This week is mostly about the Full Moon in Scorpio, which occurs on Sunday night in the United States and Monday morning in Europe.

Because it technically fell within last week’s forecast period, I covered it last week. However, I didn’t realize last week that this Full Moon is Wesak, the celebration of the birth, death, and transformation of the Buddha. Normally it falls at the Scorpio Full Moon in sidereal astrology, a different system practiced in Eastern countries that is a month “behind” Western astrology. The sidereal Full Moon in Scorpio is on June 2. But apparently it’s more complicated than that and historically has always been in May in India and Nepal, where the tradition started. So we have an odd split this year, with several countries celebrating it in June, but India and Nepal and several others celebrating it on May 4.

Wesak is a major “download” time, when a portal opens to higher consciousness and enlightenment. A big part of the turbulence happening in the world now is related to awakening consciousness in large groups of people. Just as giving birth is painful, waking up can be painful, too. When we understand how connected we are, depending on how we’ve structured our lives, we might suddenly realize that we need a complete overhaul. Humans are hard-wired to maintain the status quo, so being in a constant state of flux can rock us to our very foundations.

The Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio reminds us of the danger in seeing only the material world or in seeing it as the dominant reality. There’s nothing wrong with money, wealth, and material possessions. Where we get into trouble is that when we make material desires our main focus – for some it’s an obsession – we tend to think the material world is all there is, losing our ability and even the desire to see what’s beyond it. This is the dark side of Taurus, and an impoverished way to live life. Scorpio also craves money and power and can be totally obsessed with them, which can lead to corruption, a need to control and manipulate, and a feeling that one will be annihilated by enemies unless he has more money and more power than everyone else.

But Scorpio is the sign of transcending all of that. The transformation brings a deeper understanding of the material world as a sort of “front” for the underlying energies. This is a key message in Wesak. The Buddha was a Taurus and born a prince, with every earthly possession at his beck and call. Then he had a mystical experience and became enlightened. That’s a very Scorpionic event, the mystical “conversion.” But as the story tells us, transformation isn’t something we can achieve by doing “spiritual work” or whatever. If finds you, and not the other way around. In the meantime, you struggle to figure out what you really want, and subconscious fears get in the way.

I was trying to find a way to convey these key messages in a short sentence for the wonderful composite artwork that Osk created for the RealAstrologers Facebook page, but found that it was too complicated to boil down to a typical Facebook photo post. I had more than a dozen half-finished sentences, because every word I wrote had a contradiction in it that would have required an entire paragraph to explain. I wrestled with it until 4 a.m. and was falling asleep and confused. I wasn’t any clearer after waking up with a splitting headache. So I finally decided to use just a couple of key words and to allow the picture to speak for itself. It has all of the elements in it, for anyone who stares at it long enough (the image on this page is a cropped version of Osk’s original, which she expanded from the art she did for last week’s forecast).

In an e-mail exchange with her, I mentioned that I hadn’t realized it was Wesak. She wrote back that perhaps she should have used Buddha in the picture instead of the Native American shaman. I replied that the shaman was absolutely the perfect choice and that it was more relevant for the challenges of our era, which are nicely represented in the artwork. He speaks in a way that Buddha couldn’t, precisely because he’s American. I was a bit surprised at first and wondered why she chose him, but didn’t question.

All while I was working with the image, I was drawn to his face and heard him “speak.” It seems like there is great pain in his eyes and just a hint of a smile. Even though the guy with the cigar dominates by virtue of size, the shaman is the “power center” of this image. He so perfectly fits the Scorpio Full Moon. He’s also the culmination of the story. If you start on the upper left and go counter-clockwise, you see vice, greed, a disturbed mind, nightmares, but in them a dream of a woman who has given up control, just floating in the water; then the Moon with its transformative Scorpions, and finally the storyteller and healer. Or maybe it started with him.

It’s funny how we make up stories in our minds, but to me, it looks like he knew all along that the ways the Europeans brought with them, the focus on the material world, subjugation of the land, and a strange religion with no respect for the spirit world would cause them to suffer. And while he’s not vengeful, he gets an extra bit of satisfaction in seeing them send their disease back to the land of their origins. He knew that one day they would pay the price of their genocide; either they would annihilate themselves or heal, and it would take generations, maybe centuries. But that’s alright, because in the spirit world, time is infinite.

The Full Moon peaks at 11:42 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a little before 9 p.m. on the West Coast. Many years ago, I learned a simple Wesak ritual that I try to do every year (botched it last year). Simply put a bowl of water outside and let it “absorb” the rays of the Full Moon. In the morning, get into a quiet space, drink it, and sit in silence. You may or may not get any instant revelations or inspiration, but the encoded information will start processing in the background of your mind.

Well, that’s way more than I intended to write. I was going to keep the forecast very brief this week so I could get caught up on work for clients. I am woefully behind, with reports that were ordered several months ago still not finished. I was hoping to catch up in the past couple of weeks, but due to ongoing health issues and multiple distractions, I keep falling farther behind. I am currently not accepting new clients and have had to start saying “no” to folks who have ordered reports in the past and would like me to do another one. It hurts to have to do this, but I simply must get the outstanding reports done. For those of you who have been waiting so patiently, please know that I think about you every day, and every day I push as hard as I can to try to make headway. Writing the forecast takes a lot of energy, and I have a limited amount right now, so I need to redirect it. The next couple of forecasts will be minimal.

I’ll go through the rest of this week very briefly. On Monday, the Sun squares Jupiter. I pretty much covered that in last week’s forecast. On Wednesday, the Sun trines Pluto, a powerful aspect for personal transformation and awakenings begun at the Full Moon, as the Sun is carrying forward its vibration to Pluto, the planet of death and transformation. On Thursday, Venus enters sensitive Cancer. Feelings are easily hurt, and there’s a need for physical and emotional security. Confession time: I still have a security blanket! It’s a wrap that I knitted years ago, beginning to fall apart, but I can’t sit at the computer without it. When I get up, Jinn takes it over (in his mind, it’s likely the other way around).

On Saturday, Mercury in Gemini squares Neptune in Pisces. During Mercury-Neptune contacts, many of us have vivid and strange dreams. And this is just the first of three passes, as he turns retrograde at the New Moon on the 18th. We’re in the pre-retrograde phase now, so start wrapping up important projects, especially if they involve communications or business contracts. If you’re a writer, work on the “brain dump” now and then plan on editing during the retrograde.

I was about to sign off and just got an e-mail alerting me to a startling article about U.S. involvement in the coup in Ukraine. In last week’s forecast, I wrote that the Mercury-Saturn opposition on Sunday (May 3) would be a kick in the load-bearing beams of belief structures. I think this qualifies as a substantial hit.

Oh … and Prince George just got a little sister.

Wishing much love and courage to all,
Pat

© Pat Paquette, RealAstrologers.com, 2014.