What is Merging? Scorpio Full Moon

* Sign Ruler: Mars - Decan Co-rulers: Sun and Jupiter

* Element: Water (Fixed)

* Tarot Correspondence: 6 of Cups

* Wild Way Oracle Card: Dive Deep

* Keywords: Alchemical Collaboration, Intimate Exchange and Nostalgia

What is being refined in a close connection now? Can you trust what remains?

This is a Full Moon that plunges us into deep, dark and still waters and shines a reflective light on the secrets held within. The Moon is in its fall here, a place of emotional intensity, secrecy, and desire. In the fixed, yin or feminine water sign of Scorpio, the Moon navigates shadowy terrain, where feelings run deep and transformation arises through symbolic cycles of death and rebirth.

This Full Moon feels quiet and significant as you are asked to face the secrets of your psyche. Feel into what is being shown to you and turn it over. Feel where it lands in your body. Scorpios don’t rush to conclusions. It asks you to remain present with what is uncomfortable, meaningful, unresolved or unseen and allow it to gently float to the surface of your awareness.

Overview Let’s Explore..

How can I help you

Journal Prompts & RitualScorpio Yin, Fixed WaterThe Nature of a Full MoonThe Scorpio Moon FamilyThe Decan of Scorpio II: Sacred TrustTarot: Six of CupsThe Astrological ConversationAnd finally…

How Can I help You?

This Moon might stir up unfamiliar feelings, perhaps something you can’t quite name, maybe a shift in a relationship, a decision you’ve been avoiding, a feeling that won’t settle. This is exactly where astrology can really help.

I offer:

* Moon Family readings to map the longer cycle you’re in, and offer future cycles for your plans

* One-to-one Astrology Consultations to work through what’s unfolding now

* Ongoing support to work with Moon Families inside Celestia Circle

Contact me to see how I can work with you.

Journal Prompts

* What feels significant right now, maybe only on the edge of my subconscious ?

* Where have I already become involved, whether I intended to or not?

* What am I afraid might happen if I stay present with this?

* Where am I being asked to hold something with more care?

* What feels worth honouring, what weight does it carry?

* What was hidden and is now coming to light, maybe in your own mind?

Simple Ritual — The Meeting of Waters

You just need two glasses of water, only about 1/3 full and a quiet space.

Sit with both glasses in front of you. Decide which one represents you.Let the other represent a person, situation, or bond that feels significant right now and you feel called to explore at this time of the Full Moon.

Soften your gaze and relax your breathing as you contemplate both glasses. Notice and explore whatever arises around your chosen topic.

When you’re ready, choose one glass and slowly pour the water into the other. Observe what happens as the water meets. There is no separation any longer. Everything is shared, even the container.

If it feels natural, let your gaze once again soften into the water. Just allow the room around you to fade as you merge your awareness with the water.

Then ask quietly:

* What has already been shared here?

* What is mine to honour within this?

* What feels true beneath the surface?

* Any other question that calls you

When you’re ready, choose your closing words with gratitude.

You might now choose to drink the water, as you do, accept and integrate what is shared and what you have experienced. Otherwise, you might prefer to pour it away, do this with intention, preferably into a larger body of water in nature, or onto the earth, as you acknowledge and release what is no longer yours to hold.

Scorpio - Fixed, Yin Water

Scorpio is a fixed water sign, deeply yin or feminine, still, and subterranean. This is water that doesn’t move quickly, it stews, it seeps, it remembers. The fixed modality gives it endurance and resilience, the feminine quality gives it receptivity and an inward looking nature.

Picture dark caves or maybe you prefer hot springs, the secrets held within murky swamp water or the soggy ashes after the fire. This is the spirit realm of the serpent, the compost heap, the scorpion and the phoenix.

Mars rules Scorpio, but here we are offered a battle-weary side of the dusty warrior planet. Mars is exploring the unfamiliar emotions of why he enters conflict, to defend and protect, but what and why? This is the watery moat trench, or the hot bath easing aching muscles, where reflection allows old identities to dissolve and obsessions to rot into fertile soil to alchemise before rebirth.

The Mars rulership gives it resolve and the ability to transform. These waters do not flow around obstacles, they are more likely to dissolve them. They hold grief, passion, memory, and metamorphosis. Scorpio acts with intention. It chooses where to place its energy, and once it does, it doesn’t easily let go.

Scorpio is known for intensity, it commits and invests. It binds itself to what matters and feels important and then works through what that brings. It wants to stay with something long enough to understand it from the inside.

A Full Moon here often brings emotional clarity, but this may not be experienced in a clean or comfortable way. It asks you to feel what is real, and often that can be raw and tender.

You may find that emotions can reach a peak of intensity. The past rises unbidden, anything swept under the rug emerges now. Scorpio teaches us how to contain power, how to hold pain with dignity, and to wisely alchemise endings into new thresholds.

