On Thursday, August 11, 2022, at 9:35PM EDT, the Aquarius Moon opposes the Leo Sun, giving us this month's Full Moon - our annual Full Moon in Aquarius.
Full Moons brings things to light, to a conclusion or to a peak point of fullness.
2022 has continued the "bridge" year of 2021. With the Age of Pisces at our backs and the Age of Aquarius barreling
toward us like a freight train, with Aquarius' old and modern rulers - Saturn and
Uranus - battling it out through multiple challenging squares - we are like the sand in that squishy part of the hourglass. The crease in the book between the chapters. The people living through the 'in-between' times between ages. Our collective and personal miracles and traumas somehow necessary for the people we are BECOMING - and the people who come after us - to survive and thrive.
Last year we had TWO Full Moons in Aquarius, one at the very beginning of the sign and one at the end. This year we are dealing with the middle part of this fixed air sign - the stickiest of the sticky.
Let's unpack the chart!
The Moon, at 19 degrees Aquarius, opposes the Sun, at 19 degrees Leo. The Moon is conjunct a retrograde Saturn (the ancient ruler of Aquarius) and square Uranus (the modern ruler). The Moon and Sun are square the Nodes of Fate forming a Grand Fixed Cross. The Full Moon is sextile Chiron in Aries. The Full Moon trines Pallas in Gemini and Hera in Libra, forming a Grand Air Trine. The Moon is conjunct EXACT asteroid Siva and the Sun is conjunct EXACT asteroids, Apollo and Amor. The ruler of this lunation, Uranus, is conjunct the North Node in Taurus, answering to Venus who has moved into Leo just a few hours before the Full Moon. The lunation's other ruler, Saturn, is retrograde in Aquarius.
The Moon is conjunct a retrograde Saturn - which almost makes this like a Capricorn Full Moon. Serious peaks and culminations. Sober reality checks. A light on important stuff. Endings. Saturn can feel depressing. We feel pressured. But, Saturn is also stopping things from moving too fast. Changing too quickly. We don't want to dive into an empty pool.
Aquarius deals with our groups, causes, the goals that bring us into connection with other people, collective rules, technology, the future - we are re-thinking, re-looking at all of this. Saturn will pull in our career, work goals, our reputation, public life, our fathers, paternal inheritances. What we have earned. This is all being illuminated now.
The Moon is square, her other Aquarian ruler, Uranus - planet of change, chaos, the future. And Uranus is conjunct the North Node of Fate. This speaks of CROSS-ROADS, important changes, karmic turning points. Squares are tension, frustration - this is a PUSH into the future with our back against the wall, likely influenced by Taurean themes - our money, our values, our resources, our self-esteem, our natal/progressed Taurus house themes. The Full Moon's conjunction to Saturn while squaring Uranus pulls in last year's (and this year's) BIG Saturn/Uranus square - the battle for the ruler of the Age of Aquarius, the old vs the new.
We talked in an earlier post about how changes/decisions were going to get sticky, well, can you smell the glue? (but not too much ok?)
The Full Moon forms a Grand Fixed Cross with the Moon, Sun, North and South Nodes (with Uranus on that North Node). All the fixed signs - the spaces that hold our lives/the world together - are getting a cosmic BOOST/reprogrammed.
I've had many experiences with Fixed Grand Crosses (four squares, two oppositions) being the lucky owner of an extremely tight (tighter than this one) Fixed T-Square involving my Sun, Saturn, Mars, Ascendant and Neptune that will occasionally form a Grand Cross when a planet/point fills in that missing leg.
In this case, think about a table with all four legs glued to the floor and the table MUST be moved. Staying stuck to the floor is no longer an option for this table. You can kind of imagine how the leg that stays stuck the longest is going to get broken.
We can hurt ourselves by continuing to stand still.
For most fixed situations, people know something has to change, they just don't know what to do. We might feel TRAPPED. The problems/the 'stuckness' feels TOO BIG and the Grand Cross is simply illustrating what is happening. The Fixed Grand Cross is saying,
"YES, YES, THIS WHOLE STUCK THING HAS GOTTEN TOO DAMN BIG".
Look at the world. Look at our collective problems. Too damn big. The same thing is happening somewhere in our own lives. And Saturn/Moon will certainly have us feeling the depressing nature of the situation (the limited amount of water in the Full Moon chart might prove helpful here if we can go into the Aqua zone and detach from the emotions of it all).
Look at the four legs of the Cross in this chart - the South Node/the past/our experience/where we are now/what we BRING to the table (pun intended). The second leg is the Moon conjunct Saturn - the reality, our sobriety, collective limits and rules, our place in the group. Saturn is retrograde so will pull in old responsibilities, old group situations, old careers, old goals, old authority, our karma. The Sun (strong in his home sign of Leo) is the third leg - our ego, what our heart wants, the way we shine, fun, love, JOY. And finally that fourth leg is the North Node/Uranus conjunction - the UNEXPECTED FUTURE. All these areas of our lives are connected via these tense aspects. THEY ALL HAVE TO MOVE and they have to move in balance with each other! This is your Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius houses. People with planets/points near 19 degrees will feel this Full Moon the most.
The Full Moon's Grand Air Trine can help with a WAY THROUGH THIS THING.
