Aquarius Full Moon 8/22-Collaborating the Divide

We are surfing Aquarian currents, and the swell is epic. This is the second consecutive Full Moon in Aquarius, which is a rare, and thus, an important event.

Some important points:

~Expect a forced pause or two. Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, goes retrograde a few days before this Moon, joining the current retrograde planetary club of Pluto, Chiron, Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter. Chosen or forced, the pauses will find us. It also means topics and issues we have already lived will come to the forefront. We go over once traveled ground. This is not meant to frustrate us but to offer an opportunity to do it better. Assessment is that sweet spot of inspired potential.

What are we reassessing? Truth and freedom most notably. I have written about that rather extensively in my last blogs and posts. Go here, here, and here for further insight.

~Expect things to be complicated, meaning answers may not be solely black or white but layered. I urge you to think in terms of what is ‘most right’ or at least ‘less wrong’. Change is complicated, which is why Aquarian times are often bumpy. And complex times call for complex solutions. This is part of the current challenge. We humans have a hard time with complexity. We prefer things right or wrong. Good or bad. But that is not what this time is asking of us.

Polarity is the result of that habitual human comfort. Often, we blame external forces (like the media) for creating polarity. In truth, our data sharing is simply an extension of that shadowy part of us. And this toxic tribalism creates echo chambers that further cements specific ideology, and we doubt anything that challenges it. For example, maybe we put natural medicine on a pedestal and scorn the conventional or vice versa. Perhaps we make a case for the grift and greed of ‘big pharma’. You’d have a point. But grift and greed are also found in the natural wellness community.

~Expect reality checks. Often when faced with a conflicting ideology, we tend to double down on our righteousness. And that’s when reality checks us back to center. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of that happening. Consequences are another powerful truth-teller. So pay attention to those. They will be loud, obvious, and likely uncomfortable.

Enter the rebel. Jupiter conjuncts this Moon adding to the current revelation by further igniting rebel and revolutionary archetypal patterns in our inner and outer worlds. This isn’t necessarily new. We have been dancing with these themes all year. The music gets a bit louder with this Moon though. The dance more obvious. Expect some more rebellious tension.

We ALL have this force of rebellion within us (some more than others). This part of the self allows us to buck the status quo and initiate the winds of change. (*Look to where this Moon is rising in your chart to get a sense of where revolution is required.) This is the thing, though, like all archetypal forces, this part can be channeled through the best of us or the worst. The shadow rebel looks very different from the integrated whole self rebel.

Which brings us back to truth and freedom and why the clear expression of both, namely dispelling disinformation, is critically important. It is also why discernment is a key tool right now.

Which self is doing the rebelling and fact-finding? Important question. The answer will determine the rightness of the revolution we are evoking.

So we find ourselves at the complicated place where we must cooperate to create significant change, but our inner rebels are not necessarily on the same side. We are afraid. Reactive. Some are even violent. Others are choosing to ‘rise above’ it all, bypassing or avoiding the need to take a side using absolute truth platitudes to avoid reality. This isn’t a judgment, of course. I have had those days too. It is an acknowledgment that this is hard stuff.

So what do we know?

Truth and freedom aren’t neutral forces. Opinion is not the same as truth. Neither is a relative or personal truth. If ‘my’ truth is truth regardless of the facts or intent, truth itself becomes a meaningless concept. My freedom is not free if it limits yours. We also know we are going to have to work together to make it through.

This is why this time is complicated.

In relationship work, there is a thing called “grid lock”. This is that difficult space where two people are on both sides of an important issue. As someone who has been in many rooms with many couples over the years, collaboration seems like an insurmountable task when gridlock appears. So what to do?

We begin with one side simply talking from the heart. They share why this issue is important. Why it’s meaningful. Not just the facts but the feelings. The other person listens. Really listens. They hear through the ears of the speaker, not their own. They put themselves in the other person’s shoes without any agenda other than to understand. Then they switch. Again and again. Back and forth.

“Help me understand how this makes sense to you?”.

Along the way, facts are flushed out and verified or disproven. Deeper reactive stories and beliefs are unearthed. Sometimes it gets a bit messy. Really messy. But the vast majority of the time, when two people are truly willing, some common ground can be decided upon, and an expanded perspective solidified. Some new compromise etched from collaboration. Truth has a way of finding us if we just get curious and courageous enough to let it.

Complicated issues ask us to use ALL of our intelligences-natural and scientific, technical and moral, conventional and alternative, individual and public. It will also challenge our emotional, somatic, and logical senses.

The goal is to recognize there are likely tremendous advantages and disadvantages on each side. To put one above the other diminishes our standing in any actual truth and the complementary power of collaboration. This concept extends to all the issues we are currently wresting, from the economy to racial injustice to the environment to politics.

What happens, though, when we join the best of ALL of our wisdom?

When we take the best of all our greatest minds and sides?

When we fully recognize the limitations and ‘worsts’ of our ‘side’ as well?

Those are the questions we are living. They are the light leading us forward to answers worth siding with and defending.

“Collaborations work best this way; when there’s a mutual desire to see what the other side adds. You know that what you’re making on your own has value, but the sum is more than the parts and every part knows it.”
― Questlove

*This Full Moon occurs at 29° Aquarius.

Photo by Giulia May on Unsplash

Want to better understand what this time is asking of you? Contact me, for more information.