by Robert Wilkinson
The Full Moon of Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio is the Wesak Festival, where the “Eternal Buddha Wisdom” pours out a new form of compassionate wisdom for the world which will be spread across all nations at the next Full Moon. We will be shown a deeper, more universal wisdom to incorporate into our lives wherever we have Scorpio and Taurus in our charts. This one renews our lives!
The Full Moon of Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio is the second of the “Three High Moons” of the Northern Hemispheric Spring. As with all Full Moons, use the light you’ve been seeing and expressing since the New Moon, and give it form and focus through anchoring those themes in expression. This is the Light of substance and the ability to respond to substance appropriately, expressed through either elimination, attraction, or both. Because the Moon is in Scorpio, the Wesak Wisdom always involves some form of renunciation or letting go, creating space for new wisdom-forms to be substantiated.
Since the Wesak represents “Buddha Wisdom” of a compassionate form helping us all to end suffering, the next two weeks can help us remember the wisdom we’ve found throughout our “mature experience.” This will be expressed through what we let go of, what we choose to regenerate, and how we choose to fill recent voids. This one will show us something about our worth and/or what we value, and what we need to reclaim of our wisdom which allows us a genuine rejuvenation.
This stabilizing, regenerative, and awakening Full Moon occurs at 2:11 pm PDT, 10:11 pm BST on May 18, and falls at the 28th degree of Taurus and Scorpio. This one renews our dedication, opens deeper relationship connections with others in our Soul groups, and continues to give us rewards for our courage as we move into unknown zones. Continuing the theme that proceeds at each Full Moon as they move through each polarity, this one gives us the ability to find stabilize a new life order, giving it form in a new magnetism appropriate to our evolved state.
Today’s Full Moon post will be an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In parts 2 and 3 we’ll cover the Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.
An Overview
This Wesak Festival Full Moon in Scorpio-Taurus will open a global wisdom and greater ways of substantiating our spiritual individuality. This one gives us appreciation for our long term wisdom path, and prepares us for an entry into a new life in the late Summer and Autumn. While many will find their “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” others will have to bury the past in order to open the door to a radical life renewal this Summer.
This Full Moon stabilizes a new era. It is the second Full Moon in a sequence where the Full Moon Sun sign is the same as the previous New Moon Sun sign, which I’ll discuss more in a few paragraphs. It also is the second of the “Three High Moons” of the Northern Hemispheric Spring, showing us all a new Wisdom Teaching for Earth. This will confirm many things about who we are and the wisdom path we’re one.
This Full Moon is expansive, and will elevate our view if we don’t cling to old 3D forms of perception. It is preparatory, rewarding, and accelerating. There are relatively few challenges, but a lot of “forks in the road of destiny” involving Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, and Chiron! Each of these has at least one 7th harmonic, “destiny producing” aspects made to it, indicating the Wisdom forms coming forth will move us all to choose as we navigate the intersections of Fate Street and Freewill Street as we move down Eternity Boulevard.
A note of some importance: some might think this is a “Void of Course Moon,” since it seems to make no aspects before it changes signs. That’s not true, since the Moon makes triseptiles to Venus and Uranus, as well as a septile to Saturn, before it leaves Scorpio. There are some powerful configurations at work in this Lunation which promise high specialization and productivity, though it may take a change of conditions before they can happen, as per the Moon changing signs shortly after the Lunation.
Is the Sun Following the Moon, or the Moon Following the Sun?
There are two patterns; one is when the Full Moon Sun is the same sign as the previous New Moon Sun, and the other is when the Full Moon Sun is in the next sign from the Sun in the previous New Moon. This is the second Full Moon since late July 2017 where the Full Moon Sun falls in the same sign as the Sun in the previous New Moon.
We last had the Sun in the same sign in both the New Moon and Full Moon, the so-called “natural” order, between June 2016 and the late July 2017 New Moon in Leo, when the Full Moon Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun of the previous New Moon. We finished the period of the “natural” order of Lunation Suns at the August 2017 Solar Eclipse in late Leo and began the most recent sequence where the Full Moon Sun has been in the sign following the New Moon Sun.
We were in this “reversed pattern” of the Sun of the Full Moon occupying the sign after the New Moon Sun for 20 months, and now are back to the “natural order” of the Sun in the New Moon being the same as the Sun in the next Full Moon. So we’re done with the run of Full Moons at the first degree of their signs which has been happening since November 2018. Last month the New Moon Sun was at 16 Aries, with the next Full Moon Sun at 30 Aries. We had a New Moon two weeks ago at 15 Taurus, and now have a Full Moon Sun at 28 Taurus.
