August 19: Aquarius Full Moon
The Full Moon at 27°15 Aquarius at 2:26PM ET on August 19, in a square with Uranus in Taurus, poses an essential question: how do we give people the freedom to be their uniquely individual selves, while protecting everyone’s right to safety, liberty, and autonomy.
Pluto’s movement into Aquarius this year asks us to consider whether rulership through domination and subjugation is still working for us. At this lunation, Pluto is at 00° Aquarius on the degree of the 2020 Saturn-Jupiter conjunction (that initiated a 200 years cycle in air signs), reminding us that what happens over the next several decades will have long lasting consequences for centuries especially regarding intellectual property, tech, communication, and the human capacity to relate.
Pluto is the shadow of power that easily gives rise to policies of fascism. Domination and subjugation are practices humans are striving to move away from, but current politics could easily go in that direction again. There are many advantages to modern technological advancements, but the danger is disconnection from empathy, loss of privacy and heightened surveillance, and the ability to enact mass destruction with just the press of a button. Pluto will return back to Capricorn on September 1, to conclude the USA Pluto return, and station direct on October 11. Pluto will be in Capricorn for the presidental election on November 5, and enters Aquarius on November 19, for a 20 year transit. What happens now on a collective level will directly impact the ability of individuals to live in freedom for a long time to come.
All humans have core survival fears we grapple with, which cause us to act out in all kinds of ways. Pluto points to where and when they might surface (sometimes in abuse, obsession, and compulsion). It is each of our work to heal these parts of us so we can move from a competition based society to one lived from love. Current world affairs make clear, there are those who don’t know how to feel safe unless it is at the expense of someone else's dignity and security. Their rhetoric amplies fear because they are afraid. Their need for control causes them to put others down. Their identity is based on who they are not because they don’t feel good about who they are. Their world is of either/or conflicts, but the Aquarian visions transcends that.
Aquarius moves out away from the personal into the transcendent and universal. The rights we are all entitled to, the values we share, what we hold in common, and what must be upheld for our common good. Saturn is the traditional ruler, currently transiting Pisces, and making hard aspects to 3 major planets–Venus in Virgo, and Jupiter and Mars in Gemini–that peak around the Aquarius Full Moon:
Aug 16: Mars square Saturn at 17°42 Pisces at 1:30AM ET
Aug 18: Mercury squares Uranus at 27°11 Taurus at 5:46AM ET
Aug 19: Venus at 17° Virgo squares Jupiter in Gemini and opposes Saturn in Pisces
Aug 19: Sun at 27°11 Leo squares Uranus in Taurus at 12:45PM ET
Aug 19: Jupiter at 17°28 Gemini squares Saturn in Pisces 5:46PM ET
Aug 22: Venus in Virgo squares Mars at at 22°08 Gemini at 11:20PM ET
Retrograde Mercury ruling three planets in hard aspect to Saturn means that we’re trying to work out something deep and difficult. The subconscious material we’re wading through will most likely bring up painful emotions. The build up over the past week has caused a spike in tension and anxiety that unfortunately won’t fully dissipate until the end of the month when Mercury stations direct on August 28 and Venus moves into Libra on August 29.
The constellation of Aquarius is associated with the Greek myth of Ganymede, who was the most beautiful of all mortal men. Zeus saw Ganymede and fell in love with him, or desired him, and carried him away on an eagle to Mt Olympus. In some stories, Zeus was the bird himself. There he turned the youth immortal so his beauty would never fade, and gave him the distinct honor of cup bearer. In various myths, Zeus’ wife, Hera, is jealous of his affection, so Ganymede is put into the sky, turned into the constellation Aquarius. In recognition of their relationship, German astronomer, Simon Marius, named the planet Jupiter’s (the Roman equivalent of Zeus) largest moon, Ganymede.
It is an honor for a human to dwell in Mt Olympus, but it wasn’t an easy place to live. In different myths Ganymede doesn’t want to go, his family is bereft by his loss, and he is lonely up in the clouds. The cup bearer is entrusted to support the work of upholding the world by serving the Gods, but his task is of a solitary nature. He lacks companionship and true friendship. Ganymede rebels by “stealing” some of the wisdom of the heavens by pouring it down to the lowly mortals on earth. Through using his superior position, he creates a better universe by uplifting those cast below.
We might not consider Zeus and Ganymede’s relationship a consensual affair by modern standards, but the queer nature of their pairing was said to form the basis for the ancient Greek practice of pederasty–the socially acknowledged romantic relationship between older men and male teenage youths. This custom was integral to many societies, especially the military rites of initiation in Crete. It has been explored by many queer scholars including the Bad Gays podcast on Alexander the Great.
The best of the Aquarian nature teaches us how to see things from the long view. Some psychics can perceive 10 dimensions of creation, each at increasing complexity. Humans exist in between the 3rd-4th, angels in the 8th, and Gods in the 10th. Beyond the 10th dimension lies the unmanifest. Everything is possible in the unmanifest, but, conversely, nothing exists. We pull down possibility that creates reality by moving across this boundary but it's very, far away from the regular vibration of Earth.
Spiritual aspirants seek to get their consciousness up to the 10th Dimension because the broad view opens up our mind. The hooks and triggers release when you see things from such a divine perspective. We are able to be calm and ask what the divine wants for us, or from a place of clarity view the next right action to take. The Aquarian mind has the capacity to access not just the 10th dimension but the unmanifest–the place where new possibilities arise–and pull them into form.
The Mercury-Sun cazimi at 26°36 Leo at 9:58PM ET on August 18, was a divine download into the heart of what you’re trying to work out this Leo season. The Aquarius Full Moon provides the blueprint to enact that mission. The task may not be easy, but the instructions are simple. We must save the planet (Uranus in Taurus) through environmental justice, take responsibility for our emotional well being (Saturn in Pisces), and enshrine the rights of all people to live in freedom and happiness through collective care (Leo-Aquarius). It is not our responsibility to do all of this but we each have a part to play. The Full Moon is showing you yours–will you seize it?