This is tomorrow, the 18th
August, at 10:26 am (GMT). It is – very marginally – an eclipse,
which ramps up the usual full moon intensity a bit.
It doesn't need to be any more intense
– this looks like a zinger. Aquarius is about shock,
novelty, upheaval. For this full moon, the sign's ruler, Uranus, is beneficially
aspecting the sun and moon, meaning the shocks involved may be
liberating. You might just go off in an entirely new direction; you might just take a big gamble, and it might just work out.
But it looks very crazy and
unpredictable. All bets are off! This full moon is part of a yod –
a tense, weird aspect pattern. This one looks like it's about a need for personal
freedom and authenticity (moon in Aquarius sextile Uranus in Aries), conflicting very uncomfortably with dutiful, routine-bound Mercury and
Jupiter in Virgo. It's nervous breakdown stuff.
If that were the only nervous breakdown
stuff we were dealing with, it'd be enough. But there's more! There's
Neptune on the south node, pulling us backward into utter escapist
madness and addiction. There's Mars conjunct Saturn in Sagittarius:
truth, consequences and inescapable, harsh realities re. the road ahead. There's Venus
in Virgo harshly aspecting all these planets, making relationship and
money issues feel simultaneously delusive, unreal, constraining and
inescapable. There's Chiron in Pisces opposing Mercury and Jupiter in
Virgo – a big existential wound to our minds and capacity to find
meaning in existence.
All in all, a total headfuck – and
it's not going to just disappear. This is some heavy mental shit and
it will get heavier as we move toward the new moon eclipse in Virgo
on the 1st September, which looks frankly awful for anyone of a sensitive or nervous disposition.
That eclipse ushers in a month of
mental health weirdness, but the next couple of weeks are no picnic
either. We have a Mars-Saturn conjunction on the 24th
August, which will feel like hitting a wall of karma – lies and
hype will be exposed. We have Mars squaring Neptune, exact on the
26th August, which will make heroin addiction seem like a
viable life option. We have a Mercury retrograde through Virgo
starting the 31st August, which will probably feel like this:
only even less comprehensible.
And then after the new moon eclipse, we
will have Saturn squaring Neptune on the 10th September –
a profoundly disillusioning (and disorienting, and depressing)
influence.
I know I am being very dire. I could
try to put a positive spin on it all, but I don't see what good
that'd do anyone. This stuff looks very painful and disturbing, and
it is in play till the end of the year – and people should be aware
of it.
Mutable sign people especially (Gemini,
Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) – please don't commit suicide. Try to
ride the next few months out, one day at a time. One foot in front of
the other; one small, mundane, routine task after the other – even
when your brain is a mess and you can't see the purpose of any of it.
If you try to look too far ahead you're liable to get dizzy and lose
your footing – so keep the focus narrow, on what needs doing in the
here-and-now.
And if you need some outside help, please GET
IT. From friends, therapists, religion, meds, the suicide hotline -
whatever works. Don't try to keep your craziness all bottled up and
expect it will just disappear. If you start to feel the walls closing in on
you, talk to someone. You are not the only fuck-up on planet Earth.
OK, having said all that – it's not
all bad. I wrote at the new moon in Leo a couple weeks ago that our
theme this month was new beginnings beset by roadblocks.
Those new beginnings are still pretty
solid! Just we are hitting the roadblocks about now, and they are
considerable. And some karmic backlash is hitting, for those
who've been pretending to be what they're not. It's a shock allright.
The important thing is to follow your
personal truth, your vision for the future – YOURS, not anyone
else's. And to keep on truckin', even if your onward progress is
stalled for now. Keep the faith – small, careful steps will carry you toward
the goal, even if you can barely make out your own feet through the
fog.
But first I want to talk about Pluto, everybody's favorite sex-dwarf fascist power planet.
I've written before about how the conditions under which a planet is discovered connect up synchronistically to the meanings assigned to it in astrology. (Here and here.)
Pluto, which signifies the Shadow – the darkness everyone is afraid to look at in themselves and would prefer to project outside – was discovered in 1930, during the run-up to World War 2 and the rise of fascism.
