Aquarius Full Moon

Finding Our Own Path

Today’s Aquarius Full Moon (10 Aq 15, 11:27 pm EDT) happens in opposition to both the Sun in Leo and Mercury retrograde in Leo. This in an interesting picture that fits deeply into the way I’m experiencing 2012 – both in my own life and through the lives of my clients.

Leo is the energy of selfhood. At its best, Leo is joyful, noble, creative, glorious. Leo is ruled by the Sun and Leo natives bring the sunshine. These are the people who can light up a room with a smile, who can make you feel better about life just by showing up. But they also possess a deep psychological need to be acknowledged and adored. Leo will give you the shirt off his back as long as you remember to tell him how wonderful he is!

With Mercury Rx in Leo, we are all being asked to reclaim this part of the Self. That part that exults in the possibilities of existence, like the child who runs into the park, excitedly torn among the many options. “Should I swing first? Or go down the slide? Look at me, I’M CLIMBING!”

Aquarius is the sign of the group mind. At its best Aquarius embodies the motto of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. In the ideal Aquarian scenario, there’s a place where everyone belongs. Aquarius understands that each individual has her quirks and those things that definitely aren’t quite right about her, but that each individual also carries a useful gift. Find the right spot for any given person, Aquarius knows, and that person can contribute to the group and flourish.

But Aquarius doesn’t have much patience for tradition, and certainly not for the kinds of rules and social formalities that are still so prevalent in most areas of our society. If it works, go for it, Aquarius says. Experiment. Give it a shot. When Aquarius is denied the opportunity to attempt things just because they’re not considered ‘normal’, the Aquarian shadow energy of alienation and exile arises.

This Full Moon brings those two sides of the self into focus. On the one hand, the Sun and Mercury are asking us to reclaim our childlike innocence and joy in the world. On the other hand, the Aquarius Moon is challenging us to see if we believe that there is a place for us to fit in as our true, unashamed, untamed self.

The Sabian Symbols for this Moon are fascinating. The symbol for the Moon’s degree of 11 Aquarius is:

During a silent hour, a man receives a new inspiration which may change his life.

I’ve been doing a lot of readings this past month and I see a very consistent theme, one that accords quite closely with the energy of the historic Venus occultation in June. Many people are experiencing sudden endings – to relationships, to careers, to friendships, to living in a certain place. Sometimes these come about as the result of external forces. Sometimes they arrive in the inner realization, “I can’t do this anymore.”

The funny thing about endings is, whether we feel we’re the victims of Fate or whether we feel we’ve consciously decided on our own that it’s time to move on, there’s still a void that forms between the ending of the old circumstance and the beginning of the new. We’re highly programmed in our society to fill that void as fast as possible. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings,” as my 84-year-old neighbor reminded me the other day. But the Sabian symbol for the Full Moon reminds us that the void is not actually empty, but silent. The void is, in fact, the home of all the possibilities in the Universe.

The biggest possibility I’ve seen emerging in the lives of the people I’ve been privileged to read for over the last month is the promise of being able to operate in life as a free spirit. By cooperating with the internal cleansing and releasing imperative of 2012, these people are finding themselves at the threshold of a whole new way of being in the world: one based not on grim duty or family karma or old guilt, but one based on curiosity, innocence, openness, and the desire to contribute just by being who they really are.

I believe that this mode of being in the world is a huge part of the 2012 shift. But getting there requires letting go of a whole lot of old stuff and being willing to trust – even as the world seems to be crumbling around us – that if we do what we came here to do, somehow, some way we will be taken care of. We will still belong.

The Sabian Symbol for the Sun’s degree of 11 Leo is equally fascinating:

Children play on a swing hanging from the branches of a huge oak tree.

In his commentary on the symbols, Rudhyar says the oak tree stands for “the Tradition” – specifically the spiritual wisdom tradition passed down through the ages in its many forms and permutations. We tend to equate spirituality with seriousness, but this symbol shows a whole lot more freedom than that. And as we pass from the Age of Pisces with its emphasis on suffering and on deep, mystical, occult truths embodied in a savior to the Age of Aquarius – in which we all become equally teacher and student – this symbol feels very powerful.

It seems to suggest that in our reevaluation of what it means to be a noble Self in the world, we need to focus more on fun. We have the Tradition. Most of us are innately aware now of the laws of the Universe. What would it take to free yourself to use that wisdom in a way that is enjoyable, playful, and that has no other aim than experiencing the joy of swinging through the world as who you really are?