With tomorrow’s Full Moon exact in the middle of the day, we have two nights of the full, lit, golden orb in the night sky. Since Libra is the sign of the other, the place where we reach beyond our individual self, two nights feels right.
This Full Moon in Libra arrives in the midst of a fascinating sky. Most of the planets are in the third decan of their signs: Sun and Moon at 26° Aries and Libra. Jupiter and Neptune at 24° Pisces. The Nodes of the Moon at 22° Taurus and Scorpio. Notice all the pairs.
We see the asteroid Eris conjunct the Sun at 24° Aries. Another pair.
Saturn is alone at 23° Aquarius. The Sun and Moon are separating from a sextile and trine to Saturn, still well within orb.
The other singleton is Pluto at 28° Capricorn, squaring the Full Moon.
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Aries and Libra, the first and seventh signs, are angular. In a “natural” chart, they fall across the horizon, ruling the Ascendant and Descendant. As cardinal signs, both Aries and Libra get things started. They begin. They initiate. They ignite.
Their modes of action are very different, though. This is a polarity we understand easily. Aries wants individual, direct action. Point them at a desired goal and their chosen path is a straight line. Anything in the way had better move.
Libra sees the world as a collective, a place of many interlocking communities. Individual action is essential, of course, but goals need to take the community into account. Working with others builds better and more sustainable solutions. Making sure all voices are included is just and right.
To Aries, Libra is needlessly confining. To Libra, Aries is selfish and short-sighted.
And yet everything happens within a context. (Sure, this is a Libran statement. It’s still true.)
The Sun sits right next to Eris, the chaos goddess who seems to represent the global crises we face. Can even an Aries Sun maintain a purely individual point of view when the health of the whole planet is at risk? If anything can bring us together, surely this level of crisis can. And yet, a lot of evidence suggests individual goals are still paramount.
Notice how this Full Moon is softened by the strong Piscean presence in the sky. Jupiter and Neptune remain closely conjunct. They may not directly aspect the Sun and Moon, but their copresence remains pervasive and influential.
It’s not only that. Both the Sun and Moon are ruled by planets in Pisces.
Venus loves being in Pisces, exulting in her copresence with Jupiter, the other benefic, and also Neptune, another source of creative inspiration.
Mars may be less thrilled to be in Pisces, where he contends with emotions and intuition and spiritual insights not always congenial to his character. And yet there’s relief here for Mars, who has finally escaped Saturn. Mars may feel lost in Piscean mists, but he’s still glad to be away from the planet who blocked his every move.
Ruled by planets in Pisces and in the presence of the Jupiter–Neptune conjunction, this Full Moon is about more than our personal relationships.
This Moon asks where we locate ourselves in the bigger questions about individual responsibility for collective actions, about how we build and shape our communities, and about how we ensure everyone has access to what they need not only to survive, but to thrive.
Venus, ruler of the Full Moon, sextiles Mercury and Uranus, who approach their own conjunction. With Mercury in Taurus, we know in our bones that the world is changing. We feel how dependent we are on this Earth and how little we understand about how to protect her.
The sextile from Venus in Pisces says, “do not despair.” This Venus counsels us to look beyond human communities. To think outside the box in Uranian ways, finding how we connect with our ecosystems. “What would Mother Nature do?” is the rallying cry of scientists and engineers who look to natural systems to find solutions to human problems.
Our growing awareness of our vulnerability on the Earth can inspire, rather than frighten us.
Saturn may be a stern taskmaster but knows the importance of structure. At this Full Moon, the trine from Saturn to the Moon reinforces this principle. Not only is Saturn exalted in the sign of Libra, he reaches his degree of exaltation in its third decan.
Nothing that Libra values, whether in the arts, in the financial world, in communities, or in relationships, is possible without appropriate, sustainable structures.
Saturn rules the skeletal system. The strength of Saturn creates beautiful bones, the structures that carry everything that lives and moves.
Now we come to Pluto, squaring the Full Moon.
This is Pluto at their most intense, barely moving, preparing to station retrograde in another week or so. It’s as if Pluto has the reins of this Full Moon in hand, guiding the balance of self and other, personal and shared goals, with an implacable hand.
This Pluto looks to us for answers to difficult, sometimes impossible questions. Which is more important, the individual or the collective? If we say, it depends, Pluto replies, on what? How do you decide? What are your criteria? Where do you draw the line?
It’s uncomfortably easy to find events in the world that confront us with just these questions. The pandemic. Lingering injustices throughout our societies. Conflicts and war. All put issues of the individual and the collective before us.
Answers are not easy to come by. At least, we may have our individual answers, yet crafting a truly collective response seems almost impossible.
The third decans of the signs lean into themes of culmination and completion. Austin Coppock names the third decan of Aries “The Burning Rose.” This decan, ruled by Venus, seeks Venusian paths to achievement.
This Aries Sun reaches across the table to take hands with the Libra Moon.
The third decan of Libra, Coppock names “The Gyroscope.” In the whirling disparities of life, Libra realizes the need for the kind of focused stillness Aries excels in. In the eye of the storm, Coppock’s phrase, we find the balance we need to act.
As the Aries Sun reaches out, the Libra Moon reaches back.
These are ideals offered by the Full Moon, of course. In our personal lives and communities, we miss opportunities and fall short of our goals at least as often as we succeed.
Pluto, the one asking the tough questions, is our key to unlocking deeper kinds of success. If Saturn looks at physical structures like our bones, and rocks, and how buildings are engineered, Pluto looks at the fault lines of the psyche.
To find the right balance between self and other, we need to know who we are. We need a sense of what our birthright is, as apart from what our families and cultures have told us. We need to see clearly so we can find healing for what gets in the way of our authentic selves.
The messaging here is multilayered.
We see there is work to be done, in ourselves, our communities, and the world.
Also, we’re gently reminded that expecting easy, or even just moderately difficult answers is unrealistic. Healing humanity’s wounds is a herculean task.
Most important, we’re reminded we’re not alone. If we can feel these presences, these energies, these archetypes at work in our lives and our world, we’re not here on our own.
Whatever your cosmology looks like, if astrology feels meaningful to you, it’s because there are presences older, larger, deeper, more powerful, and more knowing than we are. They’re in dialog with us. And, like us, they have beautiful bones. Bones we can build with to create a better world.
Title adapted from Andriyko Podilnyk
https://unsplash.com/photos/JxfYO0hhZGQ
Wall painting adapted from Pascal Bernardon
https://unsplash.com/photos/HWibiWxNboQ
Trees adapted from Maksim Shutov
https://unsplash.com/photos/AcdCWfbCI1g
Beautiful face adapted from Nathan Anderson
https://unsplash.com/photos/2nqji_XO20w