WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9

Full Moon at 17 Aquarius occurs at 6:54 a.m. EDT. The Aquarius full moon is a party moon. This year the party will be serious, and all about the fixed grand cross issues of 2006.

This Full Moon is especially important because it not only highlights the Grand Square of 2006, but it also continues the huge changes set in motion with the Great Solar Eclipse of August 11, 1999. Fixed signs refer to power, and we see power centers changing—and also resisting change.

For starters, today the Sun-Saturn conjunction in Leo opposes Moon in Aquarius. Saturn is serious. Saturn is concerned with responsibility, governance, and accountability. It applies both to inner rulership and to outer rulership.

Aquarius wants freedom and independence, and is willing to fight for it. Here Moon conjoins Neptune and Ceres in Aquarius, who are about nurturing ideals.

We combine here freedom and responsibility, as well as individual purpose and group action. This Full Moon is a dress rehearsal for the planetary aspect of the month, Saturn opposing Neptune, which will occur on August 31 (view chart). That opposition will thrust us full force into the new autumn eclipse season.

This conflict-dialog is not all of the story. The Aquarius and the Leo energy both square Jupiter in Scorpio, which broadens and intensifies events. Jupiter's optimism lends recklessness to our behavior, in defiance of cautious Saturn. First we go, then we stop. First we push, then we pull. There can be mixed messages galore.

Jupiter in Scorpio is asking us to find our own beliefs about critical events and conflicts, even though we are tempted to take the word of an “authority.”

This Full Moon chart set for Washington, which also sets the tone for the nation, has the fourth fixed sign, Taurus, in a powerful spot. Taurus is the sign on the midheaven, where it speaks to goals, and EXACTLY squares both Sun and Moon. Exact aspects mean certain and obvious manifestation, so we will clearly see both Leo and Aquarius as they show in the destiny of the nation.

The Leo part, representing rulers and command, is in the 12th house, where things are hidden and many secrets reside. However, this dynamic square to the midheaven means that the public gets a look into this secret place, often called “the closet.”

Taurus is an earth sign. Its archetype is The Gardener. One scenario which fits this fixed sign cross is that of the ruling class, Leo, in the U.S. trying to hide, cover up, and deny global warming for the last 30 years, and its reality, Taurus, finally having to come to wide public consciousness.

Jupiter in Scorpio is a great investigator. It gets to the bottom of things. The Aquarius planets express both idealism, and looking to the future in an imaginative, inventive way.

The fixed signs are on the move. Great forces are set in motion now. On November 8-9, Mercury will transit over the Sun at the exact degree of the nadir in this chart. Look for strong action then which relates to today's events. This is three months from today.

Also in November, we have another phase of another of today's dynamic aspects. This is Venus and Mercury conjunct in Cancer, on the U.S. Mercury and opposing the U.S. Pluto This is a 1-year Mercury return for the U.S., setting the mental pattern for the nation for the next year. Well, in November the Venus-Mercury conjunction repeats again, now in Scorpio. With Venus, U.S. power will surely be valued by the U.S. people. How will it be used?

In many ways, this is a very dynamic chart, and this time is a milestone marker in human events.

The New Moon in Aquarius at which the seeds were planted for this Full Moon occurred on February 8, 2005, the beginning of the Year of the Rooster. My special event was my beautiful Icelandic friend, Gudrun Bergmann, gracing my life with a visit. Also, all my clients around that time were born overseas. (For astrologers: this Moon conjoined my Sun in the seventh, which is desposited by Uranus in the ninth.)

For the U.S., there was the spurning of talks with North Korea and with Iran. Violence increased greatly in Iraq. There was much official anti-immigrant movement. Scientists said that the government altered or deleted information re global warming and its current consequences in their reports to the public. There was much action re gay marriage, and the Senate voted to restrict class action suits.

This all sounds like independence for the U.S. government, but not for others.

The Sabian Symbol for 17 Aquarius is

“A WATCHDOG STANDS GUARD, PROTECTING HIS MASTER AND HIS POSSESSIONS. The development of the capacity to protect oneself and to safeguard one's individual rights under complex social pressures.

Under present-day social conditions, the individual person needs protection against the ever-growing encroachments of society upon his theoretically recognized right to lead a private life free from public interference. At a deeper occult level of interpretation, it also reveals the need to protect oneself against “astral” intrusion and perhaps “black magic.” The more creative the person, the greater is his/her NEED FOR PROTECTION.”