A tiny, grounding forest scene for the Taurus Moon. Photo by Amanda Painter

Generally speaking, part of the way you can use the day of an eclipse (and the couple-few days on either side) is to make a point of engaging with some of the activities, interests, intentions, and relationships that you love most and want to cultivate in the coming six to twelve months. The idea is that giving some focused energy in the direction you want to travel during the “disruption” of an eclipse will help new pathways and patterns to take shape more clearly and tangibly.

Of course, life is always subject to the unexpected and can get very busy. Pressure to “do it all” or “do it perfectly” is rarely helpful; but even carving out just a few minutes to enjoy, investigate, or somehow touch on what you most want to call in can be very worthwhile.

My first astrology mentor and I once saw a surfer on a beach with a T-shirt that read, “Look where you want to be.” It’s a key to surfing the ocean successfully, and it applies just as well to eclipses.

You’re invited to read these horoscopes for your rising sign (AKA ascendant) as well as your Sun sign. I’d love to hear whether one or the other resonates more for you and why! If you don’t know your rising sign, you can either plug in your data (birth time, date, and location) at this website or message me and I’ll look it up for you.

With love,
Amanda

Horoscopes for the Taurus Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse — Oct. 28, 2023

ARIES — If the Oct. 14 eclipse initiated some rebalancing in your relationships, the Oct. 28 eclipse appears to take the theme deeper. How open-faced are the arrangements you have with people where there’s any kind of economic agreement, deep emotion, and/or power differential? It’s easy to keep these topics buried under a veil of unspoken assumption; our culture often finds them distasteful, especially when they’re combined. Yet no matter how many different pressures you’re feeling around control versus surrender in a given situation, you know clearly what you have: not only materially and financially, but in terms of your values and principles. You can afford to be optimistic and generous right now, as long as you stay honest with yourself and others about your limitations, your desires, and your truest concerns.

TAURUS — Others may seem to be the ones making decisions and taking action, but you have an ace up your sleeve: Jupiter in your sign, near the location of Saturday’s lunar eclipse in your sign. Your generosity, support, and kindness toward others are even more likely than usual to beget the same in return, though ideally reciprocation is a fringe benefit not the motive. If you’re feeling shaky, there’s a way to tap extra stability now. Creating a plan to meet unmet inner needs and taking the first small, specific steps in that plan will help you to work productively with all the energy and determination you may be encountering in others. And sharing your plan gives friends the opportunity to help. Remember: aligning with your intentions, desires, and what you enjoy most in life, while letting others bear witness, is a gift to the world just as much as it’s a gift to yourself.

GEMINI — You’re known for your active mind, but you might not talk often about how much your thoughts are driven by deep emotional currents. Sometimes those currents get churned up and require extra attention and action so you can get back in the flow; now appears to be one of those times. Yet plenty of mental and physical energy is available to help you figure out the necessary changes to your wellness routines, and where there’s a will there’s a way. Saturday’s lunar eclipse, however, occurs in the “blind spot” of your chart, and events there can catch us off guard. Any meditative practices (including dream journaling, automatic writing, and spontaneous art-making) can likely offer the space needed to allow your inner journey to catch up with your external reality. Then, a clearer path may emerge.

CANCER — You appear to have numerous playmates available now: people ready and willing to get moving on shared projects of self-expression. That could mean anything from art-making to sex-for-fun to any manner of adventurous activity. Whatever it is, the qualities of pleasure, daring, and emotional depth are priorities. Adding in devotion and discipline will help you stay in the flow, and will make for a more deeply transformational experience. Now, what’s the difference between “daring” and “foolish”? Namely, staying conscious of actual limitations and keeping ego and competitiveness at bay. Saturday’s lunar eclipse may reveal all this pleasure and play to have a loftier purpose: helping you to realign your social circles with your deepest values and your mission in this lifetime. Allowing fun into the profound may yield surprising benefits.

LEO — When you’re king or queen of your domain, do you still have to do your own housekeeping? Yes, you do — at least, metaphorically speaking. If you’re experiencing a cluster of characters in your literal home, chances are they’re there to help you “deep clean” or renovate in some way and figure out how to put things in order. (They may need direction, so stay mindful of your tone.) Yet it’s equally likely that your emotional environment (and its roots in the past, perhaps related to your father) is what’s really up for an overhaul. As you clear that space, more room emerges for you to step fully into the aspirations you’ve long been working toward — and to receive the gift of assistance. This weekend’s eclipse allows you to reach further out into the world than you’ve previously dared. Claim your place, your calling, and your hard-won reputation.  

VIRGO — It’s easy to take one’s immediate surroundings for granted, especially if they seem unremarkable or fixed in place. But it would seem that a party of your peers (perhaps even literal siblings) are energized to figure out what’s beneath the familiar surfaces of your local environment. Or, do these ideas apply to your own thought processes and self-talk? If you’re convinced that your mind only ever works one way, are you open to letting that opinion get lovingly challenged? Saturday’s eclipse suggests reasons to allow some optimism into the picture. An element of compassion and protection is ready to accompany you on a spiritual quest: to let your “everyday” thinking meet with a beautiful truth about who you are and what you’re here to share. Though distant travel could play a role, it’s not at all necessary.

