Taurus Full Moon: When Slowing Down Brings Us Face to Face With What We've Been Avoiding

Monday 26 October 2026 | 3.12 pm AEDT, Melbourne | 2°46′ Taurus

How often do you really give all your senses a workout? And when was the last time you slowed down enough to notice what you were actually feeling?

I'm back from an incredible few weeks travelling through Croatia and Amsterdam, and as I've been settling back into everyday life, I've found myself thinking about something that travelling does so beautifully. It awakens our senses and somehow changes our experience of time.

New sights, smells, tastes, sounds, places, people and experiences stimulate parts of ourselves that perhaps become a little dormant when we're caught up in the routines and responsibilities of everyday life. We become more curious, more observant, more engaged with what's happening around us, and somehow, even though we're doing and experiencing so much, time can actually feel slower, fuller, more alive and more real.And I have certainly been reminded of just how wonderful that feels.But I've also been thinking that when we slow down enough to really experience life, we sometimes create the space to finally feel some of the things we may have been avoiding.

Which brings me beautifully to one of my favourite times of the astrological year, when the Sun moves into Scorpio and we experience the Full Moon in the opposite sign of Taurus. I haven't quite caught up enough since returning home to write my usual piece about Scorpio season, but in many ways, I think this particular Full Moon encapsulates the essence of Scorpio beautifully, especially when we consider the rather intense astrology surrounding it which I suspect some of us may already be feeling.

Taurus and Scorpio: The security of what we know and the vulnerability of what we feel

The Full Moon occurs on Monday 26 October at 3.12 pm here in Melbourne, with the Moon at approximately 3 degrees of Taurus sitting opposite the Sun at 3 degrees of Scorpio. So this Full Moon will impact the early degreesof the fixed signs,Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius the most.

As I've written before, Taurus is our connection to the physical world, to our bodies, our senses, our values and the things that give us pleasure, comfort and a sense of security. Taurus teaches us to appreciate what we have, to be present in our physical experience and to develop the inner and outer resources that allow us to feel secure in ourselves. It's the pleasure of a beautiful meal, the warmth of the sun on our skin, music that moves us, the smell of a familiar place or simply being able to sit quietly and enjoy the life we've created. As an earth sign, Taurus wants something solid and dependable. It wants to know that the ground beneath its feet is stable.

Scorpio, on the other hand, takes us somewhere quite different. Scorpio asks us to look beneath the surface of our lives to dig into that Taurus earth and dive into the emotional complexities, vulnerabilities and unconscious patterns that we might not always want to acknowledge. It is concerned with intimacy, trust, power, loss, transformation and our relationship with those parts of life that ultimately remain beyond our control. And of course, Scorpio is also associated with death and regeneration, not necessarily literal death, but the many psychological endings and beginnings we experience throughout our lives.

Because life is constantly asking us to grow and evolve, and sometimes that means recognising that something which once provided us with comfort, security or meaning may no longer be able to come with us into the next chapter and we all know, that can be difficult. Both Taurus and Scorpio are fixed signs, and neither particularly enjoys having something important taken away or being forced to change they both have fears around this, but their fears can be quite different. Taurus may hold on because it fears losing stability, while Scorpio may hold on because it fears vulnerability, betrayal or losing control. So what happens when we bring these two very different ways of protecting ourselves together under a Full Moon? And perhaps more importantly, what happens when Pluto becomes involved?

A powerful T-square to Pluto: What are we really holding onto?

What makes this Full Moon particularly interesting is that the Sun and Moon are forming an exceptionally tight T-square with Pluto at approximately 3 degrees of Aquarius and for me, this is probably the most significant aspect of the Full Moon. Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio and in psychological and evolutionary astrology, is deeply associated with our unconscious motivations, our instinctive survival responses, our relationship with power and control, and those emotional patterns that can become so deeply embedded that we don't always recognise them operating. Pluto can bring us face to face with something we would perhaps rather not acknowledge, particularly when it challenges the Sun and Moon as directly as it does here. Because we're dealing with the Taurus–Scorpio polarity, I would pay particular attention to themes around relationships, emotional and financial security, self-worth, attachment and the ways in which we may attempt to control situations or people because something underneath us feels unsafe.

