The Full Moon in SCORPIO will grace the sky on April 23rd reaching peak illumination at 7:49pm EST.
This blog post covers all you need to know about the Scorpio Full Moon along with a simple eco-somatic ritual for you to explore and embody.
In this blog post you will find:
Introduction: Moon 101
The sun and moon are in a cyclical relationship as they weave through the seasons of the zodiac. This celestial dance provides us with an intuitive road map to explore our own inner/outer journey as we too make our way through the ebb and flow of nature's seasons and come into new and ever-changing dimensions of our lives.
While the sun is ruler of the day and influences our "outer" expression in the world, it is to no surprise that as ruler of the tides and queen of the night the moon is also ruler of our emotions and "inner" felt experience. Our emotions have long been associated with representations of water and the sea: fluid, ever-changing, ebbing and flowing. As the moon pulls at the tides, we also experience this influencing force on our emotions, desires, shadow realms, fears/worries, psyche, and dreams.
Self-knowledge arises through a process of uncovering hidden layers of self through revelation and integration. This process is mirrored in the ebb and flow of the moon which is why it's something we learn to observe and track. As the light of the moon waxes, more of what lies hidden becomes revealed - our deeper motivations, mechanisms, and feelings. As the light of the moon wanes, we are given time to integrate these new learnings and discoveries.
This Full Moon falls within the sign of Scorpio just a couple days after the Sun transitioned into Taurus and only one week away from the next seasonal cross-quarter threshold in Nature's Arc of Change. Keep reading to learn how you can use this moon portal to explore emerging dimensions of self seeking expression in the world.
Full Moon Energy
Since the moon is the closest "planet" to Earth, this satellite zips around the zodiac very quickly, completing its round in less than a month. Actually, the entire trip takes 29.53 days, to be exact, and is measured from one new Moon to the next. We call this a lunation or lunar cycle. The peak or mid-point of every lunation happens on a Full Moon.
During a Full Moon, the Earth is sitting between the Moon and Sun. The Sun's light illuminates the face of the Moon for all to see. From the vantage point of Earth, the Moon and Sun are dwelling in opposite constellations, thus forming an opposition. This can make for a challenging or intense aspect of energy but also full of potential since the polarities (yin & yang) are in natural harmonic balance. In this case, the influencing energies of Sun (Taurus) and Moon (Scorpio) are in a dynamic conversation that we will explore.
You can think of the Full Moon phase as a culmination moment in a particular energetic cycle, where some inner change, new awareness, or intention that was revealed six months ago is reaching maturation, coming into full form, or manifesting in some way. The bright light of the full moon illuminates or brings to the surface something that is ready to be seen, integrated or incorporated more deeply into who you are becoming. Full Moon energy is a time for honoring the journey, celebrating your growth, offering gratitude and being with any grief.
Scorpio Insights
SYMBOL: SCORPION/EAGLE // facing the fear of our primal instincts & deepest desires, we are transformed and lifted into the light.
PLANETARY RULER: PLUTO // ruler of all that is hidden, unseen or buried.
ELEMENT: WATER // element of emotion, feeling and intuition.
HOUSE: 8th HOUSE // rules death, sex, transformation & mystery.
MODALITY: FIXING // represents the conscious development of awareness and the growth process.
The theme of this Scorpio Full Moon is all about COURTING DESIRE. We now find ourselves approaching the next seasonal threshold in Nature's Arc of Change: Early Summer. Of course, depending on your bioregion, this might be different for you! The Scorpio Full Moon marks the peak of the current lunation. It always arrives this time of the year when the Sun is transiting sensual earth sign Taurus! During Taurus season, themes of determination, stability, eros, embodiment and creativity are strong. These are important pieces when contemplating the energetics of this Scorpio Full Moon.