Fascism is about the union of corporate/business interests and government. Money and politics in alliance. It's a relatively new word for a dynamic as old as civilization – but it's basically about power being concentrated in a very small circle.
Fascism, in the 20th century, has also been about scapegoating in order to promote a perfect facade of order and control. The people turned into scapegoats are always the ones whose presence undermines the state ideology of order/purity – anyone with a bit of ambiguity to their identity is targeted for extermination, because they become the repository for the collective Shadow.
So the meaning of Pluto in astrology has to do with death, ruthless elimination, and power in its most brutal form. It is about the ugliness in ourselves that we are afraid to come to terms with – it is more easily projected outside ourselves and disowned.
As lord of death and the underworld in classical mythology, Pluto also has an association with transformation and wealth. Death is a transformation. And precious stones and metals are usually found deep underground, where heat and pressure transform ordinary minerals into something rare and valuable. (And psychologically, the greatest treasures are often found in the deepest, darkest parts of our psyches – the places we're most afraid to go.)
Pluto is also about extremes: the controlled and orderly surface reality vs. the rot at the core. The death drive (Thanatos) hidden in all life.
It's no accident that the 20th century's fascist societies were outwardly focused on creating a vision of peaceful utopia...but to live within them was to know the reality of hell.
Anyway, in light of the intensity and ugliness associated with Pluto, it's ironic that he has been demoted from planetary status in recent years, to dwarf planet. This is exactly what we do with the Shadow – we minimise and deny it. It seems like what this planet represents is too scary to include in the established representation of our solar system!
But psychological growth, per Jung, depends on a reckoning with the Shadow in ourselves – the internal acceptance of our submerged power drives, our socially unacceptable behaviours and ideas, our own darkness. Everything in us that is the opposite of what we'd like to believe we are, or be seen to be by others.
Pluto, in this respect, is one of the most psychologically important of archetypes. It is the descent into hell, into our unconscious darkness, that allows us to become conscious human beings (which just means being capable of acting outside of our unconscious conditioning – a monumental and unending task).
Reckoning with the Shadow involves a kind of dying: the destruction of what we thought we were, the acceptance as part of us of all we'd like to pretend we are not.
It can feel like an abduction. In the mythology, Pluto was an abductor and rapist. He kidnapped Persephone (symbolic of spring or the life force) and took her down to hell to be his queen, holding her there without her consent.
Anyone who has dealt with an addiction, a destructive obsession or an abusive relationship will be able to understand the symbolism of this myth at a deep level. Being in the grip of a compulsion can feel like being at the mercy of something much larger and stronger than you - something intent on your destruction.
In the myth, Persephone doesn't get free of Death – she has to spend half the year in hell for eternity. It's winter on earth while she's down there, summer when she returns. So she is a liminal figure. She doesn't belong completely to the light or the dark, but to both. She has to live with her knowledge of hell in the middle of summer – but she knows summer is coming, even when she's in the depths of hell.
In psychological terms, this is like owning your shadow – your darkness, your 'badness', your destructive compulsions – your death-drive. Your devil, whatever form he takes.
You don't defeat the devil. You learn to look at him, and to live with him, in yourself – and you stop projecting him outside. But this is enough work for most people's lifetimes.
--Anyway, I'm writing about this now because our little downgraded Shadow dwarf planet Pluto has recently come under scientific scrutiny! The NASA New Horizons probe approached Pluto in mid-January of this year, and did a close flyby on the 14th July – just before a very Pluto-influenced new moon, with Pluto opposite Mars and Mercury.
So we now have detailed pictures of Pluto. It's a strange place! There's a heart-shaped plain of moving ice (!), there's apparent volcanic activity, there are 11,000 foot high mountains, there is a methane atmosphere that may be on the verge of collapse – all on a world smaller than our moon.
The heart-shaped glacial plain is symbolically kind of amazing, considering Pluto's rulership of Scorpio, a sign concerned with deep, intense emotion buried under an icy facade. In fact, all the features seem symbolically amazing to me – there are such extremes at work on this tiny world.
So our unknown Shadow-planet turns out to be a very interesting place, and worthy of deep examination!
The New Horizon probe's timing is synchronistic - Pluto is important right now. We are just past the historic Uranus-Pluto square series, which was about radical change on the collective and individual levels. That was some fairly intense and gut-wrenching Pluto action.
