There’s a supermoon a waxing my babies.
On Tuesday August 1 at 2:31 p.m. EST, the full sturgeon supermoon will peak in the water bearing, revolution loving sign of Aquarius.
This is the first of two full super moons this month and the first full moon since Venus began her retrograde/romantic reckoning in late July. The full moon always opposes the sign the sun is moving through and during this lunation its also facing off (phasing off?) against Venus in the sign of the lion. This oppositional quality and the objective vantage of Aquarius lends a welcome clarity.
The water bearer lifts us up and away from the status quo, the redundant story and the static thought, inviting us to stand atop the proverbial tower and see ourselves and our patterns in crystalline totality. Consequently, this is the height at which our highest selves might be reached.
Read on to learn more about how this full moon will affect us one and all.
Aquarius energy is defiant AF; individualist to the hilt, it wants to break free Freddie Mercury. Aquarius has nothing but side eyed disdain for norms and limitations and seeks ever to push boundaries and shake itself loose of stifling tradition.
Yet, Aquarius is no hot blooded rebel.
Neigh, as fixed air, Aquarius is a space cowboy that understands that at its highest expression freedom is not the absence of obstacle but the unshakable sense of self that declares it can, and will, find, or carve, a pathway to prevail.
“We are not free because of what we statically are, but insofar as we are becoming different from what we have been.”
John Dewey
Aquarius teaches us as John Dewey argued that, “We are not free because of what we statically are, but insofar as we are becoming different from what we have been.” Aquarius is ever and always about a way forward, upending what limits and exploring what expands; its symbol is the water bearer and its tarot card the star; both images enact the ritual of emptying into a source greater than the self while holding fast to the cup of sovereignty.
The polarity between the heart and mind, love and logic, is represented by the Leo/Aquarius axis. Both of these fixed signs can find themselves over identifying with “I” at the expense of “we.” Leo in its pursuit of validation and, also Aquarius in its quest for indviduation. Yet, both the lion and the water bearer possess an unparalleled capacity to galvanize and organize on behalf of their communities. Where the beating heart and the brilliant mind intersect, policy changes and progress is made.
The noir writer Raymond Chandler, who wrote beautifully and brutally about the space between stage lights and dark streets was himself a Leo sun with an Aquarius moon. In the following passage he outlines to me the very essence of this axis, “Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production.”
To understand how you will be impacted by this lunation, identify where Aquarius falls in your birth chart. For fixed signs or those with prominent placements in that modality ; Leo, Taurus, Scorpio and/or Aquarius, this moon will be particularly potent.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
Supermoon is a sexier shorthand for what astrologers call a perigean full moon wherein the full moon is closest to the earth in its orbit. Supermoons exceed the disk size of the average moon (shakes fist, there are no average moons!) by roughly 8% and can appear 16% brighter.
As full moons rise they bring to the surface issues, emotions, intestinal parasites, menses and other stickiness that demands to be dealt with. Full moons are about fruition and closure, the very shape of the shine is a metaphor for how we culminate, close circles and/or end cycles. A supermoon, due to its proximity, heightens these effects and doubles down on the revealing and the feeling.
This full supermoon in Aquarius brings themes of self-expression, autonomy and community into stark relief. Under this axis, especially with the influence of Venus’s retrograde in Leo, there is an emphasis on relationships and our respective roles as members of the collective.
As full moons rise they bring to the surface issues, emotions, intestinal parasites, menses and other stickiness that demands to be dealt with.
Aquarius rules the eleventh house of community and by extension, utopian ideals. Are we daring to dream the dream? How can our singularity serve the communities we are born from and build into? How can the power of our own weird translate into shared wealth?
Other question to consider while the rebel moon is reigning; what parts of our ego developed as a defense strategy? Who were we protecting ourselves from? Leo wants to be loved and Aquarius wants to be who they are. The beauty of this axis and this lunation is integration and the understanding that we don’t have to sacrifice either to have both.
As per “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” August’s full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon, an homage to the prehistoric lake fish that once filled the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.
These babies, whose evolution equates to a size range that varies from a man’s arm to a Volkswagen beetle, were caught most easily during the late summer. Because humans are prone to being incorrigible trash monsters, the effects of overfishing and pollution have decimated the once flourishing lake sturgeon population.
Interestingly, sturgeon are among the oldest aquatic life forms with scientists suggesting they’ve been swimming for 136 million years earning them the nickname living fossils. We can apply the concept of the living fossil to this full moon and to Aquarius energy at large, a solid but never static aggregate of what has been and an ever expanding, always evolving shape of what’s to come.
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Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.