Happy Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio! The Full Moon at approximately 15 degrees of Scorpio becomes exact today, on Friday, May 5 at 1:33 PM New York Time (17:33 GMT). The Penumbral Lunar Eclipse reaches its maximum point 10 minutes prior.
This is the second and final Eclipse in this first Eclipse Season of 2023. When the sun and moon oppose one another, meaning it is a Full Moon, we can have a Lunar Eclipse, where the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow.
This is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, meaning the moon passes through the penumbra, which is the outer region of the Earth’s shadow.
As a reminder, Eclipses are special astrological occurrences. During an Eclipse, new codes are downloaded to us that serve to re-calibrate us, and re-direct us back toward our Highest Path in this life. The energetic effects of the Eclipse last for six months—but the changes that occur in the six months following an eclipse can have effects for a lifetime.
This is a South Node Eclipse, meaning that the energy of it helps us to revisit, re-evaluate, and ultimately let go of or transmute the negative karmic patterns that we carry—those that our rooted from the past, both in this and past lifetimes.
During a South Node Eclipse, we also tend to revisit relationships that are in need of healing or transmutation. These relationships can even involve people that are on the other side.
With Mercury still Retrograde in Taurus, we feel like the clock has been rewound; it feels like at times we are in the past in conversations with others, or in the dream world. With Neptune in its home sign of Pisces sextiling Pluto—the ruler of Scorpio—much healing could occur in the dream world during this time.
Scorpio is a fixed water sign, making it one of the most emotional signs of the Zodiac. Around this Eclipse, it would be perfectly normal to feel a whole range of emotions (e.g. anger, joy, resentment, grief, bliss, jealousy, lust) in just the course of a single day.
We had a South Node Scorpio Eclipse almost exactly a year ago—so, the same themes that we were working with during May of 2022 will likely resurface around this time, for us to revisit. Try to remember what your biggest obstacles were one year ago--think more inner world stuff than outer world, though both can apply--and ask yourself how far you’ve gotten along in healing these things in the past year—and what remains to be healed?
The Scorpio energies are super-intense right now, as Pluto—the ruling planet of Scorpio—is exalted, as it is still practically Stationed, having just began its journey Retrograde. Pluto will speed up day-by-day over the next few weeks, and then continue its Retrograde journey through October 10--days before the Libra Solar Eclipse.
As I said, Scorpio is a fixed water sign. It is the eighth sign of the Zodiac, and the ruler of the Eighth House—The House of Sex. This house rules over sex, taboos, death, taxes, transformation, and wills/legacies. It is ruled, as I said, by Pluto, the planet of death, destruction and transformation. As a fixed sign, it is stubborn and loyal. As a water sign, it is deeply emotional, as I said.
Scorpio is associated with the scorpion. Its glyph is an ‘M’ with the tail pointed outward, like a scorpion’s stinger. The ‘M’s tail is also a phallic symbol. Scorpio rules over the genitals and sex in general--but especially the aspects of sex that have to do with power exchanges, taboos, and deeply-rooted psychological aspects (aka Freudian psychology).
As the most deeply emotional of all the Zodiac signs, Scorpio invites us to really honor the depth of all our emotions--especially the uncomfortable ones, like rage, fear, and grief. It asks for us to acknowledge the presence of shame and guilt within. It encourages us to honor the depth of the 'man' part of the HU-man—as in the physical, emotional, dense self.
We have the feeling around this Scorpio Lunar Eclipse that there's something deeper that hasn't yet been explored-- like there's a totally new level of rawness beneath the skin that has yet to come up (or perhaps is coming up now). Scorpio is the sign of death and rebirth, and transformation. Around this Eclipse you could find yourself going through intense emotions, like fear, anger, jealousy, grief and loneliness.
The depth and intensity of the Scorpio energy scares many away, because it can be uncomfortable. However, for those brave enough to explore the depths of one's own consciousness and emotional body, the reward is karmic transmutation, which is one of the very reasons you came to this planet and one of the most important facets of the Ascension journey.
This Full Moon juxtaposes the sun in Taurus, giving us the opportunity to explore all aspects of the Scorpio-Taurus polarity. Scorpio rules over the spiritual world, while Taurus rules over the physical.