And right now we have Saturn in Pluto's sign (Scorpio), and Pluto in Saturn's sign (Capricorn). This is called a mutual reception, and is about an easy dialogue between these two planets. The theme here is deep psychological excavation and restructuring. Unearthing the deep rot beneath the facade of 'normality' or respectability.
We had a Pluto-themed new moon in Cancer on the 16th July, and if anybody has gotten through the past few weeks without some sort of poisonous emotional or psychological vomit coming out of them or being spewed at them – well lucky you! At the very least, we are looking at deep, seismic shifts in family and relational structures and power dynamics at this time. And a reckoning with old hurts and grievances, old pain – our ghosts and demons.
We have a full moon in Aquarius on the 31st July (around 11:15 am GMT) – and this should be the culmination of this process, and a big shift. It looks like relief and a breath of fresh air to me!
It's a blue moon, meaning it's the second full moon in the same calendar month. Astrologically this doesn't mean much. But you can take it as symbolic, especially as the moon will be in Aquarius, a freaky oddball sign: this is something a bit weird and special.
There'll be some drama, no doubt – full moons are good for drama, and for this one, the sun is in proud, shiny, dramatic Leo. But the moon (emotional tone) is in cool, emotionally distanced Aquarius – and this puts a lid on the emotionality.
As full moons signify endings, I think we are seeing the tail-end of the emotional upheavals of the past few weeks. So maybe your pride (Leo) got wounded...who cares? Fundamentally, you are free (Aquarius).
Saturn resumes direct motion in Scorpio the day after the full moon, as if to underline the theme of “job done”. We have gone back into the hellish wreckage since Saturn re-entered Scorpio in mid-June. Hopefully we have wrestled with our demons and stood for our emotional truths and done the deep work. Anything rotten that wasn't dealt with during Saturn's initial transit of Scorpio (2012-2014) will have come up for revision – and hopefully, it is being dealt with now. At this point we know what's viable and what's not in our lives and our psyches – we have sifted through the garbage and know what has to go.
I think the hardest part of this transit will be completed as Saturn resumes direct motion after this full moon. From now until the 18th September, when Saturn re-enters Sagittarius – we are moving forward, amputating what needs to be amputated, clearing out the psychic debris.
The point of all this psychological purgation and energetic re-balancing is, we are clearing space for new things to happen – especially in the realm of money and relationships.
Venus (love and money planet) entered nit-picky, analytical, perfectionist Virgo on the 18th July, stationing retrograde at 0 degrees Virgo on the 25th July. She re-enters Leo on the day of this full moon, and she will be hanging out there until the 8th of October, after stationing direct on the 6th September.
Venus in Virgo is about having high standards in love and money matters, and Venus retrogrades are about relational and financial reconsiderations, recalibrations and fine-tunings. So the fact that Venus stationed retrograde in Virgo, a very picky, pragmatic and detail-oriented sign, is pretty significant here.
The next five weeks of this Venus retrograde are about laying new foundations in love and money matters. Reading the fine print, getting the details right, figuring out what works in the real world, having exacting standards and sticking to them.
With Venus retrograde in heart-centered Leo, this is also about our personal pride and happiness. Figuring out what really makes us happy without compromising our pride and integrity.
In other words, if you are putting energy into loving someone or pursuing some project that is actually detrimental to your happiness and self-esteem, it's time to pause and take a good hard look at what you're doing.
This Venus retrograde is about tempering our love and our creative/entreprenurial endeavours with realism. Laying the groundwork, making sure the opportunities coming our way now can translate into viable relationships and livelihoods. Something or someone might make you happy in the short term – but will it stick? Is it healthy? Is it in accord with your values? Can you bank on it?
If you answer "no" to these questions – well all the love in the world is not going to be enough, and you should be careful of how far you involve yourself.
Venus is currently retrograding in conjunction to Jupiter and in square to Saturn in Scorpio – and this is also significant. There is tremendous luck and opportunity here, but there are also huge, karmic blockages and restraints. You can take the blockages as a signal to slow down, look deeper and be super-realistic about what you're getting into. What's going on under the surface? What do you really want from this – what do you really need? What's it going to cost you, energetically / psychologically / monetarily? What is the actual state of your resources - can you afford this?
