!! OMG Stars: Full Moon in Aquarius, August 2020 !!

OMG Stars is an astrology column written by queer astrologer Amelia Ehrhardt (@soft_aspects). Every two weeks, on the new and full moons, Amelia interprets the upcoming astrology with a focus on how to navigate current events (astrological and global).

Full moon in Aquarius, August 3rd, 2020

There’s a really excellent German word, “Verschlimmbessern”, which is a combination of the words for “to make worse” and “to make better”, and whose use translates to “while in the process of trying to make something better, you have made it worse.” 2020 is starting to feel that way to me. Like when you’re moving around your house trying to be really quiet so as not to wake a fussy toddler, and you are so nervous about being quiet that you drop something down a staircase that just keeps bumping and crashing down the stairs. So now you have the stress of having failed at being quiet, and the stress of the screaming toddler.

The screaming toddler in the case of 2020 is Mars in Aries. Here to stay until January 2021, this Mars placement is loud, irritable, and not particularly clear about its desires. At the same time, Mars in Aries is not playing well with others. This toddler is starting shit at daycare. This toddler does not listen to authority figures. This toddler definitely is giving the adults a challenging time.

But like toddlers, the astrology of 2020 is grumpy because it reflects collective transition. Toddlers get particularly clingy and angry when they’re learning something, or in a growth spurt. I’m hoping that all of us are in a growth spurt that is just presently manifesting as a really fucking irritable moment.

The full moon in Aquarius, I hope, will offer us some little hint of what kinds of changes we can expect in December and onwards when Saturn and Jupiter move into Aquarius. My hope for all my readers is that this full moon allows you to bring closure to some kind of cycle that has been troubling you, whether a minor day-to-day one or a major thematic of your life.

There is enough anger brewing with the upcoming Mars-Saturn square that will be with us starting on the 4th until October 25th of this year. There are enough neuroses with the T-square to Uranus present today, or the T-square to Mars that ran all through last week into today. Many astrologers have written about these transits so I’ll spare the details other than to say: if it feels like anger, defensiveness, unpredictable behaviour have been everywhere, rest assured that this is described in the astrology.

You can try to lay low while we pass through this astrology, readers, or you can open up about what’s going on for you. You can cut people off or you can let them in. Letting them in will take vulnerability and courage, but we will need each other around to parent the collective inner toddler that is Mars in Aries. This is one transit that will take a village.

Horoscopes are written using whole house calculations and are meant as inspiration and affirmation of what you already know. They are written for both sun and rising signs, but specific information is calculated for the rising signs. You can access your birth chart at www.astro.com or many other apps and websites using your birth date, time, and location. You can also read the horoscope for your moon sign for extra emotional information.

Aries and Aries rising
For those of you who didn’t read the above intro about the current astrological weather (which wouldn’t be unlike an impatient Aries to do), I’ll give you the warning that I’m basically describing you as as an angry toddler. Mars want it now. Mars no care about anything else! I wouldn’t be surprised if all Aries people are finding that others are particularly non-receptive to the ways in which your type can be a bit of a lit match.

People don’t want the fires you tend to start, right now, Aries. You need to learn to tend to them yourself. Aries rising people have this full moon in your 11th house of community and friendship, meaning that it’s time to let go of anything that’s been troubling you in a group dynamic lately. Try to have patience with yourself and with others, Aries, it’ll keep you out of trouble during the explosive astrology that follows us the rest of this year.

Taurus and Taurus rising
The astrology of today’s full moon is really activating fixed signs, of which Taurus is included, so I’ll wager that August 3rd, 2020 might be a hard one for all of you. Electrifying Uranus in your sign is the subject of a tight T-square from the Sun and Moon, so the discomfort of Uranus in Taurus is high-vis at the moment. I’m picturing this a little bit as flashlights on a robber in the dark: the sun and the moon, teamed up, have beamed their light directly on Uranus, who’s been thieving and careening his way through all our Taurean resources.

Our time, our comfort, our jobs, our money, our lifestyles – everything has been up for grabs. Taurus, how do you find the peace that you want when none of the typical roads to access it are available? Taurus rising people have this full moon in your 10th house of career and public profile, so use it to bring an end to cycles of your work that need to stop. Feeling excluded, not knowing how to relate, and feeling like you’re the only person who’s into what you’re into? Let this full moon be one step in moving past those feelings and knowing that you’re not alone, Taurus rising.