The Moon's trine to Pallas in Gemini is especially important because Mars is about to spend eight months, instead of his usual eight weeks in Gemini! The Moon trines Pallas just before opposing the Sun - we can see this as the Moon taking some INFORMATION from Pallas with her as she opposes the Sun and then meets Saturn. With Pallas - our wise, strategic, warrior woman - in Gemini, this might be speaking of facts/information that has come to light (Pallas is also sextiling the Sun), an important conversation, a sibling issue, a local community issue, a transportation issue. Gemini is about duality, so maybe this is about a choice between two things or the need to do two different things. Pallas in Gemini is SMART (and I see her as another ruler of Aquarius, so she can be uber helpful here) - able to wheel and deal, do commerce, be flexible, lighten situations with humor, recognize patterns we might usually miss. We can pick/communicate the best strategy for our future. We can pull skills/smarts/street-smarts we already have (remember the South Node is involved in the Grand Cross) out of our back pocket as needed. This is a trine, so will happen easily/unfold smoothly.
The other end of the Grand Air Trine is Hera in Libra - Rome's Juno - Goddess of marriage and partnerships in the sign of relationships and balance. Hera can stir up issues of abandonment, jealousy, the things we do to keep "the king's favor"/to keep our place in society. The Full Moon in Aquarius is in another SMOOTH relationship with the Libran 'balance, beauty, relationship' energy through the archetype of Hera. More good news for us. Another way through the tense squares will be through balancing imbalanced relationships or the situations the squares stir up will act as a pumice stone to smooth things here out. Again, this is a trine so things happen easily, unfold naturally.
The Grand Air Trine amplifies our intelligence, communication. Information comes our way. We are called to balance things out mentally. This 'mental life preserver' is echoed by Mercury.
This chart also has a strong Mercury, home in LET'S FIX THIS Virgo, moving into a productive trine - arguably the best aspect in astrology - with Uranus, the ruler of this Full Moon, NEXT WEEK.
Mercury moves FAST, so this is already in play. This is about NEW IDEAS, new conversations, new information. A shift in our thinking. A BREAKTHROUGH. Quick, even genius, fixes ARE COMING. Also, smart Pallas in Gemini and in that Grand Air Trine with the Full Moon is answering to Mercury.
Access to common sense, as well as brilliance (Uranus) is how we will make smart decisions/moves. It seems pretty clear whatever this Full Moon shows us, will, in the long term, because this is fixed energy, be to our BENEFIT. Knowledge is power.
The Moon and Sun are also making conjunctions with asteroids that we can add to connect some dots. The Full Moon is conjunct EXACT asteroid Siva - named for Hindu God Shiva, partner of Kaali. Siva is a powerful masculine creative force. Not the competitive masculine acting alone, but a masculine consciously and deeply entwined with the feminine. And, of course, here is Siva completely enmeshed with the Full Moon! Yin and yang working together.
What does Siva so tightly conjunct the Full Moon tell us? Well, if we allow ourselves to be carried forward by fear or adrenaline,
terrified that things won’t change or work out unless we do THIS THING RIGHT NOW, well, that’s the active yang energy without it’s more receptive yin partner. In this case, Siva without the Moon. On the other hand, if we stand still out of fear that things
will change
and we’ll be trapped in crappy circumstances or make a mistake, well, that is
the FROZEN yin, not able to access the active yang it needs to
create from the formless void (
the Moon without Siva).
Instead of fight or flight or freeze, our goal here can be to
calmly allow change to carry us
along, and take action when called to. This process will create a natural
completion and new beginning. The Moon's conjunction to Siva says - don’t apply too much pressure/effort. Get out of your own way! Also, don't sit still and freeze/break a leg. If we move WITH the energy of change - WORK WITH WHAT IS SHOWING UP - we will find ourselves building up our resources,
moving beyond our habits/boundaries and into the future.
Reinforcing the necessity of combining the active and the responsive is the fact we have Mars making an EXACT sextile to Neptune. A creative opportunity to make things more stable/secure through Neptune - getting enough rest, relaxation, meditation, prayer, music, art, sleep, water, GOING WITH THE FLOW.
Mars connection with Neptune pulls MAGIC into the Aquarius Full Moon's story, when we attune to a higher power. When we are grateful for what we have, because Saturn/Moon will be showing us what is missing. When we practice forgiveness. We are helped by our ancestors, our past lives, everything that has come before us.
The Full Moon's sextile to healing Chiron in active Aries speaks of
opportunities for healing. Our wounds/ancestral wounds - very old, very
deep woundings around our identity are being given, if we take ACTION (because Chiron is in Aries) opportunities to heal.
Bottom line - this Full Moon's squares and oppositions look stressful. The square to Uranus looks JARRING. We want to be going with the flow (Mars/Neptune). Talking, thinking, maybe doing two things at once (Pallas in Gemini). Balancing our need for relationship (Hera in Libra) or our need for balance within our relationships. We want to be smart, practical, using existing resources and skills. This is a fast-moving Full Moon and whatever we need to do here we are going to need to do, there won't be time to reinvent the wheel (because a reinvented wheel isn't needed - we know this because Saturn is retrograde). The 'change' somehow has its roots in the past. The final dispositor for the Full Moon is the Sun in Leo and with Venus, ruler of the North Node of our collective destiny, having moved into Leo just before the lunation we know we want to be following our heart, having fun, SHINING.
I hope something here is helpful. I feel a bit scattered today, hopefully, you, dear reader can pull what you need from this.
This Full Moon is a culmination of the past couple weeks and really the last six and eighteen months. A karmic turning point.
Get outside and walk in this one, if you dare.
Tonight is also one of the last big nights of the Perseid meteor showers until fall, so hopefully we get clear skies! Set your alarm for the middle of the night and go outside with blankets and lay on the ground where you can see the broadest range of sky. The Full Moon might make them harder to see, but meteor showers are always worth losing a little sleep over.
xo all
