Full moons are always potent — the culmination of a lunar cycle that started with the preceding New Moon. Dane Rudhyar’s magisterial The Lunation Cycle is an important reference to the cycle of the Moon. And the lunar cycle is a prototype for the other planetary cycles such as the Jupiter-Saturn cycle that has been much discussed here. I now want to point out the Full Moon of 8-19-2024 which occurs just before Labor Day when the US election cycle is reaching a fever pitch. It should be noted in passing that the year 2024 will see many national elections, perhaps even a record for a single year. A Full Moon comes about once a month, and it is obvious the connection between the word “month” and moon. Many calendars, and especially religious calendars, are based on the Moon and not the Sun, and many solutions have been tried to harmonize the Lunar calendar with the Solar calendar. There are thirteen lunar cycles in a solar cycle. This is an example of astrology in everyday life.

A Full Moon To Remember

The first thing to notice is that there are two interlocking T-Squares which involve a total of eight of the ten planets; then there are several other indicators that this chart well represents the start of the second half of this decade.

The first T-square involves the Full Moon, with Mercury Retrograde conjunct Sun; the second T-square consists of the first in a series of the opening squares of Jupiter and Saturn which marks the beginning of the second half of the decade. Saturn is opposed to Venus and Mars is conjunct Jupiter at the apex of this T-square.

The apex of the first T-square is Uranus — Uranus squares both ends of the Full Moon — so that this will definitely be a Uranian Full Moon: expect the unexpected. The Jupiter Saturn square is almost exact.

To add further spice Neptune is almost at 0 Aries. This is its first brush with the Aries point and it goes stationary retrograde about six weeks earlier at four minutes from zero Aries. Pluto is at the first degree of Aquarius and will soon make its last brief foray into Capricorn before returning to Aquarius for the next two decades.

Let’s compare this Full Moon to the US chart. When we do that we find more interesting things. This Full moon is right on the US Moon — the people of the country. But the Full Moon also makes a wide aspect — a semisquare and a sesquiquadrate — to the US Sun — the government. Thus this Full Moon makes hard aspect to the two most important planets in the US natal chart.

Full Moon United States

Neptune is opposite the MC of the United States suggesting there will be some confusion in how the country is perceived by other and (since Neptune is conjunct the US IC) how the people think about themselves. Not a healthy situation but we have seen it playing out over the last ten years with first Neptune making a sesquiquadrate to the US Ascendant.

This occasion also marks the Mars return for the US — which is exact two days later, something that happens every two years. In this case Mars is conjunct Jupiter which in humans can suggest pregnancy but in this case that is unlikely. But use of Martian energy is highlighted, more so than has been shown so far in 2024,

Finally there is the transit of Uranus square the US Moon. This is the first pass and it goes stationary retrograde on the Moon a couple of weeks after this Full Moon, right after the next New Moon. Hard aspects of Uranus to the US Moon is an important topic which will be dealt with at length later but for now suffice it to say that the previous conjunction of Uranus to the US Moon occurred shortly after 9/11 when the US invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq.

When talking about what is called “mundane astrology” — which is what we are doing here — it is necessary to distinguish between events and trends. An event is something that happens in this case right about the time of this chart. With a strong Uranus this could be unexpected and sudden. But it is possible that nothing overt will happen at this time. More important is the trend that this Full Moon presages. This trend is something I’ve discussed before and that is that the second half of this decade will be very different that the first in ways that this chart suggests.