A 10 Aquarus Full Moon

A Full Moon rises over Nykoping Sweden

Earth’s northern hemisphere calls August summer. Earth’s southern hemisphere calls August winter. Either way, an August Full Moon is a ‘mid-season’ Moon which zodiacally emphasizes the Leo-Aquarius polarity.

And that means 'fixed,' in astro-terms.

That 'fixed' quality has - generally - two very different polarities. One involves gathering in information from which a decision then gets made and acted on, which fits rather nicely with Mercury being retrograde in Leo.

Well...except for that Mercury-Leo doubling up on the fixed factor thing.

And before we get all hung up on that, there is the other side of the 'fixed factor': that being procrastination. Or a refusing to deal with things. Or refusing to change.

In one direction, the 'fixed' modality says slow and steady wins the race. In the other, it's more about being a stick stuck in your own mire of muddiness.

So which are you? There's an 'overall' tendency and a 'dealing with the moment' quality here to be considered. On one hand, you may be someone with a lot of energy in fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius). On the other hand, you may just be at something of a crossroads in life, and you're trying to figure out which way to go.

With Amor – a non-sexual sort of ‘love’ (regard, focus) at 6 Aquarius and thus on the 'Moon side' of this Full Moon, we know this is a Full Moon moment which will have a tendency to 'highlights' both our creative natures and critiques. Either way this can be you supporting or criticizing yourself or someone else cheering you on or poking your thinnest skin with their very sharpest needle.

The figure here being Sun in Leo/Moon in Aquarius, there's likely to be a lot of projecting going on. So we should expect to hear folks explaining how someone else isn't doing it right when their own house or life (or head) is in a mess of shambles.

Or stuck in the sand, yes.

The Sun in Leo quality here can make us virtually blind to fact. Or caution. Or even just valid input.

At the same time it can also symbolize the vision, the power to see beyond this moment.

So what's a person to think?

Well, we do have some astro-hints thrown in here. There's Eos, the figure of the dawn. Eos being a creature of the sea, this is a 'dawning' of emotional recognition or possibility.

Then there's Sabine - the quality of being held captive by something or someone. Maybe just by our ego?

Then there's Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne is an interesting addition to this party as like everything else in this little grouping, it's positioned in Leo, the sign of native creations and creativity. On the qualitative level, Mnemosyne is about embodying creativity. So when we throw in the last modifier of the moment (Athena, representing intellectual intelligence and thinking things through) the question is again a reiteration of the baseline Sun-Moon Leo-Aquarius question: what are you doing with your life? 
/

 Dawn on an island beach in British Columbia.

Life...nature...sometimes we can be awed by

being part of something so magnificent.

It says so much about what we are - and what

we can potentially become.

(photo credit: Brandon Godfrey, September 2009)

What this comes down to is that this Full Moon of Thursday August 2nd (at 3:27 a.m. UT/+0) at 10 Aquarius is about whether our life 'works' for us.

And not just for 'us' on the ego level...but 'us' at the 'life' leel.

You know...it's that 'are you frittering away precious time or opportunities?' and 'are you spending your time, energy and resources on things which are impractical...maybe even futile?'

The Moon side of this figure being in Aquarius automatically references matters social, societal and having to do with income. So if the social, societal or income part of your life is going well, this is a moment not to dent that and thus a time to either work towards capitalizing on momentum or letting things 'run' on said momentum while you have a bit of fun.

If things aren't so happy in the social, societal or income part of life, this is a time to be working on getting things on track - or back on track, depending.

However...! Life is sending us a wee notice that there is a bit of a trick to all at hand, or in mind, or in motion.

That concerns Neptune.

Neptune, you say?

Yes, Neptune. And why would that be? The 'why' there concerns Neptune's Nodes. Currently positioned at 11 Leo (Ascending/North) and 11 Aquarius (Descending/South), this Neptune quality is both a door to huge opportunities and a huge opportunity to be sinking more bad energy after good.

So how do you know which is which?