We might become aware of a relationship dynamic that no longer feels balanced, an old resentment that hasn't really been resolved, or perhaps a situation we've continued to tolerate because the alternative feels too uncertain. Sometimes, what we're holding onto isn't even a person or a particular circumstance. It might be an identity, a belief about ourselves, a familiar emotional response or an old story about what happened to us and what that means about who we are.

Pluto in Aquarius adds another layer because we are also being asked to consider our relationship with groups, communities, collective expectations and where we may have compromised our own authenticity in order to feel accepted or secure.

Are we holding onto something because it genuinely supports us, or because we're frightened of what might happen if we let go?

I think that's a particularly important question for this Full Moon. We need to remember, letting go doesn't necessarily mean leaving a relationship, ending a friendship or making some enormous life change. Sometimes it means letting go of the need to control the outcome, the expectation that someone else must behave in a particular way for us to feel safe, or the belief that our worth somehow depends on another person's approval.

Venus retrograde: Revisiting relationships, values and self-worth

Venus is particularly important because she rules Taurus, and she's currently retrograde. Venus began her retrograde journey in Scorpio on 3 October and has now moved back into Libra, having just met the Sun in an inferior conjunction in Scorpio on 24 October, marking the beginning of a new Venus synodic cycle. So there's a rather significant Venus story unfolding alongside this Full Moon.

Venus describes what we value, what we love, how we relate to others, how we experience pleasure and beauty, and importantly, our relationship with our own self-worth. During a Venus retrograde, we can find ourselves reviewing these areas of our lives, sometimes through experiences or relationships that bring old feelings back to the surface. Perhaps we've been questioning whether we're receiving the same care, consideration or commitment that we're offering another person. Or we're recognising that our values have changed, but our relationships or circumstances haven't necessarily changed with them. Or perhaps we're becoming aware of the ways we've compromised ourselves to maintain peace, approval or connection.

Having travelled back into Libra, Venus brings our attention particularly to relationship balance, fairness, reciprocity and the way we negotiate our own needs alongside those of another person. And I think there is something rather interesting about the timing of this Full Moon, arriving just two days after the Sun and Venus have met, because sometimes we need to revisit something from the past, not to go backwards, but to recognise just how much we've changed.

Chiron and Mercury retrograde: When an old wound is touched

We also have Chiron, the wounded healer, at the end of Aries, sitting within a few degrees of the Taurus Moon, although across the sign boundary. While this isn't an exact conjunction, I think Chiron adds an important psychological dimension. Chiron in Aries has been asking us to explore some of our deeper wounds around identity, independence, self-assertion and our right to have needs and desires of our own. Where have we learned that expressing what we want is somehow selfish? Where do we fear rejection or conflict if we stand up for ourselves? And where might we still be responding to experiences from the past rather than the reality of what is happening now?

Mercury has also just stationed retrograde in Scorpio, adding another layer of reflection and encouraging us to revisit conversations, assumptions, memories and perhaps some of the stories we've been telling ourselves, even ones that are very old. So I think it's worth remembering that just because something brings up a powerful emotional response doesn't necessarily mean the current situation is entirely responsible for that feeling. sometimes the smallest experience can touch something much deeper. This is where astrology becomes so valuable psychologically, because it offers us an opportunity to become curious about ourselves rather than simply reacting to whatever is happening around us.

What might this Full Moon actually feel like?

With all of this astrology operating together, I suspect this Full Moon could feel rather emotionally intense for some people. There may be a sense of restlessness or anxiety, perhaps even a feeling that something is changing beneath the surface, but we're not quite sure what it is or what we're supposed to do about it. We might find ourselves feeling unusually sensitive, protective or defensive, especially around relationships, money, emotional security or situations where we don't feel particularly valued or appreciated.

Old grief, disappointment or resentment could resurface, sometimes quite unexpectedly. Perhaps something relatively small triggers a surprisingly powerful reaction, and we find ourselves feeling far more upset, angry or hurt than the situation would ordinarily seem to warrant. Or perhaps we're simply feeling emotionally exhausted from trying to maintain something that has become increasingly difficult to sustain. There may also be a strange push and pull between wanting everything to remain familiar and knowing, somewhere deep down, that something needs to change. I think this is a very Taurus–Scorpio experience where we recognise intellectually that something is no longer working, but emotionally we may still be deeply attached to it because it has given us security, familiarity, identity or meaning and sometimes we don't want to let go because we don't yet know what will replace it.

