May 19 11:53 AM EST
This is a beautiful new moon that also signifies the end of the spring eclipse season. Eclipse season began this year with the new moon solar eclipse in Aries, the first of a series of Aries/Libra eclipses that will last through mid-2025. With Aries as the “lead off” energy of this eclipse season, we have been encouraged to focus on the new and what gives rise to passion and courage within us. Having had Jupiter in Aries for much of the past 12 months has also been major encouragement pushing us away from the old and towards fresh growth.
But that isn’t exactly a straightforward process (as much as Aries might want it to be!). While the Aries IMPULSE towards what is new, fresh, exciting, desirable is necessary, it is just the starting point. Then the “real work” begins. And so simultaneous to Jupiter in Aries we have also had a series of eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio helping us dig up what is no longer necessary or useful (Scorpio) and get clear on what is truly valuable and important to us (Taurus). Without this clarity on values and priorities (Taurus) and ability to consciously release and transmute the old (Scorpio), then Aries is simply “the fool” wandering aimlessly towards whatever next captures its attention and excitement. Instead our goal is to be in higher vibrational Aries: open, fresh and unencumbered, but with clarity on our needs and boundaries.
We are now reaching a new level in this journey with the Aries/Libra eclipses beginning just as Jupiter moves into Taurus. We are ready for growth and real development in the area we have chosen, on the path that we have decided to walk over the course of the past few years. This requires us to narrow our focus. And that is what this new moon in Taurus is all about. The new moon at 28 degrees of Taurus is conjunct unique and visionary Uranus at 19 degrees of that sign. Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018 digging up what is old and stale within our personal and collective values and priorities. As fixed earth, Taurus is the most “solid” of all 12 zodiac signs. So the electrical disruption and “re-wiring” of Uranus in that sign has felt like a fundamental shift. It is the very action of upgrading (Uranus) of our cells and DNA- our “physical” (fixed earth) reality. None of us is “the same” as we were before Uranus entered Taurus.
And now here we have a chance, perhaps more strongly than ever, to actually externalize the progress and changes that we have been making. Jupiter in Taurus for the next 12 months also coincides with the FINAL Taurus eclipse in this Taurus/Scorpio eclipse cycle which will happen on October 28, 2023. Jupiter will be conjunct that eclipse 6 months from now. So the work we are setting out to do now, the effort and focus we are putting forward into sharing our own unique (Uranus) goals and vision with world, will come back to us in beautiful ways later this year.
At the time of the new moon, Mercury is at 6 degrees of Taurus, conjunct the north node at 3 degrees and Jupiter at 0 degrees. This emphasizes Mercury’s role in this process. Mercury, the messenger planet, is related to communication and has just come out of a 3 week retrograde in Taurus. Between April 21 and May 14, Mercury Rx in Taurus gave us a chance to course correct any and all issues related to the values, priorities, and focus that Taurus is concerned with. We may have had some surprising clarity or re-directs during this eclipse season that indeed serves us very well as we set out now during this new moon to double down on what we NOW know is our best path or course of action. We must do what we know is right for us as unique (Uranus) individuals and trust the messages that we are getting about that, which is also part of the message of Saturn in Pisces now. Others may not understand the choices we are making but fully committing to ourselves in order that we can thrive is our task right now.
When we do that, Jupiter in Taurus can bring us many blessings. But they might not be what we expect! There is also a rather extraordinary, and intense, T-square in the sky during this new moon. Jupiter at 0 degrees of Taurus forms the focal point of an opposition between Pluto at 0 degrees of Aquarius and Mars at 29 degrees of Cancer. The day after the new moon, on May 20th, Mars moves into Leo and the T square is exact. But during the new moon, Mars is still in the final degree of watery Cancer. Mars in Cancer is a reminder to continue to move somewhat cautiously through the changes and events that are unfolding. Cancer observes before it acts. It meets its goals in strategic, and often indirect, ways rather than bulldozing forwards. So we would be wise now to “take a beat” before acting on any big choices or impulses, even if the intensity of the T-square feels like it is encouraging us to move quickly.
