May promises to be an intense month. The day before the New Moon, Pluto makes its station and becomes the first planet to turn retrograde. By July it will once again join its natal position in the USA chart and complete its return in December. Throughout the month of April Saturn, lord of karma, has been squaring the nodal axis and is still within two degrees. We are precariously balanced in time between our past and future with 250 years of shadow material to address.
On the New Moon, Venus makes a conjunction with Jupiter in Pisces. We can actually see this event, weather permitting, in the morning sky before dawn. The two brightest planets in our solar system, still conjunct invisible Neptune, are channeling the blessings of Pisces upon us all. We’re in for some extremes this month from the brightest light to the darkest shadows. It could be a bumpy ride, but May provides the perfect ingredients for transmutation.
New Moon in Taurus, Partial Solar Eclipse
On April 30th at 1:28 pm PDT, the Moon partially occludes the Sun at 10:28 Taurus. (If you want to see this event, make sure you have eclipse glasses. You don’t want to burn out your retinas.) Eclipses happen when the New or Full Moon is close to one of its nodes. On Saturday, the North Node is 12 degrees away at 22 Taurus, too far away for the Moon to completely cover the Sun. Two weeks later, however, the Full Moon will be at 25 Scorpio, only 3 degrees away from the South Node. Because of this close proximity, we will have a total lunar eclipse.
Eclipses add intensity to any lunar cycle. Their influence can last for six months, even more. During eclipse season we would be wise to pay attention. What we think, feel, say or do carries more impact. This month there are powerful forces at work. Think of them as strong winds that can carry you speedily to your destination, or blow you completely off course.
For instance, the New Moon is conjunct Uranus. Instantly we know these are the winds of change. Uranus is the first invisible planet, the gateway to the transpersonal realm. Its job is to wake us up, jolt us into action, shock us into change and lure us beyond the known. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, which has just entered its home territory of Gemini and will turn retrograde at 5 degrees on May 10th. So Mercury is slowing down right now, but is most effective in Gemini, clearing our perception, sparking thought. Uranus as the higher mind is sending us lightning bolts of insight.
We have been in the comforting fog of Pisces, expanded by the influence of Jupiter, but this gas giant moves into Aries on May 10th – yes, the very day Mercury turns retrograde. So we have 10 days left to soak up the expansive spiritual energy of Pisces. When Jupiter changes sign, we will feel it. Aries is dynamic. We may feel a sense of urgency to start a new project, but Mercury is asking us to think before we leap. Within the context of Pluto and Saturn we want to weigh our options, think about outcomes and the impact on others. We don’t want to make the same old mistakes. Retrograde Mercury is time to turn inward, become reflective, review the past few months and harvest the lesson from our experience.
May will be a tricky month, full of contradictions and polarized energies. We have the feminine influence of Taurus ruled by Venus. Taurus is like a mini-break from the haste and pressure of daily life. We have been tilling the soil, so to speak, and now we pause, wipe our brows and enjoy the garden we have created. Taurus supports self-nourishment and soul-nourishment through appreciation of beauty, peace and quiet, easeful moments of content. Take pleasure and make time to deeply enjoy it. Just sit and watch a sunset, listen to the birds singing, walk in the woods, arrange flowers for your table, whatever warms your heart. True pleasure cannot be rushed. The Soul is deep and likes to linger.
Triple Conjunction in Pisces
To reinforce the Taurean energy, Jupiter, Venus and Neptune are conjunct near the end of Pisces, semi-square the Sun and Moon. Venus and Neptune together bring ecstatic love. On the physical plane, Venus invites romance, passion, sensuality while Neptune operates in the ethers elevating personal love to universal, to union with the Divine and compassionate love for all. Jupiter makes everything bigger. This is an incredible time to exercise our love and stretch it beyond its usual bounds. How much love can we let in? How much can we give? This triple conjunction provides the potential for enlightened bliss. And Taurus is telling us to take our time and let it in.
Pluto and Issues of Power
On the other hand, Pluto makes his station the day before the eclipse. Planets are most powerful when they are stationary. We are on the brink of another deep dive into the Underworld. The signs are all there – political unrest around the world, an aggressive, vicious war, a new strain of Covid starting its rounds. Shootings are becoming commonplace. Economies are fragile. Inflation is shrinking our spending power. During Pluto’s retrograde more secrets, more corruption, more toxic material will come to light. How much more can we take?
This is where the two influences become a confluence. This is where we bring the triple conjunction of Divine Love to the atrocities we witness, the hate and rage and despair we see everywhere. This is where we seek the bigger picture, hold tight to our faith in the world that awaits us on the other side of this grim passage. This is where we pour out the reserves of love we are harvesting from Pisces and surround the manifest world with it. We hold our beloved planet in the arms of love, compassion, forgiveness. Context creates reality. What we see in the power struggles around the world precipitates out of a context of fear. We can shift that with the greater power of Love.
This is ultimate shadow work – to see the horrors of the world and not judge or reject them, but engulf them with love, change their context and allow a different reality to emerge. To be clear, we are not condoning violence. We are working with it in a new way – not through punishment and more violence, but energetically with the resonance of compassion. Transmutation is energy work. We are lifting dark, heavy energies out of a fear-based context into a higher frequency in which they can no longer express through violence. This is how Light-Bringers work.
