Scorpio full moons always feel emotionally intense to me. Scorpio is precise, a planner. As one of the fixed signs, endurance is its middle name. It’s common to hear this sign described as a sniper. It’s ruled by Mars and willing to wait for the perfect moment to strike. It’s a place not about comfort and ease, but authenticity. It understands that decay is part of life. You can’t have compost without a bit of death.
This is not a landscape the Moon feels good in. It wants comfort, and emotional safety. None of this is easy if you’re thinking about authenticity, emotional depths. In astrological terms, we say the Moon is in fall here.
Before you freak out, let’s talk about traditionally ‘bad’ placements. They can certainly be challenging. It can feel like you’re an outsider in how the world expects you to handle things. If you were born with the Moon in Scorpio, you may feel like you feel too much. Or people constantly ask you why you have to make everything so deep, so serious. However, the Moon is in Scorpio every month for a reason. There’s a cathartic opportunity here for all of us.
Diana Rose, a fantastic astrologer, said it well:
the Moon in Scorpio understands the consequences of unsafety, knows what it means to truly, fully, overwhelmingly FEEL, and therefore bears with-ness like no other.
You may not know this but I’m a practicing, traditional, and egalitarian Jew. Writing this just 12 hours after my Passover seder, I can’t see this quote outside of my current context. The seder is a ritual meal created to make us feel like we are slaves, we are fleeing Egypt. We’re supposed to make the story new. Exodus is foundational to the relationship of the Jewish people to God.
So, how does it apply this year? I can’t think of unsafety, of hardened hearts, and avoid Gaza. I see Anti-Semitism weaponized against any criticism of Israel. My Jewishness becomes an assumption. Some people want to tell me that I’m threatened on all sides, that only Israel can ‘save’ me. Others think I should be able to explain what is happening in a state that is not my own. In all cases, I must fit inside your specific box to be a good Jew.
On the Scorpio full moon I can’t look away —not from those blocking aid into Gaza, nor the quelling of protests. Scorpio wants us to go deeper. What is real safety? Where are threats actually coming from?
All full moons are moments of release, of ending. Maybe the hard truth is also a martial one. We can’t achieve peace and safety through bombs and bullets. Scorpio is often associated with knives, the imagery of cutting and severing. What are we willing to let go of to stop the death and violence?
None of these is easy to reckon with but the Scorpio full moon isn’t here for your ease. It wants to look at your pain, your discomfort. Transformation is a process of life and death. When you get uncomfortable don’t look away, go deeper.
Traditionally we end our seders by saying next year in Jerusalem. This year, I’m holding onto Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s interpretation.
Next year in peace and justice for all.
In self-determination for all.
In liberation for all.
Hag Paseach Sameach to my fellow Jews. May this be a cathartic and healing full moon for us all.