The night of Monday, October 6 brings a Full Moon in Aries at 8:47 p.m. Pacific. Traditionally, the October Full Moon is called the Harvest Moon. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s time to bring in the last crops as winter is on its way.
This year’s October Full Moon is also called a “super” Moon. It will appear larger and brighter than normal because the Moon will be traveling at the closest point of its orbit around Earth.
A Full Moon is a time of maximum illumination, when the things that go bump in the night can more easily be seen.
When the Sun is in airy Libra, the Full Moon is in the fire sign of Aries. Both are cardinal, action-oriented signs. Aries is forceful, courageous action, such that at this Full Moon, one might feel unusually feisty, determined and ready to plough ahead.
Mars is Aries’ ruling planet, and Mars is traveling through its other home sign, Scorpio, between September 22 and November 4. Scorpio is the water sign of the fixed modality: at best, it is stable; at worst, stagnant. Water that’s not moving much is like the murky stuff at the bottom of a lagoon, decaying and also sustaining life. Scorpio is the inclination to dive down deep into what is edgy, uncomfortable, and even taboo.
Mars in Scorpio combines willpower with stick-to-itness. This month, while Mars passes through Scorpio, is not a time for superficiality. It’s a time to focus on something serious that requires concentration.
On October 6, Mercury will have just entered Scorpio, where it will travel until October 29 and then again between November 18 and December 11. Mercury swimming in the deep waters of Scorpio reminds me of an investigative reporter, one who brings secret information about the powerful up to the surface for all to see. Mercury is also a trickster. While in Scorpio, Mercury may be stealthy in its ways of exposing hidden realities.
At the Full Moon, Mercury will be headed toward a conjunction with Mars. Mercury (mind) and Mars (action, desire) combined in the depths of Scorpio make the days around the Full Moon a time to look beyond the initial appearance of things, and to act on what one sees.
Mercury, in this wide conjunction with Mars, will be making a tense square with Pluto, the humming engine of subterranean power. Mars is now separating (moving on from) a tense and volatile square it made with Pluto on September 24.
Pluto represents power struggles, on a grand scale. Mercury and Mars in Scorpio at the Full Moon are about bringing to light facts that some people would prefer to keep under wraps.
Mercury, at the October 6 Full Moon, is also the focal planet in an aspect of pressure and destiny called a yod, with Uranus in Gemini (disruption and liberation in our collective story-telling) and Neptune in Aries (the start of new dreams.)
Suffice it to state the obvious that while the times are tense and scary, it’s also a time when unseen things may be revealed.
Blessings for the Aries Full 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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