August 26, 2018 – 12:56 UT
The August Full Moon highlights the Pisces / Virgo axis, which has to do with boundaries; the capacity to discern and have faith. It is the healing and service axis that deals with issues of idealism and perfection. Fact and truth, as well as learning and expansion are prominent as traditional rulers of Virgo and Pisces are Mercury and Jupiter. Virgo is a mutable Earth sign that seeks perfection, and through Mercury uses critical ability to serve, help, cultivate, improve, apply and treat imperfections in the tangible world of everyday life. Pisces is mutable Water that through Jupiter seeks to “erase” boundaries, idealize, imagine, expand, transfigure, synthesize or escape, in order to achieve some sort of transcendence or experience in connection with the whole. Pisces substitutes the perfection that Virgo seeks in the material world, with an ideal or a dream that will inspire and restore faith in the spiritual, collective and creative spheres life. Both signs work through opposing views to provide, contribute and dedicate through making connections between things. Virgo with practical analytical spirit, and Pisces through emotion, synthesis and fusion.
So, under this Moon in Pisces, we will resonate more with imagination, intuitive patterns, the energy around us, be capable of making connections, that could potentially express a talent and get us inspired. Moon receives the light from the Sun in Virgo, so coming in contact with nature, or indulging passion in the mundane and practical matters that matter to us, can illuminate a sense of connectedness of a more transcendental nature. We may find that something we do well can resonate more with other people.
The Full Moon always brings something to light while energizing us to find balance with ourselves and our relationships. Balancing has to do with what charms us and the right discernment of what is essential and eventually useful (Sun in Virgo).
The planets in dialogue with the luminairies indicate harmony / ease – in relation to a “terrain” we have already established – as Sun formed a Grand Earth trine with Saturn and Uranus a day prior the Full Moon, which most probably felt grounding and perhaps ignited a kind of decision making process to do with changes we need to make to established structures. So, now the opposition is showing an outlet through the Moon in the Pisces. The response. This Grand trine will be re energized on September 7, by Mercury in Virgo and provide a stronger organization and ordering to this, practical, material and sensual part of our life, that is needing to change.
This is the so-called Kite formation with the participation of Saturn and Uranus in Retrograde motion, setting the emphasis of reform or change something from the past. The Moon in Pisces highlights our expanded view of things, beliefs, visions or dreams, even amidst some adverse conditions and constraints (Saturn). The sextile with Saturn has made our responses realistic, while the sextile with Uranus has given opportunities for change (or merely doing something different). These are separating aspects of the Moon, so it is the mood with which we enter the Full Moon period. We may have seen how the practical application of changes at work resonate with us and others. The configuration stresses the need to change attitudes towards life itself, habits and dealing with problems, so that the Kite can “fly”. The opposition with the Moon in Pisces -our automated responses- highlights sensitivities, or the lack of boundaries that can inhibit, in seeing talents and decisions being applied, or where we overstretch idealism to the detriment of utilising the full potential of our resources. This Full Moon helps us develop something that we have at our disposal, yet since the dispositors are in an applying square to one another it may come with difficulty, as fact and overview are at odds. Setting the right boundaries in our response to scrutinise decision making as Mercury is in mutual reception with the Sun, will be critical on whether things that inspire, or we envision will develop further. We may need a little more time to make sense of things.
The idealistic and imaginative response patterns of the Moon in Pisces are two-fold: It can coordinate our emotional antennas with empathy, sensibility which will allow us to understand more and to assist some changes that we want to implement by becoming more conscientious, or absorb every stimulus, frequency and vibration around us, yielding to desire, frustration, finding fault, or escaping. It is a matter of idiosyncrasy. Imagination also acts in two ways: it either nourishes your fears and entraps you, or lets you synthesize, inspire and be inspired, thus believe and sustain faith there are solutions to problems and something better on the other side. The full moon reminds us that we are the carriers of unconditional love and fertility in our lives. It highlights dilemmas in our relationships, may expose some vulnerabilities, issues that we need to conclude on, and illuminates our truths about how we evaluate desire and love. It helps us to use the endless processing of information creatively, somehow deviating from the regularity of everyday life or enjoying something even within the context of work. Something may inspire us, that speaks about improving conditions, or healing some aspect of life.
It is a Full Moon that triggers our intuitive faculties and assimilate a ‘crop’ collected from the past. We may be even discovering things that we hadn’t noticed before. This is an act of balancing overview with the information available.
The big picture is also within us and a sense of abundance and support can be felt through the simplest things, a chat, an act of tenderness, a kind gesture, a small walk, or listening to a song. We wish to be grounded in order to overcome, to make practical changes, to take care of our body, and provide useful nourishment to our mind; to replenish feelings through pleasing our senses and our soul.
We may feel that something is flowing with ease, as other things that surround us act as “noise”.
The elements of Water and Earth are passive, feminine and introverted (Moon, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto give the tone through their placements in the zodiac, by incorporating and crystallizing experiences). Earth resists, is cautious and becomes judgemental, while it is more attuned to form, resourses and anything to do with the senses. Water provides the connective element that makes this duo a fertile combination. We can use this as a firm foundation to externalise and be more active in our communication and social engagement, while Mercury and Venus are in the masculine extroverted signs of Leo (Fire) and Libra (Air). A wonderful period for the dissemination of ideas or creations, flirting, sociability and the development of contacts if the appropriate atmosphere prevails.
