On Monday, October 26th, the Taurus Moon opposes the Scorpio Sun giving us this month's Full Moon - our annual Full Moon in Taurus.
The Moon in Taurus is about what we own/what we have now. What we value. The Full Moon brings things to light, to a peak/culmination or to an end. This Moon brings to a RESULT events set into motion last May at the New Moon in Taurus when we hungered for life as life hungered for GROWTH.
The Moon loves Taurus (the sign of Mother Nature and of the moon's exaltation) and this is a "stop and smell the roses" moment - even with this gnarly fixed T-Square to Pluto. Maybe we have gotten what we want and maybe we haven't. Sometimes not getting what we want, allows us to see most clearly what we really value and what we already have.
Like all Full Moons, this a Sun/Moon opposition. The Moon is in earthy, grounded Taurus. The Sun is in deep, dark, transformative Scorpio. Life vs. death. The stuff we own that is visible, nourishing, we can hold in our hands, take to the bank, is REAL. Vs. the stuff that owns us that is stuffed, hidden, merged, has strings attached, is REAL. Full Moons represent fullness, peak power, endings - that moment of our breath when our lungs are full just a second before we begin to exhale.
Full Moon are at their heart - oppositions. Oppositions are just what they sound like and often at a Full Moon, we find ourselves working with the polarity of the two energies involved. With Scorpio, some transformation comes to light (Full Moons bring things to light) - maybe we have to surrender, there could be a loss of control. With Taurus, we turn toward the present moment - what already exists. We might take solace in what brings us comfort - nature, food, our physical senses.
The Moon opposes the Sun from Taurus, so COLLECTIVELY this is all about our security, our money, our resources, what we own. The Sun in Scorpio is shining a light on what has been merged/purged, HIDDEN - and just won't let us get too comfortable. If we are spending money we can't afford, not valuing the things we should be valuing, if we are spreading intimate information that shouldn't/doesn't need to be spread or being intimately connected with situations, people and things when those connections are DEAD or de-stabilizing - this Full Moon in earthy Taurus will illuminate some of this.
If we are feeling grateful for what we have that will be illuminated, too.
All this applies every year to every Full Moon in Taurus, but let's take a look at this one.
Let's unpack the chart!
The Moon at 4 degrees Taurus opposes the Sun in Scorpio. They both square Pluto at 3-degrees forming a T-Square to Pluto in Aquarius (the sign of the North Node). Pluto is the apex, the point where all the pressure lands. In a T-Square the two planets in the opposition have nowhere to go but toward the third, and FIXED SIGNS DO NOT BEND. Nobody here is budging. This is stubborn energy meeting stubborn energy, and Pluto is the God/energy who doesn’t blink first. The things we’ve seen coming for a long time become undeniable. Tough decisions. Uncomfortable intensity. Facing what we already knew was there, but haven't wanted to look at.
The Moon is just shy of 3 degrees Taurus, the degree of her exaltation. She is as strong and secure as she gets, and she is the one anchor in the chart. She is opposite the Sun, very near 3 degrees Scorpio, the degree of the Moon's fall. In some ways here the Moon at her best faces off against the Moon at her worst. It’s the same polarity - what nourishes us and what we can’t let go of, what we hold and what holds us. It's all the same thing here.
Venus is the ruler of this Moon, and she is in a tender spot. She is retrograde at 29-degrees Libra, the anaretic degree, the last degree of her own sign. She is at the very end of something, and she is also within a few degrees of the Sun, making her combust. What we value is being reviewed and re-evaluated at the same time that it’s nearly impossible to see clearly. And she isn't getting out of this tangle by moving forward - she is still going backward. She backs into 28 Libra just after the Full Moon, so there is no clean exit.
We are not finished with this question of what we value, what we want and what we’ll pay for it.
There is no easy path to solve the problem we want to solve/be rid of because the door to the easy path closed a long time ago and it was alot of work for us to move through that door or out of that door and so we didn't. And now there is a wall where a door once stood. And when there is a wall where there once was a door, we know our timing is off. We didn't take care of this thing - health, relationship, finances, etc - when it was hard, but still possible (there was still a door) and now here we are peeling at the wallpaper on a wall where a door once stood!
