CAT Full Moon

Full Moon at 23* 19’ Libra

April 12th 2025, 8:21 pm Eastern

16th Shape: CAT

12° 51' 26'' Libra – 25° 42' 51'' Libra:

Tonight's Full Moon in Libra is a more than average Full Moon event, as 2025 is a more than average year, and this lunation keys into some of the core dynamics. First of all, this is the first Libra lunation after the Libra-Aries eclipses have concluded, meaning this is Libra in a state of refinement after the South Node has just recently finished removing the garbage and excess off the scales of judgement and value assessment. The subtle apparatus we use to determine “right living”, from the balance of Ma’at, is as tuned as it can be at the moment, which interplays with the last Aries eclipse we just received two weeks earlier, which in itself is part of a larger foreshadowing of outer planet transits coming to set up shop in the initiatory, autonomous, primordial jumpstarting sign rooted into vernal equinox and the increase of light.

I’ve been recently writing about and discussing the western cinematic gunslinger archetype not as a highlight of violent acts but of a kind of sheer morality which cannot be collected into cultural norms but is more a human nervous system response and in the moment case by case activity of existing in relation to one another. This purified Libran lunation emphasizes the clarity extended across the Libra-Aries axis where we are the sole judge of our actions in life, and in the moment of death, or at least faced with death (i.e. autumn equinox, when we metaphorically lay our hand on the table and pull in our earnings or conversely are forced to “read em and weep") we know at such an ultimate critical juncture what it is we truly value, as if to say our truest and least convoluted desires are crystal clear with a gun to our head. We hear this from our recently departed, who tend to send messages from the other side that whatever it is we want to do in life, make no haste towards it.

In a world which, over the past two decades (or the 19 years since this exact lunation last occurred) has been made more safe yet less free, the cultural programming we’ve undergone has encrusted us with a moral sense we are subject to collectively rather than emerging from within. In this current ambiance of crisis and overwhelming feelings of having lost time (the covid years, the years spent doomscrolling etc) we now simply cannot be hindered by the leftover remnants of virtue signaling and cancel culture dynamics any longer. We’re tending more to cutting loose, and judging our circumstances and where we stand once again by our own sense of existence and mortality rather grappling within the collective moment. This of course goes for some and not for all, and thus, the variation distributed across the scales carries meaning with it, but is not at all statically polarized; no simply black and white or clear cut good and evil, but instead in a deed by deed reciprocity.

In this 'if I scratch your back will you scratch mine' kind of arrangement we find the lunation to be climaxing in the 16th Shape, which in the Greek Magical Papyri is CAT, one of the times a domestic house pet appears on the list. Indeed, the autumnal section of the 28 deals in the civil spectrum, so the affairs of humanity, within which the inter-connectedness and symbiotic push and pull between man and animal is kept in elastic equalization. Interestingly, Cats are often considered saturnian animals, and Venus stations direct conjunct Saturn at almost the exact moment the Moon goes full, concluding Venus' retrograde re-evaluation of what she even loves about being immersed in the world upon the planet which has been telling us since spring of 2023 we are obligated to let go and go with the flow but in a formalized and mature way, with strategic integrity. Venus adds to this that everything in life is beautiful, even the restrictions which force us to surrender, submit to the real and fall into receptivity of nature’s flows with nuanced detachment, bringing about change by non-action, and taking pleasure in surfing the fluctuations as they emerge and occur out of the potential of the field. The sensors of this empathic intelligence are receptive to relational articulation, cultural posturing, societal symmetry, and the essence of each of our personal beings incarnated to express our essences and carry them forth across generations.

As the cat slips betwixt the portals, finds passageways between walls, moves smoothly through the bush, inhabits both the domestic and wild world, receiving shelter and companionship in exchange for companionship along with some vermin control, we may also see the parameters between ourselves and whatever we are related to and what the actual conditional components are at this moment, as well as the unconditional affection also viewed in high fidelity. Who and what do you truly resonate with, what are they giving to you, and what are you giving to them? Is this a linear contribution or is it circulatory? Do you receive directly or does what goes around come around in this arrangement? This goes for things, scenarios, disciplines, practices. Is your car a money pit? Does your athletic practice serve you or injure and deplete you? If you are incarnated to carry forth your core essence, do the many things you have formed a relationship with facilitate that purpose, and are you facilitating others to do the same, upholding the general vibratory resonance, or bring friction and dissonance to the mix? This goes for the entire culture in which we inter-penetrate. Upon which subsets of the over all mosaic do you hang? Upon your last breath to which house do you pledge allegiance? Or would you prefer to belong to no one, and free to ingress and egress the houses you fancy, purring and offering a welcomed presence wherever you go? If so, remember to keep your claws sharp, not everyone may be as trustworthy as you.

Although, things do belong sometimes to a place, modality, enclave, locality, or kind of guild of orientation. Cats are not migratory animals. They tend to stay in the neighborhood, even though they are notorious for moonlighting at multiple abodes opportunistically. Some traditions assert all spirits, benevolent or malevolent belong to a particular slice of time, season, direction, star, land formation or order of nature, such as trees or clouds, and knowing how these entities fit into the schema at large can assist in keeping them from invading too deeply into your home, body or the ongoing events of your life. Some may think of this as exorcism and others as medicine, but can be thought no more than hygienic behaviors, or a kind of narrative grooming, like a cat bathing with its tongue.