Two weeks ago, the Aries New Moon Solar Eclipse was calling you toward relational creative adaptation. Spring’s inspiration reminds us that after death and decay comes new life. A bud bursting forth mirrors our own will to live and the beauty we are capable of creating. When our hearts break open, nature reveals her innate design: that any obstacle in our path is honing us to our brilliance. Trust in the power of your own existential courage and the creative possibilities that abound.
This Scorpio Full Moon helps us conclude the eclipse energetics, incorporate these recent weeks, and take stock of how we are changing, especially in terms of our relating. The Taurus-Scorpio polarity deals with form (Taurus) and transformation (Scorpio) so this full moon also offers insights into how we can make change feel more like coming home. This is where the erotic energy of this axis comes into play. It's all about courting your deepest desires.
Our primary experience of life is a process of being magnetically pulled towards the world, towards others, towards relating. Life is a desire to meet life. This yearning for encounter is marked by the essential joy of being alive. We experience attraction to the world through our senses, through our organismic, animal bodies. The sensuous experience of being living flesh among other living flesh determines much of how we relate with the world. Our profound desire to relate is felt in our bodies and realized through the contact between bodies, in gentle touch, wild embrace, violent rupture and joyful revelry.
Only through processes of relating can we know ourselves. With every encounter we are remade. Octavia Butler captured the essence of this when she said, "All that you touch you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change." If Eros is constant transformation, surrendering to Eros means making peace with dying. This Scorpio Full Moon invites you to embrace Change as your fundamental nature.
"Scorpio undresses the universe and delights in the naked truth revealed. It is filled with a great lust for life fueled by a keen awareness of its natural termination in death. To be touched by Scorpio is to know that you are consumed by something, and to be thrilled into living harder and brighter by it. Scorpio is magnetic. It is what we will bleed for. It expresses the binding power of the will and determination. It is our passions and desires that bind our will firmly to our objectives and thus ensure that we will eventually manifest them." - David Coleman
What you need to know about Scorpio
THE FIXED CROSS
SCORPIO - TAURUS AXIS
AQUARIUS - LEO AXIS
Stability, directed choice, immovable intent of soul, direction
This Fixed Cross (highlight in green) is one of the three zodiacal crosses. The Fixed Cross represents the conscious development of awareness and the growth process.
"Fixed signs are still and inward, drawing energy to themselves rather than thrusting outward. They correspond elementally to water and geometrically to the in-drawing circle."
- Vicki Noble, Motherpeace
Scorpio is the fixed Water sign (circled in the diagram here), opposing it is the fixed Earth sign of Taurus which creates one axis of the Fixed Cross. The two feminine elements (Water and Earth) always create an axis and the two masculine elements (Air and Fire) create the other axis. Each cross contains each of the four elements. In this case the fixed signs are represented by: Leo (fire), Aquarius (air), Taurus (earth), and Scorpio (water).
ELEMENT: WATER
WATER: PSYCHE / EMOTION
SCORPIO, CANCER, PISCES
Water is the element of emotions, instinct and the mysterious realm of the psyche. It is the element of the dream world, adaptability, fertility, receiving, healing, fluidity and change.
"We can see water’s unique ability to change form as it ranges from liquid to ice to gas. Water flows and adapts to the space it’s in. Water is also the element of cleansing and purification, and is often used for spiritual purposes to cleanse the soul and other spaces —physical or otherwise. The ‘wave of emotions’ reminds us of the watery realms of our emotions that can transform and change like the element of water." - Kayla White
Water signs feel at home in depths of emotion and have a strong connection to the unseen. They are highly intuitive and have strong ties to the lunar currents, thus dreamscapes may be particularly vivid. As deep feelers they are emotionally moved to action.
