Full Moon in Taurus
The Lady of Heaven turned her eyes to the Great Below. The Lady of Heaven descended to the Great Below. The Lady of Heaven passed through death in the Great Below. The Lady of Heaven received the food and waters of Life in the Great Below. Her inner sight opened, her heart rekindled, her blood flowing, the Lady of Heaven awakened.
The Full Moon in Taurus occurs at the degree of the exaltation of Selene, the singular degree of the zodiac where the Moon is lifted to her most exalted expression. Theoretically, an exalted Moon in Taurus can enhance our capacity to rise above the fluctuations of fortune with steadiness, continually mediating shifting and sometimes opposing forces through a process of dynamic equilibration. With the lunation occurring in the nocturnal home of Venus, while Venus reaches the dramatic midpoint of her retrograde phase, the illuminating light of the Moon will reveal changes stirring within the hidden recesses of our being that have yet to fully emerge into conscious awareness.
As the silvery light of the Moon penetrates the dark, dank wetlands of Scorpio, where Venus has been journeying through her katabasis, the rays of the exalted Moon regenerate the soil, preparing the ground of being for the reemergence of the star of Aphrodite into visibility during the week following the lunation. Just as Venus has been touched by death, so too has the underworld been touched by the fertility of Venus. Crucially, as the Moon waxes to fullness, Venus will have departed from her inversion in Scorpio and returned to her airy home of Libra where she gains greater protection, access to resources, and the capacity to more directly express her wide range of creative gifts.
Whether or not you have personally experienced grief, death, or loss during the first half of Venus retrograde, we have all been invited to explore the otherworld through the interior realms of being, shedding outworn relational and creative patterns. In this fraught collective era of liminal transition amidst technological acceleration, the cultivation of our inner lives and imaginative capacities is becoming more important than ever. The Taurus Full Moon invites us to descend into these inner depths and discover what has been quietly incubating within, awaiting its emergence into life.
It is no ordinary light of the exalted Moon illuminating our depths, however, but rather silvery rays tinged by the darkness of Hades. The Full Moon in Taurus is separating from an opposition with Venus retrograde in Libra and applying to a catalyzing square with Pluto in Aquarius. Pluto will be gazing intensely upon the Moon from a superior position in the zodiac, while the Moon gazes back, her brilliant torch illuminating the mysterious initiation Venus has been undergoing. Pluto is out of bounds in southern declination, possessing an unusual potency for dredging up the issues we must confront and work through as part of reclaiming personal power, agency, and sovereignty.
Indeed, the lunation unfolds within a profoundly nocturnal setting, emphasizing instincts and survival, sensation and somatic intelligence. The principal players in the unfolding drama, brought to a crescendo by the Full Moon, all belong to the nocturnal sect: the Moon in Taurus, Venus retrograde in Libra, Mars in Leo, and Mercury retrograde in Scorpio in its evening phase. One of the dominant themes of the Venus retrograde period has been the sequence of square aspects between Venus and Pluto, and so the Full Moon’s rekindling of Plutonic tension brings questions of desire and direction to the forefront, inviting us to engage with them rather than resist them.
The combination of Venus retrograde and Mercury retrograde encourages us to disentangle our values and aspirations from societal conditioning surrounding power and status. As Sappho expressed in Anne Carson’s translation, “Some men say an army of horse and some men say an army on foot / and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing / on the black earth. But I say it is / what you love.”
There is a deep mystery being illuminated by the Taurus Full Moon and the reflection of its light upon the still waters of the lunar vessel of our soul. The compelling symbolism of the lunation arises from Venus and Mercury moving in opposite directions across the threshold between visibility and invisibility. Venus is preparing to emerge from darkness as a morning star in her domicile of Libra, while Mercury is simultaneously descending from evening star visibility following sunset into invisibility. While Venus embodies the return of desire and relational awareness from an underworld transformation, Mercury is assuming the role of psychopomp, guiding consciousness into the underworld depths that Venus is leaving behind.
With messages from Mercury heightened by its retrograde station on October 24, pay attention to synchronicities and omens that can help you discern what Venus is bringing back from the underworld as Mercury leads awareness deeper into it. Their simultaneous transitions suggest that revelation and dissolution are intertwined like serpents around the caduceus of Hermes: something new is entering awareness precisely as an older way of perceiving begins to unravel.
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio will retrace its path through the sign of the Scorpion from October 24 to November 13, returning to the region where Venus stationed retrograde in early October. During the opening phase of Mercury retrograde, the star of Hermes will facilitate the breakdown of old perceptual patterns, helping us shed what is ready to pass away. This process of dissolution will intensify during the waning half of the lunar cycle, culminating in Mercury’s reanimation in the heart of the Sun on November 4. By the New Moon in Scorpio on November 8, Mercury retrograde will have begun sowing new ideas and plans that can take root and gain greater traction after Mercury stations direct on November 13.
With Venus also stationing direct on November 13, the Taurus Full Moon may illuminate revelations concerning our inner metamorphosis, helping us discern where we stand within a liminal process of transformation that will continue unfolding through mid-November. Similar to how the opening phase of Venus retrograde in early October necessitated the adversity of Venus engaging in a contentious square aspect with Mars in Leo, the Mercury retrograde phase will also begin with tension and conflict kindled by the square aspect between Mercury with Mars in Leo. Whether tensions and conflicts are playing out within external relations, inner dilemmas, or both, the red hot influence of Mars will continue to stoke friction with Mercury as Mars in Leo and Mercury retrograde in Scorpio mutually apply to a dissonant square aspect that will become exact on October 30.
