Full Moon in Aquarius: Acknowledgements

Without a doubt, my favorite part of authoring two books was writing the acknowledgements pages. This is a writer’s chance to offer shout-outs to the cast of characters who’ve helped or inspired her on her path to authordom. Mine included teachers, publicists, editors, mentors, favorite authors, and of course, family and friends. My cats are still annoyed that they were left out.

At the New Moon I offered some thoughts about Leo, the sign that demonstrates how to identify and appreciate what’s unique about you, the engine that drives your creativity. In short, at the New Moon in Leo, you wrote your book. And now, at the Full Moon in Aquarius, it’s time to write your acknowledgements page.

The cliché is that “no one writes a book alone.” Like most clichés, it’s true. To achieve almost anything requires inspiration and assistance from a myriad of sources. Humans are social animals who build alliances, networks—teams, if you will, who help us attain our goals. But they do something more than that: they help us extend our reach, to touch the future.

Aquarius: To touch the future

Aquarius is the sign of “the future.” Personally, you’ll experience only a tiny bit of it. Perhaps you’d like to create a legacy that lives on after you, through art, or children, or leadership. But no one creates a legacy alone. You need the ancestors who came before you, into whose broken soil you nestle new seeds; present-day allies to help you tend the plants and get them to market; and future hands to plant the same fields.

Traditionally, Aquarius is the sign of groups and friendships. But these are not just the friends who laugh at our jokes, treat us to lunch on our birthdays, and take our side when we break up with a boyfriend. The Aquarian concept of friendship is broader, and a little cooler. It includes people who may not even like you, but whose interests overlap with your own. It includes those with whom you have almost nothing in common but your enemies. It even includes, to some extent, those whom you pay to be on your side.

Why you need a team

Here’s why every creative person needs a team, why every “Leo,” if you will, needs an “Aquarius.” There are things we just can’t accomplish on our own, or at least, not with as much reach and success. Leo can learn to sing and dance, but to put on a Broadway show she needs a stage, a director, someone to operate the lights, and perhaps an orchestra, not to mention an appreciative audience to make it worth doing at all.

Even if you’re not a performer, you need help to take things to the next level in your business, or even to meet personal goals. A typical control freak, I spent two decades in business doing everything that I could myself. I built my own website and wrote as much as I could, but something as ephemeral as a website will almost never provide a legacy on its own. It took friends, editors, publicists, agents, mentors, and advocates to do what I couldn’t: get my work published and extend my reach into the future, where someday a young girl may wander into an antique bookstore, pick up a dusty copy of my book, and begin to read.

Who belongs in your posse? Your 11th house (Aquarius’ natural home) and the house with Aquarius in it (having trouble finding it? Try this post), describe the faceless names on your book’s acknowledgements page. With Libra on the 11th house cusp and Aquarius on the 3rd, my posse is a pretty refined group of artistic and intellectual types (Libra), along with an eccentric collection of siblings, neighbors, and childhood friends (3rd house). Someone with Scorpio on the 11th house might be hanging out with the Sopranos crew. Don’t mess with their team!

Co-creating a legacy

Not everyone burns with a Leo’s zeal to make a mark on the world. There’s an old expression that “no man is an island.” I’m not sure that’s entirely true, and in any case, there’s nothing wrong with being an island; in my heart, I’m something of an atoll myself. But for some of us, life is only meaningful as a work of art, a performance of a unique personality and perspective. We need to connect with the world. We yearn for the life we’re creating to live on after we’ve left the stage.

And so, we build a legacy of love and creation. And we don’t do it alone. We find co-creators, and audiences, and friends. Who are the allies who’ve helped you get where you are? At this Aquarius Full Moon, write your own acknowledgements page— even if your book isn’t quite yet finished.

© 2013 by April Elliott Kent