Tomorrow’s Full Moon in Scorpio is also a penumbral eclipse. This is the kind of eclipse in which a shadow passes over the face of the Moon, but without the blood Moon effect we see with totality. Even as a penumbral eclipse, though, this is a powerful and intense lunation we will all feel.
Eclipses happen when the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up enough to throw shadows on each other. It’s an unusual thing in our solar system because of an oddity: Even though the Sun and Moon are wildly different in every way, they have the same, or close to the same, apparent size in our sky.
In most years, we have four eclipses, sometimes five, and I suppose six might be possible. This is because eclipses come in pairs. A New Moon and Full Moon, one or the other arriving first, will both be eclipses. Depending on where the Nodes are relative to the Sun and Moon, sometimes there will be three in a row.
Eclipse are not rare, but they are eerie. They put us into chiaroscuro. We are in shadow when we expect light, either the darkening of the Sun, or the blotting out of the Moon. It’s upsetting on a physiological level. It is also fascinating.
Eclipses are dramatic evidence of times when different cycles come together. This is about lunar cycles, of course, but also about cycles of conjunctions between the Moon and the Nodes, the Sun and the Nodes, the Moon and the Sun reaching the same ecliptic longitude–and that’s not all of it.
The Rising Moon Astrology Podcast is available on an expanding number of sites including Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Castbox, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. Listen in on your favorite and please leave a review.
It’s dizzying. So for now, we’ll set aside the mathematics and look at the astrology.
We’re about to experience the second in a pair of eclipses. The first one was the New Moon solar eclipse in Aries of April 20. Now we have the Full Moon lunar eclipse in Scorpio on May 5.
Most often, eclipse pairs will be in paired signs. Last year, all of our eclipses were in Taurus and Scorpio. What’s changing?
The Nodes of the Moon move through a pair of zodiac signs every 18 months. Then they change. This year, the Nodes will shift from Taurus and Scorpio into Aries and Libra. This year, the Nodes are close enough to that boundary that we’re getting some of each. Next year, our eclipses will fall across the Aries–Libra axis.
This Full Moon eclipse is the last one in the sign of Scorpio we’ll have for 18 years, give or take. We’re closing this cycle with intensity and depth.
The closest aspects to the Full Moon are with Uranus and Mercury retrograde, both conjunct the Sun and opposite the Moon. The stronger aspect is the conjunction/opposition with Uranus. Uranus is the revolutionary and eclipses are chaotic. Which means this eclipse is more unpredictable than usual.
The shadowy quality of this eclipse also adds to the difficulty in discerning what is actually happening. And here I am not referring to the shadow cast on the Moon’s surface.
This is a Full Moon in Scorpio, Fixed Water, the nighttime sign of Mars. Here we find discernment, depth, and incisive understanding–and we also find stealth, wariness, and a preference for staying hidden. Scorpions strike without warning.
Mars is in the sign of Cancer, the home of the Moon. This is not a strong placement for Mars, who feels stifled by the constant flow of emotion in this cardinal Water sign. Mars prefers to head toward personal goals without reference to what others need or want.
Mars and the Moon are in mutual reception, meaning, they’re in each other’s homes. Yet this doesn’t help as much as it usually does, because both are in fall, neither functions at their best in these signs.
Pluto is again implicated in this eclipse. You might remember Pluto squared the Aries New Moon eclipse. Here, there is not a direct aspect, but Pluto has stationed retrograde, an intense time for any planet, and especially for one that moves as slowly as Pluto.
Also, Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio. Pluto governs what is deep, hidden, and intense. This includes resources found deep within the Earth, but also the subconscious in each of our psyches and the collective unconscious we all share.
What can we expect?
With the Moon in Scorpio, Mars in Cancer, and Pluto stationed, we can expect intense emotions. This will not come as shock, I’m thinking, because dramatic mood swings are already clearly in evidence. Even if you are feeling calm and stable, you’ve no doubt experienced strong feelings in those around you.
This is also a South Node eclipse, with the South Node also in Scorpio. This means we’re releasing. The pivotal move will be the willingness to let go. Scorpio rules the bowels, so, some of the releasing might be around old toxicities we are finally ready to get rid of.
The intensity of this eclipse will be apparent to all of us, but we won’t all feel it or experience it in the same way.
It’s important to check your birth chart. You will want to know where the Sun and Moon, Uranus and Mercury, the Nodes of the Moon, Mars, and Pluto all fall relative to your birth chart.
If there are conjunctions, oppositions, squares, trines, or sextiles to planets or key points in your chart, this eclipse is much more likely to show up in your personal life. This might be internal, your emotional landscape changing in unexpected and dramatic ways. It might be external, reflected in the behavior of people around you, or in events in the world.
This is not a time for ritual, setting intentions, or doing anything intended to make or encourage a particular thing to happen. The swirling energies are too large and too unpredictable. This is a time for paying attention. A time for watching. A time for open awareness.
I’ve covered the basics and shared ideas on what you might experience. Now I want to focus on what I see personally in this eclipse. Something that captures the energies and lets me know what I’ll be looking for.
This Full Moon eclipse falls on Beltane. Beltane is one of the four great fire festivals of the ancient Celts. It is a hinge in the year, an important one. Beltane opens the door into the bright half of the bright half of the year.
It is a time when the veils between the worlds are thin. A time when the fae in all their variety come forth to bless the fields, flocks, and herds, to make them fertile. At this time of year, trysts abound. Couples go out together into woods and fields and create their own ceremonies of fertility and celebration.
Today, most celebrate Beltane on May 1, or on the first weekend in May. Astrologically, the four fire festivals occur at the 15th degree of the four fixed signs. At this Full Moon eclipse, the Sun is at 14º58’ of Taurus, which is Beltane without enough rounding error to count.
The Moon at 14º58’ of Scorpio is at the degree of Samhain, the shadowy entry into the dark half of the dark half of the year, when the veils are also thin, but the focus shifts to honoring the dead and protecting the living.
Beltane falling at such a time, when the light of the Moon is dimmed, brings us into a special awareness that in the unseen world, as in our own, shadow and flame are connected. They are not separable. They move and shift and dance one with the other.
Tonight and tomorrow, we will have almost-Full Moons in the sky. Be aware that the veils between the worlds are very thin. That we are surrounded at all times by what we cannot experience with our ordinary senses. But at this Full Moon, if all Full Moons, what is usually hidden may be seen. What is often obscured may become bright.
My title for this Full Moon is, The Fairy Rade. This is a procession of the fae of all kinds that is considered potentially dangerous and also sparks an intense fascination. Ordinary folk stay indoors and do not look out the windows the they hear the Fairy Rade going by.
The bold ones, or those caught outside after dark, find a place to hide and peek out when they hear the fairy horses and boots and wings. Some of those who look are taken up, carried along on the Rade. They might wake up the next morning on a distant hill or inside a stone circle, wondering where they’ve been and why their dreams were so strange. Others might never be seen again.
If there ever was a Moon under which a full Fairy Rade might be seen, it is this one. Will you peek outside when you hear strange sounds? Or will you carefully close the curtains, bolt the shutters, and dive under the blankets?
You never know what might happen on a Moon like this one.