The Sprouting Grass Full Moon

Today, April 23rd at 7:48 pm EDT, the Sprouting Grass Full Moon shines from the Scorpio-Taurus axis. On the Eastern Coast and time zone of the United States, this exact opposition at 4°19’ between the Sun and Moon occurs during sunset and moonrise. The transitional beauty of the gloaming hours, the growing sproutlings, and the celestial dance of the planets and stars highlight both the attractive as well as the daunting aspects of transformation and change. 

Sometimes, I whimsically personify the seasons, and imagine just how stubborn both Spring and Autumn are. They endure the intensity, and, especially with Climate Change, strengthening of Winter and Summer. The fixed, determined, and focused energy of Scorpio and Taurus help to anchor the Spring and Autumn in place as they’re jostled between Winter and Summer. 

The Scorpio-Taurus axis balances the shared and the personal values, resources, and comforts—both the comforts we’re willing to share, give up, and the ones that encourage self-care thus should remain personal. 

This Sprouting Grass Full Moon emphasizes the continued line-up of celestial and cosmic energies—Pluto transiting into Aquarius, the Libra Lunar Eclipse, the Total Solar Eclipse, the planetary alignments on April 20th, the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction that also started on April 20th, and Jupiter transiting into Gemini in June to name a few, but not all—aligning and passing the baton of growth, change, and transformation. 

This Full Moon asks us to take a look into the shadows of our personal as well as collective realities and identify the seeds in need of planting, the sprouts that need tending, and the invasive species, kudzu for example, that need to either be weeded or repurposed. 

Sun

Traditionally, the Sun acts as a slight malefic—fire and radiation can cause sunburns, sun sickness, skin cancer to the individual and create dry and blistering conditions within environments. 

Imagine a magnifying glass angled to catch the sunlight just right to create a beam of fire. This laser-like awareness often causes burnout and intensely heats things up, but if used properly, provides light and enlightenment. 

With the Sun in Taurus and our focus on our personal values, resources, and comfort, this spotlight brings our awareness to what actually supports and aligns with them and which values, resources, and comforts hold us back.   

Taurus Sun has an out-of-sign conjunction with Eris in Aries. Being out-of-sign, this conjunction emphasizes the misalignment between our individual values, resources, and comforts and the ones we fight for, take action towards, or defend, and supports rectifying that—radically if necessary with Eris.

Discovered in 2005, Eris has been in Aries since 1925 and won’t even touch the cusp of Taurus until 2044, making her a transgenerational planet. Currently, she’s at 24°54’ of Aries, making this conjunction a wide orb and the effects mostly subtle like the outer ripples of disturbed water or the less intense and shorter flames of an encircled campfire. 

Mythologically, Eris, goddess of strife, discord, and chaos, is either portrayed as the sister of Ares—popularly—or as a powerful daughter of Nyx, goddess of night. Astrologically, Eris symbolizes intentional chaos and fighting to propel evolution and revolution. 

In Aries, Eris tosses golden apples to stir up our thoughts, understanding, and evolution around freedom, independence, and assertiveness. This supports the Taurus Sun by assertively defending our personal values, resources, and comforts and evolves or revolutionizes the values, resources, and comforts that no longer serve us or undermine our growth. 

Moon

On the opposite side of the axis, the Moon illuminates the skies from Scorpio. The Moon represents our emotions, beliefs, insecurities, and subconscious. In Scorpio, these intimate aspects of ourselves rise to the surface, exhumed from the dark depths of the Self to be shared in some way with others. 

This exposure makes the Moon uncomfortable and in detriment, astrologically, in Scorpio. Despite being a watery luminary, the Moon doesn’t always look to address, acknowledge, or assimilate the darker aspects of ourselves—the rejected, repressed, suppressed bits—and Scorpio needs to understand and know just that, hence the discomfort. 

However, the Scorpio Moon harmonizes these two energies, highlighting the deep, dark and uncomfortable truths we need to face and if any present toxicity to ourselves, others, and the wider community. 

Are our values shared by the people and community around us? If not, does the people we associate with need to change or do we need to reevaluate what we actually value?

What resources in our metaphorical root cellars actually provide sustenance and support to thrive in our lives and what resources need to be redistributed to others and the community at large or waste and rot away?

Which comforts afford us sanctuary and solace from the stresses in our lives and which comforts enable poor decisions and stagnation to personal and collective growth and evolution?

Haumea conjuncts the Moon in Scorpio. She offers support as we evaluate the values, resources, and comforts we hold and share. 

Haumea signifies a deeper connection to nature and the natural order. She germinates our seeds of self and community examination, cultivates them into sproutlings, stabilizes the environment as we find and sort out ways to throw off any repressive and authoritarian energies placed upon us, others, and Nature. What we dredge up with the Scorpio full Moon can be nutritious sustenance to our spirit and what we release can provide natural sustenance to Nature and Spirit, initiating the natural cycle and order. 

Fixed Grand Cross

In the four fixed corners of the sky, wrangling the energies in a Grand Cross—comprising four celestials in the fixed signs of the zodiac—are the Taurus Sun, Scorpio Moon, Vulkan in Leo, and Aquarius Pluto. Arguably, the most important aspect of the Sprouting Grass Full Moon is the Sun-Moon square to Pluto. 

