!! OMG Stars: Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn !!

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).

The astrology of the particular time that I am writing (Friday, July 3rd in the morning), feels a little bit of a calm-before-storm. Tomorrow is Big America Guns and Explosions day, and the day that the moon moves into Capricorn. In EST, the moon will be 100% full at 12:44 AM on July 5th, but will be technically full throughout the evening of the 4th of July and into the 6th.This full moon is also a Lunar eclipse: since July of 2018 we have seen Eclipses on the Cancer-Capricorn axis, and this eclipse is the last of this bunch. On the 6th, the moon, still full, will pass over Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn before moving into its Waning Gibbous stage and into Aquarius.

There’s a quote by Robin Williams that’s been making the rounds on the internet: “Canada must feel like they live upstairs of a meth lab”. While we fight against systemic racism, white supremacy in the police (and elsewhere), and virulent anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity in Canada, the presence of guns in the USA does make for a whole other ball game.

I’ve been thinking about the explosive capacity of a Full Moon in Capricorn joining the three slow-moving siblings in the solar system. I’ve been thinking about this in the context of a holiday about blowing things up, in the context of a moment when Black neighbourhoods in the USA have been reporting incessant nightly fireworks for weeks (fireworks that are almost certainly supplied by the police, if not by other white supremacist groups), in the context of a country where scared rich white people pull assault rifles on Black people for walking by their homes. Capricorn is not an explosive sign. Capricorn, in the best expressions of the sign, is about building, is about structure, is about stability. But as I said in my last post, Pluto, making the rounds through Capricorn since 2008, is certainly about destruction. If not explosions per se then dissipation, annihilation, devastation.

I’ve been thinking about what happens when structure and stability are annihilated, and what kind of qualities would describe that moment. I’ve been thinking about the 4th of July 2020, about its astrology, with wariness and worry. I shy away from making specific predictions as an Astrologer and instead seek to describe energy that I am seeing and energy I see potential of. So the potential energy of this particular July 4th, backed by the building political climate in the USA over the past months (years) (centuries) is something I am seeing as the beginning of a breaking point. This astrology is echoed in the foundation of the USA: on July 4th, 1776, the moon had just moved into Aquarius after a full stage in Capricorn; Pluto was also retrograde in late Capricorn; the sun of course was in Cancer; and Mercury was also retrograde in Cancer.

Currently, with Mars having just moved into its ruling sign of Aries, the capacity for anger is high. Aries likes to protect itself and Mars will go in charging. Later this summer, with all the outer planets retrograde, Mars will pass through a stressful square with Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in that sequence, before stationing retrograde itself in September.

The illumination of the full moon and eclipse alongside these giants in Capricorn will ask us to end previous cycles of how we relate to structure and boundary. This full moon asks that we change on both an interpersonal and global level, and will ask us to do so in no small words. This is not an ask but a demand.

The stakes are too high right now for anything other than relentless top-down transformation. 

Find your sun and rising sign horoscopes 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, and you can read for your moon sign for extra emotional information.

Aries and Aries rising
Dear Aries, for all of you, Mars in your sign can be a boon and a burden. The qualities known to your ruling sign and planet are hardly diplomatic. For all Aries people the next 6 months have the potential to be energizing as Mars briefly passes over whatever points you have in this sign. On a collective level, the overall energy might feel familiar to you. Competitive, defensive, and independent, Mars in Aries gets what it wants (much like people with significant Aries placement). See if you can face other peoples’ anger with empathy, knowing where it comes from. Aries people will defend themselves against anything seen as an attack, so this could be an opportunity for you to see this quality in yourself reflected back to you. For Aries-risers, this full moon and eclipse are taking place in your 10th house of career.

The last two years have had a series of eclipses taking place in your 10th house-4th house axis, highlighting changes relating to your work and home. How has this relationship changed since July of 2018? What are the ways that you have learned to relate to your career while also feeding your home life, and how has your home life benefitted from changes in your career? This full moon is very potent energy and is an excellent time for you to bring closure to cycles relating to your public profile that are ready to end. This is the time to say goodbye, say thank you, and start anew.

Taurus and Taurus rising
Taurus is a part of the Zodiac that speaks to our collective need for stability, safety, and sensuousness. Since May of 2018 (and until April of 2026), Uranus has been moving through your sign, bringing with it a lot of discomfort and upheaval to these thematics. At the start of the pandemic it felt almost too literal for me, as we all faced collective uncertainty about where our snacks were going to come from. The extreme discomfort of 2020’s astrology has possibly been unsettling for comfort-loving Taureans, so as Mars moves into Aries it is a time for your lot to simply get comfortable with conflict. For Taurus rising readers, the full moon and eclipse take place in your 9th house of expansion, bringing to close a cycle of eclipses that have been happening since July 2018 in the parts of your life that have to do with your communication and your growth.

