Full Moon in Sagittarius

On Monday, June 17, 2019, we will receive the abundant, expansive light of the Full Moon in Sagittarius. This is an especially lovely lunation because not only is the Moon at its most luminous, but it is ruled by Jupiter in its own sign. Jupiter is the planet associated with growth, expansion, abundance, faith, and belief that can sustain us on our journeys to discover that which we hold to be most true. When a planet is in one of its own signs, it is said to have access to its strengths and resources. With the Full Moon in Sagittarius along with Jupiter, we can think of the Moon as a guest in Jupiter’s home, and Jupiter has the capacity to serve as a generous host. Additionally, both the Moon and Jupiter are in aspect with Venus in Gemini and are in aversion to the more challenging planets in Cancer and Capricorn. This Full Moon can offer relief and support in the midst of what might feel like a challenging season for some of us. This is a reprieve from some of the intense astrology we’ve been moving through this month.

As the Moon blossoms brightly in Sagittarius, Mars is just one or two degrees between oppositions to Saturn and Pluto, both retrograde in Capricorn. These are intense, potentially difficult oppositions, but it’s astrology that also holds valuable lessons for us as we move through what might feel like pressure, conflict, or resistance. Mars is separating from its opposition to Saturn, which may have felt like charging relentlessly into an immovable structure. This aspect reminds me of Sara Ahmed’s writing about diversity work as “banging your head against a brick wall” kind of labor. In Living a Feminist Life, she suggests that “the wall is more than a metaphor and refers to the processes whereby histories become concrete, how patterns set before they harden.” In our institutions, our social structures, and even in the deeply internalized norms through which we know ourselves, we constantly come up against the walls of empire, colonization, white supremacy, sexism and misogyny, the violent repression of queer and trans experiences, and all the other ways in which what is possible for ourselves and our world have been limited. Some of us encounter these walls more than others; some of us feel them as a prison, some of us may even experience them as support systems we don’t know how to live without. If our positions of privilege allow walls to remain invisible to us—especially if existing structures of injustice are so embedded in our thinking and living that we don't even recognize the ways in which they limit life and livability for others—now is a time to listen carefully to those who do experience our current systems as oppressive, exploitative realms of impossibility. Mars opposed Saturn asks us to examine the established structures in ourselves and in our world as ask: who does this benefit? What does this serve? What kinds of lives and worlds are made impossible because this system remains in place?

As Mars separates from this opposition to Saturn, it is applying an opposition to Pluto, which will be exact on June 19. Mars opposed Pluto is a power struggle like no other, where the drive to act and the drive to control clash above and below. Having found ourselves thrown against walls and structures that may seem immovable, now we find ourselves digging into the underworld to wrestle with processes that hold the potential for deep personal transformation and collective liberation. It seems fitting that this astrology is happening during the month of Pride, when we celebrate decades of struggle for the liberation of LGBTQ communities, in which we continue to demand justice for all lives, all genders, all sexualities, especially those most marginalized in our society—Black and Brown people, transgender people, women, disabled people, older people, and so on.
 
All of this to say: this Full Moon in Sagittarius is here to replenish and resource, to reconnect us to the beliefs that sustain us and bring to light that which we will need to continue to struggle against systems of oppression that are not only outside of us but inside of ourselves as well. The Moon will appear the most full Sunday night and early Monday morning. How this will show up in each of our lives will be different depending on the particularities of our charts, but we might all ask ourselves these questions by full moonlight:
What am I struggling for?
What am I resisting?
What are the structures that support me, and what are the entrenched systems that I know are poisoning me from within and without?
What do I believe to be most true, and how might those beliefs light my path?
How might I use the abundance and resources of this Full Moon to connect to pleasure, passion, and care that can then fuel my relentless pursuit of justice?

Happy Pride + Blessed Full Moon