Join us in reverence!

Scorpio Full Moon May 15/16, 2003 Sun at 24.53 Taurus Sabian Symbol: Vast public park displays glorious and inspiring vistas. Social strength of all collectivities. Power of traditional culture. Faithfulness to established achievements. Immutability. Moon at 24.53 Scorpio Sabian Symbol: Thanks to a fine x-ray diagnosis, a man's life is saved. Penetrating power of reality. Dependence of outer factors upon basic structures or causes. Sharp and applied discrimitation. 4:35 GMT (5/16) 21:36 MDT 23:36 EDT 20:36 PDT 22:36 CDT 13:35 AEST (5/16)

Rituals lift us from mundane concerns and connect us to the greater flow of things.  Our MoonCircles CyberRitual is a monthly experiment in collective attunement -- to each other and the moon.  Across time zones, we collect our creative energies into a healing meditation, as a gift to ourselves and the world. Feel free to harmonize at a time of your own convenience, so that our astral voices may continue throughout the moon's waxing and waning cycles, as in a round.

Scorpio Full Moon Meditation:
Through Desire to Knowledge
By Jean Hinson Lall

At the New Moon in Taurus, we embraced our existence in the manifested world and reveled in its beauty. At the Full Moon in Scorpio, we balance that affirmation of the here and now against the reality that all things in this world are ephemeral and imperfect. The message is heightened this year because this Full Moon involves an eclipse.

In India, where the Buddha was born, this is the festival called Wesak, commemorating the birthday, the enlightenment and also the death of this great spiritual teacher. Now at the climax of the season of Spring comes a moment of opening to the divine, for according to some traditions the Buddha returns to visit humankind at this time each year, bringing blessings from the heart of the cosmos. It is an auspicious time to gather with others to meditate, give offerings, rejoice and share. If you don't have like-minded neighbors with whom to observe this occasion, light a candle to invoke distant friends, those who have already departed this life, or those yet to be born. And join in the Mooncircles Full Moon ritual!

What are the tensions between the two powerful Fixed signs Taurus and Scorpio which make their opposing claims upon us now? Taurus affirms that life in this world is beautiful, eminently loveable and worth holding onto with all one's might, while Scorpio forces us to see that all created things decay and perish, all beings are subject to suffering, and in the end we must let go.

This is a Moon of Desire. We long to hold onto and identify with our bodies, our personalities, the people we love, the beautiful things that delight our senses. As we cling to what we love, though, it changes or slips away. And to follow one desire means abandoning another. Attaining our heart's desire, we may discover that it's different from what we expected. Marrying our true love, we find that we've taken on our partner's debts and defects as well as her assets and gifts. Finding one's soul mate at last, one also discovers that he has a mind and a life of his own. Wherever the Taurus-Scorpio polarity is constellated we can learn the courage to follow our desires, knowing that they will lead us not only onward and upward to joyous fulfillment but downward and backward, through murky and circuitous paths, where disappointment, boredom, tragedy and decay will slowly educate us into love. As an old man, C. G. Jung wrote, "Objective cognition lies hidden behind the attraction of the emotional relationship; it seems to be the central secret. Only through objective cognition is the real coniunctio [the inner union of masculine and feminine, the alchemical experience of wholeness] possible." But of course it is only through living our passions that we ultimately come to the knowledge of which Jung spoke.

As at the New Moon on May 1, we have a Fixed T-square, but now the Sun and Moon have moved ahead and a retrograde Mercury replaces them in the T-square with Jupiter in Leo and Mars and Neptune in Aquarius. Mars crossed over Neptune just the previous day, and Neptune will have turned retrograde less than three hours before the Full Moon. The "action planet" has connected with the imagination, which is now going to back up and distill its images for a few months. Mercury is positioned to review the plans made at the New Moon, clarify and revise them as needed, and prepare to move ahead with their outward progress later in the Spring. The Sun and Moon, opposing each other at 25 degrees Taurus-Scorpio, make no major (Ptolemaic) aspects to the other planets. They are in a world of their own. Think about this as you do your Full Moon eclipse meditation, and in the next two weeks as we move toward the Solar Eclipse in Gemini. Let one part of your mind consider the philosophical issues discussed above while the other gives itself over to concentrated work on the projects of your heart's desire. Take modest but strong and well-thought-out steps toward their realization. Leave time for reviewing plans, finishing past projects, shedding outworn habits and commitments, cleaning closets and clearing away rubble. If new and full moons are punctuation marks in the book of life, eclipses mark off chapters. Use this time to finish up one chapter so that the next one can begin!

Look for the Gemini New Moon May 30, 2003