posted September 23, 2010 11:01 AM         

Who’s Most Affected by this Full Moon
People with planets in the early degrees (approximately 0-8 degrees) of Cardinal Signs (Aries, Libra and Capricorn); those with planets in the Mutable Signs (Gemini, Virgo, Pisces) at the very end of those signs (approximately 25-29 degrees) may also respond strongly to this Full Moon.

I’m calling this Full Moon at 00⁰ 15’ Aries the Xena Warrior Princess Moon. It seemed apt, and when I checked the astrological chart for actress Lucy Lawless, who portrayed Xena in the popular television series, I discovered she has Sun and Moon in Aries herself and thus is a perfect illustration of the Aries Warrior archetype in person as well as on the TV show!

As you might recall if you read my previous post on the Full Moon in Pisces, a Full Moon period is culmination, the height of illumination (everything is “lit up” like a holiday tree) and release point of the monthly cycle, where you can complete whatever you initiated at the New Moon. It’s also the perfect time to eliminate things that you no longer need in your life, including bad habits and leftovers from the past that are beyond their “use by” date.

The Aries Point
This Full Moon occurs at what is referred to as “the Aries Point”. It’s like the first drop of the flag at the Indy 500, the start of the whole Zodiac shebang, the very beginning of the very first sign. What was dormant comes to the fore, bursts into view and is made manifest. It’s considered a powerful degree of initiation on/into the World Axis. Aries energy blasts forth unencumbered, it’s pure inspired energy (like the Ace of Wands),full of potential. An Aries archetype is the bold leader who sallies forth with intelligence and courage. Picture Xena striding into the fray, alert and ready to take on the world and deal with any obstacles, scary bad guys or testy or jealous gods and goddesses she may encounter during her many journeys.

This Full Moon is also called the Harvest Moon, and it occurs just after the Autumnal Equinox, the start of a new season, emphasizing the “just born” quality of this Full Moon. This Full Moon may have many of us all revved up and ready to rock on through any and all obstacles. We may also feel inclined to do a little surgery—a snip here and there to cut off or cut out things we don’t need anymore. This cutting process is like pruning a rosebush. You remove branches which are diseased or which impede the growth of the plant—they’re sacrificed for the good of the whole entity. This Full Moon bops over the same degrees as the powerful Cardinal T-square from earlier this summer—it echoes and is a trigger point for those energies from early August. (The Full Moon in Aries is square to Pluto in Capricorn and opposite Saturn in Libra). Basically, this Full Moon is part of a configuration that includes 4 outer planets (the outer planets are like the Major Arcana of the astrology sphere and represent archetypal forces with ramifications that extend far beyond our personal lives). Since these aspects are all considered challenging, we may be in for a volatile period around this Full Moon, especially considering the gung-ho qualities of an Aries moon in general.

The Full Moon is also is square the earlier lunar eclipse in Capricorn back on June 26. When a Full Moon echoes degrees from formations such as the Cardinal T-Square or an eclipse from earlier in the year, it essentially reinforces the themes of those formations and sometimes provides a solution or an opening out of those situations. If there were things you tried to do this summer but couldn’t because the timing was “off” or the way was not clear, now is the time to give it another try. Uranus and Jupiter have already passed over the first degrees of Aries and retrograded back to Pisces for a little while, but they’re still hanging around near this Full Moon point and have already cleared the path a bit, adding a jolt of chance, of inspiration, and giving a cosmic boost to guide those raw Aries energies to move and groove through the muck of the past few months.

As noted, this energy may be extremely intense, so don’t be surprised if people are edgy and prone to blow-ups. People may be “hair-trigger reactive” at this time. It’s not a good idea to get involved in a road-rage incident or to incite anyone who seems to be on the verge of losing it or unable to control their anger! Remember to avoid rash actions, take an extra second or two to ground yourself and slow down to avoid accidents caused by hasty behavior. Things could get a little wild and crazy for the next few weeks. I’m going to keep an eye on the streets and highways of the New York City metropolitan area, where I live and work, and see if people are any more crazed than normal (though frankly, it might be hard to tell, especially if I decide to watch cab drivers!)

