!! OMG Stars: Full Moon in Pisces, September 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 Pisces, 1:22 AM EST, September 2nd 2020
Venus Opposite Pluto, exact on August 29th; Venus opposite Saturn, exact on September 1st; Venus sextile Mercury, exact on September 2nd

Last year before…everything, one of the greatest joys in my life was that I started climbing. Like many weirdo art dykes before me, I made good on my love of gear and camping aesthetics and put on the tiny weird shoes to haul my ass up walls made of plastic. I loved it and I now miss it constantly: I don’t yet feel safe going to a gym again but that way of being in my body, solving problems, is so fun.

An important piece of information in climbing is to always plan how you will climb down something before you climb up.

This week’s astrology is like pushing through to climb a difficult precipice and getting to the top only to realize there’s no way down except to jump. The year has gotten steadily harder and harder, and we’ve pushed our way through all that can be pushed through. But in order to get ourselves out of this precarious position we’re in, we need to take a risk and experience the fear of letting go. The fall (both the season and the action) itself will be the scary part, but being at the top and realizing that we need to let go is an image that makes my palms sweat.

This full moon in Pisces brings out the feelings. Brings out not just your feelings, not just my feelings, but everyone’s feelings. It’s a beautiful lunation, and one that stirs our capacity for empathy, but is also one that is alongside some complex astrology.

Venus in Cancer, a planet about comfort currently in a sign that’s baby, is being absolutely pummeled this week by Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn, who have been the hallmark planets of 2020 destroying any structures in our world that might have once felt comfortable. The little tidbit of support I can offer is that Mercury in Virgo is forming a helpful little sextile to Venus this week, giving us the opportunity to really talk through any feelings that come up out of the full moon. If an opportunity for an important conversation that can build resolve emerges, take it, because the next couple of months won’t be the time.

September and October see some truly awful astrology in this very bad year. 2021 is not a pretty picture either. But here we are, unsure if it can get any worse, but in a moment that cannot be maintained as such. We have climbed a wall of avoidance and we all need to decide to let go of an unsupportive structure in order to plunge into newness.

We don’t know what’s at the end of this fall yet: it might be a hard landing but it might be a cool deep body of water. Either way we can’t stay where we are.

Find your full sun and rising sign horoscope after the jump!

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
Mars making its endless journey through your sign has likely set off your sparks and possibly caused some fires. Anywhere that Aries placement shows up in a chart is going to be a spot of some volatility, and this extended journey of your ruling planet in your sign brings an opportunity to exaggerate any “me first” tendencies you might have.

Use those to both your advantage and the advantage of those around you: find ways that by fighting for your own needs, you can take care of them yourself and not ask others to take them on. Aries rising people have the Venus/Pluto+Saturn opposition of this week underlining the relationship between your home and career: ways that you need to feel comfortable in your own cozy den, and ways that your career has likely undergone massive change this year. These areas of your life need each other.

See that by changing your public profile, you are also creating possibility  for the kind of very safe home life you want.

Taurus and Taurus Rising
This week’s brief grand trine in earth signs is one that I am hoping can bring a brief moment of relief to earth sign readers, particularly those of you with Taurus or Capricorn placements that have been hard hit by the major movements through earth signs in 2020. I am encouraging you, Taurus, to notice even the smallest moments of earthly joy this week. The sound of wind in trees, some good food, a sweet moment with a pet: these moments are fuel to your slow-burning fire.

Taurus rising readers have Venus opposite Saturn and Pluto in your 3rd and 9th houses respectively, where they highlight the difference between the way you want to speak and the ways you want to learn from others. With Venus in your third house being pummeled by Saturn and Pluto, it’s possible that you feel a little sheepish and small when encountering big structures, particularly if those structures have to do with something like higher learning, the law, or religion.

Stand proud in your sensitive side and use it experience certitude. You know what you want, Taurus: you don’t need to convince anyone else of that, just yourself.

Gemini and Gemini Rising
This lunation is in a difficult aspect to Gemini placements, and Neptune in Pisces has also created the possibility for people with Gemini placement around 15-25 degrees to have been struggling with feelings of hopelessness, exhaustion, or overwhelm this year. Having a Pisces full moon join the party likely adds to that. Gemini readers, allow yourself to rest. The early days of this week might be exhausting. For Gemini rising readers, the Pisces new moon might really be particularly exhausting to you on a career level, leaving you with questions and not a lot of answers.

