The 2018 version of the Aquarius Full Moon reaches its maximum phase at 1:20p PDT on Friday, 27th July 2018 (4.74°). The Moon is reflecting the light of a Leo 9 Sun, encouraging us to assess and hopefully recognize how well we are uniquely, authentically, and emotionally expressing our individual selves within our communities and group activities in order to fulfill the group’s collective goals. It also encourages us to seek ways to fulfill our common goals which support everyone involved in getting into and fully expressing their feelings and healing their self-identities and self-expressions in the process.

Yet this 2018 Aquarius Full Moon is a more extraordinary Aquarius Full Moon than usual in a number of ways.

First, this 2018 Aquarius Full Moon is also a Total Lunar Eclipse. The fullness of this “Blood Moon” Lunar Eclipse will be seen in Southern and Eastern Africa, throughout the Middle East and the Baltic States, and into India and Western Asia. It will be partial in most other parts of the world with the exceptions of North America, Greenland, and far northeastern Russia where the eclipse will not be visible at all.

Second, this will be the longest duration of a Total Lunar Eclipse of the 21st Century to date – a whopping 103 minutes of totality! This gives us plenty of time to set intentions for massive emotional personal and collective revelations to occur. These may be revelations of information and insight, but they’re more likely to be revelations of our own individual and uniquely authentic emotional self-expression.

Third, this Full Moon + Total Lunar Eclipse occurs while we have 7 celestial bodies in retrograde motion (Mercury, Mars, Vesta, Chiron, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto), indicating this is an extremely powerful time for making observations and receiving feedback that may assist us in a process of renewal and personal (and collective) evolution. We are better off allowing ourselves to assess our circumstances and make conscious choices for our present and future steps rather than trying to force matters to remain in status quo or to move forward solely by our will.

But wait! There’s more! The transits of the day. There’s quite a few, but we’ll cover the ones directly involving our Sun-Moon-Eclipse opposition.

The Leo 9 Sun is conjunct the Leo North Node (5.88°) at the time of maximum phase, and this combination finds many of us seeking acknowledgment for bringing matters to fulfillment or completion, getting things done and/or achieving results. The North Node represents the karmic lessons we get to learn and master at this time – the experiences we get to have which progress us into our future fulfillments of our intentions and purposes. Under the sign of Leo, those future fulfillments depend upon our creative self-expression.

That means the Aquarius Moon is conjunct the Aquarius South Node at max phase, and this combination finds many of us assessing whether or not we connect with our communities, and whether or not our communities are part of a movement to repeat the past or to progress the future. The South Node represents the karmic energies we’ve already learned and mastered – the beliefs and behaviors we tend to default to as our standard mode of operations for achieving “success”. In this case, that would be to either try really hard to fit in where we don’t, or to go rogue and rebel against a community or system which does not accept us the way we want to be accepted. Our emotions are invested in maintaining our past behaviors and the connections which encourage and support them, but the more we examine those behaviors and connections, the more we may realize we’re outgrowing or out-evolving them.

The Aquarius side of this Sun-Moon opposition has one more guest – Aquarius Mars Retrograde (3.97°), and with Mars making its appearance first in the order of conjunction, it means actions (or rather, reactions) will be at the fore of the community side of this experience. We will have opportunities to witness our communities, societies, and all of humanity in action to see how they receive the unique self-expression of their community members, to see how we do or don’t contribute to those communities through our own unique self-expression, and to see if and how those communities are contributing to our life experience.

• The first question this is likely to bring up focuses more on Mars Retrograde’s participation. Do the actions of your community reflect their beliefs and declared intentions, and more importantly, do the actions of your community reflect your beliefs and declared intentions? Are the group’s actions aligned with your personal principles? And would you willingly participate in the same actions they are taking?

Retrogrades are observation energy. They are also feedback energy. Therefore, these are opportunities for you to observe the actions of those you choose to keep company with, yet it also provides opportunities for you to receive very rapid feedback from the people and environments around you letting you know if your actions are in alignment with your declared purposes and intentions or not.

• The second question this is likely to bring up is… if your actions are not making a positive contribution to the community, and if the community is not making a positive contribution to your journey, is there any reason to continue being part of said community?

Sometimes, we remain in communities because they’re a place for us to go and be – a place to “belong”. Yet sometimes (and sadly, more often than not) you may find yourself participating in communities or activities no longer support or encourage your unique individual self-expression (if they ever really did). This 2018 Aquarius Full Moon + Total Lunar Eclipse is an opportunity for you to recognize which communities have run their course and may actually be keeping you from moving your life journey forward.