Simple: rely on facts. Hard proof, hard facts and real realities is the most likely indicator of which way to go here. So if you're working on a project, don't listen to rumor, do some from-the-source research. If you're thinking of getting involved in something, enjoy the hype and the 'selling you on how fabulous things could be' but make your choice based on realism.

And remember, that realism should have two sides to it, just like the Full Moon...there's the 'what I can do' Leo Sun side of things and 'how others are likely to respond to this idea' Aquarius Moon side of things.

Our tendency...granting that Leo is Leo...will be to want to go with 'our thing.' And this may be all well and good unless you're talking about anything income-oriented.

This is where we get back to that 'Mercury retrograde in Leo' thing. It's great for the imagining and dreaming up part of things, it's not so good with focusing on whether there's really a 'market' for what we're proposing (on the scale we want or need) or whether people will be receptive of our efforts.

It's tough. There's likely to be a goodly deal of emotional myopia (nearsightedness) going around now.

Try not to get caught up in it unless you're on vacation or celebrating an engagement or something of-the-moment fabulous like that.

As for the actual degree of this Full Moon (10 Aquarius) that too stresses the creative if Neptunian quality of the moment. As a degree, this one suggests that best bets involve keeping an open mind - even if that means hearing what you don't want to hear. This in itself rather suggests that the 'polarized' Sun-opposition-Moon quality of the Full Moon is likely to be very much on the table now. And when we add in the Neptunian Nodes, we can expect that simple things may look difficult (or like they will cause difficulties) and that those things which are in reality the least likely to succeed...well, those may come off sounding like sure-fire winner.

The solution would seem to be leaving ourselves open to inspiration while not gullible enough to believe what we want to believe because it feels good...or merely easy. 

The ability of simple things to suggest 'other images' to our mind

is natively to all of us and very much part of the Neptunian concept.

Here, two glasses are sitting on a black surface in a dark room

in front of a tiled LCD screen. It looks simple, and yet not so

simple...and in that, gives us the key to understanding

Neptune's metaphysics.

(photo credit Atoma Febuary 2007)

So where does that leave us? Probably with some  obvious pluses and minuses. Aquarius being a sign about success through acceptance of one's contribution, it's worth considering how well integrated you are with not just 'your' group, but the world around you. There's a lot of factionalizing going on - that's endemic and to be expected here at the start of the Aquarian Age.

But the point of Aquarius being universalism, that says that those who don't factionalize, who don't cater to the 'me and mine' and who look towards the broadest of societal connections, the looking past such things as race, age, social status, generational inclination, heritage, finances, technology, religion, gender, intelligence, personal interests...ALL that stuff - those who head for the most universal of appeals and the most universal of approaches are going to win.

Some will call this the 'lowest common denominator.' Some will look at this precept and realize that by holding to a standard of quality that 'universalism' becomes all-inclusiveness.

And when you deal with your life in this world, the more of the world which accepts who you are and what you contribute, the better off you are.

Notice: this is not about liking you per se...this is about accepting your contribution.

We all need a basis for existing in this world. The 'Aquarius process' is all about establishing how to fit in and how to create that basis for operation. There is an in-built tendency (which may come out at this time) to isolate or take a very 'I don't want to be part of that' stance. And that may be fine.

Then again, that may not be fine.

And that's another place where this Leo Mercury retrograde can come in handy - or be the means by which you cause your own headaches. Simply putting up a wall and saying 'I don't care about that' (or them) is a sure fire way for life to test you at some point down the line (and probably not all that far down the line!). In other words, taking the time to become informed, is the best way forward here.

Again...it's that 'know the facts' thing.

So this is a fine time to simply enjoy yourself, so long as you don’t overdo or do something foolish like try out high-wire walking for the first time with no safety net.

It’s also – rather curiously, perhaps – a great time to be casting lines into life's waters. Mercury retrograde - in any sign - is a good time for exploring. And with this Full Moon highlighting the Aquarius precept? It's a particularly apt time to float ideas...to go fishing for a nibble. Even a bite!

