Full Moon in Leo

The liberating, shocking, disruptive, emancipatory, explosive, piercing, inspiring forces of Uranus will be unleashed with the Full Moon in Leo on 25 January 2024. Uranus will possess an intensified presence due to stationing direct within thirty-eight hours of the lunation, bringing its Promethean symbolism fully alive in events. At the same time, the Leo Full Moon will illuminate the recent entrance of Pluto into Aquarius, activating the tectonic depths of Pluto as the Moon moves from a tense opposition with Pluto into a catalyzing square aspect with Jupiter in Taurus. Thus the Moon in the fiery Lion will herald messages concerning two of the most important astrological signatures of the year: the conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus on 20 April and Pluto spending most of the year in Aquarius before firmly entering Aquarius on 19 November for a twenty year transit.

The building synergy between Jupiter and Uranus will ultimately culminate toward the end of April, but in the month ahead we will notice waves of their liberating force to direct into our daily life and vaster dreams. Combined with the entrance of Pluto into Aquarius, we will feel the excitement of crossing a threshold into unknown potential, simultaneously holding the tension of the multiple crises unfolding across global events. Akin to the symbolism of the Moon full of light in the steadily radiant sign of Leo, the time will be ripe for courageously developing your most exciting visions for change by taking deliberate action free from fear. This is easier said than done, but the more you can align with the creative potency brewing in between Jupiter and Uranus, the more you will gain access to the vistas of new growth and opportunity they will be opening amidst the surrounding tumult.

Just as the Full Moon in Leo activates two of the most important astrological signatures of the year, the astrological month ahead contains additional configurations that connect to the most significant astrological themes of the year. The chaos and destruction in current events have been upsetting and fear-provoking, but serve as harbingers of much vaster changes that will occur during the era-defining astrology of 2025 and 2026. The months ahead will not be a calm period, but will bring awareness to the way your own personal losses, gains, and metamorphosis connect with the larger astrological patterns taking shape. Most importantly, after Uranus stations direct following the Leo Full Moon, all of the planets will be moving direct until Mercury eventually stations retrograde on 1 April. As a result, the month ahead will be a key period to seize for grounding your focus in the work and relationships that matter the most to you, while making substantial forward progress on the goals you have for the years ahead.

Under the illumination of the Leo Full Moon, Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Pisces will be offering one another resources in ways that support the yoking of creativity to disciplined effort. Venus in the earthy domicile of Kronos will be applying to a mutually received sextile with Saturn in the exaltation, triplicity, and bounds of Aphrodite. Though Pisces has watery terrain that softens the cut and dry nature of Saturn, lessening the strength of Saturn for constructing hard boundaries, the propensity that Saturn always possesses for contemplative insight can assist the work of Venus. Marsilio Ficino wrote that the reason Saturn excels at discovering and retaining things is that the distant, ringed planet pulls us down to the center of individual subjects, from the external to the internal, from the circumference to the center; yet while forcing investigations to the center of individual subjects, at the same time Saturn leads us to contemplate the highest realm, because Saturn is the highest planet. The harmony of the sextile is a soft aspect, but the synergy between Venus and Saturn is a boon for those immersed in creative endeavors. We may gain realization for what needs editing or cut away to create more space for the true message we want to express through our work.

Indeed, the entrance of Venus into Capricorn on 23 January has made the sign of the Sea Goat an important nexus of activity as Mercury and Mars in Capricorn will be coming together into a propulsive conjunction on 27 January. The interplay between Mercury and Mars has been simmering and boiling over for months: they previously formed conjunctions on 29 October and 27 December 2023 and began traveling together in the same sign after Mercury joined Mars in Scorpio on 21 October 2023. From then until now we’ve experienced a Lunar Eclipse in Taurus, a Mercury retrograde loop in Capricorn and Sagittarius, the Capricorn Solstice, and the return of Pluto to Aquarius. So much has changed and yet there may be a golden thread of investigation, of effort, of longterm work connecting these periods of time together. If so the silvery light brought by the Leo Full Moon can deliver insight into the next steps needing to be made. If you’ve managed to bring a major work together during these tumultuous times, make space to celebrate and honor the productive force that Mars and Mercury can create together.

