Tonight’s Rare Full Moon In Aquarius Is Bringing Major Surprises

On Sunday, August 22nd, a full moon in Aquarius will perfect in the sky. This will be our second Aquarius full moon of Leo season, an uncommon occurrence. As such, it’s only right that the stars of Aquarius preside over this lunation, since Aquarians are well known for having uncommon and unique affinities. Rare is the Aquarius who, hearing an opinion, doesn’t gently interject: “Hmm, that’s not how I experience it.” While it may feel contrarian, Aquarians rarely mean to disprove the positions of others. Rather, they seek multiplicity and, as a fixed sign, they engage multiplicity steadily, much as the wind carries many waves, as the sky suspends innumerable worlds. They acknowledge your reality, and layer on another. 

Aquarians are also associated with the 11th house of the Zodiac, which is often referred to as the house of friends and wishes. This association, combined with Aquarians’ openness to many worlds, many possibilities, gives our full moon a hopeful quality. What’s more hopeful, after all, than leaning into limitless possibilities? In the Tarot, Aquarius corresponds to the Star. In her book Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack writes: “In The Star, we see the inner self joyfully experiencing itself,”  and continues “the Star is not really a card of action, but of inner calm. In contrast to Temperance and the Moon (card), the Star shows no road leading back from the pool to the mountains of outer reality. Though the streams and the ibis imply the uses of creative energy, the experience of the Star is one of peace. For the moment, the Journey can wait.”

The journey can wait is a beautiful way to regard any full moon, whose rituals call us toward stillness and reflection. Under the Aquarian full, that stillness is a moment of presence. And, while the idea of “presence” is often described as a private thing — a dropping in — in this case, presence is possible both in the singular sense and in the sacred concert with all the human worlds that surround us. The moon alone is not the only teacher of our interconnectedness. The moon is never alone even when, under city smog, she is the only celestial body we can make out. 

When the full moon makes an opposition to the Sun in Leo, who takes center stage by day, there are many other powerful aspects in play. Mars in Virgo makes a flowing trine to Uranus (often associated with Aqaurius in modern astrology), which just stationed retrograde. Mars representing our drive and will, takes on an energy that is both service-oriented and discerning in Virgo. Mars in Virgo wants to assist and she wants to assist effectively. A trine to Uranus retrograde drives that energy toward major overhaul, a radical shift in methodology for the sake of the vision. Meanwhile, Venus in Libra makes a trine to the North Node in Gemini and Saturn (Aquarius’ traditional ruler) in Aquarius. Under the stars of Libra, the love of Venus shines with humanitarian ambition and flows toward the North Node in Gemini, a placement that recognises the living quality of truth, of what we know and have yet to know. Aspecting Saturn, these celestial bodies enter into a contract and, beneath them, so do we. An agreement to hold space for the unknown while building toward our dreams. Or, as Aquarian singer Sarah McLachlan once sang, “‘Cause you're working, building a mystery, holding on and holding it in. Yeah, you're working, building a mystery and choosing so carefully.”