What Was the Cut For? Full Moon in Aries I

What have the last eighteen months since the solar eclipse in Aries taught you about what is worth your courage, effort and protection? What have you cut out? If this has been a work in progress, the Full Moon will reveal your story.

The story that is coming to a peak now, may have started for you back in March 2025 with a partial solar eclipse at 8°59′ Aries. If you have planets or placements conjunct or aspected by this Full Moon, then you will be moving through the Moon Family that began 18 months ago. As it was instigated by an eclipse, the story may be significant for you, hindsight, plus the light of the Full Moon, will help reveal what began and is coming to fruition now.

Mars, the warrior planet, rules Aries, here we move through cardinal fire and yang, so it initiates, experiences, cuts through, and separates as it moves toward its goal. At the time of a Full Moon in Aries, there is time for the fast-paced Aries motion to pause and observe what has already grown, where you have already directed events and energy and to reconnect and review that what you are aiming for is still as aligned as it was when you set out.

As you integrate your experiences, perhaps your goals have also grown and evolved and now your actions need adjusting, reflect on what experience has taught you about the action that is needed now.

The Longer Story - The Aries I Moon Family

This Moon Family began with the partial solar eclipse on 29 March 2025 at 8°59′ Aries. The First Quarter was on 27 December 2025 at 6°17′ Aries, this was a time of challenge or decisions. The story now peaks with the illumination of this Full Moon on 26 September 2026 at 3°37′ Aries. It will complete its final phase with the Last Quarter on 27 June 2027 at 5°21′ Aries with some integration and release.

Astrologer Dietrich Pession identified the Lunar Gestation Cycle, or Moon Families. She describes how the Moon returns at every stage to the same area in the sky, degree range or ‘address’ in a progressing relationship with the Sun.

This Moon Family is within Aries I, so the same concentrated Mars landscape runs through the whole story.

Learn more about your own Moon Families and how to work with the Moon Families yourself at the upcoming workshop in November

This story may hold more impact for you if you have planets or placements in the Cardinal, or Fire signs between 0 - 12 degrees. That is Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn, Leo and Sagittarius. Also, if Mars is your Lord of the Year or Solar Return Ascendant.

There was fiery urgency when the solar eclipse began this Moon Family in March 2025 at the end of the Eclipses with the nodes transiting through the Aries - Libra axis. At that time, Mercury was retrograde in Aries. Mars, ruler of the eclipse, was wading through Cancer after its own retrograde. Mars was working through questions of vulnerability, protection, belonging and what was worth acting for.

Mars has returned to these questions in Cancer, which are highlighted again for this Full Moon. You may have clearer insight now than you did at the time of the New Moon eighteen months ago into what you were protecting, what you were prepared to fight for, or why a particular choice felt necessary.

When you look back, to March and December 2025, can you identify a story that is returning now? What entered your life, changed direction or demanded action or a response from you? Maybe if felt urgent before you had enough distance to understand where it might lead.

The story will still continue to mature for another nine months to its full integration and resolution. This Full Moon is a pivot point on that journey.

The Landscape - Aries I: The Axe

The First Decan of Aries: The Double-Bladed Axe

Ancient astrologers divided each 30-degree sign into three 10-degree segments called decans, each with its own specific character and symbolic imprint and spirits. The decans existed as divisions of the zodiac before the zodiac was divided into the 12 Sun Signs that we are most familiar with.

The first decan of Aries, spans from 0°to 10° and sits at the very beginning of the astrological year when the Sun visits there, marking the first breath of light and fire, the initial spark of renewal after the watery dissolution of Pisces.

Austin Coppock calls this first decan of Aries “The Double-Bladed Axe”. We know the axe makes decisive cuts, creates clear separations, and can forge new paths through dense, unwelcoming landscape. Its double-bladed nature suggests that actions could have consequences which extend beyond our initial intentions, perhaps by cutting in multiple directions. simultaneously.

Kira Ryberg associates the first decan of Aries with “battle”, highlighting connections to conflict, struggle, and the fierce, undeniable drive for autonomy that defines this decan. At the time of a Full Moon here, there is an invitation to engage with our individual battles, where do you fight for independence and where are you reminded of the need to express your authentic existence?

The Wild Way Oracle Card illustrates the Bold squirrel forging its path with the double bladed axe standing proudly on its tree stump. The Guidebook says:

“When Aries I squirrel bounces into the picture, it’s time to boldly go forth and conquer. Like a squirrel venturing from its tree to gather resources, we’re called to leave comfort zones in pursuit of what we truly desire.”

We are given the Keywords: Claim your kingdom, Jump First, Think Later, and Self-Mastery. What do these keywords bring up for you at this time?

