The Full Moon and Sign Polarity
What is it about a Full Moon? Why does it seem so magical? Why might it make some people “crazy”? The astrological answer is in the illumination of the two “lights”, the Sun and the Moon, through opposite signs of the Zodiac.
The Zodiac can be viewed as 6 pairs of opposite signs, or polarities. The signs of each pair are poles of an axis whose function they both share and serve in contradictory, yet complementary, ways. For example, Taurus (birth) is at one end of the axis it shares with Scorpio (death), the sign at the other end. There’s a time for everything, including “a time to be born and a time to die”. It’s the natural economy, the way all values in Time are kept in balance with one another. A different value is toggled in each of the 6 polarities.
Sunlight is the light of conscious life, shining steadily on our thoughts and activities through a single sign for a whole month at a time. Moonlight is the light of unconscious life, reflecting our feelings, moods and dreams through signs that change every 2 - 2.5 days. While we are always functioning in the present in the objective clock time of the Sun, we may feel and dream of a remembered or imaginary past or future in the subjective dreamtime of the Moon.
During the days and nights when the Moon is Full, the Sun and Moon are in opposite signs, ‘speaking’ to us simultaneously from opposite poles of an axis. The Sun affirms conditions of the current moment. The Moon reminds us that there was or will be another moment in time with conditions exactly the opposite of whatever they are now.
The effect of the contrast between the opposing lights is a feeling of bittersweet poignancy as we experience simultaneous contradictory emotions. They are equally compelling. We seem to be stuck with one of them, while the other haunts us from somewhere out of reach. For relief from any discomfort from the effect, we can seek connection with the paradoxical center point between the two extremes, where they meet in timeless union and perfect peace.
In this series, we explore the Full Moon’s effects each month as the two lights confront each other across successive sign polarities.
Full Moon in Taurus: Gone But Not Forgotten
When the Moon is Full in Taurus, the Sun is opposing it from Scorpio. The two lights are illuminating the Taurus-Scorpio axis, bringing us in touch with its complementary energies. The purpose of Taurus-Scorpio is appreciation of the true value of life on earth. It stimulates simultaneous awareness of the beginning and the ending of a life (or any impermanent structure) in the physical world. We’re aware that it lasts on earth for a limited span of time, and then it’s gone. What was its early promise? How was that fulfilled during its presence in the world? How is the world different in its absence? What, on any level and by any measure, was the value of that lifetime or structure?
Taurus is the fertile sign at the birth end of this axis. A Taurus description suggests that something is newly made, solid, attractive, and desirable. Taurus is productive and abundant; it makes something. Like a peaceful farm or factory, there’s some wealth in whatever it makes, and an inclination to preserve and build on existing abundance.
Scorpio is the infertile sign at the death end of this axis. A Scorpio description suggests that something is dead, decaying, worn out, and in need of replacement. Scorpio is unsatisfied and desirous; it lacks something and feels the lack. Like a hectic marketplace, there’s need for whatever is lacking, and eagerness to negotiate for trade.
This polarity of opposite signs is potentially complementary, because one end of it is in need and the other possesses an abundant supply. Optimally the supplies meet the needs, and there is a symbiotic balance between the two. A person keeps valued and needed goods, and submits things no longer valued or needed for ‘recycling’ where their ‘decay’ can fertilize new growth. Nourishing farm-grown produce eventually goes to feed a hungry market; assets enjoyed by the living eventually become inheritances for heirs of the dead to enjoy. In other versions of the impersonal Taurus-Scorpio exchange, otherwise unused cash grows through wise investments, or new benefits become available to partners who share resources. We experience the same polarity on an emotional and very personal level of exchange through our attachments to people we care about and want around us physically.
Like all the polarities, this one can be well balanced and rewarding or unbalanced and dysfunctional. It doesn’t work well when the contributions from both ends of it aren’t approximately equal. Either way, it signifies attachment through investment, whether material, emotional, or both. It’s there while it’s there to meet a need. Whether or not it’s a happy experience while it lasts, we can be surprised by the pain we feel when it ends.
The influence of the Scorpio Sun puts us mentally in death mode. We may find that the time has come for us to put a final end to something, or for the irrevocable passing of something or someone from our life. A period of sorrowful mourning, perhaps mixed with other emotions such as relief or regret, follows our painful moments of loss. Unable to recover what was lost, we can only adapt to our situation and await healing.
But the time of the Full Moon in Taurus is the time when the dead come most easily back to life in our dreams and reveries. We could be standing at a grave or amid other clear evidence of a painful loss, yet somewhere in our mind we can clearly ‘see’ the lifeless subject of our grief as it was when it was young or new to us and full of life and promise.
Our memory of the beginning, the end, and all that happened in between gives us a perspective on that period, or that person, from which to evaluate it. What have we lost? Just what did they, or that time in our life, mean to us?
More feelings may follow, ranging from extended incredulity and grief (I still can’t believe he’s really gone) to dreamy immersion in memories of a lost but unforgettable past. A mourner who shares a deep spiritual connection with a departed loved one, finding comfort in an unusually vivid feeling of rapport with them now, may resolve somehow to find that person again in a new life or another reality.
Though something or someone may be gone from our earthly experience, we live on. Finding courage in the view that life itself doesn’t die and will eventually be born anew, we can look forward to a joyful new beginning, even better than the one we remember. Maybe we really will find our loved one again when the time is right. Meanwhile, the Full Moon in Taurus gives us an ideal opportunity to come to terms with the events of birth and death, to evaluate life between the two, and to find an eternal and peaceful perspective beyond both.
How a Full Moon in Taurus Might Feel
The songs below express some feelings individuals might experience under a Full Moon in Taurus.
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
Autumn Leaves
Stardust
Days of Wine and Roses
Lowlands of Holland
The Unquiet Grave
The Mountain’s High
Unchained Melody
Wuthering Heights
Tears in Heaven
My Heart Will Go On
Memory
