Scorpio Full Moon; “it’s not as bad as it seems…”
April 23’s Full Moon in Scorpio has a bit of a heavy feel to it. It is in a difficult aspect to the planet Pluto, the god of the underworld, and is ruled by a watery Mars in Pisces conjunct Neptune. It may bring up some big emotions, including feelings of loss or grief. This is not surprising since we are just finishing Eclipse Season, which can bring sudden appearances or disappearances in our lives.
Grief is a feeling most of us want to avoid at all costs. At the same time, anyone who has had a deep cathartic cry after suffering a loss knows the value of grief—understands the treasures to be found in the depths of Scorpio waters—in feeling the depth of one’s connection to someone or something we have lost, we find ourselves mysteriously freed from the greater pain that sometimes comes with holding on to what no longer feeds us. The rains abate, the clouds part, and the rainbow appears.
Scorpio is a receptive, yin, water sign that is ruled by Mars, the god of war. The water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) all call us to wade in our emotions, each at a different depth. Scorpio is the courageous (Mars!) deep-sea diver of the group, exploring the dark depths of the ocean to understand the roots of emotions that overcome the human soul. Scorpio is also a “fixed” sign, meaning it carries a strong, steady, grounded energy that allows it to stick with whatever struggle it may encounter. Symbolically, the energy of Scorpio asks us to grapple with the deep questions of life, to explore endings, deaths, when to hold on, and when the time has come to separate from situations or experiences that once fed us but no longer are in our best interest.
The Moon also relates to our emotional life, expressing that which nurtures us, makes us feel safe and secure, the material embodied part of our existence that carries the history of our emotional experiences over the course of a lifetime. When the Moon is in Scorpio, we often experience a deeper connection to the suffering of the world. It is said the Buddha had the Moon in Scorpio in his birth chart. The First Noble Truth that he articulated was “all life is suffering.”
You can see that anytime the Moon is in Scorpio, we may feel more emotional and also have the stamina and courage to explore difficult topics and feel emotions that may otherwise be experienced as “too much.”
This Full Moon has a couple of aspects that amplify its heavy watery vibe. The planet Pluto, the god of the underworld, is in a square to the Full Moon. Pluto in aspect to the Sun and Moon can bring up issues we have been avoiding, shadow-y material that we may have suppressed or hidden from ourselves. It is also ruled by the planet Mars which is with Neptune in watery Pisces right now. This adds to the flavor that we may be “feeling all the feels” with this Full Moon. Given Mars’s connection with Neptune in the chart, we may find ourselves confused and unsure about what our next steps are, particularly if we are faced with a big decision in our personal life. If you find yourself in this spot, you may find that it is easier to decide a bit later in the month, after Mars moves into Aries on April 30.
The Tarot Card associated with Scorpio I, the decan (10 degrees) where this Full Moon falls, is the 5 of Cups. This card reveals the fullness of the human response to loss and grief in a way that is difficult to articulate in words. Imagine you are the woman in the image below who is looking before her at the 3 cups that have fallen over, she is bent over, joyless, grieving at her loss. This is what it is like for us when we are caught in grief, we are in the position of the ego, able only to see what we are suffering in the moment, upset and disturbed by the loss that has befallen us. When we take a step back, however, and enter the card from the standpoint of the observing Self, we see what our one-dimensional ego-perspective cannot grasp; all is not lost, two cups remain standing behind us, ready to feed and nurture us in our moment of need. What is more, a river flows in front of us waiting for the moment we are prepared to fill the cups that have spilled over. We need only lift our gaze and look around.
