Full Moon in Aries: September 26, 2026 – 9:48 pm PDT
This full moon in Aries on Saturday, September 26, 2026, brings us the desire for independence. Yet with Neptune at 2 degrees 58 minutes Aries retrograde, it can be experienced as being swept up in the tension of a moon in full expression, one that wants to express its individual spark but is tempered by Mars in Cancer, which underpins the energy without quite moving it forward in the direction we desired. The moon is still in Aries on Sunday evening when Mars makes its ingress into Leo, and we will see things pick up dynamically. Imagine a hot air balloon that has been losing altitude, the operator finally pulling the cord to release a burst of flame, and the relief of rising again on that heat. Around 7:48 pm PDT Sunday night, we all get a rush of heat and lift. Those whose charts are dominated by fire and air signs will feel this kick in, and may find that a long evening walk or jog is the right fix for this burst of energy.
This moon and Neptune are close to the degree where Saturn and Neptune made their conjunction in Aries in February of this year, at 0 degrees 45 minutes Aries. Themes that emerged in February may resurface this weekend, seen in the different light of this full moon and with the advantage of a view across about seven months, a Saturn number, held within a lunar frame (months). Look at the images on your phone from then, or peer into your journals. Consider what was in your awareness then, or what was perhaps being seeded that could only be understood in time, through time. I had started reading a book I came across through a new Greek acquaintance; one of their friends had published it, and I was curious about its treatment of Greek myth and astrology. In reflection, I can see what else has emerged since, deepening my philosophical studies to better understand Greek philosophy and what it meant before so much was distorted. I have that only through the synchronicity of being connected to someone’s work, and by asking for it, too, when I built
the fire for Brigid on February 1 while I was in Dublin. I share this as a reminder that sometimes you can only really see something from the distance of time, and you will only register it if you took the time to reflect and created a meaningful way to recall the specifics of what you were contemplating, something bigger than one moment can reveal. Consider this a new way to use your smartphone as a tool for your own reflection. One photo, one two-to-three-minute video of your own voice, a daily tarot spread with a few thoughts: reflection carries seeds and holds more than you can imagine. Another highlight of that moment is how perfectly Imbolc sits at the dark-to-light halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction at the Aries Point, which began a new synodic cycle, came before this year’s spring equinox. It is a marker of what is ready to emerge but will need time (Saturn) to be revealed: something of seven days, seven weeks, seven months, seven years (the waxing Saturn square), and the proportional Saturn cycles (14 years for Saturn oppositions, 21 years for the closing squares, 28 years for Saturn returns). Yesterday I landed on a fascinating scientific video, and it is easy to hear the Saturn (time) structure within the conversation: clocks within clocks. It’s deeply scientific about consciousness. If you feel so inclined, it is here. Many different perspectives within our collective mind, which feels right.
This is the first full moon beyond the August eclipses, in a lunar month that began with the new moon in Virgo. The Sabian symbol for this Aries full moon (4 degrees) is Two lovers strolling through a secluded walk. The Sun at 4 Libra, illuminating the moon, carries the symbol A group around a campfire. I appreciate Blain Bovee’s book on the symbols, where he expands the insight by noting that the aspect of this symbol is also a square (tension) and its quality is a challenge. On the Libra side, as he puts it, the campfire centers the group’s gaze and holds their focus there, so that individual identity becomes smaller in order to become richer and wider through social identity. The two lovers accentuate the removal of that focus. It is a separating act, exploring individuals within a relationship where each shows more of themselves to the other. It frames the theme of how one may find oneself within one’s social circles, and also the separation from them, because as things shift, self-identity is no longer felt through them: pairing off, essentially, before the individual finds the courage to go it alone. I draw on Blain’s text (pages 29-30) to illuminate the symbols of both lights at this full moon. As he states, the key is seclusion: being oneself apart from the imprint of family, ethnic, and national identity.
As this lunation wanes toward the new moon in Libra on October 10th, Venus appears to slow as she approaches her retrograde station on October 3rd. She moves into the underworld and out of our view in the first week of October, and we will see her again in the morning sky at the end of November. Her inferior conjunction with the Sun occurs on October 24th. This Venus retrograde will certainly help many understand parts of themselves that are only discoverable through relationships. How has the shadow in your relationships shown you something this month and next? It is one to reflect on deeply, as most of us evolve or understand ourselves only through and within relationships. And with Saturn and Neptune in Aries, we can observe how time (even the times, this era) frames our perspective on self-knowledge.
Jupiter in Leo is at 18 degrees 48 minutes: an expansion of our inner child, our ego, not quite forming a trine with Saturn in Aries by degree, as Saturn is at 11 degrees. Jupiter’s retrograde station isn’t until December 12th, at 27 degrees, and the south node sits on the exact degree where Jupiter will station. This moment is not necessarily about us framed only as individuals within these planetary combinations. It points to understanding who we are in relation to others, what informs us about ourselves through that lens, and how we release that focus when we are socially focused in groups: individuals, yet gathered. The north node in Aquarius is the direction of evolutionary movement, where the needle points. Without self-knowledge, we may not understand what we amplify from within a group when our attention is pulled toward something collective.
All of this energetic framing is interesting as we move toward a Venus retrograde from Scorpio to Libra, followed by Mercury stationing on October 24th at 20 degrees 59 minutes Scorpio. November brings Venus back into view, along with a new depth in the bonds we have cultivated. Venus stations direct on November 13th. Interestingly, that is about ten days after our very important voting day here in the U.S., Tuesday, November 3rd. Final election results are certified in my state on November 30th, the same day Pallas Athena stations direct at 3 degrees 18 minutes Aries, pointing back to this full moon in Aries. Pallas Athena stationed retrograde on August 14th at 22 degrees 39 minutes Aries, the opposite degree of Libra where Venus stations direct in November. It is truly a dance of the feminine archetypes of our collective psyche. Do you really know your partner? And how well do you really know yourself through that relationship?
Namaste. Bless this moment.
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