Passions, love, pleasure and appetites may come with a price. Venus is in an applying waning square with Pluto accentuating appetites, and externalising issues of power and control regarding all Venusian things. It is time to purge some of those patterns or at least recognise them so that we can evolve. Develop more trust, so that we can enjoy and attract more. How do we exercise control in our relationships, how we associate money with self-esteem, or what triggers fears and a lack of trust, and distracts us from strengthening our sense of pleasure and experiencing love, are questions that may be potent at this time. This aspect can also trigger “difficult” collaborations with powerful people.
The Moon is conjunct fixed star Fomalhaut (one of the four royal stars of Persia). The general interpretation of the royal stars is that they give a strong blessing and promise benefits with one condition: integrity. So they have their dark side. They represent a kind of temptation or challenge according to B. Brady 1, where the person has to work to achieve real success. When gain becomes the objective, then there is fall from grace or difficulties. Fomalhaut belongs to the constellation Piscis Australis. According to Ptolemy it is of the nature of Mercury and Venus (talents may be highlighted with this duo, artistic and writing ability). V. Robson says it is related to eminence, fame and great success, as well as to spirituality. E. Ebertin states that “it can be either positive or negative depending on the chart” so it classifies as an amplifier. It is connected with poetic talent, idealism, metaphysics, talent in writing or science, charisma in general. Brady also mentions that “in conjunction with the Moon Fomalhaut denotes passion for art and metaphysics” 2. The Moon is what we carry, what is inherent and embedded in us, also what we receive and nurture in our lives. So, here the Full Moon gives us the message of illumination of talents and gifts and perhaps the challenge is how we will make use of them. It is a collective vibration reminding humanity we have gifts and talents at our disposal and how we utilise them is what matters. On a personal level it is relevant in the event that the Full Moon activates planets or points in the birth chart.
Additionally, we must watch a tendency to be trapped in the annoyance of trivial details and all the small things that we perceive as noise or disturbances, because it may get out of proportion. There are several minor aspects (45 and 135 degrees) adding more complexity to the planetary dialogues and some situations can irritate, in the backdrop of our daily lives. If we focus there, we may lose sight of the positive influences. It is preferable to focus on ways to help us become more grounded, by organizing changes to existing structures and tasks in a practical way, appreciating the simplicity of small things. We can prepare our tracks for setting things into forward motion, as Mars is turning direct one day after the Full Moon, and will gradually begin to manifest results from this summer’s introspection and reviewing, upheaval and intensity, that pushed us via eclipses outside the bounds of comfort zones, yet also revealed things in many unexpected ways.
What have we collected so far, how do we put things in order, what is useful, what we throw away, what needs regulation in the practical side of our lives and how it balances with the need to escape, to gain overview, to create, be enchanted, but also offer remedies to soften the acuteness of problems.
There is something sacred and pure to the act of simplifying life, and this becomes clearer in proximity to nature and our senses.
Pisces is the exaltation of Venus and the domicile of Jupiter. The need to expand, gain support and deepen the spiritual, sensual and material side of life is what prevails. We become more attuned to what we enjoy and like, while there may be a conflict between information and ethos or truth. Often what makes sense is not necessarily true. And what is true to us may not make absolute sense.
There is a tendency to exaggerate, express ourselves in more pompous, or dominant ways (Mercury in Leo), yet this placement can be very creative too. We may also struggle to put information that is given to us in the order necessary to make a final conclusion. Jupiter in Scorpio asks to go deeper (research), and also sustain faith through how passionate we are about certain things.
Ethos and truth in the news will become prominent, and information that circulates maybe debatable while criticism will be strongly activated. How much do we believe in what we hear? How critical are we with possible ambiguities?
The last aspect the Moon makes before entering Aries is a sextile with Mars, which may assist in accomplishing something, leave some place or context, or clear feelings and turning the page. It may also provide an opportunity to indulge to a last minute passion or desire. It will be a relatively energetic couple of weeks, with a sense of improvement and gradual relieving of some ‘congested’ areas of life. Something that realized or took shape, may demonstrate more resonance and this process will continue with the next lunar cycle that begins September 9, in the sign of Virgo.
This Full Moon has a more personal feel for you:
If you are a Pisces Sun born February 20-24, a Virgo Sun born August 25-29, a Gemini Sun born May 23-27, a Sagittarius Sun born November24-28. Also if you are a Capricorn Sun born December 23-27, or a Taurus Sun born April 22-26. If your Ascendant, angular house cusps and personal planets are at 03 (+/- 2) degrees of mutable signs. You may also be affected if you have personal planets or angles at 19 degrees Libra / Capricorn and / or 16 Leo / Scorpio. The themes of the Full Moon are active until September 8th.
May we all have a magical Full Moon tonight!
© Eleni Kostika 2018
(In my analysis I take more into account the major applying aspects of planets)
Footnotes – Sources:
(1), (2) – Brady Bernadette, Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars, Samuel Weisser, Inc., York Beach, Maine, 1998, pp. 39, 197
http://www.constellationsofwords.com/stars/Fomalhaut.html
Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash
Aries Point 