The Flower Moon ~ Full Moon in Scorpio on Beltane

May arrives this year with something remarkable in its hands.On the 1st of May – May Day, Beltane, the ancient cross-quarter festival that marks the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice – the full moon rises. Not near Beltane. Not a few days after it. On it. The Flower Moon and the fire festival, the peak of the lunar cycle and the peak of the fertility wheel of the year, falling on the same night.This does not happen often. When it does, it means something. Not in the vague way that people say celestial events mean something, but in the specific, practical way that a practitioner who understands what both events carry can work with extraordinary clarity and extraordinary power.There is more. This full moon rises in Scorpio, with the sun sitting directly across the sky in Taurus. The most sensual, rooted, abundant earth sign face to face with the deepest, most transformative water sign. Flowers and depth. Abundance and truth. The sweetness of the world at full bloom pressed up against the force that asks what is underneath all this sweetness. What has been buried, what needs to be released, what the abundance is growing from.When a full moon lands in the fixed water sign of Scorpio, truths surface, secrets unravel, and what has expired must be released so something more honest can begin.On Beltane.When the world is in full flower.There is nothing coincidental about this. There is only the invitation, to bring the full brightness of the season into contact with the full depth of what Scorpio illuminates, and to let the combination do what it will. The Flower Moon ~ Her Many NamesThe May full moon is called the Flower Moon, and the name is the most obvious and most accurate thing about her. Celtic and Old English names for this full moon include the Mothers’ Moon, the Bright Moon, the Hare Moon, and the Grass Moon. In Europe she has been called the Milk Moon, a name that dates to medieval times when May was the month cows were moved to summer pastures, their milk rich and plentiful for feeding newborn calves.The Cree knew her as the Budding Moon and the Leaf Budding Moon, celebrating the awakening of local flora. The Dakota and Lakota called her the Planting Moon, marking the time when seeds should be started for the season ahead. The Abenaki called her the Field Maker Moon. The Kalapuya of the Pacific Northwest knew her as Camas Blooming Time, for the blue camas flowers that cover meadows throughout Oregon, eastern Washington, and northern Idaho.Everywhere: flowering, blooming, emerging, making. The world is doing what the world does in May, and the moon carries the fullness of it.But hold all of these names alongside the astrological sign she rises in this year: Scorpio. The sign associated with what is hidden beneath the surface. The sign of the detective and the depth-diver, the sign that refuses to accept the pleasant appearance as the whole story.The Flower Moon in Scorpio is asking: what is blooming that you haven’t looked at yet? What is it that has finally grown enough to be seen – if you are willing to look? Beltane and the Full Moon ~ A Once-in-Many-Years ConvergenceBeltane falls on May 1st each year, and the full moon reaches its peak on May 1st this year at 1:23 PM EDT. This full moon falls on May Day, which lies about midway between the March equinox and the June solstice. A cross-quarter day.Beltane is the great festival of fertility, fire, and the full flowering of life....