Mercury (mind and communication) moves into Virgo on the 7th August, and Jupiter (luck, expansion, blessing) follows on the 11th. This will definitely help us to be super-practical and realistic, to analyse all our options carefully and to come up with ideas that will help us to flourish in the real world.
I'll write more about Jupiter in Virgo another time, because this will be a big shift. We've had him in big, shiny Leo for a year now, meaning our luck this past year was tied up with exuberance, drama and creativity.
But Jupiter in Virgo will be the opposite! Virgo is systematic, analytical, humble and detail-oriented – so this will probably feel like cleaning up after a big yearlong party, sorting the empty bottles for recycling, doing the dishes. Back to reality.
I think this shift of Jupiter (and Mercury) from fiery Leo to rational Virgo is a blessing - because for the first half of August, we are looking at a lot of planets in Leo squaring Saturn in Scorpio, and this looks frustrating as all hell. Big, open-hearted exuberance and passion – shackled by the full weight of reality and the past.
Remember, all the love and passion in the world is not going to be enough if the thing doesn't work in the real, everyday world. Passion is fine for writing songs or making art or starting new endeavours or being Elvis... but it isn't something you can live on, anymore than you can live on a diet of ice cream sundaes. Eventually you are going to find yourself really run-down and sick. (Poor Elvis.)
If we want to be happy, going forward, we'll need to be a lot more grounded, finicky and focused on what works in reality – and on what is healthy. I think August will be a good month for learning about this!
*** Forgot to mention: Uranus in Aries (dispositor of this full moon) stationed retrograde on the same day as Venus: the 25th July. These two retrograde planets will be trining each other later in August (the 19th August) and trining each other again after Venus goes direct (23rd September).
The theme here is the overall theme of the Venus retrograde: we are blazing new trails in relationship stuff and money stuff. We're not doing the same old stuff again or replaying the same old patterns. And we have to insist upon absolute personal authenticity in these matters.
Basically, we are opening up a new cycle here - but it's tricky territory, and full of blockages and delays. Quite frustrating really. There's nothing to be done but bear with it, and don't compromise on your values or on what's really important to you.
I think come mid-September, we'll gain a much clearer view of where this story is going. It might seem like a long way away, but it's only a month and a half.
This is on the Tuesday the 20th Jan 2015, around 1:15 pm (GMT).
It has been a hard couple of weeks following the heavily emotional full moon in Cancer on the 5th January. We had Mars (energy, will) moving into Pisces on the 12th of January – and this represents a real dissipation of will and of emotional boundaries.
Mars in Pisces at his best can look something like this:
Such an effortless-looking physical flow. Is it fighting or dancing?
Or he can be a spiritual warrior, like Gandhi or Jesus. Or an inspired artist, or a musician.
At his worst, though, he is a self-pitying, deluded, addicted, emotionally-confused mess.
Yeesh.
On entering Pisces, Mars moved straight into a square with Saturn in Sagittarius (exact on the 15th January), and he will conjunct Neptune in Pisces exactly on the 19th January – the day before the new moon in Aquarius.
These aspects represent exhaustion, depression and lowered physical resistance. Also heavy delusion, scattering and misdirection of the will, addiction, self-sabotage, pain, frustration, cruelty. So we're much more likely to be seeing the worse aspects of Piscean Mars these days, and it ain't pretty.
In addition we have a very fraught and ongoing situation involving Uranus, Pluto and the nodes of the moon. The moon's north node signifies the karmic 'direction' of the story – what we are meant to be striving toward. It is currently in Libra, sign of peace, right relationship, harmony and balance – so these are the imperatives of the story. The south node, which represents what we are trying to get away from (but where we are liable to get stuck) is in Aries, sign of self-will, rage and war. (And as these Aries placements are disposited by Mars in Pisces, we are looking at an unhealthy dose of self-pity and delusion in the mix. Rage-aholic zombie stuff.)
