The Spiritual Meaning Of May 2022’s Full Flower Moon Lunar Eclipse In Scorpio

On May 16, a full moon total lunar eclipse in Scorpio brings 2022’s first eclipse season to a fateful end. The partial solar eclipse in Taurus on April 30 revealed global and personal abuses of power regarding money, gender, and bodily rights. But with the coming of the Scorpio eclipse, fears are faced, and the final girl grabs a butcher knife and gets in the game, like Sidney Prescott at the end of every Scream movie. Here’s how to survive this horror show of an eclipse.

ECLIPSE ESSENTIALS

A total lunar eclipse goes down on the full moon, bringing the earth directly between the sun and moon. In the brief moments of alignment, the sun’s radiance — symbolizing the ego and all that is immediately visible to the outside world — courses through the earth and onto the moon, the domain of the internal and invisible. The moon carries our history, and the vastness of our inner lives. Exposed directly by the sun’s light, Luna reveals the truth in sudden and terrifying clarity.

This eclipse is not only a Flower Moon, named in celebration of the Taurean springtime, but a Super Blood Moon; with super referring to this moon’s close proximity to the earth, and blood describing the vivid red color Luna adopts when exposed to the sun and earth. If this weren’t already severe enough, this eclipse goes down in Scorpio, the sign which contends with darkness and transformation. Suffice it to say, there will be blood.

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE IN TAURUS CATCH-UP

Taurus and Scorpio face off over two rounds in 2022: first, our current eclipse season, then a final duel in October and November. The season launched with a partial solar eclipse in Taurus on April 30, which was anything but subtle. Taurus is the sign of self-worth and individual ownership, which can be triumphantly wielded, as in the cases of divas like Cher and Grace Jones, or warped into megalomania: see Saddam Hussein and Mark Zuckerberg. On the global stage, April’s eclipse exploded Taurean themes of outrageous wealth, warped victimhood, and the extreme politicization of female bodily autonomy. Days before the eclipse, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, bought Twitter, enforcing his ego on a planetary network of information. Meanwhile, the continuing defamation trial between ex-spouses Amber Heard and Johnny Depp revealed the outrageous behaviors long tolerated for leading men in Hollywood, and the inevitable entitlement of someone whose paychecks per film often exceed $50 million. Vladimir Putin doubled down on his false grievances, again accusing Ukrainians of crimes against him and his people. Finally, a U.S. Supreme Court leak revealed the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade, the result of decades of fundamentalist efforts to impose control over women’s bodies throughout the United States.

When Taurean myopia is indulged, all of reality becomes a projection of the self. Who owns the world? Autocrats claim victimhood, making themselves the heroes of their own warped narratives. It’s peak season for the toxic protagonist.

THE FULL MOON TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE IN SCORPIO

In The Astrology of Fate, Liz Greene writes that Scorpio drives us “into collision with all that is terrifying, dark, and destructive in life.” Ruling the underworld, Scorpio exhumes what has been made abject, forcing us to face our fears. Greene likens Scorpio to the snake-haired Medusa, a demon hag whose “face is a portrait of feminine anger and hatred,” capable of turning any beholder to stone. Some versions of the myth cast Medusa as a survivor of violation at the hands of the ocean god Poseidon, her visage a testament to the horrors of her experience. Medusa sees, survives, and bears the unthinkable. What has been seen cannot be unseen.

The likely overturning of Roe v. Wade will make American women into outlaws of their own states; indeed, in Texas, vast bounties are rewarded for “catching” anyone providing or assisting in an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Those who wish to exert authority over their own bodies, or speak against such abuses of power, will be hunted and made into Gorgons. After years of shocks and violations, this feels like a final burial.

But Greene notes that Medusa “cannot be conquered by brute force alone. Reflection is necessary, and fire — whether we take this as the burning of intense emotion held within, or as the light of insight and consciousness. [She] cannot ultimately be destroyed, but can transform.” And here comes Scorpio’s promise of immortality: By facing down and surviving the unbearable, by plunging headfirst into sulfur and annihilation, we are remade anew, immortal and unkillable. In the words of Olga, the jilted wife at the center of Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment: “I was not the woman who breaks into pieces under the blows of abandonment and absence, who goes mad, who dies. Only a few fragments had splintered off, for the rest I was well. I was whole, whole I would remain. To those who hurt me, I react giving back in kind. I am the queen of spades, I am the wasp that stings, I am the dark serpent. I am the invulnerable animal who passes through fire and is not burned.”

The last total lunar eclipse in Scorpio went down on May 16, 2003, just days before Beyoncé first unleashed her world-shifting ferocity in Crazy in Love, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired its series finale, which saw the femme superhero arming a new generation against misogyny and malice. This eclipse may not bring with it such ecstatic calls to power; it will likely plunge us even further into a nightmare world of rude awakenings. But pass through Scorpio’s underworld, and you’ll find Pluto’s hoard: the treasures, wisdom, and weaponry for the next battle. Embrace this defeat. Live to fight another day.

THE SCORPIO LUNAR ECLIPSE: HOW TO DEAL

When Luna is illuminated, everything spills out into the open. Pour as many GOOP baths as you like, but don’t count on too much constructive manifestation; eclipses reveal (especially when in the sign of ugly truths), and at best inspire confrontation and metamorphosis. Count on information to filter in, rather jaggedly, in the days immediately preceding and following the eclipse. You’re best suited to observe what dragon is unleashed from your family shadows, trauma history, relationships, or state. The time for fighting back comes soon after.

This eclipse goes down during a Mercury retrograde, which calls for review and reflection. It also arrives during Jupiter’s summer tour of Aries, when the spirit of fire, action, and battle can be put to productive use. Take the retrograde, which runs through June 2, to fully download the recent shocks to your system. And, when the summer begins outright, you can plan your attack. Best make like Linda Hamilton and get in shape for the sequel.