I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.
~ Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

Here and Now, or There and Then?

Sagittarius loves to be on the move, whether it's globe-trotting or truth-seeking or pursuing a higher calling. Usually Sagittarius is always scanning the far horizon looking for the next destination. However, we still have a Stellium in Taurus – North Lunar Node, Jupiter, Mercury and Uranus – and with Jupiter being the ruler of the Full Moon, there's a gravitational pull down to more Earthy characteristics.

While the Sagittarius Moon is scanning the far horizon to spot the next destination, ruler Jupiter in Taurus is advising her to keep one foot grounded in the here and now. It's not that distant lands aren't exciting and worthy goals, it's just that—like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz—we're just as likely to find what we seek in our own backyard.

And yet, there are still many impulses pulling us one way and another in this chart. Everyone except Venus and Chiron are (more or less) evenly distributed in Fixed and Mutable signs. These qualities may argue with each other – Fixed planets want to establish stability in a smooth-running flow of energy, while Mutable planets are sure they're missing out on something by not exploring as many options as possible.

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.
~ Carl Sagan

The Planetary Think Tank

There are two—three?—aspect configurations in the chart that indicate tension and struggle. One is a T-square pattern involving Venus opposite Pluto, squared by Jupiter and the North Node. Pluto is still in the first degree of Fixed Aquarius, and the Jupiter-Node conjunction are in Fixed Taurus, but Venus is still in the end degrees of Cardinal Cancer.

So, Jupiter, Node and Pluto are determined to settle for a visionary yet stable view of the future that (hopefully) we can all agree to. At the same time, Venus is trying to find a sense of purpose within that vision that can feed our human need for belonging and interpersonal connection.

There's a second version of this T-square that was featured in the New Moon in Taurus update (May 19). It had the same planets, except Mars was at 29° Cancer, just a degree past where Venus is now. At that time, Mars was looking for a kinder, gentler, more indirect way of dealing with conflict and empowerment. This time, rather than seeking a less destructive way to fight, Venus wants a way to find peace.

The earlier version of the T-square (with Mars) has been in orb since May 6 and moves out of orb today, as the lunar cycle reaches fullness. We've taken the Mars perspective as far as we can – confrontation, push-back, assertiveness, courage. Now it's time for Venus to show what she can do through negotiation and a win-win strategy.

The other indicator of crossed purposes in the chart is a Hard Rectangle pattern. It too includes Venus opposite Pluto, along with Sun opposite Moon. These opposition axes crisscross through the centre of the chart. These 4 planets are joined at the corners, around the outside, with semisquare and sesquiquadrate aspects (a.k.a. octiles, 45°, and trioctiles, 135°).

All aspects here are derived from the Square aspect family (circle divided into 2, 4 and 8 segments). As a result, it is made up of stress, conflict, challenge, and strong motivation. This figure holds a tense dispute between Sun-Moon in Mutable signs and Venus-Pluto in Cardinal/Fixed signs. It could manifest as a vicious cycle of argument that never really gets resolved, but keeps going around in a square circle.

Pluto in Aquarius tells the Moon in Sag: "You're being too imaginative with your possibilities. You need to create change that's in everyone's best interest."

The Moon says: "But Venus wants my help to create a safe space to call home. I tell her if she hasn't already found it in her own backyard, we can keep searching for a more ideal solution."

Venus in Cancer retorts: "But more searching means we just get farther from a central hub of shared interest, which holds our common ground."

The Sun in Gemini speaks up: "But you don't want to decide too soon before you’ve considered all your options. We just need to keep talking about this. The more information we can gather, the more interesting ideas we will find."

Pluto whispers to Venus, "This is too speculative for my taste. We don't need endless discussion, what we need is an underlying context." Venus whispers back: "I agree, although too broad a context isn't helpful either. Maybe what we need is a context like a global family...?"

You can live in another world but you have to understand the rules of this one.
~ Alain Bremond-Torrent

Lighten Up on the Lightning

As Mercury drives through Taurus, he picks up a hitchhiker: Uranus. The two have become very close (conjunct: now less than 1° apart). They pass the time by playing the perfect travel game: I Spy With My Little Eye.

Mercury is trying valiantly to follow the Taurus road signs: "Slow down." "Keep your eyes on the road." "Stop to smell the wildflowers." "Support the local farmers – buy their fruit and veggies at roadside stands."

But this is not easy! Uranus keeps grabbing the wheel and steering them off the beaten track to explore the flora, fauna, and unusual land formations. Mercury's natural curiosity is piqued, but the land is unexpectedly bumpy, mushy, uneven, and easy to get stuck in.

