The Full Moon this month occurs on August 11 at 19 degrees of Aquarius. This will be a heavy, tense Full Moon as the Moon is conjunct Saturn at 22 Aquarius and in a T-square with the fiery Mars-Uranus-North Node conjunction in Taurus.
Saturn rules Aquarius and being so close to the Moon in the sky means he’s firmly in charge of this lunation. The Sun in domicile is also strong, holding his own court opposite Moon-Saturn. Saturn also rules Pluto in Capricorn which is averse the Moon, Saturn and Sun. Yet despite not being able to see what’s in his earth house, Saturn is nonetheless infused with the Plutonian energies welling up from the deep. Thus this Full Moon takes on even more of a transformative and obsessive tenor.
People with Ascendants or planets in the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) will feel this heaviness most strongly.
Our emotions weigh heavily on us at this time. We feel a strong sense of the boundaries that confine and constrain us. This Aquarius Full Moon asks us to balance our need for self expression and where we want to shine forth as unique individuals with our obligations and duties to our communities and social spheres.
We see a vision of where we fit within the greater circles that enfold our lives and how we may shine forth in them. But there’s an unsettled, itchy feeling within us, a craving for liberation from the confines of these circles. The Moon, shackled to stern Saturn, reflects the Sun in Leo’s dominating rays while both of them are pressured by electric Uranus and fiery Mars, supercharged by the North Node.
Some of our relationship obligations may feel oppressive or unacceptable and we seek escape from them at this time. We may even take bold, courageous or foolhardy actions in an attempt to break free from social duties. There is a real chance for transformation here, but it comes with great risk and we may retreat into ourselves instead.
With Venus having just stepped into Leo, the fair lady steps into the Sun’s spotlight and stares across at the weightiness of the Moon and Saturn.
Our relationships with our mothers and fathers comes into focus. The weight of motherhood and fatherhood feels particularly heavy at this time, for both parents and children. We must re-evaluate how we are part of our parents but an individual in our own right, yet also only one small light in an endless line of mothers and fathers stretching backwards and forwards through time.
We may find difficulties articulating ourselves at this time. Mercury is strong in Virgo but averse to the Moon and Sun, so all the heavy feelings stirred up by the interplay of our individual and social selves may escape being put into words.
What might come instead are primal cries for freedom and liberation. With Mercury casting a trine to Mars-Uranus-North Node, our ability to express that part of the T-square is strengthened. Let your voice be heard but take care that it not be an emotional outburst when things feel completely intolerable.
Instead, channel that call for freedom into the ether, share it with your closest confidant, or keep it secret between the pages of your journal. Shape it with clay, paint or coloured pencil and hang it on your wall for further reflection – or cast it into a fire to be released.
If you feel a sense of hopelessness, depression or despair, honour these feelings. Accept them and cherish them, for Saturn asks us to bear this weight, to gird ourselves and find new sources of inner resilience. Give yourself the space to feel this heaviness, to face it and embrace it, however messy that might get.
And know that even if the Full Moon stirs up these difficult feelings, all things will pass. Saturn is the grandfather of time, and one of his lessons is that all things change in time.