Can you feel the shift? This Full Capricorn Moon is close to Pluto and highlights an inner power revolution. As my colleague Kathy Biehl points out, the Full Moons from last August through March of this year were all at the same degree in various signs. Each one made contact with the Plutonic need to address our skeletons and our responsibility for what we do with them. If we don’t deal with what’s in the underworld, we limit our power to create what we came to do. At last the Full Moon is within spitting distance of the heavy weight and it’s time to get the emotional basement cleaned up and out. The good news is that Pluto offers riches of all kinds, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional when you are willing to show up.
Now granted, it is the Hell Realm. And when you are going through Hell, best to face what’s there and keep going. Also good is when you have friends for support. Remember Mercury is the one planet that can safely enter and exit Hell unscathed. So talk to friends, journal, talk out loud to give yourself perspective. Hear your own words. Let them give you perspective. It may surprise you when you do. I was shocked to hear what was came out of my mouth about my one neighbor.
He’s a recovering alcoholic and we have some very difficult history. He asked me for another chance when he finished his court mandated sobriety. Which I gave him. I’ve really made an effort to show up for a clean slate in spite of some very ugly history that included police. We’ve reached a moderate truce and civil conversation these days in spite of some setbacks on his part. Then recently a situation occurred. He borrowed something important of mine and then didn’t bring it back. It was a mark of trust to loan it to him and I knew it when I chose to say yes.
In the past whenever confronted about bad behavior he his pattern was violent reaction. Was I going to risk that again? Still, I needed to find a way to speak up and trust some of the ground we had covered since he’s been sober. So I did ask for it back. It was not easy for me to get to that ask. He was non-committal but at least not confrontational. I wasn’t sure what to do next, so I did nothing. At least I thought I did nothing. His name comes up often around here. Since he has sour relationships with multiple neighbors, he’s a frequent conversational topic. Suddenly my feelings were leaking out of my mouth.
Normally when they complain I try to focus on his recovery efforts to help round out the picture while validating their real frustration. Except now complaints kept spilling out of me, too. It surprised me how much built up hurt and anger were in there. I needed to sit down and get it out. Put it all down on paper and face the resentment and ugliness in my head around him. I felt vulnerable, exposed and resented him and myself for feeling that way. I wanted to find a way to trust my choices, trust what was in creation. I had to go into Hell and face what was mine there.
In this situation, I needed to pull back my boundaries with him or mean it as a fresh start. It took a while to land on sticking with the existing boundaries. I decided to trust my current choice and follow through. Shock ensued. Once I made the decision and stopped oozing resentment, it changed. The next day he got returned it, walked it up and left it at my door and then apologized for the delay. I was blown away. While I’d love to say I visualized this outcome, it was simply cleaning out what stood between me and a better result that brought it about. This is what the Full Moon this week offers.
When you are accountable for what goes on inside of you, what you create with it shifts too. I had to be accountable for what I felt, all of it, and honor it. Then choose how to act. I wanted to invite him to be accountable by example, not demand it. When I did that, he met my energy where it was now, real, raw, honest about me and about him. And he offered better than he ever has before. It wasn’t pretty getting there. But it was beautiful in the end. The results exceeded what I hoped. I wish that kind of creativity and fulfillment for you this Moon Cycle. The Cards and the Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
July 13 Capricorn full moon nine of wands
Consider that nine is the number for mastery and Capricorn is the sign of physical, structural authority. This Full Moon also makes contact with heavy weights Pluto and Neptune. How do we best work with the energy this Moon Cycle, you may ask? The way it lands for me is we have illusions about ourselves and what we want to happen. If we can imagine it, we can create it. Once we learn how to create (combination of childhood conditions and ongoing reinforcement) what we want, we can get fixed on how we achieve and what we want to achieve. Except we aren’t rigid or static. We grow, we change, life evolves around us.
When we let fear of loss drive ever more fixated ways of how we get to what we want, we begin to wilt, flounder and eventually die. It requires more and more energy for less and less results. Often we can be driven to achieve without ever pausing to enjoy each of the steps along the way, let alone the actual success. Clean house. Find those places and spaces. Come clean about yourself. Do it in a kind way and let whatever the mess is in front of you, help you do just that. Trust me, when the situation with my neighbor came up, I had a few ‘why me, why now’ moments. You and your contribution matter, more than you know.