The Moon in Her Fall, Protected by Mars

The Moon is in fall in Scorpio, depressed, discomforted, vulnerable, far from her exaltation where the Sun is shining in Taurus. This lunar placement is often emotionally raw, exposing buried patterns and the desire to cling to memories and emotions.

Yet it is from this depth of emotion, a power can arise, the only path for the Moon now is to rise up, but how?

Mars, ruler of Scorpio, does not have a traditional aspect of sight to offer support from Aries as it is preoccupied and busy at home, kept occupied with a stellium of planets to manage, Mars does have the quality of Like Engerding which brings an alternative, more suble form of support through shared rulership of Aries and Scorpio by Mars.

The Nature of a Full Moon

A Full Moon is a moment of illumination and culmination. The Sun and Moon are opposite each other in the sky, and something that has been building since the New Moon comes into view. This is a peak moment in the cycle, there are no shadows, the sun in Taurus allows us to see the full beauty of the Moon.

Sometimes, this doesn’t bring closure that may be needed, more often a recognition of what is needed as the next step and it is the closing quarter or the balsamic moon which brings closure and release.

For now, you see what has grown. You might feel into what has taken shape, through your emotions, memories, intuition or dreams, before you reflect and are asked to respond. Maybe that response will arrive as integration, action, release or commitment. In Scorpio, you may find yourself moving through many stages of response.

The Cycles of the Moon and the Moon Family

Astrologically, we have multiple Lunar cycles occuring simultaneously. The Moon’s cycles can be tracked in several ways, depending on what you are seeking. The most immediate is the monthly lunar cycle, which spans approximately 28 days from New Moon to the next New Moon.

There is also a six-month cycle between a New Moon and the subsequent Full Moon in the same sign, when the seeds planted during the New Moon come to a fuller fruition. So you can look back at your story over the last 6 months to see what has been growing for you in this time.

This Full Moon is part of a Lunar Gestational Cycle or Moon Family. These are a pattern that unfolds over 27 months, or just over 2 years, marked by key lunation phases as the Moon returns to the same degree range of the zodiac in a progressing relationship with the Sun.

These Moon Families mark developmental arcs, longer stories that build over time. They begin with a seed of intention or insight at the New Moon, find their first visibility nine months later, maybe asking for some adjustment or changes, reach full clarity and culmination after eighteen months, and resolve or integrate after twenty-seven months, when we then move into a time of release, reflection and preparation for the next cycle.

Moon Families were introduced by astrologer Dietrich Pessin in Lunar Shadows III. This creates a hidden thread of a lunar gestation for those of us whose natal chart placements are activated by each Moon Family degree range, and by the ruler.

For this Full Moon in Scorpio, the Moon Family is illuminating a story that began in November 2024, with a New Moon in the first decan, known as ‘Hunger’ and ‘Intensity’. The key dates for this cycle are:

Scorpio Moon Family

New Moon 1 November 2024 09° ScorpioFirst Quarter 1 August 2025 09° ScorpioFull Moon 1 May 2026 11° Scorpio Last Quarter 29 January 2027 09° Scorpio

This Moon family will most affect those with placements or angles within 4 - 13 degrees of Fixed Signs Scorpio, Aquarius, Taurus and Leo. Also those with placements within 4-13 degrees of Water Signs Scorpio, Pisces and Cancer. Those with Mars as their Profected Lord of Year or Solar Return Chart Ruler.

If you are not sure, an astrologer or astro coach can help you identify if your placements are activated. We do this work in Celestia Circle and identify what the Moon Families mean for participants by looking more deeply into them. You can also comment ‘Moon Family’ and I will help you.

If your chart is activated, can you think back to November 2024 and what began then, even if it was quiet or subtle. You may find that by August 2025 that thread required action. You were asked to make a decision, shift or respond, some pivot in the storyline.

Now, under this Full Moon, you can see what has been forming as it culminates. This cycle speaks to trust, shared experience, emotional bonds, and the deeper layers of commitment. Please do share if this cycle is calling to you, I love to hear your stories.

The Decan of Scorpio II — Sacred Trust

Scorpio is known as a sign that thrives on deep intimacy and we especially witness this in Scorpio II. Austin Coppock has named this decan Dual Distillation and in 36 Faces he talks about how it requires a willingness to merge.

When you merge at this deep, vulnerable level, potentially a physical sharing of body fluids in the alchemy or melting of minds and ideas, there is a vulnerability and trust in the other. This relies on the willingness of both parties to engage in an intimate, emotional exchange.

Austin Coppock writes of oaths, alliances, and binding agreements. However, these are not always formal and acknowledged. Sometimes they happen quietly. It is as if something has been poured from one vessel into another. Just as we experienced in the water ritual above, once poured together, it cannot be separated out quite the same again.

