February 5, 2023 at 12:26 pm Central—The other night as I was watching the first episode of AppleTV’s SHRINKiNG, I realized it was the perfect allegory to Sunday’s Full Moon in Leo at 16°40′ . The show revolves around a severely grieving therapist barely coping with the death of his wife and the estrangement of his teenage daughter. The massive disruption to his life jolts him outside the bounds of ethics in his work as he begins to blurt out to his patients what he really thinks about their problems. Surprisingly, his acerbic call-outs shake his clients out of their complacency, ringing an alarm of their own responsibility in the life they’ve been sleepwalking through. Check out the trailer which includes my favorite blurt at 1:08.
The show’s tagline, Sometimes you have to have a breakdown to have a breakthrough, speaks to the Full Moon’s tight square to Uranus. At times, it takes a shot of hardcore truth (no chaser) to ring the alarm bell and have us WAKE UP to our complicit relationship with mediocrity. A square speaks to a challenge or a tension that needs to be worked through. I like to think of them as knots we undo before we can lace up our lives and secure our footing. A square with Uranus is often unexpected and surprising. It disrupts our lives in ways that require us to try something new. Many times, our response to the disruption has us finding more freedom and alignment.
Aquarius—Leo Axis
Also interesting are the signs of Aquarius and Leo where we find the Sun and the Moon. As a therapist, the character Jimmy Laird should be rational, logical and objective: Aquarius. This is not about Jimmy and his opinions. It’s about how he can offer neutral, uninvolved and professional guidance to his patients—more Aquarius.
The Sun is said to be in exile in the sign of Aquarius. The spotlight isn’t on the Self, but on improving the groups we’re apart of. There’s a utilitarian bent to Aquarius that leans towards the collective—a good example is Aquarian Sun Oprah Winfrey. So here we have a grieving human being unable to care for himself yet showing up to support his clients, which is another good example of the Sun in Aquarius.
Where does the Leo Moon come in? Jimmy Laird can’t hold back anymore. He’s tapped out on an internal bandwidth that has separated his personal exasperation from his professional obligations. The Self dramatically staggers into the clinical space: Leo Moon opposing Aquarius Sun. He defiantly lets loose and unleashes the pent up aggravation he was once able to control. The self-censorship dam breaches and the fallout is spectacular.
Taking responsibility
I’ve only watched the first episode, but according to Fresh Air, Dr. Laird’s unconventional therapy stimulates big changes in his client’s lives. They begin taking action. They accept responsibility for the changes they wish to see in their lives which is right out of Saturn’s playbook, co-present with the Sun and traditional ruler of Aquarius.
We can take the themes from SHRINKiNG and project them onto our lives and personal situations. The Full Moon in Leo sounds a revelatory wake-up call for some of us. Perhaps we’ll no longer be able to stay calm, cool and collected. The need for authentic self-expression will override our default settings of containing our emotions and behaving logically. If that’s you, just go with it. We often think “What’s the worst that could happen?” Perhaps this Full Moon asks us to pose the question: Where am I headed if things stay exactly as they are.
I created these images with Midjourney