Full Moon Lunar Eclipse Aquarius 7/27– Be the Swan

We all wrestle with the balance between belonging and individuation. Perhaps this force is so ingrained in us because it is rooted in our very survival. Of the three core woundings betrayal, shame, and abandonment, only abandonment threatens our very existence. In a perfect world, this force is a harmony of attachment and releasing, an inhale, and an exhale.

Yet, we are far from perfect.

Thus, we are given confusing messages. We are told to both conform and individuate. Be accepted, but also authentic. Be “real”, but also hide. Autonomous, yet also cooperate. Be different, but not TOO different. Push the edges, but only so far.

And the rebels among us that stray too far beyond the confines of “acceptable” feel the cold sting of rejection. The whip of condemnation. Wandering too far, speaking too loud, being too much, and we are considered the exile, a primordial cast away that shivers in solitary confinement.

There is nothing more painful than to be cast away and set adrift. It etches away the borders of our being.

Yet, it is also the precise path to real freedom.

I am reminded of one of my favorite stories by Hans Christian Anderson titled “The Ugly Duckling”. In the story, one egg in the nest is unique from the rest. Upon hatching, this difference is confirmed, as the little bird looks very different from the other ducklings. Ridiculed and bullied for being different, the “ugly duckling” is rejected. Exiled, he soon comes to a pond where he sees the most beautiful birds he has ever seen swimming regally and flying powerfully, their necks long and their wings mighty. As he looks in the water, he recognizes the same beauty in his own reflection. The ugly duckling is not ugly at all. He is merely a swan, not a duck. With this realization, he both finds himself and the tribe that echoes that revelation.

It’s time to honor your inner swan.

We are neck deep into the eclipse season. Two weeks ago the New Moon Solar Eclipse on the North Node of the Moon highlighted the remedy of empathy so needed right now (Read more about that here). This Aquarius Full Moon Lunar Eclipse happens on the South Node of the Moon highlighting some of the more problematic and shadowy Aquarian themes in our lives. This revelation, of course, is not to confirm the shadow but to offer the choice point of change. Eclipses are gateways after all, pathways to new places. Adding to that Mercury is retrograde in the sign of Leo, the natural opposite of Aquarius.

In its highest destiny, Aquarius is the truth-sayer of the zodiac. It is the genius, the magician, the rebel, the altruist, the freedom fighter, and the liberator within us. It is our swan nature.

What blocks us from claiming that kind of authenticity?

Fear.
Specifically, the fear of abandonment.

Biologically, abandonment is not a smart choice. Thus, seeking rejection is not an option in our younger years, and we will shift, edit, bury, and hustle our way to resist it any way we can. Doing what works is a smart strategy. The problem, of course, is not that we have adopted these shapeshifting strategies in the first place. The problem is we STILL do. We are creatures of habit after all.

We heard the stories, and we believed them. In fact, we tell ourselves the same stories now, all so many years later.

We felt the wrath, we heeded the warning, and we said: “never again”.
We conformed to fit into the most necessary mold.
We latched onto outside validation habitually seeking that outer sparkle to somehow make us glitter from within.
We disowned parts of ourselves that made us different or unique.
We became consumed with being seen proving we still exist.
We lost the ground under our feet.

We still try to be ducks when we are really swans.

What happens when dogma supersedes individual brilliance?

Ungrounded truth. Emptiness. Hollow being. The need to market ourselves to the world. The need to be special in some way.

And because our darkness has been labeled dangerous, we cast it away muttering incantations under our breath, whirling it somewhere else.
From a macro perspective, we just need to look at history to witness what can occur when the “safety” of acceptance overtakes individuation, and a collective shadow is cast outward. The fear turns to anger and is directed at someone, some race, some political party, some gender, somewhere, anywhere else. It is so easy to feel vindicated through collective projection. This pseudo-connection is an empty stand in for the real thing.

Do not doubt the overwhelming power of “belonging”.

Of course, the same is also true of goodness. We can join together in our light not just our darkness. That is evident and present too.

This is a South Node eclipse though. So while we are reminded of the latter, we must right now wrestle with some with the former.

On a macro level, we are being asked to look at the power of group consciousness and the shadow and light of that force. On a more personal level, we are being asked the same thing. In both scenarios, Aquarius asks us to fact-check any sweeping generalizations against our own truth.

To unearth those buried places.

To look squarely in the mirror first.

To stop comparing.

The way we look. The shape of our bodies. The color of our hair. The way we laugh or speak or the work we choose to do. The amount of money we make. We live in a time of comparison.

Comparing crushes sovereignty.

The stories say it is dangerous to be authentic, real, vulnerable, messy, and different. We must have the answers. We must pretend. We must always be okay.

Those stories are bullshit.

What if the only way to claim the whole power of authenticity is to risk the rejection or fear we are so afraid of?

What if the only way to become the swan is to stop trying to be a duck?

This Full Moon asks us to shed the skin of conformity and allow the freedom of authentic expression to take hold.

To choose solitude over the frenetic energy of pseudo-connection.
To be who we are despite the possibility of judgment or rejection.
To risk the vulnerability of our imperfect existence.
To stop requiring outside validation.
To just BE.

This is a call to action. Retrograde Mars conjunct the Moon demands motion. Assertion. Boundaries. Anger. Clarity. Courage. All empower us to claim who we always were- before the acquiescing began.

Because it’s not about fitting it. It’s not about going back to a time when we (things) felt “normal”. That no longer exists. Aquarius offers a time of revolution, a time of great revelation and change.

When the rise of imperfection outweighs the risk of rejection revolution is possible.

And revolutions are seldom smooth, but gloriously, and sometimes tragically, messy.

Being authentic is about being real in all of our brilliant humanness. It resides not only in our strength, but also in our deepest vulnerabilities and courageous resiliencies.

So, on this Full Moon revel in your humanness, allow yourself to dream, strip away the coats you have worn to conform, hear the clock ticking and realize you have no time to waste being someone else. Genius, after all, is not found in dormant normalcy but in the extraordinary, the unexplored, and the undefined.

Be the swan you were always meant to be.

“We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves.”
― James Hollis

Want to discover just what this eclipse means for you? Contact me for a reading.