But equally, not everybody will experience this Full Moon as a crisis. For some, there may actually be an enormous sense of relief, particularly if something has been emotionally difficult for a long time. Perhaps a decision becomes clearer, an old feeling finally makes sense, or we realise that we're no longer quite as attached to something as we once were. And perhaps we begin to recognise that something can have been incredibly valuable, important and meaningful without needing to have lasted forever.

Something can have been right for us at one stage of our lives and no longer be right for the person we're becoming.

That doesn't invalidate what came before. It simply means we've grown.

So how do we work consciously with this Full Moon?

For me, the answer comes back to Taurus and to something my recent travels reminded me of so beautifully. Slow down. Get back into your body. Reconnect with your senses. We live in a world that constantly demands our attention, where we're encouraged to move quickly, consume information, react immediately and keep ourselves occupied. And sometimes I wonder whether all that activity prevents us from noticing what we're actually experiencing. Because our emotions don't only exist in our thoughts, we experience them physically.

So rather than immediately reacting to a difficult feeling or trying to make it disappear, perhaps this Full Moon invites us to sit with it for a little while and notice where you're feeling it in your body and ask yourself whether it reminds you of something you've experienced before. Most importantly, consider whether your reaction is entirely about what's happening now, or whether an old emotional pattern has been activated, which doesn't mean dismissing our feelings or ignoring something genuinely difficult, it means giving ourselves enough space to understand what we're feeling before deciding what to do with it.

And Taurus gives us some wonderfully simple ways of doing this. Spend time in nature, cook a beautiful meal, listen to music, take a walk, enjoy your garden, spend time with people who help you feel grounded or simply give yourself permission to enjoy the physical experience of being alive. Give your senses something wonderful to experience. And with both Venus and Mercury retrograde, I wouldn't be in any great hurry to make dramatic decisions simply because something feels emotionally intense in the moment. There's enormous value in observation, reflection and allowing a little time for clarity to emerge.

Some questions to sit with during this Full Moon

If you have some time over the next few days, perhaps find somewhere comfortable, preferably outside, and consider a few of these questions.

• What am I holding onto because it genuinely supports me, and what am I holding onto because I'm afraid of losing it?

• Where might my need for security actually be preventing me from growing or changing?

• Have my values, needs or priorities changed while some of my relationships or circumstances have remained the same?

• When I feel particularly defensive, hurt or anxious, what might that reaction be protecting?

• Am I responding to what's happening now, or to something familiar from my past?

• What would feeling genuinely secure within myself look like, even if circumstances around me were changing?

One final question, which to me really captures the essence of this Full Moon:

Am I feeling safe, or am I simply staying comfortable? Because those are not always the same thing.

The deeper invitation: Trusting ourselves enough to change

From an evolutionary perspective, I don't think this Full Moon is necessarily asking us to choose between Taurus and Scorpio, between security and transformation, or between holding on and letting go. As with all astrological polarities, I think the opportunity lies in learning to integrate both ends. Taurus teaches us the importance of developing our own resources, recognising our values, finding pleasure in the physical world and creating a life that feels supportive and sustainable. Scorpio teaches us that real growth, intimacy and emotional honesty sometimes require us to face uncertainty, acknowledge vulnerability and accept that we cannot control everything. And Pluto reminds us that some of our deepest transformations happen when we become conscious of the fears and patterns that have been quietly directing our lives. We don't have to abandon everything familiar in order to grow, and we certainly don't have to act on every difficult emotion that emerges. But perhaps we do need to become more honest with ourselves about what we're feeling and why.

And this brings me back to where I began, reflecting on the gift of slowing down and allowing ourselves to experience life more fully. When we slow down enough to really feel the pleasures of being alive, we also create the space to feel the sadness, uncertainty, vulnerability or grief that is part of being human and I dont believe fr one second that this is something we need to avoid. Perhaps it's through allowing ourselves to feel more deeply that we begin to understand ourselves more honestly and recognise what still holds value and develop the self-trust to accept the changes that life inevitably brings.

I am now back from travelling and have a fewspaces available until the end of the year for Astrology sessions. So if you hae a burning question or want to know what the year ahead may have in store, book in now. Head to www.aspectastrology.com.au/book-online.