The May 2008 Wesak Festival Full Moon of Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio

by Robert Wilkinson

Yes, this is an amazing Cosmic moment in time! Due to the degrees where last month's and this month's Full Moon falls, we have been blessed to have TWO Wesak Festivals this year. Traditionally the Wesak Festival is considered the Full Moon of May since it celebrates the birth and enlightenment of the Buddha, Himself a Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio. However, for the first and last time in many years, we're having two Full Moons, one in April and one in May, triggering the first and last degrees of those signs.

This Wesak falls on May 19, 7:11 pm PDT, 10:11 pm EDT. That means it's May 20 in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. A quick look finds Scorpio rising in Santa Monica and Vancouver, Sagittarius in NYC and Miami, Aries in Amsterdam, London, and Johannesburg, Taurus in Istanbul, Gemini in Tallinn and Baghdad, Cancer in New Delhi and Perth, Leo in Melbourne, and Libra in Maui.

I already gave you an extensive article about the meaning of the Wesak, Full Moons in general, and the Three High Moons of each year in the article Global Spiritual Astrology in April-May 2008 - It's the Full Moon of Taurus-Scorpio, also known as The Wesak Festival! Please read or re-read it, since it elaborates on what this global Spiritual festival is all about and offers links to celebrations at Mt. Shasta and Europe.

When you're done there, you might also check out the article I posted the next day titled "The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path of the Buddha." These are the core of the Buddha's teaching of the nature of suffering and the ways that everyone on Earth can use to transcend suffering one way and another. You can get there by clicking on the link just above the title of the Wesak article.

And because the New Moon preceding the Full Moon always represents the seed forms that are brought to surface at and after the Full Moon, please check out The Taurus New Moon of May 2008 - Seeding the Wesak Festival. This can help focus what blessings are being offered to us in the near future.

This Full Moon falls at 30 degrees Scorpio and Taurus, the final degree of the sign. The April Wesak fell at 1 degree of the same signs. Rudhyar says that the first degree sets the "tone" of a sign, and the last degree is the fulfillment of that potential in a perfected form as a transitional energy leading naturally to the first degree of the next sign.

So we've had an outpouring of initiating Taurus realization energies that led us to understand the fundamental energies in self. others, and situations. Then we had the New Moon at 16 Taurus which set the second half of Taurus into motion in seed form, itself the beginning degree of that span. Now we get another Full Moon at 30 Taurus-Scorpio, fulfilling a perfect three-fold harmony of those energies being released into our world.

The Solar degree symbol of this second Wesak is "A peacock parading on an ancient lawn." It speaks of presenting our excellence in ways that demonstrate our ability to embody shared ideals. The display results in a collective quickening to "inner or eternal values." Dr. Jones says the keyword is ALOOFNESS and when positive it's said to be a degree of dramatizing some racial heritage or using "lessons of history in some special fashion." The formula is Sustaining, Ideal, Efficient, Generalizing, Spiritual, and Inspired. Rudhyar states the degree is the final one in the Span of Enjoyment, and the Individual-Mental level of Confirmation.

The Lunar degree symbol of this second Wesak is "The Halloween jester," a degree of releasing energies to gain refreshment or freedom from trying to live an ideal beyond one's potential. It's about finding new modes of contact with others to "achieve a more genuine spiritual sensitiveness." Dr. Jones says the keyword is SPONTANEOUSNESS and when positive it's said to be a degree of a gift for making one's desires and ambitions of value to others. The formula is Sustaining, Ideal, Universal, Generalizing, Spiritual and Inspired. Rudhyar states the degree is the final one in the Span of Appreciation, and the Individual-Mental level of Faith.

It would seem that the coming Buddha-nature realizations about to be poured out across the world affecting the next year will be sustaining, ideal, universally efficient, and Spiritually inspired. We should be able to give our "displays" a spontaneous quality demonstrating our excellence in ways that relieve pressure and further contacts. Shared ideals seems to be a theme, as does putting on a show to manage energies that need release.

These should help us express whatever new directions we were shown at the New Moon. You will recall its theme requires that we not get frustrated that old knowledge and concepts cannot confirm our new life conditions. I would think that means we shouldn't try to apply previous standards or old ways of judging and evaluating to current necessities, or when we're confronted with stuck people or situations. This Full Moon should help us find safe forms to manage the pressure.

Some things to think about in these hours at the eve of another great outpouring of Spiritual energies. Aum Mani Padme Hum.

