I have been thinking a lot about responsibility lately, what I’m tied to, what I love, what I am creating, maintaining and magnetizing. I’ve been wading through the history of my choices, the history of their consequences and the reality I have constructed for myself. I have been wading and I have been waiting. For clarity.
The full moon brings a brief moment of clarity – of illumination, recognition, and revelation. Such moments can be enough to make us change course completely. And moments are all we have. If we string enough good ones together we can claim a life well-lived. Some people are even able to do this within the most grueling of circumstances. We should dance around these people, put flowers at their feet, and bring them a warm cup of appreciation. Because they are masters.
We must all become masters too.
We must become masters of the tools that we have been given or else live our lives in vain. But mastery is not bought wholesale, on sale or with Groupon coupons. Mastery takes time, effort, trust, patience, endurance, fortitude and the courage to fail. And fail big.
Sunday’s full moon (occurring at 11:09 am PST) is in the rational, cool, emotionally detached, innovative, humanitarian and socially idealistic sign of Aquarius. The sun is in the opposite sign (what occurs at a full moon) of the Water Bearer, Leo.
Leo is warm, inspired, expressive and performative. Leo risks everything in order to be received by its audience. Aquarius understands itself and could not care less if you do too. It doesn’t have time for you to catch up with it. It can’t afford to curb its own intellect to suit the masses. Aquarius sees above and beyond the rest of the sheep. It arrives at the truth while others are still so caught in the lie they have no clue that there is even a fabrication at play.
Leo needs your adoration like it needs air and water. Meanwhile, Aquarius is uncomfortable with overt, explicitly personal displays of love because it’s too concerned with pouring forth water to the collective.
Leo and Aquarius are two sides of the same coin, a coin we all have in our change purse. Every sign is contained within us. The zodiac is a story of the unfolding of human consciousness. Every full moon is an opportunity to experience both sides of an equation. Month by month we live through the entire mythic journey. This moment in the journey is about the need for personal self-expression (Leo) and the need to serve the collective (Aquarius). It’s about allowing ourselves to burn bright with the fire of our personality and be detached enough to see what any given situation calls for. It’s not all about us but if we leave ourselves out completely we forgo the joy of being playfully present.
The sun is sharing Leo’s full moon stage with Black Moon Lilith (Jupiter and Mercury are also in the mix but we’ll save that for another day). Lilith is wild. She is untamable. She is sexually free. Lilith is the absolute power of erotic energy. Lilith is an intricate piece of this full moon because, at the time of it, she will be conjunct the sun, opposing the moon and squaring Saturn. She doesn’t care about composure, she only cares about being true. She doesn’t care about her reputation, she only cares about her autonomy. She doesn’t care about your power structure, she only cares about maintaining her integrity. Lilith says, “I know my mastery of absolute self acceptance makes everyone uncomfortable. You’re welcome.” Lilith’s involvement in the full moon demands that we freely express ourselves, no holding back, no excuses and no apologies. Lilith is a wild card that can cause great strife or great awakening. Tempered and tested by a square from Saturn the choice for how to use this energy is ours. It could feel like we are being hemmed in and misunderstood for simply being ourselves or like we are finally getting the hang of how to use our erotic energy constructively.
Saturn in Scorpio squares this mess of magnificence. Saturn is the traditional ruler of Aquarius, known for its self-containing influence, its careful calculations and its cautious candor. Saturn demands self-mastery or promises mountains of misery. While squares offer us no resolution, they often afford us the opportunity for growth, change and movement. Saturn’s stern and steely gaze locks eyes with us and demands not only a brutal honesty but total culpability. Saturn brings a strong dose of reality and with reality there is an opportunity for revelation. Saturn usually makes us wait for the things that are worth something and tests us, pushes us and forces us to address the facets of ourselves that feel inadequate, irresponsible and unsure. Saturn squaring the sun in Leo and the full moon in Aquarius calls us out on our boastful behavior, busts us on our too cool, aloof attitudes and asks us to walk some sort of middle ground. Saturn asks us to find a steady, contemplative place where we can both be ourselves and act on behalf of the collective.
For my super-keen, over-achieving astrobabes that want extra credit: On Friday, August 8th, Mercury will be cazimi, entering the heart of the sun or (in plain English) be in exact alignment with it from our perspective here on earth. The ancients saw this as a powerful moment of regeneration of the powers associated with the planet piercing its heart. Mercury is the messenger, the transgressor of boundaries, the winged wonder of wisdom and wizard of words. Friday is the perfect day to speak, dance, draw and sing (we are talking about planets in the drama-loving Leo) the words you wish the Universe to hear. Do this because ultimately you want your ideas to be more than just words, you want them to be your lived experience. Talk to your loved ones, your comrades, compatriots and closets companions about the plans, dreams and fantasies you have for your life. Speak the yearnings of your heart into being. A planet that is cazimi is akin to being granted access to the greatest power source available so choose your words wisely, take yourself and your dreams seriously and believe in the possibility of you living the life you know is awaiting you. If you want to know where exactly this is taking place in your life it’s specifically mentioned in each of your weekly horoscopes.