The Moon will reach its full phase with the Sun on May 1, 2026 at 10:23 a.m. Pacific Time, at 11 Scorpio, with the Sun at 11 Taurus. The first Full Moon of May is called the Flower Moon, and this year it happens to coincide with May Day, also known as Beltane. We honor everyone who works for a living and the fertility of Gaia Herself.
Astrologically, May Day arrives as the midpoint between the vernal equinox and the June solstice. For many worldwide, the first Full Moon of May is celebrated also as Vesak day, the day on which Gautama Buddha was born, reached nibbana—the cessation of suffering—and final enlightenment, with the death of his physical form.
A typical calendar month includes one full Moon. But because this lunation occurs on May 1, and the Moon’s cycle is 29.5 days, we’ll have a second, Blue Moon on May 31 when the Sagittarius Moon will face the Gemini Sun.
The zodiacal signs are grouped by four elements (earth, water, fire, and air) and also by three modalities (cardinal, fixed, and mutable.) Each sign expresses itself in myriad ways, with the fixed signs (Taurus, Scorpio, and Aquarius) manifesting as stability all the way to immovability. Taurus is steady like a rock.
For the May 1 lunation, the emphasis will be on the polarity between Taurus and Scorpio, fixed earth and fixed water. Like everything in astrology, this is a curious pairing because they’re both different and the same.
The glyph for earth sign Taurus is a circle topped by a crescent Moon. It looks like the face of a bull, and in ancient cultures from Egypt to Greece, the bull was revered as a sacred totem of stability and strength. The circle symbolizes wholeness, while the crescent is receptivity.
Taurus represents reliability and security of a physical nature. A Taurean personality loves beauty and creature comforts, from good food, clothes and music to sex and a good night’s sleep. At Beltane, it’s time to plant, pollinate and fertilize widely.
Opposite Taurus, Scorpio is like the water at the bottom of a dark lagoon. It’s not moving. It may be stagnant, but it’s full of the algae and gunk that nurture the waters of life.
Whereas the style of Taurus is to seek comfort, Scorpio’s imperative is to dive deep, to cross boundaries, and to break taboos.
Where Taurus may want to just relax, Scorpio pursues Truth, including the emotional truths that often take precedence over facts on the ground. What we call shadow work is a Scorpionic process, the excavation of one’s own best-kept secrets. The Full Moon in Scorpio is an optimal time to face the things about oneself that aren’t too pretty.
At this first Full Moon of May, we are still in the throes of the Aries stellium that began in mid-April and reached a peak with the fiery New Moon of April 17. The fires of multiple planets in Aries are still burning, calling for fierce courage in these unsettling and heart-breaking times.
The Sun moved on from Aries into Taurus on April 19.
On April 25, far-out planet Uranus made a sign change from Taurus into Gemini. This is one of the major slow-moving planetary sign changes of this year.
Uranus is the planet of unexpected shocks and liberatory breakthroughs. Gemini, the mutable air sign, is about the life of the mind.
Uranus made a brief foray into Gemini last summer before it moved back to Taurus for a few months. From April 25 forward, Uranus will travel through Gemini for the next seven years.
Since its discovery in the late 18th Century, Uranus has been characterized by modern astrologers as the “ruler” of Aquarius, the sign where Pluto (power) now travels. Uranus has been associated with struggles for egalitarian democracy and the pluses and minuses of technological advance. Some astrologers point to past correlations with Uranus in Gemini and the onset of wars. The truth is that we don’t know how Uranus in Gemini will manifest over the next several years. Our current wars include major ones about democracy versus technology-boosted oligarchy, about the survival of Earth versus the obscenities of those who profit from destruction.
The universe is mental is a first principle of Hermetic philosophy. Gemini, where Uranus now moves, is Beginner’s Mind, open to possibilities, big like the Sky. Gemini is the sign of youth. It’s the sign of “twins,” meaning two things that appear to be the same and that are also different. Gemini’s trick is to reconcile contradictions.
By our thoughts we create the world, said the Buddha. We have agency and power to shape our own reality. But so is everyone else shaping reality with their thoughts, whether lofty or debased.
Under this Scorpio Full Moon, what we have is the power to watch our own mind; to direct our own thoughts, and resulting actions, in ways that make sense, and in ways that are for the benefit of all.
Blessings for the Scorpio Full Moon and for remembrance of the Buddha, the Awakened One.
~ 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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