Marvin the Martian's Full Moon in Aries
Reflecting on the attachment to self as we enter the season of the other
Hey there.
Did you feel the intensity of that full moon last night? Yes, we’re in the midst of another super-moon, and this time it’s in the catalytic, bold sign of Aries.
This moon energy for me has been so on\-point. In the past couple of days I’ve witnessed (and projected) both the bright sides and the shadow sides of Aries the Ram, a sign ruled by fiery Mars. Incidents of big-truck road rage, relational disputes, and white-supremacist gun violence in my community have been interwoven with an internal confidence, more energy and personal agency, and a willpower to stand strong, to not shrink in the face of adversity.
The deep challenge of moving from “Me” to “We”…
Each year, the Aries full moon occurs in Libra season, the time when we’re crossing the threshold into the dark half of the year. Libra, the scales, is a sign of balance, harmony, and justice, and it’s the first sign in the Zodiac wheel of life that is directly about our relationships with others.
I find that the annual Aries full moon can be one of the most intense moons of the year because of its contrasting energy with this seasonal shift toward darkness. Libra season is a time when we bear witness to the shrinking daylight, the slow death of the plants around us, and the feeling of loss that comes with summer’s departure. It’s a time when we are forced to recognize that summer’s fruits must decompose back into relationship with the soil, in true Libra fashion, merging the independent self back into the wholeness of others. Despite all the pumpkin-spice lattes, this time of year can feel… kinda sad.
The Aries moon is a spotlight of opposite energy amidst this seasonal change, reminding us of our selfhood, agency, and autonomy, despite the sense of merging and going inward and below that is pervasive in the fall. I think a lot of the aggression and Martian energy that comes up during this full moon originates from the instinctual fear of losing ourselves we fold into union with the other.
This fear of losing the boundaries of self has felt true this week in my personal life, where a deepening into a beautiful, yet complex, relationship has caused me to stake claims to my independent spirit - sometimes in a much more brash/harsh way than I have wanted to come across.
Zooming out a little, I can’t help but thinking about the horrific shooting that happened yesterday in my neighboring city of Espanola, NM and how it could be read along the same lines. A MAGA-hat wearing white supremacist fired a shot at an indigenous activist who was peacefully protesting a resurrection of a statue of Juan de Oñate. Oñate was a colonial governor of this area who destroyed entire indigenous pueblos and massacred thousands of native people. In Espanola, peaceful protesters aimed to enter into a deeper conversation with this place’s complex and interwoven history, and they successfully campaigned to postpone the statue’s resurrection. This was met by an infiltration and gunshot by a young person who identified with Trump’s “Make America Great Again”: a clinging to the false notion that America was “great” when only singular white/colonial/male opinions were recognized.
Across the board, this fear of losing a limited conception of “self” to the unknown, complex, and interwoven “other” is causing outbursts and last-hurrahs in the quest for independence. In this case, and the many horrific cases of racist/white supremacist toxicity that affect us almost daily in the US, the fear of a specific colonial history being “erased” justifies these people to stake claims on their notion of selfhood through violence. This is a drastic example of the fear-based response of losing the notion of “self ” to the “other”, one that is hyper-pronounced in this country as we go through our Pluto Return.
But like most dichotomies, “self” vs. “other” is obviously a false one. It may not appear balanced on the surface, but we must remember that Aries, too, is a sign of equilibrium. The new, seemingly independent life forms that burst out of the ground in Aries season can only grow if the conditions beneath the surface are right. And the conditions are all about relationship- partnering, composting, mulching, rooting, myceliating, and dissolving that happens underground during Fall and Winter.
Submission to the other, to the earth, to the complex and messy webs of being, is the only way that distinct and independent flowers and fruits can have the nutrients to emerge in the Spring and Summer.If only the people out there clinging on to the false security of the past could see that, or better yet, feel that.
I think the way forward is to keep doing what we’re doing- to keep adding fresh new voices to the larger conversation, advocating for harmony and right-relationship, in the spirit of Libra. And in the spirit of Aries, to keep standing up for the best versions of ourselves, for the parts of us that we want the future to see, rather than leaning on outdated notions of selves that served us in the past.
Seeing & Feeling Ourselves through Polarity
This Full Moon kicks of Libra Season, the Equinox, and the second half of the Astrological/Zodiacal Year. I started writing these moon musings on the Aries new moon in March, the start of the Astro-year. This means that we’ve now covered all of the 6 polarities in the Zodiac, highlighted by the full moons of the past 6 months. In order of appearance, they are:
March: Aries ←→ Libra
April: Taurus ←→ Scorpio
May: Gemini ←→ Sagittarius
June: Cancer ←→ Capricorn
July: Leo ←→ Aquarius
August: Virgo ←→ Pisces
There’s the whole Zodiac in a nutshell. The Aries through Virgo sun seasons have guided us through the conscious, personal growth from sprout to harvest. Libra through Pisces full moons have reflected to us the embodied emotions & wisdom of the opposite signs, signs that relate with the larger world.
