Full Moon in Aquarius & Lunar Eclipse: Controlled Burn

This Friday afternoon brings the most challenging Full Moon of 2018.

This is the Full Moon in Aquarius. Its intensity is due to its being a total lunar eclipse, the longest of this century..

Also, a retrograde and out of bounds Mars sits between the Moon and the South Node. Uranus the Awakener squares the Full Moon. And Mercury will be newly retrograde.

Do we find a bunker deep in the earth and hide?

We could, but if we do, we’ll miss some big opportunities. This Full Moon will be a powerful time to shed old skins we have outgrown. It’s time to cut ties to what is holding us back. A window is opening and we can chuck stuff out of it.

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Let’s review how eclipses come about and how we see them in an astrological chart.

Eclipses happen when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up. When the Moon blocks the Sun, we get a solar eclipse. When the Earth blocks the Moon, we get a lunar eclipse.

In a intriguing cosmic accident, the apparent sizes of the Earth, Moon, and Sun are roughly the same in the sky, even though we know they are massively different in reality. Without that visual similarity, eclipses wouldn’t be nearly so dramatic.

Since the Earth, Sun, and Moon are all moving, eclipses happen when the orbits line up. (Yes, it’s true the Sun’s motion is not relevant to our eclipses, or anything we experience, really, but it’s good to remember it actually is moving.)

In an astrology chart, the intersection of the orbits of the Earth and Moon are marked by the North and South Nodes of the Moon. An eclipse shows up in a chart when the Sun and Moon line up with the Nodes: Sitting together at one Node at a New Moon Solar Eclipse, or opposite each other at a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse.

This brief pause to consider the physics of eclipses might seem irrelevant, but it’s not.

When things line up, stuff flows more easily and powerfully. If you need to run through a building, you’ll go faster if all the doorways are lined up than if you need to zig and zag to get to them. Delivering things from one place to another is a lot more efficient through a straight chute.

Any time we have an eclipse, then, things happen with more power, speed, and ease. So why do eclipses feel challenging?

Generally, no matter what we say, we do not find change comfortable. There is plenty of research showing that even the most positive life events cause a lot of stress. We like good things to happen, but not too fast and under our complete control.

Eclipses are not like that. Instead, we find ourselves in a time of powerful energy in which change comes quickly, not on our schedule, and not quite the way we pictured it.

This Full Moon eclipse is more intense that most.

First, it’s happening in the fixed signs of Leo (Sun and North Node) and Aquarius (Moon, Mars, and South Node). These signs don’t like change at all, giving this Full Moon eclipse a feeling like power building inside a very tightly closed container. We can feel it. We know the container will explode at some point. We’re just not sure where to be to best avoid the damage.

Second, Mars retrograde and out of bounds is right with the Moon and South Node. This is your crazy cousin who always did the riskiest stunts standing right next to the explosive device and he’s holding a match.

Third, Uranus challenges the Full Moon eclipse. This is your even crazier uncle––not the cousin’s dad but a different uncle––watching on the sidelines. He looks really calm, really steady, except he’s got this loopy grin on his face and he’s making eye contact with the cousin holding the match and you know he’s egging him on because he wants to see what’s going to happen.

What happens at this eclipse will be about the past. And we already know this.

The Moon always holds feelings and memories, including those about the past. This Full Moon is at the South Node, which is the tail of the dragon, the place where past karma comes up to be resolved, where we let go of things we no longer need.

In addition, Mars is retrograde, which means he is retracing old ground, revisiting what has already been done, and reviewing it. Mercury is also retrograde, so he is doing the same with our thoughts, our words, and our ideas.

That challenge from Uranus, too, is a push to move beyond our past conditioning into what is new for us, what is authentic.

But these aspect patterns don’t show up overnight. They’ve been building for weeks. We’ve been in a time where stuff has been coming up from the past: People, patterns, relationships, memories. We’ve been awash in things we thought we were done with. It’s time to do more.

Some of this might feel like reclaiming. We get a call, or make a call, or unexpectedly see someone and feel good about it. We remember past kindnesses, or a time when we were happy and life was good. These are wonderful reminders.

More typically, though, we experience something between a reorientation and the opening of an old wound.

Something (or someone) comes up and we realize the way we remember it is not the only way to see it, possibly not the best or most complete way. We unpack, rearrange, and reintegrate in a new way.

Or we’re brought up against something we thought we’d already worked through, or have repressed. We’re surprised to feel how much it still hurts. As we examine it, we realize it’s still dragging at us in ways we didn’t see. We’re motivated to change. We’re ready to do the work to heal.

If you have made it through this last weeks with only happy memories coming up for you, that’s wonderful. Please be gentle with the rest of us.

Chances are, you have instead been going through some or all of the more difficult aspects of this. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been good.

At the Full Moon on Friday, we’ll reach the time to let stuff go. Things line up, doors and windows open, and there’s a straight chute.

Full Moons illuminate. With an eclipse, though, there is less illumination that usual. The light will be more subtle, more nuanced. There will be more shadow. Paradoxically, this allows us to see more fully and clearly what we might otherwise miss.

We will choose what is complete, what is holding us back, what we no longer need or want, and we will burn it.

We will do this in a controlled way, with careful planning and good support.

This is a controlled burn, which is a fire intentionally set to protect a larger area from a full-on conflagration.

Setting any fire is dangerous. Last month, a planned burn in Florida got out of control and destroyed a number of homes. But there comes a time when the underbrush needs to be cleared or we run the risk of catastrophe.

Tempers are running high. We feel this in ourselves. We experience it from those around us. We see it in world events. In all our actions, we will want to be careful and compassionate.

We do want to act, though. If we prepare ourselves––keeping our energy clear, staying grounded, maintaining good boundaries, practicing good self care––we can move through difficulty into a new version of who we are.

Irish tradition speaks of a Fire in the Head, which referred to creative illumination attained through long and difficult practice.

The Moon in heady, visionary Aquarius, opposite the Sun in courageous, heart-centered Leo, invite us into this time of great depth and power. We’ve been preparing. We are gathering the strength and precision to cut away what we don’t need. We can come through to the other side lit from within, heads and hearts, with a new fire.

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I use Unsplash for most photo illustrations. All astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title, adapted from the portal photo by Jeremy Perkins, the photo of lava reaching the ocean by Mandy Beerley, the friends at a beach campfire by Alan Chen, and the small incense lamps by Animesh Basnet.