Full Moon in Aquarius — August 22, 2021, 12:02 UT
Sunday, August 22nd, 2021The first Full Moon in Aquarius happened a month ago, when the Sun and the Moon lined up opposite each other in the early degrees of Leo and Aquarius. This is the second Full Moon in Aquarius. Just before opposing the Sun in the last degree of Leo, the Moon made contact to the Jupiter-Damocles conjunction in late Aquarius.
There is a kite configuration in the chart. The Leo Sun and the triple conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Damocles in Aquarius form the spine. Chaos in the last degree of Gemini and Hidalgo, which has just changed signs from Libra to Scorpio, are the wing tips of the kite. These minor planets are apt symbols for the present situation in Afghanistan. The situation of women and children is most alarming.
According to the official naming citation of 5335 Damocles, “Legend has it that Damocles, a courtier of the tyrant Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, was invited to a feast, where he was seated below a sword suspended by a thread. Intended to demonstrate the impermanence of power, the ‘sword of Damocles’ has become a symbol of impending disaster. This minor planet, in an unusual orbit of very high eccentricity and inclination and crossing the orbits of Mars to Uranus, could itself be seen as such a sword during periods of its orbital evolution when it becomes an earth crosser.”
Both 5335 Damocles and 944 Hidalgo can be classified as centaurs according to the definition of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP). However, different institutions have different criteria for classifying the centaurs. Therefore the Minor Planet Center does not consider them such. Damocles was discovered in 1991. It is the namesake of the damocloids group. Its orbital period is nearly 41 years. In the astrological chart it spends most of it, around 30 years, in Aquarius, and then hurries through the eleven other signs in about ten.
Hidalgo was discovered already in 1920 and named after Mexican revolutionary Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753 – 1811). He was a Catholic priest and leader of the Mexican War of Independence. The orbital period of Hidalgo is 13 years and 9 months. It has traditionally been considered an asteroid, but its elliptic orbit takes it from the inner edge of the asteroid belt as far as to the orbit of Saturn. Hidalgo was possibly once a comet.
According to astrologer Martha Lang-Wescott (Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids, revised edition,1996), in its most specific and mundane manifestation, Hidalgo shows as an affinity for or contact with Spanish, Mexican, South or Latin American cultures, languages or influences. But she continues: “Hidalgo also deals with Church vs. State conflicts (ie., the abortion issue) and ‘revolutionary’ governments, or governments based on strong religious or political ideologies.”
August 19 is celebrated as Independence Day in Afghanistan. When Afghanistan gained independence from Britain in 1919, the Sun at 25+ degrees of Leo was opposite Chaos and Hidalgo at 24+ Aquarius and Uranus at 29+ Aquarius. The Taliban declared the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” a few days ago, on Aug. 19, 2021, when the transiting Sun was strictly opposite the current Jupiter-Damocles opposition. The aforementioned oppositions align tightly together, as does today’s Full Moon.
President Biden decided to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan, but Trump had already started the process. This Full Moon puts pressure on both of them. The Sun-Moon opposition falls right on Joe Biden’s lunar nodes in the last degrees of Leo and Aquarius and square to his natal Sun in late Scorpio. In addition, his Chiron is conjunct his North node in late Leo. Trump’s descendant is in the last degree of Aquarius, and his Mars is rising in Leo, a few degrees away from the ascendant.