This moment is such an incredible opportunity for insight and evolution. We are exactly half-way between the eclipses of last summer and those of next winter. Whatever is going on now is bound to be tied up with the big eclipse stories we are each unfolding. These stories span about two years from summer 2018 until summer 2020.
The Aries Full Moon first and foremost is about the relation between self and other. We literally wouldn’t know who we are were it not for the reflections other people offer us and all we learn through relating. There is no self without the other. That’s been the central theme of this month so far. But the Aries Full Moon is a reminder that the depth of our relationships depends on the depth with which we know ourselves; the extent to which we can reach down within ourselves to offer our own unique selfhood and energy and perspective.
The Libra shadow is to bend ourselves to fit others’ expectations and needs; to be pleasing, and nice. And that leads to relationships that are flimsy and fake. Relationships aren’t always pleasing. Sometimes there is friction, the necessary resistance that sparks the flame of friendship, partnership, or passion. Relationship requires that we know ourselves and that we also remain open to the unknown, to allow for others to reveal themselves, without imposing our expectations or needs onto them, without defining them or slotting them into a script.
Libra might forget itself in the attempt to befriend everyone. But Aries knows that to be true to the self actually necessitates that not everyone will like us or agree with us or get us. The more we stand in alignment with who we really are, the more we will trigger or anger or offend others. Because to truly be ourselves is to take a strong position. And it’s just impossible that everyone in the world is going to like it. And yet. The world needs us to stand strong.
So. What are you here to do? What is your unique and true expression? And are you afraid to step into that fully because you don’t want to rock the boat? Because you don’t want to turn people off? Well the Aries Full Moon is here to say “fuck ‘em”. Those people who don’t get you; fuck ‘em. It’s not worth wasting your life trying to please people. There are billions of different perspectives on this Earth. If you try to satisfy all of them you will be nothing in the end. Be yourself and fuck the people who don’t like it. They aren’t your people. And in the process, you will find YOUR people.
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The Full Moon is exactly square to Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto helps us evolve. It wants utter transformation. It shows us our shadow not to drag us down, but to give us the opportunity to see ourselves so that we can shed those outgrown layers of skin, so that we can accept our truth in all its ugly, messy, beautiful glory, so we can integrate the aspects that we we wanted to disown. This is what it means to become more conscious. To literally become conscious of what had been unconscious before, by facing and integrating the parts of ourselves we were hiding from. So. Expect to be shown your shadow. Aries offers you the courage to face it.
Pluto along with Saturn and the South Node in Capricorn connect this Full Moon focus on selfhood with the collective initiation humanity is currently undergoing; the existential threats we face; the momentous challenges and struggles that are the dark tunnel, the birth canal, to a whole new way. Nothing and no one is isolated. There isn’t one decision we make or action we take, that doesn’t impact the whole. The fate of humanity is literally in our hands; every one of us. And that’s why it matters that each of us stands in the truth of who we are.
It’s normal to wonder what can I do? What is my role in this? How can I make a difference? There is a sense of urgency. And there should be. There is fear--understandably. But acting from fear and panic only creates more of that. The truth is that every single thought and action, every single aspect of our lives is implicated in the collective fate of humanity. Take to the streets, if that’s what calls you. But your behaviour and energy when you come home are just as important. We can’t segment our lives into the parts that affect the collective, and those that are utterly private. It’s how we live that matters. Not whether we went to this or that event or said this or that on social media.
And that is not to let us off the hook. This is a time to change or die. We all have changes to make if we are going to successfully navigate this initiatory passage. And the ways in which we are called to change will be different for each and every one of us. If the call of your soul is faint, find some time to get quiet and listen and feel. What is your own soul calling you toward? What are the Cancer-Capricorn eclipse themes for you? What is Pluto revealing to you that is asking for transformation?
Collectively, we are facing our horrific history of blood and terror. We are grappling with the dark truth of our past and present. We are seeing more and more clearly the extent to which our society runs on oppression and greed and slavery and injustice. This is Pluto revealing the shadow and offering us the choice to face it with courage so that we may transform and evolve. Let’s stare down colonialism. Let’s see it, and our role in it. We are all implicated and we have all suffered. We are all traumatized and out of our traumas we lash out and hurt others too. What a mess. But the good news is, we see it now. Remember just a few years ago when to talk of economic oppression was radical? When environmental activists were fringe? When “revolution” was a bad word?
Jupiter in Sagittarius is also in exact aspect to the Full Moon, in harmonious sextile to the Sun, and trine to the Moon; offering us a hopeful way forward. Jupiter in Sag is our worldview. Sagittarius is questing, always seeking to grow and expand in its search for Truth. And we know now that truth isn’t what we thought it was. That there will never be a science of everything, a single all-encompassing worldview that accounts for it all. That totalizing impulse is fascist. Postmodernity showed us that our knowledges are socially negotiated co-creations with the world and each other, that the stories we tell shape us, that there may be many truths, and no one Truth. (Which is not to say anything goes. There may be infinite truths, and yet that doesn’t mean that anything is true.)
But the way forward is forward; it’s not through capitalism or socialism or communism that we will evolve. It’s through something utterly new. The future is unknown. And that may be scary. But it’s our only possibility of salvation. It’s not as if one smart person will come up with an idea that will save us all. It’s through every single one of us stepping more fully into our own truths that a new philosophy will organically emerge.
So on this potent and transformative Full Moon, cut through the noise and distractions and pressures to be some way that you’re not. Forget the others for a moment so that you can feel yourself. Feel the energy of source flowing through your crown lighting you up from the inside out. What is YOUR truth? What is YOUR way forward? What transformation are the 2018-2020 eclipses working through you? How are you changing, what skins are you shedding, what new exciting adventures are you stepping into? And if the way forward is unknown, that means you are on the right track, because the unknown is what we need now.