We have been in Taurus season for about two weeks now, and in fact the next lunation is a New Moon in Taurus. During Taurus season, we want to connect with nature—and the physical world in general—in all ways, including the material world in the form of money, art, food, etc.
With the Scorpio Full Moon and Eclipse, we are led to explore the spiritual world. The veils are thinned; guides, spirits, and ghosts will be more apparent than usual. This is a great time to reach out and connect with guides and loved ones on the other side. You may receive signs from the other side very easily during this time.
With this being a South Node Eclipse, it is especially a good time to ask for assistance from guides and loved ones on the other side in healing wounds and traumas within—as well as unsettled relationships with family members and others on this side, as well as those in the Spirit World.
The overall theme of this South Node Lunar Eclipse is re-evaluating the past, and letting go. You must let old ideas, concepts, and stuck energy go. If a relationship needs to end, let it end (more on that later in this article). If a job or career needs to go, let it go. If you need to discard old belief patterns that no longer serve you, then walk away from your past self and create a brand new self. Eclipse Season is all about transformation and change!
Stare at the Full Moon and ask Her what she wants you to let go of. Ask Her to take from you whatever is no longer needed; to remove the burden of any baggage that has become too heavy to shoulder any longer.
What needs to be transformed and transmuted? What icky energy is still there within your energy field? What do you need to do to shed this energy?
Sometimes, we believe that we can't let go of something from the past until we fully understand it. This isn't actually true. Something doesn't have to be fully understood before you can let it go. Remember that every event, experience, or relationship—no matter which emotions it produces in your body or what effect it has on your physical reality—has a positive intention from the perspective of the Life Plan that is created by your soul.
Eventually, enough time will pass and you will be able to interpret the role that the event, experience or relationship had in your Life Plan by seeing what came next.
What experiences did you end up having as a result of that event, experience or relationship that you wouldn't have had otherwise? Who did you end up meeting that you wouldn't have met otherwise? What wisdom did you learn that you were then able to implement into your future choices, to build your emotional and spiritual maturity, and to model or teach to others?
This is the essence of alchemy—to take the difficult experiences from the past and transmute them into wisdom and teaching/helping others going through (or have gone through) similar experiences.
Any tendencies toward escapism or addictions will likely build up a pressure so great inside you that you will find yourself feeling really dense, moody, or overreactive around this Eclipse.
Pay attention to those addictive patterns and ask yourself whether they are healthy distractions or compulsions that help you to avoid feeling; methods of self-medicating; or excuses to procrastinate? There is a difference between a healthy outlet and an addiction or compulsion. Scorpio/Pluto rules over addictions.
Letting go of unhealthy habits and addictions begins with a firm choice. The discipline required to keep up with keeping old bad habits out of your life builds character and provides energetic fuel to help you make leaps and bounds forward in other aspects of your life.
I just want to say that I believe in you, I know that you have the power within to let go of whatever you need to!
Here are some crucial questions to contemplate (and journal on if you’d like to go really deep), to help you understand, and work through, some of the inner wounds. With Chiron ‘the Wounded Healer’ squaring Mars in emotional Cancer--on top of all of the Eclipse Season and Pluto influences (more on Pluto later in this article)--this is a very powerful time to do some inner healing work.
Describe the nature of the pain that still resides within you. How would you describe your core wound?
What defense mechanisms have you enacted over the years to keep yourself safe from having to feel this core wound?
In what ways have you sabotaged yourself in order to keep yourself safe from having to feel this core wound?
Who hurt you? What did they do to you that still lingers within?
Who took away your power? How did they do that? Do you overcompensate by trying to take power over others or over life in some ways, even if those are subtle?
Why haven’t you been able to forgive the people that hurt you and took your power away, and let go of the dense energy fully? What would it mean for you if you were able to do that? Why is it scary to let go of that resentment?
What wisdom have you garnered from navigating and surviving your most difficult and traumatic experiences?
Who would you be if you had no guilt or resentment? Why might it be kind of scary to be that person? What stands between you and becoming that person?
How (and why) are you afraid of your own personal power?
In what ways did you try to take power over others in inappropriate ways? Have you forgiven yourself fully for this? Can you forgive yourself fully for this now?
Who would you be if you were to step fully into your personal power in the most positive, benevolent way?
In what ways have you yet to fully channel your personal power into manifesting what you want in this life? What are you afraid of? What might change if you had what you’ve always wanted? Who would you be if you had what you’ve always wanted? Why are you afraid of being that person that has everything they want?
