The Moon is full at 10.42 am GMT at 7 degrees in sign of Aquarius on 31st July 2015, while the Sun, and many other planets, journey through Leo. This is a time of plentiful ideas and creativity. We are brimming with possibility for what we want to set in motion over the next few months. This Moon will foster our creative, innovative ideas and potentially help us take steps in directions that are way over the edge of our identity. We only need to let go of those fears that keep us fixed in our familiar identity and follow what makes us feel joyful, radical, abundant and free.
Interestingly, this full moon (the Sun and Moon) makes no major aspects to any other planet, with the exception of each other. This feels significant somehow, almost as though the focus is on wrestling with just these two energies.
With Leo and Aquarius, we have the integration of seemingly opposite, but actually just different, expressions of the same energy. Perhaps more than any other signs, Leo and Aquarius contain each other. Leo is about the self being centre stage, whereby Aquarius is about group power. The question is how do we bring these two realms together so the group supports the individual and the individual the group?
Most importantly though, with so many planets retrograde or about to turn retrograde, it’s time to take a pause and reassess where we are on our journey, preparing to undergo some self-examination.
The retrograde function serves to individualise a planet’s expression further, so you ‘do’ that planet in your own way. It’s a more internal experience of planetary energy, and with all these retrogrades, we are being challenged to go our own way, to break free, literally, of our own inner limitations.
Perhaps you are at the beginning of having a sense that nothing can hold you back now, that what the hell, I’ll do it anyway, whatever the outcome. This is what it feels like when fear can no longer have that same grip on us, when you know you’ll flow with whatever experience you are brought regardless, for as all our experience is a part of our reality a rejection of any of our experience is a rejection of our powers of creation.
For some of us, this attitude and approach to life, that we are at the centre of creation, holds a lot of fear. Our own power can be one of the scariest things we can connect with – the power of our own innate possibility and potential. This is why so many do not fulfil the highest potential of their purpose, just partly fulfilling it. That we are powerful beings beyond measure is too the antithesis of our actual experience. We spend much of the day telling ourselves why we shouldn’t do this or that – often probably completely unconsciously – this pattern is so collectively ingrained.
With Venus retrograde, which lasts for forty days beginning on 26th July 26 and ending on 6th September, we are letting go of the old values we hold about ourselves, old egoist ideas about self. We are getting ready to throw off before we rebirth. Wherever Venus is in your chart, by house and sign, will be where you are having your own personal rebirth. Venus rules both Taurus and Libra – Taurus being the internal expression of Venus, while Libra the external.
Consensus reality Taurus wants all the stuff (the car, house), up a notch on the evolutionary scale, individuating Taurus views ourselves as the resource (our personal gifts) while with spiritual Taurus our resource is the God/Goddess. We can see here that our values and needs are dependent on our evolutionary consciousness. This is a time when we can review these values and needs and raise our consciousness to higher levels. This is important because to get anywhere in life, we need periodic review times, so we can then urge ourselves forward again.
While Taurus is all about relationship to self, Libra is all about relationship to others, that which is outside of self. This is a time where communication, and really listening, hearing what others are saying, the meaning behind the words, is important to create equal and fair partnerships. With Libra, we are looking at discarding codependency issues, projections, the masks we wear, tacking our lack of boundaries, our expectations and idealism in relationships. It’s a time of deconditioning, but for what ultimate purpose?
The higher octave of this Venus retrograde through Leo, and the theme of the times, is setting the stage for all that it takes to have that inner connection with the Divine. Each of us needs to find our own unique, creative way of building that for ourselves and then offering our gifts in a way that brings more collective light and love to the world. We need to find our own unique creative roles that support one another. We also need to honour and value the creative principle in everyone – it’s creativity that finds our solutions, that drives our innovation and frees us from everything that we assume holds us back. In other words, if we embrace our inherent creativity which comes from Source and flows through us, there is always a way.
Uranus turned retrograde on 26th July. When in direct motion, Uranus urges us to shake up our lives and when retrograde, it asks us to look to our inner world and challenge the limitations, restrictions and boundaries we place around ourselves – the way we take away our own freedom.
Looking to Uranus is important at this full moon since it rules Aquarius. The limitations we place upon ourselves are Uranus’ domain, often we are oblivious to where we hold ourselves back while remaining acutely aware of all the external restrictions that are ‘happening to us’ apparently outside of our power – often only half acknowledged as part of our creation. Needless to say, its ALL of our creation – we just refuse to enter into that 100% responsibility for our lives.
Leo energy, and there’s plenty of it going about with the Sun, Venus about to re-enter, Jupiter and Mercury all transiting, brings a strong creativity drive for our lives and of course all Leo themes – birthing and children to name just two. We are the centre of our own ability to create right now, which we can either accept as our birthright or reject.
With all this planetary Leo energy, we are getting a big dose of understanding our relationship to our own personal power. We are focusing on what we want to achieve both internally and externally (although there is no divide). If we create within ourselves light, love and all things worthwhile then we will mirror and receive that back and our life will become a mecca of abundance.
God is not in servitude to us – we can’t make God our servant – we must instead develop and build a relationship with our own personal power, which comes from the aligning of our ego with our higher self. Abundance follows when we make more contact with the God/Goddess within rather than entreating God/Goddess to bring us this or that.
As Saturn changes directions the day after this full moon, it’s time to face our fears and move forward. We can re-dedicate ourselves to following what holds inspiration and weed out what no longer serves (Venus retrograde). Saturn has been retrograde since March 15th and with his change of direction we should be experiencing some powerful ‘landing’ moments where we can begin to make choices that make things happen. Much of this landing will be around our new life structures (which I know well, what with a new baby!).
Even more so, with its square to Jupiter at this full moon, which brings the energies of contraction (Saturn) together with the energies of expansion (Jupiter), we will feel propelled, pushed forward while also feeling restricted, pulled back. This is an ongoing aspect, so balancing and integrating these two forces will bring many rewards over time. We need to take realistic steps to move forward while respecting this new life structure that you have in place.
Feeling pulled in one direction or another will influence our attitude and ultimately our choices. It’s good to remember that both are needed and it’s better to accept the rough with the smooth, rather than give in to resentment of our current life situation. Resentment of what Saturn (which is usually a sense of our fears) brings will only hold us back from embodying our higher selves, since She doesn’t give Her energy to us when we exist in a strong state of limitation – Her power will feed what exists within us – if we want the fullness of Her strength – we need to clear and transmute ourselves first. The more we can see limitations as powerful, needed pauses, the quicker we make the space for the higher self to move in.
We are on the verge of taking the plunge, we might be face to face with a reality of what that plunge is and requires from us long term. It might even feel a little beyond what’s even possible, certainly it won’t feel safe, but then all the energy is pointing away from what’s familiar and safe right now. Taking those seemingly infeasible steps and letting those ideas and imaginings be properly entertained – with realism – will feel incredibly powerful now. Can what needs to be done be done? Have you got what it takes? Just go for what you have been promising to yourself for years you will do, the energies of creation are well behind you.
