The Full Moon in Leo is on January 28th, 2021 at 11:16am PST. The Sun is conjunct Jupiter, and not far from Saturn. The Sun and Moon are square to Uranus and Mars. Venus is conjunct Pluto; Neptune is square the Nodes; Chiron is trine the Moon, sextile the Sun and Jupiter. Mercury is unaspected, floating free in Aquarius.
The Leo-Aquarius polarity is about the individual (Leo) and the group (Aquarius). On the collective level, it highlights the tension between royalty (the elite) and the people, bringing into stark relief the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, and aggravating tensions between the people and those in power.
There is, unfortunately, a possibility for violence, as anger has been fuelled by years of injustice, as far-right groups rally, as oppressive governments crack down. There is much drama on the world stage, and it's important, but I don’t want to dwell on those stories too much here. There is much work we are called to do with this energy in our own lives.
If we focus on how these dynamics play out in our most intimate relationships, in our communities, in local politics, in our individual relation to the collective, in our philosophies, and visions, we have more say in affecting change.
On a personal level, how do we honour selfhood, and personal needs, desires, and interests, while also honouring our responsibility to the collective? Just as blind self-interest is toxic, prioritizing the group above the individual means conformity, subjugation, and loss of freedom.
As with everything, it’s not one or the other; it’s both. Selfishness is counter to the needs of the collective, but autonomy is not. Mars-Uranus square the Full Moon speaks to the need for radical autonomy in the name of the group.
A Political Diversion: Nodal Axis, and Sun Conjunct Jupiter
On the collective level, the imbalance has gone so far in favour of self-interest in the form of free-market capitalism, that it threatens all of us. The polar nature of opposing astrological signs points to the need to integrate seeming opposites. There is no simple solution to reconciling polarity. It requires negotiation, balance, dialogue, attention, participation. It takes work.
Simple solutions and extreme philosophies tend to one extreme at the cost of the other. They offer one answer for every question. They promise a single structure, a totalizing force; a philosophical, ideological, political position that once set into motion won’t require our attention or work or involvement. And it’s a lie. Life requires our participation.
The South Node in Sagittarius, and North Node in Gemini through 2021 call on us to release ideology, and move toward openness, curiosity, and not knowing. The alternative to ideology is the constant work of listening to many voices, taking into account many perspectives, revising, shifting, coming back to balance again and again. It’s about difference, diversity, change. It’s the humility of letting go of some grand narrative in favour of the dialogical work of thinking through, working it out, and being willing to change our minds.
I think most people think of philosophy as a position when, from my understanding, philosophers themselves usually see their work as work; as weighing options, thinking through, considering alternatives. Philosophy is less a noun than a verb. It’s argument and counterargument, again and again. It’s exploration, and consideration. It takes thought and care.
More and more I think this is our only way forward. More and more I think that grand philosophies or political systems are what get us into trouble. More and more I think the most radical (Uranus)--by which I mean that which gets to the roots--solution, is not an attractive one because it’s not simple and it can’t be define: it takes dialogue, negotiation, balance, participation--the constant work of working through.
(Just to be clear, I’m not calling for some sort of moderate, middling position. This isn’t about the middle of the political spectrum. I mean F the political spectrum. My own values lie closer to social anarchism, that respects personal autonomy and freedom as well as the needs of the group, that could perhaps be facilitated through a version of socialist, participatory democracy that makes space for self-organized, collective action, and community involvement…. But that’s really a whole other--many whole other--conversations.)
The more pertinent point is, how do we move forward in a way that honours individuality and the collective, that doesn’t simply see the pendulum swing from one extreme to the other? When we find ourselves so far to one side, we may be tempted to swing entirely in the other direction. But does that work? Doesn’t history show that it doesn't? Doesn’t psychology too warn against this temptation toward the pendulum swing between extremes? Community too can have its own sort of tyranny if we are asked to give up critical thinking, dissent, or individuality.
