It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That’s how Charles Dickens starts his famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It tells a story of extremes, chaos and suffering, as well as happiness and contradiction. It’s also a perfect way to sum up this full moon which is also a rare blue moon. The full moon is happening on Saturday 31st November, at about 2:50 pm UK time, 8 degrees and 36 minutes of Taurus. The full moon is standing next to electric Uranus in Taurus and opposite the Sun in Scorpio. At the same time Mars, Scorpios ruler, is retrograde in Aries. These are all powerful forces of push and pull, of earth-shattering and earth-grounding evens, life reversals and illuminations of deep seated mysteries.

Expect intense emotions and higher-self intuition to go off the charts. With Neptune in Pisces, trine the Sun and sextile the Moon, we better believe it. The cards tell a similar story beautifully laid out for us. In the middle of the spread appears the moon herself as a pregnant woman and therefore even more explicitly dominating the meaning of the reading. The moon represents feminine energy and the cycles of life. It represents that which is hidden, and that which shall be imminently uncovered. We are drawn towards the subtle wisdom of the night, away from the harsh light of day. Things are brought forward and illuminated that were otherwise obscured or ignored. Secrets may soon be revealed. Once that happens there’s no going back. The subconscious is speaking. We can’t ignore dreams. We can’t dismiss intuition.

We are going through some intensity not experienced in all of our lifetimes. The tension is not going away either. The birth is a fact of life. Both real and emotional. And what will come out will be a physical manifestation for everyone. A baptism by fire. But what is particular here in this deck, that it’s quite unusual, is that the figure is looking backwards. So that rather than being faced with expectation and looking to welcoming the future, our attention is directed towards the past. As indeed is the direction all the cards are facing. Despite all the changes that are taking place, predictable and unexpected, we are still in the grip of our past choices and conditions.

So let’s break it down. On the one side of the full moon, we have the Ace of Wands, and on the other side, we have the Ace of Coins. Both cards flanking the moon are auspicious. Both cards represent gifts. Wands are a suit of fire. In the medieval representation they stood for the peasant class and craftspeople. The wands are always sprouting new leaves indicating innovation, new growth, independence. And an explosion of activity. The essence of fire is the spark of life creation. New business ventures and creative projects will receive powerful support. Solutions will be based on trial and error. The influence of the full moon will spread to the first half of November, when at the new moon in Scorpio, we will see reversals, extreme oppositions and big transformations. November will be a month of two halves. The first half will be dominated by the Full Moon in Taurus and a conclusion to a story that started long ago.

The trajectory leading towards the new moon (and the story of the second half of November) is described best by the Ace of Coins. Coins are the cards that represent the material world. As the full moon manifests its gifts, the Sun is still in Scorpio before moving into Sagittarius on the 21 ^st November. Scorpio represents big money, secret money, investments and hidden wealth. Taurus is physical pleasure, earthly possessions, and a general grounding in attitude and approach to life matters. Coins are also known as Pentacles and Diamonds, and in the tarot and playing cards, they represent the medieval Merchant class. So anything to do with exchange, wealth, commerce, busy markets, financial activities fall under the symbolic umbrella of the sign of Coin. In the daily life it’s a representation of solutions that come from our personal experiences. When the Ace of Coins appears in the spread, we better prepare for material abundance to come our way, while the full moon stands for completion and endings. Things we’ve worked for in the past, or for a long time in any case, now they will yield profit. It seems almost unbelievable in our days of general economic decline. But money and wealth is still being created, spend and moved around, the same way people are still falling in love, still talking, cooking, painting, dancing, selling, dreaming, doing. So a fire within and a personal realisation beyond our dreams, is possible. However, there’s a proviso, to be careful not to become complacent and feel that success and a favourable outcome are inevitable. As this blue moon makes it crystal clear, not to take our gifts for granted. And we can find ourselves in an enviable position. Fear, pain, excitement are part of the process. This is going to be the lesson here, as we look to the past for wisdom and grounding to guide us in our future expectations.

Flavia