When your ambition and willpower are on overdrive but you’re feeling stymied in your desire to take action, when you’re pushing hard and bumping into obstacles you can’t see, the risk of burnout is high.
Sometimes it helps to step back and look at the bigger picture. With a broader perspective you might find ways to innovate or places where you can liberate yourself from the status quo that is keeping you stuck.
Mars, which represents our ambition, drive, and fire, is newly in Libra, an air sign. It’s in a stand-off with Saturn and Neptune in Aries, two air-related planets in a fire sign. That tension is baked into the Full Moon in Aquarius (August 9, 3:54 AM ET, 16º49’), which in itself ignites more fire and air tension.
Read: How Mars Opposing Saturn and Neptune Will Show Up For You
Amidst the big Mars tensions of the weekend, this full moon can illuminate where we are lacking systems, structures, and other supports to move forward.
Full Moon Dynamics
At a full moon, the Sun and Moon are in an opposition. This Full Moon pits the Sun in independent, performative, and firey Leo against the Moon in airy Aquarius — a sign focused on ideas and the collective.
At this full moon, the Sun and Moon are only in conversation with each other. But the other conversations in the sky are heavy influences on this full moon.
Illuminating Unstable Structures and Ineffective Systems
As the ruler of Aquarius, Saturn is in charge of this full moon. Saturn is the planet of structure and systems, significations that are also associated with Aquarius.
Aquarius is a sign of the collective. It’s easier to do hard things when we have good social support, as well as reliable systems.
Saturn’s condition is a significant influence on this full moon.
Saturn is currently retrograde in Aries, which is the sign of its “fall” or “depression.” Aries is a cardinal fire sign that facilitates impulsive action and wants immediate results. This is at odds with Saturn’s cold, conservative, and considered approach.
So Saturn is in an environment that is at odds with how it operates. It’s also moving backward, indicating a period of review and reflection rather than action.
This can illuminate what isn’t working; where we lack adequate systems, structures, and support.
Saturn is not alone in Aries. It’s sitting right next to Neptune, a planet that dissolves and disintegrates things. Just like a drip of water can erode a stone over time, Neptune is dissolving Saturn’s structures, weakening them.
Saturn conjunct Neptune can show us what structures are disintegrating, what’s not reliable or stable. We might see where there are some leaks in the structures that we rely on. Something being washed away.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Although Saturn is in its “fall” or “depression” in Aries, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are benefits to being in a place where you can’t do things your usual way — it encourages you to get curious about new methods or systems, and forces you to innovate new ways of doing things.
As this full moon illuminates our where our support systems are unreliable and where our structures are leaking, Saturn also receives helpful aspects from both Uranus and Pluto.
With Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius — both air signs — their aspects to Saturn add more fuel to the prominent fire/air dynamic.
Uranus is the planet of disruption, surprises, and revolution. In Gemini, it can be extremely unpredictable — like a live wire that ignites a spark, with the right wind conditions that spark can become a raging and uncontainable wildfire. Uranus brings a rebellious and revolutionary quality — a shake-up that liberates us from the status quo.
The jolt from Uranus can help a stuck situation get moving again. This aspect encourages us to step into the unfamiliar, get curious, stay open, experiment, and innovate.
On the other side of Saturn, Pluto is bringing its transformational qualities to help us let go of those unstable, disintegrating, and leaky systems and structures that no longer serve us.
This is the necessary step to reclaim our power to innovate and create new, stable foundations that will take us into the future.
[…] being stopped because you lack skill, structures, systems, or support and put those in place. The Full Moon in Aquarius will illuminate the systems you need to […]