Sagittarius Full Moon Reflections:
Rebel Without a Pause
by April Elliott Kent

Buckle up, folks – it’s going to be a bumpy ride. This highly volatile Full Moon period pits the Sun and Venus against the Moon and Pluto, all in contentious aspect to combustible, unpredictable Uranus. The Sun/Venus urge to make nice is struggling against the Moon/Pluto compulsion to bluntly testify to one’s convictions – and there stands rebellious Uranus in the middle of it all, impatiently fingering a lighted match and a stick of dynamite.

Uranus represents that prickly, independent spirit that hides out in even the gentlest soul, lying in wait for those moments when we need liberation from the dark cave of conformity. Of course, like dynamite, it’s difficult to control – and the destruction it leaves in its wake can get messy.

Recently I had a completely unnecessary and protracted argument with a visitor to my website who made a comment that rubbed me the wrong way. Now, after nine years of publishing online, I’m pretty much used to commentary about how I should think/do my job/live my life/write a sentence. And since most people mean well, even if they express themselves badly, I normally try to handle this kind of thing tactfully, kindly. Normally, I would probably have just let this comment go.

But normally, I’m not being quite so closely chaperoned by Uranus, the rebel planet: specifically, transiting Uranus in opposition to my natal Mars. The hapless reader caught me when I was in no mood for a lecture from a complete stranger, and the ensuing exchange got pretty ugly. All of the sudden, instead of tactfully ignoring unhelpful comments, I find I simply can’t abide being told what to do; I see red and begin pawing the ground. I’m like a rebellious youth railing against Authority - "Don’t oppress me, man!" I’m a bit taken aback by my own feistiness, but as much as I’d like to say that I regret having gotten nasty with that reader, in all honesty, I can’t.

Undoubtedly, it’s happier to go through life getting along with people. But sometimes, maybe we have to get a little crazy and rebellious in order to grow, facilitate change or find solutions to tricky problems. For instance, I’ve been struggling for awhile with a knotty website issue and this week, someone offered me a solution that I knew wasn’t quite right. But in the process of stubbornly working to disprove his thesis ("Don’t tell me what to do, man!"), I had a flash of inspiration that led to a completely unexpected solution. Sometimes, sheer contrariness can lead you down the path to inspiration.

But overwhelmingly, Uranus transits are – necessarily - uncomfortable. I keep finding that I feel sort of emotionally itchy, like a snake that’s outgrown its skin. That’s Uranus at work – when you’ve painted yourself into an evolutionary corner, it’s Uranus’ job to extract you from the situation by making you uncomfortable enough to find a way out.

During this Full Moon season, as Uranus stands in the wings with his explosives, I suspect you’ll find that there’s some part of your life that makes you pretty itchy as well – as though you’ve outgrown the skin you’re in. It’s going to be a great couple of weeks for blowing open the windows of your soul and speaking your truth – the Moon’s conjunction to Pluto in opinionated Sagittarius will see to that. Along the way, you may even find unexpected solutions to long-standing problems. But it’s going to be an especially tricky couple of weeks for situations requiring diplomacy – interviewing for jobs, selling things to people, or backing down from an argument.

So, what reptilian skin are you shedding? If your Monkey Mind has done its job, you’ve caught glimpses of your untethered Id in the impulsive, impolite truths you’ve blurted out during this Mercury retrograde period, often at inopportune moments. Those were moments when your truth bravely – if not always prudently - darted past the gatekeeper of Sun/Venus "niceness" and decorum. They’re the moments that, if caught on YouTube, would surely guarantee you’d never win elective office.

But they point to the truth of who you are, and that’s what the combination of the Moon, Pluto, and Uranus is getting at this Full Moon. After moving into Capricorn to great fanfare in January, retrograde Pluto has slipped back into the last degrees of Sagittarius for the next six months. Though we’ve already spent thirteen long years in the University of Pluto at Sagittarius, perhaps we have just a few credits left to complete before we can finally graduate.

At the end of this long, Pluto in Sagittarius battle for authenticity, take this Full Moon opportunity to ask: How do you define yourself? What are your ethics, your core values? What’s the nature of the fuel that propels your engine? And when Uranus has done shaking off your skin, what will be left in its place?

Who are you really?

© 2008 April Elliott Kent
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