This Full Moon in Leo on January 28, 2021, will ask that we begin to bear a more genuine witness to ourselves. The Sun is present in Aquarius, forming a powerful conjunction with a host of planetary heavy-hitters. Aquarius itself — the center of this year’s astral stage — is growing stronger throughout this lunation, and will be supercharged once Venus arrives there at the start of the new month. Saturn and Jupiter have been in Aquarius since the great Conjunction on the day of the Winter Solstice, and will maintain their lodgings for a while longer. In the meantime, the ruler of Aquarius — Uranus — continues to transit the first decan of Taurus, conjunct Black Moon Lilith and navigating a Square to its home sign. Needless to say: stuff is boiling up to the surface now. As the skies bear witness to our lives, so we must begin to bear truer witness to ourselves. The Full Moon in Leo gives us this task: that which is coming to the surface right now needs to be understood from the perspective of the mind. Are we choosing our attitudes intentionally, or are we in a constantly re-active state? The capacity to be aware of how the mind plays a role in reality is our greatest asset during this time. It’s not so much a question of what happens in reality, but rather a question of how we interpret our realities: for that is the spiritual path. Aquarius gifts us the presence of mind to step back for a moment and reckon with ourselves: how do I choose to act with respect to this slice of reality that I perceive; to the thin slice of myself that I feel most in this moment.
Aquarius is not the passion we feel. The call in this moment is not about being emotional, it’s about being observant. The skies are our greatest guides in this sacred practice: the mind is asked to step out and observe the mind. So, what does Aquarius mean to us? Some Aquarian key concepts are “peaceful living, less fear, less attachment” — but what does this mean for you?
The glyph of Aquarius is a very fine vibrational wave. The 11th house that belongs to Aquarius is almost the end of the zodiacal journey. Pisces is a kind of enlightenment, a fish glittering in the ocean with no limitation: water inside and outside, a perfect balance of buoyancy and gravity. But the 11th house (Aquarius) is what opens us up to that possibility. It’s time to open up the mind and take in the teachings offered us. And as we open up, we must balance what we think and what we take in with highly refined intuitive wisdom — this does not belong to our capacity to interpret cognitively, but is instead something greater: it is the work of in-spiration, breathing in and receiving the offerings of this Full Moon.
We cannot will inspiration and wisdom. We can will our education and the refinement of our perception, but we cannot will that which inspires us. The practice with this lunation is to refine the kind of surrender that allows us to move fluidly into the intuitive depths that Pisces will soon bring. In order to receive the information of intuition, our bodies and minds need quiet. Instinct is the function of our presence in the body — our instinct comes and gives us a providential understanding of what we must do next. There is a profoundly important level of protection of and guardianship over the self that comes from the instinct. But here, with the Sun square in Aquarius, shedding this brilliant light on the full face of the Moon, we are asked to be quiet. We quiet ourselves to truly welcome this intuition. It’s not the instinct; it’s the intuition.
To tap into the intuition we go back to the breath. To find our in-spiration, we in-spire (breathe in).
In the face of fear — of death, of sickness, of loss — it is enough to be present with the struggles. It will be difficult to instruct those who struggle and bring them into a state of awareness. Rather – right now what matters is that we find that space of quiet inside of us, and achieve presence. Presence is what people need — people who are suffering right now need that we are simply present with them. Just observe: does their pain, their fear, their struggle trigger you to be hyperactive, to fix things, to do. And notice that, and just step back and see where that takes you.
[Recorded live during a “Yoga & Astrology Moon Circle” Workshop; transcribed and edited by Lou Moffa]