How to Trust Your Inner Knowing
I began the first new moon of 2020 with a blog post about the creative potential inherent in the sign of Aquarius.
In that post, I wrote:
In 2020, we are being asked to show up on behalf of what Truth means to us. We are in a transition, where old ways of using power to control people and resources are clinging to life. New and different values that center our shared human connection and resources are struggling to come into expression and manifestation. Understanding where you want to put your voice, your ideas can help navigate life on earth at this time.
Now, at the full moon in Aquarius, I offer some further guidance towards finding, expressing, and setting intentions around your personal truth in preparation for December 2020.
At the moment of writing, the pileup of Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto in Capricorn squared by Mars in Aries is a tragic mix of death, fear, and rage. At least in the US, it seems there is no contagion.
When Saturn and Jupiter meet at 1 Aquarius on December 21, 2020, it will be the symbolic moment to move forward in actualizing what is true for you. Though we still may be in the grip of 2020’s tragic events, this Saturn Jupiter conjunction is an opportunity to develop and express our ideals for renewing and healing our world through our own unique selves.
The Full Moon in Aquarius: August 3, 2020
The full moon in Aquarius takes place at 12 degrees. The Chandra symbol for this degree is: A heated argument turns to laughter. (Sandbach writes that “this degree is about knowing and focussing on what is important to us, while carrying it lightly.”)
Why is this degree of the zodiac and full moon important, now?
12 degrees of Aquarius is the location in the tropical zodiac of the planetary North Node of Neptune. (If you’re into astrology, Gray Crawford’s blog post on the Planetary Nodes of Neptune is an excellent resource.)
I realize that this answer may elicit a “Who cares?” if you’re not an astrologer.
Neptune is an outer planet that blurs the boundaries of objective, rational reality. It represents states of consciousness where we try to escape Saturn’s realm of consensus reality and rational consciousness: in spiritual bliss, psychosis, or a drug-induced state.
In August of 2020, our world has a problem with truth. Our government is held in the grip of a fear-based regime that is babbling about injecting bleach and demons.
There is righteous anger about racism, our police state, preventable deaths from the coronavirus, a collapsing economy, and a growing sea of violence.
The collective “objective” truths that govern our concept of what it means to be human, whether you call that science, religious teachings, the values of Western enlightenment and materialism, or just “reason,” seem to be dissolving.
Right now, it is vitally important to get clarity on your personal truth in the face of a consensus reality on the brink.
Looking Ahead to 2021: 12 Aquarius
The other reason that this full moon is important is because 12 degrees of Aquarius will be tied into:
the new moon in Capricorn on January 13, 2021 (Pallas Athena at 12 Aquarius, leading the charge into new ideas)
the new moon in Aquarius on February 11, 2021 (exact Jupiter and Venus conjunction at 13 Aquarius)
the full moon on February 27, 2021 (Mercury at 13 Aquarius)
the Total Lunar Eclipse on May 26, 2021 and the Solar Eclipse of June 10, 2021 both feature Saturn at 13 Aquarius squared by Uranus at 13 Aquarius. (A conflict between innovation and tradition)
In summary, the Aquarius full moon of 2020 offers an opportunity to feel into your personal truth as a compass to chart the path ahead.
We are going to need reason, emotion, moral conviction, and intuition in order to navigate the future.
How to Trust Your Inner Knowing: The Leo-Aquarius Polarity
In the sign of Leo, we learn the ways of the heart. How to love and be loved. How to shine our hearts forward and trust that who we are will be received by others.
In the sign of Aquarius, we learn the ways of the head. How to be rational, logical, detached. How to attract inspiration, work with our ideas, and reach toward our ideals.
The full moon in either Leo or Aquarius is an opportunity to fuse the head and the heart and develop our own personal intuition.
One of the teachings of Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry is that we have three ways of knowing:
Through the mind, or through the ideas and concepts we’ve mostly absorbed from our world.
Through the heart, or through our feelings (what the yogis would call citta, the waves of feeling at the heart).
Through the gut, or through a primal knowing that protects us against threats.
What we call intuition is the flow between these three ways of inner knowing.
Why We Don’t Trust Our Intuition
Trauma and a lack of safety and trust scramble signals between our head, heart, and gut.
Our world is built on a conflict between scarcity and authenticity. We feel that we cannot be truly ourselves and remain loved (a huge theme for anyone with an Aquarius rising chart or an Aquarius Sun or Moon).
To trust our guts, we need to feel safe in our bodies and environments. Learning to feel safe in your body and trust your gut was the theme of the guided meditation I released for the full moon in Capricorn.
To balance the head and the heart, we need to understand that so often our reason follows feeling. We think that something is right because we are emotionally attached to it being right.
Any contemplative practice of mindfulness teaches you to watch bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts arise and dissipate. This helps you to be able to identify a thought and an emotion and discern the difference between them.
Flow With Your Intuition
There are times when we need to be able to call on our intuition. Intuition helps us to discern the answer to a problem precisely because it links our guts, hearts, and minds.
Intuition is not just a spiritual or positive psychology concept. It is our inner moral and directional compass.
When our intuition is strong, we do not doubt ourselves in the face of an external conflicts. We know what is true for us. And that truth is comforting and energizing because we know the way forward.
Our intuition can help to balance our inner and worlds.
To help you develop your intuition, I’ve created a guided meditation to tap into your three ways of knowing, link them, and learn to trust yourself.
References
I couldn’t have written this post without the teachings of Compassionate Inquiry and many years absorbing the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda as taught by his disciple Swami Kriyananda. The difference between reason and intuition is a key teaching in our yogic spiritual path. For a brief overview of these teachings, see this brief video of a talk by Swami Kriyananda on the subject.
