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A Full Moon in Leo, brilliant, dramatic, and incendiary, arrives on February 10, just after 7:30 pm EST. This Moon is noteworthy in several ways. Its light will shine longer and burner higher than the typical Full Moon––and those are wild enough.
First, this Full Moon comes with a penumbral lunar eclipse, which means the bright face of the Moon will be shadowed for a time. The eclipse will be visible through North and South America, Europe, Africa, and much of Asia, but may be difficult to see because is it only a faint shadow.
This is a real eclipse, though, which means we are entering a gateway. Things will change. This is the first of two eclipses in the sign of Leo this year. The second will be a full solar eclipse in August that will be visible across the center of the United States, something that hasn’t happened for a while.
In fact, we’re entering a new season of eclipses across the signs of Leo and Aquarius that will continue through early 2019. And yet, this lunar eclipse as a not-quite-there-yet feeling.
Eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon are close to the Nodes of the Moon, which are the hinge points where the orbits of Sun and Moon cross each other. (Yes, I know this doesn’t happen from the scientific perspective. Remember that astrology is based on how the sky appears to us as we stand on the Earth.)
On February 10, the Nodes of the Moon are in early Virgo and Pisces, edging back toward Leo and Aquarius, but not quite there yet. (The Nodes always move backwards.) The Full Moon is late in Leo, at 22 degrees and change, which is enough to create the shadowy eclipse we might catch sight of.
Later this month, we’ll see one last eclipse, an annular solar eclipse in Pisces, that will close out the current cycle. After that, we’re in Leo/Aquarius territory for a bit.
So this Leo Full Moon eclipse is a beginning, a preview of what’s to come. But again, this does not mean it’s small or without impact. No Leo Full Moon could be, and this one certainly is not.
The Sun and Moon sit in the midst of an amazing aspect pattern, which doesn’t really have a name. It is a pentangle, of course, a five-pointed star, but there’s not an aspect pattern called that. Instead, we see a mystical rectangle combined with two kites, one pointing at the Sun and one pointing at Jupiter.
Notice that the pentangle combines both harmonious and challenging aspects: the ease of trines and sextiles, and the challenge of oppositions. This brings energy and the ability to get things done. With too much ease, we might only rest. With only challenge, we might never progress. With the right combination of the two, we move forward.
Notice also that this pentangle includes some of the movers and shakers of the zodiac: Uranus and Eris, together at 21 and 22 Aries, are ready to set the world on fire in the name of radical change. Jupiter, opposite them at 23 Libra, offers tremendous good fortune from his generous beneficence. Saturn, at 25 Sagittarius, is the builder of the zodiac, the power that creates form.
Every planet in the pentangle is in Air or Fire, the active yang sings. The Moon, Saturn, and Uranus + Eris form a Grand Trine in Fire. The Sun and Jupiter trine each other in Air. This also brings a brightness and energy to this Full Moon.
What does this mean for us?
All Full Moons illuminate, even ones that arrive with lunar eclipses. Any Full Moon in Leo will shine light on how we shine our own light into the world: how we create, how we play, how we lead, where we take pride in who we are and what we’ve accomplished … and also where we might get overly dramatic, become childish and demanding of attention, or feel hurt when we’re getting getting enough love.
Seeing where and how this Full Moon touches your birth chart will help focus that information and make it personal. For example, this Full Moon sits right across the Ascendant–Descendant axis in my own chart, with the Uranus–Jupiter opposition on top of my Mercury–Neptune conjunction. I am expecting the beams of a searchlight on who I am (the Ascendant), my relationships (the Descendant), and how I think, communicate, create, and dream (my Mercury + Neptune).
Most charts will not be quite that dramatic, but even knowing which House the Full Moon will fall in, in your birth chart, will cue you to the area of life where you might be getting messages about new movement and impending change.
Despite being in the blaze of this Leo Full Moon, we may have to wait for the changes initiated, or at least highlighted, to come into full form. This is an eclipse, after all, and we need to walk through the gate to get to the next stage.
In Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey, an early, vital stage is Crossing the Threshold. This is the moment when the hero-to-be crosses into the world of the adventure, leaving his or her ordinary life behind. The hero knows very little about what will happen, but still steps onto the path. After that, she’s not in Kansas any more.
This Leo Full Moon will be like that. We may be shown an opening. We may be invited, encouraged, nudged, maybe even pushed into a new way of being. We don’t know where we’ll end up, but we take the first steps, signalling our commitment to go forward.
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah includes on verse often omitted from recorded versions of the song:
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
At this Full Moon eclipse, we may not know the right words, or how to say them, but somehow there will be a blaze of light calling us forward. Broken and holy at once, we begin walking toward what comes next.