Collectively, the martial friction between Mars with Mercury retrograde will be seen in current events such as the impact of warfare upon economic conditions, emboldened protests over cost of living, and addressing the myriad fears arising over the rapid acceleration of AI technology with hacking and other potential impacts upon humanity. In the United States of America, the impending midterm elections will be a host to numerous verbal conflicts, accusations, and scandals. After Mars separates from the square with Mercury retrograde, the red planet will continue to enflame events by passing over the degree of the August’s Solar Eclipse in Leo on November 3.
With Saturn and Neptune retrograde in Aries continuing to activate their combined archetypal themes of illusion, persecution, and awakening from deception, the additional influence of Mars in Leo steadily approaching Jupiter and the South Node of the Moon in Leo may bring both authentic revelations of corruption and false accusations. Amid the volatility of this collective period, the combination of Mercury and Venus retrograde can help us return to our center, reconnecting with what truly matters and the core values and principles that can guide us through uncertain times. The combination of Mars, Jupiter, and the South Node in Leo can burn away what is inauthentic, refining a more essential sense of purpose while rewarding those who lead by example and demonstrate integrity through their actions and choices.
Taurus 1 Decan
The Full Moon will illuminate the first decan of Taurus, the face of Mercury and Venus. Its image in Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm or the Picatrix is of a woman with curly hair who has a son wearing clothes resembling a flame, mirroring her own fiery garments. Fitting for the crafting of Venus combined with the many arts of Mercury, it is a face of geometry and sciences, of plowing the land, sowing, and building. Henrich Cornelius Agrippa in Three Books of Occult Philosophy wrote that within the first decan of Taurus “rises a nude man digging or plowing; this is useful for planting, plowing, building, plundering, dividing the earth, and for geometrical arts.” The Moon’s light waxing to fullness in this face suggests contemplating the long game with plans and goals, discerning how to most effectively sow the fields of vocation, aspiration, and community to bring about future harvests.
In The Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius, a Greek-language text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus from the early Roman Imperial period and translated by Demetra George, the image for the first decan of Taurus is a “Ram-headed man, Syrian robe down to feet, hands holding sceptres upon both shoulders.” Although vastly different in appearance from the mother and child clothed in fiery embers, the ram-headed figure evokes a similar quality of fierce protection, akin to the protective bond between mother and child. For the ram-headed sovereign calls to mind the form assumed by the Egyptian solar deity during his nocturnal journey through the dissolving depths of the Duat, where the Sun undergoes reanimation and rejuvenation before rising once more, cracking open the darkness of dawn with the light of creation.
Since the first decan of Taurus is a face of Mercury and Venus, it is fascinating that the retrograde phases of these two planets are the predominant astrological themes of the present lunar cycle. We are being called to undertake our own nocturnal journey through the dissolution of a dark night of the soul, steering the ship of our lives with the spiritual sovereignty and courageous vitality of the ram-headed sun god, while nurturing the fiery vision and vitality of our inner Eros like the woman in red tending her child clothed in flame. These images also evoke the fiery purification and alchemical transmutation unfolding in the weeks ahead, as Mercury retrograde in Scorpio passes through the heart of the Sun and Venus emerges from the underworld to cast her gleaming light upon the darkness preceding the dawn of a new day.
The Hellenistic text 36 Airs associates Charis with the first decan of Taurus, inviting us to consider how the Three Graces (Charites) are embodied within this face of Mercury and Venus. The Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, one of the Oceanid daughters born from the primordial union of Okeanos and Tethys. Commonly known as Splendor, Mirth, and Good Cheer, the Graces have also been given different names and numbers across various traditions. As we navigate uncertain collective times, their presence in the first decan of Taurus emphasizes the importance of cultivating protective spaces where we can enjoy the pleasures of the Graces through companionship, community, and the creative arts associated with Venus and Mercury. Their presence also suggests the need to develop our plans with patience, care, and discernment, cultivating the conditions in which the gifts of the Graces can flourish and endure rather than rushing recklessly through the retrograde phases of Mercury and Venus.
The parentage of the Graces becomes even more intriguing when we consider that Eurynome was also a foster mother of Hephaestus, the divine smith of the gods. Although one version of the mythology names Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus, in The Iliad the fiery and inventive craftsman is married to Charis. Their sacred marriage reveals another symbolic dimension of the first decan of Taurus, as Hephaestus possesses the ingenuity to forge magical tools capable of plowing both literal and metaphorical fields, preparing the ground for seeds we wish to sow, patiently tend, and cultivate. The union of Charis and Hephaestus thus bridges the inventive craftsmanship and cleverness of Mercury with the love, beauty, and creative artistry of Venus, suggesting how inspiration can be given enduring form through devoted labor and skill.
Just as the images associated with the first decan of Taurus evoke the act of digging into dark soil to sow seeds, the combined influence of Venus and Mercury retrograde invites a mindful descent into the subterranean depths of inner sensation, intuition, and revelation. May the light of the Full Moon illuminate the wisdom to discern what needs to be released, what is ready to be cultivated, and which paths forward will lead us toward the most meaningful expression of our purpose.
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References
Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.
George, Demetra. (2021). Egyptian Decans: Star Gods of Time. Astrology University.
Greer, John Michael and Warnock, Chris. (2010 – 2011). Translation of The Picatrix: Liber Atratus Edition. Adocentyn Press.
