The Full Moon in May is called the Flower Moon. Beautiful things are blooming. On May 12 at 9:56 a.m. Pacific time, the Moon at 22°12′ of Scorpio will reach its full oppositional phase with the Sun at 22°12′ of Taurus.
The polarity between fixed earth sign Taurus and fixed water sign Scorpio is a bit of a conundrum. On the surface, it’s hard to see how these two signs are complimentary. Taurus is simple and homey. Its style is to luxuriate in creature comforts, like a cow chewing its cud under a tree on a sunny day. Scorpio is complex and brings up uncomfortable feelings. Its style is to dive deep into the psyche. Its quest is always to know “why,” and to keep probing. Earthy Taurus wants to acquire and hold onto material possessions, the more beautiful the better. Scorpio wants to possess emotional satisfaction.
What Taurus and Scorpio have in common is a concern for security, whether material or psychological security. Both signs are about the struggles of sentient beings to survive and to grow.
I’ve written before about how the Full Moon in May, in Buddhist cultures, is called Vesak Day, commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. It was on a Full Moon in May that Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince, an heir to a throne. On a Full Moon in May as a 35-year-old monk, and after years of asceticism, he reached nibbana, the cessation of attachment to desire. He then traveled and taught about suffering and the means to alleviate suffering, all over India until he was 80, when his earthly life ended, on a full Moon in May.
I wonder this time of year about the connections between birth, death, and spiritual liberation, and the Full Moon in May. The Full Moon comes usually, but not always, in the first two-thirds of the month, making it a Scorpio Moon illumined by the Sun in Taurus.
The Buddha’s teaching was to practice ardently the skill of calm abiding. That’s like Taurus, sitting still on the earth. It’s also the centerpiece of a path of inner inquiry. That’s Scorpio’s mission.
By sitting still, grounded on the earth, day by day, the Prince Siddhartha became the Buddha, an Awakened One. He realized, down to his bones, three characteristics of reality: that all phenomena are impermanent; that all beings suffer (and therefore merit compassion); and that everything under the Sun is inter-dependent with everything else.
On the Full Moon in May, we celebrate the possibility of partaking in the Buddha’s realizations.
At the May 12 lunation, the Moon and Uranus will be facing each other in opposition. Uranus is the planet of unexpected breakthroughs, or calamities, as the case may be. Particularly under the tension of a Full Moon, it might feel like something’s about to burst, or to finally be released.
The Sun on May 12 will be approaching its annual conjunction with Uranus (exact on May 17). Each time the Sun meets up with Uranus, there’s a fusion of solar power and Uranus’ trickster-like energy, disrupting what is ordinary, a reminder to not take anything for granted.
The May 12 Full Moon also features a fixed square between Mercury (communications) in Taurus and Pluto (power) in Aquarius. Challenging ideas and conflicts around words and insults might be particularly irritating at this Full Moon time. Or, one might feel unusually bold and on solid ground to speak what is true.
The Full Moon in Scorpio’s ruling planet is Mars, which is now traveling through the fires of Leo and making a harmonious trine with Venus in fiery Aries. Mars and Venus are classically the two relationship planets. When they’re making a 120-degree trine aspect by transit, this means they’re in the same element. Though this Venus/Mars trine is a brief transit, it may bring a measure of enthusiasm and ease into relationship realms.
At the same time, the Moon in the deep waters of Scorpio is moving toward a trine with Saturn in Pisces, perhaps lending some structure (Saturn) to contain the emotional stress of the Full Moon in Scorpio.
Between the time of the May 12 Full Moon and the coming New Moon in Gemini on May 26, Saturn will change signs, moving into Aries after having been in Pisces since March of 2023. Saturn’s ingress into Aries is one of the major outer planet sign changes of 2025.
In classical astrology, before the advent of telescopes, Saturn was understood as the planet furthest from the Sun. Saturn represents limits, growth toward maturity, hard lessons learned, the endings of things, including death.
Saturn’s passage through Pisces these past few years has been an invitation to work consciously with boundaries and to become more specific about one’s ideals.
Saturn’s ingress into Aries brings new themes and ways to work toward achievement (another Saturnian term). Aries is like a ram charging out of a gate, instinctive but not necessarily clear about the end goal. Aries’ motto might be: Get out of my way. Saturn is like a stop sign: Slow down, not so fast.
When Saturn is passing through Aries, it’s time to get more realistic about actions and goals. Setting limits necessitates wise choices about what to include on one’s agenda.
When Saturn enters Aries on May 26, it will conjoin Neptune by one degree. By July, the two planets will be less than a degree apart. Their conjunction will “perfect” in February.
A Saturn/Neptune conjunction occurs about every 36.4 years. It’s something key to watch in “mundane” astrology, the astrology of world events. Saturn represents structures, Neptune the processes of dissolution. The last Saturn/Neptune conjunction coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests, and the beginning of the end of South African apartheid.
Everything in astrology is multivalent, carrying many possible expressions. We cannot know ahead of time how the current Saturn/Neptune conjunction will manifest in our world.
One can, however, set intentions to work with the energetic dynamics of an outer planet transit in one’s personal life. Saturn and Neptune have been co-present in late degrees of Pisces for some time and will continue to travel together closely in Aries, for a total of about five years. This is an opportunity to face reality (Saturn) about areas of our lives where we harbor illusions (Neptune).
Personally, I believe the best way to do this is with ardent daily spiritual practice. Saturn in Aries says: Do it now. This is no time to wait.
Blessings for the Scorpio Full Moon!
~ 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.
Leave a Reply