November 5: Taurus Full Moon
The Full Moon at 13°23 Taurus peaks at 8:19AM ET on November 5, illuminating our need for comfort and pleasure as we sit with the sorrow of the reaping period. Scorpio season is a time of magic that also gets us in touch with loss. The festival of Samhain is the witch's new year when we consider what has come to fruition and what we are releasing as we move towards the darkness of the longest night.
There's a kinetic energy in the air due to the Mars-Uranus opposition that peaks on the Full Moon eve. The Scorpio area of life has been activated over the past month with the transit of Mars through its watery home sign. Reflect on what has changed for you since the Autumn Equinox on September 22. Does life feel like it's evened out a bit since Venus entered Libra on October 13?
Mars moves into Sagittarius and immediately runs into an explosive opposition with Uranus in Gemini on November 4. This unpredictable energy could have us veering off course in a dangerous direction with our thoughts, words, and speech. When in doubt, chill out this week. Take to your bed rather than starting a war on the internet. Taurus is the master napper who declares that rest is resistance. The best revenge is living well so pamper yourself a bit and ignore everything else.
The Full Moon at the witchiest degree of the zodiac marks the midway point from the Equinox. We're six weeks from the Winter Solstice and just a few days before Mercury stations retrograde at 06°52 Sagittarius on November 9. This week is an opportunity to take stock of time, money, and energetic resources before the hectic nature of the holidays runs us into the ground. Taurus is symbolized by the bull that reminds us to go slow, eat well, sleep soundly, and ground deeply into the earth that supports us, even in the coldest months.
The season of the witch that invites us to investigate hidden power–both one's own and the underlying forces of the universe. The mysteries of the cosmos are able to be understood during periods that open and close like windows. Magic is our ability to direct will towards a specified goal; to alter the external through connecting with our own internal ability and energetic forces in the natural world. As you peer into the cauldron this Samhain season, consider what you wish to transform.
One of the fundamental sorrows of life is that everything which is born shall die. It is a natural law and one that humans have sought to escape throughout history by various means: from the alchemical elixir of life to cryogenic freezing. People have an uneasy relationship with endings and much of witchcraft and sorcery has been in the service of trying to get more of what we want and avoid what we don't like. But the striving of Mars to satisfy its goals is always ultimately futile because the ego is never done naming. The Taurus Full Moon grants us permission to relax, recharge, and take a break if we feel burned out.
Taurus is the connoisseur that knows while life is fleeting it is also good. Rather than trying to preserve ourselves, prolong youth through artificial means, or pioneer life on other planets, Taurus encourages us to learn how to live sustainably on Earth and revel in pleasure today. This lunation is ruled by Venus in Libra encouraging us to find balance in our pursuit of sweetness. Venus moves into Scorpio on November 6, so this is a nice moment of reconciliation before we may feel less inclined to compromise.
The complex experience of birth and endings, creation and grief, was articulated beautifully by musician Cardi B (who has her Sun and Jupiter in Libra and Venus and Mercury in Scorpio), reflecting on the dissolution of her marriage while she was pregnant.
The Moon is exalted in Taurus and the symbol of the bull as a nurturing mother cow comes from the Egyptian goddess Hathor whose crown is the lunar crescent. Hathor was a Mother goddess of the Moon and sky; she gave birth to the Heavens, the Sun, and all pharaohs. She embodied the divine feminine as creatrix and pleasure bringer through beauty, music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care. As the Eye of Ra, she was also vengeful and protective. She also could cross worlds in her role as psychopomp, helping the deceased transition into the afterlife.
Taurus is the impulse towards life, sexuality, and generation. The peak of Spring when we revel in beauty and the body through sensual exploration. The goddess Venus is traditionally thought of as bringing only good things: romance, partnership, art, babies, parties, and peace. But the earliest humans had a more complex view of the brightest jewel of the night.
The Mesopotamian goddess, Inanna, was known as the Queen of Heaven and associated with fertility, love, and war. There was no separation between the divine feminine that brought beginnings as well as endings.
In the poetic hymn, Exaltation of Inanna, written by the world's first known attributed author, lunar high priestess, Enheduanna, in the Sumerian city-state of Ur (ca. 2300 B.C.) she reflects on the goddesses myriad attributes:
"Lady of all the divine powers, resplendent light, righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved…Mistress of heaven, with the great pectoral jewels, who loves the good headdress befitting the office of en priestess, who has seized all seven of its divine powers! My lady, you are the guardian of the great divine powers!…Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the foreign lands."
Inanna's symbols were the eight pointed star, signifying the Venus retrograde cycle, and the lion. It takes courage and fierceness to sit with grief and let something die that isn't right for us. There is sadness in letting go of something we have loved, even if we know that period of life is finished.
Let this lunation ease you into the next phase of Scorpio season and go gently into the Mercury retrograde, taking as many breaks as you need along the way.