This lunation presides over Mars in Cancer making its way through his retrograde shadow in the sign of need and nurture, care, comfort, nesting, resources, generation and psychological as well as emotional sensitivity and cyclicality. Last time Mars was on the degree of tonight's lunation was January 11th 2025, a moment when Venus was also applying to Saturn prior to her retrograde, and the Sun was square to his current position back in Capricorn, so there may be plot points of interest reflecting what this circumambulatory and hypnotic end-beginning-end-beginning weavery is designing. The previous occasion of Mars direct on this degree was October 29th 2024, not long after the last Libra eclipse. Mars has spent a lot of time maneuvering around sensitive subject matter and patrolling resources protectively, which undoubtedly leads to Jupiter’s abundantly overflowing visit to Cancer beginning in June as well as the emphasis in forms occupying Mars’ impulse to begin and independently act channel of energetics in Aries. This Full Moon makes abundantly clear, at least subjectively (in our emotions, bodies, needs, desires), what hangs in the balance.

The Sun in Aries which is projecting light to this Full Moon in Libra is currently tightly conjunct Chiron, lacing the energetic signal with a call to deal, heal and integrate what is uncomfortable, awkward, traumatized or otherwise askew in the performance of our direct, autonomous action. It may be helpful to think back to April of 2018 and consider what has since then required this kind of remediative approach and sorting out of injured, damaged or otherwise compromised faculties. Youtube, Facebook and Twitter all have an Aries-Libra signature woven into their inceptions and subsequent stories which flex and distort our approach to socialization, culture, identity and certainly our individuation and what sovereignty we hold over ourselves. These media giants precede Chiron’s 2018 ingress, although the #metoo movement which went globally viral in 2018 display how social media platform’s existence interjects in private discourse and publicizes a variety of affairs with effects that ripple through all our relations for years. Also in the news in 2018 were Tesla’s self driving car disasters as well as Trump’s tariff’s, both of which exaggerate and warp ideas of working alone or acting apart, and where in our lives we lose effectiveness when and how we are connected or not connected to one another.

The Picatrix sees a man holding scales in this mansion, and calls it “The Claws”, referring to the pincers of Scorpio but this creates an interesting overlap with the PGM’s CAT. A prominent theme is the making or breaking of profit and the buying and selling which is implicit if scales are present more literally than metaphorically, and reminding us that what we measure here is how much something is a good deal for us versus the other end of the bargain, as would a cat deciding to stay put in your place or move on to a better location. It calls for a plate of silver with splendorous odors left outside under the stars for seven nights, as if you were trying to attract beneficial entities to you, such as helpful felines. The word translated to cat is actually “aiélouros”, meaning ‘fast moving or nimble tail’, which may speak to the gracefulness inherent in Libra, of which you may want to employ when moving in balance with reality and enjoying profitable experiences.

The Rigvedic deity associated with the 16th Nakshatra is Indragni, a combination of Indra, the god of weather and chief of the divine with Agni, the god of fire and mouth of all sacrifice, hinting at the connectivity between king and priest. The very presence of a deific combination echoes the theme of alliances such as humans and the cats who they co-habitate with. It has been ventured that human civilization would not have developed as it had if there were not cats around to rid the rodents that are attracted to the agricultural surpluses of foods, especially grains. This of course is for better or worse, as the agricultural turn has led to all forms of extraction and industrialization which now plague us and hang heavy on our conscious, begging the question, what is it you actually want or desire in the moment of sheer, vacillation free clarity? The ephemeral benefits and false security delivered by mechanized society? Or is something closer to animal origins perhaps more enticing?

The Verum spirit to fall in line here can conjure earthquakes which may destroy houses or towns, furthering the domestic theme, as well as the might of storm god Indra. The Chinese Xiu also assigns a household pet, but for them it is the dog. This is a lunar station of bonds, clan rites and joint community activity. It speaks of generational harmony and the Fangshi is seen holding an elixir of longevity, which jives with whats held in the kidneys in Chinese Medicine, that essence or water of life which flows through our incarnations generationally and holds our genetic signatures. Breathing exercises, movement practice and other internal alchemical activities accumulate qi and assist in this process, as may also be suggested in the cat’s tail being quick and nimble.

In Aries we act with decisiveness, something that might have been thwarted over the past several years, as we have become more confused, for external reasons and societal pressures, unsure where is most appropriate to put put our energy into. It is moments like this one astrologically where clarity amidst convoluted circumstances is available. Our Venusian re-assessment has concluded and now we emerge from the shadows of shifting our tastes from what we might have learned to appreciate to what we more truly resonate with from our incarnate source waters and make judgements from a more refined and spiritually encoded basis and with grace adjust the parameters around us by moving with the subtle flows in a masterful way so we sustain rather than deplete our energetic inheritance. Align yourself with the right people, things and situations and amongst these loose ties practice right relation. Slip through the cracks, locate the loopholes, slink around the corner, and learn to employ animalistic situational accord rather than status quo morality. Remember, you come with claws, and if its not a fair deal you can walk away, and if you must, tear it up.