A Fiery Full Moon in Aries: How Might We Find Balance in Times of Strife?
October 17th’s Full Moon in Aries feels difficult. Looking at the chart, I can feel its complex and stressful energy in my bones—the reality that this lunation will likely leave us all cranky and irritated. It touches on our wounds around self-assertion and brings a desire to throw off chains in relationships where we may feel oppressed. It is A LOT, especially when you combine it with the energy of the New Moon on November 1st, which is also ruled by Mars, the god of war and aggression.
The reality deepens when you understand Mars is in rough shape for the next few months. He’s in Cancer, the sign of nurturing and family—the Warrior does not do well in the home. Mars has also just entered the “pre-retrograde shadow period.” This is a fancy way to say Mars will go retrograde in December, meaning he will appear to move backward in the sky.
Astrologically, Mars stays at the same 19 degrees as our chart (17 Cancer to 6 Leo) for almost seven months. Typically, Mars moves through 30 degrees in about five weeks, so you get the picture—he will be grinding his way through this small part of our charts for a long time, affecting the houses where we have Cancer and Leo. See chart below.
When Mars goes retrograde (December 6-February 23), he will be opposite the Sun in the sky. He will rise in the night sky when the Sun sets, ready for battle. At this point, he will be as close to the Earth as he ever gets so that we will experience his complex energy more than usual. Given the current political situation in the United States, I don’t think any of us would be surprised if political tensions come to a head in the period after the election.
In our personal lives, the tensions will likely play out in our chart's Cancer/Leo houses. Breaking down the chart's energy a bit more, we see that Mars is at the head (“apex”) of a “T-square” to Moon/Chiron in Aries and the Sun in Libra. With a T-square, the energy of the opposition between the Sun and Moon is naturally channeled to Mars. In layman’s terms, we may experience a struggle between our wounds around self-assertion (Moon/Chiron in Aries) and our desire to be in harmony with others (Sun in Libra). Rather than resolve the tension of this conflict by being present to our wounds and our desire for harmony, we may be drawn to act out aggressively (Mars) around the people we are closest to (Cancer—family/home).
The way forward with a T-square is to balance the Mars in Cancer energy with the energy of the opposite sign--Capricorn. So, if you find old wounds around self-assertion surfacing during this time, making you feel cranky, irritable, and wanting to strike out at others, you might consider how to bring in the energy of Capricorn to balance and temper Mars in Cancer’s impulsive, emotional nature.
Capricorn is an earth sign ruled by Saturn, a planet associated with responsibility, hard work, and maturity. At its best, Capricorn energy can call us to our inner authority, our inner leader who sets boundaries and encourages us to be clear-eyed about what is real and what may be pure fantasy.
The chart also speaks loudly about women’s issues. Venus, the goddess of love, beauty, and relationships, who can represent women and women’s issues in a chart, is finishing an opposition with Uranus. This planet carries the energy of a lightning bolt; it can bring sudden changes in our lives: sudden shifts in consciousness; revolution; a desire to break free; a longing to exercise our autonomy; a sense of “f*ck this sh*t-- I can’t take it anymore!” Venus is also in supportive flowing energy to Pluto, a planet that asks us to excavate and deal with hidden issues so that we might transform our very nature.
Again, none of this is surprising considering what’s happening in the United States now. There’s a growing number of women enraged by how the right to reproductive healthcare has been eviscerated in parts of the United States and who fear the possibility of a Trump presidency for a laundry list of reasons. A couple of cultural figures who have expressed this energy in the past week have been Stevie Nicks and Alex Cooper. If you haven’t had a chance yet, watch Stevie Nicks on SNL last Saturday or listen to the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and see how Alex Cooper’s stance on addressing political issues in her podcast evolved over the past month after she interviewed Kamala Harris.
God willing, Venus will win the battle between Venus and Mars in the upcoming election. Kamala Harris is undoubtedly a powerful Venusian force. Venus rules her Libra Sun. More importantly, Uranus and Pluto are beside Venus in her chart, giving her the force to act as a power for change in the world. If anyone can defeat the patriarchy, it is her—along with so many others who are supporting her candidacy.
As always, the lunation will affect you differently depending on the placements in your birth chart. If you have planets at or near 21-26 degrees of the Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) or if your chart is ruled by Mars (if you are an Aries or Scorpio rising), you’re likely to be more impacted by the Full Moon. If you’d like to know more about how this Full Moon might affect you, you can book a reading below.