Happy Full Moon in Aries! This Full Moon becomes exact at 10:57 AM New York time (14:57 GMT) on Wednesday, October 20.
In contrast to airy, passive, harmony-seeking Libra—the sign in which the sun remains—the moon now becomes illuminated in fiery, assertive and passionate Aries, which isn't afraid to ruffle feathers. Aries is represented by the ram, an animal so full of force and energy that it will fight other rams to the death just for the right to mate with a ewe.
Mars, the ruler of Aries, forms a supportive trine to Jupiter, the ruler of another fire sign (Satittarius). Jupiter is now exalted, as it has just exited its Station Phase and is now starting to speed up and go back into Direct motion in Aquarius.
Jupiter's exaltation means it has a big influence on this chart. When Mars, the planet of action, comes into a supportive angle with Jupiter, the planet of luck, it means that it is a lucky time for those who are ambitious and courageous!
The moon also forms an opportunistic wide sextile to Jupiter, adding to the luckiness of this Full Moon chart.
With the Full Moon in Mars's ruling sign and with the sun and Mars conjunct in fair-and-balanced Libra—the ruler of the seventh house of partnerships—the good-luck-with-manifestation energy in this Full Moon chart will be in greatest alignment when whatever you're intending to manifest is for the Highest Good of not only yourself, but also those with whom you share the most intimate relationships.
This moon opposes Mars, bringing an added emotional intensity to this chart. It's important to keep one's emotions in check in order to harness and utilize the good luck energies! Later in this article, I'll discuss the importance of mental strength and emotional intelligence along the spiritual journey.
The moon also squares Pluto, which has now gone back direct in Capricorn. The energy of change is certainly present in this Full Moon chart. If you are desiring to make a significant change in your life, the planets are certainly in support of that over the next 28 days, as long as you are ambitious and courageous (if you 'take the bull by the horn' so to speak!)
Let's dig deeper into the nuts and bolts of the Aries and Martian energies.
Aries is the first sign of Zodiac and rules the first house, which is the House of Self. In your personal natal chart, the House of Self is where your Ascendant lies. This House defines your personality in the external world—it defines how others see you. It also is in charge of your early childhood, where your perceptions of the world are formed, and of your potential.
In Tropical Astrology, which I follow and discuss in these articles, 0 degrees of Aries happens annually on the Vernal (Spring) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. This keeps the Zodiac Wheel aligned precisely to the seasons.
In the tarot, Aries is best represented by the Ace of Wands. Aries is the starter energy. It is the essence of the yang, or Divine Masculine energy.
It is the force required to get things moving, to create things. It also carries a huge amount of potential, because it is such a powerful force, ready to be directed in whatever direction the co-creator chooses (to be a co-creator is essentially the understanding and acknowledgment that we have the right and the power to create through the will, however that there are always unseen Universal forces that will play a role in determining outcomes of our manifestations).
Aries is one of the four cardinal signs of the Zodiac, as it heralds the start of a season (the others being Cancer, for summer; Libra, for autumn; and Capricorn, for winter).
According to Wikipedia, “In Greek Mythology, the symbol of the ram is based on the Chrysomallus, the flying ram that rescued Phrixus and Helle, the children of the Boeotian king Athamas and provided the Golden Fleece.”
The numerology of Aries is of course the number 1—the starter energy. The 1 is necessary to create the 2 through 9.
People who have their sun, Ascendant or Mars in Aries can tend to be ambitious and courageous. They tend to naturally and unapologetically go after what they want in life. They tend to embody the Divine Masculine traits of strength, discipline, courage and perseverance--though they need to watch out for falling into the trap of the Shadow Masculine traits such as overagressiveness, violence (verbal or physical), and feeling the need to control others.
In honor of the significant Martian influence on this Full Moon chart, let's dig into how one can incorporate the Divine Masculine traits into your life, and how one can utilize the archetype of the Spiritual Warrior on the Ascension path.
DIVINE MASCULINE TRAITS AND THE SPIRITUAL WARRIOR ARCHETYPE
Four of the most important Divine Masculine traits and virtues of the Spiritual Warrior archetype are strength, perseverance, courage and discipline.
Strength is one of the most important Divine Masculine traits. Physical strength is important to develop, yes, but so is mental strength. Mental strength is often what separates those that rise to the top of a certain field, art, or sport from those who never arrive at an elite level of performance.
The subconscious mind holds the key in determining what manifests in our life, what our experience is of what manifests in our life, and how we handle our emotions. Since the subconscious mind is created from our experience of life during the ages of 0 and 7, it largely is created out of a reflection of the way our parents (or those who raised us) perceived life, interpreted life, and handled their emotions.
If your parents (or caregivers) were optimists, then your natural set point will be optimism. If they were pessimists, then your natural set point will be more pessimistic. If your parents (or caregives) were very emotionally intelligent people, meaning they were comfortable with all emotions but were able to have control over their emotional state the vast majority of the time, then that's going to be natural for you as well. Unfortunately, most people didn't have parents that expressed a very high level of emotional intelligence.