This weekend’s full moon asks you to leave behind old ideas of what could help you grow. How might you use the ways that you have learned to communicate over the past two years to really benefit your own development? How can you communicate in a way that honour what you have learned while being true to your own needs and thoughts? This of this moment as a graduation from the school of eclipses. It’s time to set your own path.

Gemini and Gemini rising
All Gemini folks are probably still feeling themselves to be reeling a little bit as your ruling planet continues to move retrograde. Stationing direct on July 12th, the remaining days of this retrograde continue to bring change and instability to a vulnerable part of you. For Gemini rising people, this vulnerable point has to do with your finances and resources. Mercury’s retrograde through this area has likely brought some much-unwanted unpredictability to this part of your life, but the good news is that the full moon and eclipse this weekend is bringing to a close the past two years of lessons in this part of your life. This is a big lunation for Gemini rising people as it transits your 8th house of transformation, and is the last eclipse in the axis of your chart between your 2nd and 8th houses, the parts of your life that have to do with your own and other peoples’ shit. Ways in which you have been entangled in other people’s trauma, intimacy, and money are changing right now. Think back over the past twenty months to July of 2018 and ask yourself how you are taking charge of yourself. This full moon will bring a lot of light to your personal transformations and how they relate to the pain of people close to you. Congratulate yourself for all the ways you have learned to become independent and assert your needs throughout these past twenty months, and try to be gentle with yourself and others as you navigate any past wounds that this Lunation brings up for you.

Cancer and Cancer rising
For the sake of all Cancer people, I really wish the word “tender” had not been so completely co-opted by a certain aesthetic of “tender queers” and that I could say it to refer to the soft Cancer lot without that association, but here we are, it’s 2020 and I have no such luck. However when I look for synonyms for this word, “breakable”, “frail”, and “weak” all come up, and this doesn’t seem right at all. Cancer speaks to all our capacity for softness and vulnerability, and that to be vulnerable is to show care. This Mercury retrograde in your sign might mean your typical tendencies to show care might be misunderstood right now. Be relentless with your intentions.

For Cancer rising people specifically, this eclipse and lunation take place in your 7th house of one-on-one partnerships. What cycles of partnership started for you in July 2018 that you are ready to let go of? These two years of eclipses have been in the axis of your 1st and 7th houses, of identity and partnership respectively. How have you developed your individuality while also changing the way you relate in partnership? Who are the close people that were around you two years ago who are still there for you now? Who is new? Change in close relating is so hard for Cancer people but with this eclipse you are being granted the opportunity to leave behind any old and no-longer-necessary structures of partnership and move forward while bringing your whole self to potential relationships. Friends, lovers, collaborators: all of these kinds of relations are up for transformation. Take what you have learned forward into a future where you show care for others and yourself equally.

Leo and Leo rising
Leo speaks to the part of all of us that wants to have fun. The part of everyone and the part of our society that wants to express itself and have people bear witness. 2020 has been about shifting the dynamics of who we listen to and what fun and expression look like, so I imagine that Leonine folks have had to deal with some grumbling feelings around not getting to have your fun. Mars moving into your sister sign of fiery Aries will be some familiar energy for you while also meaning that you’re going to need to encounter a lot of everyone’s anger over the next six months throughout this transit. It’s a good time to be an echo-chorus of roars for anyone else who needs the boost. For Leo rising people, the full moon and eclipse in your sixth house bring to a close the past two years of development that’s taken place between your day-to-day and your dreams.

This weekend’s full moon might shed light on ways that your everyday life needs to change. How do your deepest desires and ways of being manifest in your work? Do they? Does your daily life give you space to dream? What parts of your daily life have impeded your deepest personal development? This eclipse rounding out this cycle in your 6th and 12th houses is a powerful time to access the sacred of the everyday life. Manifest the way you want the mundane to look for you, Leo, and leave behind everything that isn’t serving you.