Maybe this captures the essence of how Aries evolves, beginning with claiming territory and staking your place in the world, moving through characteristic impulsivity, and ultimately culminating in self-mastery. The spontaneous, sometimes maybe risk taking or reckless energy of this decan ultimately serves the higher purpose of self-development and personal authority. The one who wields the axe must also learn mastery to avoid self-injury if nothing else.

What makes this placement especially significant is its double rulership by Mars, in a Mars ruled sign, making it intensely martial, assertive and amplifying Mars’ focus. This is raw, primal Mars energy at its most direct and uncompromising, amplifying our drive for autonomy and independence.

It is time to embrace your own power to carve new paths with courage. Implement plans you’ve been hesitating on, claim your kingdom, and assert your right to self-determination. Consider that, just like the double-bladed axe, your decisive actions now can create both challenges and opportunities.

The Present Moment - The Astrological Conversation

At 4:49 pm UT, the Moon arrives at 3°37′ Aries, opposing the Sun in Libra. Retrograde Neptune has just met the Moon, while retrograde Pluto in Aquarius and retrograde Uranus in Gemini form supportive sextiles. The Libra Sun trines both Pluto and Uranus. The Moon will conjunct Saturn in Aries after it meets Uranus.

The Full Moon therefore draws the larger outer-planet story of 2026 into this much more immediate lunar moment, which we can experience in our own lives, emotions and bodies.

Neptune close to the Moon softens the edges of what we are experiencing. Feelings may be strong, dreams could be vivid and your intuition may be active. You may find that something previously difficult to name may finally reach your awareness, while other parts of the picture remain indistinct and foggy. You may know that something matters before understanding precisely what it means.

For Aries I, that can matter, as the impulse to move can arrive quickly, while Neptune is asking for enough space to recognise the difference between an emotional truth and the story we can build around it.

The image of Two of Wands tarot card which corresponds with this decan can help us here. In the image, a figure looks out over a view holding a globe. It suggests that we can pause to reflect while we hold the possibility in our hands, look towards where it might lead us and allow direction to emerge before acting simply because energy is available. We are aiming to move with purpose and focus.

Pluto and Uranus bring another kind of movement. Pluto in Aquarius continues the deeper process of restructuring and empowerment already underway, while Uranus in Gemini opens different routes through ideas, information and connection. Something that once felt disruptive may now look like a door opening. A truth buried beneath the surface may be easier to recognise, or circumstances may have changed enough for another possibility to become visible.

The ruler of the Full Moon takes us back to where this story began 18 months ago. Mars is at the final degree of Cancer, in fall, preparing to enter Leo on 28 September.

Mars is at the tip of a whole-sign T-square with the Sun and Moon, this can bring challenges to any protective action that Mars is trying to take as it prepares to complete its business in Cancer, the needs of the Aries Moon to take action, and the Libra Sun for visible balance may demand they are taken into account first.

The warrior planet of action has been moving through Cancer’s terrain of protection, memory, kinship, belonging and emotional vulnerability. Mars here can fight and protect what feels precious, sometimes before we have fully understood the feelings beneath the impulse.

This is the same sign, Cancer, that Mars was moving through when the Moon Family began with the New Moon Solar Eclipse eighteen months ago.

There is the feeling of a mirror being held up with this. What began for you while Mars was asking why the fight mattered reaches its Full Moon peak as Mars now prepares to leave that landscape behind.

You may finally understand what you were defending, or perhaps why something mattered so much, or whether the protection that once worked well has now become a habit that the time has come to release.

Mars will be moving from the Cancerian waters into fixed fire, changing the quality of the action. Before it does, this Full Moon offers an opportunity to understand the often vulnerable and sensitive Cancer part of the story.

What mattered enough for you to pick up the axe in the first place?

As the Moon becomes full, return to the story that began in March 2025 and consider What can you see now that you could not have known then? Maybe you are protecting something because it still matters, or there is somewhere that defence has become familiar simply because you have been doing it for so long?

When you consider the story of the last eighteen months, reflect on what the axe is for now?

There is one more phase to come, when the Moon returns to Aries I for the Last Quarter in June 2027. For now, we have reached the part of the story where the hidden threads begin to show themselves, and where experience can help us use our strength with greater purpose.

Travel well, friends.

Sonia

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#Astrology #Aries #AriesEclipse #MoonFamily #Mars #SeptemberAstrology

References:

AustinCoppock.com The Decans: Images and Applications

Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology The Eagle and the Lark

Dietrich Pessin Lunar Families III

KiraRyberg.com The 36 Decans

The Wild Way Oracle deck by @nicola_allan on Instagram & Twitter

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