Full Moon in Uttarashada & Guru Purnima: Honoring the Dark & Harnessing the Light

Friday, July 23rd at 4:37 pm HT (GMT-10) the Moon will be full in sidereal Capricorn in the star of Uttara Ashada. Uttara Ashada is the “later victory”, the star that bridges Sagittarius and Capricorn making manifest what spiritual seeds or “seeds of our beliefs” we planted earlier. It is shown as an elephant tusk, strong and undefeatable yet wise and valuable like the animal itself. Ruled by the Vishwadevas, all the dieties, working together, it is a place where we harness all the power and light at our disposal and use it on the physical plane to make haste towards our long term goals and visions. The Moon is joined Saturn for this Full Moon and Jupiter soon after, giving us a bit more of a solitary and even depressed feeling for this moon. Saturn is where we have to face the harsh realities of life and are humbled by them.
Seeing as both Saturn and Jupiter are still retrograde, the forward motion might be quite delayed, and the questions around founding beliefs and principles, and the commitments we have made might not be yet answered. Both Saturn and Jupiter are also involved in powerful two way dristhis, energetic gazes, that are causing upset in our relationships, Saturn is currently in mutual dristhi with the Sun causing the feeling of lack of power, constrainment on our power and leadership abilities. Mercury will soon be joined the Sun and this will bleed into our communication as well, in the form of hesitation and uncertainty and also heightened fear driving the emotions.

Jupiter is in dristhi with Mars and Venus in Leo, who just recently hopped the Gandanta knot from Cancer to Leo. The Gandanta is the knot that comes at the end of a water sign, beginning of a fire sign and indicates a place where there is no star to bridge the two. Here we have a karmic knot that can have us feeling one in our own stomachs if we don’t bring awareness to it. This particular jump with these two particular planets is perhaps particularly hard. Venus, the planet of our relationships has been giving us feeling of being used and under appreciated in Cancer. Leap to Leo, and we suddenly demand to be treated like Kings and Queens. This is a transit, so everyone else is having the same experience, meaning your partner also felt under appreciated and now is expecting some throne-sitting time ;-) Mars was in debilitation in Cancer, causing us to have pent up anger that is truly because we are not showing up for ourselves in regular disciplined ways that help strengthen and protect us. Now in Leo, we have a lot more courage and physical channels for our energy. Mars and Venus together always represent the sexual pull of partnership. What we want from the other person and also what we want from ourselves. In the playful, physical and also unapologetic sign of Leo, we can expect more passion and fun, but also less accountability and compromise. Jupiter Retrograde is driving our beliefs deep within, questioning, refining and sending that energy over to Mars/Venus, giving more fuel for the fire in some situations. We might have an idea of what is truth or right or wrong and be projecting that onto others. Remember that Jupiter in Aquarius is not at its wisest. Pure teachings are harder to grasp for, and temporal truths are not actual truths. Imposing your perspective on others is not only likely to bring disharmony, it’s likely that you are at least partially not in truth doing so. Leo’s biggest issue is a lack of concern about its own transgressions onto others. It is the sign where we have the hardest time with accountability and apologizing, so the chances of acknowledging that there may have been casualties for our behavior is less likely.

Guru Purnima is a celebration of our teachers. “Gu” is the darkness, and “Ru” is the light which dispels the darkness. Teachers can be and are everyone who teaches us something; our parents, our children, sometimes strangers or store clerks. Our teachers are meant to bring us from the darkness to the light and many bonafide teachers do in many ways. With a Retrograde Jupiter and Saturn also Retrograde and joined this moon, we can expect to see the fallibilities of our teachers and teachings as much as the light they have shared. It is important to recognize both, as most of our teachers are very human and have their own black holes of awareness in their behavior. A true Sat Guru, who is a realized being is very rare and if you are lucky to be in the presence of one for even a short time, the amount of darkness dispelled can be great, but in the mean time, we must remember that it is rare and not every person who exalts themselves to this status is actually this. Better to go within and attach ourselves to the practices that bring us closer to the light than to spend too much time at the feet of a false guru.
Many Blessings on this Full Moon and Happy Guru Purnima!

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