PLUTO GOES RETROGRADE AND MAKES A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT ASPECTS
The most impactful features of this Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse chart involve Scorpio’s ruler, Pluto.
When Pluto made its much-anticipated transition from Capricorn into Aquarius earlier this year, we could say that it announced an early preview of the Age of Aquarius. Artificial Intelligence innovations like ChatGPT and Lensa AI pushed themselves to the forefront of the Zeitgeist, previewing the type of AI-led innovations that will likely inevitably become a part of everyday life over the next two decades and beyond.
Now, with Pluto beginning its backtrack—first through Aquarius, then back into Capricorn—we will likely see a regression back into the stubbornness of the ‘old world’ that we are in the process of exiting; the most glaring example of this very well may be a re-escalation of the Russia-Ukraine War. The wheels for that may have already been set into motion with the Kremlin accusing Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.
Pluto is squaring the North Node in Taurus on this Eclipse. With this intense square, on a personal level we can expect a deep and undeniable call to transform, as we discussed and (hopefully) journaled on in the previous section.
On a planetary level, we can expect radical events and shifts that nudge the collective toward its highest Ascension timeline. These radical events don’t necessarily need to occur now—however many of the codes and templates that will initiate these events are likely being downloaded into the Earth Grids around this Eclipse.
The North Node sextiles Saturn in Pisces, and Pluto sextiles Neptune (at home in Pisces as well), meaning many creative solutions to worldly problems will likely be downloaded to people around this Eclipse time. We will see these creative solutions become a part of the collective experience more and more over the next two to three years, as Saturn continues to play in Pisces.
Pluto’s influence is predictably unearthing scandals in the public eye—especially sexual scandals. Current examples in the news include the Donald Trump civil battery and defamation trial centered around an alleged rape; the allegations that JP Morgan and Deutsche Banks facilitated sex trafficking operations, and that the ex-Barclays Bank boss raped a woman on one of Jeffrey Epstein’s islands; and the allegations that Woody Allen hung out with Epstein regularly. More sexual scandals are likely to come out over the next few weeks.
The exalted Retrograde Pluto also squares Jupiter in Aries with just over two degrees of orb on this Eclipse (it becomes exact May 17). This is one of the most important planetary aspects of 2023; as both of these planets are ‘heavyweights’ that have a huge effect on the collective experience when they aspect.
Jupiter in Aries is a violent aspect; squaring the exalted Retrograde Pluto in Aquarius, the theme here is ‘radical change through violence’. This violence could potentially come in the form of war escalation (as already mentioned), surprise attacks, mass violence, or natural disasters; also, it could show up in the economic arena, perhaps in the form of more bank failures, or a sharp downward turn in the stock market.
Three U.S. banks have collapsed in the first half of this year. Those three banks had $532 billion in assets under management—more than all of the assets under management by the 25 U.S. banks that collapsed in 2008. Based on the astrology, I would imagine that more banks will go under this year; this Jupiter-Pluto square coinciding with the Pluto Retrograde (and the Scorpio Eclipse, to boot) may be the catalyst in the skies.
On a personal level, Pluto’s Station and Retrograde, and the strong aspects Pluto is making in this Eclipse Chart, is pushing us to go within and face the deepest wounds—especially those around the theme of power, as I asked you to journal on in the last section. Also, during this time you may be re-exploring and recalibrating your relationship with your own sexuality.
Speaking of sexuality, this Scorpio Eclipse could spell trouble for many romantic relationships.
TROUBLE IN RELATIONSHIPS
Eclipse Seasons in general tend to be treacherous for romantic relationships. This current one, and last October-November’s Eclipse Season, have been especially unstable for lovers. Many relationships ended during, or directly after, October-November’s Eclipse Season—and many are in the process of wrapping up now.
With the intense Scorpionic and Plutonian energies present, secrets will be revealed; some of these revelations could serve as Soul-directed catalysts that precipitate breakups. With Venus in Gemini, some people may be looking elsewhere for romantic escapades, and not staying loyal.
Scorpio and Pluto rule over power dynamics in relationships. If one person in a relationship is inappropriately taking power over the other, that will likely become all-too-apparent during this time. If you are in any sort of abusive relationship, get out and get to the safety however you need to!