Virgo and Virgo rising
Virgo people are still being challenged by your ruling planet’s retrograde movement, and by your natal desire for consistent detail being thrown off-key by this transit. The tumultuous present astrology likely is affecting you in this way as well, particularly by bringing out the deep Virgo need to serve and care. Virgo rules the sixth house of day-to-day life and service: the parts of our lives that don’t concern us so much but affect us deeply, the parts of our lives where we go out into the world to help and contribute. I suspect Virgo people feel a very strong call to care and action right now, and a deep sense of “am I doing enough?”. Is this enough activism? Is this enough learning? Is this enough unlearning? Is this enough reclamation? Is this enough sharing? Remember to keep tabs on your own needs, Virgo. Remember that while people are coming to you to listen – Virgo people are so good at this! – that you too are allowed to speak.

Virgo rising people will be affected by this lunation in your 5th house of falling in love and creativity. This eclipse wraps up the last two years of changes you have been through in how you relate to your own creative expression, your own romantic excitement, and then on the other hand, your 11th house – your community, your friends. With Capricorn on your 5th house, Virgo rising people can sometimes have a hard time having fun…and with Cancer on your 11th, being with friends means feeling vulnerable and taking care of everyone else.

My heart always goes out to you Virgo folks! Use the eclipse to allow for creative expression of your past two years of lessons to flow. This lunation is a great time to get it out – to write, dance, sing, move, draw, sew, arrange – whatever it is that creativity looks like you. Think about how you have learned about the way your creative self fits into the way you like to have fun, and the ways that you have learned about each of these things via the other. And be sure that when you show care for your community, you keep care for yourself in mind, too.

Libra and Libra rising
I hope that the end of the Venus retrograde brought a bit of reprieve for Libra Lovers out there, with the hopeful calm of some particularly charged emotions. The additional challenges presented by this difficult astrology may make it hard for you to seek out the balance that Libra is famous for. I’m going to use this lunation to tell the story I tell all my Libra clients. I learned this story from a dancer and choreographer named Justine Chambers, who is based in Vancouver and is brilliant. She taught it to me in a class I was taking with her in which we were working on balance. She had us working off our centre but trying to stay in some kind of equilibrium, but as we floated she told us a story fo a time she was taking a bus ride. At some point the bus stopped to get gas and let everyone off. Justine took a walk to stretch her legs, and as she did she came across a man tap dancing on a piece of cardboard outside. He was doing that tap-dancer thing of balancing on the tip of his shoe, but instead of staying static he was orbiting his whole body around the one foot tipped into the ground. When he stopped Justine, astonished, asked him how he balances like that, and he said: “Balance is just moving in every direction at the same time.”

These coming months, throughout retrogradation, an angry Mars transit that will oppose your sign, and of course, a global garbage fire of reality, I hope you remember that balance is a verb and not a noun. It is not a fixed place for you to get to and feel solid, it’s a constant negotiation. For Libra rising people this eclipse takes place in your 4th house of home and family, letting you know that it’s time to close challenging cycles that have to do wth this part of your life and that have been going on since July of 2018. Once the full moon and eclipse have passed, think about how you want to envisage your home moving forwards: but for now listen to what the past two years have taught you and thank the eclipses and your life for the lessons.

Scorpio and Scorpio rising
I always say that if I had to abandon absolutely everything about Astrology and keep only one thing, the thing I would keep is Scorpio. We just need to love the Scorpio part of ourselves, in its intensity and passion and mystery. All Scorpio people might be noting the depth of the present astrology and really feeling it: transformation is your territory, and as the world moves through some major transformative action, we need your natal capacity to rise through and above. Scorpio, consider holding space. If you find yourself with the capacity to pull through, then share with others how you are doing it. If you need support, move out of your typical defensive posture and invite in another.

Scorpio rising people have this eclipse ending a cycle that has been happening in your life between your 3rd and 9th houses since July of 2018: between your own communication and the way that you grow. This eclipse asks you to end cycles of communication that are damaging. In what ways are you secretive to your detriment and the detriment of your growth? iIn what ways do you protect yourself from people who only want to help? You will transform only if you let it happen, and the present astrology is asking you to share the ways you are doing that transformation. Scorpio has a natal comfort with the hardest parts of life that the rest of us lack. I suspect that sharing some of your coping mechanisms might be a strength for you right now.

Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising
I can’t remember the content, or where it came from, but a few years ago there was a video of some man in the American south driving his car into a statue to try and knock it over – how prescient. In this video I think he was…complaining about the conflation of church and state? Or about Big Gov’t? I truly can’t remember. But this buddy powered up his Sedan, shouted, “FREEDOOOOOOM!” in thick Southern accent, and anticlimactically banged up his bumper against a statue that stood resolutely against his assault. When I think of Sagittarius (and, ok, also Aquarius), I often think of this man shouting “freedom”. I’m sure that you justice-loving, freedom-seeking, growth-oriented lot are inspired and activated by the present uprising. It’s inspiring. But like our American friend in his sedan, we cannot achieve freedom by banging our heads into the wall of people who aren’t listening. This is the lesson for Sagittarians this summer.

