Full Moon In Scorpio: Unfinished Business

Early morning UK time on May 13th, the annual full moon in Scorpio is exact, when Sun in Taurus opposes Moon in Scorpio at 22 degrees.

Taurus is the sign associated with business, both in the financial sense and in the sense of minding your own. Scorpio is very good at minding other people’s business (which I suspect is to divert attention from their own. Like a reverse psychology thing, it’s their way of making sure their own business stays safely hidden from prying eyes).

I always associate both the Scorpio Full Moon and the Taurus Full Moon (due in around six months time when the Sun is in Scorp), with unfinished business. Scorpio is the process of letting go and trusting, which is something Taurus doesn’t like to do. One of the ways it can avoid the process is by leaving things a little bit unfinished to return to at a later date. But Full Moons have a way of bringing things to a head. Conclusions are reached, and stalemates are broken.

Anything left behind during the recent Aries season of impulsiveness, or swept under the carpet last season, Libra style, will be picked up by the beady eagle-eye of Scorpio, to be dealt with appropriately by the well-defined muscle of Taurus consciousness. It’s something that happens every six months, like clockwork, with Newtonian precision. What makes it different every time, is the mix of planets around it, which change like clouds, into patterns as individual as snowflakes.

And at the moment Neptune is currently sitting at 20 degrees of Aquarius, which means it’s closely connected to the Full Moon degree, and will blend its energy with the Sun/Moon opposition.
Neptune is linked to the imagination and vision; it blurs boundaries and makes sharp edges fuzzy. It can also find a way through any obstacle on earth because it really knows how to work those laws of physics.
Neptune’s power is not to be underestimated, sometimes feeling so imperceptible, so subtle, but it’s like water dripping on a stone. Eventually it will reshape its environment.


astrology, scorpio, taurus, full moon

Beltane Part Two: 15 Degrees Of Taurus

As mentioned previously, there are two dates for Beltane; one always begins the eve of May 1st, while the other is always when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. Now, as I live in a society that doesn’t place the same importance as I do on having a handbag sized ephemeris within arms reach, I can see May 1st is a sensible option, but my heart lies with the old style 15 degree festival.

A bit of background to skip for those familiar with the origins: Beltane is one of 8 festivals of the solar year, and marks the midpoint in the Sun’s journey between Spring Equinox (0 degrees Aries), and Summer Solstice (0 degrees Cancer).

0 degree’s of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, mark equinox and solstice points. Midway between those points lie this 15 degree spot, always in a fixed sign, so along with Taurus/Beltane, there’s Scorpio/Samhain or Halloween, Aquarius/Imbolc, and Leo/Lammas.

The festivals carry the qualities of the zodiac sign they fall under, which means you can get a feel for what they're about and what they connect us with in ourselves, by studying the sign associated with it. Sometimes it’s obvious: how about Scorpio and Halloween for starters. Others need a lot more contemplation, but it’s worth the effort to reach those satisfying lightbulb moments.

So what about Taurus and Beltane? Well, with Venus as ruling planet, Taurus is about value and relationship, and being an earth sign it’s specifically about acknowledging and appreciating the value of our connectedness to the physical world.
And this is something we have to take personal responsibility for, as no-one can tell us what makes us feel good being in this world but us, through our emotional experience with physical form.
It’s whatever floats your boat that gets your good times flowing, which hasn’t got much to do with morality but everything to do with accountability, so it's easy to see why Beltane wasn’t received well by a number of religions and belief systems in days of yore.

This year the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus on the May 5th, a Friday, the day sacred to Venus. As Venus has just begun a journey through Aries, she's in warrior Goddess mode. This is a fiery and feisty energy, and relationships work best with a direct approach and an open agenda.
And while Beltane is a celebration of quality rather than quantity, with Venus in Aries and Jupiter opposing the Sun, it might be more of a challenge to remember it's not just about who’s got the biggest Maypole.


astrology, beltane, taurus

Beltane Part One: May Day

The offical date for observing Beltane (as decided by the collective unconcious), is May 1st, but I like to stick with the astrological date, which is when the sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. It varies each year, always during the first few days of May. This year it's May 5th.


More on that later, but for now, just spent an intriguing few hours researching Beltane, May Day and the various associated traditions.
Was chuckling away at the Puritans making Maypoles illegal in 1644, when I came upon this Wikipedia description, linking Maypoles with the Axis Mundi, or World Tree.

There's also an undeniable similarity between the Caduceus and the Maypole. What about the chakra energy spiralling around the spine in this image... and remember the Nebula in the shape of DNA?
This is what I love about symbolism, once you start looking you see repeating patterns everywhere, and can't help but be absorbed by the mystery of the underlying connection.

(Beltane Part Two is here)


astrology, beltane, May Day, symbols