The month of August ends with the biggest Full Moon of this year. It’s also a blue moon, as it is the second Full Moon this month.
The Moon will be closer to Earth, appear larger and brighter in the sky, and exert a stronger pull on tides.
We find the Moon at 07º25’ Pisces separating from a conjunction with Saturn retrograde at 03º33’ Pisces.
Since Saturn entered this sign of mutable Water, we’ve been struggling to figure out what the lord of form and structure is up to here. This Full Moon can offer help with this.
Saturn rules the first decan of Pisces, a place in which we explore the structure of dreams. Pisces creates confusing landscapes that shift and change before our eyes. We associate this sign with the most unbounded forms of creativity and also of behavior, which makes sense because Pisces is a place of dissolution.
At the end of the zodiac, all we have experienced, absorbed, and made our own, begins to come apart. Boundaries blur, becoming permeable, and eventually disappearing altogether.
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Depending on our birth charts and life experiences, Pisces can feel wonderfully welcoming or frighten us to our core. Whatever our personal views might be, Pisces represents one way of experiencing life that shows up for all of us in some way, at some time.
So it’s interesting that Saturn rules the first decan of Pisces.
It turns out that while our experiences of dreams and of visionary states may be confusing, the states themselves have structure. They are not random, and I would argue, neither are they meaningless.
Science discounts the content of our dreams, but has uncovered the structures of brain waves associated with nighttime dreaming as well as meditative and visionary states of consciousness.
Consider the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, which is the capacity to become aware one is dreaming, and yet to continue in the dream state and potentially influence how it unfolds without waking up. Lucid dreaming has a long history, reported in many cultures. Yet science said it was not possible.
In fact, psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge, the pioneering dream researcher, had his first paper on lucid dreaming rejected by journals because the reviewers said what he was reporting could not possibly be true.
Sounds very Piscean, doesn’t it? In fact, his studies rigorously followed experimental procedures. He went on to develop techniques and programs to allow others to experience lucidity in dreams.
Many spiritual traditions hold that the contents of our dreams is also filled with meaning.
Dreams bring us a Piscean language filled with images and experiences that feel symbolically rich but difficult to interpret. Yet through study, journalling, and reflection, we can begin to uncover our personal symbolic language.
Over time, we can glean messages from our dreams, although the experience remains Piscean: confusing, mystical, creative, sometimes frightening, sometimes beautiful to the point of bringing us into a state of awe.
Any time we find meaning in a dream, a vision, a meditative state, Saturn is there. Saturn is the reality principle, the connection between what seems beyond our comprehension and how we live our day-to-day lives. Saturn is also the keeper of tradition. Saturn knowns the origins of things, how they’ve developed and changed, and what value they have.
In Austin Coppock’s discussion of the first decan of Pisces, Saturn is the labyrinth within which we wander.
Our connection to the philosophical and spiritual aspects of dreaming is strengthened at the Full Moon by a sign-based connection between the Moon and Jupiter. Pisces, where we find the Moon is the place where Jupiter is exalted. Taurus, where we find Jupiter, is the exaltation of the Moon.
This is a very reflective time. All of the planets are retrograde except Jupiter, who is already stationing to turn retrograde on September 4, and Mars, who has just entered Libra, the sign of his fall, a place where direct, purposeful action becomes problematic.
The Sun in early Virgo is ruled by Mercury retrograde in Virgo’s second decan. This is the place in the Full Moon chart where we access our analytical tools.
Mercury moving backwards is a time for review, revisiting our preconceptions, possibly revising them in the face of new evidence. We are not simply awestruck in the face of powerful dreams and visions. We are invited to explore meanings, applications, and courses of action that emerge from dreams and dreamlike states.
Again, how we approach this and how we feel about it will reflect our birth charts and also our life experiences.
Think about how you approach art. Do you prefer to view artistic creations as a personal experience, linking to your own emotions, reflections, and memories? Do you enjoy learning art history, or the symbolic content in a painting or a piece of music?
Both, and all the shadings in between, are valuable. One key message of this Pisces Full Moon is about finding balance.
Pisces and Virgo share a certain humility in the face of life. Virgo sees the intricate details and the unending needs of all beings. Pisces sees the cosmic expanse of it all, the seemingly infinite extent of time and space. Each view offers a sense of our place in a world that is too much for one single individual to encompass.
Yet each view alone is incomplete. If we are all Virgo, we get lost in the weeds of detail and miss the why, the big picture, the glorious reasons for life. If we are all Pisces, we are lost in space, and may find it difficult to connect to human experience.
Somewhere in there is a balance that best suits each of us. The illumination of this Full Moon in Pisces can help us find it.
Our ongoing journey with Venus is also relevant here. She is barely moving and therefore more powerful and intense than usual. She will station direct September 3. Yet her journey (and ours with her) is not yet over.
In considering the impact of any retrograde, we want to look at the periods before and after the retrograde motion itself. Called shadow periods, there are two: pre and post.
The pre shadow begins when the planet reaches the degree it will retrograde back to. Venus entered her pre shadow June 18, which feels forever ago.
The post shadow ends when the planet reaches the degree where the retrograde began. For Venus, this will be October 6.
The shadow periods mark the three transits of all retrogrades: forward, back, and forward again. The intensity of retrogrades comes from this–that the planet in question is retracing its steps, visiting each degree three times.
So having Venus stationing at this Full Moon brings in where we are on our Venusian journey. We have made a descent–into our psyches, into our creative selves, into the dynamics of a particular relationship or perhaps relationship patterns more broadly, into our understandings of who we are. Soon we begin the journey back to the light.
When finding our balance between Pisces and Virgo at this Full Moon, we also want to consider where we are with Venus. Who are we when we exist as our full selves, standing in our light?
