On Wednesday, February 16th at at 11:56am Eastern Time, the Moon, who is celestial mother to us all, will stand in opposition to the Sun.
Whenever a Full moon occurs astrologically speaking, the Sun and the Moon form an opposition in the sky. Through their zodiacal sign placements, the Sun and Moon highlight two contrary energies - in this case between the Sun’s placement in airy, icy Aquarius and the Moon’s placement in the spontaneous, light-bearing Leo.
For our own lives, this means that the themes, lessons, and emotional timbre of the past few weeks reaches a climax. A great clamor arises between our lunar needs and our solar wants, our personal desires and our social circumstances, our conscious intentions and our unconscious gravitations. Emotions run high, things come to a head, people have trouble sleeping, and sometimes go a little wonky.
This month, we will experience the stark antithesis of the Moon’s Leonine priority of personal interest, self-expression, and individual autonomy with the Sun’s Aquarian emphasis on humanitarian interest, collective cooperation, and social duty.
As I mentioned in the new moon post, the Sun’s placement in the sign of Aquarius priotizes social responsibity, humanitarian, object considerations, and theoretical ideals. This can be a tad uncomfortable for the Sun, because the Sun generally prefers more leonine things like personal desire, individual motives, and takes the fundamental goodness of own’s spontaneous agenda as a given.
In contrast to Leo, Aquarius is most concerned with what could be and even what should be. It disdains personal interest and spontaneous impulse as short-sighted in comparison and unobjective. Instead, Aquarius strives to see the ideal, the platonic form, and will communicate this vision to those who can enact it on earth. This is not achieved through leonine, solar action, but through more saturnine, detached deliberatioan.
The full moon also initiates the waning period of her cycle, For this reason, the full moon often brings to the surface things in our lives that we need to release. As she wanes and separate from those places, so too should we wane and separate from the things in our lives that do not serve us.
For us, this indicates that we need to let go of some of our standard leonine, self-interested desires. There is wisdom in the childlike joy and enthusiasm that Leo emits. However, imbalances can also arise if we prioritize our own desires too strongly. We can easily trap ourselves in a prison, becoming slaves to the whims and fancies of our own desires and whatever feels right in the present moment. In a word, heed your impulses and desires, but do not let them rule you.
You may find yourself having to relinquish your own desires because a greater, collective need is called for. Personal interest must be set aside for the sake of more collective, social, and even civic responsibilities. What personal goals and agendas do you have that do not serve those around you? What have you been pursuing or prioritizing in your life that does not give nurture the flourishing of the universal community in which we live?
All of this does culminate into something – this tensional opposition allows you to see the work that you have done already, and begin the process of reaping the rewards of what you have worked to release and let go of since the new moon. As a culmination of the Aquarius season and the seeds that were sown during the Aquarius new moon, you can learn a great deal here about indexing your own personal desires to the needs and flourishing of something greater than yourself.
The only aspect formed during this full moon is an opposition from Saturn. You will certaintly find hindrances and obstacles coming your way to keep you from getting anything that you personally chase after too strongly. This full moon will not support much individualism.
If you’re getting sick of me harping on personal desires and interest the past few months, fear not – ‘tis the lunar season. You’ll have opportunities over the summer to learn to let go of your own personal feelings of duty and collective responsibility to prioritize your own desires. But, as these things tend to go, you probably won’t want to.
Black tourmaline is a gentle, saturnine gemstone that improves focus and mental performance. It will help to keep you grounded. Open-eyed meditations can help you to maintain presence and focus on the needs of the present. It can also help to bring clarity and detachment from one’s own desires.