Wednesday, October 24, just after noon EDT, the Full Moon in Taurus arrives.
This is a Moon that brings some calm, hands-on, pragmatism to Scorpio season, when shadows grow deep and nothing is as it seems.
Taurus relies on the five senses: If we can see it, hear it, taste it, touch it, feel it, it’s real. Otherwise, don’t talk to me.
We want that Taurus grounding because Scorpio season is really intense this year. The Sun entered Scorpio Tuesday morning to find Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter all there, and Venus is retrograde.
Scorpio is the place where what we cannot see becomes far more important than what we can. Here we excavate the depths and drag secrets out from their hiding places.
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Unfortunately, Taurus is not feeling nearly as stable as usual. This is because the Full Moon is very close to Uranus the Awakener. This large, slow-moving planet brings sudden upsets and revolutionary change. Since he entered Taurus earlier this year, life has been less predictable and more extreme.
2018 brought the hottest temperatures ever recorded from LA to New Hampshire, from Scotland and Siberia to Oman and Pakistan. The heat created conditions for intense fires in many places around the world, with California and Hawaii, for example, experiencing the fiercest fires they’ve seen in some time.
In social and political arenas as well, things we thought we could count on have been upended. While people disagree about which of these changes are good and which are bad, we generally don’t feel secure.
We live in a time that feels dangerous and we long for safety. This is the paradox of the Full Moon.
Uranus doesn’t shake things up just to be difficult. His upheavals invite us to look deeply and critically at what is going on. He is a radical, a word that means “at the root.” His goal is for each of us to see underlying reality. To look unflinchingly. To have the honesty and integrity to say, yes, this is what it is. Yes, I am this and not that. Yes, this is the next thing that must happen.
Such challenges are not comfortable. We would prefer to stay in our cozy cocoon. We like to be reassured that everything will be alright, our leaders will take care of things, and we can relax and enjoy life.
Clinging to comfort is one of the shadow sides of Taurus. The Full Moon is likely to illuminate where each of us is doing this.
At the New Moon, we plant seeds. At the First Quarter Moon, we catch a glimpse of the emerging plant. When the Moon is full, we see the fruits. What have we accomplished? Is it what we expected or something else entirely?
Here again, we meet the intensity of this year’s Scorpio time. At the New Moon in Libra two weeks ago, we had already embarked on a journey into the depths. Venus had just stationed retrograde in Scorpio and was diving into the shadow realms.
Venus rules both October Moons. Libra, sign of the New Moon on October 8, is her daytime sign. Taurus, the Full Moon, is her nighttime home. As the ruler, the queen, she sets the tone.
Yes, this is a Taurus Moon and has that sign’s patient loyalty. But this queen is traveling in the dark. Venus opposes this Full Moon as she sits with a Sun newly arrived in Scorpio.
To understand this Moon, then, we need to understand the journey Venus is making.
Each planet we watch moving through our sky meets the Sun from time to time, reaching the exact same zodiac position. Because the orbits of Mercury and Venus are inside the orbit of our Earth, they make two kinds of conjunctions, from our geocentric view: An inferior conjunction when the planet is between us and the Sun, and a superior conjunction, when the planet is on the far side of the Sun, away from us.
Inferior conjunctions occur in the middle of retrogrades and begin a new cycle. In the middle of each Mercury retrograde, we have a New Mercury. In the middle of each Venus retrograde (like the one we’re in right now) we have a New Venus.
We already know Venus is special. She rules connection, an expansive space that includes love, money, aesthetics, and values. She embodies beauty, even in the patterns of her conjunctions.
You may have heard that Venus traces a pentagram, a five-pointed star, in the heavens. This is true, but limited: We see the star only if we draw straight lines from key points in the Venus cycle over multiple years.
Art certainly employs straight lines, but Venusian artistry is more graceful and complex. If we look more carefully at her path, we see the full-blown beauty of a rose in bloom.
This image of the Venus cycle was created by Guy Ottewell in 2016 to illustrate his explanation of this lovely pattern. I recommend his post, which he titled Five Petals of Venus.
Hold that image of the Venus rose, for she is approaching her inferior conjunction, a point she will reach October 26, two days after the Full Moon.
In other words, the queen Inanna, whose descent journey I described in my New Moon post two weeks ago, has reached her final gate. She is about to be asked to relinquish that last thing, that final idea or token or feeling or fear standing between her and her goal.
And so are we.
Taurus seeks comfort. Not all comfort is real. Taurus also values what is real. So we, at the Full Moon, may come face to face with something we thought was real and comforting, but now is seen to be false, or limited, or outdated, or simply something we no longer need to hold onto to feel safe.
Check your birth chart to see where this Full Moon interacts with your planets and houses. This will give you clues to what you might discover.
We can also be open and see what shows up. With Uranus in the mix, expect the unexpected, the unusual, the quirky, the quick, the challenging.
We will emerge on the other side of this Full Moon to find ourselves heading into the darkest cave of our shadow journey with Venus. This is where we will face the most daunting challenge. This is where the treasure lies.
Remember the pattern of the rose. We may face a deep fear but we are not alone. The pattern is known, even as Joseph Campbell reminds us:
[T]he labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
When Venus reaches her inferior conjunction, she is at the center of the rose, in the heart of the Sun. In that moment, she is bright, shining, powerful. She gains the boon she has been seeking.
We can’t see her, deep in that cave, but we will, if we pay attention, feel the shift.
When we do see Venus again, she will have transformed from Evening Star to Morning Star. She will be called Phosphorus and Lucifer, which means Light Bringer.
This Full Moon is a vital step in our journey through the shadows. Pay attention to what comes up for you. Take the action that is called for.
In a few days, we will reach the innermost cave and gain the prize.
We may have to fight our way back out, as most heroes do, but once we have the gold, we are strong in new ways. We know we can succeed for we are filled with light.
I use Unsplash for most photo illustrations. All astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title, adapted from the photo of ink in water by Adrien Ledoux, the photo of the cave silhouette by Cristina Gottardi, and the photo of the green cave by Daniel Burka.