Full Moon in Taurus. Look Back and Learn, but Should You Ever Go Back?

On 26th October we have a Full Moon in Taurus. I love Full Moons. They reveal, illuminate and bring into view what we might prefer not to see. This one is particularly revealing for the UK, placing questions of money, security and dependence firmly in the light.    In the chart set for London, the Sun and Moon, always opposite one another at a Full Moon, span the money houses. The Sun, representing Kings and leaders, sits beside Venus, also associated with money and value, in the second house of assets. The Moon, in the eighth house of other people’s money, debt and shared obligations representing the people, seeks the security that Taurus loves.

Venus remains retrograde until 14 November and, at the Full Moon, occupies the final degree of Libra, one of her own signs. This is a degree often associated with urgency and unfinished business.   Many households remain under considerable financial pressure, while UK public sector net debt has passed £3 trillion. In March 2020, the published figure was about £1.8 trillion. That gives some sense of the scale of the increase. Pandemic support, the energy crisis and rising welfare and public service costs have all contributed to borrowing. But there is another burden: the cost of servicing the debt itself. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s March forecast put debt interest at £110 billion for 2025/26.

This Full Moon squares Pluto, newly direct in Aquarius. Pluto does not offer much comfort to those hoping that everything can remain as it was. Yet we should be careful about assuming that moving into the future automatically means progress. Transformation can redistribute power, but it can also concentrate it.

The wider picture is still unfolding. Mercury turns direct on 13th November, Venus on 14th November, Saturn on 10thDecember and Neptune on 12th December. Uranus takes a while longer, following on 8th February 2027.

The Full Moon chart also has an Ascendant and Midheaven close to those of the UK’s 1801 chart. Saturn and Neptune are moving through the region of the Descendant, opposing the Uranian emphasis around Britain’s Ascendant that associates with the independent, inventive streak in the national character: people making their own way, developing their own ideas and creating livelihoods outside large corporate structures. The task is to find new ways of expressing that independence.

I also see this concern with resources and security reflected in the renewed approval for the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. In my view, a larger step towards strengthening Britain’s own resource base would include developing the much larger Rosebank oilfield.

The Sun is in Scorpio, traditionally ruled by Mars, while Mars occupies Leo, the Sun’s sign. This places them in mutual reception by sign, linking leadership with the martial themes of assertion, pride and conflict. I would expect the language of war and national strength to remain prominent.

Against this background, Britain is once again being invited to look towards Europe for an answer to its difficulties, including the prospect of rejoining the EU. Before we confuse familiarity with security, we need to ask what, exactly, we would be returning to.

In December 2020, the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at the beginning of Aquarius marked the start of a sustained sequence of conjunctions in Air signs, lasting roughly 200 years. It followed a year dominated by the gathering of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. I wrote then that we stood at the edge of a new civilisation. Pluto has since crossed that early Aquarian degree, and Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have all changed signs. In astrological terms, the transformation is already under way.   An Air era can expand knowledge and connection while also making money more abstract and ordinary people more dependent upon systems they do not control.

The 2020 conjunction came four years after the British public voted to leave the EU. With 51.9% voting Leave, it was hardly an overwhelming rejection, but a majority it was. For me, Jupiter and Saturn together encourage us to look back and learn while exercising care about our direction. Jupiter offers perspective; Saturn asks whether we have absorbed the lesson and whether the structures we once relied upon are still fit for purpose.

It is not only people who have astrological birth charts. We can also cast charts for countries, organisations and institutions. To examine Britain’s relationship with Europe, we can consider the European Economic Community’s establishment on 1 January 1958 and the European Union’s coming into being on 1 November 1993. Both can then be considered alongside the UK’s 1801 chart.

The original structure is being tested. The EEC’s Sun, around 10° Capricorn, receives a square from Saturn in Aries during 2026 and early 2027. Astrologically, this describes a reckoning with practical limits: what can be afforded, which obligations can be sustained and whether institutions still serve their purpose. Britain’s 1801 chart also has its Sun around 10° Capricorn. We share this pressure point. Europe is not the only party being asked to account for itself.

The later political union faces a different challenge. The 1993 EU chart has its Sun around 8° Scorpio, with Pluto’s square from Aquarius approaching its most exact phase in 2028 and 2029. The wider transit is already developing.   France makes the pressure particularly visible. Its public debt reached 119% of GDP at the end of June 2026.   In the French chart Uranus has been activating the Mars/Pluto square, a combination I associate with confrontation and potentially explosive struggles over power. The earlier Saturn/Neptune conjunction also activated Venus and the Midheaven. Venus rules the French Sun and the second house of money and assets, while the Midheaven concerns government and national direction. Together, these contacts place economic values and political authority under scrutiny.

Those pressures are also playing out on the streets. October’s student-led protests, fuelled by concerns about education and living costs, have widened into demonstrations accompanied by serious clashes, looting and arson. Police have used tear gas, and curfews and other restrictions have followed. The burning of Limoges’ historic town hall has become a particularly stark image of the unrest. Peaceful protesters and those responsible for destruction should not be treated as one and the same. Yet the damage risks overwhelming the grievances that brought many people out in the first place. 

With Mars also activating Uranus in the French chart, I would expect further volatility, with consequences for businesses and public confidence. Ahead of next year’s presidential election, prolonged disorder could strengthen the appeal of Marine Le Pen.

France’s problems cannot simply be blamed on the EU. They do, however, challenge the comforting assumption that Britain would be returning to a stable, settled home. Those advocating our return need to explain how membership would serve Britain within the Europe that exists today.

Germany faces a different test. After two years of recession and growth of just 0.2% in 2025, there are small signs of recovery. On 8th October, the government raised its growth forecasts to 1.3% for 2026 and 1.1% for 2027.   Higher energy costs continue to exert pressure, while Chinese manufacturers increasingly compete in the cars, machinery and advanced equipment that once gave German industry a commanding advantage. The European Central Bank identifies Germany as particularly exposed to this competition, alongside declining Chinese dependence on European industrial imports.

So how sensible would rejoining be? There is a serious economic argument for reducing barriers between Britain and its neighbours. But closer cooperation, participation in the single market and full EU membership are different arrangements, with different obligations and degrees of influence. They should not be bundled together under a reassuring promise to put things back as they were.

We should not assume that our former rebate and opt-outs would be restored. Under the normal rules, new members commit to eventual adoption of the euro once the conditions are met, although there is no fixed timetable. Any British exception would have to be negotiated. The terms matter. What would we pay, which decisions would we share, and what influence would we gain in return?

There is a danger that immediate frustrations will do the persuading. Some voters may respond to promises of better control over migration; others may simply want easier border crossings or fewer restrictions on how long they can stay abroad. Convenience can be a powerful inducement.

We can learn from the relationship we had and choose a different one for the future. But we cannot return to the circumstances in which the old relationship existed. Britain has changed. Europe has changed. The world in which both must operate is changing faster still.

This Taurus Full Moon asks what makes us secure, what we truly value and how much of our apparent stability rests upon somebody else’s money or permission. At the beginning of a new astrological era, those questions deserve more than a familiar political answer. Look back and learn, certainly. But before we go back, we should be sure that we have learned enough to know where we are going.