Uranus' style is like bolts of lightning – sudden, unexpected, jarring and brilliant. And, as Mercury discovers, not the best experiences to happen while you're trying to drive. With both planets in calming, even-tempered Taurus, it's not easy to find a workable balance between civil and sizzle.

As a result, your thoughts and mental focus may try to be more practical and methodical, taking things step by step (at least while Mercury is in Taurus: until June 11). But with Mercury conjunct impulsive Uranus, you might be caught between wanting to take it easy versus wanting to do something wild and crazy. You might be a bit distracted, itching to focus on other things rather than on what you're "supposed to" be doing. On the other hand, you might find you have flashes of insight and inventiveness while you're doing these mundane things.

Mercury rules the Sun in Gemini, and since the Sun is an essential part of what makes a Full Moon (Sun opposite Moon), this lends a more erratic, unconventional and open-minded energy to the Full Moon's aura. Despite being in steady Taurus, Uranus' energy still tends to be unsteady, rebellious and spontaneous, with a hunger for things new, exciting and risky. So, your awareness may dart around from idea to observation to insight to blurting out the truth as you see it, regardless of whether or not it's discreet or wise.

Besides being conjunct the Sun's dispositor, Uranus is also the Oriental Planet, which means it's the last planet to rise over the horizon before the Sun does. The oriental planet is like the Sun's calling card; it's the reputation that precedes him before he makes his big entrance into a daylit world. In this case, the Gemini Sun is not merely known for his love of words, communication and curiosity, but he also carries a library of exciting ideas that he hopes could liberate the world.

Uranus has been the oriental planet since the New Moon in Taurus (May 19). But when Mercury passes Uranus less than 24 hours after the Full Moon is exact, the torch is passed to Mercury who becomes the oriental planet. So this Full Moon really does bring a somewhat calming influence on the planetary atmosphere.

She felt herself to be at one of those nodes of the planet's human vibrations where absolute calm, albeit engendered by the juggling interference of contrary motions, is all the more soothing in its perilous instability.
~ Julien Gracq, Château d'Argol

Jupiter-Node as Mediators

Mercury and Uranus have no other major aspects to other planets in the chart, although there is a very tight semisextile (30°) to Chiron. Planets in semisextile aspect can relate to each other in subtle, ambiguous or tentative ways. They are in signs that have virtually nothing in common, other than "the neighbourhood." They are "next door neighbours" which is pretty limited. As a result, it's hard to get semisextile planets to work constructively or effectively.

In this case, we're dealing with a Mercury/Uranus-Chiron semisextile. Chiron is about wounding and healing. Uranus is about technology, science and liberation. And Mercury is about our thoughts, perceptions, communication and knowledge.

This Chiron-Uranus semisextile has been going on since 2009 and will continue until 2038! The reason is that Chiron has a very eccentric orbit, bouncing between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. Right now, Chiron is going very slow, close to the same speed as Uranus (and right now, even a bit slower). When this happens, they may hover for decades at a time, repeatedly making the same aspect.

The current Chiron-Uranus cycle (which began at their conjunction in 1898) seems to have a lot to do with technology and its effects on the environment, as well as on social reform – in both empowering and detrimental ways. (Read more in my new article: The Uranus-Chiron Cycle : Wounding, Healing and Liberation.)

Semisextile energy is usually subtle, and can easily be missed unless there's another factor that activates it in some way. In this chart, there are two factors, the first being that Mercury is conjunct Uranus and semisextile Chiron. Mercury is a personal planet, meaning you work with its energy in a personal way – your perceptions, thoughts, ideas, communication.

The Mercury-Uranus conjunction (in orb from May 28 to June 9) brings the awakening Uranus energy into your field of awareness. You may find you have flashes of insight or sudden revelations. You might come across information that's disturbing or mind-blowing or leads you to change your mind.

There's another factor in the Full Moon chart that is activating the Chiron-Uranus semisextile. Right now Jupiter and the North Node are at the midpoint between Mercury-Uranus and Chiron. They are kindly offering their services as mediators, being equidistant from both sides of the semisextile.

Mercury advises Uranus to chill out and pick his reactions and attitudes more carefully. Chiron and Uranus are irritating each other with impulsive drives that want to go in different directions. Chiron in Aries wants to charge into healing solutions for problems like climate change damage. Or, on a more personal level, Chiron in Aries may challenge you to get past your insecurity and hesitancy by charging into conflicts a bit too quickly (before you're tempted to change your mind).

