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The Festival of Goodwill
a major lunar festivity

Malvin Artley, astrologer and leading occultist, discusses the lunar festivity known as the Festival of Goodwill, or the Festival of Humanity. This is an esoteric festival of brotherhood, the third great lunar festival of the year, following the Easter Festival and the Wesak Festival.

Welcome to this latest full moon period. They seem to creep up on us so quickly. This is the third and final of the three major festivals in the spiritual year and it is called the Festival of Goodwill, or the Festival of Humanity. Whereas the first two of these festivals are concerned with the dispensations being given out to humanity from the Christ and the Buddha, this one is a uniquely human festival. It relates us to the divine in all of us in a way that the other full moon festivals do not. As such, the focus of this full moon is upon brotherhood, fellowship and our collective aspiration to God. It is a kind of dispersing festival, because it shows the effect in human consciousness of the work of the Buddha and the Christ (or divine Will and Love) as given out in the previous two festivals, and it gives some indications as to what we can expect in the fabric of human civilization for the coming year as a result.

This is the Gemini full moon, which relates to brotherhood, all sorts of duality and the resolutions of those dualities into a kind of fluid synthesis. In a curious way Gemini has a profound bearing upon all forms of human civilization and culture, which comes to us from the activity of Mercury and Venus, the two rulers of Gemini. The recent commencement of the new 2nd-order cycle of Mercury on May 7th will find due expression and application through this full moon, because Mercury is the orthodox ruler of Gemini. The interesting thing about this full moon in comparison to the other two is that Mercury is not as prominent a feature of this lunar figure as it was in the others. Still, it plays its part and will do much to help set the energies of that cycle in place for this year and the coming ones.

This year in human culture seems set to be a pivotal year in many respects. This festival sets the tone for human culture and civilization for the entire year. A great many changes, both sudden and measured appear to be afoot. The planetary energies around this festival are such that change will come whether we want it or not. The theme of dissolution of illusion continues apace as with the two previous festivals but the indications are not quite so dramatic. As with all Geminian work, the changes produced will fit the need and will provide those conditions necessary for the evolution of higher consciousness to proceed unfettered. With these points in mind, let us begin to unveil the picture of this festival.

This full moon, along with the Sagittarius full moon, is peculiarly related to the Earth through the rulerships of those signs. The Earth is actually used as planet in the horoscope wheels of esoteric astrologers as it defines the field of one's service by house and sign. This rulership by the earth also fits in nicely with the theme of this full moon festival, because the Earth is also the special abode of our humanity and our field of expression and evolution. Gemini and Sagittarius are the only two signs to have the Earth as a ruler at any level. Our Earth is definitely in for some changes over the next 66 years through the action of Mercury and also of Gemini by association with Mercury. It should be noted that in any full moon figure the Moon is always conjunct the Earth which brings the reflection of the Sun's Light and Life to our little globe more fully than at any other time and, in this figure, the Moon and Earth are in Sagittarius--the sign of the aspiring disciple.

There are several planetary configurations worthy of note at this full moon. I will keep my comments very brief and to the point this time. To begin with, the Sun is in a wide conjunction with Saturn, which indicates a background of insecurity in world affairs and a more sullen and brooding outlook by the populace than normal. Responsibilities seem to weigh heavily on people these days but the physical vitality should be in abundance and well-controlled to allow us to cope with things as we would like due to a trine between the Sun/Saturn conjunction and Mars. Although it is not a combust conjunction the effects are still there, but to lesser degree. Added to this is the fact that the Moon is conjoined to Pluto, although--happily--Saturn and Pluto are not in opposition. This adds to the intensity and the latent negativity of people. The mass subconscious of populations all over will be greatly stirred by this full moon period, but there will be a beneficent reorganization of viewpoints and clearing of old psychic refuse because of a trine to Pluto by Jupiter. Any opposition--like a full moon--serves to create a new awareness in the people experiencing it from the resolution of polarized thought that it brings about. Every full moon produces this effect, hence the reason they are so often difficult.

The next configuration worth noting is the now-familiar opposition between Jupiter and Neptune. This was in effect before the Iraq war and has been since, highlighting people's gullibility and ungrounded approach to realities (to use the common term), visionary thinking--although a touch unsound, and a willingness to believe things because they "just feel right", whether they are correct or not. On a higher turn of the spiral, so-to-speak, this aspect can lead to astounding insights and visionary work--but only if the person or people involved have taken care to separate the wheat from the chaff and are willing to look at things in the cold light of day. Of interest is the fact that the entire rhetorical premise for the war was the supposed existence of those dreaded weapons of mass destruction by Saddam's regime, for instance. Now there are reports that intelligence documents had been "sexed-up" to sway public opinion in support of a war that most people believe should not have taken place. This is but one example of the many manifestations of the effects of a Jupiter/Neptune opposition in world affairs. The trine of Pluto to Jupiter is beginning its beneficial work of dispelling many of the cloudy issues around things and of setting the record straight, though.

Read part 2 of The Festival of Goodwill

 Malvin Artley is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests in those fields are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism. He sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.