Well loves, today’s seismic Full Moon at 19 degrees of Aquarius acts like a kind of portal into the remainder of 2022. It’s another Super Moon, which means we’re likely to feel it more intensely, being closer to the Earth. This Full Moon in Aquarius is also conjunct its ruler, Saturn, the planet of boundaries, borders and the tests that lead us to maturity, which is retrograde at 22 degrees. It also squares Uranus, modern ruler of Aquarius, at 18 degrees of Taurus, with whom Saturn has been engaged in a bitter struggle for dominance since February 2021. The two planets made three exact squares in February, June and December of 2021, which coincided with many of the year’s dramatic peaks, and the fourth and final square in this series occurs between 1-12 October 2022 also at 18 degrees, and this lunation triggers some of the themes we’re likely to be working with during that event. Although the final Saturn-Uranus square won’t reach exactitude, it acts like a final test to gauge how much we’ve matured and awakened.
Saturn demarcates the limits of observable reality as the last planet in our solar system perceivable by the naked eye. Uranus, the first planet discovered using a telescope, revolutionised astronomy and broke the limits of the solar system by expanding it beyond any previous imagining. Its discovery also coincided with the first in a chain of revolutions that transformed political power structures globally, initiated the institution of human rights and accorded greater power to the people. When activated, Uranus breaks through the Saturnian limits of what is real and possible, suddenly and forever.
Although the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction, which took place at 0 Aquarius on the December Solstice in 2020, didn’t mark the beginning of the famed Age of Aquarius (according to the axial precession of the Earth it’s not set to begin for another hundred years or so) it did initiate a 200 year Aquarian-flavoured era of social change that forms a bridge into the Age of Aquarius, a 2000 year age associated with the rise of the people and a fairer society in which decentralised networks of power provide channels for individuals to express their unique gifts in ways that serve the evolution of society. What that actually means though is blatantly clear to most of us already: the actions we take now will form the foundations of the world our descendants will inherit.
It’s not an easy transition. Saturn, aka the mythical Titan Kronos, god of time and ruler of the original Golden Age - a conservative period of divine harmony and privilege - ate his own children to prevent the destabilising emergence of the new and the usurping of his power by his own descendants. Uranus, the slower moving, has been trying to exert change in the sign most determined to preserving the status quo while Saturn’s been ruling from its fixed domain in Aquarius. And although we all felt Saturn’s oppressive limits acutely in 2021 we’ve seen the dramatic increase in Uranian influence in 2022 with the North Node transiting Taurus turning the energy up to 11. Recent economic, climate and geo-political shocks have been highly Uranian in nature and even the increased influence of authoritarian powers in Russia, China and Afghanistan, which seem so Saturnian in nature, have also been negatively impacted by Uranian disruptions particularly in the supply of resources.
The backwarding and forwarding motion between the old and the new, progress and constraint, the conservative and revolutionary, the sober and reactionary is nonetheless the means by which long term shifts in society are painstakingly forged as Uranian shifts and breakthroughs are grounded into reality through Saturnian influence. The balance, which the Saturn-Uranus square seems to address, is that between progress and conservation. What’s worth keeping from our old ways of doing things? What requires change and innovation? Where must we withstand the challenges of reality with discipline and the wisdom of maturity, and where do we need to relinquish our rigid grip on control? What areas of our lives do we cling to for security, and where could we voluntarily surrender to the kinds of changes that liberate? What innovations and new ideas could we implement at the level of our skills and self-worth, at the level of our social and economic structures and at the level of our relationship with the natural workd in order to ensure greater rights and freedoms for all beings? And how can we be more true to ourselves and do so with more love?
As always, Full Moons mark a moment of culmination and illumination that gives us an opportunity to see how things are tracking, and where our plans, efforts and strategies might require adjustment, correction or reorientation. We have time to succeed. The Leo New Moon, which initiated this cycle asked us to courageously lead from the heart; a few hours before the Full Moon, Venus, planet of love, relationships, beauty, abundance, art and pleasure, also enters Leo and supports us in this task. Her stay until September 5 highlights opportunities for creative, playful, restorative acts of self love and the lavishing of love and listening, gratitude and admiration on the excellent souls who surround us.
On Monday 15 August, we’re ushered into the working week with two powerful transits that we may well already be feeling by Sunday. In the early hours of Monday morning Saturn in Aquarius opposes the Sun in Leo at 21 degrees. Four hours later Mars in Taurus trines Pluto RX in Capricorn at 26 degrees. On the heels of last week’s Sun-Uranus square and Venus-Pluto opposition the Sun-Saturn opposition could feel temporarily like it’s raining on our dreams but it reminds us to slow down, lower our expectations and practice the disciplines necessary to cultivate our dreams so that they flourish long into the future. The Mars-Pluto trine, though intense, emboldens us to cut away decaying material that may have surfaced in the Venus-Pluto opposition and take passionate action on what it is we truly want. And if volcanic feelings surface with this energy, getting underneath it to examine the foundations of our anger, and expressing what we find there creatively can propel us even further in our transformations. Honouring the unique idiosyncrasies of who we are and expressing ourselves from the heart act like a balm.
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