Full Moon in Scorpio Total Lunar Eclipse ~ May 15-16, 2022

Since we’re already in Eclipse Season, this feels important enough to post the write-up early. I’ll re-blog it closer to the actual date.

My May 2022 Forecast notes:

May 16 Full Moon in Scorpio, Lunar Eclipse, 12:14 a.m. Eastern US time. Also known as the Flower Moon, this is a South Node Eclipse that asks us to adapt quickly to changing situations. As flowers move from bud to bloom to faded petals to seed, we, too, need to embrace ever evolving shifts. The South Node brings a karmic flavor to any collective Shadow Work. With Uranus near the Sun point, we can expect rebellious, revolutionary and liberating insights to trigger some of the karmic release.

This is a Total Lunar Eclipse, which makes it even more powerful. According to Dane Rudhyar, the Sabian Symbol for the Full Moon point is:

PHASE 236 (SCORPIO 26°): AMERICAN INDIANS MAKING CAMP AFTER MOVING INTO A NEW TERRITORY.

KEYNOTE: The ability to adjust swiftly to a new situation by tuning in to its requirements.

…

It brings to us a message we greatly need today — the message of peaceful adaptation to nature, and through adaptation, of EFFICIENT FUNCTIONING in all life situations.  

(You can read the full description here.)

This push to adapt occurs with Mercury Retrograde urging us to review, reevaluate, and reconsider. Just before the Full Moon, Venus conjuncts Chiron in Aries, the sign of action. The Goddess of Love invites us to heal wounds around our relationships and self-esteem. Then the powerful South Node Lunar Eclipse in deep, dark, watery Scorpio initiates a cleanse and regeneration. In orb at the time of the eclipse and most exact on May 18, Mars conjuncts Neptune in Pisces. My May Forecast explained:

May 18 Mars conjunct Neptune in Pisces. In the days preceding this date through perhaps a day or so after, sensitivity kicks up several notches. Depending on how you process Neptune energies, you might feel like a dreamy romantic or a paranoid schizophrenic. Empaths should practice extra good energy hygiene during this time. Meditation, creative projects, and beautiful lovemaking are all favored. You’ll want to protect your energy, though. Harshness, violence and warlike postures will disturb you more than usual. Lean into the dreamier, spiritual side of Neptune, instead of confusion and delusion.

Mars often acts ahead of time, so these energies may peak at the moment of eclipse. In any case, eclipse energies continue for six months, so the Mars-Neptune conjunction in watery, boundary-less Pisces colors this eclipse with the energy of high stakes spiritual and psychological warfare. It also empowers us to take action: to position ourselves to receive spiritual and emotional healing.

The potential for paranoia, confusion and delusion gets amplified by the Full Moon point closely conjuncting Ceto. This TNO (Trans Neptunian Object) signifies “the creation of monsters within us and around us: the perception of monstrous ness, the assigning of the designation of monster to what is around or within us.” Linda Lee Berry continues:

The monster is that which is extremely different. It is often tied to that which creates a feeling of fear or revulsion within us. Sometimes this is horrendous as in a Nazi Doctor. Sometimes it is just alien to regular human experience, like Spock or a dwarf. Children’s fairy tales abound with monsters for a reason. At core we fear to be rejected for our differentness, for our failure to meet the expectations of those around us and so when we are children we deny and repress that within us that is different and thus unacceptable in our world and it becomes the monster(s) within us. Only when we face and transform these monsters can we reclaim the denied aspects of ourselves and become whole. The aspects to Ceto describe our personal monsters and the monsters we meet in the world, as well as the relationship we have to monsters both within us and around us.

The sign of Scorpio deals with the Shadow — those scary, rejected parts of ourselves that we vilify in others. As dark secrets, abuse and shame erupt, we will feel tempted to point fingers, then run and hide. But we cannot continue to project the darkness outside ourselves. A complete reckoning forces us to acknowledge our own complicity in the horrors we see.

In order to survive and heal, we must recognize and reclaim responsibility. Doing so allows us to make different choices that lead to very different results. The weight of this responsibility encourages us to lean into concepts like confession, forgiveness, and Grace. “Repent” literally means “to turn,” to shift course. We can’t just mouth the words. Our actions need to change, as well.

This May 16 Full Moon Lunar Eclipse feels like a major hinge point in human evolution. In addition to the ominous Ceto, the Full Moon point auspiciously conjuncts another TNO called Deucalion — a Noah-like figure saved from a catastrophic flood. This bodes well for the rebirth and regeneration also associated with Scorpio. According to Alex Miller:

“Deucalion was a son of Prometheus, a righteous and upright man who, with his wife Pyrrha, was saved from a huge flood Zeus sent to punish and destroy mankind for its hubris and savagery. Forewarned by his father, Deucalion built a huge wooden chest to ride out the raging seas. After they receded, Deucalion made an offering to Zeus to thank him, and consulted an oracle about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to cover his head, and throw the bones of his mother behind him. Deucalion understood this to be a metaphor, and theorizing that the Earth was the mother of all, and its rocks her bones, he and Pyrrha tossed stones behind them. Those that Deucalion threw became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha became women. Deucalion is the name given to a TNO (Trans-Neptunian Object) from the Kuiper Belt region of the solar system, near Pluto.

“Astrologically, Deucalion represents being overwhelmed or ‘flooded,’ saved from disaster by seemingly divine intervention; renewal and starting over; and having advance knowledge of a difficulty or potential disaster. There can also be a strong moral code, a highly developed sense of right and wrong.”

Many cultures have similar stories of a Great Flood that wiped out much of humanity as a way to purify the Earth. At this time, we might experience the “flood” in a literal sense, but more likely as a flood of life-changing, civilization-course-correcting information. Saturn (aka Father Time and Lord of Karma) squares the Sun-Moon axis from Aquarius, adding to the sense of morality. Saturn tells us to get our affairs in order and take a stand. He pressures us to get things right.

As Above, So Below. As Within, So Without.

I’ll leave you with a potent dream I had the morning after this post flowed out of me. It feels both personal and collective — like I continued processing the Full Moon in Scorpio Total Lunar Eclipse as I slept:

5/6/2022
“Woman in a Black Dress”

A vivid fragment, seen from behind: a woman in a long, black dress walking a path with steep drops on either side. The scenery was stark, but stunning. She wore a wide-brimmed black wool hat like I wore at my father’s funeral. She made her way — step by slow, careful step — along a narrow, natural bridge between two realities.

END of dream journal.