The 2018 Aries Full Moon reaches its maximum phase opposite the Libra 2 Sun at 7:52a PDT on Monday, 24th September 2018 (2.00°). This is a much more complicated Full Moon than we’ve had in a while, and its message is one which is not likely to be easily received.
Aries is action. Its cardinal fire energy is initiative, independent, and bold in putting that initiative and independence out into the world through acts of self-identification. With the Moon’s placement in this sign, it brings emotion to a sign which would normally act on ego-driven will alone. This 2018 Full Moon in Aries is a lightning bolt of passion ready and eager to strike at the first sign of threat to the aspects of our self-identities we are emotionally invested in.
This awareness of passionate emotional investment is compounded by the fact that the Moon is in conjunction aspect with Aries Chiron Retrograde (0.03°) at the time of the Moon’s maximum phase. When we have forged a self-identity defined by the wounds to our ego and/or self-identity, it may be very difficult to confront the fact that we may not know who we are or how to define ourselves without our woundedness or self-victimization. As much as we may say we want to let go of our wounds and restore balance to our lives, when it means we have to give up a piece of our self-identity we are emotionally invested in to get it, will we really let go? Is the achievement of balance really enough to get us to let go of who we choose to be?
Those dynamics are challenging enough already. Yet the biggest challenge here is that the wounds we may be using to define ourselves may not even be our own wounds. Chiron’s retrograde indicates that these wounds may have been projected onto us – that we may have been given the emotional baggage of others who chose to abdicate their responsibilities for doing harm or damage to others or themselves. Yes, we may have taken on the baggage of people who have refused and continue to refuse to acknowledge that they gave away their own power/free will to someone else. This truth is so painful, they projected it onto someone else to carry. That someone else may have been us, and the fact that we may now see these wounds as our own reveals that, we 1) may have enabled someone(s) to get out of being responsible for healing their own pain, and 2) may be trying to heal something in someone else that we cannot heal.
That’s because we cannot heal someone else unless they want to be healed… and they cannot heal if they cannot acknowledge they are wounded in the first place. It doesn’t matter if those wounds were inflicted upon them by someone else or by their own hand or will. It matters that they see it and acknowledge it, then choose to allow themselves to be healed.
Admission of the wound is the first step to healing it.
But as humans – especially as ego-driven humans – we tend to avoid acknowledging our pain, especially when we don’t want to seem weak or dependent on others for healing. Instead, we often forego the gradually liberating process of healing for the perceived safety and comfort of immediate gratification. Easing the pain in the short-term through ignorance or avoidance with the likelihood of having to revisit the pain again later on, for some reason, often seems to be a better choice than facing and dealing with what happened now to avoid that lightning bolt of pain down the road.
Yet facing the pain of the past we’ve tried so hard to avoid and ignore? That’s what is happening now. We’re being forced to see it and deal with it, and it doesn’t feel good.
To that point, the Aries Moon is reflecting the light of the Libra 2 Sun.
Libra is reason. Its cardinal air energy is also initiative, yet it takes into consideration another’s or others’ point(s) of view. It is logic-driven, which makes it – potentially – very objective. There is no emotion in its consideration. In fact, despite Libra’s association with relationships and partnerships of all kinds, it really isn’t emotional in its consideration of the other party involved. It is objective, which in matters of negotiation or deliberation, is a very welcome attribute.
Yet 2 numerological energy does tend to become emotionally invested in relationship matters due to its desire to feel connection to another individual. As result, this energy often results in concession to the other party (or the dominant energy) in the exchange or relationship in order to maintain a connection.
Therefore, this Libra 2 energy reveals a desire to keep the peace, to avoid rocking the boat, and to make things appear more balanced and fair than they may actually be. This desire can be used as justification for defending oneself against the call to reclaim our self-identities from the wounds of others that we adopted as our own. It can also be used as justification for deflecting or avoiding one’s own responsibility in the issues and matters-at-hand… but it also brings one more realization to the fore – that we may be choosing to forego peace within ourselves in order to maintain peaceful relationship with another or others.
The Sun’s conjunction with Mercury (5.32°) at the time of the Moon’s maximum phase reveals our choices at this time to be conscious ones. If you choose to keep the peace, you are doing so with full awareness of your choice. If you choose to speak up or take action to either defend your self-identity or reclaim your independence from others’ wounds, you are fully conscious of the choice you’re making and the actions you’re taking. You are fully and solely responsible for your choices at this time.
The polarities of this 2018 Aries Full Moon are already pretty complicated by the conjunctions which amplify them. But there’s one more complication: the conjunction of Vesta (2.18°) and Saturn (2.84°) in Capricorn which squares both the Chiron Retrograde+Mooon and Sun+ Mercury conjunctions. This reminds us of our intentions, objectives, and goals. What are we wanting to achieve or accomplish, and which choice(s) support our pursuit of those achievements and accomplishments?
Our determination to reach our goals or fulfill our objectives will reveal which side of the Sun-Moon opposition we may be favoring and needing to balance… but it may also reveal which side of the polarity is driving us. It may also reveal whether or not we are giving our power away or reclaiming it from others in order regain control of our autonomy and our efforts to fulfill of our individual and collective ambitions.
The Sun+Mercury conjunction is connected via trine aspect to yet another conjunction – a stellium of Mars (3.78), the South Node (4.33), and Black Moon Lilith (5.52) in Aquarius; and connected via sextile aspect to one more conjunction – the pairing of the North Node (4.33) and White Moon Selene in Leo (5.67). This also means that the Chiron Rx+Moon conjunction is also sextile and trine and to these two other conjunctions. This forms a “Golden Rectangle” configuration, one which is tough to interpret because it reveals combustibility in regard to the past or “the way things have always been”, but it’s difficult to say if events show up as affirmation of a societal past which regresses society or humanity or as rebellion against the past which progresses society or humanity, or both. Nevertheless, the battle lines are drawn and being fought in the arena of public opinion, and the combined powers of voice and action will be strongly instrumental, influential, and revealing in the events which transpire. This is a bigger deal than most people realize as it will have an impact on how we as individuals, communities, societies, and humanity move from here.
And as if that weren’t enough, Taurus Uranus Retrograde (1.67°) forms square aspect to both the Mars+SouthNode+Lilith stellium and the North Node+Selene conjunction. With Uranus as the ruler of Aquarius, this reveals a reconsideration of one’s own morals, ethics, and values. As public events and opinions are put on full display, it gives each and all of us a moment of pause to reassess our personal stances, determining where we really stand and what we’re really willing to stand for as individuals thinking and speaking for ourselves.
On a number of levels, this 2018 Aries Full Moon and the remarkable number of conjunctions present at the time of its maximum phase (five!) are encouraging if not forcing each and all of us to evolve our self-identities. Through a call to balance the energies in our lives to free ourselves to pursue and achieve our goals, we get to ask ourselves if we’re we seeking immediate gratification to avoid the pain or if we’re choosing long-term healing to heal long-held wounds.
Are we choosing to value and favor our emotional investment in ourselves and our Higher moral aspirations, to invest in our egos and our earthly ambitions, or to value and invest in what others are telling us we should be defending or standing up for? How are we choosing to set our individual and collective courses for the future?
Those choices, collectively, are up to us; and for your own life, those choices are up to you.
Thank you for reading and sharing this very long article. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
