November 2022’s Total Lunar Eclipse In Taurus Is A Battle Royale

On November 8, a total lunar eclipse in Taurus brings a year of jagged change to its climax. Raging from 2021–2023, this Taurus-Scorpio eclipse cycle reckons with power, autonomy, sexuality and the many dangerous interpretations of freedom. October’s partial solar eclipse in Scorpio armed us with the sober awareness to meet a horror movie slasher. For November’s edition, which hits on United States election day, all bets are off. How will this year’s final portal-opening affect you, and the world at large? Here’s how to embrace a Beaver Blood Moon eclipse like no other.

ECLIPSE ESSENTIALS

Eclipses occur when the sun and moon align on the lunar nodes, two points of intersection in the planets’ assigned orbits. From January 2022 through July 2023, the nodes fall on the Taurus Scorpio axis: the south node, or Dragon’s Tail, where our history and experiences are processed and released, is now in Scorpio; while the north node, or Dragon’s Head, leads us to new consciousness in the bull’s domain. Broadly speaking, Scorpio commands ego death for the birth of a new and elevated whole. Taurus, meanwhile, cultivates a healthy, embodied ego, with two feet planted firmly on this planet. Of course, both sides have their dark elements: Scorpio is the realm of relational power, and its violations; Taurus claims power for the self, which can veer into megalomaniacal delusions of grandeur.

November’s total lunar eclipse aligns the sun in Scorpio (south node) and the moon in Taurus (north node), with the earth hanging directly in the balance. As this is a Blood Moon, the sun’s light will filter through the earth’s atmosphere, bathing the moon in a reddish hue which will be visible to an estimated 2.7 billion earthlings. The November full moon was titled the Beaver Moon by the Algonquin tribes, as it marked the final opportunity to set traps for beavers before the water froze. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a dark power’s about to rise over Sunnydale.

Eclipses are undeniably global events, mere moments in which the collective looks up to the sky and braces for what’s to come. With the moon at full capacity, bearing the light of the sun and the story of the earth, all is suddenly, brilliantly revealed. Eclipses, then, are not necessarily moments of decision or action, but of clarity. Observe what comes through, and see how the changes within you have already registered.

THIS ECLIPSE: THE PLAYERS

This month’s showdown is no mere tête-á-tête between the sun and moon, but a battle royale involving the archetypal masters of the current moment. Joining Luna in the bull kingdom, at 16 degrees Taurus, is Uranus, the chaos-bringer, whose 2018–2026 Taurus residency has already wrought changes in currency, climate awareness, autocratic overreach, and the pendulous discourse on sexuality. The moon represents our feelings, intuitions and personal histories. The spring eclipse series blew up during the Heard-Depp trial and the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade, furthering a conflict spanning millennia, between the pagan power of the liberated body, and the threat its desires pose to the monolith.

Meanwhile, in Scorpio, the sun, which symbolizes clarity and vitality, is closely joined by Mercury and Venus, the planets of form and expression. Scorpio is the sign of truth, and the placement of these three personal planets grants the awareness to face anything with the scorched, harrowed eyes of the Gorgon. So how does this shake out? Scorpio, the great revelator, exposes the abuses and overreaches of Taurus, the hedonist and the autocrat…and there have been plenty. (See: Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, Kanye West’s latest meltdown, and the trial of Harvey Weinstein.) Oil and inflation —two of Taurus’s prize pets — drive American voters to the polls, while oil companies report higher profits than ever and political candidates focus on conspiracies and culture wars to stoke panic. With domestic and global regimes in manic spin cycles, and autocratic terror showing no signs of abating in Russia and China, has the Taurean drive to abuse power finally gone too far?

Not if Saturn has anything to say about it. Squaring both sets of opponents at 90 degrees is Saturn in Aquarius, acting as the tip of the volcano in an epic face-off. Saturn is the planet of structure, sobriety, and accountability, and in Aquarius, it seeks to align our actions with the global collective. This triangulation of planets, known as a T-Square, with Saturn at the top, will force a reckoning, and lead to a regulation of rampant overindulgence. Though Saturn’s 2020–2023 term has wrought the relentless moralism of our current cancel culture, it’s clear that some higher authority is necessary to bring harmony to excess.

THIS ECLIPSE: WHAT GOES DOWN

The eclipse not only goes down on U.S. election day, in the sign of the autocrat, but in the middle of a fresh Mars retrograde in Gemini, the sign of duality and choice. This retrograde brings with it a depressing, disarming wave of ambivalence, which doesn’t bode well for a voting apparatus already under fire. The last total lunar eclipse of this kind was on October 28, 2004, just before a particularly precarious presidential election.

And yet! For just a month and change, Jupiter, the planet of wisdom and synthesis, is back in Pisces, the final sign of the zodiac, where it inspires culmination and reflection before launching a new 12 year-cycle. With the cold, clear vision of Scorpio lighting the way, and the perspective of Jupiter to look back on the last decade, we can change course. Eclipses represent glitches in the mainframe, black cats in the Matrix, those breaks in the noise which are enough to wake us the Dream Lord’s snare. By December, Jupiter will have respawned in Aries, launching us into this new century with optimism and intent. However grisly the proceedings of this eclipse, we’re meant to observe it, bear it, process it, and move forward.

Indeed, as evinced by the shocking comeback victory of Lula in Brazil and the fervor of young revolutionaries in Iran, the old script can change. In the days surrounding the eclipse, The Crown returns to retell the rise and fall of Princess Diana, the pop revolutionary who brought the monarchy to its knees; and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever leads its afro-futurist paradise and into a new future, after the death of its king. Not incidentally, the Taurus Henry Cavill has returned to boots and cape as Superman, the original socialist sun god superhero, ready to lift the masses up to optimism and immortality. For all the horrors they’ve unveiled, Taurus and Scorpio are still the signs of life and rebirth. The old kingdom is dead. Let’s build a better one.

THIS ECLIPSE: HOW TO ALIGN

With the south node in Scorpio, the sign of death and release, these eclipses are massive purge points. You’re not called to burn scrapbooks or delete numbers on the actual day of the eclipse, but rather to witness what has already died — which connections or identities are ready to be released. With the eclipse in Taurus, you’re invited to honor your body, your desires and your needs, correcting any imbalances of power in your relationships and career. The involvement of Saturn will help you observe where you’ve gone too far in the opposite direction, where gluttony and self-aggrandizement have made you into a little diva or dictator of your own. Take sober accountability, so that you can clean up your side of the street while the world explodes and reforms.

Observe where in your chart Scorpio, Taurus, and Aquarius land, and see how those houses are facing off. Where in your life do you need accountability? Where are you afraid of claiming power? Where is death and recreation necessary? There’s no change you need to dramatically initiate on this day — it’s already well underway. All that’s left to do is face it.