Full Moon in Aries

by Eugenia Loli

This is early tomorrow morning, the 16th October. 5:23 am GMT. Maybe you're already feeling it! This is a big one - violent and explosive, with long-lasting effect. It's a turning point and it involves shock. If you can stay out of fights, listen to opposing points of view and mind your manners, you'll be doing well.

This full moon is a supermoon, which means it's closer to earth than usual and will appear larger. It's in Aries, a warlike, impulsive sign. It's conjunct Uranus, an explosive, shocking influence. And it squares the extremely violent and transformative Mars-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn (which is exact the 19th October).

Mercury (mind, communication) in Libra is involved, also in square to the Mars-Pluto conjunction. So there's the possibility for deep mental change and transformative communication – or deeply hurtful exchanges fuelled by eruptive rage.

Expect shocking news and fraught exchanges. Also shake-ups in relationships – the need for partnership and co-operation coming up against deep anger, rebellion and the demand for personal autonomy and space. Manipulation and shitty covert power dynamics are likely to be exposed.

This looks like Jupiter in Libra's first big test to me. Jupiter is about luck and blessing; Libra is about civility, harmony, balance and partnership. For the next year, as Jupiter transits Libra, your happiness and luck depend on being polite, diplomatic and able to see all sides of a situation – not just your own point of view.

Under this full moon, we are likely to see people acting out like big, moody, self-absorbed babies, spewing vitriol and aggression. It'll be too easy to lash out from a sense of wounded ego or personal grievance; also too easy to overreact to insults and imagined slights.

But with Jupiter in Libra and the north node in humble, pragmatic Virgo, that kind of behaviour is absolutely not going to do you any favors. Blessed are the peacemakers under this sky - the coalition-builders, the patient workers for equality and constructive change, the upholders of public decency and civility.

Peacemaking is easier said than done - there's a lot of provocative idiocy and outright delusion flying around right now. But you're sure not going to get anywhere by yelling about it. Jupiter in Libra is not a fan of crudeness, rudeness or people who make scenes - so please try to take the high road.

Michelle Obama's "when they go low, we go high" is actually a really good slogan for this full moon, and her recent speech on sexual harassment represents a productive use of shock and rage, in the interests of justice and deep, progressive social change. That's the sort of balancing act that's called for here, though knee-jerk rage is the simpler option.