Bit Off: Leo Full Moon

By Len Wallick

Tomorrow is the big moment for this week’s astrology — a Full Moon. A Full Moon in the last, or anaretic degree of its sign. This is the fifth anaretic Full Moon in a row. That trend has gone as far as it can go.

When that sort of event takes place – the reaching of a furthest edge — things must necessarily go another way. That seems to be the theme accompanying the astrology of today and the days soon to follow.

In fact, that’s the wisdom at the root of nearly every oracular method. Determine when cycles or trends have reached the point where they must change. Then, evaluate the direction of that change and interpret that template in order to anticipate the course of unrelated but concurrent events. The astrology right now gives us a chance to practice just that protocol.

In the case of the Moon, the cycle is now reaching culmination. That means it relates to the sign where the New Moon last took place — the location of the Sun at the time of its conjunction to Luna. In this case that is Aquarius, the last fixed sign and the last air sign in the zodiac. Aquarius corresponds to the eleventh house, is classically ruled by Saturn, and controversially ruled by Uranus. Aquarius represents the collective, or more precisely the place where the individual and the collective come together — such as the Internet and the many forms of media that phenomenon has spawned.

Sol will still be in Aquarius for the Full Moon, in the last degree to be precise. This part of any sign corresponds to and resonates with the theme of “as far as it can go.” The spirit of a month has been collected, distilled and concentrated into a single day. There is tension, weight and fatigue but there is also closure and preparation for transition. Functionally conjoined with the Sun are Neptune, Mars and Mercury.

Just on the other side of the cusp is Chiron, in the first degree of Pisces for the first time in over four decades. There is a compelling case to be made to include this best-known centaur planet in the Aquarius conjunction. Its long tenure in the sign of the water carrier and the fact that it is closer to the Sun than any other planet makes this a judicious time to break a rule and disregard the fact that it is, so to speak, out of sign. So, that’s quite a combination. These planets are collecting on the border, on the edge, on the brim — preparing to cross or spill over. Neptune and Chiron lend an ethereal, spiritual component. Mars and Mercury make it urgent, passionate, personal.

This collective on the edge is reminiscent of a new culture even now emerging from Mexico — informed by poverty and necessity, and uninhibited by the established and bankrupt social norm. This gives birth to new religious icons that real people, falling off the edge of the collective, can actually relate to. It is dangerous and vital, a source of life and death. Please be careful with this energy. Stay sober if possible and feel the high of just being able to take another breath. This is a time to appreciate what life is worth, not be reckless with it.

Before we go further with the Moon, there is one more thing. Also part of the Aquarian conjunction is an asteroid named Karma. When things have gone as far as they can go, we see at last what we have done. It would be good form to err on the side of taking responsibility at this time. This is especially indicated now that astrology’s most potent representative of the concept of Karma, the mean south lunar node, is making a new start in Gemini, exactly trine to the Sun. Own it and you won’t be sorry.

The sign opposing Aquarius is Leo. Opposing signs have a lot in common, sometimes enough to make things uncomfortable. In this case the operative word is self. If Aquarius is where that interfaces with the collective, then Leo is the sort of connection a mirror provides. In other words, the fine line between being self-examined and self-involved. The opposition is provocative. Think of somebody you don’t like who is an awful lot like you. Come on, you can do it. This is the concept of simultaneously regarding one’s self and one’s relation to the other. The polarity between fixed fire (Leo) and fixed air (Aquarius) resembles that remark.

Now take that “mirror, mirror…” energy building up for a month and focus it into about an hour (the amount of time between the Full Moon and Luna’s ingress to Virgo) and you have one honkin’ big blowtorch with the valve wide open. And there you are with that torch held out to one side as far as your arm can reach. In your other hand is the heady, volatile flask of lighter fluid and heavy vapor that the Aquarian conjunction implies. That’s this Full Moon and your arms are probably getting tired.

One other thing. This anaretic Leo Moon has a conjunction of its own. Isis-Transpluto is taking forever, it seems, in the last degree of Leo. Isis-Transpluto is referred to as a hypothetical point because there is no material object there. These points are like a lunar node, a point where Luna’s oblique orbit intersects the Earth’s ecliptic with the center of the solar system. The Black Moon Lilith corresponds to the averaged point of the Moon’s oscillating apogee, so there is no material object there. Black Moon Lilith is just a place where something would be if it could be, but it can’t, at least right now.

Compared to the other hypothetical points, Isis-Transpluto is rarely used in mainstream astrology, but let’s see if we can cobble something together. Its apparent motion is really, really slow — approaching movement similar to Eris and Sedna (two dwarf planets also orbiting our Sun). It is almost fixed in a location where the concept of fixed is at a really high octave. The first ephemeris for this point was published in the 1970’s, the same decade of Chiron’s discovery, so it has been in astrological use for about as long. Its opposition to the centaur planet of tenure just might give us something to work with — a connection with the big picture astrology of our time. In other words, the subject of relationship.

So let’s try this on for size. The Full Moon is conjunct something that isn’t really there that stubbornly refuses to budge. It is on the edge and its lunar companion has got a life, knows it, and has no problems moving on. It is opposed to a huge stellium, or grouping of planets, that literally transcends the edge, rendering the concept meaningless. Some members of that conjunction, like the lesser luminary, will move on quickly. Others will be around for quite a while longer, holding the tension. All of them have substance and identity beyond anything Isis-Transpluto can bring to the table. Yet the hypothetical remains in a stubbornly fixed focus on self. It’s really no contest.

As the central protagonist, Rick, informed his paramour at the end of the motion picture “Casablanca”, we live in a time when self- indulgence, self-involvement and any attempt to fix even the most passionate attachment to self does not amount to the proverbial hill of beans from the standpoint of history. If there is anything to astrology and synchronicity, strongly held ego positions have gone as far as they can go. They are a bit off now and as time goes on, they may well get bitten off.

So, my oracular sisters and brothers, take that and run with it. If we all run in the right direction, we will end up together in service to one another and not just looking out for ourselves. Speaking of running, a whole lot of energy is poised to run out of Aquarius and drain into Pisces real soon. That’s where we will take up next week.

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