With Mars as the ruler of this Full Moon (the Moon’s degree of 00˚ 15’ is in the first decan of Aries, it’s also ruled by Mars), highlighting the raw Martian energy pouring through, we can look to where Mars is located in the heavens at this time for more information. Mars is currently in Scorpio, which it co-rules, along with Pluto, a planet also involved in the intense T-square formation I mentioned earlier. Mars cojoins Venus, which is also in Scorpio. Much of the action is going to seem like life and death to us and will most likely involve strong emotions, the yin and yang of things, intense attractions, the merging of people in various relationships, and instinctual reactions that seem to arise from the depths of the soul.

As I was thinking about what I was going to write about this Full Moon, the Song “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac popped into my head (while I was in the shower, yet…nothing like being semi-submerged in water to provide a little inspiration!) Not only does the title sum up the Aries energy of this Full Moon—one thing about Aries, they do like to go their own way—but It’s a love song about a busted relationship. It was written by Lindsay Buckingham, chronicling the wreckage of his relationship with the group’s singer, Stevie Nicks. It’s a bit desperate, very intense, sad, sorrowful and just a little sarcastic…all at once…which seems to me the perfect reflection of the combination of tangled emotions reflecting the Mars energy that will be expressed during this Full moon.

Tarot Energies for this Full Moon

The Emperor (Aries), The Tower (Mars, ruler of Aries and co-ruler of Scorpio), Justice (Libra)

This combination of cards would seem to indicate that we can expect that the “powers that be”, the long-standing ruling cliques and classes on this planet, will be confronted with a variety of huge and possibly catastrophic incidents, dramatic and unsettling, that in many ways have been instigated by humanity and their imbalanced actions on this planet, which challenge the functioning of our society and call into question whether we’ve built our empires on sustainable foundations.

This Full Moon squares the degree of the June 26th, 2010 eclipse at 5 degrees Cancer/Capricorn and may thus serve as a trigger point to further activate some of the energies released at that time. With the asteroid Hades hovering at 0 degrees Cancer, the question is: have we created or unleashed hell on earth?

The asteroid Pandora is at 8 degrees Cancer, near the South node in Cancer, and Pluto is conjunct the north node in Capricorn, so the energies now are very intense and speak of a history of past actions that have led us to a very toxic present indeed—the lid is now coming off Pandora’s box and we need to find ways to deal with what has been released.

The Justice card gives us a choice: can we now implement the “new rules” that help us make progress and ensure fairness for all of us and for the earth we inhabit? This will require dedication and hard work –Justice is the Libra card, and with Saturn conjunct the Sun in the sign of Libra in the sky as the fall equinox begins, now’s the time to really buckle down and do what needs to be done to restore balance to life.

There may be an interim period when entrenched powers, frightened by the collapse of their world, fearful of losing power and control, will try to enact laws to restrain freedom or to imprison rather than set free the masses of humanity and lash out in fear and frustration, but the Tower says “all fall down”, and it’s our duty to look past the chaos to envision the future potential of a world that works in a different way. Aries provides the enthusiasm, energy and leadership, and Libra relates to collaboration with others, fairness and justice; working together, great strides can be made.

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are
1 degree Aries: “A woman just arisen from the sea. A seal is embracing her; emergence of new forms and of the potentiality of consciousness.”
1 degree Libra: “In a collection of perfect specimens of many biological forms, a butterfly displays the beauty of its wings, its body impaled by a fine dart; the immortal archetypal reality that a perfect and dedicated life reveals.”

This combination of Sabian Symbols illustrates the contrast between something being born, taking a new form vs. a static beauty that instructs and inspires but which has ceased to grow and change. The Sabian Symbol for 1 degree Aries relates to the Selkie myth. Selkies appear in Northern European mythology: They’re essentially shape-shifters, changelings who appear in the form of a seal. They can remove their skin, and when they do they take the shape of a beautiful woman (or man) and live on the earth among humans.

