Each New Moon is a time of beginnings, and each Full Moon is a time of culminations and revelations.
A Full Moon is inherently relational. The opposition aspect between the Sun and the Moon is like two great beings sitting across from each other, speaking. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun.
We’ll have a Full Moon on September 29, at 2:57 a.m. West Coast time, at 6° Aries with the Sun at 6° Libra, meaning that it’ll be most impactful for those of us with planets in the early degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn.) It’s called the Harvest Moon, the Full Moon closest to the September equinox.
More so than most Full Moons, this one punctuates relationship issues because Aries is about Me, and Libra is about Us.
The Sun in Libra sheds its light on conflict resolution. Contrary to stereotype, a Libran personality is not just trying to make nice with everyone. Librans may be particularly attuned to processes of diplomacy and mediation. They may even gravitate toward conflicts because they have skills for creating more harmony, and because they really want to. Libra’s glyph looks like the setting sun, or a scale. It represents a quest for justice.
For its part, the Moon in fiery Aries, the first of the zodiacal signs, is like its totem animal, the Ram: headstrong, bursting out of confinement. An Aries Moon personality can be hasty, blunt, impulsive. There’s an instinctive need to start something, though not necessarily to see something through to completion. The phrase “brutally honest” comes to mind about someone with an Aries Moon.
But no one, and no day, is just a Sun sign or just a Moon sign. There is always a unique interplay in the alignment of the moving planets.
At the September 29 Full Moon, there are not a lot of dramatic, or at least newly dramatic, transits in the sky. For that, we can wait until the October 14 New Moon Eclipse. At this late September time, both Mercury, in its home sign of Virgo, and Venus in Leo, are moving direct. Pluto is hovering around the last couple of degrees of Capricorn, square to the transiting lunar nodes, reflecting ongoing power struggles over what’s old versus new and what’s mine versus yours.
What stands out most at this Full Moon time is the Aries Moon’s dispositor. It’s Mars, now in Libra, the sign also of the Moon’s south node at this time. Mars in Libra conjunct the Moon’s south node highlights well-worn relational patterns.
Mars in Libra is Mars in Venus’ home air sign. It’s not the most comfortable sign for Mars to traverse. In fact, in the Hellenistic astrological scheme which formed the foundation of western astrology, Mars is said to be “debilitated” when it passes through Libra, by transit or in someone’s natal chart. I don’t believe that any astrological placement is good or bad. I do think that Mars in Libra is complex and provocative and relevant to thinking about the September 29 Full Moon.
That’s because Mars is a force of direct action, captured in that old marketing slogan: Just do it! Mars’ home fire sign, Aries, includes the willingness to engage in combat if need be. Aries’ opposite number, Libra, is also one of the cardinal, initiatory signs. But Libra is a style that weighs both sides of things. In zodiacal order, Libra follows Virgo, with its deliberate and discriminating wisdom. Virgo aspires toward competence. Libra, next, carries skillfulness forward in the social realms, with a flair for diplomacy, a focus on fairness and on what others want and need.
To the extent that Mars is uncomfortable in Libra—including at this Full Moon time—it may be because Mars wants to hit the gas pedal and Libra wants to slow down and arrive at a place of peace. Mars in Libra is a drive to do something, but to do it carefully and with some degree of equanimity.
The Full Moon in Aries, with the Sun and Mars in Libra, raises a quandary of questions: What’s worth fighting for? And, how? And, particularly, how, in matters of the heart? There are lots of issues worth going to the mat over. There are many more that are not.
The light of the Full Moon is a symbol of balance, a time of illumination on what’s “mine” and what’s “yours.” It’s also a time to just rest.
Blessings for the Full Aries Moon!
~ 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.
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