So basically we are meant to be moving from conflict to harmony and balance - especially in relationships - but it's very fraught and difficult. And what makes the terrain even harder to navigate is that these points are bound up with the historic Uranus-Pluto square, which is about upheaval, destruction and transformation. Uranus, representing shock and upheaval, is currently conjunct the south node in Aries – and this conjunction will be exact on the day of the new moon in Aquarius. And Pluto, representing death and transformation, squared the moon's nodes exactly on the 15th January. It's a cardinal t-square, very tight through the middle weeks of January, which is where we're at.
A cardinal t-square is an aspect requiring – even forcing – change and adaptation. It is inherently tense and uncomfortable. And as this one involves the Uranus-Pluto square, the tension and pressure for change gets ratcheted up a few orders of magnitude.
What it all represents is big shock and absolutely necessary change, in the context of relationships especially. Tests, breakups, forced evolution to a new model of relating. It is also about the requirement to cut yourself free of the past, of destructive habits and relationships, of what is unworkable in your life, of what you are completely fed up with.
The problem is, things are very volatile and explosive courtesy of Uranus conjunct the south node – so the potential for reckless, indiscriminate destruction is huge. And with this Mars-Neptune stuff going on in Pisces, the past has a deep and very dangerous undertow to it. You may find yourself hypnotized by it, unable to pull away, drawn back into the same shitty old dramas. Self-sabotage is a big risk right now.
The question is: do you keep your ship firmly on course while the sirens sing all around you? Or do you steer it into the rocks in pursuit of them; do you let yourself become a wreck?
Here is Ulysses, lashed to the mast of his ship and listening to the sirens sing - and tormented by his longing.
Ulysses and the Sirens - Waterhouse
I think the story of Ulysses and the sirens is very pertinent to these skies. He wanted to hear their famous song, though he knew it would turn him into a deranged, self-destructive imbecile. So he ordered his sailors to plug their ears with wax and tie him to the mast as they sailed past the sirens. And he got to hear them and survive - something no mortal had done.
The mast he's tied to in the story and the temporarily-deafened sailors rowing the boat out of harm's way can be read as metaphors for the will – for the backbone and determination it takes to escape the pull of destructive desire.
But another lesson of the story is that you don't fuck around with this stuff. You don't idly decide to listen to the sirens sing – not unless you have a crew of devoted sailors around you to keep you on course and steer you out of harm's way. Most of us don't have that, so we're better off staying well away from whatever undermines our self-possession.
For “listening to the sirens sing”, substitute
--looking up old boyfriends on facebook
--revisiting the past obsessively, with sentimentality and misplaced nostalgia
--having a little teeny tiny drink even though you know you're a raging alcoholic
--indulging your emotional excesses and self-pity to the point that they get in the way of your relationships and everyday functioning
--eating another cupcake
--watching "Purple Rain" again even though it disgusts you deeply and there are constructive things you could be doing with your time...
Or whatever. Giving way to temptation, basically. You know what's good for you, you know what's destructive – so don't make excuses for yourself. Tie yourself to the mast and row on.
We are going to be dealing with a Saturn-Neptune square for the next couple of years, basically – so it's pretty important to learn how to be your own internal rock (Saturn) even when everything is crumbling and dissolving around you (Neptune). Fortitude and determination in the face of temptation and confusion – that's one lesson to take from Saturn-Neptune. This is a very good time to start learning it, with Mars in Pisces activating this square.
OK, so I have written a lot already without even looking at the main event! Which is, ta da... Our zero degree new moon in Aquarius on the 20th January! And what a zinger it is. Like a big jolt of electricity right up Uranus! Like a huge, cosmic kick in the ass. Like sudden, detached clarity and insight in the midst of pain and loss... Or like a door opening into a new world, a weird magical one where nothing is quite what you thought it would be, and everything keeps changing so fast you can barely keep track.
Aquarius is future-oriented, zany, progressive, excitable...and emotionally detached. This new moon should come as a relief to anyone slogging through the heavy swamps of Mars-Neptune right now. Aquarius is about liberation, so this is a great opportunity to get free of whatever is holding you in thrall.
But the danger is that all that murky, blocked energy will be released as rage. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, which will be exactly conjunct the south node in Aries, and this means acting like a rage-aholic is the path of least resistance. Especially in the context of relationships, as we've seen. It's 'fight or flight' kinda stuff, and could potentially be very ugly and destructive.