And now, at this midway point, we flip the script. For the next 6 months, we’ll experience the same polarities, but with conscious, relational growth in Libra through Pisces. Each full moon will reflect the embodied emotions & wisdom of the opposite signs, signs that tell us to remember our autonomous selves within the relational world.
In the Fall, the Personal shifts into the Relational
The Zodiac wheel of the year is split into a bottom half and a top half. Aries-Virgo occupy the bottom half, and Libra season is the first sign on the top section of the Zodiacal wheel. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo & Virgo are all about personal awareness, but once we enter Libra, the next 6 signs are about transpersonal or relational awareness- relationships with other beings, our environments, and the infinite cosmos itself.
The personal lower half of the chart could be described as the “As Above, So Below” half. This is the part of a life cycle where the archetypes of the skies above and the histories that have elapsed before us are met by the flesh of the body; by the process of going from a sprout to a harvested fruit.
The transpersonal, relational, upper half of the cart could be described as the “As Within, So Without” half. This is the part of a life cycle where the full embodiment of the individual self has been realized, and it’s now time to consider what is “without”- other beings, other people’s resources, other philosophies, other environments, other spiritualities outside of our own personal conception.
Libra season welcomes us into relationship
This transpersonal, relational half of the year begins with Libra season. Libra is a cardinal air sign, a gust of brisk wind that emerges from the changing air temperatures and blows the last petals off of the sunflowers. Libra season is a time of leaves and other plant matter falling to the ground, blanketing it and decomposing into the soil, creating fertile conditions for the complex process of growth over the wintertime.
Libra is the start of the second half of the year, where the vibrant, external life forms of Spring and Summer are slowly converted into to an interconnected web of nutrients- soil and mycelium. It is the half of the year that that connects the individual body with the collective, the web of existence. Death and decomposition underneath the surface make physically real the statement: As within, so without. The Libra glyph is a depiction of the sun setting, the descendent, the time of returning life to the layers below… to the other.
The falling leaves of Libra season indicate the first step toward merging with the other, with the infinite. The leaves meet the ground but are not yet a part of it. in Scorpio season, they begin to decompose into soil; in Sagittarius season their nutrients are taken on a journey through roots and mycelium; in Capricorn season they freeze and absorb water from the snow and ice. By Pisces, the plants that once held their own independent life are absorbed back into the infinite.
…and the Aries moon shines a light on our personal feels
Each full moon is a single moment in time within a larger, more gradual seasonal cycle. The full moon in the opposite sign of the season each month is a pointed mirror, a distinct reflection of what not to lose sight of as the world turns and revolves around the sun and we adapt to its turning.
Of course we adapt to the sun: the sun is our center, our life force, our gravitational pull, our light. The moon, in contrast, does not need us to adapt to her - she is ever changing, moving. She represents the process of the body, of emotions, of the inner world. As we slowly adapt to the larger seasonal cycles, she shines a light in the darkness to remind us that there are also cycles within us, within our bodies and emotions, that are highly worth paying attention to.
This is why we often feel full moons in our bodies and our emotions. Whether the emotion is anger, excitement, a flash of inspiration, or a werewolf-like transformation, full moons are felt. And they’re felt with the energy of the opposite season, almost like a cosmic nudge from the other half of the year saying “don’t forget about me!”
Aries is a cardinal fire sign- an initiating spark of creation that emerges out of nowhere, from a dark fallow hearth, bringing embodied life from the depths of the underworld of winter. This full moon will remind you, in your body, of the spark that drives you as an individual, of the places you’ve been people-pleasing or sacrificing yourself for others. Listen to this spark, before the moon cycle continues and we are swept along with the season. Listen to your body’s wisdom. That is what full moons are for.
The unifying thread of Aries & Libra is: Balance
Both Libra and Aries are equinox signs, days of equal light and equal darkness. So both of these so are about balance, about the place of the self within relationship, and the beginning of a new season. As the moon remains bright in the sky, use this energy to ponder the nature of balance and equanimity:
The Libra sun asks: How do you consciously adapt to the coming of fall, the changing of the seasons, to create more balance in your life? Are you balancing work and preparation for winter with time to rest and soak up these last warm days?
The Aries moon asks: How does it feel in your body to balance the subterranean with the external? The subconscious with the ego? Your self-identity with your identity in relationship with others?
A Somatic Balancing Practice for the full moon in Aries
After all that reading, maybe you’re ready to move and breathe a little bit? I know I am.
Looking at the painting below, you can see that the Zodiac signs rule the parts of the body from the top to the bottom. At the top, the head is ruled by Aries (including the face, brain, and eyes). Halfway down, Libra rules the lower back, the butt, and the kidneys.
In honor of this new season and this full moon, I invite you to follow along with the short video below for a somatic practice that unites the body parts ruled by Aries and Libra.
Thanks for reading and musing on the moon with me! See you next time for the Solar Eclipse in Libra… dun dun dun…. :)
All my fiery, catalytic, interconnected love,
Alison