RULING PLANET: PLUTO
Qualities: transformation, death, rebirth, underworld, subconscious, darkness
Pluto is the celestial ruler of all that lies “below the surface” and thus is strongly connected to the underworld and the subconscious realm. Pluto’s balanced powers are of renewal, transformation, change, destruction and creation; its imbalanced nature seeks power and control. Pluto pushes at the cultural evolutionary edge and manifests in people through the process of transformation or metamorphosis. It is through change and cycles of re-invention (death/rebirth) that new forms of expression emerge, new potentialities unfold. Pluto teaches us that death and destruction always gives way to new life and that letting go of who we think we are (and ego attachments) make way for who we are in the process of becoming.
CONSTELLATION
Scorpius is among the most distinctive of constellations in the zodiac with its stars tracing the shape of a Scorpion. The brilliant red star Antares lies at the Scorpion’s Heart.
According to EarthSky, July and August are prime-time months for observing this wondrous constellation in the evenings.
In the Northern Hemisphere, we associate the ruby star Antares with the hot summer season. You might come to discover your own association with this star at this time in the season. Personally, I associate Antares with the blooming wild cardinal flowers on my favorite hiking trail.
As the summer season wanes in the northern hemisphere, you can expect Antares to fade into the southwestern dusk, making way for the cooler days of autumn.
SCORPIO MYTH
This is an excerpt from Constellation Guide:
"In Greek mythology, the constellation Scorpius was identified with the scorpion that stung Orion, the mythical hunter. The two constellations lie opposite each other in the sky, and Orion is said to be fleeing from the scorpion as it sets just as Scorpius rises.
In one version of the myth, Orion tried to ravish the goddess Artemis and she sent the scorpion to do away with him. In another version, it was the Earth that sent the scorpion after Orion had boasted that he could defeat any wild beast."
Scorpio Ritual Elements
Scorpio Full Moon Ritual
What You'll Need
1. Elements for your altar. Drawing on the Scorpio Ritual Elements above, consider what you might want to bring to your altar. Start simple. There is absolutely no need to go out and "buy" altar items. This is something that we encourage you to unlearn. Everything we need is within us and can be found around us. A simple candle will do, or a yellow flower for example.
2. Candle & lighter for the eco-somatic practice
3. Journal & something to write with for the journaling portion.
Important Considerations & Prep
1. RIGHT RELATIONSHIP: being in right relationship with your spiritual practice means approaching each aspect with humility, curiosity and reverence. This includes checking yourself on the nature of how you relate to "objects" as things and the process itself.
For example, if you feel called to stones as part of your ritual, consider WHY first. Then contemplate the impact of whatever action comes next. For example, instead of mindlessly purchasing cheap precious stones from somewhere like amazon (which have more than likely been harmfully mined/extracted and then shipped across the world as part of the consumer machine that's destroying our planet), perhaps part of your spiritual practice is to resist such a prompting and instead take the time to go for a mindful walk in your backyard, or a nearby stream and see if the right stone presents itself to you.
2. CLEANSE & PURIFY YOUR SPACE: Cleansing, also known as purification, is the practice of clearing out and releasing negative energy from your space, as well as energy that’s just old, stale, stagnant, or no longer serving you. Here are a few different methods:
Physical cleaning: dusting, vacuuming, opening windows for fresh air
Salt: a common element used for purification and protection in many different cultures. To use, simply sprinkle salt along doorways and windowsills to protect them from negative energy entering or just keep a small bowl of salt on your altar or nearby surface.
Smoke cleansing: light incense or burn a bundle of dried herbs such as rosemary, cedar, or mugwort. Choose plants that you have grown yourself or that grow abundantly wild nearby, plants that you have ancestral tied to or just those that have been grown and harvested ethically.
NOTE: If you do not have meaningful/authentic relationships to Indigenous culture and customs, "smudging" with white sage cultural appropriation and is dishonoring to Indigenous nations across Turtle island. It is important to understand that smudging is not just about burning sage to purify the negative energy from your space but is a sacred ritual that is culturally specific to tribes such as the Lakota Sioux, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Navajo. If you have been gifted sage by an Indigenous friend, use to your discretion in how to engage with this medicine. This sacred plant is being abused, exploited and mass-harvested for commercial and consumer use which perpetuates the violence of white supremacy and settler colonialism. Take some time to locate yourself within a settler-colonial context interwoven with the land you currently occupy. Check out Native Land to learn the name and more about the territories you occupy.
