January 28 2:16 PM EST
The first full moon of 2021 provides a clear demonstration that we continue to stand at a gateway between the ‘old way’ and the ‘new way’ in our personal lives (as well as in the collective), but are more available than ever to accept the invitation to jump full force into our new more heart-centric path.
The full moon itself is in Leo, the sign that rules the heart and certain ‘matters of the heart’ including romance, risk, speculation, games, recreation and creativity. After all, those are the pursuits that we choose to engage with (ideally) because they bring us joy and pleasure and are ways of expressing and engaging ‘our hearts true desires’. Leo is also associated with childhood since this is a period in life when we feel less constricted and self-conscious about letting these parts of ourself shine.
However, unfortunately, in our modern culture it is during childhood that these very parts of ourself frequently get diminished, squashed, or warped. Often the culprit lies in the cultural over-emphasis on the Cancer/Capricorn polarity. Cancer urges conformity to the family group, the social tribe, the clan. Capricorn insists on rules, responsibilities, status, and ‘respectability’. Where is the Leo heart, full of its own sense of adventure, wonder, possibility to find its outlet in this atmosphere?
Often it goes towards rebellion and extremism, as exemplified by Leo’s opposite sign of Aquarius. Leo and Aquarius are both fixed signs, so once they ‘take a stand’ on something it can be hard to sway them (*the other two fixed signs are Taurus and Scorpio). If at some point the Leo/Aquarian personality (or ANY of us who feel that our “Leo childhood play time” was squashed or marginalized) decides that it cannot (or will not) be a party to the Cancer/Capricorn “traditional way of life”, it can go full steam ahead into a unique world of its own making. Instead, we seek to find an alternative community (Aquarius) where we feel we can be more authentically self-expressed (Leo). This can provide a welcome antidote and arena for experimenting with love and creativity, but when it is coming purely from the standpoint of rebellion, it is not grounded, will not have the healing or empowering effect desired, and can even become a sort of unique self-made prison to replace the more ‘conventional one’. What is important to note is that this a common psychological coping mechanism for anyone who feels like they have not been given an opportunity to explore what their heart truly desires, in a genuine, playful, childlike, exploratory way. Again, this applies to many adults in the current culture, so here we find ourselves well past adolescence, still learning how to access joyful and healthy self-expression, sexual expression, and creative expression.
This full moon reminds us that is it NOT too late, it is NEVER too late to claim this for ourselves, no matter how long ago our childhood feels to us. Venus, the planet related to love, beauty and art is EXACTLY conjunct Pluto, the planet of transformation at the time of this full moon. Venus conjoins Pluto once a year, but it is very rare that it would be at the exact time of a full moon. Venus is READY to help us have a new experience in the realm of love and abundance, again perhaps that experience that we feel was not available to us as we were getting started in our lives. Whatever ‘old ways of being’ in those areas of our life that have become calcified and hardened into habit and expectation can be liberated now. Again, fixed behavior does not like to change and there are SEVEN planets (out of 10) in fixed signs at the full moon. But Pluto conjunct Venus in Capricorn is helping us to break the stagnation and explode these outmoded patterns. Not to mention that the full moon is closely square to Uranus (the great liberator) who itself is heated up and amplified by a conjunction to forceful Mars.
Another tremendous ally during this full moon is Jupiter, the planet of luck and generosity, EXACTLY conjunct the sun and opposite the moon the at the time of the full moon. Jupiter’s motto is “go big or go home”. This is the time to get truly real and honest with ourselves about how we have been holding ourselves back, holding our HEARTS back, so that Jupiter and Pluto can take the sledge-hammer and break these fixed patterns once and for all. Now let’s be real, experiencing a sledge-hammer is not always fun. But the story of most of 2020 was Jupiter and Pluto teamed up with Saturn to take a sledge-hammer to our outdated institutions and patriarchal norms (see The Pluto/Saturn Conjunction and Saturn Enters Aquarius). So at least now we can accept a parting gift from Jupiter and Pluto during this full moon of a reset of our outdated personal emotional patterns! For those who are not afraid to dive deep this could be a profoundly cathartic and impactful full moon to get us to a different level in our availability for faith and courage (Jupiter) as well as trust and intimacy (Pluto) in our lives and relationships.
Saturn, the planet of realism and responsibility, is also a player during this full moon. Jupiter and Saturn are still traveled together in the early degrees of Aquarius after their Grand Conjunction on the 2020 winter solstice. Saturn reminds us that our actions have consequences, and that piece by piece, choice by choice, we are adding to the tapestry of our lives. What do we truly want that tapestry to look like? Again, with the sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury ALL in independent and progressive Aquarius at the time of the full moon, we are reminded that that tapestry can look like ANYTHING that we want it to, we just don’t want to get stuck stubbornly creating and re-creating a tapestry that we started making in conformity to (OR rebellion against) something, instead of based on the true fires and passions of our heart.
So in a sense, this is a pretty epic full moon. By the time of the next new moon in Aquarius on February 11th, there will be NO more planets in Capricorn until next winter (save Pluto who is in residence there until 2023). Considering that we have had a huge number of eclipses in Capricorn and planets there going back to 2018, this will be a massively welcome shift for all of us. Take this 2 week full moon energetic window, when Venus is still in Capricorn conjunction Pluto, as a final opportunity to allow our hearts and our creativity and our emotions to get back on track, regardless of how many years (or decades) they may have felt a lil out o’ whack 🙂 Our inner child deserves it.
*Art by @metametagasm
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