Stop being clean.

Full Moon in Scorpio, May 12, 2025

Soil is soul. It nourishes life and lets the flowers deeply root that they may open to the sun, to the bees and birds, that they may be fertile and yield the possibility of more flowers in seasons to come. Today we celebrate the gift that soil gives us. And this soil is composed of all the life that came before, what once lived and flourished and since has rotted and decomposed into the nutrients for more life. In this moment of vitality, of growth, of emerging futures, we might feel a faint ache for all that we lost to make this moment possible.

We might resent the march of progress and change. Old dreams, old loved ones, ancestors, ancient ways all buried to feed the emergence of wild new truths and new forms, some of which we may feel eager to embrace; others of which we may not feel worth the price.

This moon speaks to power and the intensity of simply being alive. It is simple. We can admire the loveliness of the moment and push away the haunting grief. But loss provides a deep note that makes the melody complete. Without that depth, all we have is a moment of fizzy sweetness that passes. If we only cling to the depth, we’ll resent and be left behind by the blooming.

Children play a skipping game, singing an innocent song that we believe came out of the Black Plague. So is tragedy enshrined and remembered for ages, being turned into a game, play that honors and forgets the suffering.

In the daylight, we see the progress of changes. We are dragged along by change, whether we like it or not. We are given AI and bitcoin and tariffs and told it is good for us, even as it causes suffering, and we are to admire and celebrate all the money other people are making at our expense. At night, in the light of the full moon, we can look at the damage wrought. There is a need for grief and sorrow, even if we like the changes, even if we cannot find a way to resist them.

But to access this grief, we need some kind of game. We need to play with what we’ve lost, we need to create from it, we need to make some kind of art. But what kind of art exists in this new world? How does your soul want to express the perils and promise of this moment?

This moon is ruled by Mars in Leo, creativity as strategy. One could say that everything is propaganda, though I find propaganda to be intrinsically shallow once you move past the political message. Propaganda acts to shape the complexities of life and relationships into a neat narrative that promotes the cause you have already decided is correct. This is different from creativity as a form of inquiry, a form of honoring and exploring the messiness, and seeing what emerges from that connection.

This seems to be a moment for propaganda. A moment of tension. A moment where we long for the stability of principle but end up confused and distracted by idealism. Nevertheless, the moon whispers, it is wise to dream. Dream of the world you truly desire, and let go of all the criticism and perfectionism that mires you. Stop being clean. Get messy, see what the mess teaches you, and then refine that beauty into a thing of precision and insight. Let the depths of your soul feed a message that truly connects, truly inspires, truly moves us.