This article is about the full moon in Scorpio that we will have just three days after the Jupiter–Uranus conjunction of April 20 or 21, depending on where you live. I want to present it in the context of our evolutionary continuum, as the completion of the waxing phases of the lunation cycle that began with the solar eclipse of April 8. Phases that symbolize action, in particular how we actualize the potentialities that were present at the new moon “seed”. Sun and Moon will be at 4°18′ of the Taurus–Scorpio axis on Tuesday, April 23 at 4:49 PM in California, 17:49 hours in Mexico City, and on Wednesday, April 24 at 01:49 hours in Santander.
The Value of Relatedness
As long as the nodal axis is in Aries–Libra, which will be all of 2024, “life” will offer us opportunities (synchronicities) to achieve manifestation through differentiation and personalization at any level. Aries always asserts the uniqueness of our destiny and the North Node in that sign will make us seek what psychology calls our personal sovereignty: having agency and autonomy over our lives. In other words, being able to make our own decisions, choose with whom we are in relationship, and how much space we give them in our life. Of course, this also includes what has been called self-ownership: the exclusive right to control our own body, or bodies in some traditions, as long as we don’t impinge upon others. The South Node in Libra forces us to reassess our relatedness, namely how we establish relationships and whether they are being respectful of the personal sovereignty we are seeking, or we can’t even find ourselves in them.
The powerful penumbral lunar eclipse we had at the last full moon, in the same Aries–Libra axis, further accentuated opportunities to reassess the manner in which we relate with regards to the freedom to be ourselves. By being the full moon of the Pisces lunation, some relationships were left in the past of the ending year, others were refocused from the wisdom of common experiences, and yet others may have just formed, perhaps to try something new (Libra). However, the issue of personal sovereignty was made even more pressing with the solar eclipse that began this lunar month. The First Quarter phase that started last Monday may have triggered further reevaluations of our relationships, seeing that Venus formed a conjunction with the North Node and that Mercury was at Aries 20°, where the solar eclipse occurred. Although “external” events will seem to make us reconsider the prior evaluation, in reality all will originate from our personal unconscious.
As the confirmation symbol for Aries, Taurus seems to question the desire to be, asking: what for? The emphasis in achieving concrete results and being productive focuses the abstract desires of Aries at the biological and instinctual level. Something similar happens in Scorpio where the need to relate of Libra is met with a what for question, but Scorpio aims at the interpenetration of the individuals so as to form a new entity that represents the relationship, a whole in our philosophy and thus having its own consciousness. Relationships are fresh and full of hope in Libra but must have a reason to exist in Scorpio, in other words they must have value.
Taurus–Scorpio Symbolism
The Taurus–Scorpio axis has traditionally been related to sex, from the instinctual and procreative kind in Taurus to the social sex of Scorpio that seeks to strengthen the relationship without interest in offspring, at least not at the biological level. But the axis is also linked to our finances, representing both the accumulation (Taurus) and the generation of wealth through financial exchange within business relationships (Scorpio). If the verb for Taurus is “I own”, the one for Scorpio is “I owe”.
Enclosed you will find the full-moon chart, where we immediately note the T-square between the full moon (4°18′) and Pluto (Aquarius 2°05′), the ruler of the deeply emotional and adaptable Moon in Scorpio. Pluto will intensify the aforementioned Scorpio issues. In this full moon, we will see whether our relationships, be them new or existing, are valuable to us in a practical, concrete manner. And not only for our own self-worth but for our personal sovereignty, per the nodal axis. You may remember that a T-square is a configuration with a lot of energy, given that it is composed of two squares and one opposition, and that energy will be released, either in some psychic explosion or as focused power. The best place to focus the energy of a T-square is exactly opposite the planet with the two squares, in this case Pluto.
A Pluto-Driven Full Moon
In evolutionary astrology, Pluto and the lunar nodes are key to decipher our personal destiny. We have seen how the North Node represents life experiences that will be aligned with our life’s purpose in terms of the overall evolution of our soul, once again using the term without implying any permanent existence. Spirit will provide many opportunities to work on issues related to the North Node of any birth chart. Conversely, the South Node represents life experiences that provide us with no real evolutionary growth. We have mastered them in previous incarnations and are now available as tools, innate talents and the like, which we can use to further our growth through the North Node experiences. Since we are familiar with the South Node issues, there is always a temptation to remain in them, feeling comfortable with life but not growing.
