Neptune and Pluto, the outermost spiritual planets, they show a long wave evolutionary crisis for the entire human race. Since 1993, at one point or another, everyone on Earth has experienced a nonstop energy of having to choose, at the bottom of our beings, the path to evolution or devolution, progress or regress, love or fear, joy or control. It’s why things have been so weird, irrational, and hard-edged.

Planetary Distribution

In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Mercury at 30 Taurus through Venus at 12 Cancer spans 42+ degrees. This span will be most active in our charts. Add Uranus on the front end and the span involves 4 planets within 71+ degrees, so the areas between early Taurus and mid-Cancer will be very active these next two weeks. We hit maximum compression in March, with all planets between Jupiter at 24 Scorpio and Uranus at 27 Aries, making a very powerful triseptile between the bookends which I’ll discuss in the section on aspects.

At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 8 signs, in an uneven widespread distribution. Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in Scorpio, then moves through Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in Taurus, with the inner planets now occupying Aquarius, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer with the Moon inside the outer planet span at 9 Sagittarius.

Because of the sign occupancy, as I mentioned it’s a combination of a “Splay” and “Locomotive” Jones pattern, anchored by the Water trines. As both are in evidence, I’ll give you what Jones said about both.

So What is a “Splay Pattern” and how does it work?

Due to the way the planets are irregularly spread out among the signs, this type of spread which features all the planets in odd angles to each other with differing distributions among the signs, creates a “Splay” Jones Pattern. As Marc Jones put it, “the arrangement is neither even nor symmetrical,” revealing “strong and sharp aggregations of the planets at irregular points.”

Dr. Jones states “This suggests highly individual or purposeful emphases in the life, where the temperament juts out into experiences according to its own very special tastes.” This pattern “makes its own anchorage in existence,” and has a quality of “rugged resistance to pigeonholing, either in the near conventional compartments of nature, or in the idea-pockets of associates.”

He goes on to state this pattern gives a “persistent emphasis on individuality,” and the “spokelike emphases of the planetary groupings” are random, but have a “tripod” footing and approach to life circumstances. He says this pattern “reveals a very intensive personality who cannot be limited to any single steady point of application.” This temperament is “particular and impersonal in its interests,” rather than “universal-impersonal” or “particular-personal.”

This implies that affairs will be diversely spread out, some will not mesh well with others, and there will be a “hub and spoke" quality to what happens these next 4 weeks. This spread shows a wide diversity of things going on that promotes individuality.

The "Locomotive Pattern" and how it works

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying 2/3 of the signs with an empty third, creates an imbalance that leads to power if we can find the compensatory “weight” to make things move forward smoothly rather than rock side to side creating friction. Target what is needed, and provide compensatory energies accordingly.

As Marc Jones put it, “this type of horoscope reveals a balance of this sort in the life. A third part of things… consisting of a free span in experience, is set against a two-thirds part, embracing a related but limited span in experience…. The basis of the dynamic is found in the native’s resulting strong sense of a lack or a need, of a problem to be solved, a task to be achieved in the social and intellectual world around him.”

Dr. Jones states “The temperament reveals a self-driving individuality, an executive eccentricity that is not … unbalance but rather is power. It exhibits a dynamic and exceptionally practical capacity which is neither the broad universality of the Splash pattern, nor the special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience characteristic of the Bundle people.

He goes on to state “The Locomotive classification is … moved more by external factors in the environment than by aspects of its own character. The point of application for the powers of the self is shown … by the “leading planet,” or the one of the two in the empty trine which forms its aspect clockwise in the zodiac, irrespective of any distinction as “applying” or “separating.”

Jupiter is the leading planet in the Locomotive, and Venus the closing planet. This shows that feelings lead and feelings close all significant experiences at this time. Still, with the Grand Water trine in play, understanding and adapting to the flow should be one of the more obvious things to do, and many will have extraordinary relationship experiences. Expand the vision to lead your experience, and end with compassion and a “search for the Mystery” or revelation.

Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?

