If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence,
we could rise up rooted.
Like trees.
Rilke
The Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse at 5 Taurus on October 28, 2023,
stirs intense feelings within us about what is working and what is not. Underlying this, is a pressing desire to restore our connection to the natural rhythms of the earth and our bodies, and to satisfy a deep longing to find ease and peace within a changing and tumultuous world. We are encouraged to move towards simplifying our life and in taking actions that are pragmatic and lead to a greater sense of security.
The paradox is that we may be feeling anything but peaceful or secure. Our fighting spirit is aroused. We may feel angry, ready to confront something head on (Mars/Mercury in Scorpio oppose Jupiter/ the Moon). We are to harness this energy, not sit on it, not repress it or use it to strike out at others. We can feel what is out of balance in the world and in the way we meet the world. If we can feel our feet on the earth and connect with the natural rhythm, we will know how to move forward and assert ourselves in a generative way.
Jupiter conjunct the Eclipse Moon
Eclipse Ruler: Venus trine Uranus oppose Neptune
Mercury, Mars conjunct the Eclipse Sun
Uranus in Taurus
Water Grand Trine with Saturn, the Sun, and Vesta
When a complex system
is far from equilibrium,
small islands of coherence
in a sea of chaos
have the capacity
to shift the whole
system to a higher order.
Chemist and Nobel Laureate, Illya Prigogine
The Eclipse Path. The Partial Lunar Eclipse has a very broad path and will cover a large swath of the globe. It moves through Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the eastern area of North and South Americas, and the Antarctic.
Eclipses occur in pairs. There is a Solar and Lunar Eclipse within two weeks of each other that seeks to reconcile a seeming polarity that has surfaced. The first eclipse occurred on the New Moon of October 14, 2023, as a “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse in Libra.
This is the last Taurus eclipse in Taurus/Scorpio axis within a series of eclipses which have taken place since November 19, 2021. The next one will occur in 2031. This two-year eclipse season took place on the axis that highlights resources, values, power, wealth, authority, and self-worth. We can reflect back on the last two years and glean what areas of our lives that these eclipses have stimulated and the transformation that potentially took place. Knowing what houses Scorpio and Taurus fall in our natal charts will provide clues as to the areas of our life that were affected.
The natal house where 5 Taurus resides in our personal natal chart will show us the area of our life that we are seeking resolution and a substantive shift. If we have planets between 0 and 10 degrees of a fixed sign (Taurus, Aquarius, Scorpio, Aquarius), there is an increased opportunity for a breakthrough in how we approach our life. The effects of the eclipse will unfold over the next six months, so there will likely not be a seismic shift on the day of the eclipse, but if we listen to ourselves, we can feel a new movement, a new way of engaging with life.
Lunar Eclipses show us the shadow of our emotional experience. We may be connected to and aware of deep-seated feelings that point our awareness to a pivotal change that is needed in order restore emotional wellbeing. By releasing emotional patterns and beliefs that no longer serve us, we can feel a greater degree of inner calm and connection to our body and the earth.
Happiness is not
a matter of intensity
but of balance, order
rhythm and harmony.
Thomas Merton
The Overall Configuration of this Eclipse is Harmonious
The Moon, exalted in Taurus, supports us to take steps that increase self-sufficiency. There is a readiness to release codependent dynamics. It is time to reduce complexity and get back to a simpler way of living. We are determined and prepared to fight for something. Yet, battling others will prove a distraction from the fight to nurture what we wish to grow for ourselves.
The eclipses of the last two years have occurred on the Taurus/Scorpio Nodal Axis, compelling us to reduce inner turmoil and drama by releasing emotional patterns that have prevented us from being present to our body, to the earth, and to our basic needs. Changes can be made in how we tend to our finances so that basic security needs are met, and we simultaneously nurture a life where we can regularly experience the beauty of the day, have sensual enjoyment, and enjoy inner calmness.
Six planets in fixed signs. We are determined to stand for something. The shadow side of so many planets is fixed signs is an inclination to dig in our heels and be stubborn around our viewpoint in the face of information or circumstances that call for a shift of perspective. Fixed signs do not like change and will go out of their way to avert it. The Captain who vowed to stay with his ship, but then went down with the ship, rather than get on a lifeboat, was someone who represents an out of balance use of the fixed signs. When fixed signs are in a stressful aspect with each other, as they are at the eclipse, we are being challenged to examine our beliefs and open to a new way of viewing things.
Self-Sufficiency and Stability
Jupiter conjunct the Taurus Moon
When Jupiter encounters another planet, it amplifies the nature and impulse of that planet. Traveling with the Moon, our emotions are amplified. Our need for security and safety is amplified (Jupiter and the Moon in Taurus). We look to how our fundamental needs (food, shelter...) will met, so that we can have ease.
Resources may show up or increase in some way as Jupiter, planet of growth, conjoins the eclipsed Moon. It also brings attention to resources we may take for granted: the air we breathe, water flowing through our faucets, a plethora of choices at the grocery store… By appreciating what we have, our sense of security and satisfaction grows.
Jupiter's presence also supports us in breaking ground to create new growth that will fortify and meet our security needs. In Taurus, Jupiter supports practical measures and defined practical steps for something we wish to initiate.
Taurus is the sign of the earth. The Eclipse illuminates the resources readily available so that we can better recognize and appreciate what is within reach. To accomplish this, we are afforded the opportunity to release emotional intensity around wanting more and more. We can also see where we may be enmeshed with global problems that we may have little power to effect and instead look to what we can affect. We are to identify and dismantle patterns of codependency that zap our confidence and rob us of our self-sufficiency.