Since the New Moon offers us seeds in the first half of the month’s lunar cycle, and fulfillment in the second half, we now are in a sequence with the “Seed Light” of Taurus coming to a Full Moon illumination through the current Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio. You can learn more about the recent New Moon at 15 Taurus by going to The May 2019 New Moon at 15 Taurus Pt. 1 – What’s Happening in May 2019 and The May 2019 New Moon at 15 Taurus Pt. 2 – Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What it All Means.
Planetary Distribution
In this Full Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Venus at 5 Taurus through the Sun at 27 Taurus spans 23+ degrees. This span will be the focus of specific activity in our charts. When we add Mars and Uranus as bookends, it expands the active span to 5 planets in 58+ degrees. Now that Mars is outside the outer planet span, our occupied planetary spread (except for the Moon) extends through 5 signs. We hit maximum compression in March 2018, with all planets between Jupiter at 24 Scorpio and Uranus at 27 Aries, making a very powerful triseptile between the bookends.
At this time we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, in an uneven widespread distribution. Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in late Sag, then moves through Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in early Taurus, with the inner planets (except Mars) now occupying Taurus with the Moon in Scorpio creating an imperfect Locomotive Bucket Jones patterns.
We’ve now moved into a time period of shifting Jones pattern. The patterns change mainly due to the position of the Moon, and at this Full Moon, we have a combination of Jones patterns. It would be a Bowl, except the Moon and Jupiter are outside the hemispheric occupancy of Saturn through Mars. That means the determining factor is the very wide open span between Mars and the Moon in Water signs. In a Locomotive pattern, the open span is ideally a trine’s length, but this one is 145+ degrees, so it’s a modified Locomotive pattern.
So What is a “Locomotive Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets occupying 2/3 of the signs with an empty third, creates an imbalance that leads to power if we can find the compensatory “weight” to make things move forward smoothly rather than rock side to side creating friction. Target what is needed, and provide compensatory energies accordingly.
As Marc Jones put it, “this type of horoscope reveals a balance of this sort in the life. A third part of things… consisting of a free span in experience, is set against a two-thirds part, embracing a related but limited span in experience…. The basis of the dynamic is found in the native’s resulting strong sense of a lack or a need, of a problem to be solved, a task to be achieved in the social and intellectual world around him.”
Dr. Jones states “The temperament reveals a self-driving individuality, an executive eccentricity that is not … unbalance but rather is power. It exhibits a dynamic and exceptionally practical capacity which is neither the broad universality of the Splash pattern, nor the special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience characteristic of the Bundle people.
He goes on to state “The Locomotive classification is … moved more by external factors in the environment than by aspects of its own character. The point of application for the powers of the self is shown … by the “leading planet,” or the one of the two in the empty trine which forms its aspect clockwise in the zodiac, irrespective of any distinction as “applying” or “separating.”
The Moon is the leading planet, and Mars is the closing planet, in the Locomotive. Find appropriate Scorpio ways to embrace experience with an eye to the magnetic connections you feel internally. Scorpio is about moving past the form into the essence of feeling-experience, and seeing what needs to be eliminated so regeneration can naturally occur. Because the leading and closing edge of the Locomotive are both in Water signs, use deep feelings, a sense of the magnetics at work, and self-transcendence through eliminating obstacles to move through experience and come out with a greater sensitivity and caring about what truly matters, as well as a revelation about why you are as you are and what need in your world moves you.
As the Locomotive keeps things out of balance, the Moon in Scorpio is now the front end to finding the way of initiating activity that must be accompanied by a compensatory “weight” to keep things moving forward rather than sideways. The more we work with the imbalances by elevating our view to get a broader perspective and frames of reference, the easier it will be to navigate the imbalances in this pattern and come to a different way of acting on our needs.
The Rhombus
As Uranus is still semisquare Neptune, anchoring the off-again, on-again friction Rhombus Diamond configuration, we’ll have to continue to deal with this “cutting, grinding, and polishing” quality each time the Moon moves through the middle of the mutable signs and the end of the cardinal and beginning of the fixed signs. In this chart we have the Rhomus friction activated by Venus, but as it’s partile separating, it shows we’ve just moved through the friction which is showing us something from the past which must be buried so a new life can open this Summer.
The perfect Rhombus Diamond is made every September when a planet is in mid-Virgo opposing Neptune at the same time another planet is opposed Uranus, with double semisquares and sesquisquares created between those planets. This creates a massive Octile frictional configuration, which was most recently activated during the late 2018 Full Moons when Venus opposed to Uranus.
Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this Full Moon?
First, what it is. The Grand Irrationality is a phenomenon we’ve been living within since 1993. Since then, we’ve been in an extraordinarily irrational period which continues to this day. To refresh you, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave configuration set into motion every time a planet makes a conjunction, septile, biseptile, or triseptile to Neptune and/or Pluto. Septile series aspects show us points in time when our future destiny is precipitated by critical choices made in the present.
Because this configuration involved Neptune and Pluto, two powerhouse Transpersonal planetary representatives of Spirit, they have symbolized the long wave planetary crisis the entire human race has been going through since 1993. From then to now, at one point or another, everyone on Earth has experienced a nonstop energy of having to choose, at the bottom of our beings, the path to evolution or devolution, progress or regress, love or fear, joy or control. It’s why things have been so weird, irrational, and hard-edged.
The Grand Irrationality V.1 was the period when Neptune was septile Pluto. It began in 1993, was very strong and in constant movement the last 5 years of the 20th century and the first 15 years of this century. This phase has now waned, since Neptune no longer makes a forming or partile separating septile to Pluto and won’t again for many centuries.
However, we have now moved into a new phase of The Grand Irrationality! It’s not the configuration as we’ve known it since the 90s, since the Neptune part of the equation has faded into a “pulse” that is triggered after the main configuration is set into play. I explain more downstream.
Uranus began to biseptile Pluto in the Summer of 2017, briefly setting the new configuration into play. That began the current “never-ending revolution” since Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener, is dancing off and on at its “fork in the road of destiny” with Pluto, the Lord of Transformation. I term this phase The Grand Irrationality V.2!
This particular larger period in time is even stranger than it was during the Grand Irrationality V.1, since this period combines Uranus’ semisquare to Neptune with Uranus biseptile Pluto. So along with the hard edge of the Grand Irrationality involving Uranus and Pluto in a 7th harmonic aspects, we also have Uranus in an 8th harmonic frictional aspect to Neptune, another of the Transpersonal Spiritual planets!
Saturn has been making its long wave biseptile with Uranus, bringing the configuration into mass consciousness, and sure to trigger major life changes and realignment of responsibilities! This month, since Pluto is retrograde and Uranus is moving forward, they’ve begun to make another biseptile,, and so we’ve entered a second major period of choice and decision wherever this happens in our charts.
The first Saturn biseptile was active in February and March, and is now activated a second time since late April through the end of May, with the third and final one happening in December. Given the sheer number of 7th harmonic aspects in play involving almost all the planets in this Full Moon, and the power of this Full Moon to bring forth wisdom forms for the entire year for the entire globe, it’s clear humanity in general, and we individuals specifically, will be making major choices related to shaping our destiny this year. The biseptiles from Capricorn to late Aries and early Taurus will dominate the landscape this year, and will be triggered each time a planet moves through any of the 7 active zones!
More on Uranus Biseptile Pluto
We now begin the second major phase of experiencing the radical choices and changes associated with these two planets in a 7th harmonic aspect. As I offered in May 2018 when Uranus first entered Taurus, “… they will soon make a biseptile, guaranteed to be a very unstable and irrational time!” That prophesy has certainly played out in the news with trumpets blaring, thanks to other transits triggering these 7th harmonic non-rational energies.
We first encountered these very briefly in August 2017, and it went into nonstop pulses beginning at the end of June 2018 with Uranus again 101+ degrees from Pluto. This lasted through October when the orb became too wide. We’ve now experienced the return to the trielftile between December 2018 and April 2019. The biseptile has now come roaring back and will be exact between May and July, and again October 2019 through December 2019.
This is the first biseptile in the larger Uranus/Pluto cycle that began at their conjunctions in the mid-1960s. The waxing septile occurred 1989-1991, so this is the next point in that larger “Pulse of Destiny.” The hot zones, measured from the current Saturn biseptile Uranus, where Saturn “stands in” for Pluto, are around 19-23 Capricorn, 10-14 Pisces, 2-6 Taurus, 23-27 Gemini, 15-19 Leo, 6-10 Libra, and 28 Scorpio-2 Sag. If you have anything near these zones, your life has had some abrupt transformational experiences since last Summer, especially in early November when Jupiter activated both Uranus and Pluto!
As I’ve offered many times during this era of the Grand Irrationality, if things don’t make sense, they don’t have to. The only thing that matters is to know how to focus and not get distracted by the craziness in the atmosphere. Sometimes, when we keep our heads when all around us are losing theirs, we come out on the other side looking and feeling good!
