The Moon will reach its full phase at 27 degrees Aries on Wednesday, October 20 at 7:57 a.m. on the West Coast. There’s a lot of tension in this sky line-up. Things are likely to feel feisty and intense.
Both Jupiter in Aquarius and Mercury in Libra will have just changed directions, going direct on October 17 and 18 respectively, signaling possible turns of events, or things finally moving forward, in the realms in anyone’s charts, where those two planets are placed.
Libra, our cardinal air sign, is where the Sun will still be abiding, until it ingresses Scorpio on October 22. Libra’s about striving for some sort of ease and equilibrium. Its polar opposite sign, where the Moon will be at its full phase, is Aries, the direct, cardinal fire sign. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, instinctive, not very nuanced. Named for the god of war, Aries wants action. It’s a style of assertion, even aggression. It’s about courage, which does not mean not feeling afraid. It means: feel the fear, and do it anyway.
The Moon’s energy is soft and flowing. Which may make you wonder: how well can the Moon function when it’s in the sign of Aries for about 2.5 days in every monthly cycle? Everything in the astrological landscape has its season and function. The Moon in Aries makes me think of a great mother bear. She’s assertive, alright. She’ll rip your head off if need be. Or think of a single, human mother, less dramatic, who forges ahead every day for the sake of her cubs. Combine protectiveness with necessary force and that’s the Moon in Aries. When the Moon passes through Aries each month, we can invoke that emotional strength.
At this Full Moon, there’s a dynamic tension, as Aries’ ruling planet Mars is sitting with the Sun in Libra. Mars in Libra conjures initiative for the sake of peace and fairness.
At the Full Moon, the Sun/Mars conjunction in Libra will be opposing not just the Moon in Aries, but also the dwarf planet called Eris. Discovered only recently in 2005, Eris is called a trans-Neptunian planet. It’s far-out and has an erratic, slow orbit around the Sun. Only a few astrologers are working with its symbolism and correlations in charts.
Eris is named for the mythological goddess of chaos and discord. It’s amped up in Aries and has been in a tight square with Pluto in Capricorn all this year (and in square since 2017.) My friend and teacher Daniel Fiverson has been writing and speaking about the Eris/Pluto square and its correlations with all things Erisian. Chaos and discord abound, these days and years, with Eris in a kind of headlock with Pluto in Capricorn, representing struggles within and against powerful institutions. Daniel likens the Eris/Pluto square to a “hand grenade in a steel box.” Things are imploding. (From Daniel, I’ve learned that the Eris/Pluto square has not occurred in Aries/Capricorn since 691 BCE, the Axial Age when the Buddha, Lao-Tse, Homer, Plato, and Isaiah challenged existing views and brought into being the great thought streams of civilizations.)
Full Moons are times of illumination and revelation. Something hidden may be better seen. With this Full Moon conjunct Eris, we might better see the forces of the Aries/Libra polarity, as it plays out in the world and in our own psyches. The Aries/ Libra polarity, at its most general, raises questions of: What about me? What about us?
The key aspect at this Full Moon is the T-square with Pluto in square to the Sun/Mars conjunction and also Pluto in square to the Moon/Eris conjunction. A T-square is formed by two squares and an opposition. That’s two planets, or in this case, two sets of planets, lighting up and pressuring the “focal planet.” The focal planet in this T-square is Pluto in Capricorn, which is quintessentially harsh and tense.
At this Full Moon—and the couple of days preceding it—it’s a good time to take things easy. An antidote to the pressure exerted by any T-square is to look to the sign (and house, which differs in everyone’s chart depending on time and place of birth) opposite that of the focal planet. Here the opposite sign to Capricorn is Cancer. That’s perfect because Cancerian energy is about nurturance, safety, healing for oneself and others. That’s always good medicine and especially at the time of this Full Moon. Take refuge in the Great Mother Bear.
Blessings for the Full Moon in Aries,
Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
Leave a Reply