Horoscopes continue below image.

A view of some still water during Scorpio season. Photo by Amanda Painter.

LIBRA — You have strong feelings about your most deeply held principles and the skills and talents you’ve developed — though these emotions tend to exist behind a scrim of “harmoniousness” unless challenged. As you’ve reoriented yourself since the Oct. 14 eclipse in your sign, have any provocations to your typical equilibrium arisen? It looks like several people may be laying claim in some way to what is inherently yours (literal possessions or your figurative sense of self). Or do they simply have stubborn ideas about what to do with your hard-won resources? Saturday’s eclipse will bring your contracts, places of less-conscious merging, or a question of control to the fore. More importantly, it offers a glimpse at the fears and desires you have around these ideas. You may well receive more than you give up once you get clean agreements on the books that align with your intentions.  

SCORPIO — If you start to feel overwhelmed, or like you’re over-focusing on someone or something emerging on your horizon, Saturday’s lunar eclipse in your opposite sign offers a moment to pull your attention away from a seemingly intractable situation and recalibrate. Not everything is in your control right now, but that’s true every day. What’s special this weekend is just how much energy is at your disposal for figuring things out and moving toward your dreams. Even more if you can stay aware and flexible enough to replace “winning at all costs” with “serves the good of all” as your definition of success. You have reasons to be optimistic now; as well as reasons to get clear on what’s a true concern versus what’s just ego speaking. Your ability to flush stagnant emotional or spiritual energy tends to increase the higher the stakes are raised. This benefits all your relationships. 

SAGITTARIUS — Dreamland appears to be a very busy place for you right now. It’s like your unconscious is determined to work out a problem and get moving on the solutions come hell or high water. But are you allowing enough flexibility in your daily routines around work, health, and any healing or processing practices to utilize all that behind-the-scenes energy? You’re a big-picture kind of person, yet it’s wise to remember that even the broadest vista is made up of countless details. As Saturday’s eclipse moves through, see if one of those details relating to your everyday work or wellbeing comes into better focus. Moving meditations (hiking a mountain, dance, running, walking a new neighborhood) might be especially helpful in connecting the dots between any small changes you need to make, their unconscious roots, and your new trajectory.

CAPRICORN — You appear to be focusing a lot of your attention on the area of your life where your personal social circles intersect with the public at large, and with good reason. People with ideas are ready to take action in that sphere, and you’re the common denominator who can offer some key leadership energy to bring it all together in a structured, mission-oriented way. Possibly you feel intent on keeping your inner loose ends (especially emotions) out of those proceedings. Yet what’s that over there in your zone of creative self-expression? Oh yeah: an eclipse of the Moon, with Jupiter nearby. Whatever generosity you can extend to your own more playful — even daring or childlike — urges, the more likely others are to join you on that wavelength. Teamwork makes the dream work, and dreams that both feel good and do good are rarely at a loss for playmates.

AQUARIUS — You’re no stranger to reinventing yourself on a regular basis, and with that comes a certain sense of liberation. Yet not everyone currently populating the spaces where you express your vocation or build your professional reputation are as open about their intentions. To a certain real extent, that is not your concern — nor is it something to be afraid of. Your ability to take a giant step forward in your career is closely related to your ability to truly feel, tangibly, that “security” is always an inside job. The more willing you are to be seen for all your quirky beauty — in words and actions — the more energy will be available for your next steps. If Saturday’s eclipse accompanies any inner shakiness, it’s fine to pause and think through the situation at hand. Your heart will make a better rudder than your ego as you steer toward what you desire now.

PISCES — Who are your favorite teachers, spiritual voyagers, or emotionally nourishing messengers right now? You appear poised to join them in some way — whether that means communing with their greatest works for a few months, kicking into gear to offer your own ideas to the world, or simply going deeper than ever with your self-study. Yet Saturday’s eclipse suggests some kind of disruption may reveal either a lack of security on some point or an unconscious habit that could slow down progress toward your goal, if left unaddressed. Likely areas of focus include habitual thinking and communication patterns, a contract process, local travel, or siblings and peers. Your visionary tendencies are in high gear and the well they’re drawing from runs deep. Staying clear about your limitations and boundaries will help you to keep one action-ready foot on solid ground and use this energy effectively.

Chart for the Taurus Full Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse, when the Earth’s shadow will briefly block the light of the Sun from reaching the Moon and then reflecting back to us. The Sun is on the upper right in Scorpio, not far from Mercury and Mars. The Moon is on the lower left in Taurus, not far from Jupiter. Notice that the Moon is making a grand earth trine with Juno in Virgo and Pholus in Capricorn, while the Sun is making a grand water trine with Saturn in Pisces and Vesta in Cancer — suggesting some extra ease or support between the physical the emotional realms. Some of the planetary themes from those grand trines are alluded to in the horoscopes above.

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