The Sun entered Taurus this morning, Sunday April 19th. The predominant energies for the last month came through Aries and Capricorn, both Cardinal signs, thus 90 degrees apart and squaring each other. Squares are tension-producing relationships. At right angles, they can see each other, but not clearly. Aries is Fire energy, wanting to burst forth into life with passion and curiosity. Capricorn is Earth, a serious disciplinarian that wants to get real and face the facts, get down to work and achieve something. These energies are not easily compatible.
The main square has been between Eris and Pluto so we have been experiencing some dark energies. Just to remind you novice astrologers, Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld. He keeps the engine of evolution running from the Unconscious. Change happens when he gets triggered and releases information previously hidden in the dark. This usually causes shock and dismay to humanity, but forces us to recreate ourselves.
Pluto is like the goddess Kali, bringing death and destruction to what no longer serves our evolution. But he also brings new possibilities and the opportunity to make positive choices for change. Clearly we have to make the right choices this year or we will be a dead-end branch of evolution.
Being in Capricorn, the focus of our need to change is in our social and political institutions that don’t work, that fail to meet our needs, that, in fact, actually endanger our survival. The power lies with us, the public, the individual citizens around the world to take our world back and come up with a better plan. Leadership in our government has gone astray and our political parties are fighting over the spoils of a dying way of life.
That brings us to Eris in Aries. Eris has a very slow orbit around the Sun and therefore moves very slowly through the Zodiac. For everyone alive on Earth right now, Eris was in Aries at birth. I’ve told the Eris stories before so I’ll get right to the point. Eris is an awakener. She provokes us to react and through our reactions to perceive ourselves and our shadow. She serves a very important function, as does Pluto, in our spiritual evolution. She is causing stress, discord and disharmony, so we can all get irritated enough to pay attention to our reality and how we react to it; so we get to see and know ourselves and hopefully, with the help of Pluto, change those things we can.
Eris is poking me this very minute. Paragraphs of my writing are suddenly vanishing and yes, I’ve been reacting – an opportunity to see my impatience, my need to control, my attachment to the words I wrote. A brief personal aside . . . When I began this blog it was a challenge for me. I read, I researched, I took three days for each piece to make sure it was edited down to its toes. But slowly it evolved and I have learned to let it flow. Life brings me content upon which to reflect. When it’s time to write, I get this inner prompting. I have surrendered to the process and learned to trust it. I tell you this because it’s an example of what can happen when we surrender to what is, let go of control, become centered and allow direction to come from within. It has become somewhat magical and easeful. And because of the ease and wonder of the process, I can relax and enjoy the ride.
Trust is a haven. It is not the same as fantasy, naivety, foolhardiness. We’ve been so conditioned to distrust. There is little room in our world for the magic of surrender. It’s a sign of weakness, or of giving up, or being stupid. Surrender, in our patriarchal paradigm, means you have been beaten – you lose. In our future Aquarian Age, surrender will be a spiritual virtue, a win-win.
So Eris is poking us all to see ourselves and, by extension, our society. For the last month the Sun was burning its way through Aries, activating our restlessness. We can see it on the news. People want out, they want to go back to “normal.” The energy is almost unbearable for them. This is how they react.
Blessedly, the Sun is settling into Taurus today. We’ll examine this delicious sign in more detail on the New Moon this week, but in essence, Taurus is about the body, attending to its needs, nourishing it, giving it pleasure. It’s a month to be good to your body and it will reward with satisfaction and a deep sense of safety.
As the signs progress around the Zodiac, the energy flips back and forth between Yang, active, masculine energy, and Yin, the receptive, feminine energy. In this way we stay in balance. So we’re activated in Aries. We want to Do. In Taurus we want to stop and smell the roses. We want to enjoy ourselves. We want to Be. Taurus has a good grasp of the essentials. That’s why this sign is associated with the second house and our values.
Taurus is ruled by Venus. She is high in the evening sky right now and sets quite late. She is coming to the end of her synodic cycle. This coming month would be a great time to review the past two years in terms of security needs, body needs, relationship needs, aesthetic needs – the need to slow down and be more present to the pleasures of the moment. How have our values evolved?
I think you all agree we would welcome pleasure. If possible get out in nature. Take walks. Breathe in that spring air, the earthy smells. Take full advantage of this month because the next chapter in our evolutionary drama resumes in June. I don’t know what form it will take, but planets will turn retrograde; eclipses will enliven the scene. When Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn, we’re going to get serious again.
My deepest prayer for you is that you find that safe center within, that place where you are nourished by faith and a vision of a better world. My sister sent this Father-Daughter duet video to me. May it open your heart and touch your tenderness.
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