The Fall eclipse season will culminate with a total Full Moon Eclipse beginning in the early morning hours of November 8, 2022. During a lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the Sun’s light from reaching the Moon, and what is seen instead is shadow. (Check online for when the eclipse will reach totality where you live.)
The Full Moon is normally the most light-giving object in the night sky. But when it goes dark and looks blood red for an hour or more, that is a wyrd and shocking event. In the metaphorical darkness, what we cannot see or know about ourselves is called, in Jungian psychology, our shadow. It’s the parts of ourselves that we find unacceptable and therefore repress, but that we can bring to light if we do diligent inner work.
At each eclipse cycle, astrologers tend to use the word “intensity,” and I’m as guilty as anyone of this habit.
But this lunar eclipse—with the Sun in Scorpio and the Moon in Taurus—really will be more intense than others, and that’s because of the signs and all the other planetary aspects involved. The effects of any eclipse may not appear right away, but over the next six-month period.
In traditional astrology, the ebbing and flowing Moon is thought to be exalted—like an honored guest—in the stable earthiness of Taurus. Usually, when the Moon is in Taurus, it’s an easy time to seek comfort, like a long, hot bath, with Epsom salt and lavender oil and no one bothering you for a while. At this eclipse, though, the Taurus Moon will be tightly conjoined with wild card Uranus, the Outlier who wants to bust out of all norms. Anything can happen, and it may not be pretty or comfortable, at all.
At this Full Moon, the opposing Sun, in brooding Scorpio, will be flanked by Mercury and Venus, both now in direct motion. Mercury is about mental activity and making connections. Mercury in Scorpio can mean getting to the bottom of things, like an investigative journalist who is also the Town Crier. Venus in Scorpio lends a drive for some kind of exotic beauty and possibly the breaking of taboos in all things to do with relationships. Opposed by iconoclastic Uranus, again, there’s no telling what may happen. (And, by a fluke of synchronicity, November 8 is the day of the all-important U.S. midterm elections which will be unpredictable, to say the least.)
If that’s not enough, the feeling of November 8 may be itchy anyway, by virtue of the Scorpionic Sun, Mercury, Venus and the south lunar node all in an awkward inconjunct with Chiron, the odd dwarf-planet symbolizing woundedness and also healing. Something about this Full Moon eclipse may feel like we’re dredging up of old forms of suffering.
There may be a bit of ease offered by the Taurus moon’s approach to a harmonious sextile with dreamy Neptune. For a day or so after the Full Moon, this might serve, like a balm, to soften feelings a bit. But beyond that, everything else about the November 8 sky map is tense.
On October 30, Mars began its three-month period of retrograde motion in Gemini, a mixed blessing. Mars in Gemini can spell a desire for learning new things and also aggression in realms of communication. These dual possibilities are intensified (there’s that word again) with Mars forming a friction-y square with Neptune for much of the Mars Rx period. Neptunian energy can be altruistic, and it can also be delusionary. Put Mars in a stand-off with Neptune, and one of the uglier manifestations is aggressive propaganda, and the violent action it can spawn.
Retrograde Jupiter is magnifying these dual possibilities. It has moved backwards back into its watery home sign of Pisces for a few weeks. Jupiter in Pisces will be in a wide conjunction with Neptune and a closer square with Mars at the time of the November 8 Eclipse. (Then Jupiter will return to direct motion by November 24, and by December 20, it will ingress Aries.)
Jupiter and Neptune (the modern ruler of Pisces) were together for much of this past year. They conjoin about every 12 years but are together in Pisces only about every 150-165 years. The 2022 Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces has been a time to soak in the highest meanings of this once-in-a-lifetime transit: the remembrance of Divine Grace, which is always present even when imperceptible, beneath and through all the troubles.
On the night of November 8, the Moon, still in Taurus, will make a harmonious trine aspect with Pluto in Capricorn. This is another of the beneficent aspects accompanying this eclipse.
Mostly, though, what is at play on November 8 is the entrenchment of so many planets in fixed signs and hard aspects. The Sun, Mercury and Venus in Scorpio, opposite the Moon and Uranus in Taurus, form a fixed T-square with Saturn, in its airy home of Aquarius. A T-square is formed when one or more planets oppose each other, and another one or more planets are also in a 90-degree square, with a third force, the apex, or focal planet, making a right triangle. This is tension on steroids. Something’s gotta give—and yet it won’t.
Saturn, the focal planet of this fixed T-square, is a patron for this eclipse. Known as Chronos in Greek myth, Saturn is the marker of time. It is the structures and rules that hold systems together. Aquarius represents humane impartiality. As the mythological Water Bearer, Aquarius appears as a human figure with a vessel, pouring out fresh water for all. In that respect, Aquarius is also a symbol of democracy, with its universal ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are all on offer even now, as each of us makes our own way through these perilous times.
Blessings for the Full Moon eclipse!
Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
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