Taurus Full Moon / Venus conjunct Pluto

So tomorrow (17th November) we have a full moon at 25 degrees Taurus.

Taurus is a fixed earth sign concerned with material and physical stability, money, solidity, self-esteem, values. Like Libra, Taurus is Venus-ruled...but the Taurean Venus is a different creature than the Libran. In Libra, Venus's role is intellectual and airy and somewhat impersonal: she interrelates. She bridges gaps between people and creates social unity and harmony.

But in Taurus, Venus is all about personal pleasure and satisfaction...and groundedness. What do you actually love--not intellectually, but physically? What gives you pleasure and a sense of profound unshakeable satistfaction/security; what is the ground of your self-esteem?

Knowing the answers to these questions in a deep-down, physical way is what Taurus is all about.

A Taurus moon is about an emotional need for stability and solidity. And this particular Taurus moon is disposited by Venus in Capricorn, which is all about rock-hard standards and security in relationships: are your relationships strong enough to last and to build on? Can you rely on them for the long haul?

The Taurus moon will be facing off against the sun in Scorpio, sign of deep soul truth, intuitive understanding, healing and absolute trust. And the Scorpio sun is disposited by Pluto in Capricorn: so there's not much room for covering over or avoiding what's rotten here. No whitewashing. The rot is too deep and too systemic: it has to be addressed. You cannot put a band-aid on a bunch of pustulent gangrene or throw a pretty floral rug on the freakin' Death Star.

Likewise, you cannot continue giving energy to people or situations you know to be toxic and rotten. I mean, you can try--you can go on wasting your energy on these dynamics that you already know to be unbalanced and screwed-up. By all means do that if you need to...but understand that it can't work for long. You are going to have to face the music sometime....

So how about RIGHT NOW. It's the full moon after all: whatever's happening should be all lit up and in your face like a hundred watt lightbulb.

The alternative is to keep doing this:

Driving this message home, Venus, dispositor of the Taurus moon, is in Capricorn and conjunct Pluto in Capricorn, dispositor of the Scorpio sun. It doesn't get much more clear-cut than this.

So I will write it again in caps: VENUS IS CONJUNCT PLUTO IN CAPRICORN. That's really what this full moon is all about. Love and death.

(Sorry!!!)

But seiously: love and death. Or the death of love. Or till death do us part: rock solid devotion. Or dead loves coming back (unexpectedly! courtesy of Uranus in Aries) to haunt you and force you to exercise your Scorpionic skillset of bullshit-detecting and rot-amputation.

But this doesn't even have to be about relationships necessarily: remember that a Taurean Venus is also about money and values. It might be time to really sit down and sort out your financial situation. It might be impossible to avoid doing so.

Or it might be time to really look at what your values are about, and how they build or undermine your character.

Anyway, Venus is going to be in Capricorn for a good while. Until March actually...and nit-picky Mars in Virgo will be hitting her with trines till early December. Meaning: it's time to get real picky and high-maintenance and somewhat ruthless about who and what you choose to relate to and spend your energies on.

It's OK to be picky and have high standards! In fact it's very important. This is all about building something solid that will see you through. Life is not easy and it doesn't get easier as you get older. So who the hell needs fellow-travellers who are only going to make it harder: more full of needless drama and headgames and bullshit? Nobody! Unless you're into that sort of thing, in which case you are welcome to it...but it won't work out so great, I'm telling you now. And the whole sky is behind me on this...

Re. Uranus: Mr. crazy rebel planet is tightly squaring the Veuns-Pluto conjunction, adding an element of wild unpredictability to the mix. Maybe there are some shocks to your self esteem or your money situation or your relationships in store. But I would also take it as meaning it's a good time to cut your losses and get the draining, lousy crap out of your life. Like NOW. There is just no room for that stuff, going forward.

It can feel dull sometimes to be harping on about what these times mean. One week after another, and the theme stays pretty much the same. Heavy Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces: deep, redemptive, traumatic, transformative, ruthlessly magical times. Stripped-down and simple, yet dreamlike and strange. Horrible/beautiful in equal measure...

Maybe life is always this way, but I don't think so.

And sometimes I don't feel there is much to say about it all - the words don't go deep enough. They can't. Mercury is in Scorpio conjunct the north node, after all: maybe the less said, the better. Holding back verbally is a necessary form of energy conservation...

But it's definitely a time of all the chickens coming home to roost, all the crappy old karma coming due (Saturn in Scorpio). Payback time...and you will know by the shape of your life right now what the payback is.

Anyway it's amazing enough just to be here and watching it play out, right? We're very lucky.

To sum up: the take-home message re. this full moon is this. Better get your values straight already. Know who and what you would trust with your life; get your committements stripped down to basics and nailed down. And get the energy-suckers and manipulators and day-trippers out of your life pronto, if you haven't done so already. Maybe you could make them a delicious cake, Taurus style: