8:31 pm  PDT  4/26/2021

6:31 am  UTC 4/27/2021

Full Moon in Scorpio

Looking at this chart, two things stand out immediately and grab my attention. One is the T-square that the Full Moon forms to Saturn, all in fixed signs. (A T-square happens when two planets oppose each other, and a third planet forms right angles to them both.) Of the three modes that zodiacal signs can be in, (cardinal, fixed or mutable) fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) are the most resistant to change, as their impetus is to keep on and preserve what’s been the norm. Cardinal signs initiate and build the garden, fixed signs keep it weeded and mowed, and mutable signs want to change and re-design what’s already there, do a makeover. Saturn’s influence as the focal point of the Full Moon T-square almost always involves lessons in needing to become aware of where we’ve become stuck in our rigid ways of being in the world. In the sign of Aquarius, Saturn asks us to envision a higher viewpoint of our Earth experience, to make our ideals a reality. A challenging task now, with so many suffering from disease and the injustices around the world! And with Uranus (the reformer) conjoined the Sun at this juncture, some things are going to get shaken up in the next couple of weeks. The divergence between the old and the new paradigms is becoming much more exacerbated and highlighted.

The other thing that stands out in this chart is a conjunction of Ceres and Eris, at 24-25˚ of Aries. When these two goddesses team up, we’d better have our house in order.  

Ceres, the Great Mother archetype is joining forces with Eris, the goddess of strife and discord. Mama Earth has felt our woundings for so many years now, and in the grand scope of her lifetime (humans are a very, very recent development if you compare her 4 billion year age to humanity’s paltry 2 million years) we’re starting to realize that without respect for our Earth Mama, we will go down as a species. The conjunction of these two at the moment of a Full Moon betides an awakening of some sort, especially since they’re in upstart Aries, and this will especially affect those who are unaware or in denial of the momentous time we are in. With so much resistance to the upcoming paradigm shift worldwide, those who adhere to the old way of dominance and patriarchy are going to feel increased pressure to change, or perhaps more of a reactivity to resist.

The Scorpio Full Moon is one of a deepening of focus, a time when our awareness of our motivations of how we are acting toward others, and how they act toward us, become intensified. With the Moon in a strengthening trine to Mars which just recently entered the watery sign of Cancer, emotions are running high, and we may find ourselves more reactive than usual. The Moon is also at perigee, at its closest to the Earth, which affects the water in our bodies as well as the tides and crustal plates. Three days after the Full Moon, the Sun will conjoin Uranus, and lightning bolts of changes of one sort or another may emerge from that once-a-year event.

The day after this Full Moon, Pluto will station and go retrograde, as it does once each year. Its transformational effects deepen during the next few days where Pluto is effectively standing still from our perspective, and during this time, until October 6th, we are pushed deeper into places where transformation is necessary. This of course means that these places, though opportunities for growth, are also asking us to become more aware of our shadow contents, not an easy task. But in so doing, we can eventually cultivate compassion for ourselves and for others who are suffering.

Given all this shadow and challenge, this Full Moon is also called the Wesak Moon in Buddhism, and is celebrated as a time when spiritual contact is at its highest point all year. It’s a time to review the previous year, and to connect with helping divine spirits of all traditions, to envision a future that is about renewal, regeneration, and a joining together of the community of humanity. We cannot create a future for humanity without dreaming into what that future world will look and feel like. You may want to sit quietly at the exact timing of the Moon’s fullness, if only to connect with many others who are sitting in meditation and praying at that time.

This is an opportunity to channel the deep feelings that arise at this Full Moon into possibilities of renewal and awakening, each of us working to change our ways of living on the Earth to make those dreams of peaceful coexistence possible.

Pluton (1884–86) by Henri Chapu