The one caution here would be this: don't can't make good on. In fact, this may be when you realize that your having skirted and evaded responsibilities is going to cost you!

Considering how this Full Moon is in Aquarius, and that Aquarius does always suggest a “them” or a 'group,’ August 2nd may become a day of obligations. Or when you realize you have obligations coming due.

Then again, all Full Moons also point to the end of a “phase” in some greater process. Maybe you’ve been building something? Maybe you'll realize what you had been thinking to do just won't work? Maybe you'll finish doing something which for whatever reason (read: Mercury retrograde), can't or shouldn't be acted on just yet?

As with every Full Moon, some of us will arrive at August 2nd, achieve ‘x’ goal and immediately move on to some ‘next step in the process.' Given Mercury retrograde, this is likely to happen without a whole lot of hullabaloo.

hen again, some of us will get to August 2nd and realize we've been kidding ourselves...and that we really do need to deal with the reality of some situation.
.

  A crescent Moon rises over Kazakhstan

No matter where we are, we all share the same Moon

(photo credit: NASA - Bill Ingalls - 2009)

Whatever happens, so long as we remember that Leo tends to manifest as a 'how I'd like things to be' in our head...which may not match the reality of whatever we get presented with, we'll be fine.

And by the way - life hasn't 'disappointed' us. We have. And that's the major 'trick' with (and of) Leo. The Leo ability to envision the fun, the perfection, the 'how things could be' is supposed to be a motivation to try. That real life isn't that fantasy...that it's hot at the theme park or that our date isn't perfect...the measure of 'disappointment' we feel is exactly the difference between motivation and expectation.

And that 'ideal versus reality' is why - and where - there's a marked similarity between Leo (ruled by the Sun) and Pisces (ruled by Jupiter and Neptune).

The big difference? Leo operates in the realm of the idea or theory of the thing and ends up prompting our feelings. Pisces operates through our feelings and ends up teaching us a lesson - at least in theory.

That makes the linking of Neptune's Nodes, Sun and Mercury in Leo and the Aquarian Full Moon a highly poignant moment.

And yet...it is just a moment.

Full Moons image our monthly cycle of personal just as the solar calendar is our yearly cycle of overall life growth. The rolling overlap of the 13-month 'lunar year' against the 365.2422 day solar year and its various tests and stages are what get highlighted at the 'life level' by the 19-year (235 lunar month) Metonic eclipse cycle and at the more personal worldly-interactive level by the 18.6 lunar nodal cycle.

Oh...and did you know that the lunar nodes are about to change signs?

They are. That happens at the end of this month (August, 2012). And that means that - since the nodes cycle backwards through the zodiac (it's a planetary orbit thing) that at the moment the nodes are in the smallest of small degrees of Sagittarius (North) and Gemini (South) emphasizing what we think, what we need to learn - and the fact that we need to recognize the work involved to make things work. No matter what we want to do in life, we risk a few glitches, a few stubbed toes, a few 'oops!' moments.

The Sabian Symbol for the degree of this Full Moon is ‘DURING A SILENT HOUR, A MAN RECEIVES A NEW INSPIRATION WHICH MAY CHANGE HIS LIFE.’

  Inspiration comes in many forms...here, sunlight pours

into Antelope Canyon, Arizona

 (photo credit Lucas Loffler, August 2006)

 

Given this...and the position of the lunar nodes, things which have been building are coming down to some very 'basic' considerations.

Do you know which way to go?

There is very little which is hard-core predictable about  this moment. Things are in flux. Things are changing. We we need to not only recognize that, but recognize what that means to us.

So you may need to make a decision. Or you may need to do some tall thinking. Or some gathering together of the facts. We all need to be considering not just the 'our' side of things, but the 'how to connect to the world' side of things.

Then we need to understand that getting from decisions to fruition takes time. It's a process.

But we need to be part of that process if we're thinking that process is going to include us.

And from there, we all move on.
.

Full Moon of August 2, 2012

(Aries Wheel, not location specific)