A Taurus Full Moon of Freedom from the Past


Posted on October 23, 2018 by Henry Seltzer of ASTROGRAPH.COM
 

Wednesday morning’s Full Moon in Taurus, taking place on October 24, a week from Halloween, brings a startling element of intuitive understanding amidst introspective recognition of relationship mechanisms and internal wounding. These are powerful culminating energies that illuminate magnetism, mystery, and the vast spectrum of earthly experience. The Moon is exalted in earthy Taurus, and as she comes to her maximum brightness there, opposite the Sun that has just entered the transformative and watery depths of Scorpio, the Moon conjuncts Uranus almost exactly. Uranus is now in Taurus, but only until November 6th, when slipping back into Aries for a return engagement there. The Moon is within only a single degree of the Grand Awakener, while the Sun is just three degrees from Venus, currently in the midst of her harrowing retrograde journey through Scorpio. Venus is now symbolically in the underworld, invisible to our physical eyes until emerging as the Morning Star on November 1st. With this axis of the zodiac highlighted, in such close alignments to important archetypes, this gives the metaphoric eyes of our conscious awareness the chance to adjust to the darkness, as the veils over the secret worlds of mystery realms become thin, while our experience of physical form provides the anchoring to be guided and supported for this dynamic chapter of our Soul’s path. This is therefore a potent time to delve into the hidden corners of our subconscious, such as revealed by dreams and subtle messages from within, and as well to weave these explorations into physical manifest form through breathing, movement, dance, yoga, ritual, journaling, and art.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer, is also highlighted in this Full Moon, being aspected by the Sun, Moon and Jupiter. Combined with prominent Uranus and retrograde Venus, these powerful alignments call us to reassessment of our relationship dynamics, as well as our values and financial strategies, while simultaneously seeking to transcend these. Uranus gives us the potency to tap into deep intuition and also to free ourselves from established habit patterns. We are being asked to direct our inner fortitude to the depth of our own sense of power and capacity to transform, while simultaneously remaining supple and receptive to the gifts that come when we have the courage to embark into the unknown. The beneficial influence of Uranus grants opportunities for revelation, innovation, and relief from the shackles that bind our perception, and in Taurus is waking us up to our physical bodies, our relationship with material security, and our appreciation of this delicate and complexly beautiful Earthly experience. The highlighted presence of Uranus can also shake us to our very core with sudden events that send us into a process of crisis, catharsis, and awakening. Venus rules Taurus, and as she testifies in retrograde movement from her place of detriment, Scorpio, we may find aspects of relationship, intimacy, and issues of self-worth coming to the fore. When she makes her ‘heliacal rise’ at the last degree of her home sign of Libra on November 1st, beginning a new 584 day Venus cycle, we could experience greater harmony, tactfulness, and collective prioritization of peaceful connection. Therefore, this window of time before that happens makes for a potent rite of passage, especially in terms of transforming ourselves as relational beings. If we can remain present and loving with what is now arising, we may be delightfully surprised with the lessons available for harvest on the other side of having faced painful or challenging places within ourselves.

We must not forget Saturn in this celestial portrait, because he is in trine to Uranus, and also nearly exactly sextile to Venus. Saturn’s influence in this context reminds us of how to take responsibility for our creation of experience – especially in terms of human connection. However easy it might be to point the finger of blame, perpetuating the endless cycle of victim, perpetrator, and perceived victor, we do better to avoid it. This Full Moon seems to be offering a particularly potent planetary prescription: if we feel within us the yearning to end the cycle of victimhood, and the striking clarity to see ourselves clearly in all of our faults and wounds, we might yet find ourselves loving and forgiving ourselves for our mistakes and pitfalls. There is a lot to be said for the willingness to step up and take 100% responsibility for our contribution to the patterns that perpetuate our own suffering. As psychologist and relationship expert Gay Hendricks so aptly writes: “There is tremendous healing power in taking responsibility for something right now in the present, but no healing value in looking back to the past to blame yourself or anyone else.”

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are as usual quite potent. For the Moon, in the second degree of Taurus, we find “An Electrical Storm,” reminding us of Uranus, for which Marc Edmund Jones writes, “There is here a catharsis of nature, mirroring the capacity of every individual for discharging the whole complex of strain in his affairs and so clearing the way for a more genuine progress ahead, [leading to] transformation.” This echoes the Uranian symbolism of finding greater freedom and authenticity in our individual expression. For the Sun, in the same degree of Scorpio, the symbol is “A broken bottle and spilled perfume.” Jones calls this, “a symbol of [a person’s] real power in making their permanent impact on others, dramatized at each moment of issue and crisis by a completeness of the self’s flow out and into every last ramification of the given experience.” Here we encounter a bold invitation for each of us to express the very essence of our truest nature, even in times of crisis and challenge, referencing the depth of power that lies in our human ability to have profound impact on one another. In this time of intensity, may we each have the courage to face the unknown, so that we might experience the freedom to relate and express as our truest, most brilliantly authentic selves.