Let us feel our feet on the earth, listen to what our body needs, notice the rise and fall of our breath in our belly, and become present to what is right in front of us. In doing this, we can rediscover our natural rhythm with the earth and with our body, and then clarity will arise around what we are to do today to help grow the peace and security we desire.
Mars/Mercury oppose Jupiter/Moon. We are determined, ready to fight for what we desire most. There is a ruthlessness to this energetic We can counter it by slowing down and knowing that the way we go about something influences the outcome.
Keep it Simple, Doable, Effective
Eclipse Ruler: Venus trine Uranus
Venus is the ruler of both eclipses this month. We are looking to create a breakthrough (trine Uranus) in how we move with and find enjoyment in the mundane, the chop wood, carry water aspect of living.
In Virgo, Venus values health and supports efforts we take to restore balance in our body – to clean up our diet, recommit to an exercise practice or make an appointment with a doctor that we have dragged our heels about making.
Venus encourages us in seeking satisfaction through doing something useful, like mending clothes, re-organizing a closet, or cleaning the drapes. She wants us to find ways to create a spaciousness in our immediate environment that brings us relief and ease.
We are resourceful at this time, ready to try something new, and are to seek a simplified, sound solution. We are working through ways we have been living a fantasy. (Venus oppose Neptune). We are encouraged to remove ourself from relationships and financial entanglements that are stifling or draining our well-being (Venus trine Uranus).
Uranus in Taurus (2018 – 2026) indicates continued disruption (Uranus) in areas associated with Taurus: food production and distribution, agriculture, financial systems, land ownership, and boundaries between countries. Uranus isn’t disrupting for the sake of disrupting but is releasing trapped and repressed energies as part of a movement to address imbalance and open us to healthier ways of cooperating and working with the earth's resources. In a world that is growing increasingly unstable, The Eclipse supports us to each find ways to increase our personal stability and self-sufficiency.
Wherever you stand,
be the soul of that place.
Rumi
Reconciling the Inherent Tension
of the Taurus/Scorpio Polarity
Taurus Scorpio
Calm Intensity
Stability Transformation
Grounded Merging
Simple Meaningful
Tangible Internal World
Apparent In Shadow
Day Night
Ease Power
The financial axis. Both Taurus and Scorpio deal with finances:
Taurus: personal assets, property, self-reliance
Scorpio – Investments, mortgages, debts, banking, big wealth
There is continued volatility in established practices and cultural norms in banking, stocks and currency. There will likely be further disclosures about criminality with big money transactions and financial issues. For us, we are to look at what we owe, what needs to be paid off and how to best tend to our jointly shared assets. We are encouraged to simplify investments and to look for how to increase our self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
Taurus: Growth above Ground
Scorpio: Stirring Beneath the Surface
The Eclipse reveals ways to work through emotional complexity, where we have been overly concerned with other people, and where we are obsessive. We look for how we can resolve and release the intensity, the drama living inside ourselves. We can feel where there is heaviness and burden. Again, the eclipse stimulates a shift to our perspective so we can strip away what is unnecessary. We can then see what is ready to take form and be about it.
Managing what lies beneath the surface within us
Sun, Mercury and Mars conjunct in Scorpio
Our passion is inflamed. We are ready to fight for what we believe in. We want to get to the bottom of things. There is a drive, a focus, a determination that can propel us to making needed changes. On the flip side, if we are too merged with others, we can lash out with heated words, try to manipulate or coerce others. We may feel a need to defend against another’s belief system. It is not about others. It is about what we are doing for ourselves and to identify ways to detach from the emotional intensity, what has built up within us, that may cloud the clear and practical work that is ours to do next.
There is a rhythm in things,
A heartbeat.
Waves in the ocean
A stretch of trees
as they drink in the sky,
and the song of raindrops
on your window
while you listen
for your place in it all.
Kai Skye
Emotional Intelligence
Grand Water Trine: Sun, Vesta and Saturn
Saturn in Pisces. We are gaining clarity this year around what is working and what is not feasible no matter how much we invest in it. There is an emotional truth rising as we discern where we have deluded ourselves and realistically face the truth about something we have been committed to. Saturn turns direct on November 4, supporting us to make the structural changes that we have been contemplating since it turned Retrograde in June.
The Water Grand Trine supports the growth of our emotional intelligence so we are less afraid of our feelings and can be present to strong feelings without suppressing, avoiding or letting them run us. Saturn provides the structure, the riverbanks for emotion to flow through our bodies so that we can feel and process them.
The Sun in Scorpio gives rise to deep-seated passions and motivations that can become obsessive. The eclipse shines a light on what is living deep within us, allowing it to surface. Rather than make our agitation be about someone or something else, we can take the time to feel and process our emotional nature and do the work to release old beliefs, patterns, wounds that still drive us.
The Asteroid Vesta is the one who tends the eternal flame. As part of the grand trine, she reminds us that it is a sacred work to tend to our feelings and understand our emotional nature. When we do not undertake this sacred work, an unconscious emotional nature can undermine or sabotage our best efforts. When we have befriended and know how to work with our feelings, our feelings can be trusted to guide us in a good way. It is through our feelings that we connect to the natural world and to the rhythms of life so that we move in harmony with them and within ourselves.