Full Moon in Aquarius: Clear Sight, Strong Heart

Full Moon over Belfast

Full Moon in Aquarius
August 20, 2013 9:45 pm EDT
August 21, 2013 2:45 am GMD

I am in Ireland, in the early days of a journey that will, in ways I can feel but not see, shape what happens next in my life.

Looking at the chart of the upcoming Full Aquarius Moon, that same shaping is there for all of us––One way or another, this Moon will illuminate what happens next with startling clarity.

For one (smallish) thing, the Full Moon happens on different dates in the US and Ireland, the two places my consciousness bridges these days: 9:45 pm August 20 EDT and 2:45 am 21 August GMD. Look... the dates aren't even written in the same format.

We'll find the Full Moon at 28 Aquarius, the Sun at 28 Leo. This late-degree placement intensifies the polarity, Aquarius as the clear-sighted, incisive, big-picture thinker and Leo as the passionately creative heart.

These two powerhouses face off to highlight their positions. Are we thinking clearly? Are we heart centered? Are those two really opposed? What does this even mean?

Well, this Full-Moon-to-come offers examples:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's recent comments in support of Rand and Ron Paul shocked those who assumed Assange stood for the underdog, which he doesn't, except in the sense that he opposes government structures of almost any kind. Assange sees the Paul's libertarian hands-off policies as 'the only useful political voice in Congress.'

Overnight, Time's Michael Grunwald tweeted, then apologized and withdrew, that he would celebrate a drone strike that took Assange out. Government intervention to the max, in the form of extrajudicial execution.

These are extreme Aquarian positions: committed worldviews representing abstract, idealized positions uninformed by compassion. Not, let me hasten to say, Aquarius at its best. Rather, a vision of what can happen to Aquarius in the absence of Leo.

Or looked at the other way 'round, both Assange and Grunwald are privileged. While we might not consider their lives enviable in all respects, they are celebrities of a kind, able to put their views before a world audience.

Listened to with less privileged ears, each could be heard as saying, "I've got mine, which is the right and only view, so screw you," which is Leo run amok, uninformed by the wider community vision for which Aquarius stands.

This rather startling example of Full Moon polarity, which arrives with Neptune conjunct the Moon, includes options for illusion, delusion, and confusion, as well as creative vision.

Back to my Irish odyssey. This evening, I will enter into five days of silent retreat, led by a poet who loves deserts. Meditation, listening, going within––no speaking, reading, googling.

I will experience this Full Moon on the inside, watching her brilliance rise over mountains and shine down on the bay, hoping for a new inner peace.

With all that's happening on the world stage, this Full Moon will feel very, very personal. Venus entered Libra yesterday, a place she loves, seeking balance and beauty. Her relationship to this Full Moon is awkward––an inconjunct to Neptune, longing for a harmony that may elude us, at least for now.

Mars in Cancer, still in the place of emotion and tradition which is not his most comfortable abode, will make the same awkward inconjunct aspect to the Moon. In this, the good soldier Mars tries to temper the cold steel of Aquarius with the Moon's own compassion. Will it work?

Meanwhile, Mercury is conjunct the Sun in Leo, opposite the Moon, ready to speak out with passion. Here are some of the questions this Full Moon might illuminate:

• How am I holding space for both compassion and idealistic vision? Loving what is, while moving toward what could be?

• How am I honoring the past, preserving important legacies, while releasing what no longer serves me? How am I moving into the future without turning my back on where I'm from?

• Where am I deluding myself? Where have I become inflated, rigid, or too sure? Where am I in a comfortable spiritual bypass rather than facing an edgier inner truth?

• How am I balancing the personal and the political? How can I create and hold space for balance, harmony and peace?

The Leo New Moon invited us to connect with our creative passion, to plant the seeds closest to our own hearts. At this Full Moon, we'll see how we've done––not in a final, this-is-over way, but in a hmmm, how's that working? way.

The lighting could feel a bit stark; Aquarius has a merciless quality Leo doesn't always bother to temper. The most cathartic theater comes not in light comedy, but in experiencing something deeper and closer to the bone.

So take a deep breath and buckle up. This Full Moon promises to be quite a show.