Lose Your Illusion
Full Moon in Aries REMIX ft. Neptune in Pisces x F Scott Fitzgerald
We’ve ridden the stormy waves of eclipse season, welcomed in a comet, acquired a moon - we’re only halfway through October and there’s still plenty of ‘surprise’ yet to come.
Terrible weather events in South Eastern United States, Europe, and Asia have caused havoc. We’ve even had some extreme ‘space weather’ as we are bombarded with massive solar flares and plasma. Although, this at least means many of us get to see the stunning Aurora Borealis again.
October feels like it’s already six weeks long and we’re only halfway through!
If it hasn’t been eventful enough for you yet, fear not there is a massive full Super Moon next week on the 17th of October.
Full Moons offer big reveals, culminations, and occasionally endings. This one, at 24 degrees Aries might tally with a new beginning you undertook back around 8th April this year on the corresponding New Moon.
You might remember this as it coincided with the Solar Eclipse visible across America which lots of people thought was going to kickstart absolute scenes from the Book of Revelation.
Think back. You can check your natal chart here to see which house is impacted (the Aries house) and you might see closure of a particular chapter, or even have a peak experience (you lucky thing!)
But nothing is just run-of-the-mill average these days, is it? And this is no ordinary full moon - forming what is auspiciously known as a Grand Cross, actually a Grand Cardinal Cross, no less. (Suitably gothic for the times we’re livin’ in - cue strains of Carmina Burana) It’s intersecting with Mars (in Cancer at 22 degrees) and Pluto at 29 degrees Capricorn - which feels pretty wide to me but actual astrologers are calling it a Grand Cross so who am I to argue?
A grand cross is when planets make a square formation and this one lines up in the ‘Cardinal’ signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The oppositional angular shape brings conflict, challenges, and tensions to a head. Being in the cardinal signs means there is something new starting, as each of these signs heralds the arrival of a new season and fall during equinoxes and solstices. So it feels like an initiation of some sort. Cripes!
If you have planets or angles at these degrees, this might mean something exciting for you. (Ever the optimist.) You can also look at the cardinal houses in your chart to see which areas might be activated.
To add some extra zest to this testy little formation, Pluto has just stationed direct and is starting to move through the remainder of Capricorn – and we know all about Pluto in Capricorn, you can read the full low down on that here.
Speaking of which – for those who read the Pluto in Capricorn article, how are you faring? Do you feel like Pluto is wrapping up a chapter in the Capricorn part of your chart? Hopefully, you’ve experienced some resolutions, but will we get to see this on a global scale?
It certainly seems like governments and top-down structures are not regaining anyone’s trust. New British PM Kier Starmer and his Labour government have been beset by scandals during their first hundred days and Starmer’s approval rating continues to tank.
Likewise in the run-up to the US election, people in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida have seemingly been left adrift by the Federal Government after recent catastrophic hurricanes. Reports from residents claim that it is local government and emergency services, along with citizen-led rescue and relief efforts stepping up to take the strain. FEMA declared it had no money left for what was to become Hurricane Helene and Milton.
But there’s also a sprawling and epic saga coming to a head – the massive litigation and federal sex trafficking case against Sean Combs (aka P Diddy) with the rumour-mill spinning wildly and more dark and seedy allegations are made.
“I like large parties, they’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
F Scott Fitzgerald
Although this reflects Plutonic themes of transgressions and corruption floating to the surface, there is another big beast of the Solar System nearing the end of a chapter - the slow dirty wash-up of Neptune in Pisces.
“No matter how low you go there’s always an unexplored basement”
F Scott Fitzgerald
Pluto and Neptune – brothers of what lies beneath, are currently riding together in a cosy little Bonne n’ Clyde style sextile. Salty old Neptune has been swimming through the murky depths of Pisces, a transit that began in 2011 and dips its first toe into Aries early next year.
“What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story”
F Scott Fitzgerald (again)
Neptune is another distant, trans-personal planet, meaning its slow progress impacts us on a collective level. It represents spirituality, creativity, dreams, illusion, delusion, deception, toxicity, drink and drugs.
It deals with artistic expression and asks us to delve into the depths of our unconscious to dissolve creative boundaries. When it’s ‘gone bad’ It can lead to deception and escapism, resorting to hedonism and oblivion – people with strong Neptunian aspects in their charts can struggle with addiction or madness.
“The greatest profound pain is caused by and is the result of our own illusions, fantasies and dreams”
Guess who?
So it seems apt that it is representative of the entertainment industry and arts in general.
