A Last Quarter Moon of Shifting Awareness & Hopeful Compassion

Saturday’s Last Quarter Moon is an interesting lunation, in part because the Sun changes signs, moving from innovative Aquarius into the sensitive realms of Pisces, indicating a shift from a mental and detached approach into one that is less logical and more deeply feeling. The Last Quarter Moon also represents the time in the lunar cycle when we are looking back at what we grew and harvested from the New to Full Moon, and now we begin to integrate the lessons and prepare ourselves for the beginning of another cycle. This is a particularly intense quarter moon, because it is falling between the Leo Lunar Eclipse of February 10th, and the upcoming Pisces Solar Eclipse of February 26th. This suggests that our shifts in awareness become amplified, in alignment with these heightened eclipse energies.

With the Moon at the very first degree of Sagittarius, we are more receptive to looking into and expanding our options, with the hopes of finding a way forth that represents something of a departure from outworn modes that no longer really serve us. Continuing to be opposed by Jupiter, Uranus is also nearer yet to his close conjunction with Eris, the new planet beyond Pluto representing a Feminine Warrior energy for deep intention. This continues to have the effect upon us of “shake and wake,” and brings out the revolutionary in all of us, the “rebel with a cause.” Surprising events will likely intensify over the final week of February and, indeed, on into March, with many new twists and turns on top of what is already a surprising situation. We will learn to keep alert, to not be shocked at anything. The gift of this tumultuous energy is to ask us to be serious and to look, listen, and act from a place that we are sure of that we hold deep inside. The key is to stay open and to study and respond to new sets of circumstances, rather than reacting from old programming. This helps us to see and invite forth more of our own unique nature in order to respond to our rapidly evolving world in a way that is integral to our own soul intention.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer, also continues to hold a strong position in these current skies. In aspect to Uranus, Eris and Jupiter, Chiron invites us to look at not only how we are responding to external circumstance, but also at the inward turning of our own wounding that at times becomes triggered and reflected back to us by the outside world. The practice of tending to and sitting with our own emotional pain allows us to extend deeper compassion and empathy to others. Witnessing suffering – whether it is our own or another being’s– with gentle reverence and love helps to build bridges within and unite us as well in our humanity. There is an opportunity here to shift from analysis and assessment to deeply feeling.

The Sabian symbols for this Last Quarter Moon are interesting, as usual. They are, for the
Sun, in the first degree of Pisces, “A public market,” which reminds us of the commonalities of our ties with others around us. Marc Edmund Jones has, “the full maturity of man’s social estate [by means of] the willingness of each participant to do his part.” For the Moon, in the first degree of Sagittarius, we find “A campfire of old Army veterans.” One can imagine the particularized memories that make up their zest for mutual communication. They have traveled their road and done their part, and now reflect upon the arc of their development. Jones references a “continuing appreciation of every phase of experience that has ever opened up… and [the] desire to live worthily as a basis for present or future well-being.” Our enduring ties with others make it possible for us to shine, each in our own unique way, in a manner that fosters greater progress and less suffering all around.

A Last Quarter Moon of Shifting Awareness & Hopeful Compassion

What is in store for you in the next few months?

Chart for the Last Quarter Moon on February 18, 2017

Get Your Free Birth Chart!

November 2024