Pluto has been said to symbolize the “journey of our soul”, a term used by Heather Ensworth, representing what we have accomplished thus far, so in a sense complementing the South Node. In all astrological symbolism, we must consider the level of consciousness at which a person operates. By representing a particular place in such an important process, Pluto is the power of what we have learned up to now, and it may be used either at the service of our soul’s growth or to engage in power struggles with others. However, just like the North Node stands opposite the South Node, the point exactly opposite to Pluto represents on what we should focus its power for best use in our evolutionary growth.1 For this full moon, such point becomes the degree of focused power of the T-square formed by Pluto with the full moon opposition, as we saw earlier.
This full moon is powerful. Sun in Taurus is simplicity of being, Pluto in Aquarius is truth and honesty, and Moon in Scorpio is complexity of emotions. I mentioned a while ago that Mercury is the process of interacting with our environment on a daily basis, either through our sensory perceptions or our conscious thoughts. However, Moon is how we react and, more importantly, how we adapt to that environment. Such reactions manifest in our beings as emotions which always run deep in Scorpio, such that deep love will lead to ecstasy and deep mistrust to secrecy.
The combination of a simple Sun and a truth-seeking (and its ruler) Pluto may have Moon “telling all her Scorpio secrets” at the full moon, and more truths, previously hidden by the old guard for whatever reason, may come out. On a personal level, this may be felt as emotional realizations about our relationships. Oh, and sexuality will be very much in the air, Sun in Taurus always represents our bodies (and Earth) and its ruler Venus is in Aries (at 23°14′), where it aggressively seeks to satisfy its relationship needs; we will come back to Venus later in the article.
The New Moon Context
It is hard to overestimate the power of the solar eclipse we had earlier this month. As Heather Ensworth is fond of saying, humanity consists of two kinds of people, those of us who welcome consciously the quantum changes in consciousness we are experiencing, and those who all they see is the deterioration of the old ways of living, and the chaos around us. Similarly, the claircognizant Sarah Elkhaldy says that humanity is going through a split in consciousness and that both will coexist in the planet for the time being. The point is that the same solar eclipse in conjunction with the North Node and Chiron was experienced as either an energetic push toward our evolution, in a big part by focusing our energies on healing whatever blocks our Path, or by a senseless collection of external events that invoke personal hurt, probably linked to a sensation of loss of what used to work and provided us comfort. Depending on our point of view, we are living through threats to civilization or having glimpses of the new tomorrow.
Sabian Symbols
The symbol for Taurus 5° (Sun) has the image: “A widow at an open grave”, expanded as the impermanence of all material and social bonds. Its key phrase is: Discard the Past. Opposite to it, the symbol for Scorpio 5° (Moon) is: “A massive rocky shore resists the pounding of the sea”, which is further explained as the inertia of all institutionalized procedures. The keyword for that degree is: Stability.
Sun reminds us that “all natural compounds decay”, as the Buddha said. In the end, all that is left is the Void, the “open grave” that ends all attachments. The Void presents a great challenge: what next? We must begin anew, if possible at a higher, more inclusive, universal, and definitely less egocentric level. Moon replies by reminding us that once the basic symbols and particular way of thinking, feeling and acting of a culture are set on institutions, they will resist change, like the rocks resist the onslaught of the waves. These symbols must be taken within the context of the new moon symbol, which had a young girl feeding hungry birds in winter, and is related to meeting one’s crises with compassion to transmute “life” (the winter crisis) into love.
At the full moon, we are made aware that such transmutation requires a new beginning, it is time to institutionalize new cultural procedures and bring stability against the “pounding of the sea”, the external forces fed by the old paradigms. We are co-creating these procedures and they must be based on the issues of personal sovereignty and valuable relationships discussed earlier.
Without trying to overwhelm you with symbols, let me just say that Aquarius 3°, where Pluto is located at the time of the full moon, has the keyword: Desocialization, defined as the gradual withdrawal from social contacts and interpersonal communication. Its opposite point, Leo 3°, has the keyword: Independence. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Pluto is perhaps telling us that our soul has learned the lesson represented by humanity’s current level of consciousness and it is time to move forward as an independent (self-sovereign) individual on our personal Path, gradually disregarding the old paradigms, represented by “social contacts”.