Gemini and Gemini rising
Gemini has been a backburner-hotspot of this year’s astrology, with the Venus retrograde that happened in your sign and, since April, the North Node also moving through your sign. In a natal chart, the North Node is often described as our “guiding star”; a point of our fate, destiny, or even just our goals. The North Node is often a place that’s a little uncomfortable for us to be, but is a discomfort that will lead to growth and luck. In the sign of Gemini, the North Node asks all of us to develop our communication skills, learn as much as we can about other perspectives, and let open curiosity guide us. Venus is cozy up with the North Node right now, which can be a little antithetical, since the planet about our comfort is in a place about us working past our discomfort.

For Gemini people, I suggest that you see how you can take comfort in things that feel a little difficult for you but that you know are good for your personal growth. Gemini rising people have this full moon in your 9th house, so it’s a good time to pique your natural curiosity by looking into learning opportunities: if there are any courses you’ve started but not finished, trips you’ve wanted to take any never have, or language learning you never got around to, let them go. Start fresh, and figure out a new way to approach expanding and growing yourself.

Cancer and Cancer rising
Cancer people may have particularly noticed the folks around you feeling troubled, but I advise your whole lot to trust that it isn’t about you. I know that’s so, so difficult for Cancer people, but everyone is so stressed out right now and you can’t take their feelings on as your responsibility. Let them go. For Cancer rising people: this full moon is in your 8th house of transformation – the 8th house has to do with the ways that your shit and someone else’s shit are entangled. It has to do with sex. It also has to do with debt.

Let this lunation release you from other peoples’ toxic energy. From other peoples’ trauma. From sexual relationships that are unfulfilling to you on the levels you need them to be. Do what you need to do to find healthy relationships to transformation, and find ways to utilize your natal ability to care for others in a way that will be reciprocal, Cancer rising.

Leo and Leo rising
Here’s a funny typo: I went to write “the full moon in your season” but instead wrote “the fun moon in your season”, which I think says everything about the Leo season full moon I really need to say. Full moons happen in the sign opposite to the sign the sun is currently in, so they always highlight the polarities in the zodiacal wheel. In Leo season it’s about Leo vs. Aquarius; “I will” vs. “I know”; creative expression vs. calculated understanding; performing for a group vs. trying to understand a group.

Let this lunation bring out your generosity of spirit, so that the energy of a full moon can be something you want to be a positive experience for those around you. Leo rising people have this full moon in your 7th house: if it feels like your summer fling is at its end, it just might be so. But this the case for any one-on-one partnerships: take this lunation to work on specifically naming the elements of those relationships that are not working for you. Give people around you the opportunity to understand problems that you’re having so that they can be addressed. It’s an act of love.

Virgo and Virgo rising
Looking forward to Virgo season during peak Leo time is a little bit like looking forward to Monday morning on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but I always find myself looking forward to the ways that Virgo season makes me inspired to get at least some of my shit together (if for no other reason than that by the end of Leo season I’m usually tired, a little broke, and socially overstimulated). The other earth signs have been in high activity this year, but your natal capacity to care for the details is missing from the puzzle.

If people around you are feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by their earth-based tasks – doing their taxes, filing paperwork, getting through email – you know, boring stuff – see if you can use your natal capacity to care and serve to help them out. Virgo rising people have this lunation in your ruling 6th house of day-to-day work and labour: it’s a good time to make sure that your day to day is something that serves the way you need to develop. Many peoples’ daily life changed radically this year, and Virgo folks don’t usually love change. Take this lunation to let go of what your life looked like before, and to learn to love things about your new daily life. Whatever new daily rituals you can set for yourself are, lean into them. They’ll help you adjust.

Libra and Libra rising
Libra is the only Cardinal sign not activated by the just-passed T-square in cardinal signs,  so Libra has a lot of perspective to offer to the rest of us around how to not start shit that we really don’t want to finish. People around you might be really caught up in news cycles, caught up in new interpersonal drama, or caught up in their own shit. Try – lovingly, and without condescension, to help them find some harmony and balance in the process. Ways that your sign can do this is through appreciating beauty, engaging with art, getting in a good one-on-one conversation: these are the gifts that you have to help people through this difficult moment.