Don't overstep the bounds of politeness and civilised discourse, no matter how stressed you may feel. There is a high road and a low road here. The low road is the hair-trigger rage-zombie stuff. The high road is represented by Venus conjunct Mercury in Aquarius – this is about objectivity, open-mindedness, insightful and tactful communication, free expression. It's about allowing people the space to be who they are and to make up their own minds.
The Venus-Mercury conjunction is stressed by an opposition to Jupiter in Leo, which can be about big ego issues. So again, it's very important to try to think and communicate calmly and objectively, and not with your ego. No matter how provoked you may feel. It doesn't matter how justified your anger is – letting it rip over your petty little ego stuff is not going to get you very far under these skies. If you use it to look at what needs to change in a broader sense – in your life and collectively – you'll be better off.
The best side of Aquarius is always personified for me by Mr. Spock, who is rational, humane, calm, insightful... and also a complete unapologetic freak (he's an alien after all).
A good way for navigating the emotional rapids of this time (or any time for that matter) is to ask yourself: “What would Spock do?” Try and channel your inner Spock.
(Spock says time out!)
Ok, what else. We have a Mercury retrograde starting on the 21st January, the day after the new moon, taking him back through the sign of Aquarius. This means Mercury will be in Aquarius till March. And I think it's a pretty good place for him to be, whether retrograde or direct. It gives a bit of clarity and detachment to our thinking and communication, and some future-oriented insight. The Uranus-Pluto squares (the last of which is on the 16th March) are about revolutionary change, and Mercury in Aquarius will help us to wrap our minds around revolutionary change as it goes down. (Things will be moving fast!)
Also, we have Venus entering Pisces on the 27th of January, which represents a softening of the general emotional tone.
All in all, it's not an easy two weeks ahead - when is it ever these days? But it really doesn't look so bad overall! Not compared to the last couple of weeks, certainly. We are moving from the heaviness and dourness of Capricorn season to something much more free and light and unconcerned, and that's a nice shift, even with all the attendant drama. And there is potential for all kinds of weird magic to happen.
Just remember:
ps: forgot to say, this new moon is very good for creativity and creative thinking. For getting out of ruts of all kinds and creating something new. It could be a solution to an intractable problem, or a new work of art or music, or a new insight that completely changes the way you relate to some aspect of your life...The point is there will be creativity and inspiration on hand. So use it to do something new.
(I'm nominating Spock as patron saint of this full moon.)
This is tomorrow: 10th August, around 7:10 pm (GMT).
It'll be the largest full moon of the year – the moon will be at perigee, the point in her orbit where she's closest to Earth. Very intense.
I'm going to try to be brief for a change, because I don't have a lot of time to write this!
What we have this full moon are a lot of intense, clashing energies coming from fixed signs. The sun and Mercury in Leo will be opposing the moon in Aquarius, and these poles will be squared by Mars and Saturn in Scorpio.
Fixed signs are...fixed, basically. Stubborn, intractable. They don't negotiate – they insist. Aquarius insists on its ideology and its vision for the future, Leo on its personal importance, Scorpio on its security and control.
What we've been seeing in the news these past weeks are a bunch of conflicts that look hopelessly intractable, involving ideological differences that admit of no resolution.
And the world is getting drawn in, taking sides. It's a kind of contagion - & it's getting out of control. (“Out of control” is how the WHO is now characterising Ebola in West Africa.)
There's a lot of emotionally charged rhetoric going on...a lot of terror and panic. There are bombs raining down on a lot of places right now.
Mars and Saturn are traditionally known as the two 'malefic' planets, and having them mixed up with this full moon is...tough. It's bad enough to have the two of them conjunct: Mars-Saturn contacts are known for their violence and cruelty.
But also they are conjunct in Scorpio, sign of extremes. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing. So we are looking at extreme cruelty and no middle ground – scorched earth. Utter savagery.
Plus Mars and Saturn are squaring the sun and Mercury in Leo, which can be read as hubris and bombast on steroids.
And also they're squaring the moon in Aquarius, which can be about emotional shock and disconnection – shell shock. Or emotional polarization, or dogmatism.
