Today’s Full Moon in Aries is a powerhouse. If you watched the Moon rise in the sky last night, you’ll know what I mean without reading the rest of this essay, because, wow.
The Moon was golden and full rising with Jupiter visible nearby. Even before the sky was fully dark, these two were there, waiting to be seen. This is the Hunter’s Moon, the Blood Moon, both names fitting for the cardinal Fire sign, Aries.
For this Full Moon, take the time to check how the aspects touch your birth chart. I recommend this at every New and Full Moon. This time, given the patterns we’re seeing, it’s worth stopping now, pulling up your chart, finding the Full Moon chart, and having the images side by side as you read.
The Full Moon is always an opposition between the Sun and Moon, meaning they’re in opposite signs of the zodiac. Opposite signs have things in common and also a significant difference, a polarity that focuses on where we need to find balance.
The Full Moon in Aries opposes the Sun in Libra. Both are cardinal signs. They initiate. Get things started. They are both turning points, as all four of the cardinal signs are. Aries and Libra are the equinoxes, the equal day/ equal night points in our year. Cancer and Capricorn are the solstices, the longest day/ longest night.
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Aries, cardinal Fire, the first sign of the zodiac, initiates life. A new being emerges. It’s exciting. Incredibly energizing. Who am I? What is this place? What can I do here? What do I want?
Aries, we might say, is the sign of singular desire.
Libra, cardinal Air, is the seventh sign. Here we emerge into the upper, outer-world part of the chart. We see others. Other beings. Other stuff. Other ideas. This is also exciting, in a different way. Who are these others? How do I relate to them? What feels fair, just, appropriate, right? What do I like? What is beautiful?
Libra is the sign of relational desire.
Each Full Moon in Aries has something to show us about the balance between individual desire and our need for relationship. Today’s Full Moon offers a particularly complicated lens through which we can explore this balance.
The Moon at 16° Aries is separating from a conjunction with Chiron retrograde at 14° Aries. Chiron, the wounded healer, highlights patterns of wounding.
Each of our journeys to balance what we want for ourselves with what we want from others (and what others want from us) includes wounding. That’s a commonplace.
In the birth chart, Chiron points to patterns of wounding that came from how we were raised. Becoming a human in community always includes hearing “no.” No, you can’t have that. No, you can’t do that. No, you shouldn’t want that. It hurts and we don’t like it.
This Full Moon can highlight some of those patterns. Do we feel we’ve given up too much in relationship? Or do we feel we’ve preserved our autonomy at too high a cost?
Such choices can be ordinary. We’ve all been in difficult relationships at some point. And they can also be traumatic, even life threatening. We can choose to stay in relationship to people who cause us active harm. Or we can choose to leave, for example, a toxic family, and still feel a lot of pain at that loss.
Be prepared for patterns of wounding around autonomy and relationship to come up.
The Sun at 16° Libra is conjunct Venus at 13° Libra. The strong presence of Venus at this Full Moon reinforces everything I’ve said about this being a time of seeing and feeling how we’ve balanced our own desires with others’ desires.
This sense of reassessing is heightened if we realize that neither the Sun nor the Moon are comfortable where they are.
The Moon is not at their best in Aries. Aries Moon folks have strong emotional need for independence. This can make it challenging for them to find good friends, good partners, who can respect their autonomy while believing in their care and support.
This middle decan of Aries is a great place for the Sun, though, who’s degree of exaltation is only a few degrees away.
The Sun is also not at their best in Libra, considered the sign of their fall. The Sun wants us to shine with our own light, to bring our own gifts, not bask in the reflected light of others.
Venus is strong in her own sign, but combust–so close to the Sun that her powers are dimmed. She cannot shine herself right now.
You see the complex interweave of Sun and Venus, Moon and Chiron, and what a perfect image this is of how we all struggle in finding ourselves and connecting authentically to others. Relationship stuff is bound to be coming up.
Now look to the left and right of the Sun and Moon. Note that Saturn and Mars both aspect this Full Moon.
Mars in Gemini is separating from a trine to Saturn in Aquarius. Saturn is the stronger planet here, in their ancient sign. Mars is less strong but very agile, quick, and clever. This has the feel of a student/teacher relationship. Master and grasshopper. Neither is right all the time. Both learn from each other.
Saturn and Mars trine the Sun–Venus conjunction. This Grand Trine in Air has us thinking about relationship. Saturn and Mars also sextile the Moon and Chiron. This Grand Trine is actually a Kite with Fire at its apex.
Saturn brings in the long view. What are our values? How ethical is our behavior? Do we take responsibility for how we treat others and also for our own autonomy? After all, one way we slide out of owning our actions is by saying we did for someone else. They wanted us to. They insisted. They made us do it.
Mars brings in the trickster, curiosity and irreverence. What happens if we turn a situation upside down? Sideways? Choose a new angle? The role of the trickster is to poke holes in certainty. To prick us when we’re too proud, too self satisfied, too sure we’re in the right.
Mars, ruler of Aries, rules this Full Moon. The relationship stuff that comes up will be giving us some new views. Shaking things up. Inviting in some creative angles.
Saturn squares Uranus. This last pass of the Saturn–Uranus square will not be exact this time around but is pretty damn close. This square connects us to the wider world and the Saturian/ Uranian themes of tradition and change, loyalty and revolution, sticking with the known and striking out in new directions.
Expect this Full Moon to feel unsettling. If the world is changing, it would be nice if our personal lives were stable. If our lives are turning upside down, it would be really helpful if the world was ok. It’s tough to feel seismic changes all over the place at once.
Which brings us to Pluto, who stationed direct last evening. Pluto shakes us to our core. Shows us where the foundations of our lives are not stable. Pluto catalyzes deep changes in the world and in ourselves.
Since Pluto and the other outer planets spend so much time retrograde, it’s less important what direction they’re moving. Where we really feel the outer planets is when they station because they move really, really slowly. Think of a storm that stations right over your house. It’s like that.
Mercury is separating from a trine to Pluto and also an opposition to Neptune. This connects us to wider realms, like Saturn–Uranus, but in different ways.
Pluto and Neptune open us to what is very deep and what is very far. For those comfortable with depth psychology or spiritual practice, this can be comforting. For many, and for all us sometimes, this is destabilizing.
We find ourselves at a Full Moon, gorgeous in the sky, that asks us to look at where we are with regard to autonomy and connection is just about every possible sense. Our personal lives. Our societies. The world as a whole. The depths of our psyches. The cosmos.
How do we find our center in all of this?
With Mars in Gemini, we stay open. New ideas. Ways of seeing. Ways of being.
With the Sun and Venus, we look to our key relationships.
With the Moon and Chiron, we tend to our core. Our heart. Our autonomy, which always relies in some way on connection.
If it feels a bit stormy out there. find your way home to your center. Breathe into your core. Everything else in the world revolves around and relates to you in that place.
Images are all original renders from the Midjourney AI with editing in Photoshop.