Leo Full Moon: February 5
The Leo Full Moon on February 5, asks us to consider the strength necessary to follow our star this Aquarius season. Saturn’s fixed air sign is known as the dim and distant one, but within the heart of Aquarius burns a blazing Sun. It takes great courage to stand apart from the pack. To trust our dreams are not just the truest expressions of our soul’s longing, but an actual indiciation of divinity’s desire for us.
The Major Arcana tarot card, Strength, correlates to the sign of Leo, and naturally supports the Star card of Aquarius. Just as Saturn plays an important role in our personal development as individuals. The Sun is an inner source of light that shines through around Imbolc, the pagan festival of torches.
In astrology, the Sun is the Me that we came here to Be, and will not develop fully unless it comes to know itself in its entirety. The worldview of the Sun is absolute in its certainty. All humans need affirmation. A healthy amount of validation when we're young is essential to developing self-confidence. But Saturn points out important perspective that the Sun is missing. The human perspective is limited and we will always miss things. From its position on the margins Saturn catches what the Sun, at the center, has overlooked.
Saturn’s strategy of negation is not motivated by harm, but, like The World card at the end of the Major Arcana, to open us up to what's beyond our current comprehension. Aquarius season is an exploration of the challenges that propels us down the path of destiny. You can't rush at a cat, and the lion on the Strength card reminds us to move slowly towards the things that scare us: the parts of us we shrink from, find disgusting, or hide from in terror. Everyone has something they’d rather abandon in a ditch than get to know. It's the unloved children inside of us that Aquarius season calls us to collect. The strength of the mighty braveheart lion is loving ourselves in our totality. This is not always an easy process and that tension is heightened this Full Moon weekend with the fixed t-square between the Sun in Aquarius, Moon in Leo, and Uranus in Taurus.
The Sun squares Uranus at 15°01 Taurus at 9:50PM on Friday, February 3, kicking up chaos from situations we’ve been grappling with since Summer of 2021. Over the last 3 years, Saturn’s lessons have been consistently challenged by the rebel in the back of the classroom–Uranus in Taurus. Uranus hears Saturn’s cries for responsibility and self-discipline and immediately points out all the hypocrisy. The very real and troubling ways the system we’re being asked to comply with are not in alignment with humanity's best interests. Uranus does not want to play the game if the rules are unfair, and just like the Goddess of Discord, Eris, with her golden apple marked “to the fairest” will intentionally ruin the insider party in revenge for being excluded.
Hard aspects between Uranus and Saturn trigger a crisis of consciousness that shatter our understanding of who we are and what matters most in life. They force us to abandon a previous identity that we have outgrown and find a new way forward. This process is liberating, but, just like the labor of birth, can be terrifying and excruciating. Uranus demands radical change, of ourselves and the oppressive forces of society. Historically, hard aspects between these planets have brought about cultural revolution and political reform, such as the 1960s.
Since December 2020, Saturn and Uranus have been fighting about how much freedom you need to live a full authentic life and how much compliance is required to ensure longevity. It’s been confusing, and many folks haven’t known whether to abandon everything and go wild or become even more judicious with long term planning. This tension was most acute during the three squares between Saturn and Uranus in 2021:
07°13 Aquarius on February 17, 2021
13°06 Aquarius on June 14, 2021
11°05 Aquarius on December 24, 2021
We had a short break at the beginning of last year, and then Saturn moved back into an active square with Uranus (16°-20°) from August-December, 2022. The most difficult period was September-October when the square was within 17°-18°. We’ve been through a lot and we wouldn’t still be here without some resilience and ingenuity. Give yourself credit, but acknowledge if this process has left you with big doubts and insecurities in following your Star.
It's difficult to trust our intuition when the internal messages are conflicting and what we feel propelled towards constantly changes. Following our Star means having faith in the bigger picture, even when we can’t discern exactly what it is. The wisdom of Aquarius reminds us that when the world gets to be too much, the cosmos still functions in an orderly fashion if we have the ability to decipher the patterns.
The Full Moon at 16°14 Leo at 1:48PM ET on Sunday, February 5, is utilizing this disruptive energy to activate our creative genius. Although Uranus can be a giant troublemaker, it's also an unleasher of innovation and inciter of inspiration. Art comes pouring forth during times of upheaval, transition, and protest. The culture of the 1960s--music, fashion, and style--remains as lasting a legacy as the political lessons. Culture is powerful, and, as such, we have a responsibility to engage with it, both as makers and consumers.
Immerse yourself in spaces that speak to your soul this weekend. Art communicates universal messages through symbols. Artist can be anonymous, yet the work is meaningful through generations. Engage with your creative genius through consume, make up, paint, drawing, dance, music, and dress up. The Leo Full Moon is an outpouring of all the trouble we’ve gotten in, or that has found us, since Saturn entered Aquarius in March 2020. Your heart wants to shout about it so let it out. Let your kitten roar without criticism or judgement.
Art inspires us to assert our own personal truths and it often does so in public spaces. When we have the courage to claim ourselves honestly and fearlessly we are reaffirming our place in this world. The interplay between Leo and Aquarius is a dance between how our individual expression shapes the whole and the larger context informs our personal creation.
The square betweenVenus in Pisces with Mars in Gemini present at this lunation is a mental stimulus for our heart’s longing.It reminds us that we don’t have to force ourselves into doing, we can delight them into being. Creativity is a pleasurable process when the divine moves through us to manifest something that has never existed before. That impulse can arise from a source of joy, a place of conflict, or simply a desire to speak. But there is an empowerment in the giving over to something bigger.
There will be lots to say this weekend, but we don’t always have to do it with words. Find solutions in fun this Leo Full Moon. They’re there. Even if that means dancing by yourself. Let this fierce energy bestow the strength to be weirdly, unabashedly you.