This Full Moon is happening at 16° of Virgo and will be most potent for people with personal planets or the ascendant at 13° to 19° of the Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces). This lunation is excellent for releasing perfectionism, limiting beliefs, and to reflect on the power of perception and imagination. In my practice, the purpose of astrology is to give us the ability to see the divinity in the shifting circumstances of our daily lives to help us surrender to what we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

This lunation is the culmination of the wishful and dreamy desire planted at the New Moon in Pisces. The beautiful fantasy we came into contact with then is being contrasted by the Full Moon in Virgo. Virgoan energy is all about how the details add up to outcomes far down the road. With the ability for far reaching vision and idealism as well as the keen awareness of the Earthly bounds in which we all are subject to, Virgo is preoccupied with the need to understand what is necessary in order to bring this ideal into the physical. Unfortunately, this skill for vision to both accurately assess the current circumstances and to envision their perfect outcome can lead to a spiritual dissatisfaction for the ways in which the material representation can never quite measure up to the ideal. With the Full Moon opposite its ruler Mercury in Pisces and square to Mars in Gemini there may be a sense of frustration with being able to see the gap between what we want and where we currently are but being unable to grasp or formulate a coherent plan of attack.

As this Full Moon perfects and increasingly agitates the now activated Mars and Neptune Square, it will be easy to be spurred into a disoriented frenzy of action in a vain attempt to move the needle forward. Mars, God of war and conflict, is being prodded by Neptune, God of illusions and fantasies. Mars likes to fight and win for its own satisfaction, but Neptune demands that its actions be in service to a collective dream, to dissolve its personal will and individual desire into a collective force. Mars in Gemini wants the facts at hand, to understand the lay of the battleground but Neptune casts a fog of war that makes Mars’s investigative vigor impotent. We may fight for, or with, collective illusions and come into contact with the power and force of the imagination. To use a parable from Vedantic philosophy, we can consider the story of The Rope and the Snake. A man walking at night along a path sees a snake barring his passage and in fear runs back from where he came. In the morning, he goes to take the same path and finds in place of the snake a coiled rope. We are meant to understand that without full knowledge of the reality of a situation that we can act according to our misconceptions as if they are true. In Neptune’s nebulous and reality warping sphere of influence and Mars’s desire for conflict and domination, we can find ourselves mistaking perception with truth and wage war on its behalf.

Presently, it is not advised to start any difficult conversations that can be postponed. Mercury, the ruler of communication, is in a distressed and weakened state at this time. With the current energies, it would be incredibly easy to unintentionally cause a misunderstanding that fuels a ruthless verbal vivisection between you and a loved one, creating more pain and confusion in the process. A constructive use of these energies could look like a creative use of language, such as poetry or journaling, to express our felt anger and pain without the need to comprehend it. As Pisces represents the emotional waters of our inner and collective worlds, it is aligned with what can be felt but never defined. Mercury’s desire to intellectualize the Piscean part of our charts can leave it frustrated and at a loss for words. The function and beauty of Pisces is not an intellectual pursuit and trying to understand and pin down its meaning will block the flow of experience the Fishes wish to bring to us.

On the same day of the Full Moon, we see Saturn move into Pisces, adding to the focus on the Pisces area of our charts. Where ever you find Pisces in your chart, the planetary taskmaster will bring the need for discipline, restriction, release, solitude, and restructuring. Particularly in Pisces, we can see dedication to a higher power or cause that is practical and grounded. Positively, it makes deeply devoted spiritual figures, like monks and disciples, a feeling of responsibility to abide by a loving ethic, and disciplined artists and creatives. Negatively, it can manifest as emotional isolation and loneliness, a harsh contraction of our ability to empathize, as well as a bleak and pessimistic imagination. For an in-depth overview of Saturn in Pisces as well as a review of the Saturn Cycle for those of you about to enter your Saturn Return, you can watch my Saturn Returns in Pisces talk here: https://youtu.be/jOHOhu8RYJo

With the dynamic and restless energies present, now is a great time of reflection and reframing; To pause and wait for information as much as possible with the awareness that we likely do not have all the facts. While we are unable to control or completely avoid the energies, we can move with them wisely. So as always, I thank you for taking the time to arm yourself with the knowledge of astrological energies. It is my hope that my forecasts help you be empowered to live in harmony with the planets, instead of feeling at the whims of the transits. Astrology can help us learn how to ride the waves of our transits instead of being bowled over by them, taken into the undertow. If you’re interested to learn more about how these transits could effect you as an individual or for more insight on your unique astrological blueprint, you can book a reading with me. Happy Full Moon to you all!