And yet, we do find ourselves now in a position where the pendulum has swung so far toward self-interest that radical action (Mars conjunct Uranus) is required. We won’t right this ship through gradual change, or clinging to stability. Uranus square Saturn all year, and in this moment, conjunct to Mars, is not stable energy. It asks us to embrace change. This astrology is about shaking things up, ruffling some feathers, getting loud, breaking the rules. We need a radical change of course. We need drastic shift.
The Media Vortex: Neptune square the Nodes
In my eyes, so many stories in the news represent the last chapter of the old era, not the first chapter of the new one. New stories aren’t written overnight. They are being imagined still, just barely glimpsed in the hearts and minds of those who dream. If we allow all our energy to be sapped by the old world’s endings, how will we nourish the new?
Let us not be sucked into that vortex, the swirling, forceful, old world stories that must play their course. Let’s unhook ourselves from the hyperdrama, that manifest dream-come-nightmare. Let’s divert our precious energy from the screens that seek to sap it, and plug into the barely visible seeds of new, that we may nourish our futures, that we may tend that true garden, that we may empower ourselves by penning new narratives, by dreaming new dramas, by praying the flourishing of people power, Earth worship, responsibility, integrity, transparency, and love.
Playing with Fire: Mars conjunct Uranus
This is potent, intense, incendiary energy. It is feisty and fiery and loud. If we don’t channel it with care, we may be tempted to reactionary, impulsive, undirected rebellion. But if we don’t channel it at all, we’re liable to project it, to disown it, to point and blame; which is to forgo the opportunity to work with it, which is to abandon our responsibility to the collective.
This is such powerful energy, and difficult to channel. It is loud but subtle too. We have to dismantle the structures of the past that were founded on harm--or perhaps simply walk away from them. Like, we gotta burn some bridges, and then turn our backs and walk away. We have work to do. If we don’t get busy building the new, we won’t have much say in what it looks like.
We never gave our power away; we were born into this mess. It might not be fair, but it’s our responsibility to take our power back, to alter the energetic impulse, the subtle codes of conduct that play out in relationship, worldview, thoughts and deed; in our personal lives and political spheres: the fucked up patterns of submission and control and superiority and constraint. We play into them, we all do, in small ways and large.
It’s our responsibility in this moment to defy authority (Mars-Uranus). That can play out on many levels. The most subtle involves refusing to play into the ways other people seek to dominate us through power games and manipulation. These dynamics show up first in personal relationships. We can defy the authority that others seek to hold over us simply by standing firm in our own truth, and when necessary, saying no. With kindness and compassion. But with courage and passion too.
The energy will be employed by those in power. It will be employed by those lashing out in pain; by the undirected rebellious impulse that seeks to set ablaze anything and anyone; and by those fuelled by hate. The mature response isn’t to deny our own rebellion, but to direct it toward love and future, rather than waste it in reaction or on stories already written.
This is a radical moment; radical are the roots; in this moment we may see the weeds of oppression and uproot them. The gardeners know how it’s done; you can’t tend a garden unless you dig deep to uproot the fucked up power games and rules of conformity. We have a chance now to radically redress our world, and it begins in the mind, it grows of the heart, it overflows into action.
As we extract the lies that have us complicit, as we uproot the patterns of patriarchal logic that we are all prone to; as we tend our own gardens, we seed the new that the future flourish with flowers of love and care and freedom for all.
I’m for radical sovereignty and freedom and it begins begins at home, in our intimate relationships, in our communities. It begins by breaking the chains of codependency and control. It begins by saying no to the games that have had us hooked into hierarchy. It begins by refusing to give our power away to anyone (kink notwithstanding).
Sovereignty and care are not mutually opposed. I think compassion and deep care naturally emerge when we feel free. Then our care is authentic and not forced or coerced. This is how I see the healing trine from Chiron entering the picture: it’s deeply healing to clarify our boundaries, to heal codependent patterns, and to engage in relationships from a place of freedom rather than control.
It begins by saying no. But it doesn't end there. If we stay in the no, we define ourselves by what was. If we direct all our energy to complaint, resistance, reaction, we’ll have none left for creation. So it begins with a no that clears the way for yes.
What is your yes?