In less extreme examples, one partner may be feeling very restricted and like they can’t take being in the relationship any longer.
If you are considering ending a relationship, here are a few questions to honestly ask yourself (and ideally journal on):
Do I feel better/freer/more like my ‘true self’ when I am away from him/her/them?
Am I simply hanging onto this because I am used to it?
If I wasn’t afraid of the future, or of being alone, would I still stay in this?
Do I believe that it might be healthier for me to love him/her/them from afar?
Either you’ll probably have a strong internal ‘yes’ (perhaps underneath other emotions) to all four of the questions above—or the questions above will reinforce a deep feeling within that you and him/her/them are ‘supposed to’ fight through the difficulties and make it work (and in this context, I mean ‘supposed to’ as in your souls want to make it to work).
Trust your intuition over the voices of your ego and others during this time—and know that if a relationship does end during this time, it was meant to. (And, if you’re honest with yourself, you can probably look back and see that it was a long time coming.)
If you are going through, or on the heels of, a breakup, I created a webinar a few years back about what is going on on a soul level during a breakup, with guidance on how to move forward from heartbreak--based on my experience of a painful breakup in my younger years that served as the catalyst for my spiritual journey.
A lot of people have wrote to me over the years and said that my webinar was very helpful in their recovery. It’s called How to Move on Completely From Your Ex. You can purchase it here.
The good news, though, is that if you and your partner were to be able to make it through both last October-November’s Eclipse Season and this one, it’s a pretty good indication that your relationship will have some staying power.
Venus sextiles Jupiter in Aries and Neptune in Pisces--and Mars (the planet that rules over the physical aspect of sex) sextiles adventurous Uranus and trines Neptune. This is an energy that strongly encourages affairs and sexual exploration. For some couples, sexual exploration could be helpful in strengthening bonds.
Mercury Retrograde coinciding with this storm of Scorpio energies will also have a lot of people reconnecting with their exes, as we will likely be feeling emotions come up around past relationships.
Just remember that oftentimes Mercury Retrograde can create a bit of a mirage around romantic relationships because it feels like the clock is turned back—and once the Retrograde ends it doesn’t feel the same. Keep in mind that if you and someone broke up, there was a reason for that.
All that being said, sometimes people are meant to be together again after a period of separation; if the souls involved planned that out in the Soul Contract, then of course it will eventually happen one way or another, and oftentimes reconnections happen during Mercury Retrograde.
All in all, this will be a very complex time for many romantic relationships. My best advice, again, is to trust your intuition over your ego and the voices of others.
LOTS OF SOLAR FLARES: ASCENSION SYMPTOMS HEIGHTENED
We have seen quite a few large (M- and X-class) solar flares during this Eclipse Season. This is causing a marked increase in Ascension Symptoms in many people.
The antidote to these symptoms is to spend time in nature, as well as staying very hydrated, sleeping a lot, and meditating. Check out my list of 30 ways to get grounded.
WHAT TO DO DURING THE ECLIPSE?
When the Eclipse itself is occurring—from 11:14 AM-3:31 PM EDT/New York, it’s best to do as little as possible. The less you eat, the better. Don’t delve into anything physically demanding if possible--and don’t get into emotional discussions with people during the Eclipse.
During the Eclipse, we are in an energetic void. The energy is very unstable and volatile. It’s best not to do any magickal workings unless you are a very experienced witch and it’s a very important spell, and you know how to harness the powerful Eclipse energies.
Really, the best thing you can do during an Eclipse is to be alone and to be in introspection or just relaxing, if possible. Basically, the idea is to let the Eclipse pass, and then resume life as normal.
After the Eclipse passes, it’s a great time to do a Full Moon releasing ceremony. One of my favorites is to write anything I want to release on small slips of paper, then ceremoniously throw each slip of paper one-by-one into a fire as I visualize/feel myself letting go of each thing.
HAPPY VESAK
Today, May 5, is also Vesak, which is the celebration of the Buddha’s birthday (and for some, his enlightenment as well). Today is a very important holiday for millions of Buddhists around the world. So Happy Vesak!
HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO
Also, a happy Cinco de Mayo to all Mexican-Americans, Mexicans, and everyone else who is celebrating this holiday.
Wishing you Love, Healing, Peace and Transformation on this powerful Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio.
With Love,
Matthew John
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