Full Moon rising: Take it lightly, talk about it

Today is Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. The Moon leaves Pisces and begins full phase when it enters Aries today at 8:57 am EDT. The Full Moon can be an alert, energized time, though characterized by polarity. This week’s aspects are all about considering and perhaps reconciling opposing points of view. This might mean discovering an emotional current that unifies two perspectives that seem otherwise impossible to reconcile.

Once in Aries, the Moon it forms a conjunction to Uranus. This is an ‘expect the unexpected’ aspect; you may find yourself feeling like someone you don’t expect to be, with a rebellious streak. It would be ill advised to be a rebel without a clue, or without an actual cause, though the temptation to stir things up for its own sake might be strong.

But it’s a great day to step into your future self and experiment with the person you are becoming, or want to be. It’s a great day to experiment with ideas.

For the first part of the week you may feel a sense of pressure as the Aries Full Moon gets closer to its peak at about 10:06 pm EDT Tuesday. This, along with other factors, suggests a wise mantra for the week might be ‘take it lightly’ – and you can combine that with ‘talk about it’. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional whirlwind of a Full Moon. This one happens to position fiery individualism (Moon, Uranus, Eris in Aries) against our concepts of relationships (Sun and Saturn in Libra). You may feel caught up in something that you really don’t want to be part of — or feel deeply invested in something that you value. The truth is usually somewhere in between, but this is a good time to consider those two points of view.

The polarity gets some extra emphasis from the Sun’s proximity to Saturn in Libra and the Moon’s sidling up to Eris in Aries. In other words, the bright Full Moon is throwing into stark relief our feelings about any identity chaos we may have, and the traditional relationship structures into which we often try to funnel that and forget it. This theme will continue to build throughout the month, as Saturn and Eris move into a rare, exact opposition. For now, notice what comes up for you in this area and take it as an invitation to explore and consider the possibilities and potentials of your situation.

Allow any new realizations about how you exist in relationship to yourself and others to percolate up; give them voice. Don’t throw yourself into a panic thinking you need to abandon any important relationships just because you feel the Full Moon bearing down on you. That is an option of course, but it is just one of many, and all are worth considering with a little psychic room to breathe.

If one of the goals of astrology is understanding and healing, then room to breathe is essential. So is finding a little perspective on situations that may at first (or traditionally) get categorized as difficult. Venus entered Scorpio early yesterday at 1:50 am EDT. This puts Venus opposite Taurus, a sign it rules – traditionally not considered an effective position. But as Len noted Thursday, the move to Scorpio puts Venus into a grand trine with two other bodies in water signs: “In conversation with Eros and Chiron, Venus in Scorpio holds a healing, if inconvenient potential. There will be an opportunity to open our hearts to a conversation that is both passionate and compassionate.”

As we have that heart-level conversation within ourselves, we would do well to keep one ear on what comes from our minds and out our mouths. Very early this morning Mercury caught up with Juno in Libra. Again, I’ll repeat the mantras for the week: take it lightly, talk about it. Think carefully before you speak, and when you do, remember the compassion. Mercury-Juno in Libra could bring to mind all manner of relationship slights, scores and outright jealousy. If you get caught in a mental loop of such things, have some compassion for yourself and talk it out with someone. Just have some compassion too for the object of your ire and don’t try things out on him or her first.

For one thing, later this week brings an opportunity to consider who and what we value from two opposing perspectives. You’ll want to have all your options open and all your cards on the table then. Passion and compassion will be good guides.

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