Leo season always brings with it an Aquarius full moon. This year’s Aquarius full moon falls on August 1st, at 2:32 pm EDT. The full moon occurs when the moon is opposite the sun, which will be at 9 degrees of Leo.

Leo is hot fire and Aquarius is cold air. The Aquarius full moon acts as a cooling agent, offering a chill in the midst of this extra heightened Leo season.

At the same time, Jupiter is at 13 degrees of Taurus, so it’s broadly forming a t-square with the sun and the moon, meaning that it’s close to 90 degrees (give or take) away from both. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, and squares are angles that cause tension but ultimately usher things along. With Jupiter forming squares with both the sun and the moon, there’s friction, potential conflict, and momentum with the expansion of both our egos and our emotions. Full moons typically bring about cathartic releases and often they’re accompanied by acting out because emotions are boiling over, so with Jupiter in the mix, we may feel a greater emotional need to break out of any sort of repression we’re feeling.

However, with the moon in Aquarius, this should be a little more tempered. And Mars, which is still in Virgo, is making a helpful aspect to Jupiter, both in earth signs, lending some additional pragmatism to the moment. 

This full moon is an opportune time for a self-assessment. Using the Aquarian lens of cool detachment, you can take a step back and assess your ego and your emotions. What are you feeling, how are your needs being met, and what needs to be realigned so that you’re feeling emotionally fulfilled? It also allows us to take a step back from the ME!-ness of Leo season to consider how our needs and desires fit with the greater collective, which is Aquarius’s concern. 

Also on August 1st, Mercury, which is now in Virgo, the sign it rules and loves, is making an exact opposition to Saturn in Pisces. A Mercury-Saturn opposition creates some tension between our communication and the structures of our lives. We may feel like the rules or the systems within which we’re forced to operate are oppressing our expression of ourselves. However, there’s some helpfulness here in relation to the full moon. You can work with Mercury and Mars both being in Virgo to edit, declutter, and clean house, to ultimately move forward in a way that fills the gaps you’ve taken stock of. A word of caution is that Virgo can sometimes pedantically be focused on details, but Aquarius wants us to pull back and see the forest for the trees, so be conscious of not getting too micro and try to be a bit more macro in your thinking.

(“See the forest for the trees” always makes me think of the song Different Drum, written by Michael Nesmith of the Monkees and performed by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, which, if you haven’t heard it, is great, and has a song ever been more appropriate for Venus retrograde?)

Another thing to note about a Mercury-Saturn opposition is that this can also see some technological roadblocks and clamp downs. Don’t be surprised if you reach your iCloud storage limit or get suspended from Twitter or whatever it’s called now this week.

This full moon will be felt more impactfully if you have any personal planets (the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) or sensitive angles (your ascendant, descendant, Midheaven, or IC) near 9 degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, or Taurus. But even if you don’t, given the multiple planetary aspects in the sky at this time, you’ll likely be feeling a lot around this full moon. As always, try to rest up as best you can and take care of yourself in the midst of all the activity.