3. CLEANSE & PURIFY YOUR BODYMIND
Take a shower our bath; visualize any negative energy that has accumulated in your auric field to be washed away as the water goes down the drain.
Meditate, center and take some time to ground in stillness and embodied presence.
Write or speak your intentions for your ritual out loud
4. BE MINDFUL & STRIVE FOR INTEGRITY ALWAYS.
Altar Creation
Creating an altar is optional. Altar tending is a beautiful practice, especially if you have a designated area in your home that you can tend to over the course of each moon and seasonal cycle.
Tending to an altar is an intentional practice that supports your exploration of nature spirituality and carries the potential to deepen your relationship to the energetic archetypes of the unfolding seasonal & moon cycles.
To set up your altar, simply play with any number of the ritual elements offered above in the chart by using symbols, colors, precious gemstones, symbolism, etc.
There is no right or wrong way to go about creating, tending or being with your altar, however we do not condone cultural appropriation or theft of any kind.
Eco-Somatic Practice: Harness Your Inner Wild
For this eco-somatic practice we will be drawing upon the qualities of SCORPIO as you harness your INNER WILD and engage untamed expressions of self such as snarling, growling, scratching, crawling, slithering, snatching, etc.
To amplify your connection to nature and/or the element of water you may wish to explore this practice outside on the ground. Better yet try it within or along a body of water... perhaps a wetland or swamp? At night even?
If being outside is not accessible to you, no worries! Remember, YOU are the embodiment of the elements and that is enough.
STEPS:
Determine where you want to be. When you are there take some time to ground and center yourself by sitting or lying on the ground.
GROUND & CENTER
Take 5 minutes to breathe and connect with the aliveness of the present moment. Sense the air or atmosphere around you.
Notice any sounds or aromas. Look around and observe movement, color, light and shadow.
Stay connected to breath as you do this, sensing the rise and fall of your belly or chest.
Sense your connection earth as you make contact with the ground, settling into gravity's embrace.
Sense your current mood noting any sensations or feelings that are present for you.
VISUALIZE
Now imagine yourself in your wildness.
Visualize yourself crawling and squirming on the ground like a snake or a scorpion. Imagine hissing and snarking and making wild sounds.
Notice what comes up as you play with this visualization.
Have fun with it and see what images, sensations or emotions arise as you do.
ACTUALIZE
Spend 2-5 minutes exploring each of the following Wild Embodiments.
After each scenario, pause and come back to stillness.
Notice what's different or how the energy in your system changes.
Jot down any words or feeling tones that you observe.
Once you have tapped into each Wild and Embodiment, we invite you to explore putting them all together.
Wild Embodiments:
Snarling & Growling
Scratch & Clawing
Crawling & Slithering
Chasing & Snatching
Can you think of your own?
INTEGRATE
When you reach the end of your practice, take some time to integrate by lying on the ground in complete stillness.
Invite your breath to be soft and slow as you elongate each exhale.
Sense the base of your posture from head to toe as you make contact with the ground.
Soften your muscles by scanning your body from head to.
Journaling
What came up for you during the eco-somatic practice? Take some time to reflect on anything you'd like to hold onto.
Further self-reflection:
How am I being called to show up in the world?
In what ways do I deny myself of my deepest desires?
Which emotion makes me feel the most uneasy or uncomfortable to sit with? Which one do I try to avoid the most?
What feelings and thoughts do I most work to keep hidden (from myself and others)?
How might I want to renegotiate where I am investing my time/energy?
Finish the following sentences:
A habits of thought or behavior that I am releasing is....
A new practice that I would like to incorporate into my routine is...
Something that I am letting go of is...
Something I am welcoming in is...
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