So for most of us, mental strength and emotional intelligence have to be developed later in life. We need to read books, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and work with healers and therapists in order to overcome the negative patterns of our parents or caregivers.
It takes a lot of practice. We have to significantly change the ways that we talk about ourselves—and life in general. We have to find tactics that work in helping us to overcome emotional triggers and to pull ourselves out of fear, depression, jealousy, anger, etc.
Having a set of daily affirmations is a great way to accelerate your improvement in these areas. Also, you can make great strides forward simply by not continuing to engage in some of the mentally weak or emotionally immature patterns and tendencies of the past.
Put some reminders up around your home and office. When you find yourself going into an old negative pattern, say “STOP” out loud. Interrupt the pattern, then consciously change your state. Find something to laugh at, or force yourself to smile. The act of smiling signals to your brain that it's time to produce a different cocktail of chemicals and to raise your emotional state!
The words you speak out loud are more important than you might think. Everything you speak out loud gets recognized by your subconscious mind. Every word and phrase either reinforces old patterns or moves you in the direction of creating new ones.
I would encourage you to check out my Change Your Reality by Changing Your Words Mastery Empowerment Course if you'd like to learn more about the importance of words and how to change your life by changing your speech.
I know that all of this is easier said than done. But in an ironic twist, mental strength is what separates those who can overcome their bad subconscious patterns and greatly improve their lives from those who can't. (And in an ironic but refreshing twist, you get to decide whether you're going to be mentally strong or not. You have complete Free Will!)
Some of us on this Ascension journey have gone through multiple tribulations in this lifetime alone where we had to gather all of our inner strength simply to survive. Even if you haven't had extreme difficulties like that, everyone can think of an instance where they had to be strong just to make it through. When creating a life plan, the soul always includes situations in which the character incarnated will need to access their inner strength in order to proceed through the intended lesson.
Some souls have created more situations requiring this than others. If you feel like your soul has created a lot of difficult situations for you to go through, know that it is because your soul believed you would survive each and learn valuable lessons in doing so.
You are meant to make it through all of your tough times. If you're still reading this right now, then it's not your exit point. You're meant to stay here and persevere through whatever difficulties you are facing. Your soul is not trying to destroy you; it's just challenging you in an extreme way in order to help the very best version of yourself—which may be lying in a cocoon—to emerge.
The past two years has been very challenging for nearly everyone on the planet. A deadly disease has ravished the globe. Many have lost loved ones or had long-term negative health effects. Governments have taken the opportunity to impose greater control and restrictions on the populace. People have become more divided than ever over politics. People have had to make difficult decisions on whether to get vaccinated or not. It's hard to know who and what information out there can be trusted. Many nations are facing inflation, economic declines, and food shortages, including here in the United States.
This difficult period of time on our planet is the perfect opportunity for us to bring out the archetype of the Spiritual Warrior. The Spiritual Warrior encounters obstacles and difficulties in their path but has the strength and resolve to move through the obstacles—rather than let the obstacles topple them.
Perseverance is also required in these difficult situations. Anyone who has achieved anything great in their lives has had to persevere through obstacles and setbacks. To persevere even when nothing seems to be going the way you want it to requires mental strength. Even when you want to give up on your dreams, you're strong enough to interrupt those thoughts that want to pull you down into the muck, and you keep on charging ahead toward what you want to create.
The Universe will probably give you many chances throughout your life to embody the Spiritual Warrior archetype. Some will inevitably face more difficulties than others. This has to do with the specific karma that you bring into this life from other lifetimes.
When times are good in your life, enjoy them to the fullest. When times are tough, it's a wonderful opportunity to bring out the Spiritual Warrior within.
Here are some questions to consider when pondering the role of strength and perseverance in your life. Please journal on these if you think it might be helpful:
- What are some of the negative patterns (that probably came from childhood) that I know I need to kick?
- Where did I pick up these patterns? Am I modeling the way that my parents (or caregivers) acted when I was young (or maybe they still act this way)?
- Are there some situations in my life currently where I intuitively feel like I should persevere through the obstacles and frustrations?
- In what situations in my past or present have I embodied the Spiritual Warrior?
- What sort of strong qualities did I express (or am expressing now) in those situations?
- What specific situations come up often in my life where I could express more of the strength of the Spiritual Warrior?
- Do I feel strong in my physical body? If not, could I work on increasing my strength just a bit?
- Do I tend to give up too easily? Am I easily dissuaded?
- What would ten percent more strength in my life look like? What would it feel like?
- What would ten percent more perseverance in my life look like? What would it feel like?
Aries the Ram also illustrates the Divine Masculine trait of courage. Think of one of your favorite movies. The movie you're thinking of most likely had a hero (perhaps it was the protagonist themself). The hero always must embody courage at certain points in their journey. And to be courageous usually requires taking a risk.
We all can think of situations in our life where we took a risk and it paid off. Perhaps you followed a hunch and found yourself rewarded; or perhaps you said 'screw it' and did something fun that was a bit risky. Maybe you decided to take a job in another state and you ended up meeting your future partner. In these situations, you accessed the inner courage to take a leap of faith.