Copyright © 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Felita]

Hi Robert, Thanking you for your brilliant writings per usual.
I am approaching a time when Mars Leo will conj My Sun 5* and Sun 27* will conj my Mars Asc.
I understand Mars as it has been passing back and forwards over my Merc Cancer.
Last week as Mars entered Leo to my 3rd and progressed Moon entered Cancer 2nd (Moon following Mars),I felt radically different internally,Yes and my lower 3 chakras where powering but my 4th and 5th where out."silent heart", could be Venus Taurus travelling in 12th.So I ate two large chocolate marshmellow biscuits covered in syrup berries with cream,oh! oh! instant pleasures,yet not substaining, Know this Mars lesson, well lucky it was just chocolate.
Lots of clearing(as Saturn 1* opposes my Chiron 1*)with Pluto purification there.I sincerely appreciate Saturn restructuring and going back as I could pick up the mising pieces.Have achieved much in the outside world with Merc Gem transiting 1st house and Mars Leo in my solar 1st.All is falling into creative process. My upper thoracic spine released back to alignment. Wrote this poem spontaneously as I do! Moon was void Virgo.
Folded clouds amidst the fog
Bare trees, Warm Fire
Passion Desires
Rising currents undulating up the spine.
Announcing Creativity
Mars CAN be sublime

P.S Just sold a painting of composite Astrology chart(absract)....All so funny to me! And I am very very grateful. Cant stop the rain but the windscreen wipers are working still, Thank God and Robert.
Aum Mani Padma Hum. Felita.

[magenta]

Hi Robert, after a quick look at the stats, I realize that there is so much stuff going on in my chart in the last days and most of it is related to the fact that my MC is in 29 Scorpio and my Venus Rx sits right before that. Not only is the transiting Sun inopposition to those two, but in the last couple days, it's also been square Pluto and sextile Uranus and will be trine ASC on Tuesday. Outwardly things have spookily been at a total standstill - as I said in my other post - but the last few days there is LOTS of inner ruckus manifesting in bouts of grief that come out of the blue about deceased parents(mother in particular), wanting to get rid of even more stuff, the realization that it no longer feels good to cover my gray hairs and the feeling that by the end of this year, I'll have spent enough time in NYC and know where I need to go - and hopefully how to pay for it. Very unusually for me,
I have not felt like venturing from my apt., but have three days of high- profile
social/professional functions I must attend beginning Monday where there are lots of old and new connections. I welcome and need the possibility of gainful employment of my skills (play !), but I see through the hustle/ hassle of it all and partly dread having to "account" for myself to all these high-flyers. Ugh.
So it seems like this should be a significant new moon - whaddya say, boss ?
Also, is it usual that a full moon and V/C occur at the same exact time, like this one ? Deep thanks for any insights. All blessings to you ! Again, magenta

[larissa]

Hi Robert - feels like some of the things came to a clear conclusion. I wonder what tomorrow brings. Funny, you used the phraze ""A peacock parading on an ancient lawn". I only just saw it. Two days ago I was dreaming of 3 huge peacocks flying over me in the sky, huge, i mean covering half the sky. I woke up searching for any meaning of peacocks. This is the second time i have a dream like that. Beautiful peacocks with spread feathers covering almost all th sky. Hmm. Thank you for the article. I read so much about this full moon in scoprio, so we will see.

[Felita]

Hi Robert and others, As we approach the Buddahs's birthday felt it may be timing ,as I recieved this email this morning. A world Yoga survey is about to be started intergrating universities in U.K.,U.S.A, and India to scientifically investigate the healing modalities of Yoga and Meditation. A first ever survey was carried out in 2006 here in Australia with some amazing outcomes. If you are interested in this the web adress is, www.yogasurvey.com/
Fortunately this allows yoga to be claimed on private medical insurance in this country. I am quite excited that yoga has been embraced in our modern society and the healing benefits pronounced,and made available to many.

Aum Shanti Felita

[daryl]

DEAR robert

what is the significance of "Aries... rising in London"?

[DianatheHuntresss]

Greetings My Dear Robert.... "I see my life come shining... from the west down to the east..... any day now... anyday now.... I shall be released...........

With Love, Diana } ----- *

[Robert]

Hi Felita - You're welcome. You're definitely at the edge of a new set of cycles activating your light and illuminating how you initiate actions in life. Great poem - Mars can be sublime indeed! Glad the wipers are still working.

