Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio 🦂 May 15, 2022

“The Queen of the Night” by Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Sunday, May 15 @ 9:15 pm PST

Happy full moon! Happy lunar eclipse! The May full moon is called the Flower Moon. It is sometimes also called the Hare Moon, Corn Planting Moon, or Milk Moon. The moon will rise at sunset, peak at midnight and set at sunrise all over the world.

Eclipses can be full or partial. The earth’s shadow consists of two parts: the shadow cast directly behind the earth is called the umbra, and the fainter, fan-like shadow surrounding the umbra is the penumbra. This full moon is a total (or umbral) eclipse, something we haven’t seen since the Total Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius of May 2021. This “blood moon” eclipse will be highly visible in North America, South America, and parts of western Europe and western Africa.

*** Mercury will be retrograde at this time ***

Sun and moon oppose one another in solid Taurus and enigmatic Scorpio: the axis of all that can be seen, versus all that cannot. Together these constellations rule (among other things): finance, inheritance, property, taxes, and material possessions. Taurus and Scorpio narrate tangibles and intangibles, form and dissolution of form, conscious thought and subconscious desire, straight paths and winding staircases.

The scorpion journey is inescapable and irreversible. This Total Eclipse in Scorpio takes us beyond fear, like a tidal wave ripping us out by the roots, carrying us, screaming and naked and bewildered, over a waterfall of change and joy and more change.

Taurus is simpler. She is home, security, beauty, harmony, nourishment, bright fruits, gentle flowers in the sun, wood and leaf and twig. She nurtures our bodies and gardens. Taurus is here to work, beautify, eat, make love, relax, and curl up in her mountain of blankets and cats.

The Eclipse in Scorpio takes us down to the lower chakras, like a submarine from the sea of mystery. Scorpio slinks through total darkness, through tombs and invisible oceans. She inquires, probes, grips. She is a winged creature, clawing her way out of a chrysalis that has become much too small.

When astrologers talk about Scorpio, power and control are common buzzwords. It’s true, Scorpio is very much tied to these dynamics. The essence of Scorpio, however, is really about self-control; it is ourselves whom we must learn to trust. So trust yourself, shadow and all. Forgive yourself. Take deep breaths.

At this full moon a few years ago, I attended a workshop in Iceland with the Dutch “Ice Man,” Wim Hof. In a giant conference room in a convention center on the Reykjavík seashore, 450 attendees breathed together, ascending to a state of joy and lightness.

This was a preparation for the ice bath. We began chanting HU! HA! HU! HA! HU! HA! Our voices filled the vaulted room and turned to raucous laughter, then tears of joy. Together we moved outside, chanting and yelling and cheering, and together we sat in the ice baths, making soul-piercing eye contact. I spontaneously started singing and chanting deep notes and one by one the others joined me.

What I learned on this unforgettable day is the power of inner fire. This is the nature of the scorpion: at once cold as ice and hot as Mars; pure blood and adrenaline, pure fire-ice.

It feels like…dark rain clouds and sizzling sun, black smoke and dancing fire, merging and emerging, spark and glow, conflict and fervor, change and adaptation. This is going to be an intense one. It’s going to feel like a rebirth. Surrender to it. Let yourself feel everything. In meditation, focus on the solar plexus chakra. Weave your web with Scorpio Yoga. To find your personal moon sign, click here.