So find your authentic desires under the conditioning. Clean out any shoulds and/or social conditioning. Use the peer relationships to inform and enlarge what you want, not to trim and deny what you want. How you bring it about is key. The better you can consider and acknowledge all of you while you expand what you love most about you, the greater the chances are you can tune in to where and when to plug that in to your community. Clarity comes with attention to what is, not in trying to twist your insides to match an image or ideal that isn’t yours. Inner strength comes from holding all the parts of you in balance, even judgement, so you aren’t at war within yourself. Find and delight in your inner strength this moon cycle. Then watch what comes from that place.
july 14 ten of cups
As the Moon heads out of Pluto’s Hell Realm into Aquarius, we breath a sigh of relief and also move from a nine card to the ten card. This heartfelt ten is a new playing field we’ve graduated to and it’s worth celebrating while acknowledging, there is work to do to make dreams reality. As Moon squares Mars just before noon pacific time, we feel the tension between what we believe and what we do about those feelings. Squares require action. So where can you act on your own behalf while still considering that outcomes are tied to how you bring it to the world around you.
This is next level up, so attention to detail is required. Sometimes when you hit resistance, it requires something be adjusted. Other times the obstacles are there to highlight what you know is worth working towards versus what was a whim and not worth the effort. Other times the only thing required to bring about whatever is next is patience. Learn to read what goes on inside you better and you will tune in far better to what’s around you. Not only that, but it enriches your life when you stop living in fearful stories in your head and let life actually exceed your expectations.
It doesn’t mean the difficulties around you aren’t real. It means that you are not alone. Burdens shared are burdens lessened. Take small steps in any direction of kindness and community and you leave the situation better than you found it. It also makes it easier for people to hear when you disagree. Even when they push back, wanting your sunnier side, a track record of kindly connecting makes it easier for them to hear when something needs correcting. Hold that space for yourself, others will wan to join it. Then keep the boundaries healthy. Tantrums are understandable, just take them outside and come back when you can speak responsibly. Trust and respect are building blocks that stand the test of time. Make them yours, invite others to do the same.
july 15 prince of pentacles
We’ve got a spicy soup of aspects today, guaranteed to light us up. The Moon starts off squaring the Great Awakener, Uranus, before it heads into a meet up with Saturn. This Prince of Pentacles is the slowest moving of the four Princes. When they show up, it means things move. Yet this card reminds us that real change, lasting change is gradual, even when the tipping point feels fast. So watch for aha moments that require you commit to the long haul.
Get familiar with your internal inventory. Go back to those two mainstay questions: What do I feel and what does that feeling need? The answer to those give you a lot of solid structure to build on over time. When you are willing to dig deeper and find the layers of feeling and needs, you peel off conditioning that isn’t yours. Your authentic self is under there. Keep looking, asking, caring. Even if it is ten minutes a day, the changes will affect your course ahead more than you could possibly imagine.
Which is why slow is good. Try on new thoughts, behaviors and choices the way you would a pair of shoes. Take a lap in them. Let them inform you as to their fit on your feet. Learn how to make adjustments. Look for that Goldilocks feeling, the one where you don’t rush to jump in or out of things. Instead look for that ‘just right’ fit for you. That’s the lottery ticket right there. Isn’t that worth a little more time and attention from you? You’ve got your Goldilocks point. So why not refine how well you recognize it. Make it a treasure hunt. It helps keep things interesting when they don’t move very fast.
july 16th five of swords
Today’s cocktail of aspects can leave you with a hangover if you won’t manage your fear brain. Doubt you doubts. Question your assumptions. Give others space to do the same. Miscommunication is on the table along with the fears that come up when we aren’t heard. When you don’t feel another understands you, take a pause. Go back over what is important to you. Like a safety check on a plane, do a thorough once over and once you’ve checked all the boxes, look for an opening.
Then see if it’s right timing for the other person to exchange. Try to understand them first. Hear them, repeat what you hear, ask questions. Once you land on a better understanding of them, offer your point of view. Then let it all settle. Not everything will wrap up today. Today’s objective is to overcome your own self doubt. You may need to practice that a bit longer to really have it sink in for you. Patience, attention to details and find your own trust. Good work!
july 17th wheel of fortune
Today the Sun traces the same steps that Mercury did yesterday. So the Wheel of Fortune gives you another chance to walk through those lessons. The Sun is our external self, our egoic persona and our ability to show up in the world. So where your mind (Mercury) tracked yesterday now has our body travel today. Draw from yesterday’s lessons. This card can literally signal, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You already have some understanding of what is needed. Do your part, check the boxes before you act and if you feel like getting extra credit, give another the space and encouragement to do the same.
