This Full Moon signifies an event which the Buddhists call the Wesak Moon. This commemorates the birth and death of the Buddha, and is an important holiday in many parts of Asia. It is said that the Buddha makes a yearly approach to the earth plane at the moment of this Full Moon, to give us blessings. There are many festivals and celebrations at this Full Moon in the Asian Buddhist community.

However, looking around us at recent events in the world, it seems we have little to celebrate. With the world carbon dioxide levels now at 415, the highest level ever in millions of years, there is no knowing exactly what will happen in the near future, the VERY near future, as in our lifetimes. The cloud-covered planet Venus is a prime example of what happens to a planet with runaway greenhouse effects. Its temperatures are over 800˚F.

This is an intense time. Basic human rights are being threatened more and more by our governments. We are not being governed, cared for, but ruled and controlled, our sensibility and our emotions being colonized and commoditized for the profit of ever larger corporations who are presently immune to accountability. The US has just had its Mars return, and now Mars has entered Cancer, where it will empower the US’s natal Venus and Jupiter in that sign. US aggression is running high.

This Full Moon’s chart has an abundance of earth (sensation, body) element, and is totally lacking in the air (thought) element. It would seem that at this Full Moon we are being confronted with what the sign of Scorpio does best, looking deeply at what is behind the scenes, our shadow, that which we do not make conscious, those parts of ourselves which our thoughts are unaware of. Thus, this Full Moon will have many deep undercurrents of what we both individually and collectively have been leaving out of our day to day awareness. The abundance of earth element asks us to be caring of our body, of our Earth planetary body as well. Our thoughts may be clever or even wise, but they will not of themselves shift our awareness.

The Sun and Mercury are conjoined in Taurus, so deep thinking runs along the lines of our resources, our relationship to money and also to our self-esteem. With strong trines (harmonious 120˚ angles) to the Saturn/Pluto conjunction (with both now retrograde) we may be contemplating just how to re-vamp our relationship to our resources, whether they be our savings or investments, or toward potential relationships which might be beneficial to our self-awareness. We may also feel as though the ground is shifting under our feet. 

At this Full Moon, Venus and Uranus are conjoined. Uranus as the bringer of revolution, change and higher thought, merges with the feminine energies, bringing the power of justice, and integrity to the collective feminine energies in the next few weeks. Since Venus is the ruler of Taurus, we are blessed with an influx of higher intelligence into the collective, and the possibility of a strong, deep shift toward environmental awareness and action.

Since it is ultimately love that must be invoked in order to heal our societal systems that are based essentially upon fear and lack, we are, at deep levels of our being, receiving the wisdom of just how love can heal, that there are many forms to love, both soft and tough, strong and yielding. By accepting our darkest thoughts and feelings, we know that we are whole, not always good, not always bad, but something which is beyond polarization. Loving is about forming connections, sometimes across seemingly impossible dark distances, and yet it is truly the only healing force we have. In the words of Martin Luther King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”