Tonight, Monday, September 24, the Full Moon in Aries blazes in the night sky.
Having just entered Libra season, we might look for an oasis of calm, a feeling of harmony and balance.
Tonight, not so much.
This Moon is full of challenge. We will want to meet it with our loins girded and our resources at hand.
Does this mean we’re in for a fight? Maybe, maybe not. But we do want to be prepared.
The Equinox Gate
Let’s step back a few days to the Equinox to see what brought us here.
On September 22, the Sun entered Libra and crossed the Equinox gateway, where he immediately opposed Chiron in Aries and squared Saturn in Capricorn.
The Libra Equinox is often a time of poise and balance, but this year, we were immediately confronted with themes related to traditional authority, hard work, boundaries, responsibility, and all the ways we can experience these as wounding.
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This year, we feel stripped to essentials. Down to the bare bones. The structures that underlie our social lives, institutions, and traditions are exposed so starkly we cannot fail to see them. This can be disheartening, depending on what we see. There is also an elegance in this, an esthetic that embraces essentials and essence, not frills, not prettiness.
The Libra Sun found many companions already present in the early degrees of various signs. I mentioned the opposition to Chiron and square to Saturn. Mercury was conjunct the Sun, and so shared in the Chiron and Saturn aspects.
At the same time, Mars was approaching the South Node of the Moon for his third and final conjunction. He was, therefore, opposite the North Node. Meanwhile, both Uranus and Venus squared the Nodes.
These were not separate patterns. Trines and sextiles linked the Sun–Mercury–Chiron to the Nodes–Mars–Venus–Uranus.
Notice how all of the personal planets except the Moon were involved. Notice too that challenges were being laid down by Mars, Saturn, and Uranus. And since Venus has entered Scorpio, there’s a much sharper edge to her usual conciliatory nature.
At this year’s Equinox, rather than being offered balance and harmony, we were challenged to create it. We see where the wounds are. We see the structures that allow and even encourage that wounding. We see the consequences of leaving things as they are even as we feel the intensity of the forces for change.
It’s a lot.
Did I say the Moon was not involved? She was, via several yods. The yod, you’ll recall, is the tall, narrow, awkward triangle formed by two inconjuncts and a sextile. It points to something that needs to be resolved, although the way forward might not be clear.
At the Equinox, the Moon in Pisces was part of two yods. One pointed at the Equinox Sun and Mercury, with revolutionary Uranus on the other side. The second pointed at the North Node of the future, with Saturn on the other side.
Again, we are shown how things are, how they are structured, and what needs to change, and got pushed to get on with it. We saw an intricate web that elegantly connected some of our most pressing challenges.
The Curious Case of the Disappearing Mercury
Before diving into the Full Moon, let’s talk a moment about Mercury conjunct the Sun.
Oh, if you haven’t guessed, we’re reviewing these various patterns because they’re all still present at the Full Moon, except that the Moon herself slips from Pisces into Aries to confront the Libra Sun.
On September 20, Mercury reached his exact conjunction with the Sun. This was the superior conjunction and is, in effect, the Full Mercury. So, two days before the Equinox and four before the Full Moon in Aries, Mercury was also full.
When planets are close to the Sun, they are first “under the beams” at which point they begin to lose power. Then they are “combust” and considered weak. This is because the Sun is so powerful, so overwhelming, he obscures the appearance and power of whatever planet is near.
Perhaps around these days, you had missed communications, tech glitches, or other Mercury-retrograde-like experiences. I know I did. This is why.
But when a planet is very close, within 17 minutes of conjunction, it is said to be “cazimi,” a word that means “in the heart.” For those minutes of arc, the cazimi planet is supercharged, tuned up, and energized.
This happened for Mercury at the very end of Virgo. What did he learn? What insights were gained?
We will need to wait longer before we know. At the Full Moon, Mercury is still under the beams of the Sun. This journey into the Sun is Mercury’s challenge from a threshold guardian, getting closer and closer until he confronts the dragon in his golden lair. He gains a boon and then must escape to safety before he can share it.
The Full Moon in Aries
All of the patterns we’ve examined (except for the yods with the Moon) are still in play as tonight’s Full Moon reaches its height. In fact, the illumination the Full Moon creates brings these themes into sharper focus.
The Moon is now conjunct Chiron at the Aries point, the place were new things come into our world.
The T-square with Saturn in Capricorn focuses attention on assertiveness vs. diplomacy, independence vs. cooperation, challenge vs. compromise. In the Full Moon spotlight, we define boundaries, state commitments, and see whether we can do the most mature and responsible thing without stifling anyone or anything else in the process.
As always, check your birth chart. The placement of the Full Moon points to where these issues will feel most acute for you.
I am an Equinox baby, so, this Full Moon opposes my Sun, highlighting the Chiron opposition that’s been testing me for a while now. Also Saturn and, yes, Mars.
In the light of this Full Moon, we are likely to see what we fear, what gets us angry, what we’re ready to fight for, what lines in the sand feel very real to us.
We can also see solutions, if we are willing to look beyond the obvious and expected. This Full Moon also has a surprising number of creative quintiles that link the Moon and Chiron to transformative Pluto, Mars to Jupiter, and Saturn to Neptune.
We see where “the way things are” is failing. We can catch glimpses of what new ways of being and doing might look like. And we can feel the strength of both our fierceness as individuals and how that power multiplies when we join together.
Let’s join together. Everything will work better if we do.
I use Unsplash for most photo illustrations. All astrological charts are my own.