Use the opportunity to let cycles of your public identity begin to close: if there are ways that people see you that you aren’t happy with anymore, identify them and see how you can work away from them. With Venus in your 2nd house again highlighting all the difficulty that’s been happening this year between your shit and other people’s shit, focus on the ways that this year has been about detangling yourself from intimacy which is no longer useful for you.

Venus in your 2nd house means you might feel a bit protective and self-interested right now, which is totally ok in the context of this year where you’ve felt very overwhelmed by other peoples’ needs. Aim to let the Pisces energy of this week suffuse you with empathy: becoming protective and defensive throughout this process is not going to help, and the more you can aim to understand, the better the outcomes are likely to be for everyone.

Cancer and Cancer Rising
For both Cancer and Pisces readers I’ve been thinking about how this lunation and the transit of Venus through Cancer are bringing everyone to your realm lately. Cancer readers, as always, need to work to not take care of everyone with their feelings around you: you’re not going to be able to make everyone feel better, especially this week, so try to just be aware and hold yourself through this time of people getting sad.

Cancer rising readers have Venus in your first house, and while this should be a truly lovely transit while the goddess of beauty and romance graces the part of your chart that has to do with your identity and the way you are being seen, the Capricorn planet’s movement through your 7th house has likely meant you’ve had a rough year romantically and/or in your one-on-one relationships, so you might not be feelings your most wonderful at the moment.

Use the energy of this lunation to escape, and spend the rest of this difficult astrological week with some light on letting yourself grow. Engage in learning, adventure, new skills, or simply seek some counseling this week to bring you a new perspective. You can’t care for others without seeking care for yourself, too.

Leo and Leo Rising
Sometimes the start of Virgo season has the feeling of an extended Monday morning, hopeful, but busy, and in anticipation of work to come. Other times it reminds me of the day after a party, or of New Years Day and the weird desire to move on that follows a holiday of excess. Either way, I say this to bring up that in this image, Leo is the weekend, the party, the holiday.

As the sun has just moved out of your sign, our collective attentions are shifting to more practical matters while kids go back to school (under strange new circumstances) and summer fun starts to close. Let yourself lean into these feelings of productivity while still mourning the loss of neon hot summertime fun.

Leo rising readers have Venus in your 12th house articulating the axis between your everyday life and your dreams and solitude. Allow for subconscious softness to help you stop being so hard on yourself in your daily routines.

This full moon is in your 8th house having to do with *other people’s shit*, so I get to say to you what I always say to whichever sign has the full moon in the 8th: let this shit go.

Virgo and Virgo Rising
Any Pisces moon tends to be an unreliable and confusing short period, anathema to Virgo’s desire for reliability and clarity. A full moon means it’s very much so, and at the top of everyone’s experience. You might be tired and not know why; you might feel disorganized and not know why; you might fight with your closest people and not know why.  And usually Virgo is good at rolling with not knowing *why*, but it at least needs to know how long or how much: Some kind of detail to make sense of it.

But this lunation, someone tried to render the details in watercolour. Try to lean into the beauty of it. The brief grand earth trine this week means that all earth signs receive a feeling of support briefly as the sky is lit with your sibling signs. While the Pisces full moon brings out confusion, take note of even the tiniest detail that makes you feel stable this week.

Virgo rising people can use this lunation to lay to rest issues in your one-on-one partnerships that need a conclusion.  Mercury and Venus are playing well with each other this week, giving us the emotional capacity to speak clearly, and for Virgo rising folks I suggest you use this to help bring closure those one-on-one challenges.

Libra and Libra Rising
As I mentioned during the last lunation, this has been an interesting year for Libra clients. Particularly for those of you born later in October, or for anyone with placement between 20 and 29 degrees of Libra, your lot has been at once the outsider and the referee to this year’s astrology. You’ve likely felt particularly stressed by this year, and in some way have experienced more personal setbacks and crises brought on by all that has happened because of 2020.

It can be hard to have empathy for our own troubles in a moment when everyone is struggling, but just remember that your own troubles being “easier” than someone else’s problems doesn’t negate them. You can recognize the relative ease of your life while still letting yourself mourn loss, struggle with challenge, or face conflict.

Libra rising readers have this new moon in your 6th house of day to day life, making it an ideal time to begin letting any negative patterns in your habits go. This lunation in dreamy Pisces alongside its ruling planet Neptune is a perfect time to envision what you want your life to look like. You don’t have to do the work of implementing it, but start imagining what the horrible words “new normal” could look like for you.

Scorpio and Scorpio Rising
As Uranus has spent the year in opposition to Scorpio, I suspect that Scorpio readers (particularly those with Scorpio placement between 8 and 18 degrees) have encountered volatility or unexpected actions that have really left them out of sorts. Intimacy has really changed this year, Scorpio, and your desire for intimacy has likely taken a hit.