What goes around really does come back around. So why not make it something you welcome heading back your way from the world outside. With Neptune in the picture, it’s important to differentiate between what you wish to be true and where you stand today. The right application of will helps close the gap between what is and what you wish. Can you be accountable for what you risk to get what you want? Are you speaking your truth or waiting for the world to give what you won’t risk reaching out to get? This is where your dreams need your investment of self if you want to be met with an equal investment from the World.
July 18th six of swords
Today may well be labeled ‘the care and feeding of your mind day’. Six is the sign of Virgo, healing, self containment and conveys that you are whole and complete as you are. You have everything you need within you to work with what is outside of you and bring your dreams and desires to life. Good to know that Mercury is the only one of the God’s who can easily get into or out of Hell. It works best when you stay open and flexible to how dreams may look when they do take shape. Too much rigid control or insistence throttles the spark of life out before it can breathe fully.
Too little effort or investment and it never animates. Once again, that middle path is to find what is right for you, in the moment, sufficient for the moment is what’s necessary. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Instead, find what moves you into action in a way that feels aligned for you as you are now. Then learn from it. Take in the information, adjust and then try another step forward. Great, keep doing that while you fine tune the conversation between your fears (which want to scare you back into safe space) and your goals.
Mercury opposed Pluto meaning your mind can get you out of hell just as easily as it got you into it. What we think starts to define what we believe is possible. Remember, care for those thoughts. Life is a symphony, an adventure, a dance. Or it is a misery, a torment, a chaotic trap. Choose which one it is for you, then learn from it and choose again, better. Fail again, fail better. Learn from everything and let it all lift you up and carry you into a future, one you want to inhabit.
July 19th four of pentacles
“Argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours” from Jonathan Livingston Seagull is what this four says to me. We box ourselves in from pride, fear, scarcity or any number of things. In the name of feeling safe, we twist the world around us to fit what we think will keep us secure. Except it becomes four walls and no doors or windows over time. Fear keeps highlighting the threat. The fear brain will always overestimate danger in order to make sure you pay attention and survive. Time to bring a healthier balance to the equation.
We need some fear or we would go extinct. It’s weeding out real problems from the imagined ones, or the inflated ones that matter today. Fours invite us to put our world on firm foundation. This one has to do with the body. Notice where you get revved up for or against someone or something. Or where you imagine yourself as opposition way out of proportion to the threat as it actually is. Begin by adding or subtracting the fluff in the story. If you built up the opponent and then tried to build yourself up to match, see it. Like a cat or a puffer fish, inflating things can make you feel more menacing to others. Let the air out and find solid ground where you can safely navigate your way. Learn to engage from actuality not fearful imagination. This one needs pacing and time.
july 20th the moon
What a perfect card today as the Moon has a big story unfolding. First it squares Pluto, then the Sun and finally Ceres. Time to drag the fear based stories of what we love and fear losing out of hell and into the light. You cannot keep feeding yourself (Ceres) overblown anxiety, it’s not healthy or sustainable. Redirect your mind. It loves to work. So give it a job to do. When your brain serves up the worst case scenario, insist it also find the best case, too. One is just as possible as the other. When I say insist, I mean it. Give that direction to your mind. It is required to bookend any doomsday scenario with one that you feel grateful for its possibilities.
Energetic support is available as you move through doing it well and then sliding back into doubt again. Keep bookending disaster thoughts or personal doubts. Each time they appear you can say thanks for another opportunity to bring balance to my mind. We can carry over the ‘care and feeding of the mind’ energy throughout this moon cycle. When you do this, it allows more intuitive information to flow to you and through you. You can handle it. This then allows you bring more of your essential self and knowing to anything you do. Are you curious to see what your world looks like when you do more of that? I can hardly wait to see…
july 21st six of wands
Someone called today’s aspects ‘a new route through old jungles’. This six says you do it successfully. Celebrate those small victories along the way. They add up over time and carry a building momentum. There are challenges today. Who is the authority in your head? What voices and dictates are you living by that may not belong there anymore? A challenging aspect to Eris today, the Goddess of Discord, invites us to be responsible for where our needs aren’t met. The wound says, ‘this is where I suffered in the past and was at the mercy of the world’. Change says, ‘but you are no longer at the mercy of the world, you are the co-creator of yours now’.