Pisces is ruled by Neptune, they flow perfectly with one another and invoke similar themes. Pisces is about spirituality, transcendence, healing, and feeling. Neptune oversees these too and so this transit seems to be wielding a powerful influence over such matters. Since 2011 we’ve seen a huge resurgence of mysticism, New Age spirituality, astrology, metaphysics, and tarot are all the rage.
And just as Pluto finishing up in Capricorn signals destruction of the old ways of power, finance, and governance – will this Neptune transit signify a shift in all matters spiritual, as well as entertainment and celebrity?
Next March when Neptune arrives at 0 degrees Aries, the beginning of the zodiac, it offers a reset – turns it off and on again. So during these next few months might we see a mass spiritual awakening or new philosophies and methodologies for communing with the divine? The last transit in 1847-62 saw the birth of the Spiritualist Movement.
During the last 13 years, we’ve seen more mainstream mystical thinking, Pentagon whistleblowers admit they have seen craft designed by ‘non-human intelligence’) people ‘channeling’ beings from other realms is all the rage on YouTube, pretty much everyone does yoga and meditation and we’ve even seen the use of psychedelic drugs become an accepted adjunct therapy in the treatment of depression and PTSD.
Neptune retrograde happens several months of the year and is associated with lifting away the illusory fog, that clouds our vision. So basically, where Neptune has had us heavily under the influence, it’s starting to wear off and the cold light of day shows us the truth in its unvarnished glory. Or horror.
And by the time it moves direct in December will we change the collective view of the spiritual, and the rich, famous, or talented? Will we still revere pop stars and actors? Will the nature of what it is to be well-known and influential transform? How will we make or consume entertainment in this new era?
In the next few days ahead of this Mega Moon we have Venus moving through the last few degrees of Scorpio (serious femme fatale vibes) sashaying into a striking opposition with Uranus (shocks and surprises) and this often means we get revelations about a prominent female.
“And she knows, she knows, and I know she knows”
J Cole
Now, this could of course be anyone…transiting Venus in Scorpio is conjoining former Diddy fiancé Jennifer Lopez’s natal moon for instance AND the 17th October sun and moon are very close to Kamala Harris’ natal sun and moon (no known connection to Diddy here, but we do know she thinks Tupac is the best rapper alive).
We can be sure we’ll hear more about these two.
But because of the primarily Diddy-related news, gossip, and outstanding memes from the past week or so, I had a look at Beyonce’s chart.
Queen Bey’s so far kept schtum about anything to do with her involvement with Diddy, although together with her husband last week issued a cease and desist order against Piers Morgan. Morgan interviewed former Diddy associate and accuser Jaguar Wright who alleged that Bey and Jay were very much down and dirty with Combs’ modern-day Gatsby debauchery. (PS The Gatsby reference comes from Diddy himself - Combs’s actual litany of alleged crimes is far darker than anything Fitzgerald could have imagined.)
In the past fortnight Bey launched a campaign for Levis, promoted her own brand whisky in a selection of blonde wigs, become the subject of a meme – ‘Thank you Beyonce’ – the conceit of which everyone in the music biz is terrified as to what might become of them should they fall from of her good graces.
Some of the memes seem wild and no doubt, entirely made up for fun.
But is there a problem for the Knowles-Carter brand when you could possibly, just maybe, perhaps almost believe it?! Is it just me? (**CEASE AND DESIST** - Ed!)
The decay of the once-so-shiny celebrity culture, and the fact that so many of us now hold the rich and famous in such low regard, believing them capable of all sorts - is this a sign that Neptune in Pisces is making us realise; all that glitters really isn’t gold?
Something in Bey’s chart leaped out at me - she has Pluto conjunct Ascendant conjunct Venus in Libra (22 and 20 degrees respectively) squaring her midheaven (career and public reputation) and these natal aspects will conjoin the sun in the run up to the October 17th full moon (24 degrees Libra). So it’s no wonder that as this 'Hunter's Moon’ illuminates the sky she is very much in the spotmoonlight,
Some notes on Pluto conjunct Ascendant natally:
“[this] creates an intense and obsessive energy. At first glance, someone with this aspect will seem intimidating. Compulsions, manipulation, and issues with control and dominance are common components of this conjunction. Self-destructive behaviour is also possible if Pluto expresses its darker side. It is far too easy for you to manipulate or coerce others.”
Food for thought, innit?
Beyonce has for many years been an unimpeachable icon; a truly gifted artist, performer, and cultural disruptor. Is it even possible for people at that level to suffer serious fallout and reputational damage from this cyclonic shitstorm threatening to engulf most of Hollywood and the Billboard 100? And what a time to be a seasoned crisis management PR professional?!
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me..They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are … Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”
F Scott Fitzgerald (one last time)
Or as Kendrick puts it '“they not like us”.
They might be beautiful, but are they damned? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.