So you can see how bad this can get...how this full moon lights up a very apocalyptic storyline. You have only to turn on the news these days to see these themes playing themselves out. It's tragic.
But remember the word 'apocalypse' comes from the Greek for 'revelation' or 'uncovering'. That's the potential good in this scenario: it represents an intensely powerful potential for revelation, mental clarity, objectivity, deep understanding. Maybe not on a global political scale – though one can dream. But on a personal level, definitely.
Aquarius is about humanitarian ideals and our shared vision for the future. At worst it can be rigid and dogmatic, but at best it is rational, unsentimental, independent-minded – and very concerned with the well-being of the collective, and with creating a better future.
These are all necessary qualities when you're trying to negotiate a peace deal or bring aid to a warzone or see through propaganda. Cool-headedness and clarity are very important right now, what with the overblown and emotionally-driven rhetoric we're being exposed to on all sides.
So in the spirit of Aquarian progressivism and optimism, I am determined to see this full moon as a good thing...as an opening for some kind of rationality and intelligence to get through to a world that is imploding with hatred and violence.
Something nice about this full moon: despite the fact that it is bound up with the two malefics (Mars and Saturn), we are also moving into a conjunction involving the two benefics (Venus and Jupiter). Venus is currently in the late degrees of Cancer, applying into conjunction with Jupiter in Leo, exact on the 18th August. This aspect represents some kind of luck or blessing - something lovely. So that's good, and much-needed.
The sun and moon also make some very nice aspects to the north node in Libra and also to the moon's dispositor, Uranus in Aries. Meaning this story is ultimately not about war, but about a struggle for peace, justice and right relationship. And this struggle takes place on an individual as well as a collective level - though the individual level is actually where it can make the most difference.
It is about thinking for yourself, exercising emotional restraint and discrimination, expressing yourself clearly and calmly... even when self-expression has the potential to get you ostracised. Lilith (a point representing the lunar apogee, or the point in the moon's orbit at which the moon will be furthest from Earth) is conjunct the sun and Mercury in Leo, and this carries the risk of ostracism via communication. But the message of Lilith is that it's better to be alone and free than to go along with the status quo and be enslaved. Even if it means you're demonised for it.
Lilith, in the Jewish tradition, was Adam's first wife, who refused to be made subject to him and was exiled from Eden. She was known as the mother of demons after that.
Well there are plenty of people out there willing to demonise (or worse) anyone who thinks differently from them these days, we know this.
Anyway, because of all these planets in Leo (Jupiter, Mercury, the sun, and in a few days Venus) opposing or squaring planets in signs that deal with the collective (Aquarius and Scorpio) I am inclined to think that this is about a personal, individual response to collective patterns.
That's only one way of reading it, of course. But I think luck and hope (Jupiter) are dependent on how we filter these collective currents through our individual psyches, and how we express ourselves (Leo).
Because the moon is in such an unemotional sign, I think it's probably a good idea to avoid getting too emotionally worked up over the panic-inducing things that are happening. The problems the world is dealing with are a direct result of people losing any sense of proportion or equanimity. And with Mars and Saturn in Scorpio, extremism has very dangerous consequences.
It doesn't matter what form your extremism takes. Leftists can be every bit as extreme in their views as radical Islamists. You have to take the other side of the story into account: that is the message of the north node in Libra, the sign of relating and fairness. You have to take other people's views and experiences into account. Maybe actively seeking out other points of view is a good antidote to extremism...we can easily spend our lives surrounded by people who agree with us and back up our opinions, and information sources that confirm our prejudices. The way things are going, that's a recipe for collective disaster.
Anyway, to sum up: it's extreme, violent weather out there. If you focus on changing yourself, freeing your mind and avoiding personal extremism, you'll be better off and maybe you'll be of benefit to others.
Don't surrender your mind to anyone or anything – not to a dogma or to an emotional appeal or a cause. Try to think for yourself and stay objective. If you feel yourself being swayed by panic or moral outrage, try to take a step back – there is detachment and clarity on offer if you want it.
Maybe ask yourself: "what would Spock do?"
And try to express yourself even if it feels isolating. That's the only way people get to hear alternate points of view at all.
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