Today is a good day to walk out of the jail cell in your mind where you keep yourself based on history. What do you feel, what does that feeling need? When you take the time to get those answers, you can then find the resources to meet today’s needs. The past helps inform the present, but it doesn’t define it unless you let it. Learn from your history and let it add confidence to what you seek and find today. One choice at a time, you build your trust that world offers more than enough resources to fulfill your dreams when you stay open to how that happens. Now that’s a victory…
july 22nd king of swords
This King reminds us the big picture offers a much better understanding of situations, when you take it into account. Whatever snags come up today, step back and see the whole rather than just the parts. That perspective can richly inform the bits and pieces so they come together with more ease and grace. No matter how rocky or disjointed something feels at the start, have faith the way forward can smooth out as we accept where we are and believe we can do better as we learn. Today’s aspects offer both tension and relief, tension and then joy as we overcome it. Don’t judge too quickly or on incomplete data. Let it unfold and give you a full view by this evening.
july 23rd four of wands
The aspects are easier, flowing and even exciting today. This four highlights good friends, good relationships with firm foundation for the progress being made. It’s been an intense Moon Cycle. Today is like a mini staycation. It doesn’t like excitement and yet there is less effort required, just a bit of fuel. The Wands are fire and their fuel is praise, applause, recognition and respect. Find a way to give yourself some high fives, attaboys, pats on the back and any other form of reinforcement for the progress you are making.
How you talk to yourself matters. It shows up in how you talk to others. Be generous, pass some of the best along and see how good it feels to see it and say it. Stay open to receive it from others. Most of all, exhale and let your shoulders drop. It’s a good day, in a good life, with good people. Connect with yours today…
july 24th magician
With the wild card, Magician on deck, anything is possible. The promise of this card is no matter what gets served up, Magic can turn lead into gold. So don’t spend too long fretting or worrying if you hit some pitfalls today. Call on the Magic. The thing with Magic is to remember believing is seeing. When you are open to possibilities, you make space for them to arrive. Call on your wise self to help you see and play in the realm of magical creativity today. If you need some help, go watch this clip from Hook and that feast the lost boys eat. Shout bangerang and see what happens next…
When Venus squares Jupiter we are also cautioned to find a healthy stopping point for the fun. One way Magic is best is when we let it be giant stepping stones to keep us out of raging waters. Healthy indulgence is a good for the soul. What makes it healthier is knowing that too much of a good thing can undo all the fun you had when you don’t mind the consequences. Look for that place where true enjoyment starts to cost you more than it gives. Your wise self can help you keep watch. That wisdom is priceless.
july 25th five of wands
This five always make me think of a chick pecking its way out of a shell. Little obstacles may be between you and the bigger world. One concentrated application of will at a time, you remove resistance. Rest as needed. The transition from shell to a whole new playing field is tiring. The good news is each little bit that falls away reveals more of what is possible. Take it in, recover your strength and keep going.
Not much by way of aspects happens today, which is all the more reason to emphasize restful pauses. This is unprecedented growth going on right now. Pace yourself, take time to measure how far you’ve come. Include some gratitude for yourself and what’s available in life. All of it serves a purpose, even the trickier bits. Did I mention rest… good. Even if it’s just comfort food can clothes, it’s a good choice today.
July 26th the star
This card and the aspects today remind us that when we plant our feet in reality and still reach for the stars, dreams really can come true. Chiron trines Mercury so our wounds can give us good insight without overpowering the story. We need that when the Moon squares off with Eris. When things don’t look or feel the way we think the ‘should’ the old stories may shout to be heard. Listen and then thank them for sharing. Park them in the back seat with a reminder they aren’t driving the story, just informing it.
If you feel anger, it helps to remember that our anger helps consolidate us to put or hold a healthy boundary. Trust and respect are things you help put in place with how you ask for what you feel and need. Whatever comes up, respect the feeling, help it stretch into a more mature place to ask for what it wants and needs. Then hold the belief that what is yours can and will come to you. If you showed up for what you felt, wanted or needed, enough done for today. Let time help bring you what is yours while you manage the story as is does.
july 27th the hermit
This card and the aspects today remind us that we have what we need to light our path within us. Chiron trines Mercury so our wounds can give us good insight without overpowering the story. We need that when the Moon squares off with Eris. When things don’t look or feel the way we think the ‘should’ the old stories want shout to be heard. Listen and then thank them for sharing. Park them in the back seat with a reminder they aren’t driving the story, just informing it. Quality time with yourself helps a lot.
If you feel anger, it helps to remember that our anger helps consolidate us to hold or put a healthy boundary in place. Trust and respect help carve out that space and help you learn how you ask for what you feel and need. Whatever comes up, respect the feeling, help it stretch into a more mature place to ask for what it wants and needs. Then hold the belief that what is yours can and will come to you. If you show up for what you felt, wanted or needed today, enough done. Let time help bring you what is yours. Manage the story as it does, directed by your inner wisdom not outer noise.
Wishing you well, always.
