Do you feel like you’re ON all the time right now?
On the one hand, of course, it’s the end of the year and things do speed up every November/December, right?
We all have SO much to do. I am flat out writing all my 2019 Year Ahead articles and my 2020 Moonology Diary, and then there are the gorgeous people in my life that I want to see and celebrate the end of the year with and so on.
However there is also an astrological reason for why many people now are likely to feel like they never get a break!
The “issue” (which is not really an issue) is that we have a planet (Uranus) at the 29th degree of a sign (Aries). This has happened because Uranus is currently retrograde and has recently moved back from Taurus (where it was from May to November this year) into the very end of Aries (where it will stay between now and May).
So what does this have to do with exhaustion?
For one thing, the electric Uranus in fiery Aries is always a hot combo, though this has been going on for around 8 years so we’re used to it.
The bigger “issue” is that when we have a planet at the very end of a sign, it means we get barely any downtime because we get barely any Void of Course Moon time.
The Void of Course (VOC) Moon is a time when nothing much happens. It’s said that whatever does happen at the time of a VOC Moon “will bear no fruit”. It’s a time to just be. To relax. Do yoga. Meditate and contemplate. Take time out. Get off the treadmill. Breathe between the maelstroms and mayhem.
Astrologically, the VOC Moon happens when the Moon has made Her last major aspect to one of the planets before she switches signs. (There are actually various definitions of the VOC Moon but this is the most common and the one which applies here).
When you have a planet at 29 degrees, as we do now with Uranus, the Moon will aspect Uranus a lot, before changing signs. The last thing the Moon will do before changing signs, in many cases, will be to aspect Uranus.
You need to know a bit of astrology to understand this (I do talk about VOC Moons in my best-selling book Moonology) but overall take it as read; when you have a planet at the end of a sign, especially a slow-moving planet like Uranus, we get less VOC time and therefore less downtime.
This is actually going to be the case for a while, until Uranus finally ingresses again into Taurus in March next year.
So until then, we have to make our own downtime.
And on the upside, as so little of what we do will be done under the VOC Moon now, it should be a more productive time than we have had for a while!
FYI the VOC Moon has been used by astrologers (especially in horory) for eons. However it was a Moonchild fellow called Al Morrison who popularised it. In my case, I heard about it from Debbie Kempton-Smith in her amazing book Secrets From A Stargazer’s Notebook.
The VOC does get some negative press. Because “nothing will come of matters started with the Moon is VOC”, people tend to assume the VOC Moon is a bad thing. It’s not. It’s a chance to connect to the Divine, to the Universe, to our inner selves as much as it’s anything else. It’s when the world seems to temporarily stop turning. We all need this light and shade in life. But right now, we don’t have a lot of it, for the reasons explained!
However, there is a simple out, if you’re paying attention…
One tip is that because we are talking major (Ptolemaic) aspects, it means that this doesn’t apply when the Moon is in Aries, Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio and Pisces.
I won’t explain why here as it gets a bit technical but it’s to with semi-sextiles and inconjuncts (click here if you want to learn astrology).
Just know that when we see days with the Moon in one of those signs (Aries, Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio and Pisces) know there is a good chance you will get more than a few nanoseconds of downtime/VOC time!
Love to live in time with the Moon?
I have a 2019 Diary out – it includes info about the VOC Moon and where to find tables for where you live, as well as New and Full Moon info for the entire year, including times for the USA, Australia and the UK. Details here!