Libra rising people have this full moon in your 5th house. It’s a good time to refocus your energies around any creative practice that you have. Let go of any creative work that wasn’t working, and ideas that weren’t helping, or anything that stopped being fun. Keep fun at the forefront of your creative work these days, Libra rising, so that it doesn’t start to become dreary.

Scorpio and Scorpio rising
Scorpio is the only fixed sign not activated by the present T-square in fixed signs, which means that your sign offers some important release and information to the present astrology. People might be particularly caught up in their own anxiety about resources right now, and I hope you can offer your perspective of regrowth. The mythology fo Scorpio is the Scorpion, of course but it is also represented by the Phoenix: that which is reborn from ashes. Collectively, we need to see that by letting go of the material things that have previously made us feel safe, we can transform into a new kind of life and safety.

Your sign is the key to this understanding, but it’s usually an intense message that people don’t want to hear. Be there to hold people’s freakouts right now, Scorpio. Scorpio rising people have this full moon in your 4th house of home. This is a good time to do personal work around letting go of early-life challenges. This is really a lifetime of work, but now is a strong time for you to engage in it.

Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising
Yours is not a sign that’s gotten much action this year, Sagittarius, and as your ruling planet of Jupiter has spent the year marching through uncomfortable and rigid territory, I’m sure everyone with big placement in Sag has been feeling itchy. This full moon in Aquarius brings some more familiar energy for you, though, as freedom and truth-loving Aquarius has much in common with the philosophical Archers. With Mars and the Sun in fellow fire signs, the excitable nature of this moment is probably not unnavigable for Sagittarians, but you are much more inclined towards fire-energy for the good of equity as opposed to this weird toddler temper tantrum astrology.

See if you can help translate any toxic fire energy into good for the people around you. Sag rising people have this full moon in your third house of communication, meaning it is a great time to let go of negative or no-longer-useful communcication styles and habits. It’s also a good time to work on releasing thought patterns that are not useful to your personal growth or development. This is lifelong work, but let this lunation help you along the way.

Capricorn and Capricorn rising
There’s sure been a lot of Cardinal-sign activity lately, Capricorn, so this year of relentless Capricorn energy definitely continues. Two planets in your sign are participating in a T-square, which is sort of as though you work in a small office of three people, and two of those team members just got into two different fights with some competitors. Are you one of the team members in a fight, Capricorn, or are you back at the office holding down the fort?

Capricorn rising people have this lunation in your 2nd house of resources, so I ask that you let go of any difficult relationships in this area that have been troubling you. Whether this is about money, food, energy; it’s simply time to let go of any old or negative associations with this part of your life.

Aquarius and Aquarius rising
Aquarius, with a full moon in your sign, the thematics of what you are all about are brightly lit at the moment. Yours is a weird lot. I often describe Aquarius to my clients as aliens on a mission to earth, send to understand people. These are aliens with our best interest at heart, who really want us to find collective good and freedom, and try to relate, but really always have the energy of Steve Buscemi saying “what’s up, fellow kids?”. For the brief moment of this full moon, we’re all there with you.

Aquarius risings have this lunation in your first house of identity. I encourage you to take it as a chance to keep chipping away at any ways of seeing yourself that are not in service of your personal growth.  Any stories you’ve told yourself about how you’re unrelatable, about how no one understands you, about how you can’t find any real friends…look for some evidence to the contrary and see the ways that people look to you as a visionary, the ways that you are a catalyst for your social group, and the ways that the people around you are constantly showing you love for your weird and wonderful self.

Pisces and Pisces rising
Pisces is a mutable water sign, the symbology of which is water in its most natural state: water which is flexible, adaptable, and mobile. In astrology that has been so direct and willful, I expect that many Pisces have felt, well, like the fish are out of water. Neptune has been making its long transit through Pisces, so with your ruling planet in its home sign the past few years have had a big thematic of things familiar to you – art, spirit, the occult, a resurgence of things other people don’t believe in…but this year has been hard.

Your sensitive nature means the overwhelming anger of this moment might be tending you towards escapism. But be cautious that your escapism come with an escape plan. For Pisces rising people, this full moon in Aquarius is taking place in your 12th house – which is Pisces’ territory. Let this full moon bring to a close any spiritual cycles you need to let go of. Pay extra close attention to your dreams around this lunation, Pisces; they’re always important, but with this full moon, they’re probably extra telling.