I think this is the heart of the Taurus lunar cycle and beyond. We can open ourselves to the unlimited love in which we float. God/Goddess is truly Love and ready to fill us up when we ask. “Please Holy Mother, let me be a vessel of Love.” This is the Aquarian ideal – humanity embodying Divine Love and pouring it forth into our world. The ride we are on is taking us from one paradigm to another, one Age to another, one level of collective consciousness to another. We are passing from Pisces into Aquarius. There’s a lot of resistance making the ride choppy. Collectively we cling to our beliefs and habitual life style – it feels safe even if it’s not great, even when it’s a nightmare. If we are going to survive, we have to try something completely different.
What we are witnessing now is a struggle for power. Fascism, imperialism and tyranny on the one hand attempting to destroy democracy and the power of the people. This is what Democracy is – the power lies with the people. Problem is “We the People” turn responsibility over to elected officials. We give away our power. We don’t even bother to exercise discernment when we vote. We think only of what benefits us. We relate to political parties as we do to football teams. We want to win. We want to defeat the opponent. In this system our ideals and dreams fall like dust in the cracks. This is where we can make a huge shift simply by considering the welfare of the whole. What’s best for all of us? The potential of the Aquarian Age is to realize our Oneness and create a civilization that serves and supports us all.
Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld. His job is to clean house, to uncover corruption, toxins, repressed traumas and dark secrets. We’re getting to see it all as Pluto returns to his natal position in our chart. We are setting off on a new Pluto cycle and it’s best to clean out the cellar so the monsters don’t surprise us down the road. As a world we are deciding whether we will live in peace or forever struggle, compete and ravage our Mother Earth.
I know that sounds heavy, but this is the ground of our manifest reality right now. We are viewing the symptoms of a damaged collective psyche. How do we heal that? Chiron at the New Moon is squaring the USA Sun from 13 Aries to 13 Cancer. We’re being asked to pay attention to what needs healing. In addition the Sun is sextile Orcus, a new dwarf I’m studying at the moment. So timely! Orcus is one of Pluto’s family of Kuiper Belt dwarfs. Myth suggests that he is the Keeper of Oaths and that anyone who breaks an oath gets dragged into the Underworld for punishment. That interpretation is so patriarchal – the world of punishment and martyrdom.
I see Orcus as a facilitator of growth and integrity. Alan Clay shows us the ways in which these dwarf planets manifest depending upon our state of consciousness. As with everything, there is a dark side. Even love can become dark when it is possessive, greedy, controlling, jealous, engulfing.
Turns out that Orcus is a major player in my chart and I never knew about it until a few weeks ago. Alan tells us that Orcus is the principle of transmuting shadow into light. When we think of its intimate relationship to our natal Sun right now, it’s clear that this is a perfect time to do this transmuting and we have the perfect tool – our resonance. Once again we come back to heart/brain coherence.
A discussion of Pluto would not be complete at the moment without bringing in the T-Square with Eris and Haumea. Eris is revealing our ego defenses, giving us an opportunity to drop our pretense and become more authentic. And while Pluto is digging in the graveyard, Haumea is holding the space for rebirth. When I feel into her energy she is chomping at the bit with pent up joy, eager to start creating the wonders of our new world.
New Moon opposite Hygeia
This asteroid keeps popping up in recent charts. Hygeia is the goddess of health. Currently she is transiting our 11th House, along with the South Node in Scorpio. They are heading toward a hookup in August. The 11th House is concerned with Collective Consciousness. Hygeia is revealing our mental illness. The South Node carries unfinished business from the past. We are headed toward a climax in our ongoing identity crisis. We’ve manifested Covid that took the lives of millions around the world. Now there’s a new strain. I heard this morning that polio has reared its head again. Even the birds are having an epidemic. Our world is choked with toxins. Our healthcare system has become big business. We have lost touch with the principles of healing.
According to epigenetic theory, emotional, psychological and spiritual health is what creates the health of the body. When we harbor negative thoughts, hurtful feelings, cynical attitudes, we create an environment of disease which eventually triggers a dormant gene. So look at our collective psyche – how could we be anything but sick? Everyone is suffering now from loss, from illness, from anxiety, depression or despair.
May is full of paradoxes. How do we maintain faith and bring love to our collective shadow? How do we not get swept up in collective anxiety? How do we handle these difficult times? Moment by moment we make choices. If we let ourselves be guided by the Divine Feminine, our choices will be sourced in love and caring. While our destiny is poised so precariously, everything we say and do has tremendous impact. We need to bring our best selves forth.
Here’s what’s coming up over the next two weeks:
April 30 – Partial Solar Eclipse in Taurus
May 1 – Venus sextile Pluto – cast love upon the shadow
May 2 – Venus enters Aries – put love into action
May 3 – Jupiter sextile Pluto – keep the faith
May 5 – Sun conj Uranus – expect insights
May 10 – Jupiter enters Aries – new beginnings, fiery energy
May 10 – Mercury stations retrograde – reflect and renew
May 13 – Sun conj North Node – let Spirit reveal the future
May 15 – Total Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio – see you then
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