The Full Moon arriving tomorrow morning shines tonight with its most full glow. Even last night, the first clear night this week, the Moon sailed through the sky with golden brilliance.
We’ve reached our second Aquarian Full Moon for this year as the Sun and Moon sit opposite each other in the very final degrees of Leo and Aquarius.
Jupiter sits with the Moon, the Great Benefic showering extra sparkles all over everything. Saturn is also in Aquarius and rules the Full Moon, but he’s far enough away we almost feel we can overlook his influence, at least for tonight.
We might be tempted to experience this Full Moon as the culmination of these last weeks of personal work. We’ve connected to our passions, explored our depths, and perhaps confronted a demon or two. We look for illumination that clarifies our creative direction to bring out our best and share it with our communities.
This is, or can be, part of this Full Moon in Aquarius.
And, there’s more.
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The final degree of any sign is intense and often acutely aware of things like endings, and costs, and consequences.
There is an idea still out there that as we reach the end of one sign of the zodiac and approach another, the energies sort of smush together. They blend somehow, in a condition referred to as being “cuspy.”
I’m not sure myself how this idea ever took hold, although I’ve certainly heard it often enough. Both my Sun and Moon are at 0 degrees of their signs. I’ve been told, and have read, that this makes them, well, “cuspy.” I have never experienced them this way.
If you look at any two adjacent zodiacal signs, you can see why. The signs next to each other would not ever blend easily. They’re distinct. In fact, each sign seems to be answering problems or challenges raised by the previous one.
Instead, I subscribe to the approach that says we begin each new sign with a fresh, distinct signature that intensifies and increases as we move through the degrees. By the time we reach the 29th degree, we’re in a very intense expression of what that sign represents.
Shifting from 29 in one sign to 0 in the next is more like falling off a sharp cliff than wading through an indistinct and mushy swamp.
This Full Moon brings us, therefore, some very intense experiences. We see now that Jupiter’s presence conjunct the Moon and opposing the Sun will serve as an intensifier. Whatever Leo and Aquarius mean for each of us, we’ll be seeing stark expressions of that challenge over the next few days.
At the end of Leo, the Sun stands for the unconquered heart. This is the steadfast warrior who never gives up, no matter the cost.
At the end of Aquarius, the Moon knows when to walk away. Remember the archetype of the exile is a keynote of this sign. Sometimes leaving is the only way to end an untenable situation.
These two positions, staying no matter what or leaving because you have to, might not be as opposed as they seem. If Leo represents the passionate heart, Aquarius is the mind firmly committed to its highest ideals.
Another possible illumination for this Full Moon, then, could be shining a spotlight on situations that call for strong decisions.
Do we stay? Do we go? Both are on the table. Both have consequences. Which is right for us? Perhaps the Full Moon will show that.
Ideas are very important to a Moon in Aquarius. Supporting the role of mind, we have a Grand Trine in Air linking Venus in Libra, Saturn in Aquarius, and the North Node of the Moon in Gemini.
This trine supports the crafting of plans and solutions that are inclusive, fair, and diplomatic (Venus in Libra), principled, clearly articulated, and focused on community (Saturn in Aquarius), and innovative, fresh, and iconoclastic (North Node in Gemini).
Last and far from least, Uranus in Taurus is stationing retrograde. Now, the outer planets are retrograde a lot, so we don’t always note their direction in interpreting their influence. When they station, though, they appear to stand still in the sky. Since the outers move so slowly, their stations last for days. During these times, they have more impact.
Right now, Uranus has more impact. There’s also a strong trine from Mars in Virgo to Uranus, meaning, these two want to get stuff done and don’t much care who they upset in the process. In fact, upsetting the status quo is something Uranus and Mars both revel in.
Which leads to my theme for this Full Moon, the idea and the experience of rewilding.
Rewilding is moving from a tame or civilized or controlled and managed state, into a state of nature. It means going back to ways of living based in natural cycles and healthy ecosystems. It’s a radical idea.
Let’s look again at Jupiter currently retrograde in Aquarius and conjunct this Full Moon.
Jupiter indeed brings good luck and makes things bigger. He’s also a philosopher. A keeper of wisdom traditions. A scholar and a sage. He just spent a few months in Pisces, where he loves to be, and has returned to Aquarius, where it’s much tougher for him to be himself.
Consider the possibility that Jupiter is back in Aquarius because he had unfinished business there. Maybe it’s time to question some of our models, theories, and constructs. Maybe how we as humans are acting in this modern era is based on some questionable principles. Faulty ideas. Maybe it’s time to root out bad thinking once and for all.
In medieval Europe, philosophers proposed a Great Chain of Being. Often portrayed as a ladder, it showed God (of course) at the top, angels on the next rung down, and then humans, followed thereafter by animals, and then fish, and lowly crawly things, but you get the idea.
On Earth, Man was closest to God. By definition, what men did was more ethical, more pure, more right, than what animals or any other beings did. By definition.
When theories of evolution were first laid out, Victorian philosophers extolled Nature red in tooth and claw. This was extended into the social sphere to support the idea that aggressive social policies were natural. Greed was good. Taking what you could get and keeping it was natural.
The problem is, the natural world isn’t like this at all. Our planet is a web. A balance of delicately calibrated interlocking systems that work together to maintain stability over time.
We humans are the ones who are red in tooth and claw. Who have created systems of commerce and government that not only endorse but actively engage in taking too much and giving back too little.
We see the results all around us.
At this Full Moon, with its passionate Sun, its cerebral and firmly committed Moon, we are poised in the middle of a question. How do we fit in here? How can we preserve the health of the Earth?
As Uranus stations in Taurus, sign of the patient gardener, I’m wondering what radical actions will be required of us. How we can become wild again? Not in the sense of being out of control–we are already that. But in the deeper sense of becoming wild so we are in tune with the world around us.
We do not sit at the top of some celestial chain. We are part of a web we barely understand. This Full Moon brings a lot of intensity and a willingness to ask hard questions.
How can we, each of us, become wild?
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the crashing wave by Silas Baisch,
and the following images:
the LED board by Adi Goldstein, and
the hand in ferns by Toa Heftiba