As subjective human beings, we will never be able to comprehend the entirety of our experiences. We can only see through the lenses of our individual perspectives, which are always biased. Our biases are built on the foundations of our upbringings, families, neighborhoods, education (and lack of education), our class/caste, social groups, and the social constructions that these groups agree to in regards to our bodies: our skin, sex, shapes, sizes, our physical capacity and abilities we can only momentarily claim as our own.

As we move through our lives we fumble with our own understanding. We reach stages in our days, weeks, years where we think we know a thing or two. Those stages end, our assumptions shift, we lose knowing, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we gain some perspective.

Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we’re given golden opportunities to look at the underneath and behind sides of our experiences, and any knowledge we think we have. However painful these moments might be, when a person or situation gives us the gift of reflecting our lack of knowing back to us, it’s a sacred duty to accept it. These opportunities might feel highly uncomfortable, or even personally catastrophic. But if we’ve called in their teachings, it’s crucial that we listen. Clutching to rightness, or the way things used to be, or the way(s) another person should/could be, or “fairness”, or our defenses, or our excuses, will only make a learning process longer. The more we refuse to look at the shadow side of our perception, the more havoc we’ll wreak through actions and decisions based on blindness and arrogance, and the more suffering we’ll accrue for ourselves down the line.

In accepting lessons of change and transformation, we agree to look at the conditions that formed our perspectives. We agree to let go of being right, or knowing anything at all. We agree to let go of people, places, and possessions we have become stuck to. We agree to step down and give away power. We agree to step up and take the heat. We agree to dig through sticky discomfort, to peer into the trappings of our egos, and to try, to the best of our abilities, to pull our misperceptions up by their roots, and out of the invisible belief systems that keep them hidden, so we can see them for what they are.

Today’s full moon in Taurus is conjunct the planet Uranus and opposite Venus in Scorpio. This is a full moon that wants growth. Taurus is the sign of growth. It accumulates and amasses our physical bodies. It loves to collect money, food, pleasure, and resources so that it can ensure its own sustenance. When something “works” in Taurus, it won’t change quickly. As a sign that’s known for being stubborn and slow to respond. Taurus energy can also easily become stagnant when it gets too comfortable.

Uranus however, forces change. As an outer, or transpersonal planet, its force acts through disruption, upheaval, shock. It invents and reinvents. It associates with unlikely elements, and brings them together in surprising ways. This is the energy of experimentation and discovery. It is iconoclastic, rebellious and absolutely irreverent. It knows that in the future we won’t care about the constructs we cherish so highly now. It knows that anything which has used up its purpose, has got to get repurposed. It wants to free us from our stuckness, liberate us from our certainty, and get us to get a move-on already.

Venus, meanwhile, is moving backwards through subterranean realms. She is exploring the muck of messy emotions, and trying to weed out what feelings are actually important to pay attention to. In her digging, the shit is getting stirred. After almost a year of Jupiter in Scorpio, Venus’ retrograde acts to bring us back, again, to the issues that have stuck to the surface and sides of our unconsciousness. The places where we’ve acted from ego, the places where we’ve tried to hide and get-away-with, the places where we knew there was a better way, but chose to take the easy route. Venus’ gaze is gentle and loving. We’re graced with a teacher who has our best interests in mind. But warned that if we refuse to see what she shows, the next transit will not be so easy.

This is a full moon that is restless and unrelenting. You need to change. NOW. Let go of the preciousness. Step forward into what you know you have to do, who you know you have to be. Be courageous. Look at what holds you back. It’s your fear, shame, insecurity, arrogance, ignorance. It’s the way you bluster and bloat and pretend you know best. It’s the way you’ve refused to listen because it felt too painful to hear. It’s the way you grasp at materiality and can’t comprehend what you would do without that…money, job, thing, person... Relax. Breathe. This too shall pass, and everything, at some point, must die. When you turn to face your shadow, your ego has to die a million small deaths. This might feel like your light doesn’t burn as brightly, but in all truth, it simply has more complexity to it and you have more ability to shine it back in self-reflection.

The full moon is exactly square the nodal axis, which is almost about to finish a 2.5 year pass through the Leo/Aquarius range. Think back to these dates and time-spans:

2016: August 18,

2017: February 10, August 7, August 21

2018: January 31, February 15, August 11

Reflect on these days exactly, and the weeks near to them, and explore what needs for change were arising. You may felt the ways your authentic self was stifled or hidden. You experienced losses, or changes that may have felt sudden. Or, you yourself were the agent of loss and change for others. Around these dates you may have felt new opportunities call you, and regardless of whether you did or did not take them, they’ve continued to call, perhaps gently, perhaps with force.

