Full Moon in Aquarius
Aug 8, 9:54 pm HST, Aug 9: 12:54 am PDT, 3:54 am EDT, 8:54 am BST
There are so many layers to this Full Moon chart and I marvel at how extraordinary it is in its expression. It’s not surprising, since these are extraordinary times and I know the planets are always mirroring our lives. The patterns shown in this chart, and in the New Moon chart after this one, form a set of blueprints to guide us toward what’s coming in the Autumn of this year, when the outer planets will go retrograde, and back into their previous signs. More on that later.
We’ve had all three outer planets change signs within the same period of a year, Pluto changing in November last, Neptune and Uranus in April and July. The outer planets, remember, are the slow moving significators of the zeitgeist of our collective awareness. With them all changing signs, they’re indicators of global shifts in focus, a Great Turning historically, of which we are just at the beginning. And since beginnings are tied to endings, we are quite clearly seeing how much is also ending in this time. While it’s natural to bemoan the political events which spell the end of democracy as we know it, we must remember Pluto’s evolutionary cycle of 248 years hearkens back to a quite revolutionary time of 1776, and the French Revolution of 1789. Pluto’s entry into Aquarius always reflects an acceleration of consciousness taking place, Aquarius being the sign of humanitarianism and higher ideals, while Pluto strips away the outworn, and asks us to evolve
In this Full Moon chart, Pluto forms what is called a Grand Trine with Mars and Uranus. Grand Trines happen when three planets form an equilateral triangle around the Earth, (the Earth is always in the center of the chart). This fairly rare configuration denotes helpful and encouraging energies, as it involves trines (harmonious 120˚ angles). Since it takes place in air signs, it is supporting increased awareness around the ideas of just what’s necessary for us to embrace, so get ready, insight and inspiration are awaiting us all. Pluto asks for us to let go of what’s no longer working in our lives, Uranus in Gemini asks us to explore new, more helpful and innovative experiences and beliefs, and ways of framing our experience, and Mars in Libra favors making connections, bouncing off our ideas with others, exchanging energies and thoughts, and allowing others to reflect to us their ways of coping with these most challenging times. It’s even more important to have times of meditation now, to take advantage of this configuration, so pay attention for insights coming into our awareness as this Full Moon shines its light down upon us. Journal, take notes, write down insights and share them with friends.
When a planet forms an opposition to one of the planets in the Grand Trine this is called a Kite formation. There are actually two kites pulling on this Grand Trine. Kite formations tend to stimulate into action the contents of the Grand Trine. In a person’s natal chart a Grand Trine can often give a kind of ease that can bring in complacency, and the Kite opposition is like pulling the string on a bow and arrow, a springing us into action.
The Kite to Mars from Saturn and Neptune says action (Mars) will come from the awareness of what needs to be done in our lives to conform to the paradigm shift of values that Saturn conjoined Neptune represent. Conjoining once every 36 years, these two planets have not been conjoined in Aries since 1703! So what’s pulling us into new awareness is the development of a mindfulness of our history, especially in that period here in this country of the US, an awareness of the destruction of the Native peoples and their culture, and the expansion of “settlers”. Awakening to the damaging aspects of our past is exactly what the reactionaries in power now wish to prevent and eradicate.
The second Kite is from Mercury, presently in Leo and retrograde, to Pluto. In order to tap into Pluto’s transformational lessons, and receive insight in navigating the present upheavals of our society, we can’t just “think our way” out of our situation. Yes, we may need to rewrite our Constitution, or at least follow its original design (which Congress in the US is not doing) but what also needs to happen is a sea change in beliefs, ones that are following the pathways of the heart (Leo) rather than just our thinking brain (Mercury) and our society’s interpretations of law. Where the heart is absent, greed rushes in. So we have to kind of reverse-think our approach to transformation, how it happens, and how important each one of us is in that process.
The two kites actually are also trine to each other, with Mercury in a trine to its other activator, the epic Saturn/Neptune conjunction. Again, here we are even more encouraged to draw from the symbol of this paradigm shift awareness, and ask ourselves what in our lives we need to release in order to become an agent of change and a container for the integrity of what keeps us human: kindness and caring for others and ourselves. Mercury in its retrograde actually is helpful in this regard, to integrate the vastness of the meaning of Saturn/Neptune[1] from a less rational and more intuitive standpoint.
It's interesting to note that the Sun/Moon opposition, characteristic of a Full Moon, does not have any aspects (angles) to other planetary bodies in its chart. Aspects are the energetic connectors, like the wiring in a circuit board. It’s like the Sun (authority) and the Moon (the people) in their opposition must become very quiet and must rely upon larger energetic connections for our understanding. The Grand Trine in this chart, calls us to become aware of the larger picture, to which we are connected by virtue of our humanity, like the ground in a circuit board, and the Earth beneath our feet—without it, only relying upon our own limited viewpoint, the larger energy cannot move through us, and we become ungrounded.
Mercury will end its retrograde on August 11th, which is an extremely loaded day, energetically. On that day, while the Perseids meteor shower is raining down its meteors, mysteriously seeding us with its rocks and dust from the outer cosmos, Venus and Jupiter will make an exact conjunction. If you’ve been up early enough to see Venus in the eastern sky, you’d also see another bright “star” below her, that’s Jupiter. The next day, they will begin to switch places, as Jupiter will rise before her since Venus progresses much faster, moving past Jupiter further into the degrees of Cancer.
Though Jupiter and Venus conjoin once a year, they last conjoined in Cancer 24 years ago, in 2001 and again in 2002. They will make a second conjunction in Cancer next year, when they conjoin as an evening “star” in June of 2026. What makes this especially powerful is that Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, meaning it’s the most ideal energetic placement for Jupiter, balancing the strongly masculine “Zeus” archetype with the sign that is strongly feminine and nurturing. Venus in Cancer too, carries the nurturing quality of great sensitivity and “mothering,” qualities sadly lacking in our present day society.
This conjunction brings us a much needed “sign in the skies” of the need for the spirituality (Jupiter) of kindness and love (Venus). These are the qualities of generosity, and the kinds of awareness that allow us to become peacemakers, each one of us in our own unique way. We cannot rely upon legislation to create the kind of world that no longer uses war to resolve conflicts. We must become peace[2]. As our heads slowly begin to clear from this past (and intense!) Mercury retro, we are pointed to the morning sky to see two of the most benefic planets in the zodiac paired, as a sign that change will happen, is happening, within all of us, whether we are aware of it or not.
[1] Which, among many other things, is a shift away from the personal (me, my career, my money) and instituting new structures (Saturn) to help the collective (Neptune), for the good of those in need, adopting new ways of sharing our resources, rather than hoarding them for profit at the expense of others.
[2] I’m reminded of Thich Nhat Hanh’s classic book “Being Peace” written long ago, in 1987.