This week’s Scorpio Full Moon is a thriller, with many potent factors to examine. The Scorpio Full Moon is well known as the time for celebrating the life and enlightenment of Buddha- as the Sun transits Taurus, rooting our life force in the stability of a well-cared-for garden, the Moon in Scorpio goes underground, a magic mirror that reveals our thoughts causing unhappiness and pain. For those who are truly looking inside of themselves for answers, this full moon will illuminate the problems and illnesses that begin in hidden places.
The Taurus Sun is trine Pluto in Capricorn, joining the Scorpio Full Moon by an electric sextile. Asteroid Juno is Pluto’s companion. Also during this full moon, Mars transits square Neptune in Pisces, and trine Jupiter in Libra. Jupiter is preparing to station direct and is in a quincunx aspect with Neptune that will be in orb until the end of July. (Not shown on this chart: the north node recently entered Leo, and Mercury and Uranus in Aries are trine to Saturn in Sagittarius. For more on this, see my previous articles: Mercury Retrogrades 2017: Trines in Fire Signs and North Node in Leo, South Node in Aquarius)
A few months ago, I went on a field trip to a rock museum with my daughter’s first grade class, and was mindblown to discover that “Plutonic” is a geological term, with insanely accurate metaphorical relevance. When magma is released from a volcano, its exposure to the surface causes it to cool quickly, resulting in rocks with a smooth, glassy appearance. These rocks can be found easily on a simple hike through the mountains. When magma cannot find a path to escape to the surface, it pools underground, where it can take millenia to cool, creating rocks with rough, coarse texture. These rocks can only be found through mining, or where centuries of erosion have worn away the earth that once covered it up. Guess which one is Plutonic?
The basic understanding of the word “intrusion” implies the insertion of something unwanted where it doesn’t belong, causing disruptions that could be anywhere from inconvenient to violent. Pluto transits are commonly seen through this lens, seen as a disruption that forces its way in. If magma has no path to the surface, no volcano, then it will force its way into underground cracks and crevices- becoming Plutonic.
But what if we thought of astrological Plutonic intrusion as the presence of something inside us that doesn’t have a way out, instead of feeling like we are being invaded by something unwelcome? When we see it this way, trying to make the intrusion go back to where it came from is not a legit strategy, instead we need to open ourselves up, literally excavate. This is a meditation to explore under the Scorpio Full Moon sextile Pluto.
Asteroid Juno is only days away from her retrograde station at 18° Capricorn while Pluto is at 19°. So Juno spends two months this summer within 3 degree orb of Pluto without actually completing a conjunction. In August, she stations direct at 2° Capricorn and then finally crosses Pluto in November, separating quickly, well into Aquarius by new years. A fascinating encounter between the Queen of Heaven and the ruler of the Underworld. While their identities and themes are starkly polarized (Female/Male, Heaven/Hell, Boundaries/Intrusion, etc) their effect on each other in pragmatic Capricorn feels positive. Pluto in Capricorn is about the elimination of obsolete institutions, and Juno’s Capricorn retrograde will give us the opportunity to dismantle obsolete boundaries.
The quincunx between Jupiter in Libra and Neptune in Pisces will last for months; Mars sailing through Gemini creates a fascinating aspect triangle to go along with our Scorpio full moon. Jupiter quincunx Neptune is about the process of reinventing ourselves, and learning from mistakes as we get reactions and consequences that we find totally undesirable. With Jupiter beginning the long process of stationing direct in Libra, the underlying theme is: the dreams that arise from our subconscious about who we believe we can be, need sculpting and adjustment in order to create and maintain healthy and supportive social connections. Most people can’t do whatever they want, whenever they want, without letting down the people who are closest to them. This is an incredibly difficult balance to find, between freely expressing the truth of who you are, vs. your responsibility to be considerate and loving to friends and family. Shortly after the Scorpio full moon, Mars squares Neptune, impulsive and passive-aggressive, restless due to lack of direction, and has trouble matching desire to action and achieving goals. We might be tempted to tell anyone giving us negative feedback to fuck off- even the most constructive criticism could feel incredibly insulting. But the Plutonic magic of this full moon inspires us to shift our focus away from the negative feedback, and focus on the feelings that arise inside us when we receive it. Instead of seeing it as an unwelcome attack, see it as something that has been inside us all along, that needs to be dug up, released out into the open, and examined for increased self-awareness. The next day, Mars completes his trine to Jupiter, which is also a restless energy, but unlike Mars square Neptune, the restlessness is due to being highly motivated, and there is a strong positive connection between plans and results. The ultimate goal this week is to work through our own uncomfortable feelings as we grapple with how we can claim space to be ourselves while also being willing to make positive changes so the people we love can have enough room to be fully present in our lives.
Finally I would like to mention that during the Scorpio full moon, Apophis is conjunct Ceres at 4° Gemini. I have natal Ceres(the nurturing principle) conjunct Apophis(the chaos fucker), both square natal Pluto, and throughout my entire life I have had to teach myself how to take care of myself, again, and again, and again. I go through periods of developing a self-care lifestyle, which is inevitably disrupted by an unexpected life change that makes my self-care routine impossible or obsolete, and then after a period of not taking care of myself at all, I have to start over. It’s a cycle that has caused me a lot of suffering, primarily due to my own perceptions of failure and confidence. Often times we avoid things that we are not good at, because we don’t know how to fail without beating ourselves up about it. We might think we are protecting our confidence, but then those avoided spots just stagnate under the surface into Plutonic rocks of insecurity and unmet needs. The failure is not really the thing we are trying to avoid- we are avoiding having a reason to beat ourselves up. The solution is to learn how to experience failure without judging ourselves, at all. Eventually the entire definition of failure will change, when it is no longer associated with desperation and shame. That’s when we can start getting new ideas, building, growing, and excavating our inner Plutonic intrusions.
“Reject the thought of failure at all times. Concentration is the gateway to power. The inability to concentrate is root cause of failure. When you want to create something important, sit quietly and meditate deeply upon what you want to do. By the power of concentration and meditation, you can direct the untold power of your mind to accomplish your goals.” -Paramahansa Yogananda
Planetary Clarity 