Collage photos by Getty Images.

Life

Tonight’s Full Moon In Aries Means It’s Time To Put Thoughts Into Action

Take advantage of the “women’s summer”

My mother has a name for an autumn like this, when the regions that should grow cold stay warm enough to laze on the park grass past September’s end; she calls it "бабая лето." The phrase, transliterated to “Babaya Leto,” means “women's summer.”

My mother tells me that in the olden times in the old country (that’s Ukraine), women were responsible for the harvest and if they were successful in gathering and turning over the earth before the frost, the gods gifted them another short summer to rest after all their hard work. This week’s full moon in Aries, also known as the Harvest Moon, sets the scene of our бабая лето. Or, perhaps, it is this moon that reminds us that our work is far from done and that each burst of effort will earn its own reprieve. Full by 3pm EST, October’s Harvest Moon will offer us the most moonlight of any full moon this year. The moon is a gift to the hunters and gatherers (imagine our modern iterations) both, offering the chance to see to our work past sunset. What better energy to fuel the completion, the final push to prepare for winter, than the fiery heart of Aries?

Always the innovator, Aries can teach us what to do with our dreams after we conjure them—how to make them happen—and she’s not above burning everything down to the ground to start again. In fact, despite their powers as loyal champions and invested leaders, Aries are committed first and foremost to their own truth and path. They will go at it alone if need be. Aries energy is dynamic and unstoppable. Aries wants to start first, finish first, and be the best as quickly as possible. When the moon is full in Aries what must get done will get done and what is excess will be stripped away, so move over.

Perhaps, you, like many of us, are wondering: What is to be done? And, certainly, you are zooming in and out as if clutching a camera; here is my small life in the family of things, here are my people in a sea of suffering, here is this nation in a trembling of nations. Under the auspices of any other sign, we would buckle, we would risk our spirits to break. But, the Aries spirit is unbreakable because it is young and in its youth, foolish. A fool in the right moment, in the light of this full moon, is a prophet as all fools have been since the dawn of fools. And, it should be noted here that Aries is not without psychic gifts since Aries rules the head and all energy goes through them first. An Aries at their most mindful is a herald, and that is why they are so often the revolutionary.

Make an action plan. Be willing to change your life. Who are you at this moment when October lies open before you, the air brisk with new beginnings and the green of this earth signaling an end? What is to be done from where you stand? In the grand scheme, as citizens, as partners, as lovers, and as friends, it’s time to figure out what we’re capable of doing on our own, what we must do on our own, and what must be down with the help of others. 

To understand when it’s time to ask for help, to reach out, is a strength Aries stands to learn, and you can learn it with them. It’s time to take a long hard look at places where we’ve been burning the candle on both ends and decide if what comes because of all that work serves our highest purpose. This Aries full moon is idealistic, it wants us to look at the places where our talk doesn’t match our walk. It wants us to cut our own bullshit, to have the courage to live our lives as only we can live them, to be our own role models and pave a new way.