Full Moon in Taurus: The Unfolding Gift

Poetry by Rumi, Art by Michael Roppert

Full Moon in Taurus: The Unfolding Gift

Moon opposite Sun- 11/12/19 @ 7:32am CST

The Mourning Moon in full is a time of year that opens us to the celebration of life after loss. It is not always a physical loss (such as a loved one passing) that is the Scorpio initiation we go through as this cycle begins and waxes...but there is a letting go of something as we step into this ‘time which is no time’, and often it is something buried that rises to our consciousness as the moonlight grows.

This particular release is not like a one-time change that we make before moving onward without what we said farewell to. It is a process of transformation that requires a shedding of layers throughout the cycle. The release at the Full Moon of this cycle is of what has held back each individual soul from really shining. This Full Moon in Taurus is a celebration of Life Force energy...what we each have and what we share with each other as we join in the Earthdance.

Photo by Luc (a.k.a. Boris Belgium)

Taurus is a sign of earthy, sensual, and unhurried growth...though it has been hastened with some urgency lately as Uranus has been in this fixed earth sign (opposite the New Moon that began this cycle). During a Full Moon in Taurus, we are rewarded for our patience as we experience something beautiful unfolding from one concentrated seed of transmutation. Just like you must allow a flower to bloom in its own timing, or a butterfly to emerge from a chrysalis only after the inner work is done...The Taurus-Scorpio axis invites us to celebrate the perseverance of life through natural changes that cannot be forced by us one way or another. It is about the enjoyment of what simply IS (Taurus), even as it is supported by the complexity of our feelings (Scorpio).

In this celebration of life after loss, the path ahead brings regenerative blessings...even as we step into unknown territory.  

Moon-Vesta Rx in Taurus 20

Sabian Symbol: ‘wisps of wing-like clouds streaming across the sky’

Moon and Vesta Retrograde meet in this degree that illuminates the confirmation of blessings from Spirit. Moon is exalted in the earthy, Venusian sign of Taurus...and so she feels blessed each month when she travels in this sign. When full in Taurus, she really shines these blessings upon our Earth which can incline pleasant feelings of enjoyment and fulfillment. This may feel like a desire to take in the kind of earthly pleasures that intoxicate the senses and bring us moment-to-moment with Bliss. For some, such sensual gifts may be in the form of food, drink, music, sex, natural beauty, or any other pleasure that sets the senses buzzing. For others, it is the pleasure received from creating, building, or growing things that have a sense of sustainable value. For others still, it may be a more spiritual sense of what animates the material world. Taurus energy enjoys all of the above.  The essence of this exalted feeling of the Taurus Moon comes from the Life within all Matter, and the meaningful exchange we have with that energy. It doesn’t discount the heaviness of most things, but it celebrates the function of the life within the form.  This is the gift that unfolds in this Full Moon.

With Vesta in her retrograde perspective of Taurus, the exalted Full Moon joins the asteroid of the devoted Priestess who tends that Sacred Flame.  This flame animates us all from within each body. Vesta reminds us that each light within us is connected to one spiritual hearth fire, eternally lit. During this retrograde, the asteroid Vesta brings her ever-present focus inward and we are inclined to tend to our own Sacred Hearth. Whatever had been dampening our own life force from previous cycles has been continually purified and released. What is revealed now is how our Inner Light can shine brightly.

Let this be a Full Moon where you can recognize and honor the blessings present in your focus. Yes, there is still more weighty work to do in this cycle...but we must first focus on restoring our energy through enjoyment of life so that we can navigate the waning half with a perspective of fulfillment.

Sun-Mercury Rx in Scorpio 20 & 18

Sabian Symbols: ‘a woman draws away two dark curtains, revealing the entrance to a sacred pathway’ and ‘woods rich in autumn coloring’

'Elen of the Ways' by Chesca Potter

After Sun and Mercury Retrograde meet for a rare, visible Interior Conjunction on 11-11...the illuminating ideas from their meeting carry into this illumination of the Full Moon. Each Interior Conjunction with Sun and Mercury is the beginning of a new Mercury cycle...a new thought, a new idea, a new mindset being initiated. And this one is especially potent. This particular New Mercury (which holds a similar, but more rare, energy to a New Moon Solar Eclipse) brings ideas that can have far-reaching implications. It’s a good time to check in with yourself and notice ‘Where is my mind?’ What your mind is concentrated on most will clue you into the thought-seeds that hold the potential for a big idea to grow.

With these two symbols highlighted at the time of this Full Moon, a pathway is revealed...a new neural pathway as well as a symbolic path through the colorful forest of our psyche. Just as the direction that the wind blows the wisps of clouds (in the Moon-Vesta degree symbol) can show us the direction to take in our own lives, the sacred pathway beyond the dark curtains invites us into the Unknown. There is a reassurance, in the energy exchange of this Full Moon, that the path ahead of us is quite beautiful as it transforms into new possibilities.

Pluto-Persephone in Capricorn 22 & 20

Sabian Symbols: ‘a general accepting defeat gracefully’ and ‘a hidden choir singing’

'Hades and Persephone' by Sandara

Persephone, the asteroid of the Maiden Goddess who became Queen of the Underworld, is in direct harmonious relationship with the Moon and Sun through a trine (120 degrees) and a sextile (60 degrees). Pluto adds his own Underworld power along with his Queen as they form a pattern I call a ‘Receptive Wedge Triangle’ with the Taurus-Scorpio axis. In this powerful marriage of archetypal forces, we find an opportunity to become more committed to our Soul’s Journey at this time. As the pattern is in feminine signs of Earth and Water, it carries a receptive energy. Tapping in to Persephone-Pluto’s wisdom at this Mourning Moon allows us to receive the blessing of soul transformation.

So while we have had to accept defeat (or loss) from a past cycle, like the General in Pluto’s degree, it is with Grace...as Persephone’s hidden choir is singing us onward. She reassures the us that there is hidden beauty there in the Charnel Grounds where past decays and transforms anew. “Be not afraid of the unknown that calls to you”, Persephone sings. “It is the song of your soul singing.”

'Music of the Spheres' by Fiona Watson

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi