“Life is continually shedding something that wants to die.”
Nietzsche
On the 31st of August, the Full Moon falls in the first decan of Pisces, which in the Chaldean system is associated with Saturn. The Full Moon perfects as she separates from a conjunction with her decan Lord, Saturn, the greater malefic, and brings images of moving away from certainty and stability, kicking against traditional structures and breaking free.
What kind of prison she is breaking free from will be down to personal interpretation, but without a doubt, she will be heading into uncharted territory. With her, she brings the memories of all that she must leave behind; those carefully tended structures that have now outlived their purpose in her life. Whether they are habits, projects, employment, relationships or friendships, some things have become meaningless, and the time has come to let them go.
With a beating heart and a shy breath of excitement, she takes to the open road, searching for a future that can only be sensed. For too long, she has wandered in a labyrinth of confusion, a maze of her own making, built out of the habitual responses to a life that was not ordered. Long aware of this intense dissatisfaction, she cannot quite understand why it has taken this long to finally realise that the only escape lies in accepting that this is a self-created prison of certainty; there is no escape until she recognises that only by moving beyond its safety can she build a better world for herself with the tools that have been gained thus far.
Releasing the hard-won ‘gains’ she has held onto these last months, years and decades, she feels suddenly lighter, as if she has been recreated out of something finer and more translucent, with a sense of impermanence that helps to dissolve the natural boundaries of fear that have kept her in check. No longer beholden to the shoulds, the oughts and the dutiful, her desire to embrace something else before it is too late carries her forward into a dark landscape, lit only by the light of the Full Moon.
The Full Moon in Pisces, always falling as it does at the change of the seasons, speaks of the dissolution and release at which this sign so excels, its subtle energy working to undermine and collapse those things that no longer have use. Ruler Jupiter is currently slow in motion and about to station retrograde and also conjoined to the unfortunate fixed star Menkar, a bright orange star placed in the jaws of the constellation Cetus, the whale.
Manillius writes at length on the dangerous influence of the constellation Cetus regarding the sea and all its inhabitants, and this year, as first Uranus and now Jupiter have been traversing this star, we seem to have had more sea tragedies happening than usual.
The navigation of the great unknown ‘seas’ of life will be a personal theme surrounding this period, both in the realm of our own conscious and subconscious as well as in the many unknown lives that we hear about on the news, the souls unknown to us in person but with whom we are connected on the deepest level of our humanity. As we brave the emotional “unknown” in search of new lands that we might call home, we empathise on some level with those who travel in their physicality, who seek safety and succour in lands far from their homes. The scholars of old all wrote of travelling when referring to this decan; Ibn Ezra describes, “A man wearing beautiful clothes, in his hand an iron instrument, and he is going home,” and I like to think that the iron instrument is an astrolabe and that the stars above are guiding him to the place which he seeks.
With the Moon falling in the 8th degree of Virgo, we get the Sabian symbol of “A girl blowing a bugle” and the need to call attention to matters that need focus. Difficult events might be seen as signposts which direct us to the root of a problem or draw attention to issues we had clearly understood. In the wider world, we might include the concept of whistle-blowers or the work of campaigners instigating significant change in critical areas. The Moon’s next aspect will be a sextile to Jupiter, whose light she will then transfer in opposition to retrograde Mercury. I get the sense of people working to get justice, battling against the prevailing tides to deliver a message that may not be well received.
Confronting the psyches self-saboteur will likely be a strong theme, giving an awareness of the dynamics surrounding this Full Moon, prompting us to listen to messages coming from within, regardless of the challenging nature of the information; the process of profound change is rarely smooth; it is often tricky to unfollow the herd, or your inner conditioning for that matter. As we get the hang of following our inner wisdom, freeing ourselves from the outdated structures we are still clinging to, our actions resonate with the wider collective, helping humanity as a whole to leave the security of the predetermined paths that we have walked along, perhaps for our entire lives; a process which is vital to finding the freedom, happiness and peace we desire.
Joanna-Kate Grant 