The late July 2017 New Moon in Leo was the final Lunation since June 2016 where the Full Moon Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon. That pattern happened between June 2016 and August 2017 and before then, between September 2013 and September 2014.

This is tenth Full Moon since the period between October 2014 and May 2016 where we again are in a “reversed pattern” of the Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun. So we’re now in “the other” New Moon/Full Moon sign expression.

We finished the period of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns at the August 2017 Solar Eclipse in late Leo and began the new sequence, since that New Moon Sun was in Leo, but the subsequent Full Moon Sun was in Virgo. Since the New Moon offers us seeds in the first half of the month’s lunar cycle, and fulfillment in the second half, we now are in a sequence with the “Seed Light” of Taurus coming to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Gemini and Moon in Sagittarius.

Because the New Moon preceding the Full Moon always represents the seed forms that are brought to surface at and after the Full Moon, this begins the fulfillment of the theme of the recent New Moon at 25 Taurus. You can learn more about that New Moon in Taurus by going to The New Moon at 25 Taurus Pt. 1 – What’s Happening in May-June 2018, and The May 2018 New Moon at 25 Taurus Pt. 2 – Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What it All Means.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Because Saturn is now in its home sign of Capricorn for the first time since 1991, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. It was the ruler of the last two eclipses, making it an important factor for the next few years, and it will continue to play a different and powerful part in world affairs between March and November 2018 because Mars will be transiting those signs during that time. That makes Saturn a major force to be reckoned with in 2018!

Add the fact that it’s doing a very interesting dance with Uranus all of 2018, and now that they are back in a trine between May and October involving Capricorn and Taurus, we’ve begun the next chapter in us learning how to blend past and future together and craft our future destiny. After the 2017 Fire trines between these planets stabilizing Electric Fire and distributive “Fire by Friction,” this will provide practical grounding to our efforts.

This will help us organize and simplify our Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our charts. You can learn more about cooperating with Saturn and Uranus to create your future destiny by taking a look at the material in my book “Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend.” Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, will help bring an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies infused with concentrated doses of spiritual energy that is making our spiritual life come alive.

Our inner Saturn gives us the power to take command of our lives and destiny. Saturn shows us how to become spiritual adults and fulfill our purpose for being alive on Earth. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.

It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life in profound ways.

Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your power to steer your personal evolution. You will understand how to throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose. Through your journey of self-discovery, you can find ways to live your life on your own terms, and fulfill your purpose for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!

If you’ve haven’t already gotten your copy, you can go to the Createspace page and this should be all you need to order your copy. It’s also available on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, so if that’s more to your liking, go for it! I’ve been told people who live outside the US can get their copy much faster by going through Amazon. If you would, whether you’ve gotten the ebook or the paperback, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the more of a boost they give it.

On A Final Note

See you in the near future with parts two and three on this “Christ Fest” Full Moon where we begin another year’s adventure in hearing and cooperating with the World Teacher as that Being distributes the new forms of detachment, dispassion, discrimination, compassion, and our ability to generate positivity and “good will” in our world we’ve been learning since the Wesak Festival last month. This beckons us to a greater dedication and greater consecration to humanity at large, leaving behind old personal considerations that no longer fit in our lives.

This Full Moon will bring us countless realizations, and help us learn and teach others skills that we need to move forward in life. There are so many spiritual aspects in play these next two weeks, I find these lines from the great Lucille Clifton to be appropriate: “but the light insists on itself in the world; a voice from the nondead past started talking, she closed her ears and it spelled out in her hand, "you might as well answer the door, my child, the truth is furiously knocking."

This will be an exceptionally spiritually active Christ Fest Full Moon distributing the active global Wisdom teaching already in motion. This will be a highly specialized and favorable Lunation due to the numerous aspects in play, with relatively little friction and a LOT of harmony. We’ll explore these in part 3 of this series. In the meantime, be joyous, see the humor and don’t sweat the occasional annoying grind, since every sacrifice works to our spiritual expansion!

I’ll see you soon when we’ll discuss Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.

© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson