Full Moon in Aquarius (Part One)

Full Moon 1º Aquarius July 23 2021 8:36 pm MT

Moon conjuncts Pluto (by orb); Venus opposes Jupiter; Mercury trines Neptune; Neptune sextiles Pluto

Sun in Leo

Welcome to Leo season, sun babies! Leo is often known as the drama queen, the performer, the one standing in the spotlight. But what Leo truly represents in its most evolved form, is the deeply individual, unique creative self-expression each of us, and only us, has to offer this world.

The challenge here, is that Leo can sometimes come to depend on, to crave, the applause, the attention and approval of others. That’s why (in the lovely symmetry that is the zodiac), it sits across from Aquarius, who, on the other end of the polarity, teaches us to embrace our weird quirky uniqueness and own that authentic individuality without shame.

Aquarius, enigmatic paradox that it is, cares deeply about the highly individual spirit—and also the collective whole. Aquarius wields its individuality to benefit and grow the community entire. Aquarius is just about anything but selfish.

And yet, Aquarius can be rather cold, distant. As an air sign, it tends to think about the collective, rather than feel or experience it. Aquarius innovates, invents and carries us into the future. But it can become disconnected from the present, distanced from the very community it cares so deeply about. It benefits from the balance of Leo’s bright and shiny warmth, the lion’s grand heart. The fire of action and experience, and the joy and playfulness of childhood.

Full moons are times of opposition, where the moon sits across the sun from the moon in the sky—and thus they ask us to balance, to integrate, the lessons and medicine of each of the polarities, each side of the spectrum.

The Leo-Aquarius polarity asks us to use our unique creative-expression, not to please others, or impress them, but to help them—to help us all evolve into the next, better, level of our communal collective. And not to use our cognition alone to solve collective problems and evolve into higher consciousness—but also our hearts, our fire, our spark. To feel, to be present with, to love. To give. Leo brings wild generosity to the dreams of our collective future.

This axis asks us to shine bright like a candle—in a giant candelabra. Each of our lights matters—each candle gives light—and each is just a small glimmer in the shimmering whole. Leo-Aquarius reminds us that both of these are true.

Moon in Aquarius

I’ve been talking a lot in my recent posts about boundaries, and the power of our No, the sacredness of no. There’s been a lot of Saturn energy—and Saturn is limits, boundaries and learning the hard way. This moon continues this flavor—not only does Saturn rule the sign of Aquarius in traditional astrology, but Saturn is also here, in the same sign, just 9º away from the moon.

But what the sun in Leo—sitting across the sky from both of them—is here to remind us, is the power, and the pleasure, of the sacred YES.

Boundaries allow us, by cutting out and trimming away what is unnecessary or even debilitating, the space and breath to take on what is truly vital, what truly serves who we are and where we are going.

And Leo reminds us to fill the space that the boundary creates, with love, joy, generosity and so much flair. Flaunt your self-expression. Own what you want and what you love.

This full moon is a culmination (or at least part one of a month-long pinnacle) of not only the last two weeks (since the new moon in Cancer), but also the last new moon in Aquarius in February 2021, and also the new moon in Aquarius on January 24, 2020. And I don’t think anyone needs to be reminded of what happened in January of 2020.

With its conjunction to Pluto, lord of deep (rarely painless) transformation, this full moon asks us to examine and interrogate what we have lost, what we have learned… and also, what we have gained since our world was rocked by the pandemic—and all the other shocks, surprises and revolutions that this dawning of a new era has brought with it thus far.

What love, generosity, kindness, creativity, form of expression has arisen in you, come to you, been given to you, these past 18 months? What have you offered and given in return? How, and where, through all this contraction and limitation—have you also found growth, expansion, something to cherish and hold to?

This moon is the first of two full moons in Aquarius—a rarity like a blue moon that only occurs in one sign per year (typically). The next full moon in Aquarius occurs on August 22, giving us about a month to wrap up and integrate the lessons of the past two weeks, six months, 18 months.

We will never tie a bow on this time period and put it away. It has and will continue to change our world and each of our views of it. But, the skies are highlighting the need now to give this time its due—to offer contemplation and attention to where we have been, and where we intend to go from here.

As always, full moons are times of release, and this one, after eclipse season, after Mercury retrograde, after the last year and a half, gives us the full month we need (and this time period deserves) to really sit with, witness and process what needs it—and to release what we can.

Full Moon in Aquarius Ritual + Writing Prompts

Moon in Aquarius + Sun in Leo Ritual

This ritual pays homage to the bright light of the sun in its Leo rulership, while honoring the connection to the collective that Aquarius teaches us. It is inspired by the Buddhist and Hindu concept of Indra’s Jewel Net.

1. Close your eyes and let your awareness drop into your body. Become aware of yourself as a body sitting. A body breathing. Notice the breath move in and out.

2. Now let your attention move to your heart, your chest. See if you can direct your breath into your heart area. Allow it to fill your belly and then swim up and fill your ribcage.

3. As you feel the breath enter and fill your chest, imagine a bright sun, sitting at your heart space. Picture its brightness, its warmth.

4. With each in-breath, allow it to shine bigger and brighter, allow the rays to reach out beyond you into the room. Feel its molten heat and the sense of joy and gratitude it carries. You can expand this light, this star, out into the room. Let it fill the house or building you occupy.

5. Let this light, this heat, grow and expand and reach out into your neighborhood, your city. To the edges of your country. Let it fill and light the whole world. Reach into outer space, extend its light-hands toward all the other stars.

6. Now begin to notice other bright lights around you. See all the other stars, other suns. Stars in the sky, stars around you on Earth. Each human, each being, a light, shimmering; a solar system orbiting.

7. See these distinct lights, the space between them, each laid out in an overarching pattern, a grid. See too how they blend and merge, how the further out you go, the more they become one, brilliant shining sun.

8. Now let yourself slowly condense back in; grow smaller, lower, return to the boundaries of the atmosphere, the borders of your country, your town. Now the room. Now your body. Become aware of breath entering and exiting your body again; of yourself as a body breathing.

9. When you feel grounded and present in your body again, you can open your eyes.

Moon in Aquarius Writing Prompts

As I mentioned earlier, this full moon is a culmination of the last two weeks, the last six months, and also the last 18-months since the new moon in Aquarius in January 2020. It’s important to consider what has changed on a collective level—and also, the sun in Leo pulls us back to the personal, and reminds us that through all of our losses and grief, we reach out toward our larger potentials, and that when one door closes, a window opens.

We cannot see where each curve in the road takes us as we travel it, or what each setback or obstacle forces us to dig down and develop or overcome. But with hindsight, or when we’re able to pull out and take a larger, higher, more atmospheric perspective—sometimes we can catch a glimpse at some larger purpose, some grander unfolding, some great network of which we are a small, and vital, part.

Journal Writing Prompt

1. Listen to Ambar Lucid’s song, “A letter to my younger self.”

2. Write a letter to your younger self.

3. Write a letter from your older self to your present self.