Of course in global events there are too many examples to count of disastrous decisions that have been made during these months of Mercury and Mars that have led to massive death and destruction as well as needless conflicts on a smaller scale. Their final conjunction is taking place in a square aspect with the lunar nodes at the southern bending of the nodes, the chthonic turning of the dragon, a place of crossroads, pivotal choices, and subconscious depths. Looking around for guidance, they encounter the ultimate guide and mentor – Chiron – scrutinizing their path with his heart-centered gaze of hard won wisdom. Mars will form a square aspect with Chiron on the same day as the Leo Full Moon, while Mercury will form a square one day later on 26 January. Depending upon the choices made and actions taken with Mercury and Mars coming together, Chiron will cut to the center with messages that can help in recalibrating, rebalancing, and making sure we are responsibly on course to get to where we want to go and are in right relationship with those around us. To receive the wisdom of Chiron, however, we will have to listen. 

Chiron in Aries has been engaging the Head of the Dragon, and will continue to be a guardian of this lunar gate in the months ahead as Chiron will form a conjunction with the true calculation of the north node on 19 February, will form a conjunction with the mean calculation of the north node on 5 March, and will be present at the dead center of the Aries Solar Eclipse that will be aligned with the north node on 8 April. Unions between Chiron and the Dragon’s Head are not too common, as it hasn’t happened since 2008 and will not happen again until 2038. With Chiron holding space at the zodiacal degree marking the intersection of the Moon’s monthly crossing of the ecliptic, we will experience monthly conjunctions of the Moon with her north node and Chiron (13 February; 11 March; 8 April; 5 May) as well as oppositions between the Moon and Chiron when Luna conjoins her own south node in Libra (31 January; 27 February; 26 March; 22 April).

The world has gone through accelerated changes since the pandemic and inception of several major astrological cycles in 2020, and we also know that the astrological alignments in the years ahead promise much more change. Many longstanding attachments, places and passions and people we have been attached to have had to pass away, and so feelings of uncertainty concerning the future can grab hold of us. For many reasons we are entering a time of Chiron playing an increasingly important role. Chiron the mediator between the realms within Saturn and the realms beyond Uranus. Chiron the horse, the human, the teacher, the one whose sacrifice liberated the liberating Prometheus. In Aries the wisdom of Chiron involves the courage of the heart, as well as the need for relationship and mentoring, for questioning when we need to widen the scope of our individual perspective and shed the individualizing influences of the times to relate to the collective concerns of our community. Yet in other cases the fire of Chiron in Aries may ignite realization of a need to remove ourselves from groupthink and conforming with the expectations of others. The thread through all of the complexity to come will involve listening to both internal and external messages.

Pluto in Aquarius

Due to the recent entrance of Pluto into Aquarius on 20 January, the Leo Full Moon’s opposition with Pluto will dredge and dig up some of the initial issues we will need to face with Pluto’s long transit through Aquarius. This is meaningful to consider due to Pluto spending most of 2024 in Aquarius, but it’s also important to remember that we are not finished with Pluto in Capricorn and will experience one final pass of Pluto through tropical Capricorn from 1 September through 19 November. Pluto was last in Aquarius between 1777 and 1798, when the American Revolution came to an end and the French Revolution began. Prior to that, Pluto was in Aquarius between 1532 and 1553, when the Copernicus Revolution took place and the Protestant Reformation deepened. Themes of collective fracturing and decentering stand out with the transit of Pluto in Aquarius, as Pluto in Aquarius has not only correlated with revolutions contesting the centralised power of the monarchy and church, but also with the transformation of human consciousness that shifted the Earth from being the center of the universe to the sun and the heliocentric model.

It can be difficult to predict what will happen with Pluto in Aquarius because it has a track record of delivering events that go beyond the conceptual frameworks dominating the spirit of the times. Interestingly, around the time of the recent New Moon in Capricorn, a presentation at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans announced the recent discovery of a Big Ring that defies our current understanding of the universe. In terms of threshold symbolism, it’s further interesting that the Big Ring is in fact more of a spiraling coil that is facing toward Earth, giving the appearance of a ring from our earthbound perspective.

