It’s been a rough old year, hasn’t it?
I’m sure I don’t need to list the heart-wrenchingly confusing/upsetting/disappointing/fucking ridiculous events that will forever define 2016. It’s safe to say that our news feeds are consistent reminder of the situation we’re in. But many of us are still left wondering how on earth we got here.
While all the ballot counts, infographics and preachy Facebook statuses in the world might lend a hand in explaining how we’ve ended up preparing to cut ties with Europe, or why a racist politically inexperienced misogynist is preparing to take over the White House, it will never really make any sense to me.
It’s times like these though, that many of us find ourselves looking outwards and upward in search of some sort of celestical, spiritual, astronomical logic to justify the madness. And it just so happens that we’ve arrived at one of those really big events in the astrological calendar – the supermoon.
For those less in tune with the movements of the moon, this evening it will be be closer to earth than it has been for about 70 years. Which means that this isn’t just any full moon, my friends. Oh no. When you look up to the sky tonight (freakishly unpredictable weather permitting, of course) the moon is going to look pretty damn big and really, really glowy.
So, to try and shed some (moon)light on wtf has been going on in the world this year, we spoke to consultant astrologist Deborah Morgan about the timing of the supermoon, and whether the moon, planets and stars have any role to play in why it feels like everything has been so out of whack.
In terms of everything being so turbulent, Deborah said that ‘the slow movements of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) have thrown everything up in the air over the last year’. She explained that these long term trends seem like they have more of an effect because they work through the planets so slowly, which is why it's felt like this year has just been one thing after the other.
The bad news is that these long term planetary movements last for years, and this particular trend will probably last up to 2020. (Michelle Obama for president, anyone?)
‘As far as the moon tonight goes, it’ll bring things to a head’, Deborah tells me. ‘Full moons always connect to coming to a conclusion. It’s the end of a cycle which is very important symbolically’.
So, the supermoon might not be that much needed trigger of a new, less catastrophic era we’d been hoping for. ‘It might shed extra light on these longer trends of considerable social change for a few days, but it's separate to the long term trends (like the slow moving outer planets)’, Deborah says.
On the other hand though, tonight’s special full moon falls in Taurus, which thankfully means good things for women.
‘Venus is the ruling sign of Taurus, and both Venus and the Moon are feminine archetypes', says Deborah, 'Women who’s star sign is Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius might notice the full moon the most.'
It could be quite a romantic moon in fact, ‘emphasising finding your own values and emotionally supporting yourself and those closest to you’, Deborah adds. And I’m sure we can all agree that given the current climate, now would be a pretty good time for us all to do a little soul searching and nurture our own emotional welfare as well as that of those around us.
Regardless of how seriously you take horoscopes, astrology and the like, hopefully we can all be little comforted by the prospect of feeling a bit more enlightened in the wake of the supermoon. At the very least, if you manage to take some time to step outside to see it, it'll look pretty damn cool.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.