On January 21st of 2019, we’ll have the last eclipse in this series. What is still stuck must move by then. Today’s full moon is reminding you what it is. It is showing you the next opportunity to apply your courage, heart-fullness and truth. It is asking you to come down off any pedestals and serve the community. You will do this, not by making yourself less, but by recognizing what gifts you uniquely can bring, and then doing your best to make these gifts relevant and useful in the world. Don’t seek to be a show-stopper or super-special superstar. Everyone around you also has magic.

Learn about this full moon with me by listening to the podcast where I muse more on Taurus/Scorpio, the nodal axis and other aspects of the chart.

If we’re doing our right work, then the ways we’re working these days are bringing old issues to the surface. If you’re facing it right now, you’re on the right track. My guided meditation for this moon is on Fear, Shame and Insecurity. I offer a somatic practice that explores where these emotions lodge in the body and some simple suggestions for letting them move out and move through. Listen here.

In the podcast I mention a few resources to learn with:
Learn more about the US intervention in Central American countries here
Learn more about what’s happening with our (American) tax dollars here
Learn here about the Taurus new moon this past May, and remember how today’s full moon is the next stage in this cycle.

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Your audio horoscopes are below. These horoscopes are for the full moon phase, August 26 - September 9, 2018. Listen for your sun to understand something about your inherent nature and ego, listen for your rising sign to understand more about what's going on in your life right now, listen to your moon sign to understand more about your relationships and emotional landscape. Horoscopes are poetic pieces of mystical suggestion. Take what works and leave the rest. Use the affirmations throughout the new moon cycle as questions, metaphors, and reminders. 

ARIES
I’m updating my value systems. I will no longer hold on to negativity in any form, it’s not good for me. I release and refuse negating self-judgment. I clear and delete obligatory entanglements. I honor healthy fears and dismiss the others. I prioritize the kinds of abundance that fill me with good vibes, and extend into the world around me, filling others with abundance too.

TAURUS
I am the the sum of my most important relationships. Those who I love and partner with, those who demand my time and attention, those who provoke and promote my growth – shape my mind and expectations. They form values and create meanings with me. I evolve consciously through my choices of who to relate with, and how to relate with them.

GEMINI
There is no need to take on responsibility for the whole world, or for changes that are beyond the scope of my singular control. I recognize that each individual affects the whole through their basic energy and wellbeing. I make space for self-care and rest. I hold appropriate psychic boundaries.

CANCER
It’s time for a radical re-envisioning of my future. I claim the right to be myself 110%. I will not hold back for fear of not-rightness, not-enough-ness, or too-much-ness. I will give myself fully and unapologetically. My friends and networks will respond in kind. Together we make magic happen.

LEO
How I grow directly relates to where I root. I courageously confront the limitations of my perspective, and seek to see underneath my positioning and ego. As I comprehend what underlies my motivations, my motivations clarify and evolve. With clearer intent, the path forward opens and expands.

VIRGO
My mind is a collecting place, of all the impressions I’ve ever had, in all time, in all space. My perspective is shaped by my mind. I turn the power of my mind towards itself. I examine the structures of my thinking. I peer into the shadows of my assumptions. I open my mind to new possibilities. My perspective shifts and expands.

LIBRA
I explode and expose value systems. I admit to anything I have kept hidden for fear of it decreasing my own value(s). I confront displays of power that seek to hide behind “values.” I free myself from entanglements and attachments that prey and play on my value. I decide what is truly important, and absolutely essential, and I accept to no less than that.

SCORPIO
I choose the language I use in stories about my relationships. I release myself from unhealthy and unhelpful entanglements by letting go of defensiveness or clinging that I find in my words or thoughts. I open the door to joyful and evolutionary relationships by speaking the ways that they are so, out loud, and to myself.

SAGITTARIUS
Make space for dreams to come through. Make space for health to flourish. Make space for new priorities to rise and old obligations to fade away. Make space to move and breath and be. Make space for life. Make space for liberty.

CAPRICORN
I’m in it for me. If I don’t make the choices I can to enjoy my life, no one else will make them for me. I express myself with freedom and joy. Fears of what other people think easily fade away. I will live the remainder of my one and precious life with gusto.

AQUARIUS
Freedom originates in my roots. I give thanks to struggles and successes of my ancestors, may they rest in peace. I ask for liberation from their worries, fears, grudges, wounds, entrapments and enslavements. May I carry what is truly mine to carry, and may I easily release the rest.

PISCES
My mind expands and explores. I am open to new meanings and means of living. I release old and outdated thought patterns and make space for open-mindedness. I allow my relationships to shift in the process. My friends and acquaintances shape my understandings, so I make space for the ones who will best support my future growth and gains.