Aries Influences
So far, we have only considered the T-square configuration of Pluto and the Sun–Moon opposition, which will happen in fixed signs. All T-squares share sign modality and you may recall that fixed signs concentrate and liberate the power that will be distributed by the subsequent mutable sign and which was generated by the previous cardinal sign. Therefore most of the power of this full moon will come from such T-square, but that is not the entire story. When looking at the chart, we see a lot of Aries energy, a recent Jupiter–Uranus conjunction, and a Mars–Neptune in Pisces. Let me say a few words about how I see these influences.
The energy in Aries is still dominated by Chiron (Aries 20°18′) due to its exact conjunction, up to the degree’s minute, with the Sun–Moon conjunction of the solar eclipse. Chiron still forms a conjunction with the North Node (Aries 15°38) and thus greatly influences the opportunities that life will offer us, focusing on healing the collective hurt which, I believe, is the result of ignoring the sacred feminine in favor of the sacred masculine for centuries, leading to the patriarchal and individualistic civilization we have become. Those of us who are looking for a balanced approach, where the desires of the sacred masculine are at the service of the highest needs of the sacred feminine, have to lose the fear and the insecurities (Chiron) and remain firmly on our Path, like the rocky shore that withstands the onslaught of the sea, the Collective Unconscious.
But two of the personal planets are in the Aries stellium, Mercury and Venus. At Aries 16°05′, Mercury will be moving retrograde for two more days until the 25th. It forms a tight conjunction (0°27′) with the North Node and another one with Chiron, helping us reflect on life opportunities for healing and growth. Having passed through the degree of the eclipse, at the full moon it may make us reflect on specific issues stemming from that solar eclipse. When Mercury goes by that degree again in direct motion, on May 4, we may have actual communications referring back to the April 8 eclipse, according to the mundane astrologer José Millán.
As mentioned earlier, Venus rules Taurus and therefore Sun at the time of the full moon. Venus in Aries is not shy to seek relationships that will meet the need to feel that we are independent individuals. Recall that Venus affects our relationships by defining the value system upon which we form them. In the chart we see Venus forming a 3° conjunction with Chiron, which incorporates it to the Aries stellium and we may consider Mercury, Venus, Chiron and the North Node all acting in unison. Chiron is encouraging us to change our value system so as to form healing relationships.
The Full Moon phase of a lunation begins its waning phases, when we become conscious of what we were able to actualize from the new-moon seed. In this lunation, the exact conjunction of Sun, Moon and Chiron forced us to acknowledge the hurt of practically not existing in some field of our life experiences, symbolized by the house where the new moon occurred in our chart, but it also brought healing energy to overcome it. Whereas Mercury retrograde will urge us to reflect on these issues, Venus will ask us to establish new relationships, or reevaluate existing ones, so they can be of help to assimilate the Chiron lessons.
Mars Conjunct Neptune in Pisces
In the meantime Mars, the ruler of the Aries stellium, is at Pisces 24°52′ and forming a conjunction with its ruler Neptune at Pisces 28°43′. If we consider their archetypes, Mars is desire and in Pisces it may symbolize “shadowy”, confusing or hidden desires that haven’t taken shape yet. We may even find ourselves desiring what we already have, creating more confusion. Needless to say, the conjunction with Neptune, which will be exact on April 28, will only increas the confusing aspects of Mars in Pisces. Looking ahead, when Venus enters Taurus (April 29) we will wonder how we got in this mess, but the move of Mars from Pisces into its own sign Aries, on April 30, will “lift the fog” for Venus. At a personal level, having Mars in Aries and Venus in Taurus (their signs) will summon enjoyable and pleasurable energies. Sex will be at the forefront once again.
Neptune and World News
I once heard a saying: Against the inevitable (Saturn), the unpredictable will arise (Uranus). Most apocalyptic predictions result from projecting the chaos we are living to the always uncertain future. It would seem that humanity is doing its best to “deserve” a World War, die of heat and hunger due to climate change, be subjugated to AI, or withstand an alien invasion. It is basically guaranteed that the extrapolated “inevitabilities” will meet unpredictable situations. But, while Uranus may bring armed revolutions, we forget that this time Neptune is deciding how we will meet what we deem inevitable.
