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| My Progressed Full Moon, 2 years ago. |
My progressed Sun moved into Cancer 2 years ago, and at the same time I had a progressed Full Moon - my progressed Sun at 0° Cancer was opposite my progressed Moon at 0° Capricorn. (12th to 6th houses respectively).
I have my natal Venus at 0° Cancer and was sort of expecting some kind of relationship connection. Often progressed Sun conjunct natal Venus in itself - well, you could expect to get married perhaps, but I'd done that 3 years before! I often do this with Venus transits, expect relationship stuff, but what actually comes is issues of self-value, changes in socialising patterns or something connected to my home (Venus in Cancer rules my 4th house, the home).
Anyway, with this progressed Full Moon connecting to natal Venus in the 12th, what actually happened was that I took up a type of self-help process called Focusing, which is kind of hard to describe (easier to show). I only realised this connection yesterday during our Bernadette Brady seminar on Predictive Astrology. Interesting that this happened at the Full Moon progressed lunar phase as well - when the 'bearing fruit' is occurring. The 6th house progressed Moon does seem to indicate that I have been challenged with health issues (6th) in the process.
I was drawn to Focusing because in my counselling and hypnotherapy training, I could relate best to methods that tuned in to the body (Taurus Sun/ Moon/Mercury) and encouraged right-brain symbols and imagery (all the above opposite Neptune). Perhaps the 'fruit' of the years of therapy training I had previously have distilled into this approach which is the most appropriate for me.
In Focusing the tuning-in is described as a 'felt sense' - you'll close your eyes, connect in to your body. This can be hard for some people at first, who aren't used to 'going inside'. But just ask yourself if you are hungry. Whatever the answer, ask yourself then how you know that - you were using your 'felt sense' to check it out. How is your stomach feeling, does if feel 'hollow' or whatever word you might use... this is all Focusing. It might seem basic, but you can check out different words, stay with those sensations/feelings for a while and allow emotion, thought, memory, story and further sensation to emerge from that. It's a process, it unfolds, it develops. ...Not just your stomach, though, and not from being hungry, that was just an example :) It's about trusting your own process and your body to tell you what you need to know, and also being able to form a relationship with whatever comes up for you rather than being totally identified with that. For example, notice how different "I am sad" is from "I'm sensing something in my stomach that feels sad"... you feel emotion somewhere in your body, don't you? Your gut, your chest perhaps. I feel fear, often, as a prickling around my neck and face, for example. Anyway, I'm rambling on now, and I'm not sure how well I've described it.
What I value about it (Venus) is that it's a process which emphasises self-acceptance, non-judgment, empathy, listening, reflecting and nurturing. All these elements very much relate to water - to the water sign house (12th) and sign (Cancer), as well as my Neptune oppositions to Sun/Moon/Mercury. It's almost a directed meditation in a way. I'm still Focusing. In fact, I've just started the Practitioner Course this year, aiming to incorporate it into therapy work and to teach it to other people, but just as much as a personal development process. Once taught, it can be done by yourself, though it seems to work better with a partner to reflect back. The beauty of Focusing is that it isn't about a therapist/client relationship - it's very much an equal partnership. (I have Mars in Libra, which is disposited by that Venus in Cancer in the 12th) One person Focuses, the other reflects back, for a set time frame, then you'll swap and the other person gets to be the Focuser, with the partner reflecting back. It can't be described in words very well, it's much better experienced, which seems very Neptunian/12th house too :)
My Focusing page on Facebook is here if you want to know more about it. There doesn't seem to be any other page specifically related to Focusing on Facebook that I've found. Focusing has deepened my understanding of astrological symbols as well, since they have often arisen spontaneously in Focusing sessions and I've come to 'experience' them rather than just intellectualise them, which has been incredibly helpful.
What sparked this most for me today was Bernadette Brady yesterday talking about the Progressed Sun and the fact that it will spend an awfully long time where it is now. Mine is only at 2 Cancer now, close to the beginning of the 12th. So what developed when those shifts into sign and house occurred are not just a phase, they are a long term change of emphasis. My progressed Sun will be in Cancer and in the 12th house now for another 28 years. Focusing, for me, seems to be an important expression of that long-term shift.
