The Sky Letter — Full Moon in Taurus

This fortnight asks for a clear look at what is being held on to, and for releasing what has run its course before reaching for anything new. The Full Moon in Taurus on 26 October squares Pluto in Aquarius, and within hours the Sun's square to Pluto turns exact. The Taurus Moon wants to keep what it has, with some possessiveness; Pluto presses for change at the root. The Full Moon is the point where a cycle's work either comes into focus or shows where it failed. Here what comes into focus is attachment: which ties still serve, and which have hardened.

In the first days Pluto is the apex of two T-squares, with the Sun and Chiron and with Venus and Chiron. The tension between an old hurt and the wish to be fully oneself runs straight into Pluto's demand that something end. Left to run, that force makes events feel out of one's hands; aimed at one specific thing that needs changing, it becomes usable. A power struggle is a cue to examine the will to control, one's own included. Uranus in trine and Neptune in sextile give Pluto easier channels, through new ideas and ideals.

Venus, retrograde in Libra all fortnight, rules both the Libra New Moon that opened this cycle and this Taurus Full Moon. It opposes Chiron, exact on 28 October, and trines the North Node, exact on 30 October. Retrograde Venus brings people and questions from the past back for another look; opposite Chiron, what returns may carry an old wound, felt through someone else. Astrocábala reads the Node as what is still outstanding: the review becomes a chance to return to what broke, asking for acceptance of what happened as much as repair.

Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio throughout and squares Mars in Leo, exact on 30 October. If an argument flares over who meant what, checking what was said costs less than defending a position, and agreements made now deserve a second reading. The Sun meets Mercury on 4 November, and from there tangled matters tend to start clearing.

Around 28 October, the Sun and Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn form a yod with Uranus in Gemini. Lilith marks a want or regret that needs attention, and Uranus answers with restlessness and the urge to break a pattern. If nerves run high for no clear reason, that is the signal: small adjustments made early serve better than a sudden break later, and loose plans better than rigid ones.

The second week warms. Mars draws toward Jupiter in Leo from 31 October, and Venus sextiles Jupiter, exact on 4 November. Venus, Chiron, Jupiter and the Node hold a mystic rectangle, giving the old hurts somewhere generous to go. What Jupiter brings is meant to be shared; with Mars beside it in Leo, it can also swell into overconfidence and promises too big to keep.

The Last Quarter on 1 November is a crisis in consciousness: a time to decide what the cycle meant, with ruthlessness as its other face. The Balsamic phase from 5 November turns the cycle's yield into seed, and anything dropped then clears ground for the New Moon in Scorpio on 9 November.

People with placements in the early degrees of Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius, or near the fifth degree of Gemini and Capricorn, feel this fortnight more strongly.