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn is in its home sign of Capricorn, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. We are past the dominant “co-equal rulerships” between Jupiter and Saturn, since the yearly transits from Sag to Pisces are now pretty much over. Still, even as standalone influences they exert a powerful influence on all affairs ruled by either of them.
Because Mars was in a Saturn-ruled sign from March 17 through November 15, 2018, Saturn was a very powerful influence on all Mars-related events of that time, which of course meant Saturn was the backdrop to Jupiter in Scorpio for that entire time. Everything governed by Mars and Jupiter ultimately had Saturn as the background to what was happening!
2017 and 2018 were an extraordinary period, due to Saturn trine Uranus dominating most of those years. Their 2017 Fire trines stabilized Electric Fire and distributive “Fire by Friction,” which led naturally to the 2018 Earth trine helping us ground our efforts in practical ways. These helped us blend the past and future, the established with the innovative, and make the structure of our lives unique.
This Full Moon finds “the Light of Saturn” front and center due to the aspects in play! With the Moon septile Saturn, Venus biseptile Saturn, and Saturn biseptile Uranus, Saturn is preparing us for a “role of destiny” later this year and next. We’re still rehearsing new roles for the future as part of the Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our lives.
I explain how these two awaken us to our Higher Powers to take conscious command of our destiny in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, teaches us how to construct an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies making our spiritual life come alive.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers. Even those with little or no understanding of astrology will benefit from understanding why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life in profound ways.
Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your power to steer your personal evolution. You will understand how to throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose. Through your journey of self-discovery, you can find ways to live your life on your own terms, and fulfill your purpose for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!
If you’ve haven’t already gotten your copy, you can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page on Amazon and this should be all you need to order your copy. It’s also available on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, so if that’s more to your liking, go for it! If you would, whether you’ve gotten the ebook or the paperback, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the more of a boost they give it.
On A Final Note
See you in the near future with parts two and three on this “Buddha Wisdom” Full Moon stabilizing emergent unique activity requiring us to leave some part of our past behind. This Full Moon Wisdom will yield high specialization with deepened relationships, extraordinary intuitive possibilities, and the transfer of deep understanding beyond the rational mind. The adventure prepares us to use power in group circumstances in the future, so consider yourself on the threshold of entering a new country, where everything depends on how you greet unfamiliar (and likely irrational!) events.
Past weeks have shown us how to get out of our own way so a Spirit-infused new life may manifest. This is the time to go deeper into your magnetism, go deeper into your connection to the One Life, and continue to envision your way from an elevated view. Listen to the inner voice to hear your Spiritual Master, and embrace the new role, the new archetypes, the new understanding of inner and outer nature, and a new life adventure, identifying with a larger life and purpose. This continues our rehearsal to use power in new ways down the road, preparing for a form of group activity which will come forth this year and next.
While things may get weird, most of the friction is generated by Venus conjunct Uranus with both semisquare Neptune, putting pressure on planets or points in the middle degrees of the Mutable sectors and last degrees of the Cardinal and first degrees of the Fixed sectors in our charts. When it comes to using friction productively, remember that it takes pressure to turn carbon into diamonds. And the more skillful we become in dealing with life’s aggravations, annoyances, disruptions, and unexpected diversions, the less these are a problem in the future, and the more we are able to keep our cool in the midst of the generic atmospheric conflict. That way we can fulfill our destiny and enjoy the journey!
Even though our entry to experience is the very intense Moon in Scorpio, it’s immediately followed by Jupiter in Sagittarius helping us open to our Sagittarius dance with life, love, humor and freedom. Keep laughter in your heart as you move into the future, and claim your power to live a more effective life!
I’ll see you soon when we’ll discuss Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important chart factors.
© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks for this...the full Moon exactly conjuncts my Saturn in the 6th house...and this one came as they all do...
Steve Jobsformillions and the dead Inventors called by for tea
Over cake and biscuits discussed man's destiny...
And the coming famine planned by the powers that shouldn't be.
While the corrupt and the stupid play out lies on our TV
the festering arrogance of ignorance amused by mediocrity
And the tiny minded scientists all too blind to see...
An army of Guardian Angels come to set us FREE...
Posted by: sue | May 15, 2019 at 10:00 AM
When will the Grand Irrationality be over? I’m understanding this to be a humanity-scale configuration, not just an individual-scale thing, but I want to better understand its total time arc. Thank you!
Posted by: Layli | May 18, 2019 at 05:31 AM
Thanks Robert. Most helpful.
Posted by: Mel | May 18, 2019 at 11:03 AM