The Full Moon in Leo is exact this morning at 8:56am PST, and we hit the peak of the second lunar cycle where we are processing a double retrograde of Mercury and Venus. The Sun is in the Aquarius mansion, where we consider the collective, the community in which we participate, and all the ways we serve that community. Leo energy is pure Self, where we do not consider the collective, or others, at all. Leo is where we focus exclusively on our individual gifts, the creative expression that is ours alone, and the personal leadership that rises up organically when we are focused on the gifts that only we bring. When these two opposing energies crash into each other, a transcendent third is created: We know who we are fully, and we learn to recognize what our gifts and talents are, and we learn to use them to serve others, and in so doing, we serve ourselves.
To understand this moment astrologically, you must appreciate the Square and the Inconjunct. In a Square, two energies fight for supremacy, and the resulting argument pulls us between two ideas, and through resolving those conflicts and obstacles, we figure things out, and much growth is possible. But it does indicate that the process of change is bumpy, and often filled with the pain that can come with great growth. The Inconjunct, the 150-degree angle is the Great Eliminator, the exit ramp where, because of internal changes that have been made, new paths can be trod, new ideas put into action, and we can guide our choices in new ways. Both angles feature prominently in this Full Moon; we are fighting with the past and the future as we seek to figure out where we are going next and how to get there. But the Inconjunct tells us that we may have to change the path we are on as we go.
Let’s start with the big Square of this moment. The Sun and Moon generate an Opposition, where our conscious awareness is forced to deal with our unconscious impulses in a manner that helps us do what we do each Full Moon – celebrate what we have already created, and release anything that we need to drop in order to raise up the vibration of the life path we are walking. The South Node holds our past that we absolutely must grapple with as we go. The North Node that opposes it holds the future, the north star, and that which we desire to move toward. That Opposition is a constant in our experience, and is perhaps the greatest tension we grapple with; how to release the past and drop that stuff that weighs us down, so we can sail into the future more certain of who we are, and where we want to go.
These two Oppositions – the Moon and the Sun, and the Nodes of the Moon – are creating an exact Grand Square in this Full Moon. The geometry is precise, the tighter the geometry, the bigger the wave, and this wave we are moving through with this Full Moon is epic. Truly (even for me with all my hyperbole, this Full Moon is huge). The signs involved are all fixed signs, and this means that things indeed are changing powerfully with this lunation, but the process may be bumpy, challenging, and filling us with resistance and fear, as fixed signs resist change. But you can’t really resist this kind of Square, and the net result is that these weeks, peaking today, the process of making new choices is both imperative, but could be potentially bumpy, and filled with conflict and difficulties.
Let’s turn for a moment to the Capricorn mansion, where all the personal change and transformation has been happening since we entered 2022. By now, you should all appreciate that Mercury and Venus going retrograde at the same time has rocked our inner world, particularly because both planets hung out so long with Pluto, the Great Transformer. We have been – and are not quite done with this process – completely rewired from the inside out. Our hearts are more open, and we are clear about what our deeply felt emotional needs are, and perhaps also ready to undo some of the past constrictions to giving and receiving more love as a result of old wounds being attended to. Mind and thinking has also been transformed because Mercury has been in this same soup. Mars has entered the fray, and just two days ago, the planet that helps us embody new changes, Mars, has joined Venus and the two of them travel together for the next three weeks. We are changed on the inside, and Mars joining will help us all make new choices in the net three weeks, some of which may be lifechanging.
This is where the 150-degree fork in the road geometry comes in. Even though we are not quite done with the personal process we are all in, this Full Moon forces a fork in the road. The geometrical relationship between Leo and Capricorn is this Great Eliminator angle, where we can make new choices, even if they are just tiny baby steps, to move in completely new directions. As a result of all that we are learning and integrating about ourselves at the personal level, our hearts are opening more and more, and now, perhaps more than ever, we absolutely must open up our hearts, and then our mouths, to speak into what we want to create, and the new directions we wish to move in by virtue of learning more these past two months of what is just below the surface of our heart’s desires.
Absolutely nothing will stay the same as a result of this Full Moon, though truly, it may not be until the New Moon in Pisces in two weeks before we truly make sense of what we are moving through now. This is a profound passage which comes with a demand to do things differently on the outside because things have changed so dramatically on the inside. The inner reflects the outer, and there has been so much shift in our inner world, the process of initiating those changes into our outer expressions is an imperative, though some of you will be more in breakdown, and the breakthrough you seek has not yet arrived. It takes true courage to act in accordance with what your heart is telling you, even when it seems risky to step up, declare the needs you have, and ask your life to reflect a deeper intimacy with your own desires.
Leo energy knows exactly how to get what it wants, so this Full Moon asks you to find that place inside yourself where the expectation that life bring you joy, love, playfulness, creative expression, sex, children – the list of joyful expression that is Leo’s domain is infinite. But you can’t create a life filled with joy without feeling as if you deserve it. And that, perhaps greater than any other artifact, is what Venus and Mercury in their double retrograde are offering us. We’re not quite done with that inner process, but this Full Moon signals a moment where the outside world, and our inner desires, begin to bump into each other. This is a moment to know what you want, vulnerably speak your truth to power, and then let the next few weeks inform you of what you are truly ready to receive at this time. The more fear, limitations, undeserving, and inhibition that you can let go of at this time, the greater the joy that is waiting for you on the other side of all of this deep, transformational process.