Here, we see how the dual distillation of fluids in a fixed water elemental sign can offer a merging but also could demand purity of souls to enter into a partnership. Memories become linked and shared, intuition heightens and imagination soars. The partnership becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

With its own internal combustion and fixed lasting power, there is great potential for relationships, whether romantic, business, friendship or otherwise formed with the blessing of this decan. However, there is also a raw vulnerability, as you will be permanently changed, whatever the outcome.

I wrote about this decan in depth for the Astrologers' Co-Op and if you want a deeper reflection on the nature of fixed, yin water for this decan, and some insight into my own placements in this decan, you can find it here.

With two life giving planets ruling this decan, the Sun and Jupiter, the boost the Moon needs to regenerate is provided. The Sun will help illuminate and warm, allowing something to become clear.

Jupiter adds faith and meaning. You begin to understand why this matters. Why this connection holds weight, and to believe in it, or not! This is where intensity can shift to become devotion.

Kira Ryberg calls this decan Symbiosis. This again invokes the theme of this irreversible merging process, which is usually, but not always, beneficial to both parties. Just like the ritual water, once merged, it cannot be returned to the original form, it is forever altered.

Wild Way Oracle card -Dive Deep

The Wild Way Oracle card for this lunation is called Dive Deep. We are given the image of two puffins, diving together into deep waters, swimming in harmony and reflecting each others twists.

The card offers keywords to help and guide us at this time:

* Alchemical Collaboration

* Intimate Exchange

* Nostalgia

An Exerpt from the Wild Way Oracle Book by Nicola Allan explains the Puffins story:

“As the Scorpio II Puffins fly through the depths of the ocean together, they intimately twist and turn through the water creating a beautiful partnership full of mutual exchange and pleasure. They remind us that to realise such ideal connections, vulnerability and intimacy must be present and over time, a deep sense of trust must be carefully built. When heavy seas bring choppier waters to your relationship, this is what may be relied upon to help you both safely navigate back to shore..”

They remind us that when we become vulnerable with another, we are building a real connection. We may enjoy fun and laughter, but the foundation of trust will be there to support us through darker times.

Tarot Correspondence: Six of Cups

In the card we are shown two child like figures. There are six cups and they all contain flowers, maybe they are growing or maybe the cups are a temporary container, as you may see in a florist. Four of the cups are in the foreground, one stands on a short pillar behind the taller child, the last is in his hands as he appears to be handing or gifting it to the other. In the background, to the left, after the burst of colour of the foreground, there is a greyed out path with an adult figure walking away towards buildings in colour.

At first glance perhaps it looks like a simple scene. When you look closer, you may feel into why this card is known as Nostalgia. The way the light changes, maybe with our attention and memories. With the cup passing from hands to hands we might see this as symbolic of the present transforming into the past. How do we hold remembrance and what memories do we colour with sweetness and nostalgia?

Timeless Key - Dreaming the Decans

This verse from T. Susan Chang’s Dreaming the Decans beautifully evokes the nostalgic, hazy depths of this decan and reminds us that we can access it through love:

Timeless Key to long-long treasure.

In daylight for one day we live.

That which I love I dare to give,

For gifts can never have a price.

Find meaning in the sacrifice.

In the twilight haze I see Ghosts of blessed memory.

The present slips into the past;

Love alone is sure to last…..

The Astrological Conversation:

This Full Moon is complex and emotionally intense, as we might expect when the Moon is in her fall in Scorpio. The Moon here must work hard to rise up again from her place of greatest challenge. Her usual nurturing light becomes filtered through underground, cthonic waters, slow, fixed, hidden, pressurised. She is uncomfortable, but facing her truths and allowing that discomfort to inform her journey through the 3 Decans of Scorpio. I like to think the Moon reaches her turning point here, where she gathers memories of past and remembers Her purpose, before she becomes re-empowered in Decan III to continue on her journey where she nurtures and cares for us all, connecting with all the planets on her monthly trip around the zodiac. Temporarily, she is less able to tend to our needs as she first needs to address her own, as all Mothers must at times.

Mars, ruler of Scorpio, is in Aries a place of heat and youthful intentsity. Ruler Mars has no traditional line of sight to the Moon. However, there is a more subtle support available through Like Engerding, as both planets are in signs ruled by Mars and operating in Mars’ environments.

Mars in Aries asks that we act now, raising the pace and the temperature. The Moon in Scorpio is reflective, looking at connections and past nostalgia. Stay mindful of conflict born of unresolved emotional baggage or expectations. As always, even if you are not feeling this tension, stay aware that those around you may well be.

Moon opposite Sun The Moon in Scorpio shines opposite the Sun in Taurus. Taurus is steady and stabilising while Scorpio alchemises and transforms. Oppositions are of the nature of Saturn, there is tension between these opposites, something may have to be released, you may feel pulled between holding on, perhaps to the past and letting go in order to move forward. Maybe between preserving something, or seeing it more truthfully.

