A waxing Moon looks down over an interesting week.   The Sun and Mercury in Aquarius make stimulating aspects to Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini in quick succession.  A bright, sharp mental current cuts through the first several days of the week, though additional factors complicate the weekend.   A dramatic Full Moon in Leo and multiple squares to heavy Saturn wait on Saturday.

Up Above It/Down In It

While the Sun’s time in Capricorn shone a light on the rules we have to accept and the work that needs to be done, the Sun and Mercury’s time in Aquarius offers a different challenge.

Acceptance and industry are insufficient.  We need to take step back, or, rather- a step up.  Despite the misleading name, Aquarius is an air sign, and like it gaseous sate, its nature is to rise above the confusion on the ground.  This need for emotional distance is one of the reasons that Aquarians have a reputation for coldness, but in the midst of sticky situations it is precisely the right answer.

In Scorpio now and for years to come, Saturn carves an emotionally cramped reality tunnel out.   We’re  crammed together in its chthonic bottlenecks. It’s easy to bump into each other in this crowded passageway.  Easy to get in each other’s way.  Its hard to remember that everyone else is on their way somewhere, too.  Everyone a blood cell, everyone on their way somewhere in the collective body.

This situation isn’t changing any time soon.  We’re not leaving the tunnels until they’ve yielded up all the wonder, horror and insight they have to offer.  Our bodies and emotions may be stuck somewhere in the tunnels, but our minds are freer than that.  The mind has wings, and a ghost’s knack for walking through walls.

The Sun and Mercury’s recent entrance into Aquarius, and their subsequent aspects with expansive Jupiter and electric Uranus this week are a call to make a little distance, to find some perspective.  Give your mind a chance to step outside the fierce flow for a second.

Look at the network of caverns, underground rivers, veins, arteries and capillary flows.  There are patterns here, and if you squint a little bit, it looks like roadmap.   There are crossroads and currents aplenty here and you’re going to need a plan if you want don’t want to leave your trajectory to chance.  Take a breath and rise above it, let the vajra blades cut through your attachments just long enough to remember the satellite view.

This download of data from a higher vantage point is what the symbolism of the Water Bearer is really about.  That bucket’s for dew— nourishing, energy rich condensations.

When you’re out there, beyond the busy atmosphere of your little world, you could point your sensors outward, to the 10,001 stars.  Drink in what thrives beyond your world— fill your cup with the edge of finity.  Drink deeply, but not so much you’ll be hungover when fall back into the middle of it.

And you will fall back into it.  This weekend’s Full Moon in Leo is no model for Buddhist detachment— it pinches all the little egos til they roar with pain and delight.   This is the antithesis of the satellite view, this is the perspective from the center, looking out from the heart- this is the Moon’s challenge to the distant, Aquarian Sun.  It’s not the only challenge, though.  Saturn in Scorpio gazes at both Sun and Moon, snaring both lights in a t-square, compressing and testing them.   Heavy realities loom while we struggle with diverging views from inside and outside ourselves.

This Full Moon is a question.  The answer is not only what you need to do, but also who you need to be, for this next chapter of the story.