The Water Pourer, Water Bearer, and Great One pictured in the constellation of Aquarius has been imagined as many figures throughout history. One particularly fitting figure for the arrival of Pluto into Aquarius is Ea or Enki, the divine artisan and lord of freshwaters within the earth who helped cultivate the growth of human civilization through teaching irrigation that controls rivers through the formation of canals. Enki’s realm was a place of watery, subterranean depth befitting Pluto in Aquarius, and aligns with plutonic power conflicts arising over literal canals such as the Suez canal, but also the technological channels of communication we construct and maintain such as the Internet. Indeed, the first century Roman poet Marcus Manilius in Astronomica described Aquarius with images of a Waterman pouring forth streams from his urn, bestowing skills such as “how to divine springs under the ground and conduct them above, to transform the flow of water so as to spray the very stars, to mock the sea with man-made shores at the bidding of luxury, to construct different types of artificial lakes and rivers, and to support aloft for domestic use streams that come from afar . . .”

The power dynamics of Pluto in Aquarius also bring warning over the control and manipulation of information, and so the extremes of media manipulation and propaganda by those in power already present will find new insidious ways of intensifying their impact through the use of the technological advancements that will continue to accelerate. It will be up to each of us to utilize critical thinking when interfacing with technology and the information sources that will be presented in the garb of authority. Joy Usher in Tiny Universe wrote that “Saturn’s ownership of Aquarius [indoctrinates] by repeatedly telling someone that something is true (creating its own reality), whilst at the same time blocking out or preventing any ‘counter truth’ which might destabilize the original information.” Yet since we can also expect a decentering of those presently in power during Pluto’s journey through Aquarius, the figure of Enki and the Water Pourer can also point to our capacity to construct mutual networks of support and channels of information exchange we can count on.

Pay particular attention to the entrance of Mercury into Aquarius on 5 February, on which day the star of Hermes will also form a conjunction with Pluto. Mercury enjoys the intellectual resources of Aquarius, which it can utilise in analysing how to most effectively work toward the communal goals and collective ideals we prioritise. The union between Mercury and Pluto in the beginning of February will be an important time to gain additional awareness of the issues and personal meaning that Pluto’s entrance into Aquarius is bringing to the surface for you.

Leo 1 Decan

The Full Moon will illuminate the first decan of Leo associated with the Five of Wands arcanum illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. A tarot image associated with conflict and competition, the strife in the image suggests a need to stand ground and fight to achieve a desired position, or could instead be viewed as an inner battle of different aspects of one’s personality contending for control. T Susan Chang in her book 36 Secrets wrote that it’s worth remembering that the “Strife” associated with the Five of Wands “is just another way of saying ‘Striving.’ No matter how daunting the task, there is always a prize to be won. It may not be something we can polish and display on a shelf; it may not even be something we’d choose- but it might just be the making of our personal legend.” 

Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “The Spotlight” to the first face of Leo, describing its power as focusing “a mass of attention on one point or person,” while bringing karmic consequences to the role or mask one bears in public performance for an audience. Coppock in particular noted the importance of aligning one’s public persona with one’s inner authenticity so that we do not become trapped in a public role ill-suited to our nature. The need to align one’s persona with one’s authentic nature in relation to the responsibility that will result fits well with Saturn and the Sun being the rulers of the first face of Leo.

Saturn ruling the first face of Leo also suggests the necessity of putting time and concerted effort into constructing an effective vehicle to broadcast our work and connect with a receptive audience. Fittingly, the Hellenistic text the 36 Airs ascribed Hephaistos to the first face of Leo, the greek god of artisans, craftsman, sculptors, blacksmiths, and all manner of fire. Like Hephaistos, we may transfigure the pain of wounds and rejection into artistic forms, tending the fire of the forge as we melt down our old mask that can now be refashioned anew. The work of Hephaistos is not about speed and making something happen fast, but rather taking the necessary time to work and rework the matter into rarified manifestation.

With the Leo Full Moon also in the bounds of Jupiter, the star of Zeus in the sign of the Bull also has an important influence of the lunation in addition to the fact that the Leo Moon will be applying to a close aspect with Jupiter in the exaltation of the Moon. Moreover, as the Moon begins to wane she will form an additional square aspect with Uranus at the same time that Uranus is stationing direct. The influence of the Jupiter and Uranus cycle is therefore important to consider in relation to the Leo Full Moon taking place in the first decan of Leo. The liberating force of Uranus combined with Jupiter can facilitate a radical remaking of the mask we wear in public to do our work. May the light of the Full Moon in Leo illuminate the necessary changes that need to be made so you may access and express more of your essential creativity in the year ahead.

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References

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.