Oftentimes, a soul will write into the Life Plan one or several 'big' situations where courage is one of the intended lessons to be learned. You might be presented with a big opportunity, however perhaps it might require moving out of your comfort zone. If you take the risk, it might mean you pass that particular lesson (not that it will likely or necessarily be your last lesson in courage); while if you decide to play it safe it likely means you'll get another opportunity to show off your inner courage down the line.
Ever get that feeling that you should just take a leap of faith and go for it? Those are the exact instances where you will find inner courage paying off handsomely. Imagine harnessing that strong Aries energy—with its unlimited potential—and utilizing it to take that leap of faith, like the alchemist in The Magician card in the tarot harnessing the Universal energy with his crystal wand pointed to the sky.
Another aspect of the courage of the Spiritual Warrior is a willingness to show one's true self/personality to the world. So many of us are afraid to show ourselves out of fear of judgment or ridicule. So many of us go along with how others believe we should live our lives. These fears can root from feeling judged or ridiculed by one's parents or caregivers--as well as being ridiculed or ostracized in primary school or high school.
Opening the throat chakra fully and expressing who-you-really-feel-you-are to the world is an important aspect of the Ascension path. The world needs you tho show up as the real you! And this of course requires courage.
Here are some questions to consider when pondering the role of courage in your life:
- What situations can I recall where I acted on the courage of the Spiritual Warrior within me?
- How did it feel to act on that courage?
- Do I have access to this courage any time I want to?
- Is there a situation in my life right now where I feel the Universe is asking for me to take a courageous risk or leap of faith?
- How could taking more risks lead to a greater sense of fulfillment in my life ?
- How could I present myself more authentically and courageously to the world?
- What would ten percent more courage in my life look like? What would it feel like?
Another crucial Divine Masculine trait is discipline. It requires mental strength to have discipline over oneself, but it also requires a passion for life--a passion to make the best of your limited time in the specific physical container you have chosen for this lifetime. This passion also falls under the realm of Aries.
The starter energy that Aries holds—that unlimited potential—desires to express itself passionately. The more passionately it is expressed, the more smoothly the manifestations you're desiring to create can become reality.
If you want to get really good at anything in your life, it requires discipline. Whatever your chosen art or creative expression is—whether it's painting, cooking, psychic work, yoga, or whatever else—it requires repeated practice to build competency and skill. Basic life skills require discipline as well to develop. If you want to become more relaxed and at peace, you need to incorporate daily meditation and/or visualization practices into your schedule.
When you dabble in something, you can only go so far. But when you spend time developing a skill or working on something every single day, you're going to become a master at it.
Prioritizing your schedule goes hand-in-hand with establishing discipline. Many people have their hands in too many jars at once, and because of this they don't progress as quickly in their career. You've got to be able to prioritize what is the most important thing in your life at any given time.
Having at least one or two daily rituals that support your health and well-being—physical and/or mental—sets the stage for you to be more productive and disciplined in the rest of your life, as well as happy and content.
Here are some questions to consider when pondering the role of discipline in your life:
- In what areas of my life do I struggle with discipline?
- If I were to be more disciplined with my spiritual practices, what positive changes might I see in my life?
- What are two supportive practices that I know I should incorporate into my life on a daily basis?
- What would showing ten percent more discipline in my life look like? What would it feel like?
EXALTED MERCURY FORMS SEVERAL INTERESTING ASPECTS
Mercury, the planet of communication, has just started to go back into Direct motion after its brief Station Phase in Libra. It will take awhile for it to speed up back to a perceived normal motion, so for now, Mercury is exalted—and all of the same advice for Mercury Retrograde still applies. Please see my Libra New Moon article for those tips.
We will be in the clear as far as getting past this Mercury Retrograde in Libra cycle by about November 1. But the next seven days will have some of the most intense effects of the Mercury Retrograde cycle.
Mercury sextiles Venus (in fiery, adventurous Sagittarius), making it a good time to smooth things over and make amends in romantic relationships. There can be a natural sense of fiery sexiness and adventure in romantic relationships right now.
Mercury also trines Saturn, which has now gone direct in Aquarius, making it a good time to have discussions about the future in business and relationships (though if possible, don't make any big moves until October ends).
Mercury and Venus both quincunx Uranus—meaning unexpected twists and turns could cause issues in relationships.
Mercury also forms a nearly-exact trine to Black Moon Lilith (in Gemini) in this Full Moon Chart. It makes it a very powerful time over the next 28 days to speak up about personal and societal issues that are important to you. Be courageous and fearless in your communication. Bring things up to the surface even if they're uncomfortable to talk about.
It is also a powerful time to express the Divine Feminine energies in all ways. Please watch my video all about Black Moon Lilith if you haven't already. And if you're interested in learning white witchcraft or tarot (perfect timing with Samhain right around the corner)--both of which fall under the realm of Black Moon Lilith—check out my Comprehensive Tarot Reading Course and my Intro to Candle & Moon Magick Mastery Empowerment Course.
Wishing you a blessed and passionate Full Moon in Aries!
With Love,
Matthew John
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