Astrology of Saturday, Fourth of July!

Today is a very significant day - today and for the six months that follow. Today is not just a full moon, but a lunar eclipse. It is the last eclipse of the eclipse season that started last month, and it will be in effect for the next six months, until another set of eclipses occur in November/December of this year.

It is rare to have a full moon and an eclipse happen on a country's birthday, and rarer still to have it happen under a President born under a full moon himself. Emotions run high under a full moon, and this set of circumstances ramp up the emotional factor a little higher. And other cosmic happenings affect this full moon as well.

The US chart features a Sun at 13 degrees Cancer, dead opposite the 13 degree Capricorn eclipse point. This, too, is a year when Pluto and Saturn are both prominent, with an added dash of Jupiter, in the sign of Capricorn - sign of the leader. This conjunction is being squared by Eris in Aries (an individualist who is discontented by the status quo). Tradition and traditional authority is being questioned.

Let's add to this - Mercury is retrograde. Mercury will go direct this month just as Chiron goes retrograde. Mercury and Venus will be direct, but not past the "shadow" of where they went retrograde in the first place until the end of July. Jupiter is retrograde. Saturn is retrograde. Neptune is retrograde. Pluto is retrograde.

Retrograde literally traveling over ground you've been on before. All these retrogrades, as well as the phase of the moon, and the eclipse, tell the same story. How did I get here? It is time to review the past and examine our shadows - the legacy of past actions.

You may ask personal questions- how did I get to this point in my marriage? how did I develop this relationship with my children? Who am I? How have my past actions led me to who I have become? Or you may ask about the nation as a whole: how did we get to a moment in time where we are reviewing how this country was built on the backs of slaves? How did the distribution of wealth get so unequal?

Whether your questions are personal or global, reviewing one's past actions are a natural fit with the energy of these transits. None of these things happened overnight. It was a steady drip, drip, drip of actions that led us to the place we are now. If we understand it, we can change it. We can learn from review. We can learn from our history - and do better in the future - and begin to do so when many of them go direct.

This year, each of us will be called on to answer the question: Who am I? how will my spirituality, my values form who I am? Not who I was, but who I have become. Self examination is the first step - dismantling our own or our collective shadow. There is a lot of rich creativity that is available to us when we are liberated from our shadow. Let's decide, individually and collectively, to be the best we can become.