The pressure here comes from THREE COMPETING NEEDS -
1. Taurus Moon - preserve stability, protect what is valuable and hold on to what feels dependable.
2. Scorpio Sun - confront what lies beneath the surface, including uncomfortable truths about trust, shared resources and emotional entanglements.
3. Aquarius Pluto - challenge the existing arrangement, expose entrenched power dynamics and question whether the system itself is still sustainable.
Mercury just stationed retrograde at 20 Scorpio. This is a time for going back over things/conversations we thought were done/financial dealings/secrets we thought were buried. Retrograde Mercury in Scorpio digs WHERE IT IS DARK.
Where’s the relief here? First, there is a soft contact for Venus/the Moon’s ruler. Venus is in a wide, easy sextile to Jupiter in Leo, and Venus will trine the North Node in Aquarius within days. That trine is the one easy channel in the chart. It’s not at the Full Moon itself but it arrives a few days later, through a retrograde planet, so it’s something we grow BACK into, not something that lands in our laps. Even in the middle of a T-Square, we’re given a way to move forward, but it’s through the past and through what we already know we value.
The exalted Moon in Taurus in this gnarly configuration tells us - our security is under pressure. Venus, the Moon's ruler via Taurus is home in Libra, but moving backward and at the 29th degree. Something feels like now or never. We feel the pressure of our skipped steps and indecisions. BUT, Venus isn't going to move on from this in the usual way because she is retrograde - the problem is tossed back at us. She slips back to 28-degrees and then 27. We are moving backward, too. The shadow with Libra here is the temptation to preserve peace at the expense of honesty or to maintain an agreement simply because the alternative is too damn uncomfortable. We are looking for an exit and THERE IS NO CLEAN EXIT. This isn't a celestial punishment but simply because we are not finished with this question of what we value, what we want and what we’ll pay for it.
Jupiter promises relief, but .... 1. he is in the same sign of the South Node/what has been overdone and needs release and 2. Venus's trine to Jupiter - because of her retrograde and his soon-to-be retrograde, doesn't actually perfect until early May 2027. This doesn't mean the trine isn't useful/doesn't help now, BUT this is more about allowing us optimism and hope than a promise that everything is going to work out. Maybe it is our definition of a favorable outcome that needs to change? 3. Venus's trine to the North Node will perfect on October 30th (unfortunately the day Mercury retrograde squares Mars which complicates things, pulls in disagreements and challenging news). Still, there is something about her LOOK BACKWARD in Libra (keep in mind we get the smooth trine from Libra and not Scorpio) via re-vising agreements, re-looking at what is fair/balanced, BEING CIVIL, etc - that lines us up with that Aquarian future. With that retro Mercury square Mars - October 30th doesn't actually look like it resolves anything either. Especially for those who feel financially trapped. This is less likely to be a date when circumstances suddenly resolve, but more a moment when the terms of the predicament may become clearer, even if the way out remains complicated (still a wall). There are just not easy ways out of things now - personally/collectively. Anyway, that we look at it though the trine suggests that revisiting an old issue may help reveal that forward direction.
We also want to keep in mind that Mars is in Leo on his way to benevolent Jupiter. This is big energy, bold, proud, hungry to be seen, with Jupiter expanding whatever Mars is doing. It’s the courage to act, and also the temptation to overplay our hand. Mars and Jupiter in fire have a lot to say, but they’re facing Pluto in Aquarius, and Pluto doesn’t care how loud anyone is. NOTE - Mars will catch up with Jupiter in the middle of November which is exactly when both Mercury and Venus will station direct and we will start moving forward. Also note that Mars will return to his mid-November degrees (due to his own upcoming retro in Leo) on May 1st, 2027.
So we have alot converging at the end of October, the middle of November and early May.