The watery astrology of this full moon has likely met that other people have brought a lot of their secrets, feelings, and sadness to you, and while it’s natal to Scorpio to handle that stuff, it can become a heavy load. Let this full moon and Venus in Cancer bring you into a space of rest and care for yourself so that you can continue to hold other people’s feelings.

Scorpio rising readers have had Saturn and Pluto riding  through your 3rd house of communication now in opposition to Venus in your 9th house of growth, highlighting the ways that you want to speak for yourself and the ways that you want to learn from others. Do not allow your tender parts to feel like a failing, do not allow your soft side to feel like a weakness. Rely on the ways you can communicate with and from strength, and if it feels good to lean into a weird new adventure, then do it in spite of what people say.

Sagittarius and Sagittarius Rising
A Pisces moon technically forms a difficult aspect to any Sagittarius placement, since Sagittarius and Pisces are signs that square each other and can butt heads sometimes. But the Pisces-Sagittarius square is definitely one of the more productive relationships in the Zodiac: Sagittarius wants expansion, and Pisces wants everyone to feel okay. Sagittarius’ reckless optimism and energy can be exhausting for Pisces, but the Piscean desire to slow down and rest can be good for the never-still Archers.

If this lunation feels like it’s holding you back, figure out why you think that rest = unproductivity. Sagittarius rising readers have this Venus in your 8th house which has to do with intimacy, sex, and transformation, so while you might be desiring some hot sexy fun, the global circumstances we are facing right now are preventing that from happening in some way. Um, yes.

Best I can say is that if you can’t get access to the kind of intimacy that Venus in your 8th house is making you desire, then treat yourself like a Venusian deity and, you know.

Capricorn and Capricorn Rising
This week we see a brief and lovely grand trine in earth signs, which for a structured Capricorn is some support I suspect you highly need. Anyone with your Capricorn placement between about 9 and 17  degrees (or Capricorn sun folks born late December-early January) will receive extra energy from this, so take it while you can since this year will have been very hard on you already.

Grand trines bring to our awareness, both the flowing and wonderful parts of an element but also ways we can become overly dependent. Capricorn rising folks can use this full moon to work on releasing your need to have complete oversight on things, and lean into murkier, less-clear sides of yourself.

Meanwhile, this week, Venus is in your 7th house where it sits in opposition to all the Capricorn giants of this year: this is very David and Goliath energy, as cozy little Venus stands against big scary Pluto and Saturn. If you find your one-on-one relationships taking a hit, remember that tenderness and care in these contexts are your secret hidden weapon, Capricorn rising, and that caring for yourself is to also care for your beloveds.

Aquarius and Aquarius Rising
Aquarius sits right between Capricorn and Pisces, two signs very active this week, and I often think about how it’s the bridge between structure and formlessness. Capricorn wants everything organized and taken care of whereas Pisces cannot keep track of what a structure even might be. Aquarius at once wants freedom and system: it wants to know the structure so well that it can rebel from it entirely.

This lunation highlights your in-between-ness. Aquarius rising readers have have their 12th house activated by all the planets in Capricorn this year, and as they oppose Venus the relationship between your dreams and your everyday becomes exaggerated. Allow solitude seep into your day to day life this week as Venus in your 6th house highlights the way you want your routines to be comfortable.

Our need for comfort is clearly being challenged right now, in ways that can be detrimental to our need for rest but also in ways that ask everyone to do better. Incorporate rest into your daily routine to prevent burnout and keep you active, involved, and inspired.

Pisces and Pisces Rising
I wonder, Pisces, if a full moon gets everyone in the same waterpark of emotions that you live your whole life in? If everyone is experiencing the world in the way you do all the time, shouldn’t’ that be comfortable? Not, I suspect, what that was is Piscean, and overwhelming on its own. Usually you just have to deal with everyone else’s feelings pummeling your psyche; this full moon brings you everyone’s feelings about feeling everyone else’s feelings.

It’s like a Junior High nightmare where you go to school for Halloween and everyone is dressed up like you. On the one hand, ok, cool empathy, but on the other, do you realize that I live my life like this every day?? While this lunation might be just another version of everyday life for tallowy-watery Pisces people, it could just as easily completely deplete whatever diminished surge capacity  you had left.

Let the feelings be there, Pisces, but be careful with any of your usual methods for escape: with this astrology it’s easy to go too far into escapism and not know the way back.