You might feel this as a quiet tension in a sensitive part of your body. Part of you could want to hold on to what feels familiar and reliable. While another part knows there is more beneath the surface and craves that honesty.

Remembering the Nodes, a pattern is unveiling. The Moon has just moved away from a trine and sextile connection with the North and South Nodes in Pisces and Virgo. An old pattern may have recently played out or been loosened, perhaps reminding you of events put in motion by previous eclipses. Maybe it is helping to allow you the space to see it clearly now, to separate past from future, nostalagia from dreams.

You may even experience deja-vu, but now you have awareness. You can see the shape of it, you are cognisant of the astrological context, which frames it. That brings you choices and agency.

After Aquarius Pluto a new truth has surfaced. The Moon is separating from a recent square connection with Pluto. You have already met with the pressure or intensity, the Sun also met Pluto on 25th April and illuminated the deepest truths. Maybe something was revealed or shifted. Now you are asked to integrate this knowledge.

Maybe there has been a shift in how you see someone, or a realisation you can’t ignore.This might be a time where something became undeniable. or you may have a sense of quiet after purging something intense.

Cancer Jupiter to Scorpio Moon offers gentle support. An applying trine from the Moon to exalted Jupiter in Cancer offers quiet reassurance, optimism, wisdom, perhaps support from family and tender memories. It reinforces that you have the quiet strength for this process as it is forming.

Elsewhere, Mars in Aries squares Jupiter in Cancer, will you act or wait? The Moon’s ruler Mars reaches a crossroads, a tension that asks for action as Jupiter asks for considered care.

You might feel a sudden urge to do something, you may feel pulled to make a decision, to speak, or a need to move things forward. Jupiter in Cancer offers you optimism and a belief that things will work out, which could be exaggerated, you will need to take into account the emotional reality of the situation too.

Mercury meets Chiron in Aries, words matter. Conversations may feel particularly sensitive around this time. You may hear difficult truths that reach into your core wound, a tender spot that the speaker may be unaware of. Whether you are the speaker, or you hear these difficult words, be aware of the potential for healing and a fresh start that comes when this conjunction arrives with a full moon. Chiron in Aries with Mercury may trigger wounds around speaking your truth, being allowed to speak for yourself or being heard when you do. Try and be a mindful speaker and listener in your interactions.

Venus in Gemini sextiles Aries Saturn, something holds. There may be opportunities to build social connections, or renew old aquaintances. This could bring a sense that something is worth the effort it requires, you may renew some steady or mature relationships, or a connection quietly proves its value. Those relationships forged in the raw truth of Scorpio II have the potential to endure.

And finally…

We return to the Burning Question of this Lunation - What is being refined in a close connection now? Can you trust what remains?

Can you identify what has already been under pressure? Where is there a shift, a realisation or a moment that clarified more than you expected. Perhaps it began with Aries heat. Now things quieten with the softness of a Scorpio Moon, allowing you to reflect and turn inwards. Offering you the space to notice what is settling and what is falling away.

Not everything is meant to stay. Some expectations may dissolve. But take notice of what remains, in whatever form, perhaps a feeling, a truth, a connection with depth and substance. It could be something you sense, still emerging from the depths of the Scorpionic waters.

You may already know where something has been changing, where the pressure point is. Now consider whether you trust what’s still there, once everything else has moved. What is separate, what has merged and what will never be the same again as you reweave the threads of your story. Are you ready to Dive Deep, just like the sweet puffins?

Travel well, friends.

Sonia

Chapters

If you are looking for an Astrologer, and you enjoy my style of Astrology, I currently have space to take on new clients. If you would like a personal individual Astrology reading, I set a healing Reiki intention for every client before the reading. You can opt out of this if you prefer when you book at CelestiaAstrology.com. The Guardian of Your Portal reading is still available by donation if you want to try a reading from a different perspective (please read about this style of reading before booking so you know it is for you).

If you prefer to go deeper and work with the Moons’ cycles and the planets in your personal chart then I also offer Astro Coaching. Contact me through a message here, or book at CelestiaAstrology.com. You can also become a paid subscriber to download my Astro Coaching WorkBook and access the archive of posts which guide you through it, working with the Moons. Upgrade your level to join the AstroCoaching Group and Astrology Q&A.

Please do leave a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences or questions.

References:

AustinCoppock.com The Decans: Images and Applications

Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology The Eagle and the Lark

Dietrich Pessin Lunar Families III

KiraRyberg.com The 36 Decans

T Susan Chang Dreaming the Decans

The Wild Way Oracle deck and Oracle Book by Nicola Allan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit celestiaastrology.substack.com/subscribe