Conversely, if they find the skin and put it on again, they will revert to seal form and disappear into the ocean once more. (John Sayles’ film, “The Secret of Roan Inish” is a depiction of an Irish version of the selkie tale.) The motif of shape-shifting, of changing form, shows us that the way forward will involve a bit of magical creation and finding new ways to live on the earth—we may have to change the form of things but we need to retain our primal connections with the rhythms of the natural world.

In contrast, the impaled butterfly speaks of stasis and formal, unchanging beauty that inspires admiration and awe. As John Keats wrote:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

It’s important that we have something to aspire to, and the ideals of formal beauty provide us all with a blueprint to achieve the best and highest levels we can reach for as humans. Attachment to the form of things without proper attention to the inner workings can lead to sterility and slow our growth if we adhere to the forms without understanding why they exist, or without questioning the usefulness of those forms which have provided guidance for society through the centuries. As Libra is the sign of equilibrium, understanding the place of tradition but learning how to balance this with a healthy desire to “make a mess” and play around with these forms to see what new things may emerge is a key goal at this time.

Gemstones for this Full Moon
Since things are straining to crystallize and emerge into form right now, it seems appropriate at this time to call on the energies of the crystals and stones produced by our old pal Mother Earth.

For the Full Moon in Aries, gemstones to wear or keep near you include bloodstone, red jasper and garnet. For the Libra energies (also helpful for those with planets or chart angles in Pisces), rose quartz, the heart-healing stone, would be a soothing choice.

To embody the energies of transmutation and transformation that are so powerful now, and to help ground and center you at this time, try black tourmaline, obsidian or the “Infinite Stone”/serpentine.

One more stone, to honor the myth of the selkie: The opal can be considered a “shape shifting” stone due to its changing hues, so it’s quite appropriate for this Full Moon time.

Incidentally, the Full Moon is the perfect time to cleanse and imbue your stones and crystals with those lovely moonbeam vibes: just spread them out on a windowsill the night of the Full Moon or anywhere else they can safely bask in the beams.

Tarot Cards drawn for this Full Moon are

The cards I drew for this Full Moon echo the general themes I’ve mentioned earlier in the astrological section of this post. The Death card is associated with Scorpio and currently in the sky, Mars (one of the rulers of both Aries, sign of the New Moon, and Scorpio) and Venus (ruler of Libra, the sign of this Fall Equinox) are conjunct in Scorpio, so the transmutation of relationships and relationship patterns on a very deep level is directly highlighted, especially with the Sun in Libra conjunct Saturn, which tells us it’s time to restructure and establish all-new ground rules. With the Queen of Swords letting us know we need to detach and look at things from a higher perspective, there’s also a subtone of loss and sadness as things we’re been attached to for a long time are cut away from us. The metamorphosis is beginning, but there might be a few growing pains. We realize the past is over and we can’t go back, but there’s a reluctance to let go because we’re feeling so vulnerable and bereft. This winter might turn out to be the “winter of our discontent” in more ways than one!

The 9 of Cups lets us know that we need to balance the mind and the emotions in order to obtain what we most desire. There’s a bit of a warning here as well that our excessive appetites may destroy us. By stripping the planet bare to satisfy our desires, at the end we may get everything that we thought we wanted, only to discover too late that it wasn’t worth having if it’s left the planet a wasteland.

But even in the midst of all this, there’s a little magic afoot—don’t forget that right before this Full Moon arrived at 0 degrees 15’ Aries, it passed over Jupiter and Uranus in the last degrees of Pisces. After you’ve reshaped your life and relationships, don’t just let anything drift in to become your reality by default. Instead, think big (i.e. think of what will help the planet as a whole), visualize the innovations you want to see occur, and pay attention to your intuition to work towards creating a future you (and those generations that follow) really want to live.