Full Moon in Scorpio

This is tomorrow, Friday the 22nd April, around 6:30 am GMT.

OK, so at the new moon in Aries a couple weeks ago, I wrote about desire: excavating your True Will and focusing intent and stuff like that.

Well here we are at the full moon, the culmination of the cycle opened at the new moon. And it's in Scorpio, which is all about primal desire, psychological depth work, power, intensity, death/rebirth, self-transformation and purgation.

So we are looking at a continuation and culmination of this theme of examining / transforming desire, and focusing intent.

And it's pretty intense! We are at fever pitch here. Shifts, shocks and transformations are underway.

These transformations likely have to do with relationships, money, possessions, self-esteem and values – all Venus themes. The sun is now in earthy, pragmatic Taurus – and Taurus is ruled by Venus.

So Venus is highlighted here. And right now, she is in Aries (where she is basically Xena, Warrior Princess) and tangled up with the violent and transformative Uranus-Pluto square. So she's in fighting mode. She's really not taking any shit.

Venus squared Pluto in Capricorn on the 20th, just as the sun moved into Taurus – and right on the heels of Pluto stationing retrograde. And she will conjunct Uranus in Aries on the evening of the full moon.

This denotes some major upheaval, in relationships especially. Hidden corruption and buried injustices coming to light, power dynamics shifting in wildly unpredictable ways, new opportunities popping up out of nowhere...and an unwillingness to play out the same old stories and dramas.

I think something is going to change radically here, of necessity.

It could also be about a shift in values; a change in what you want or need. Or a shift in your finances...especially shared assets and debts.

But whatever form it takes for you, this won't be superficial. It's about deep structural change. The kind that puts your life on a new footing.

It could well involve an abrupt, decisive ending – maybe there's something you have to leave behind for good here, be it a relationship, a habit, a situation. This kind of Venus action puts me in mind of a woman discovering she's been two-timed, and walking out for good. Righteously!

Like pretty much every Mary J. Blige song, ever...

Yep!

OK, but I also have to say, this moon is pretty sexed up. Scorpio and Taurus are sexed-up signs, and the sun and moon are a charged polarity at the full moon – so I guess that's another way to use this energy, if you don't want to be lighting cars on fire or taking people to divorce court.

Scorpio and Taurus are fixed signs, and Scorpio in particular brings a intensity and fixity of focus to emotional matters. And full moons are about emotional intensity...So all in all, this full moon is really fired-up.

Plus it makes no aspects except for a very weak trine to Neptune in Pisces - so the intensity of it is pretty much unmodulated. It's an all-or-nothing kinda vibe.

Please bear in mind that it might bring an intensity of frustration! Scorpio's ruling planets, Mars and Pluto, are both retrograde as of the 17th April.

I have said this is is about reconsideration, inwardness, excavation of True Will etc. – and I think at the deepest level, that's really what this is about.

But at the everyday level, it's likely to manifest as blockage, delay and frustration. Being held up or thwarted in some way, especially in regard to what you most deeply desire.

If your progress in the outer world is stalled and things are not happening the way you want them to happen or on your schedule, please just sit tight and focus inward. Think about what you really want and need, and where you want to go. Locate the obstructions in yourself that keep you stuck – because the obstructions you face in the outer world are often a mirror of the inner ones.

And please remember, things ARE shifting – just not necessarily on a surface level. Nothing can be forced right now. Lashing out in anger or frustration isn't going to help.

It will be easy to feel frustrated and jangled-up, with the mutable t-square we have going on now (and for much of this year). This involves Saturn and Mars in Sagittarius, Neptune in Pisces and Jupiter in Virgo. It's just kind of a hot mess – energy and drive all over the place, the future completely unknowable, our minds all frazzled and neurotic.

And it's made even more frustrating by all the retrogrades we have going on right now: Saturn, Mars, Pluto and Jupiter are all moving backward, denoting a ton of blocked or inward-directed energy.

Compounding the frustration, they'll be joined next week by a Mercury retrograde (29th April to the 23rd May). He'll be retrograding through Taurus, and this is about mental energy and communication that move about as fast as a damn glacier. Things are going to feel a whole lot slower by the end of this month.

Expect some mega frustration and blockage with this. Remember: things really are not going to happen according to your schedule, so don't expect them to. They will happen when it's time for them to happen. (With Neptune involved, you can have faith in that.)

Annoying as it may be, please remember the blockages you encounter are in service of deep restructuring.  This Mercury retrograde through Taurus creates a grand earth trine with Pluto in Capricorn and Jupiter in Virgo – all moving retrograde as well. It'll be in effect till early June, and it looks immensely beneficial, as far as creating a solid new foundation goes. Blockage and delay will provide us with plenty of time to consider all the details of what we're entering into, and to get things right.

Anyway – remember there's really no big rush. Everything will get done if you keep attending to the little details as they come up, per Jupiter and the north node in Virgo. Please don't drive yourself crazy with deadlines and schedules and expectations, because things aren't likely to go according to plan.

It's important to keep working but also to trust in the larger design. And to view delay as a kind of gift...Because the way things are set up right now, it really IS a gift.

Anyway, to sum up: we are in the midst of a lunar cycle that is all about profound structural upheaval and transformation – especially in the context of YOU, what you really want out of life, where you want to go etc. 

This full moon is where the self-transformation stuff gets really intense, lit-up and unavoidable. There might be some stuff you have to cut yourself free of decisively, before you can move forward. There is likely to be some deep psychological reckoning involved. Don't expect it to be painless. 

Also, “moving forward” right now is more about quiet planning and internal psychological processing, because outward progress is likely to be delayed or blocked. You'd do well to treat any blockages you encounter as opportunities to refine your plans, or to re-examine your assumptions. Things will happen when it's the right time, not when you want them to happen. 

PS - RIP Prince.

He would shed his mortal frame at a sexed-up, super-intense, transformative full moon in Scorpio. He just would.