May 2023’s Scorpio Flower Moon Lunar Eclipse Is A Rebirth

On May 5, a penumbral flower moon lunar eclipse in Scorpio closes out one hell of a spring eclipse season. What does the final Scorpio eclipse until the 2030s have in store for the world, for you, and for the shape of things to come? As Dawn Summers famously asks: Where do we go from here?

On a full moon lunar eclipse, the earth comes directly between the sun and the moon. Luna, as the receptive feminine archetype, bears not only the light of the sun’s rays, but the shadow of our planet. As this is not a total but a penumbral eclipse, the earth will only cast a faint shadow on Luna’s surface.

Full moons are times of erupting culmination, when Luna’s pregnant glow is prime to burst. The werewolves come out, and all that’s been gestating over the past month explodes into being. On an eclipse, these peaks become historic climaxes; they represent definitive crossroads from which there can be no going back.

Any village cursed by the werewolf knows what to do on the night of the full moon: lock the doors and hide your livestock. Don’t put yourself in the way of lunacy. Similarly, eclipses aren’t the time for action, intervention or manifestation: Our calling is to step back and witness what has gone, what is being born, and what has transformed irrevocably.

MAY 2023’S FULL MOON ECLIPSE

This month’s flower moon is named for the rebirth of the spring. Though the occasion is Taurus season, the time of rapturous fertility, this eclipse goes down in Taurus’ polar opposite sign Scorpio, the lord of the underworld. And so we arrive at a perfect archetypal crossroads, a paradoxical nexus celebrating a full, birthing flower moon — in the sign of transformation.

This is also the final Scorpio eclipse in the current Taurus-Scorpio saga, which has raged since 2021, and ends climactically with a Taurus eclipse on October 28. In April, we began the transition into the Aries-Libra eclipse saga, which concerns the social standings of a wild new decade. But for now, while we’re in Scorpio’s domain, we’ve still got some relics of the old world to burn down.

Previous penumbral lunar eclipses in Scorpio occurred in April 1940 and April 2005. The 1940 edition came as Germany invaded Norway and Denmark, and the Nazis prepared to unveil Auschwitz. Within weeks, Winston Churchill would take over as Britain’s Prime Minister, and shift the narrative on Western involvement in WWII. And days after the eclipse, Batman #1 would launch, introducing some of the definitive archetypes of the century to come: the Joker and Catwoman. The 2005 edition came after the reelection of George Bush and the passing of Pope John Paul II. Weeks earlier, the website YouTube had launched, joining the newly founded Facebook on the fringes of the nascent digital imagination.

What’s the relevance between all these disparate events? These eclipses marked major transition moments, times of grave devastation and disappointment, marked by new beginnings. This month’s Scorpio flower moon edition comes at a similar fork in the road. This Taurus-Scorpio cycle began in the wake of Britney Spears’ court testimony against her father, and has coincided with the Depp-Heard showdown, the Harvey Weinstein trials, the U.S. supreme court shutdown of abortion rights, and a nationwide attack on trans people. This edition arrives at the heels of massive layoffs, inflation, and a looming recession. As Prince Charles readies for his coronation, Donald Trump stands trial in court — again.

It’s hard to see what is being born out of all this decay, dissolution, and devastation. The current rise of AI feels more chilling than inspiring. As Jupiter enters Taurus on May 16, we’ll launch into a new artistic boom period, but the heroes of this coming age have yet to be revealed. Astrologers don’t trade in platitudes about blind faith, or hope for a better tomorrow: This practice arms us with the cold perspective that everything is cyclical, that from the ashes of one epoch can rise the culture, archetypes, and technologies of a new worldview.

MAY 2023’S FULL MOON ECLIPSE: HOW TO DEAL

Our work, then, is to get closure on what’s dead, and make way for the new life to come. The thematic through-line of the Taurus-Scorpio saga has been power and its abuses, and this Scorpio edition will force one final, brutal look at the ways it all went wrong. The Aries-Libra cycle will reintroduce the concept of constructive conflict, and help us begin the human discourse anew. But to start over, we must bury our old history.

You are not being forced to forget your grief, or magically “let go” of all that’s happened to you. But you are being challenged to let it change, or move, expand, or wither, to burst or implode, to dissolve and become the soil for something new. Now is the time to release what you’re done with, and absolutely double down on what you’re unwilling to let go. Scorpio’s underworld is full of Gorgons — she-demons who bear their violations for the world to see. If there’s a pain you’re still carrying, this eclipse will bring it to the fore, and open the path to vengeance.

But if there are conflicts, feuds, cancellations, or constructed identities which don’t feel real or relevant anymore, now’s the time to let them fade in the flames. This month’s unusually fertile Taurus season is a true, believe-it-or-not new beginning. Step into it with the pain that’s yours to bear, but not with the leftover baggage of your old story. The great battles of this new epoch have only just begun. Now’s the time to choose what’s yours to avenge — and leave all the rest behind.