HEARTFIRE IN THE SNOW
The February 2026 Full Moon rises on 1 February at 13° Leo, opposite a powerful gathering of planets in Aquarius. Traditionally known as the Snow Moon, this lunation marks the final Full Moon of the Year of the Snake — a cycle long associated with shedding, renewal, and deep inner change.
Full Moons reveal what has been growing beneath the surface since the previous New Moon. This one highlights the axis of Leo and Aquarius — the meeting place between heart and mind, personal truth and collective perspective, warmth and distance.
Pluto’s influence runs deep beneath this lunar light, stirring what has been buried so it can be released. Mars adds urgency. Together, they create a moment of emotional activation that is not meant to overwhelm — but to awaken.
The Fire in the Snow
The Snow Moon carries a paradox in its name: cold season, luminous light. Stillness outside, movement within.
With the Moon in Leo, the emotional body asks to be felt, not solved. Leo is the sign of warmth, affection, and lived experience. It rules the physical heart — but also the emotional courage to stay present with what we feel.
Opposite, the Aquarius planets bring perspective, intellect, and pattern-recognition. Aquarius sees the wider story. It understands systems, cycles, and collective meaning. Under stress, however, Aquarius can rise too far above feeling — turning emotion into explanation, and pain into theory.
This Full Moon illuminates that tension.
Do we meet emotion with presence… or with distance? With warmth… or with analysis?
Here, the heart wants to speak in sensation, while the mind wants to translate everything into meaning. Neither is wrong — but sequence matters.
First comes warmth. Then comes understanding.
Like frozen water returning to flow, feelings do not need to be fixed. They need to be met. When emotion is given space and kindness, it begins to move naturally — carrying insight with it.
This is Leo’s medicine: to stay human, to stay feeling and to let the heart lead before the mind explains.
When Avoidance Loses Its Power
Pluto’s presence in this February 2026 Full Moon reveals something quietly profound: old emotional strategies are losing their authority.
Many of us learned to cope by stepping away from feeling — by becoming observers of our own experience rather than participants. Distance became safety, control became regulation. and understanding replaced presence.
But Pluto teaches through endings.
And what is ending now is the belief that emotional avoidance equals strength.
True power, under this Full Moon, looks different.
It looks like staying with what arises without dramatising it, allowing sadness without collapsing into it and noticing fear without handing it the steering wheel.
Leo does not ask us to drown in emotion.
Aquarius does not ask us to deny it.
Together, they ask for balance: warmth without overwhelm, feeling without losing your ground.
This is not about becoming more emotional. It is about becoming more available to your own heart and to others.
To the truth that connection requires presence, not perfection.
Under the Snow Moon, emotional honesty becomes a form of leadership. Not through performance — but through sincerity.
The Last Light of the Snake Year
As the final Full Moon of the Snake Year, this lunation carries a closing quality. A release of skins that have already loosened.
The Snake teaches renewal through shedding — not by force, but by timing.
This Full Moon shows us what no longer needs to be held in place by effort.
- What happens if you no longer freeze what hurts?
- What happens if you let emotion move through rather than around you?
- What happens if warmth becomes your first response, not your last?
This is not a Moon of dramatic endings. It is a Moon of emotional maturity.
The kind that knows when to feel deeply —and when to step back gently.
A Moon that understands that perspective is most helpful after the heart has spoken.
The Snow Moon reminds us that even in the coldest season, light continues to grow. That feelings are not obstacles to clarity — they are the pathway to it. And that the heart, when met with kindness, becomes a source of wisdom rather than confusion.
As the Snake Year closes, we are invited to carry forward one simple lesson:
Real power is not found in distancing from the heart…but in staying present with it, whatever it reveals.
And in that presence, something softens, something melts and something begins to move again.
With love and care,
Ester