Full Moon May 18th Rediscover – ignite –innovate – activate your authentic truth
The Moon will be full in Scorpio on May 18that 9.11 p.m, set for London.
This is a sensitive Moon – but her Scorpionic nature won’t let anyone else know how much she ‘feels’. Indeed, in Scorpio she ‘feels’ intensely and passionately – she is private and sensitive and with her ruler Mars in Cancer she may be touchy and moody – ‘still waters run deep’. At heart though she seeks her truth.
The Sun is in Taurus – more practical than sensitive. He sits alongside Mercury, planet of the mind and communication. Mercury’s energies are very much slowed when in Taurus – no longer quicksilver as he prefers, he is forced to be much more deliberate and determined in his communication. Mercury sits alongside the Sun, but he is too close to be able to think straight – he is both blinded and burned. Two further planets are also in Taurus – Venus and Uranus – so the Taurus energy is very strong.
Venus, ‘Lady’ of Taurus, has finally dug herself out of her Aries hole which she hates and is now in her own sign, a place she loves to be, even though she sits with Uranus, planet of shock, disruption, sudden change, awakening. Venus in her own sign wants to love, to relate, to value and be valued and to indulge in the things she loves to do. However, meeting Uranus in her sign she now also seeks truth and authenticity.
This is actually on the surface a ‘softer’ lunar chart than we have had of late. We do, of course, still have the powerful Saturn/Pluto/South Node combo, but in this chart the Sun can actually do something with this powerful energy rather than feeling as though his back is against the wall and he must fight it.
The Sun is sitting quite close to one of the most supposedly evil Fixed Stars out there – Algol. Algol is in the constellation Perseus, the conquering hero who slayed the gorgon Medusa by cutting off her head. Medusa is depicted as a head with a petrifying stare and hair of hissing serpents. Algol is situated right in her forehead and thereby links with the wisdom of the third eye.
Medusa was once a beautiful temple virgin renowned for her beautiful hair until she was raped by Neptune within the grounds of the temple. Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Ethics, blamed Medusa rather than Neptune for defiling sacred ground and turned her into a gorgon. With her hair of hissing serpents and a fearful, ‘petrified’ stare, all who cast their eye on her were said to have been turned to stone. However, Medusa became more powerful after her death than before. The serpents in Medusa’s hair connect her to wisdom, the ancient medicine men and sorcerers (once again a link with wisdom and the third eye)[1]. The blood from her left side was said to be poisonous whilst that from the right was used for healing, demonstrating the fine line between wisdom and ignorance, life and death, good and evil and harm and enlightenment. It follows, therefore, that if you just dabble in the things taught by the medicine men and the sorcerers, rather than truly learn it has the potential for harm. The desire to use for the good must be authentic and not for personal power or ego. Algol represents a strong consuming passion that may devour the individual with anger and rage. To counter this the passion must be for a good productive outcome. In battle Arabic commanders made a point of not entering into an important battle if the light of Algol was weak.
Algol was known by the Arabs as the Head of the Demon, the demon being the wife of the devil. Algol seemed to embody everything that men feared in the feminine – immense female power and passion. Algol is the wild outraged face of the outraged feminine;[2] It is the power of the feminine or the potential power of Mother Nature and this Full Moon embodies female energy.
Algol also shares the root of its name with ‘alcohol’ – too much alcohol and you can easily be brainwashed or zombified because you can’t think straight. And in this chart Mercury sits so close to the Sun that he is blinded and cannot think clearly. Mercury also sits with the Fixed Star Capulus, situated in Perseus’ sword hand that cut off Medusa’s head. This links with primitive sexual male energy and renders Capulus as the male version of Algol- ruthless brutal and violent.
How do we get the best out of this Full Moon?
Nearly all the planets in this chart are in feminine signs, so the message is very much about female energy, female power, passion and using that energy rather than repressing it. What perhaps we can’t see because Mercury is blinded by the Sun is that this needs to be balanced with the same male energy. It’s clear that feminine energy, once in ancient times revered and respected, has in the past been repressed by a more patriarchal society, perhaps through fear of what this feminine energy represented and how irresistible it was in general for men. But what we need is the balance of the two as it once was in ancient times.
The energy of the Full Moon is Fixed Water whilst the overall energy of the chart is Fixed Earth – fixed in that change does not come easily, Earth linking to practical realism and to Mother Earth herself whilst the Water element links to our emotions and what we feel passionate about.
So, at this Full Moon there are many messages – the use and abuse of power, passion, intensity, how we use our power, healing and transformation, knowledge and the wisdom of the third eye, and finding our own personal truth and authenticity. So long as we use the wisdom for the greater good and work with truth rather than revenge, ensuring that we balance the masculine and feminine principles, we can work through all the changes and issues ahead of us.
Beliefs create thoughts and thoughts create emotions. Consider your ‘fixed’ belief systems and perhaps question their validity. This has to be done consciously and be a part of our conscious evolution – are your beliefs creating a thinking/feeling hardwired loop that is not conducive to your well-being. If we consider how the Sun can actually work with the difficult Saturn/Pluto/South Node combo then this is a great time to try to see and let go of really outdated beliefs that are just not helping on a practical day-to-day level. Let them go ready for the new paradigm.
Where is your blind spot? Put on your sunglasses and try not to be blinded by what is sitting right in front of you. What do you find hard to ‘see’ – hard to face up to so instead you bury it because it’s easier? What is buried deep within you that festers? Along with the hurts and pains will also lie your passions and your talents. You have perhaps buried them all rather than open up and become vulnerable. If you could do anything what would it be?
Where are you petrified? Again, alongside the fears you have buried, are your talents and your ability to live your truth. Whilst Algol has the reputation of being an evil star, its passion and intensity can be used as a raw energy to deliver what you are good at. Venus, your talents, sits with Uranus, planet of sudden change, shock, disruption and awakening – what talents are you not using that need awakening now? I was recently reminded by a friend that meditation can come in many forms; it can come through losing ourselves in things that we love to do which feed us on a spiritual and mental level. This might be in the form of yoga, a creative activity or perhaps even a sport or walking the dog in a beautiful place – anything which allows our focus to still and quieten the mind. Where the fight and flight hormones are not activated and our brain is given a chance to recover and calm.
The energy is about empowerment and how to work with passion and power – and doing so for the good and without ego. Direct this passionate energy in a way which is not vengeful but instead be clear, direct, structured and focused. Like Perseus sword allow yourself to cut through what is buried. Work with the cyclical energies which are currently bringing a breakdown and crumbling of the old, the worn out, the ‘corrupt’ and ensure for yourself a new paradigm which is positive and which allows you to reach for your potentials.
Perseus’ sword removed a monstrosity from the world – our world will be halted by traumas but everything depends on how the individual lives their life. Use Perseus sword to cut off all that which harms you and replace this with beliefs which foster the good in you and for you. Algol shows that there is a fine line between wisdom and ignorance, healing and harm – re visit your philosophies and beliefs to ensure they do not keep you in a hardwired feeling/thinking loop which gives you harm.
Awaken yourself by re-discovering your latent talents and doing the things you love. When Perseus cut off Medusa’s head she just grew another more monstrous than the one before. If you keep repeating the same patterns, the same beliefs, the same actions you will never get a different outcome – just another monstrous head, the same or worse than the last one. If we keep ignoring the calls to make changes they wil for sure come back to bite us. At this Full Moon it is important to acknowledge the depths of your Soul so that you can live in your truth and be truly authentic.
Re-discover – ignite – innovate – activate your authentic truth
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[1]Marina Darkstar Astrology
[2]Brady p190