• The third question is… how do you feel about your intentions, their intentions, your actions, their actions, and the emotions they all bring up? If you feel good about your communities, by all means, stick with them! Yet if you don’t feel good about them, this may be a moment of truth.

These three questions will find many of us facing the hard reality that our community (or one or more of our communities) may not be aligned with our unique and authentically expressed selves, and that it may be time to move on from the familiar to move into a new yet uncertain future.

But just when you thought this was challenging enough, there’s a few more attendees to this 2018 Aquarius Full Moon + Total Lunar Eclipse party.

For starters, there’s the fixed energy T-Square that forms thanks to Uranus in Taurus’ presence square both the Sun + North Node and Mars + Moon + South Node conjunctions. Beyond the Eclipse event itself, THIS is THE big transit of the day as Uranus – which happens to be the ruling planet of Aquarius – makes undeniably clear its intention to force change upon our “familiar” collective status quo. Uranus is not playing any games whatsoever in taking on the role of ‘social disruptor’, and it is certain to encourage any shifts which make embracing your unique creative self-expression and moving toward your future just that much more challenging to make as it will favor the Aquarius energy which is attached to the past. If you are easily swayed by a “need to belong”, it will make it harder for you to walk away from groups which no longer benefit from your presence nor serve you well as you may need to go it alone for a bit in order to find or be found by a new community more aligned with who you are now.

That said, if you are (or have been) trying to hold onto the past and are experiencing a ton of resistance and/or misery for your efforts, or if “the way (you’ve) always done things” is no longer working for you, now is a wonderful time to recognize and/or understand why that may be the case.

Capricorn Saturn Retrograde (3.77°) – quincunx the Leo 9 Sun + North Node and semi-sextile the Aquarius Mars + Moon + South Node conjunction. You’ll notice that if your actions are not aligned with your choices and/or if your choices are not aligned with your authentic self-expression in the first place, the Universe will not allow you to make progress or get anything done. Any obstacles, delays, or rejections you are experiencing are delivering a message – something is out of alignment or out of integrity.

Aries Chiron Retrograde (2.19°) is also participating directly with this lunar event – being trine to the Leo 9 Sun + North Node and sextile the Aquarius Mars + Moon + South Node conjunction. Here, witnessing the healing of others’ self-identity wounds may inspire and empower you to reclaim your own unique self-expression. In fact, others’ healing may inspire you to go rogue and/or to rebel against a social status quo which does not support you or your community in positive ways. The Sun + North Node end is what may drive you forward, but the Mars + Moon + South Node end of this will provide the emotional motivation to inspire you to reclaim your life. Yet this means Aries Chiron Retrograde will be in square transit to Capricorn Saturn Retrograde, and this transit will remind you that if you’re not acting in alignment with your true and unabridged self-expression, you may find your self-identity wounds being reopened as you face obstacles, delays, denials, and rejections and such. These re-opened wounds may bring a great deal of emotional pain, yet recognize this is an opportunity to express and release that pain. Under the 9 numerological month and day energies of completions, endings, and releases, this 2018 Aquarius Full Moon phase is your moment to fully express those painful emotions – to let out and let go of the emotional pain once and for all.

And that is the biggest thing to remember about this 2018 Aquarius Full Moon + Total Lunar Eclipse – this is an emotional event. This is an opportunity to accept that major changes are happening, that there’s no way to stop them, that these changes are likely to transform your life significantly if they haven’t already, and you are going to have to feel the impact of these changes on your life for many days, weeks, months, and years to come.

You’ll feel the powerful energy of the 2018 Aquarius Full Moon + Total Lunar Eclipse building for about three days before, through, and easing up about three days after this celestial event is complete. However, thanks to the eclipse, we’ll all be likely to feel the aftereffects of this Total Lunar Eclipse week over the next six to twelve months if not throughout our future as this time in our collective journey may prove to be a turning point for humanity.

Massive change to our status quo has arrived and cannot be avoided. That said, are you ready to be in your feelings and allow those feelings to be fully expressed in order to change your perspective and experience of change?

The choice is yours – to release your emotional pain, allow your self-identity wounds to be healed, and to courageously embrace your unique self-expression enough to make your brilliance known… in the face of change.

I hope you seize the day… and the extraordinary power of this 2018 Aquarius “Blood Moon”.

Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace