One of my favourite astrology exercises is making a natal Full Moon map. This is a great New Year’s activity, though I’m a bit late doing it this year (oops). This lets me do some planning for the year ahead and gets me thinking about what projects or tasks I want to tackle in the upcoming months, and the best – or worst – times for them.
There are 13 Full Moons each year. There’s a Full Moon each month in one of the signs, always opposite the Sun’s current sign because a Full Moon is a Sun-Moon opposition. One month gets a bonus extra Full Moon. (This is also known as a Blue Moon. Why? No idea.)
The Full Moons travel around the zodiac, with each month’s lunation falling in the next sign from last month. In astrology, you can use the Full Moon to tap into the activities and topics associated with the particular sign it occurs in. The energies are strongest around the date of the actual Full Moon, but they remain in effect throughout the month until the next Full Moon.
For example, on a Full Moon in Gemini, you might want to spend the next month focusing on communication activities like a writing or speaking project. On a Scorpio Full Moon, you could get obsessed investigating a niche topic that has piqued your interest. On a Virgo Full Moon, you could do a deep clean of your house.
When you map the Full Moons to your natal chart, you unlock even more possibilities for fruitful uses of each lunation. The particular house that the Moon falls in, as well as any connections with your natal placements, gives you a rich set of topics to align with those particular lunar vibes.
For example, a Full Moon in your fourth house would be a good time to do house-related activities, like repairs or renovations. A Full Moon conjunct your natal Venus is a lovely time to update your wardrobe or get a haircut. A Full Moon in your sixth house is a great time to kick off a new exercise routine.
You can get even more detailed and layer things further, based on your particular chart. For example, a Full Moon in your ninth house, ruled by Mercury in the fifth house, might be a good time to take a vacation (ninth house, Mercury) with your children (fifth house, also Mercury). A Full Moon in the second house, ruled by Mars in the seventh house, would be a good time to have a conversation with your partner (seventh house) about money (second house) and develop a monthly budget (taking action = Mars, though you’d need to be careful not to let it turn into a fight, because that’s also a very Mars activity).
I like making this Full Moon map physically, with pen and paper. I print a copy of my chart and mark down each of the Full Moons, along with anything else I might want to consider – like which of the Full Moons are lunar eclipses (there will be at least two each year), so that I know when to start my ritual eclipse cleaning. Or, if a Full Moon is closely conjunct one of my natal planets, I’ll know to watch out for those additional influences too.
Here’s the Full Moon map that I made for 2026:
What jumped out right away are the Full Moons that hit my natal planets – like the one back on January 3 that was right on my natal Sun, the one on May 1 sandwiched between my Mars-Saturn, and the one on June 29 right beside my Jupiter. I made a mental note to keep the lines of communication extra open with my husband throughout May, since that Scorpio Full Moon falls in my seventh house right between my natal malefics (and he’s a Scorpio Moon, to boot).
I’m also brainstorming some things to use that Full Moon at the end of June, as it’s conjunct my natal Jupiter – maybe exploring ways I could volunteer in my community, since Jupiter rules my eleventh house (communities and networks) and is in the same sign as my Midheaven (public self).
Another thing I noticed, when I looked at each Full Moon chart in 2026, was how there’s a Full Moon closely conjunct each of the outer planets this year:
- July 29 conjunct Pluto in Aquarius
- September 26 conjunct Neptune in Aries
- November 24 conjunct Uranus in Gemini
The Moon activates other planets when she conjoins them, and because all of those outer planets have made a major sign change recently, it’s like Luna really wants to give us a good lesson in exactly what these long-term transits will be all about. I’ll be watching for this on a mundane/geopolitical level, but it’s also nice to see them all laid out on my own chart. That way, I am reminded to keep an eye out for events/topics/significations that those transits might bring for me personally.
And that’s it! This Full Moon Map is a simple exercise, but one that can really help you do some astrological planning for the year. The Moon also moves quickly and I lose track of her all the time, so I find it useful to have something I can refer to throughout the year. It’s a handy way to re-establish my connection to Luna’s movements and her monthly and yearly rhythms, as she moves through the skies and my chart.