Uranus would love to do leap full speed ahead, but Taurus knows that moving too fast without focusing your intentions clearly can result in more problems. So your bravado might falter, like tripping over your own feet when you try to sprint too quickly.

Jupiter and the Node are in steady Taurus along with Uranus and Mercury. Chiron in Aries is clearly outnumbered. Jupiter and the Node advise them all to refer back to the Big Picture, since it is the blueprint of what they're trying to accomplish right now. Through broad encompassing knowledge, patient understanding, a moral compass, and placing these as high priorities, it is possible to see pathways between ideas that are at odds with each other.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
~ Get Together, recorded by the Youngbloods, written by Dino Valenti

Parallels and Out-of-Bounds

The Full Moon is Out-of-Bounds by declination (circled in red in the graph). Being in Sagittarius, the Moon is naturally outgoing, hungry for knowledge, and eager to find things that can make life and the world better. An OOB Sag Moon is even more-so! You might find your thoughts and imagination lead you into some rather outlandish or vivid ideas about how to change the world (or maybe just your little corner of it).

Use this OOB Moon to ponder the mysteries of life. With the Moon being involved in that Hard Rectangle aspect pattern (above), you may feel a bit extra-sensitive to situations that bring your mood down and make you wonder if humanity will ever learn how to get along with each other and with our planet.

On the plus side, though, the Moon has some upbeat encouragement coming from trines to Mars and Chiron. Mars in Leo urges us to keep our spirits up by remembering the best about ourselves and each other – even in sad times, the best isn't gone, it's just taking a much-needed break. Chiron in Aries reminds us that acceptance of our imperfect world can help us rediscover the positives in the world around us. As the late TV personality Fred Rogers used to say: Look for the helpers.

Mars and Chiron are too far apart to be trine to each other at the Full Moon, but they do reach the trine on June 22, and are in-orb roughly from June 10 to July 5. Creative and joyful activities during that time can help to heal the spirit by reminding you who you are deep inside.

Meanwhile, the Sun and Venus are parallel by declination (circled in blue). This alignment brings extra focus to their semisquare aspect (as part of the Hard Rectangle) and might soften their rough edges, or perhaps bring a stronger sense of purpose to their struggle. Sun parallel Venus can bring a desire for social interaction, hunger for affection, inspiration to make life more beautiful, and possibly the urge to spend. (And with the Moon in expansive Sagittarius, be careful not to max out your credit cards.)

What complicates this warm and fuzzy aura is that both the Sun and Venus are contraparallel to Pluto. Pluto is ultimately an emotionally naked energy, which can contrast sharply with the Sun-Venus lightness of being. At its best, Pluto could lean on you to enrich the joyful song of Sun-Venus with some deep base tones for a fuller experience. In other words, bring your passion into whatever you do with the Sun-Venus energy. For example, don't just chat with a close friend, but share from your soul. Don't just make things pretty in your world, but do something that inspires you to want to live life to its fullest.

Venus now is at her highest and brightest in the evening sky, and she's also furthest from the Sun as seen from Earth...
Venus reaching her furthest separation from the Sun suggests fully standing in your own skin and loyalty to your individual intuition
Venus at her brightest in the night sky symbolizes the wisdom of our bodies and courage of our hearts to be available for the greater good.
Venus moving slowly and preparing to stand still signifies inward stability, repose or completion.
~ Adam Gainsburg, The Light of Venus

Venus Retrograde Just Over the Horizon

The Sun-Venus semisquare aspect is even more significant because it also marks the maximum elongation between Venus and the Sun, which hovers from June 3-6. This elongation marks the outer edge of the upcoming Venus Retrograde cycle. At this point Venus begins to slow down, allowing the Sun to start catching up, although Venus won't actually be retrograde until July 22.

So, starting in June through to late October there's a backdrop of Venus energy as she does her retro-dance. Taking place in dramatic Leo, this is a creative energy that entices you to feel good about who you are and about life itself. It's a celebratory energy that invites you to see the bright side of life. And if that feel-good energy is hard for you to tune into, this Venus Retrograde will give you a chance to find ways to reconnect with it.

If you haven't already, be sure to catch Venus in the northwestern sky after sunset. She is sparkling like a huge diamond right now!

