Scorpio Full
Moon -- May 17, 2011
The Taurus-Scorpio Full Moon occurs on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 4:10am Pacific /7:10am Eastern/ 11:10am GMT. This Full Moon brings us face to face with the great god Eros/ Desire, acknowledging both our personal desires and those of others. "All desires are pure, if we distill them back to their original intention." (Caroline Casey). The earthy sensuality of the Taurus Sun shines out and gives rise to the emotional passion of Scorpio during this Full Moon. What awakens our passions? What is worth being passionate about? Opening to life through our senses awakens within us a deep understanding and enjoyment of our physical and emotional natures. We're talking about primal energies with Taurus and Scorpio -- our physical desires want to be met and matched by our emotional desires. It's about experiencing life on a deep level.
The path of Desire teaches us to follow the blueprint of our original nature, to see Desire as the primal energetic resource which compels us to discover who we are meant to be and to do so we can grow into the fullest experience of our lives. The trouble is, we've been taught to cut off and repress our desires; instead of taming and transforming them, we give them free unconscious sway over us and so are never really satisfied with the substitute "desires' our society provides for us. We have depleted the Earth in our desperate search, when the answer has lain within us all the time. But we have to search for it in our secret heart so we know what we love.
How do we share? is another question we have to ask ourselves. The Earth is home to all of us, offering us her healing herbs, her beautiful plants and flowers, her hidden riches. Have we been good stewards of our Land, Water and Air? Have we given the Earth the sovereignty that is hers? I think not. Just today Nevada held a hearing on a law that would make it a criminal act to suggest nutritional and natural remedies unless you have a state license. They want to prevent us from sharing our knowledge about alternative health remedies, under the false belief that they are "keeping us safe'. Instead they are taking away our right to health and well-being -- they are saying we have no right to the bounty of the Earth without paying for it.
This is the dark side of the Scorpio/Taurus axis -- the refusal to share resources freely. This is the state of consciousness in Western society which Pluto in Capricorn is exposing. The only way to change things is to change yourself. With this Full Moon squaring Neptune in the beginning of Pisces, expect fear and illusion from unconscious people but choose to stay centered in the "knowing' of your body and your feelings. Your Instincts can be blinded or heightened now. Ask Spirit to guide you and trust!
Many people still think of the Earth as dead matter to be exploited by our corporations so they can service our needs. And yet, our real needs are often very Scorpionic, that is, deeply emotional and often hidden from view. Scorpio hides the fear of loss and betrayal, fear and anger, suffering and death. This Scorpio Full Moon directs us to drink in the light of peace, beauty and sensual pleasure from the Taurus Sun and release those dark fears and imagined betrayals and open to the joy and healing power of Life. It is May after all!
Whenever I see the Full Moon, I think of something I read by Karl Kerenyi about the Greek Queen of Heaven, Hera. He said that Hera was the energy of the Full Moon and was called the Perfect One. And that she raged when she was married to this patriarchal god, Zeus, because he was supposed to be her Perfector. And yet he would not complete her, not honor her as the Perfect One. And so we too have been taught to ignore the contents of our unconscious. Does our conscious ego perfect our unconscious needs and desires? Do we even know what we desire? The strong energies of Taurus and Scorpio are feminine and transformative -- feminine in that these two signs are magnetic and deeply emotional. While Taurus is the sign of Mother Earth and her life-giving bounty, Scorpio is the sign when our Mother takes us back into death so that we can have a future re-birth. Life and Death are two sides of the coin of Life here on Gaia.
The Pleiades
This Full Moon occurs while the Sun stands in the same zodiacal degrees as the Pleiades, that ancient and mythically powerful group of stars that hang over the Bull's horns. This small group of stars is known and honored throughout the world. Their rising and setting guided the agricultural and commercial affairs of many nations. Their rising and setting helped order the agricultural year. Their heliacal rising and setting marked the open and close of the sailing season for the Greeks. Their rising in the nighttime sky was a sign of the onset of the rainy season in many lands. They are often archetypally linked to a great cataclysm in ancient times; perhaps the Great Deluge of the Bible. They sit high in the sky in November, when ancient people commemorated their Dead. This amazing group of stars, like Nature herself, is part of our collective mythological DNA, and many ancient peoples believed that this group of stars marks the center of the universe. It is the crown chakra of our galaxy, standing opposite the galactic center.
The seven stars of this constellation were imaged as 7 doves or maidens, fleeing from the unwanted attentions of the giant hunter Orion. They are also remembered as the seven daughters of Atlas, the giant who held up the world on his shoulders, and who were placed in the heavens because of their virtues and their affection for each other. There is a universal theme connected with the Pleiades that infers that one star or sister disappeared and so is referred to as the lost Pleiad.
Poets from Homer to the author of Job to our modern poets celebrate their mystery and fascination. The Egyptians called this star group "Athur-ai" or "Atauria" meaning the stars of Athyr (Hathor). Hathor is the ancient Egyptian Mother goddess, the cow-faced goddess of fertility, love and sexuality. This star group was even connected with many tors in Britain, such as Arthur's Seat, where the Pleiades were worshipped - or at least studied from the hilltops.
I am reminded of a dream I had when Jupiter and Pluto were on the galactic center. I dreamed I am on the upper floor of a house in Providence and Carol tells me to come over and look out the window at something. There, shining in the daytime sky I see the Pleiades, a beautiful star-group shining brighter than the sun. After helping the children with something in the kitchen, I look out another window and see a constellation of stars dissolving as if they were fireworks dripping down the blue sky.
With the Sun sitting on the degrees of the Pleiades -- in a way, making it visible to my eyes - this dream gives me hope that it is NOW that something new (an archetypal pattern) is being born while an old constellation or pattern is dissolving. Jean Houston told me that the Pleiades symbolize a new dispensation for humanity. I'd like to believe that, despite what's going on in our world.
So, what can we do to perfect ourselves during this intense Full Moon? Cleanse our senses and emotions, and acknowledge what we really desire.
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