A week has begun, of singular astral characteristics that focus on the day dedicated to the god Mercury: Wednesday, May the 10th. In that journey, three phenomena of special significance come to occur: the third and final conjunction I referred to in my previous Code, between the planets Mercury and Uranus; the Lunar Node’s zodiacal sign change; and the second Full Moon of spring.
Due to its recently completed retrograde movement, Mercury, the fastest of the planets, has been effectuating, within the span of just seven weeks (between March 26 and May 10), three exact conjunctions with the planet Uranus; the latter of which becomes more relevant, because it puts an end to the prolonged interaction between the two planets, leaving the stamp of their integration, which transmits news of strange and unexpected events, in the purest uranian style [i].
The Lunar Node is not a physical body that wanders in the sky, but a sidereal point in constant motion, where the lines marking the solar and lunar tracing in the zodiacal sphere intersect. The Lunar Nodes are placed in zodiacal opposition, when they cross the north and the south; they are also identified as Dragon’s Head (north) or Tail (south). When the Sun and the Moon transit near these zodiacal points, the respective semiannual eclipses occur.
Since the imaginary movement of the lunar nodes is contrary to that of the celestial bodies, its path is inverted. It performs its zodiacal trip in nearly 19 years, and remains approximately one and a half years in each sign. The Northern Lunar Node had not entered the sign of Leo since when it did so in October 1998.
This zodiacal-sign-change of the lunar nodes bears an esoteric significance representing experiences of greater spiritual impact, which do not correspond with a particular rational order. They have to do instead with sensitivity for developing transcendent tasks; with opening conscience to a higher level; and which allow the definition of a 19 year cycle in the growth of such consciousness (individual or collective).
While Judaism and Christianity celebrate the Passover —as the transit from death to life— with spring’s first Full Moon, Buddhism commemorates Siddhartha Gautama’s conversion into Buddha (the enlightened), with the second Full Moon occurring after the spring equinox; the time when the Sun opposes the Moon in the Taurus/Scorpio axis, and the Wesak (Spring) Festival is celebrated, so as to tune in with the noble Buddhist illumination.
Siddhartha Gautama, it is said, dedicated nearly seven years to finding the path that would lead him into Full Happiness, that would exempt him from future reincarnations in the material and illusory world. It was thus so that, on a Full Moon-night, in the middle of spring, when he achieved Enlightenment and found the true path that would lead him into overcoming the deficiencies and weaknesses of his stereotyped human condition, Siddhartha was born into a new life. For this reason, this Full Scorpian Moon is also known as Buddha’s Moon.
On the night of next Wednesday the 10th, meditation rituals will be celebrated throughout the world, to invoke the divine enlightening power that allows to us access the noble truths and to overcome suffering. A Full Moon-night, in the middle of spring, is a symbol of that spiritual enlightenment that transforms those who seek to overcome darkness, attachment, suffering, cowardice, selfishness, doubt and unhappiness.
This 2017 Full Moon of the Buddha has a very peculiar character. It will occur a few hours before its apogee, i.e., when it passes through the area most remote from the Earth, having us see it as being a little smaller than usual. In this sector near the apogee a point of balance, which receives the name of Lilith or Black Moon, is identified with respect to our planet; which is why in this opportunity we will have a strange Full Moon, combined with a Black Moon, which represents its dark side.
This year’s distant Buddha Moon, accompanied by the conjunction of Mercury and Uranus, the change of the lunar nodes, and its own conjunction with the Black Moon, is an indication of the extraordinary moment that mankind lives from the spiritual, esoteric and mysterious perspectives. It is the two faces of the Moon: the dark interests and maneuvers that can hide behind the appearance of a light that dazzles instead of illuminating.
The consciousness reached by Siddhartha Gautama, under the radiance of that spring Full Moon, responds to an intrinsic ordering of the Universal Energy. That which happens in outer space is usually in harmony with our souls. True illuminating light is not to be sought outside —by following false images, slogans or doctrines— but searching within ourselves, since it comes from the deepest of our inner being, from our hidden reality.
[i] Both stars won’t meet again in the same place before a year passes, which will happen when they leave Aries, while in conflict with Mars (13-5-18).
Translated by Jorge Pardo Febres-Cordero, Certified Public Translator (Spanish-English-Spanish) – [email protected]
Photo Credits: Stephen Rahn