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The last week of the year is rarely noteworthy for any big astrological events, but it always has a certain distinct feeling to it. It’s the neither-here-nor-there week. It’s an interregnum, a pause. Television news networks fill their schedules with “year in review” segments so that most of the employees can take the week off. Mostly though, it’s a chance to rest and reflect before putting that new calendar up, figuratively and literally. And oh my: after a year like 2020, we need something like that.
After coming off of the effects of last week’s Mars square Pluto, on Tuesday we have a Full Moon in Cancer. A Full Moon in Cancer is, arguably, the most sensitive Full Moon of them all. I usually warn people about the unusual and sudden moods that can hit at this time. But, this time? Rather than a warning, I want you to take this as an opportunity — specifically, an opportunity to grieve.
You see, this Full Moon happens late in the day (Eastern Time) at 8 degrees Cancer — but the effects of a Full Moon linger. By the next day, the Moon will be opposite the point in Capricorn where the January 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunction happened. That, of course, is when the wheels fell off the wagon for so much of the world. We may still be a long way from fully recovered from that, but now (perhaps) is the time to pause and contemplate how we and our world have shifted as a result of that event.
That, and this Full Moon also happens with Jupiter conjunct Saturn still in effect. There is something hopeful about the symbolism of that conjunction. Perhaps it was overselling it to call it “the Christmas Star,” but it is, and was, a symbol of hope and renewal that we all probably could use right about now.
We all seem to have lost something in 2020. Loved ones, income, direction, security, faith in humanity and leadership… the list goes on. And of course we’re all hoping that 2021 will be a huge improvement. It certainly couldn’t be worse, could it?
Could it? Nah, probably not.
So let’s take this opportunity to be thankful for who and what we still have. We have lost some heroes — both “heroes” in the larger sense, and those who simply worked to make life better for others. But as human history has shown us over and over again, other heroes will arise in their place. The cycle continues. As long as we’re still here and still breathing, there is always hope for a better tomorrow.
Happy New Year.
-for Chadwick Boseman and Eleanor Zwolak.