So what can we do here? First this is Taurus, so find ways to bring yourself comfort/take care of yourself. Good food, a good pillow, a warm blanket. A bath. A walk in nature. Line those bills up in your wallet nice and neat and in order - take care of your money. SLOW DOWN. There is no reason to rush because things up ahead are not lined up/the road is still out. At oppositions it can be important to be more understanding. Because an opposition is often quite literal. Notice when your mind - which is moving backwards and in the dark, so not totally reliable - makes others wrong. Understanding does not require agreement but just be a little more open minded now. Stop feeding something that is dead/let something finish. A pattern. A habit. You don't have to know what comes next and if you think you do, well you probably don't. Finally make a list of things you value. Maybe focus on one thing and choose to live it/embody it in some FULLER way. Health could be a good idea. The bones of your home can be another. Our bank accounts. Our debts. Scorpio pulls up what isn't visible and things in our body/house that can't usually be seen CAN be seen now and need to be.
I have my own natal gnarly T-Square even more tight and entangled than this one and I can tell you with certainty that one key to working with it is THE EMPTY LEG. In traditional T-square interpretation, the empty leg is often treated as a point of integration - developing the qualities of the missing sign can help a person work more constructively with the opposition and its focal planet. The empty leg is LEO - home of the South Node and Jupiter now. I would not describe it as automatically resolving the square, however. It is a symbolic strategy, not a guarantee that external circumstances will cooperate. Still it always suggests a missing quality that can help resolve the problem SYMBOLICALLY.
Taurus asks - what do I need to feel secure?
Scorpio asks - what am I bound to, and what is it costing me?
Aquarius Pluto asks - what larger structure or power dynamic keeps/holds this in place?
Leo asks - what do I want my life to look like and what can I do to reclaim my agency?
Leo brings us back to the individual - not just the individual as a worker, spouse, provider or participant in a system, but as a person with a heart, a will, a creative identity and a right to imagine something beyond the circumstances that currently defines us. Leo can help restore that sense of possibility. Jupiter in Leo is good news here and can represent confidence, generosity, creativity and the ability to envision a future larger than the present predicament. But Jupiter is approaching his retrograde station, too. That makes me less inclined to interpret it as an immediate rescue or a sudden expansion of available resources. Instead, Jupiter retrograde invites a re-consideration of what we believe is possible and what we have come to regard as impossible.
THE BOTTOM LINE WITH THIS ONE - the Taurus Moon wants security. The Scorpio Sun knows that security can become entrapment. Pluto exposes the forces that make change difficult. Leo asks us to remember what all that security was supposed to protect in the first place - our heart/our shininess, the life we want to live, the person we want to be and the freedom to shape our own future. Pluto is very real here. The endings/the constraints are very real. But Leo/the empty leg (home of the South Node/what we have accumulated and Jupiter) refuses to let those restraints become the whole story.
(Jupiter in Leo says that a person's life is larger than the role we currently occupy. With his retrograde coming, that recognition may have to be recovered before it can be acted upon.)
And one thing to keep in mind because the North Node (the way forward) is in Aquarius, it is actually on the Pluto side of the configuration rather than the Leo release point. Its presence emphasizes the longer-term movement toward changing how we participate in collective systems and relationships. Jupiter in Leo offers the complementary work of rebuilding personal confidence and creative agency.
Also keep in mind the Full Moon is simply showing us what is happening. This is where we are now. This is this moment in time that we are all participating in. It's not good. It's not bad. It is just what is.
Back with the weekly and then the world politics. This is the last big lunation before the mid-terms here in the United States and that square to Pluto/power/the people wants to be heard ....
xo all
Halloween gives this Full Moon in Taurus (squaring Pluto/God of the Underworld) a wonderfully mythic backdrop and also something for this energy TO DO constructively :) There is also a lovely connection to the season's older traditions. Halloween is historically associated with Samhain - a festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter with traditions involving ancestors and the spirit world. That seasonal threshold echoes the Taurus/Scorpio polarity. The harvest gathered, the resources we have secured, and the recognition that we are entering a period when we must reckon with what we have and what we may no longer be able to keep.
The Full Moon illuminates the predicament. Halloween brings the underworld symbolism into sharp relief. The waning Moon then invites us to process what has been revealed, to examine the attachments and obligations that hold us in place and then to consider what needs to change before a new cycle begins.
We are reminded that the journey into the underworld is not always about losing something. Sometimes it is how we begin to reclaim what we have surrendered.
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