Seeing Who We Are: The Full Moon in Aquarius

a full house ...

Full Moon at 0 Aquarius
July 22, 2013 2:16pm EDT

Some time ago, I pledged to stop using "intense" to describe the New and Full Moon patterns we've been seeing. Not because the intensity went away, mind you, but because "intense" loses its meaning when every single lunation is, well, intense.

Beginning with this Full Moon, I think I'll stop using "rare" and "unusual" too.

Monday's Full Moon includes an amazing combination of aspect patterns:

• a Grand Cross of Ceres and Juno squaring the Nodes,
• a T-Square of Uranus squaring Pluto and Mercury,
• a T-Square of Saturn squaring the Sun and Moon,
• two Grand Trines in Water, of North Node, Chiron and Mercury, then Saturn, Neptune and Mars–Jupiter–Lilith,
• two yods mirroring each other, of the Sun at the apex of Pluto and Neptune, and the apex of Venus and Pallas Athena, and
• two quintiles linking Venus and the North Node, and Uranus and the Moon.

To describe this combination of patterns at a Full Moon as "unusual" or "intense" feels lame, at this point. Intense and unusual have become the new normal.

This Aquarian Full Moon fall at the beginning of the beginning of Aquarius and Leo: Only 5 minutes inside the 0 degree. After the somewhat behind-the-scenes and under-the-radar energies of past weeks, this Full Moon will feel like stepping onto a fully lit stage.

In fact, this could feel like stepping onstage for what we think is a full dress rehearsal, only to find it's opening night and the theater is packed. Friends, family, well-wishers, strangers, enemies, critics––everyone's here. The opening applause dies down, the spot focuses in. Time for the opening speech.

Fight. Flight, Freeze. Is this an amygdala highjack? Or are we ready? Can we grab that fraction of a second we've got to shift attention into a calm, centered place?

This is a Full Moon for feedback. The Sun and Moon, the luminaries in the sky and the guiding lights of our inner selves, are at the twin centers of a whole passel of attention from powerful others. We are going to be illuminated, quite possibly with a level of brilliance we've not experienced before.

In the past weeks (or months or years, depending on your chart and life choices), we've been preparing. Personal work, creative exploration, diving into the unconscious or dreamscapes or Imaginal realms, everything we've done to build a meaningful life––all the projects, efforts, plans, desires we've fed with our energy and time and love for longer than we can remember––what are they, really? Do we know?

Reading through what I've written feels scary. And yet, what this Full Moon offers is a gift. In the bright white limelight of an Aquarius Moon and Leo Sun, we're given the chance to see who we are.

I've been listening to a lot of Marion Woodman lately. She describes key moments in therapy sessions when, experiencing a deep insight, the client comes into wholeness. These moments don't generally last, but the experience, however brief, lights that client's unique and individual path.

center stage

If we're willing to step into the light and reach deep within for the insight, we can experience a wholeness that lights up where we are and (hopefully) where we go next.

This Full Moon can be like that.

Seeds we planted at the New Moon will bear some fruit. And, given the number of players, and the strength and precision of their focus, the illumination of this Full Moon could have a much deeper, broader impact.

Who are we, really? Yes, this is about embracing Shadow. But this isn't a Full Moon for playing small. It's also time to step into our gifts, our grace, our vision and our passion.

Look into the faces in that packed theater. See what's mirrored there in all its complexity. This is who we are. This is the curiosity, challenge, excitement, delight and love the universe offers.

It's mind-blowing and heart-opening to think about. I'm hoping I remember my lines. If I stumble a bit at the beginning, though, it's still be awesome.