Insights for the Month of Taurus
April 19
Sun enters Taurus: 05:27 PM EDT
We are concerned about our Mother, the Earth. Taurus especially loves its mother because our senses are the doors of perception. Things have gotten out of hand. We are worried that she is so hurt and abused that she will not be able to sustain us. Worried that it is our fault. You would tell a human child, if you could, that your mother’s pain is not the child’s fault. It cannot be. But the earth is not human. She is our mother, no doubt about that, but we are her children along with the birds and insects, the lizards and great sea creatures. All creatures in fact are her children, including the trees and grasses, even the stones and the dirt. Guilt is a crippling emotion; better to opt for responsibility. It is our job, as humans to mature and to recognize our brothers and sisters: To take responsibility. To stop with the plastic and the fossil fuels, to ease up on the relentless entitlement which our capacity to consume seems to confer upon us. As one of our wisest planetary elders has said:
In primal societies, adolescents go through rites of passage, where confronting their own mortality is a gateway to maturity. In analogous ways, climate change calls us to recognize our own mortality as a species. With the gift of uncertainty, we can grow up and accept the rights and responsibility of planetary (elder) adulthood. Then we know fully that we belong, inextricably, to the web of life, and we can serve it, and let its strength flow through us.
April 20
Mercury (retrograde), conjunct Sun
Pluto stationery retrograde
Mercury retrograde enters Aries
Some days look like astrological magic: A time when you could regenerate your mind; stop death itself and retrieve possibilities that you thought were gone forever. This can make for a good story and there is truth in all our stories. The challenge is to live into that truth without holding it in place so nothing can change: Not to repress or obsess over what happened. We are all trapeze artists, jugglers, tightrope walkers, journeying through the wild country of the mind.
April 21
Mars enters Gemini
Venus square Saturn
So ends the intense grip of disappointments and restrictions. Nobody really got what they wanted, at least since Venus first squared Saturn at the degree of the station (April 8th). So be it. Now begins a time of curiosity and clever actions: A time to explore what you learned over the last 6 weeks. And what that might mean regarding how to move forward. The getting of wisdom is never as much fun as you think it’s going to be when you’re still ignorant.
April 24
Mercury trine Saturn
To suddenly remember who you are, why you’re really here, is to open the gates of compassion and forgiveness. What is required is willingness to walk through those gates.
April 27
New Moon: 6 degrees Taurus: 08:16 AM EDT
In a perfect world our efforts would always aim to create beauty and goodness. To support the senses: not hedonism but simple embodied presence. This is not the world we live in. But it is the world we long for. May our intention be to value and protect the world of form even as we accept the simple truth that nothing lasts. If you’re planting a seed, use this as fertilizer.
April 28
Venus enters Aries
Mercury conjunct Uranus
What seemed only possible just four days ago now feels jet propelled. May it be for the good of all.
May 3
Mercury stationery direct
Sun sextile Neptune
Anticipating the enjoyment we will ultimately have from the fruits of our efforts diminishes the process of creating the conditions for our future pleasure. It’s one of those strange-but-true-isms. To bring the mind to the task at hand is to live fully alive, even as you grow full with the world around you and glimpse the sensual dream of this present moment.
May 9
Sun trine Pluto
What an incredible symbol for manifestation, in the midst of the maelstrom. Life goes on and will continue to do so. Our job is to be willing to build it. And we all know that: ‘If you build it they will come’.
May 10
Full Moon: 20 degrees Scorpio 05:42 PM EDT
Mercury conjunct Uranus (again)
Where is it written that we should trust each other? How does mistrust arise? What kind of weirdness lives in the mind of humans that makes it seem OK to appear to be one thing when actually being another? Maybe it is a skill that hunters needed. Maybe it’s time for the hunting instinct to mature. Stealth is useful sometimes, betrayal is not.
May 11
Mars square Neptune
Mercury trine Saturn
On one hand, a powerful day for deception; on the other an equally strong time to speak the truth. Time was when actions spoke louder than words. Nowadays it’s words that are stronger and actions take place out of sight, in back rooms and deep places that affect us all. They have become equals, actions and words, and it’s up to us, the wielders of such tools, to decide what we want to use them for. How to apply this to our immediate lives is the challenge.
May 12
Mars trine Jupiter
There comes a tide, in the affairs of (hu)men(s)… Granted, these planets are in air signs but let’s just say that if the wind is blowing in the right direction, try opening your wings and seeing how far it takes you.
May 16
Mercury enters Taurus
In the process of completing the issues that were stirred up when Mercury was retrograde today is a good day to look back and see how what you experienced during that time is moving through your life at this time. If you aren’t the kind who can look back with precision, consider whether your investment of time, money, energy or/and love matches the way you think about what you are doing. Or not.
May 19
Saturn trine Uranus
Venus opposite Jupiter
Saturn and Uranus are big news: A kind of antidote for the difficulties of April. Venus was opposite Jupiter’s station back in March when she went retrograde. We are in the habit of moving on but history repeats itself. We might want to consider the notion of forgiveness in the face of injustice; which isn’t the same as acceptance or even reconciliation. As some of us have heard, ‘Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.’