At the world level, the current level of consciousness in humanity is still mainly directed by Pluto, but let us not forget that Pluto and Neptune have formed a productive sextile for about eighty years, a true inter-generational aspect that affects most of the living population, and which will continue well into the 2030s. Since most aspects between the slower planets don’t last more than two or three years, this is a highly unusual situation occurring twice in their relationship cycle. Neptune and Pluto form a conjunction every 490 years or practically two per millennium. In that time, Pluto orbits twice around the sun while Neptune does it three times. Their last conjunction happened in 1891–92.
Pluto’s orbit is highly eccentric and therefore its speed varies wildly, taking only 12 years to transit through Scorpio, when it passes through its perihelion (closest to the sun) moving as fast as Neptune, but 32 years to transit through Taurus, where its aphelion occurs. Depending on the tolerance (orb) used, the two planets have formed a waxing sextile since 1942 or 1944 and will continue to do so until at least 2035, with the year intervals 1947–1960, 1975–1988 and 2024–2034 marking periods when the sextile is very tight and many times exact.2
When the current sextile first appeared, humanity was in the middle of World War II and the two planets formed a Minor Grand Trine with Uranus, signaling big changes in our collective consciousness. We have already seen that such configuration had Pluto in Leo in the driver seat, which is the planet with the two sextiles in the configuration, and the lesson was learned by confronting the reality of a nuclear holocaust. Since that time, both Neptune and Pluto have covered half of their orbits since they have been moving at similar speeds, Neptune going from late Virgo to late Pisces and Pluto from early Leo to early Aquarius. In the meantime, Uranus has completed a full orbit and it is in the same sign (Taurus) where it was located back then.
Humanity is clearly needing another lesson as big as when the threat of nuclear annihilation made us behave differently. However, this time it is Neptune who is in the driver’s seat. Both Neptune and Pluto “deal” with the issues identified by Uranus, but while one dissolves the problems, the other destroys what causes them. Just this past week, with Mars starting to form a conjunction with Neptune, we saw a most peculiar form of “retaliation” by both Iran and Israel, in which they took turns to pretend they were attacking each other.
Both Neptune and Uranus will change signs in 2025–26, to Aries and Gemini respectively, so their relationship will take on a more active role, and the trine between Uranus and Pluto, currently out of tolerance, will complete the Minor Grand Trine in 2026–27. Then, Neptune’s compassion will begin to dissolve our differences.
On Personal Sovereignty
I want to contrast individuality, and more so individualism, with personal sovereignty since both are the result of Yang processes impulsed by the Day Force and are concerned with personal integration.
We have called individuality the result of the process of individuation, a whole that at the highest level is the integration of mind, body and soul, all centered in the Self, or the ego in the case of individualism. In our holistic philosophy, there is an equivalent whole representing all the issues revolving around our relationships with other Selves, which we call our relatedness. Finally, we use personality to mean the integrated whole of an individuality and his or her relatedness. The goal of personal sovereignty is to integrate a personality, which is why it is concerned with valuable relatedness that would be appropriate for our personal destiny.
Wrapping Up…
I wanted to include the section about world news hoping to soothe somewhat the feelings that are likely arising when seeing so much chaos around us. Lama Rinchen says that anxiety is a symptom of having a poor relationship with the always uncertain future. The antidote to anxiety is faith, as we saw in the article about the Jupiter–Uranus conjunction. In that section I tried to convey the faith I have in the future.
I am hearing from a wide variety of sources the concept that humanity is splitting, or has already split, in two “parallel tracks” of evolution. Some of us are accepting, as consciously as possible, a new future that is being co-created not preordained and which is based on a higher level of consciousness. Presumably the rest have more work to do in what has been called euphemistically “3D”, meaning a denser plane with a lower level of consciousness.
However, both tracks are being developed in the same biosphere and it is our responsibility to have empathy and compassion when our paths cross, for they are immersed in problems, surrounded by fears and anxiety, unable to see meaning in the midst of confusing shadows. I’m not saying that we are all light, but we have a more encompassing point of view which can give our lives meaning.
May this full moon bring you valuable and healing relationships that facilitate your quest for personal sovereignty.
Always Love. 🌹🙏💖
Comments
Beautifully written and clear. We will be travelling April 25-30 and will be observing what is happening!
Thank you for the comment, it’s very much appreciated. Have a safe and enjoyable trip. 🙏