Here are the key turning points of the coming Venus retrograde cycle:

* Venus and Mars come within 3:27 orb of conjunction on July 2, 2023. They are at 21:47 and 25:14 Leo, respectively. However, Venus is slowing down for the retrograde, and Mars sprints ahead. Venus doesn't catch up to Mars again for their exact conjunction until Feb. 22, 2024, when they are on the opposite side of the zodiac from where they are now (6:57 Aquarius).

Sabian Symbol

Sabian Symbol for Sagittarius 14: The Pyramids and the Sphinx.

The pyramids and the Sphinx are symbols of ancient mystery. Even our modern world, with its mind-boggling knowledge and technology, still does not fully understand the significance, history, design or meaning of these monuments. But that doesn't stop us from endlessly seeking to know the secrets of the universe that they may hold. Each answer leads to more questions, and on and on. The physical universe, we're told by scientists, is continually expanding in all directions, and so does our curiosity and desire for understanding about it. We love to be wowed, and the sheer scale of these Wonders of the World are definitely wow-able!

This Full Moon entices us to reach a little farther than we usually do, to discover more and more information, but most of all to reach a sense of understanding about what it all means. Life isn't just a collection of facts, measurements and movements, although these things still open up a world of fascination. Life is also about meaning, which is much harder to assign to quantify and measure. This Full Moon urges us to expand outwardly and inwardly, to grasp the multi-dimensional existence of who we are, how we are, where we are, why we are.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour.
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In an outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
~ Eric Idle, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Just What IS the Meaning of Life?

This Full Moon chart has a distribution pattern called a Locomotive. This is where the planets are all spread out around the chart except for a gap between two planets which are ideally a trine aspect apart (120°). Going clockwise around the wheel, the last planet before the gap is like the engine of the locomotive that "drives the train." The "engine" planet in this case is the Moon in Sagittarius, which is trine to Mars (the "caboose" of the train). Where the Moon leads, the rest of the chart will follow.

Sagittarius is adventurous and seeks new experiences in all kinds of ways – travel, knowledge, faith and optimism. It is idealistic, curious, and passionate about finding meaning and purpose in life. Sag is associated with philosophy, religion, spirituality, beliefs, and whatever is seen as the Greater Good. This Sagittarius archetype is concerned with morality, ethics, principles, ideals, optimism, and doing what's right.

With the Sagittarius Moon being Out-of-Bounds, the urge is to seek a connection with something or someone we can believe represents a Higher Power; something Greater Than Ourselves. Whether that's God or Gods, angels or spirit guides, a guru or teacher, a system of logic or the laws of physics, a cultural worldview or more encompassing perspective – whatever you look to when you need to understand the essence of something, or to renew your faith in life. That is part of how you embrace Sagittarius.

Sagittarius' ruler Jupiter is tightly conjunct the North Lunar Node. This implies that your current quest for truth or righteous understanding is extremely important right now. This is not just an exercise in playing around with ideas. The conclusions you come to matter. The decisions you make from them matter. The actions you take that are guided by them matter. And the effect it all has on you matters. With Jupiter and the Node being in down-to-earth Taurus, this quest matters most in your everyday actions, decisions, thoughts—not just in the moments of extra significance.

The T-squares and the Hard Rectangle aspect patterns in the Full Moon chart suggest that finding your truth probably won't be easy. There are a lot of conflicting ideas like, "Yes, but what about...?" or "That would work for you, but how about that person half-way across the planet?" or "Hope and faith in life are essential, but there's also the difficult stuff that is just as real. How can they coexist?"

Let your curiosity lead you. Let your hunger for genuine truth entice you. Take your time and try not to prejudge the possible conclusions. Let your answers become questions that pull you forward into exploring human nature and life itself.

The pursuit of truth and meaning is both personal and universal. It leads you further into abstract thinking, although Jupiter in Taurus is also here to remind you that the sacred and spiritual can be found in the soulful beauty of physical reality, just as it can be found in non-physical, euphoric experiences. It's all part of the same life essence.

It's okay to ground yourself in the basic, simple side of life first before you dissociate from the physical, in the belief that only the non-physical counts.

The next update will be for the New Moon in Gemini on 18 June, 2023. In the meantime, stay safe. Stay sane. Stay awesome. The world truly needs you. ❤️

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door
~ Paul McCartney, The Long and Winding Road

© 2023-05-31 Wendy Guy, all rights reserved. Astrological diagrams by Wendy Guy. Divider of Fantasy Pyramids by Stefan Keller via Pixabay.com. Sabian symbol image of Pyramid and Sphinx by Pete Linforth via Pixabay.com.