the full moon in aquarius for writers

Hi friends,

Normally, I have an essay for you, but this newsletter is going to be a little more brief, addressing the tenor of tonight’s full moon. Health issues have reared their head (connecting, ironically/predictably enough, to the New Moon in Aquarius earlier this year), and so I’m going to beg your forgiveness for the brevity. Thank you for understanding.

Xx,

Jeanna

---

Courtesy of a rare Mars/Uranus/North Node conjunction in Taurus, these first few weeks of August have been difficult, astrologically, which you may well have felt. Tempers flaring, or shortening. Anxiety heightening. Mars (action, conflict, motivation) clashing with Uranus (lightning-like inspiration, the unexpected being revealed) clashing with the North Node — which, depending on astrological tradition, some call destiny and others label insatiable hunger. The dragon’s head, eating everything in sight.

a section of hieronymus bosch’s “the last judgment”

(This has been the setting for, say, the DOJvPRH trial.)

On the heels of that energy’s diminishment, tonight’s Full Moon, exact at 19* of Aquarius and arriving at 9:35p Eastern, dredges up another kind of difficult — but a kind of difficult that is familiar. Goddess forbid we have a breather, that the summer close out with a sigh rather than a fucking bang.

Tonight’s moon is closely conjunct Saturn, which is also the ruler of Aquarius. Consequently, this moon highlights the tension between the responsibilities we have to others and the boundaries we must honor for ourselves. But the moon being so close to Saturn means that it is also square Uranus (at 18* Taurus). And anyone who has closely followed the astrology of the last few years knows that this highlights Saturn/Uranus issues from 2021 — wherever those have presented themselves in your life. Those Saturn/Uranus squares, you’ll recall, highlight the chasm between order and freedom, between lower-case conservatism and revolution (to wit: the January 6 insurrection, and the current investigation around it). With warrior Mars involved, it also foments the potential for acting on those tensions. 

It’s a lot.

So that’s the astrological landscape this moon arrives in. On a macro level, expect some themes from last year to reappear. On a micro level, notice where you feel those tensions between, as discussed, order and freedom. Where you crave structure, but also perhaps resent it. Where you desire space, but also don’t know how to give it to yourself.

This is a time for breathing, for mindfulness, for grace for yourself and others. (We all live under the same sky.) It’s also a time to avoid being taken in by the comfort of easy answers (like Lion’s Gate and other hoaxes, which the wonderful Amaya Rourke has expanded on here). To give yourself as much of an emotional safety net as possible. To — as much as is possible — also show up for your people.

At its best, Aquarius is about community, after all. Humans are a fundamentally social species. Interdependence is necessary, healthy. No one should have to go it alone. Especially during this kind of astro weather.

---

Writing Prompts for the Full Moon in Aquarius

• How do you create in difficult times? What is your attitude or belief about creating in difficult times, about art’s role in difficult times? 

• Consider the Aquarius house of your chart, and the area of life this particular house rules (i.e., is in charge of). What have you grown or tended in this area of life since the New Moon in Aquarius on February 1st of this year? What feels more expansive? What has reached a culmination? What, perhaps, are you letting go of?