Mars and Pluto form an opposition once every 2 years, so this is not a rare aspect. But what makes it rare is that it is happening at 0 degrees (a critical highly important degree), also that it is at 0 degrees of the fixed signs (which tend to be inflexible) and that it is also forming a T square with Jupiter at 0 degrees of another fixed sign. You can visualized this like having a see-saw with Mars and Pluto at either end, with Jupiter in the middle, either ‘trying to keep the peace’ or ‘throwing the whole thing out of whack’. This can be a both/and situation. When there are positive changes that need to happen, which the Mars/Pluto opposition can catalyze rapidly and dramatically, then Jupiter can speed along the healing and regeneration process. When there is unconscious drama or turbulence playing out as Mars/Pluto can also indicate, then Jupiter can play its role of ‘magnifier’ and exacerbate the problems including creating highly exaggerated responses and reactions.
So we can watch out for both of these potentialities right now. There may be positive changes and growth occurring in our personal lives, but major drama on the collective stage. Or there could be curveballs in our inner circle, and what we perceive as positive ‘breakdowns’ or changes at a different level. In either case we are encouraged, as Taurus would have us do, to keep our composure and go slow and steady. And to only make choices and decisions that align with this new higher path we have been getting clarity on recently and which may require a huge amount of concentrated attention from us to reach its full potential. We can commit to NOT getting derailed by drama that does not serve our highest and best and may only create unnecessary stumbling blocks in our way.
Perhaps ESPECIALLY if these dramas feel familiar (or familial) we should be cautious. Let’s remember that Mars is in Cancer, as is money and relationship planet Venus. Cancer has a tendency to take things personally and react strongly (albeit sometimes covertly) to any sense of threat or perceived slight. This can encourage us towards that “knee-jerk” kind of response we should aim to avoid. Lower vibrational Uranus, also conjunct the new moon, can also go off the rails quickly and impulsively when ‘triggered’ so it’s extra important to take responsibility for our own personal emotional patterns so we don’t end up adding fuel to the fire before we even realize what we have done.
Neptune is a saving grace here. At 27 degrees of Pisces, Neptune is trine to Mars and sextile to Pluto providing some solid psychic support. If we struggle to hear the inner voice of our higher selves clearly, Neptune is turning up the volume right now so that if indeed we are committing to taking a beat before reacting and staying out of drama, a better solution or way of seeing or communicating about issues will be presented to us rather more swiftly or clearly than usual. Uranus also helps give us this clarity and insight.
And finally, Sedna. I don’t often pull in asteroids and the other colorful characters of the solar system into these posts because it can feel like A LOT. But Sedna requires our utmost respect and gratitude. And this new moon is not only within 1 degree of Sedna, who is currently at 29 degrees of Taurus, but it is also the LAST new moon in Taurus with Sedna, since Sedna is moving into Gemini on June 16th. And Sedna has been in Taurus since 1966! So this new moon conjunct Sedna feels like something of a final love song to Sedna.
If you don’t know much about Sedna, I plan to go into greater detail with a post about Sedna in Gemini in June. But suffice to say that Sedna is not only the farthest out known object orbiting our sun (with an orbital period of over eleven THOUSAND years!) but is also one of the most fascinating mythological and archetypal bodies we work with. Sedna is the goddess of the deep oceans and sea creatures, and her lessons are about betrayal and hypocrisy, and bringing things into right energetic balance and reciprocity. For the past 50+ years in Taurus, Sedna has been bringing our attention to exposing imbalances related to our relationship to nature and the Divine Feminine (Taurus). Certainly there has been much attention beginning to be paid to these matters over the past several decades, and in our own personal lives as well we may have felt a large shift in our sense of what feels fair, balanced and equitable. This new moon is a chance to get into even stronger alignment with THOSE goals and values. Because no matter what our personal projects are or our vision for the future is that we are now focused on nurturing more clearly, we can also hopefully agrees that equitability and fairness are essential bedrocks of healthy growth and progress.
Incorporating those principles and ideals now is another lesson of this beautiful new moon.
*art by @tailored.art
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