Hi magenta - Sometimes the outer world stills a bit so we can work on deep things we need to bring up and release, or at least process. Grief is that way, in that it moves in wave forms. Probably the transits right now are related to the times when your parents checked out. Always good to let go of things at Spring cleaning time, whether inner or outer. Good that you're affirming you'll know when it's time to leave, and that you'll also know where. Preprogramming your inner GPS system. Look at the functions to attend as a dance of knowing when to speak professional and when to play professional. I mean, it's better than having to interview to be a sanitation engineer, even if it does pay better than many other professions! This Full Moon stimulates your Venus/MC, so that's good. And as you know, those of us with planets in the last degrees of a sign never experience a VOC Moon. As for it happening at the Full or New Moon, well, I seem to recollect that we had a few VOC New Moons in 2006 around the time of the eclipses.

Hi Larissa - Interesting dream. Peacocks are said to symbolize Venus energies. And of course, three of anything has too many associations to enumerate here.

Hi Felita - Yoga should be taught in all the Universities in the world, as well as all the medical schools! It shows we could be on the leading edge of a return to sanity.

Hi daryl - It means that at the time of the Full Moon in London, Aries is on the Ascendant.

Hi Diana - The Bard's birthday approaches! "There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief, there's too much confusion, I can't get no relief, business men they drink my wine, plow men dig my Earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth..."

[Larissa]

Thank you Robert! They were flying over my head, spread blue tail feathers, mostly blue in color, huge! Amazing that it is the second time in my life I dream of them. I hope it is a good omen. My dreams are so vivid and usually tell me what is coming. Once I dreamt of a kitten left at my door. Next morning my boss comes in and tell me that someone left a kitten last night at his door. Strange how information gets into your head. Also, I have a question: it started to happen more and more often - I start thinking about emailing someone who was out of contact for months and that particular moment (20 seconds apart) an email pops up on my computer screen from that person or phone rings and he calls from nowhere just to say hello. So, what comes first? My thinking/talking about them makes them call; or when they decide to contact me - I sense it suddenly. ??Thank you, maybe you know where is the chicken and the egg. I am so curious, since it happens often and even my colleagues are amazed, because they around when it happens. But it is mostly self-serving, whatever it is. Same way I find mistakes in text, not knowing what I am doing, I open the book, and stare at some paragraph and realise that I stare at the mistake that has to be corrected, the only error on that page, in that book in all 25 volumes, something that my boss was looking for 2 years - mistake in numbers. Then he asks me how did I get to that page and that volume? I don't know how. I was walking by those boxes of books, and opened one volume, while talking to someone about a different subject. Now we closed the case, because mistake is found. Funny how it happens.

[Josie]

Robert,a truly momentous spiritual event took place in NY this past weekend - the 17th Karmapa, head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism finally arrived in the U.S. His previous incarnation, the 16th, visited in the 70's and 80's. The 17th Karmapa escaped from Tibet at the turn of the century, New Year's eve 2000, and has been in India unable to travel until now. He actually arrived at his monastery in Woodstock NY on May 19 and took his seat below a 30 foot Buddha. He will be traveling across the US for the next 2 weeks spreading his message of love and compassion. i was very fortunate to attend the teachings this past weekend and it was like being in the presence of a living Buddha. Info can be found at www.karmapavisit.org. The blessings of the Wesak moon are truly right in our midst!! om mani padme hung

[Robert]

Hi Larissa - You're welcome. As for you question, it's more a matter of you attuning to being the embodiment of "the corrective force of Nature Herself," in that we can all be the living antidote to whatever in any moment if we're open to it. This is what Jung termed "synchronicity." It ultimately isn't about what comes first per se; it all arises together in the larger cosmic moment. Perhaps you attune to them, they pick up on it and call, or perhaps they've been thinking of you, you pick up on it, and then whatever happens. In these cases time sequence is less important than the fact of attunement. I also can do such things with books, usually in terms of turning exactly to what I need when I need it. And of course, some times are more "accurate" than others, in that sometimes I'm a page or two off, though I wonder if I am really turning to what I need that precedes or follows the core of what I think I need. I have always regarded that phenomenon as my Moon in Aquarius trine Neptune in the 3rd.

Hi Josie - Thanks for letting us know about this truly momentous event! His escape a while ago I believe marked a point in time where many things that have been separated are now unifying within a larger field of activity during these highly significant years in the larger time stream. Truly he's a living representative of the "Buddha nature" now spreading anew this year at the Wesak. What a blessing! Aum! Anyone who has a chance to be in the presence of such a one definitely ensures future blessings, in this life and in many to come!!