This week we entered Scorpio season, and if you haven’t been feeling the liminality and porousness of this time yet, I’m sure you do now. I liken this time of year to walking out on ghostly moors; miles of shadowed, undulating hills in every direction and the sky a deep, dark blanket of velvet clouds. The wind howling around your ears attunes your other senses to what is present and piercing through the mist. During this time, we are invited to commune with that which touches the far reaches of our understanding. 

Is that a figure or an apparition striding toward me? 

Do I really see in the dark, or am I too afraid to look beneath the veil at the face in the mirror staring back at me?

 

Scorpio season is one of contraction, the exhale. In some meditation practices, it is taught to place one’s attention on the exhale only. To “touch in” at the expiration of the life-giving breath, because at the floor of it is the absolute nothingness. We have a natural fear of being out of breath, a natural fear of death when all becomes still. And yet, we are addicted to the idea of an immovable destination when life feels tumultuous. Like, if we could only do the one thing, it would bring PEACE as in a stationary resting place. If we are good and right, the chaos will stop and we can just be at rest. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the world/Cosmos/the human experience is ever set; but a constantly evolving and shifting balance between infinite planes and directions. Scorpio season embodies the weave of death into life, a flowing and eternal tapestry in which we are entangled. 

 

 

This is the third year in a row of lunar eclipses on the Full Moon in Taurus, and tomorrow’s moon closes out the cycle that began in November of 2021. Two years ago, in the Full Moonsletter in Taurus (11/19/2021) I wrote that the upcoming nodal shift into the Scorpio/Taurus axis would bring themes of balancing the spiritual with the material, and that we may see some power grabs in the coming months (spoiler: we did and we have!) while old systems crumble under the weight of new values and collective shifts. With the most recent events, it may feel like we haven’t made any progress at all, that we are still fighting the same wars. And in many ways, we are because these are old and ingrained power structures, but in other ways we are seeing new forms of community building that strengthen us on a local level and actually have the power to push back against encroaching authority. 

 

In last year’s Full Moonsletter in Taurus (11/08/2022), it was important to recognize the hard work we have put into our progress and remain available to insights regarding what was still left to do. It was a peak moment in the growth and expansion of our individual charts where Taurus and Scorpio reside. For example, I have Taurus in my 8th house (sex, death, fears) and Scorpio in my second (material resources). This time last year, I had just opened Honored Body’s practice space completely on my own, and I encountered profound shadows and fears within myself. I grieved for the parts of me that had to change—or die—in order to take on this new role. But, I also knew that it wasn’t the end of the road and no matter how tempting, the laurels weren’t for resting on. Perhaps you encountered a similar check point?

 

With the overlay of the Aries/Libra nodal axis this year, we will encounter themes of relationships and individualism as they relate to the changes we made in how we work and what shadows we have faced. Not only did we close an eight year cycle of our values and how we love this summer with the Venus cazimi in Leo, but we are now closing the cycle of the last nodal axis, or the collective directional themes.

 

 

Tomorrow’s Full Moon in Taurus will peak as a partial lunar eclipse at 1:23pm PDT, so it will really only be visible in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. However, the energy of the lunar eclipse will likely be felt today and tomorrow, which is to say that we may encounter some of our emotional shadow still present with regards to our inherent self-worth. A full moon in Taurus desires emotional security and can seek external validation from material gains, counting coins like the old archetype of the miser and basing one's value on a hoard of treasures like a dragon alone in their cave. But the most attractive quality about balanced Taurus energy is its internalized sense of self-worth. Material gains will never outshine inherent value. And whereas Taurus has the tenacity and work ethic to create exceptional material wealth, the external trappings will never compensate for the value you see within yourself. In the last few years with the nodal axis on Scorpio/Taurus, we have been refreshing or rediscovering how we value ourselves individually and as a collective. Perhaps you’ve made some changes with regards to your job, your prices, or how you work. Perhaps you’ve experienced this as a spiritual awakening to a more embodied and emboldened self. This moon will round out the experience of the last three years and serve our inner resolve as we step into the next nodal adventure on the Aries/Libra axis. In addition, the sign of Scorpio correlates to sexuality, whereas Taurus relates to sensuality and the practice of self-love. 

 

 

There are several aspects to this moon that could have us feeling like our edges are being pushed, if not our own then certainly the collective envelope. Lunar eclipses alone are heightened opportunities to fully integrate shadow parts and release that which is no longer serving our direction. It’s also a time of acute intuition and the insights we receive during these transits can be profound. Mercury will be conjunct Mars and the Midheaven so we will have the opportunity for quick, practical thinking and receiving insight about how we externalize our ideas to serve our highest ideals. However, this conjunction opposite the moon may put the emotional pressure on us to make moves or could cause indecisiveness due to a variety of options. On the other side of the chart, we’ve got Jupiter conjunct the Imum Coeli, or our roots, home and foundations. This aspect can bring about changes or expansion to the home, our sense of family, our actual family, and a strengthening of bonds. But opposite Mercury/Mars/MC, we could notice some extremist thinking or overcompensation in these dynamics. 

 

To put it simply as possible, during this Full Moon in Taurus our growth and expansion at our foundation is in a tense standoff or power struggle with clear thinking and action that would support our higher aspirations. The Moon sextile Saturn could offer some insight from past lessons, and Venus trine Uranus could bring about a new and influential friend or the emotional independence to not let this astro drama force our action. If there is one message I can leave you with over this weekend: