A Scorpio Full Moon of Taking Up the Challenge

Friday, May 1st, brings us a new month and an unusual Scorpio Full Moon that is loaded with Mars and Pluto, Scorpio’s traditional and modern rulers. Taking place at 11° of Scorpio and of Taurus, the opposition between Moon and Sun completes at 10:22 AM Pacific Time, early afternoon for the East Coast and early evening for Europe. Although the Scorpio Moon demands that we dig deep into our psyche for the answers that we seek, the Taurus Sun could prove to be a stabilizing factor. While the huge Aries line-up that we saw in the recent New Moon from mid-April has decreased, there are still six planets in Aries, Including Neptune at 3° and near the midpoint of the Uranus–Pluto trine which is now fully in Air signs, Uranus having recently re-entered Gemini. Over the next few months, this triple of the outer planets will build. On July 4th, which is the 250th anniversary of the United States, these three outer planets will come to a more-or-less exact trine and sextile alignment, with Neptune at 4° of Aries and about to station to retrograde motion, while Pluto at 4° Aquarius and Uranus are highlighted and almost exactly trine. Chances are, July and August after this peak moment will therefore be difficult months of transformation and change.

In the current configuration, we find the three inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, all strongly configured. Mercury is in partile, (same-degree) conjunction with Chiron, the Wounded Healer, bringing to greater conscious awareness our ongoing struggles with inner wounding, while Venus is closely contra-parallel with Pluto and precisely sextile Saturn, thus in a strong cycle of transformation that could include all our relationships. Mars, at the Saturn/Eris midpoint, is additionally closely aspecting Pluto, a quintile, plus semi-square Uranus, now at 0° Gemini, and septile Venus. This extremely highlighted Mars indicates that emotions and desires could run high, including unresolved anger that could flame out when we least expect it. The recipe there is to try to count to ten, or to “take a backward step” when we are this unexpectedly upset. In this we are remembering that our anger is our own, and likely the result of hidden complexes from the past coming into new activity, being only triggered by the passing events of the present moment.

Chiron was featured in the recent late-Aries New Moon from mid-April, being closely conjunct Eris and, as well, the New Moon degree back then of 27° – and this emphasis is still with us for the next two weeks, as the May month gets underway. In the present circumstance of this Full Moon configuration, that we find Chiron in the same degree of Aries as Mercury implies that there is currently within us new considerations of how these hidden and walled-away hurt places within us can be soothed and comforted. This is largely by – rather than avoidance – acceptance and recognition. When we can reach down to the hurt child imprisoned within us, the residue of prior trauma at that early age, and then applying loving, compassionate, inclusion in which we acknowledge what happened, and what may yet be accepted and partly healed, we make great strides toward freeing ourselves from being controlled, as it were, from below, moving forward with greater self-acceptance, confidence, and authenticity.

As far as Venus, the perfect sextile she makes with Saturn, at 9° of Aries, with the 11° Taurus Sun at their approximate midpoint, creates a “kite” formation with the twin inconjuncts made by Saturn and Venus to the Moon at 11° of Scorpio. This is a difficult Venus, and yet we need – now, more than ever – our relationships; to include teams, partnerships and friendships. With Saturn there is a blockage or a stymie that must in turn become resolved, so that, to that end, effort must be applied. The reward is greater self-knowledge and greater understanding of our partners too.

Mars meanwhile is closely septile Venus in this Full Moon, plus quintile Pluto, semi-square Uranus, and square Jupiter. This is a rather brilliant Mars, contributing to our relationship navigation and to finding strongly creative solutions to our emotional needs going forward.

We had, in the recent April New Moon, a prominent position of Eris, Feminine Warrior for soul intention, placed then with Chiron and the New Moon, and now in this Full Moon placed with Chiron and with Mercury. We may be slowly coming to a better understanding of what we hold inside as our bottom-line principles and beliefs. These are what we will not, under any circumstances go beyond, and instead will fight for, especially when we see the gravity of our situation. This powerful Eris placement calls us each to articulate, incline toward, and, indeed, to act in adherence to what we stand for, as we can come to that.

As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century once reminded us, “Let us then be up and doing/ With a heart for any fate/ Still achieving, still pursuing/ Learn to labor, and to wait.”

After all, in the fraught period of this climactic 2026 year, we don’t really have any other choice but to stand up, each of us, for what we most deeply believe; to give it our best, and to somehow see it all through, in spite of everything.