This Full Moon in Libra comes with a complex set of relationships, totally appropriate for a Moon ruled by Venus.
Depending on your time zone, the exact Full Moon could arrive before midnight Wednesday. Eastern times zones will have the Full Moon just after midnight or in the hours before dawn on Thursday. The Moon will appear most full in the sky Wednesday night.
I often advise checking the birth chart to see where important aspects touch your chart. This time, I’m moving this recommendation to the front of my overview. With all the changes unfolding in the sky, it’s a great time to get familiar with key characteristics of your chart.
What’s most important to look for?
If you’re already familiar with the basics of your chart, focus in on where opportunities and stresses are in your life.
A lot going on with career? Keep an eye on your 10th House, planets in that house, the planet ruling your 10th, and how that ruling planet is doing. Do your relationships seem to be changing before your eyes? Keep an eye on the same things in your 7th House.
If you’re just starting out, learn the sign and degree of your Sun, Moon, and Ascendant (the Rising Sign). Anything touching any of these three will be important for you.
If you’re ready to add to the Big Three, look around the wheel of your chart.
Do your planets cluster in certain signs of the zodiac? Are some houses loaded with planets? Do you have planets in similar degrees, in any sign or house? These three characteristics–sign, house, and degree range– will point to which transits can affect you most.
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There’s a lot going on. Let’s look first at some aspect patterns that do not include the Sun and Moon.
First, there’s a Kite pattern in this chart, which is a Grand Trine with sextiles on top, turning the triangle pattern of the Grand trine into the shape of a kite. This is a network of positive, flowing aspects (trines and sextiles) that has within it an opposition, the line through the center.
Here we have a Grand Trine in Water linking the South Node of the Moon at 04º Scorpio, Mars at 06º Cancer, and Saturn at 03º Pisces. Trines are generally supportive and helpful, but this one comes with some challenges.
We have the malefics, Mars and Saturn, both unhappy where they are. The emotionality of Cancer and the nebulous qualities of Pisces are not effective environments for Mars and Saturn.
These two link in to the South Node, the tail of the cosmic dragon, the place of releasing. But Scorpio is a sign that holds on to things. None of the fixed signs is good at letting stuff go.
A Grand Trine in Water could create flows of creativity, spirituality, or feeling, an invitation to process and go deep. This particular Grand Trine might hone in on our fears, increasing our focus on what we don’t want. It might feel like a spiral of emotionality, a circuit increasing difficult feelings without offering an outlet.
So let’s look at the top of the Kite and see what else is offered.
Here we find solid ground, Mercury and the North Node conjunct at 04º Taurus. Mercury and the North Node form sextiles to Mars and Saturn while opposing the South Node. We’re asked to take a breath, maybe take a nap, and focus on the physical world around us.
We’re invited to get our feet on the ground, our hands in the soil, and consider what is worth investing in, committing to, and caring for over the long term.
If you find yourself in the midst of swirling emotions at this Full Moon, get grounded, literally.
There’s another strong pattern linked to the Nodes of the Moon and Mercury, which is a square with Pluto. Mercury is separating from the Pluto square, while the Nodes are moving into it.
This Pluto square deepens our thinking (Mercury) while drawing attention to our desires (North Node) and what we’re ready to let go of (South Node).
Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and the Nodes of the Moon are heavy companions for Mercury, who’s facing challenges of their own. This Mercury recently emerged from under the beams of the Sun, just entered Taurus, and is slowing down for a retrograde.
We’re invited to take things slowly. Avoid snap decisions or quick judgements.
Venus in Taurus forms a sextile to Neptune in Pisces, reminding us we can be nurtured by fantasy and take comfort in dreams.
Taurus is sometimes seen as being so committed to solid reality, it rejects anything that can’t be perceived with our ordinary senses. Yet ancient cultures, those who lived closer to the land than any modern person can imagine, all knew a hidden world supported and sustained the everyday.
Now let’s turn our attention to the Sun, exalted in Aries. The middle decan of Aries is especially strong for the Sun, as here we find their degree of exaltation.
The Sun sits between Chiron and Jupiter, both of whom are combust, lost in the fierce fire of the Sun.
Combust planets are weakened, their powers taken over by the Sun, who is made stronger. This is a Sun with the optimism and philosophical outlook of Jupiter, and the power to see what needs to be healed of Chiron.
Across from this fiery powerhouse sits the Moon at 16º Libra. The Moon is exalted in Taurus, Venus’ nighttime home, but has no special dignity in Libra. The middle decan of Libra has as its theme contracts and long term commitments. This might be uncomfortable for the Moon who is know for being changeable.
Yet this Moon in the middle of Libra, opposing and illuminated by a powerful Sun has questions for us. What have we committed ourselves to? How are we honoring those commitments? Are there other aspects of our lives calling for new commitments, or wanting us to make good on old ones?
My Sun, Mercury, and Neptune are all in Libra. When I think of this Venus-ruled Air sign, I think of the principle of hózhó, a concept at the heart of the Navajo way of life.
Hózhó is often translated as beauty, but this is not anything like superficial prettiness, or a lovely appearance. Instead, hózhó is how we live, how we relate to the Earth and all her beings. It is living in harmony with everything.
There is a Navajo ritual translated as The Beauty Way, that has within it a poem or prayer that says, I walk in beauty, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the left of me, beauty to the right of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, in beauty I walk.
In some contemporary English translations, this is read as if a life of beauty has already been accomplished, as if we are simply saying what already is.
In Navajo culture, the Beauty Way is a commitment. The prayer says I choose to walk in beauty, to live my life in harmony with the Earth, all beings, and the people around me. There’s an understanding that even in the midst of challenge and difficulty, we can each of us choose to walk in this way, to move through our lives honoring the relationships we all have.
Think of it. Our karma and that of the Earth, of the ecosystems within which we live, of the beings around us, are truly linked. Pretending otherwise is a path to profound loss and alienation.
This, to me, is the message and invitation of the Full Moon in Libra.
It could appear in our personal lives. Perhaps there are areas of life, or people in our lives, we’ve excluded from this concept of harmony and beauty. We might believe we can only have a good life if certain people, ideas, or ways of living are excluded, even forbidden.
Yet in our world overall, we’re seeing that, one way or another, we’ve got to find a way to make peace, to get along, to solve problems without violence.
This is not easy. It takes responsibility, good judgment, and hard work. Notice Saturn also participates in the Full Moon aspect patterns. Saturn at 03º Pisces trines the South Node in Scorpio and sextiles the North Node and Mercury in Taurus.
This Piscean Saturn sees that it’s not always clear where boundaries need to be set. Yet somehow, we need to move forward and do the work.
The Navajo Beauty Way invites us to see this work as beauty. Hózhó knows how vital it is for all of us to walk in beauty together.