Welcome to the Scorpio Full Moon, the time of the year when the spotlight is the things that make us feel emotionally uncomfortable. It’s a lunar eclipse, too. The coming days are a transformation and rebirth. The full moon lunar eclipse is exact May 16, 2022 at 12:14 am EDT. That’s 9:14 pm Los Angeles on May 15, 5:14 am London on May 16, 6:14 am Johannesburg, 2:14 pm Sydney, and 4:14 pm Auckland.
Shining a light, full moons demand action. Life can turn in a new direction. And when the full moon is also a lunar eclipse, we’re feeling this even more.
When I look out into the astrology for the coming year, I always start with the eclipses. They set much of the tone and mark predictable periods when we can expect changes, pivots, and notable events. Often life moves fast around eclipses. Things quickly rush in and out, hence their well-deserved reputation for eclipsing things out of our lives. (I talked all about eclipses in my Eclipses of April & My 2022 webinar, which you can still watch.)
That said, May 16 Scorpio Full Moon lunar eclipse is one of these periods in 2022. Coming two weeks after a Taurus solar eclipse on April 30, it’s also the first Scorpio eclipse in a series of eclipses that take us into 2023. What does this mean?
All zodiac signs are an archetype and Scorpio is the archetype of death and rebirth, intimacy and vulnerability, power and control. It’s also our traumas and buried memories. It’s the emotions — sometimes intense emotions — that accompany the life events that forever change us. Scorpio plays counter to Taurus’s energies. It’s the death to Taurus’s life, the decay to its spring-time blooms.
That’s what the spotlight is on. And if you’re feeling intense emotions right now, wondering if you’re safe, can trust, or having to face something previously buried, then you’re feeling the sign of Scorpio. It’s a sign that raw and can cut through illusion and fantasy like a knife. In Scorpio, we have to face ourselves.
While the sign can brings us into the darkest of the dark, Scorpio at its core talks about the duality of life, that even in our darkest experiences, we can experience a powerful and positive transformation.
When we look to the ruler of the full moon, we find Mars in Pisces. It’s not just our feelings, but emotions that touch on the Universal and Collective. Conjunct Neptune in Pisces, Mars invites us to let go, to wash away the past and its suffering. As intense as Scorpio can be, in Pisces we touch on the energies of the Divine, something that can’t happen until we face our illusions and ego.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the full moon makes a tight square to Saturn in Aquarius. In order to forgive and let go, we have to put things right. Saturn is the great auditor in the sky. We better have our receipts. Things better be above board. It’s also an eclipse to set boundaries, say no to things we need to say no to, and to put things back into balance. Additionally, this is an eclipse to make a commitment, say yes to the right things, to take a step up in our maturity, and forge something solid.
This is a pivotal month for many people, especially those who are fixed signs or who have major planets and angles in fixed signs — Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Pay attention to the story that’s coming up. It will be revisited in different ways next October-November 2022 as well as May 2023.
And, of course, you can still learn more about this series of eclipses in my webinar, The Eclipses of April & May 2022.