The Buck Moon - Full Moon in Aquarius

Antlers, individuality, and the power we already carry.

I was sitting in a gas station parking lot this past weekend when my sister pointed out a young whitetail buck grazing under a tree across the street. I could see from a distance the soft spikes growing from the top of his head, and knowing that the Buck Moon was just a few days away, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit excited by the timing of it all.

A whitetail buck just starting to show his antler growth.

The Buck Moon happens July 29 at 10:35am EDT, and it's also the Full Moon in Aquarius.

Aquarius is the sign of the individual, but more than that, it's the sign and energy that gives us permission to express our unique selves as a way to create a more robust collective. It wants us to chase our own dreams, to experience our own lives, to follow our own hearts… so that we can be a more active, wise, engaged, participant in the greater collective. It says "what are you going to do to make the world a better place because of the unique gifts, skills, lessons and experiences that only you can bring to this world?"

And sitting across from the moon in Aquarius is the Sun in Leo.

Here in Michigan we obviously don't have lions running wild. But when I think of an animal that carries that same sort of regal stature in the woods, standing tall and proud, it's a whitetail buck. Leo energy in this full moon gives us that boost to be confident in who we are and how we express ourselves… and encourages us to let that be enough to lead in our own lives, the same way that buck stood like he owned the whole field.

But this Full Moon in Aquarius has a bit more to it, too, because Pluto and Jupiter are also in the mix here… and these aren't always subtle energies. Pluto is sitting next to the Moon in Aquarius, pulling at our emotional depths, and Jupiter sitting next to the sun in Leo, expanding possibility and opportunity.

So what does this all actually mean?

It's big energy… transformative, powerful, expressive, and opportunistic energy.

It's asking us to get familiar with our unique individual power within the bigger collective. It knows we're able to transform our world and that there is opportunity for us all to do so in a way that impacts the greater… we just need to recognize that in ourselves.

It wants us to explore our emotional depths… the forces we might not be as close to or as familiar with, but that are sources of power we hold deep within. And how when we tap into them, opportunities present themselves in ways we might have not known existed. How our emotions are sources that move us in this life… move us to lead, to evolve, to grow, to act, to transform… for ourselves and the world we’re a part of.

They're sources that give us the power and strength to change where we need to… where we want to… and where we see possibility to do so. And it's not power in a controlling way… it's power in a surging way. It's like the waves of the ocean that are able to erode beaches and carve out cliffs.

And that's the opportunity Jupiter is expanding here, too… it's not that we have to force anything into being. It's that the space for it is already there, waiting, once we're willing to see it.

So what do you need to let go of that keeps you from recognizing just how powerful you already are?

I keep coming back to that buck, and his soft, growing antlers. Every set is unique to the deer carrying them… no two bucks wear the same crown. That's Aquarius energy. Without them, at a glance, he could almost be mistaken for a doe. But those antlers make him unmistakable… and instantly regal. That's Leo energy.

But they aren't just for show. Those antlers are for fighting, for health, and for attracting a mate. They’re a source of a buck's power, and every single year, he sheds them and grows a new set. Those antlers quite literally transform him every year... breaking down so that a new set can break through and build back stronger… and that's Pluto energy.

This Buck Moon and Full Moon in Aquarius isn't asking you to become someone new. It's just asking — if you let something go, what might already be underneath? What power do you already hold deep inside… the individual you already are? And what happens, for you and for all of us, once that gets to be seen?

Until next time,

Rebecca

An antler shed I found on the farm my first growing season.