Grand Crosses emphasize the stressful challenges present in four areas of life that need attention as well as the potential growth and strength derived from facing and mastering those challenges. In order to master those challenges, balance the oppositions for a steady foundation as each corner square pushes and pulls your attention. 

The sharp, right-angles of squares prompt change and challenge through the poking, jabbing nature that makes the standing status quo—personal or community wide—discomfortable, dissatisfying, and discordant, fueling discontentment. 

Vulkan represents creativity and artisan energy. Through the squares to the Taurus Sun and Scorpio Moon, Vulkan in Leo stresses abilities to create in relation to the tug-of-war between personal and collective values, resources, and comforts. Creating and forging new values, resources, and comforts could be one way to forge ahead or recognizing that creator’s block is a symptom of the dichotomy playing out between the Sun and the Moon. 

Vulkan also faces Pluto in Aquarius. Oppositions traditionally tend to be considered a challenging aspect—i.e., getting in someone’s face is aggressive behavior. But I find oppositions to hold more potential positivity than aggressive hostility. Seeing eye-to-eye, for example, means agreeing, compromising, or understanding another. Vulkan’s opposition to Pluto might be both. 

In the Fixed Cross as well as across the Sprouting Grass Moon, Pluto in Aquarius holds and wrangles the reigns, making a significant amount of influences on the energies. 

First, Pluto in Aquarius has exposed the corruption, faults, and fears associated with innovation, technology and progress. Raising concerns about AI, digital privacy and security, technological monopolies, and the Wild West nature of the internet—to name a few—have been increasing with Pluto in Aquarius. The square to the Sun and Moon provides the discomfortable and difficult challenge of figuring out the values and ethics of these innovations and technologies. 

The opposition with Vulkan emphasizes Pluto directing the energy towards creating and forging new ways to approach innovation and progress, how we interact with them, or at the very least how we see and understand them. 

Secondly, the square to Pluto exhibits the necessary vivacity to kick us out of our personal and collective comfort zones. Comfort zones act as temporary havens amidst the stress and noise of reality, society, and the world. Sometimes those zones are less temporary and more permanent. 

Seeking and even staying within our comfort zones is understandable as we live in a world that regularly overstimulates and overwhelms us as individuals and on a collective, like a tsunami of stimulants. But by refusing to leave or adventure out of our comfort zones, we don’t learn, grow, or transform leading to a stagnant, decaying echo chamber that may resound with very little but our own negative self-talk. 

Pluto’s square wrangles and deconstructs the semi-permanent comfort zones that limit personal growth and transformation. With that deconstructed materials, he can pass over to Vulkan who in turn can help forge new comforts and comfort zones for the transformed self.  

Harmonious Aspects

Making harmonious aspects to the Taurus Sun and Scorpio Moon are Vesta in Cancer and Juno in Virgo. 

Vesta represents the sacred flame of the hearth that can never be allowed to go out, especially in the form of our own inner spark. In Cancer, Vesta tends to our Spark through self-care, working with the hearth and home, and devotion to feelings. She supports the Taurus Sun’s focus on personal values, resources, and comfort with energy that sparks our passions and joys to fuel the inner flame. With the Scorpio Moon, Vesta provides that devotion to seek out the dark depths of ourselves and understand them, but she also provides an ebb and flow of tidal energy from Cancer so we don’t retraumatize the same emotional shadow. 

Juno symbolizes commitment and loyalty. In Virgo, Juno commits to the organization, details, and routines that we value and offer comfort—making a sextile or 60° from the Taurus Sun. Juno supports the Scorpio Moon through committing the detail-oriented tasks of reorganizing as Shadow aspects rise to the surface and we shed values, resources, and comforts that no longer serve us or our communities. 

Bonus Bits

Though not making conjunctions or oppositions to the Sun and Moon in Taurus and Scorpio, the Jupiter, Uranus conjunction in Taurus is still worth mentioning during the Sprouting Grass Moon. 

The exact conjunction occurred between April 20th and 21st—depending on your time zone—at 21°50’ Taurus. The conjunction happens every 14 years, but the last time it took place in Taurus was 1941, the last time Uranus transited Taurus. 

This aspect energizes sudden changes, opportunities, innovation, growth, insights, breakthroughs, expansion, and growth. Jupiter provides the growth, opportunities, and expansive energies while Uranus empowers changes, innovation, and breakthroughs. 

These energies center around Taurus and our relationships with value, materials, agriculture, abundance and prosperity. There’s a need to revolutionize these relationships in unexpected and unconventional ways. 

Some of these new approaches could see an increase in new technologies within these areas. Conversely, it can also see a return to old ways including, for example, a renewed interest in agroforestry—forest farming practiced by Native Americans before colonization.

The underlying message of Uranus in Taurus is freedom and liberation in regards to values, resources, and comfort, through and beyond currency, agriculture, and abundance, embedding itself into our minds and mindsets. Jupiter in Taurus, making this conjunction with Uranus enhances and expands the potential growth of this mindset and the liberation from how things used to work, but have stopped working at some point in the not so distant past. 

The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction as a liberating and evolving aspect also breaks the energetic shackles that the 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn locked in as a restrictive and disciplined aspect. Things that have felt constricted before might start to find emancipation, so be on the lookout.