"Do you have the patience to wait til your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving til the right action arises by itself?" - Lao-tzu​

A great deal of astrological writing today goes along the lines of “tomorrow Mars will go into retrograde: this means taking action will be difficult, and arguments more likely.” These pronouncements are based on varying levels of understanding astrological principles, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this emperor has no clothes. Reduced to its core, this approach suggests that everyone is pulled this way and that by the current motion of the stars in equal measure. Some of these writers will hedge their bets by describing the possible effects of the aspect on people with different rising signs (based on the likely house placement of the transiting planet in the individual chart) or by mentioning that “people with planets at XYZ positions in their natal chart will be most strongly affected by this aspect,” which is at least an honest asterisk, but ultimately blanket assertions about the effect of active transits on the entire seething complicated mass of humanity is a more complicated, more educated, more subtle, and only moderately more effective version of 1990’s sun-sign horoscopes in the newspaper. At best, describing current aspects is like describing the weather. “It is raining,” announces the astrologist – without knowing whether their audience is wearing a fisherman’s oilskins or if they have a gaping hole in their roof, whether they live in a desert or a flood plain. Making generic assertions gains the astrologist access to a wide audience: the Weather Channel also gets a wide audience, but those watching know their life circumstances and can make their own judgments about how the rain will affect them. Most people are not equipped to understand how the astrological weather will affect them based on their natal or progressed charts. I may be shooting myself in the foot when it comes to attracting hordes of Instagram followers, but I try to restrain myself from making far-reaching statements about current aspects or even about what individual aspects (e.g. Uranus opposite Saturn) might mean in your chart without seeing it. Instead I’ll stick to exploring the core principles and archetypes of the practice, and describing case studies to show the kind of information and guidance that can be distilled from the close holistic examination of an individual chart, in hopes that I can attract clients who seek to do genuine work, or inspire self-education and self-exploration in people who have the motivation and natural talent to practice astrology. 

The 2022 full moon in Gemini comes with the moon tightly conjunct Mars retrograde, and the Sun/Moon opposition loosely square Neptune at home in dreamy Pisces. Neptune is magnified by its loose conjunction to Jupiter, recently turned direct and throwing itself a farewell party in the last degree of Pisces. Interesting astrological weather indeed: a full moon in Gemini is extremely antsy, and the Sun in Sagittarius is primed for action and adventure, but everything else about this configuration is all patience and passivity. The lights (Sun and Moon) do not tend to cause external events: they ask us questions by shining light on certain dynamics or areas of life. The question-and-answer process between us and the lights may just take place internally, or may be precipitated by our emotional reaction (Moon) to external events. I think the question posed by this full moon configuration is the one posed by this Lao-tzu quote: do you have the power for non-action? I can’t guess how that question is taking form for you, but here are some examples of how different it can look for different people. 
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In my own chart, this full moon is shining on how I act out my direction or purpose. The Moon/Mars conjunction is conjunct my natal North Node on the cusp of the second and third houses. The Sun is conjunct my natal South Node/Uranus conjunction on the cusp of the eighth and ninth houses. Jupiter and Neptune have been hanging out in my twelfth house: they are no longer within orb of my natal Sun, Moon, and Mercury in the twelfth, but they are making somewhat challenging long-term aspects to my natal Mars (my chart ruler, in the eighth house) and my natal Neptune (the strongest planet in my natal chart, and conjunct my midheaven). My nodal return two years ago coincided with a professional shift away from creative work and into analytical work, a shift I almost instantly recognized as a poor choice for my personal fulfillment, but one that gave me more financial security than I’ve ever had in my life. I eventually felt my way into starting this astrology practice, a move that has ties to all the houses activated by this full moon (2nd: how I make money; 3rd: finding my place in the internet chatter; 8th: the occult and exploration of the shadow; 9th: the traditional home of astrology; 12th: the house of mysticism and service). I confess I am very impatient with this shift, and easily lose confidence when the universe does not instantly reward my amazing courage in starting this new thing by showering me with followers and paying clients (this is something of a hyperbolic joke, but I have little cardinal energy in my chart and a Mars/Saturn conjunction, so starting new things does not come easily!) This full moon asks me: can you stop being so childish, just do the work well because you’re supposed to be doing it, and trust that action and forward motion will happen when their time has come? Does it really have to be about your paying career, or should you be focusing on acts of service?

In a close friend’s chart (mentioning this with her permission), the Sun/Moon axis aligns perfectly with her Ascendant/Descendant axis (with the Moon/Mars retrograde conjunction on the Ascendant) while Jupiter and Neptune are in her tenth house of career and public reputation. None of the planets in the current configuration make any strong aspects to any of her natal planets, so she is unlikely to see external influences triggering the question of non-action. It is more a matter of focus and perspective for her. She is in a phase of life where she is asking heavy questions about how she presents herself, how she interfaces with the world, how she shows up in relationships, and what shape she needs her relationships to take. She has a successful photography practice. This full moon asks her: do you have to work on yourself all the time? Maybe it’s time to take a rest from that and enjoy the bounty and creativity of your professional pursuits, and trust that self-development and the development of relationships will take their proper course in time?

The astrological weather (current configurations) definitely affects us all, but it’s a bit cheeky to say much about how without intimate knowledge of the querent and their chart!

About Lao-tzu (老子): the “Old Master”, the semi-legendary author of the Tao Te Ching. As with Jesus, what has come down through tradition about his identity, life, and works is constantly questioned and ultimately irrelevant compared to the wisdom we have chosen to attribute to him. Traditionally he is thought to be a scholarly contemporary of Confucius, somewhat over 2500 years ago. The Tao Te Ching is a collection of 81 short meditations, describing the indescribability of the ultimate nature of reality. Wu wei (無為), or “not acting” is a central concept. My copy is a wrinkly pocket edition of Stephen Mitchell’s popular translation, which I inherited from my mother.