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We are in the thick of it. This week is full of big astrological moments. I encourage everyone to tap out as they need to, to honor your boundaries and your need for rest, to notice where you’re pushing and where you need to be gentle.
By way of offering support, my partner Meg Jones Wall and I have chosen to make the recording of our 2-hour Fill Your Cup workshop available to the public. Great for folks who need to slow down, who need to return to the body, who just want to set aside a few set hours for themselves amidst the daily frenzy. Meg also has a new extra-supportive journaling series, Queens of Spirit, that starts soon (and it’s so, so good — especially if you, like me, are a lover of the tarot’s queens). I encourage y’all to check it out.
And now: let’s talk about the Full Moon in Aquarius or, as I also consider it, an exercise in worldbuilding.
Today’s Full Moon arrives at 27* of Aquarius at 2:25pm Eastern. The moon is having a surprising conversation with Uranus; it also occurs on the same day as the opening Jupiter-Saturn square (of 2020’s Great Conjunction). Today’s astrology is moving a lot of things through our bodies, through our psyches, through the world.
So I want to invite you to slow down. The pace right now is hectic, and not just because the end of August has that back-to-school vibe that never quite dissipates. In breathing deep (in and out; in and out), we can better settle into the present moment. What information is your body giving you right now? Where are you feeling the stress, the tension, the emotions? Roll your shoulders. Move your hands and wrists around. Do ankle circles. And so on.
This Full Moon has the energy of worldbuilding. Community-oriented Aquarius lunations often do, but the other astrology happening today emphasizes the invitation to imagine and, in doing so, create what we desire.
The thing is, worldbuilding (whether for ourselves or a speculative novel) starts with desire. To have, to be, to make something that is not yet here. Worldbuilding is an exercise in potentiality, which is the domain of the air signs (like Aquarius). Air: that element that is both always here and always on the horizon. Breath, the practice that moves us through time. Thought, conversation, knowledge: the children of Air that help us to differentiate and distinguish the quality of a thing. The worth of a practice. Whether something we are doing is in alignment with what we desire.
What potential do you desire that is not yet present in your life or your community? What state of being are you working toward? What do you want to have, or to see, or to know that you do not yet have or see or know? Take a moment to write about that. To journal. To talk through it with a friend or roommate or partner (or in the astrology for writers Discord).
This might sound like manifestation, and in some ways, it is. There is a similarity, to be sure. But part of why I have moved away from thinking about making desire manifest as manifestation and, rather, as worldbuilding (borrowing from my lifelong love of fantasy literature) is that worldbuilding, by its name alone, suggests that there is a process. That bringing a new world or self into being is something that requires intention, work, time. Things are not built overnight. There is a slowness inherent in the concept that is appealing to me, in talking about how we might bring about change in our respective lives.
Like we might do if writing a fantasy or sci-fi novel, let’s consider what conditions are important for us to experience the growth or change we desire. Let’s also, then, consider where we are now. In this moment. What has to change, or shift, or develop in order to bring you to your desired state? Chart the next steps necessary to change a behavior or, more broadly, a worldview. You might also think of it as reverse engineering, as we so often do with our art: I know roughly where I want to be, or where I want the story to end, so what steps do I need to take to get there? This can be a helpful exercise for writers and artists with our work, but it also helps us pause on our career trajectories. Am I still taking actions that align with a goal I no longer have? What, actually, am I building towards in this moment?
Worldbuilding is not linear. It can be like falling in love, in that way that it happens slowly and then all at once. And with rebellious, earthquake-bringing Uranus involved in this full moon story, it is likely that something unexpected may occur to shake things loose — whether moving them along or causing the current plans and projections to halt altogether. This Full Moon is an opportunity to change gears; you have reached one peak, and it’s time to work towards another. Think back to what you were doing six months ago, during the New Moon in Aquarius on February 9th (which was also square Uranus). What has been reconfigured in your own world and worldview since then? What has changed, developed, shrunk, or disappeared? Where does this full moon find you, in your desires?
In the chaos of this week, I encourage y’all to take a moment to journal or simply think through some of these questions. What world(s) are we bringing into being? And what does that look like in a slow, daily way, for both ourselves and our communities?
Happy Full Moon, y’all.
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I love worldbuilding! From the writing craft perspective, but it's so applicable here. I often try to get writers of other genres/forms to understand that worldbuilding is for *everyone* not just the spec fic folks.
This has given much food for thought. I love the distinction you make between manifestation and worldbuilding. Ty! 🤍