The line between shouting for equality and feeding the trolls is a strange one these days, and I hope the Archers in this readership take the Mercury retrograde (a time of communication muddiness) to assess whether their own attempts at information sharing are more like a statue being torn down or more like a man in a car uselessly pummeling a statue and winding up with a repair bill. Sag rising folks will have this full moon in the 2nd house of resources, activating the parts of your life that have to do you money and intimacy, and the way they are tied into each other. Lay to rest any toxic or unhealthy ways of relating to your money.

Are you a fearful Capricorn with Sag rising who likes to claw your money into a hole? Consider donating. Are you a vivacious Leo with Sag rising who is constantly giving your money to your friends? Consider asking a Scorpio if you can use that hole they’re giving up. Think about what you have learned about resources (and resourcefulness) since July of 2018 and bring forward what will be useful while letting go of the rest. This too is a source of freedom.

Capricorn and Capricorn rising
For the sake of all Capricorns I look forward to this year being over so people can stop talking about all the shit things about Capricorn. It can’t be good for your self-esteem and as I said this past new moon, you’re already a lot whose astrology tends to get a bad reputation. For all Capricorn people this lunation will be a big deal, whether it’s your Sun, Moon, or Rising – whether it’s you, your feelings, or your engagement. Capricorns are being asked to look at the ways that the boundaries you set up in your life are serving you. What ways have you created boundaries and structures throughout the months since July 2018 that have not served you? Can you let go of them?

You Saturnian bunch don’t tend to like change but this Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto transit through your sign has been showing the whole world what happens when we resist change (rebellion follows restriction, just as Aquarius follows Capricorn). Capricorn rising people will have this eclipse in your 1st house of identity, bringing to a close a cycle of eclipses activating your 1st and 7th house axis and allowing for the end of cycles that have to do with the way you relate to the world and the way you relate to relating. What have you learned about yourself since July 2018? Use that information to set new boundaries that serve you better: this will help in your capacity to have meaningful one-on-one relationships.

Aquarius and Aquarius rising
I would advise my Aquarian readers to also read the above horoscope for Sagittarius, because although your signs and relationships to the present astrology are similar, the Sag-Aquarian need for freedom at all costs has some things in common. However unlike your fiery friends, Aquarians are less likely to rage, particularly for any of you with air-dominant charts. The need for freedom is a constant underpinning to the decisions any Aquarian makes, and during constrictive times (or when faced with tight boundaries), Aquarians can have a real capacity to need to eject themselves from a situation, either through dissociation or physically leaving. This astrology is asking you to stick with the hard times, Aquarius. All Aquarians, faced with the restrictive astrology of this year, are likely to want to leave whatever is holding you down right now, but the rest of us need your clear head, your systemic thinking, and your care for humanity.

Aquarius rising people have this eclipse in your deep 12th house, which has to do with your dreams, your solitude, and your relationship to spirit. This eclipse might bring up some difficult things that have been going on since July of 2018 and might make you feel a little helpless. While I’m encouraging Aquarians to not simply peace out of this lunation, I hope that the Aquarius-rising among you might give yourself at least a little space around the lunation. Space out but don’t peace out: create ample room in your psyche for what is coming up for you on a subconscious level. If it helps you, make a chart or write a list out of it, but let yourself get in touch with your less-logical side this weekend and see how it can help you heal.

Pisces and Pisces rising
Sensitive Pisceans are really all going to feel this full moon/eclipse this weekend, and with its opposition to the Mercury Retrograde in Cancer, I imagine your capacity for almost-overwhelming empathy is at high tide right now. Everyone is a mess. Pisces people can walk into a room and feel it if someone is hurt; if someone is angry; if someone is frustrated. I think this might be an important weekend for Pisces folks to take a social media pause, since everyone is likely to be angry and activated.

For Pisces rising people, this eclipse asks you to pay attention to any cycles in the ways that you relate to your friends and community that need to change. What has gone on in how you relate to groups since July of 2018? What has changed? Are your friend groups bringing you fun? Are they bringing you love? Put your energy into the part of you that wants to express yourself and get creative, and let these expressions work through your feelings about your friends. Any difficulty with groups and with people is going to challenge your watery lot, so be sure to give yourself extra space this weekend as everyone’s feelings are running high and they leak into your space.