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Astrological forecast for Sun in Taurus
Apr 19 through May 21
by our reluctant shaman
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Being a psychic involves a gentle yet fearless bumping into "the veil," the boundary that lies between our everyday existence and whatever it is we see that lies beyond it. Two Scorpio Full Moons bookend this month with the Sun in Taurus, bracketing some rare and wonderful opportunities for us to see just how thin the veil can get. Juicy stuff for sure, but how fearless are we?
The key to being fearless requires the purest of loving intentions along with an open-minded curiosity about what might lie beyond. Previously held convictions about what might lie beyond the veil might need to be left at the veil, such as an intellectual laziness to believe that "good" and "evil" are forces that somehow lie outside of ourselves or are beyond our control, or that we're seemingly cursed or crazy to have certain proclivities for wanting to approach the veil in the first place.
It's a bit complex about how it will be working, but the first Scorpio Full Moon on April 20 sees Her as the focus of a "kite" configuration, with the Moon moving into position halfway between the prevailing Saturn/Pluto trine. Mercury and especially the Sun are simultaneously the third leg of a tight Grand Trine with Saturn and Pluto. To envision a Grand Trine, think of a pyramid as an equilateral triangle - one of the most important of the sacred geometries. To imagine a kite configuration, dangle a pendulum from the pyramid's apex, and bury the Moon deep underground. This kind of thinking makes our inner Pluto and Saturn happy and proud! Fearlessness ensues.
The second Scorpio Full Moon of May 19 is part of a Grand Cross with the Sun opposed the Moon, and both are squared a slight return of the Saturn/Neptune opposition. Meanwhile, Mercury is slowing down to move retrograde on May 26 in it's ruling sign Gemini. Both of these configurations during these two Scorpio Full Moons, along with what lies between them and all of the meanings behind them, provide some troublesome potentials for the clueless, while offering consolation and a sense of purpose for the aware.
Here's where the clues lie for the serious seeker; in between these two Scorpio Full Moons is the Taurus New Moon of May 5 (5/5). Students of numerology will immediately know all about the significance of the number five, and they'd be on the right track by considering that Venus rules Taurus. (Hint for the unaware; the Divine Feminine Venus lives within the number five.)
To bring this point home, Venus is one-third of a Grand Trine (a pyramid with Saturn and Pluto) at the New Moon of 5/5, effectively replacing the Sun and Mercury at the Full Moon two weeks prior. Again, this is a magnificent aspect configuration for the hopeful, but can be a deeply troubling thing for folks living in fear. The Sabian symbol for the New Moon of 5/5 (at 16° Taurus) is "An old teacher fails to interest his pupils in traditional knowledge." The "old teacher" would be Saturn, and his pupils would be us. Basically, it's not a good time to ignore the wisdom of the ancients.
Pluto in Capricorn (trine Saturn and Venus) represents an aspect of "make-or-break" for many global concerns, while Venus - the things we truly need and value like love, peace, harmony, kindness and beauty - represents the way out. Look for the number five to pop up when we least expect it, and pay attention to what else is going on when it does. There should be plenty of clues everywhere.
(BTW, the Sabian system for determining each degree is to round off to the higher degree at the exact minute. For instance, the New Moon of 5/5 is exact at 15° 22', rounded off to 16°, even though it's closer to 15°. The number 15 just so happens to be 5 X 3, or Venus multiplied by the pyramid. Cool how that works!)
For good measure (literally), Venus is at 7° Taurus at the 5/5 New Moon which finds a most significant Sabian imagery; "The woman of Samaria at the ancestral well. The meeting of the traditional past and the creative spirit pointing to the future." My imagination tells me that this woman was accompanying her husband, the good Samaritan of the biblical parable, healing and giving assistance to a stranger in distress. "Go, and do thou likewise" ends this morality tale.
Fortunately, Mercury leads the way into Taurus this month, just a couple of days before the Sun follows suit on April 19 th . Mercury rules our intellect, and perhaps more importantly, our imaginations. For truly beneficial bonus points, the Winged Messenger Mercury also represents our direct link to our physical and spiritual life-source the Sun, telling us quite clearly that we have a mind for a reason and a purpose - to communicate with our higher selves for guidance. Keep this "in mind" above all else as the veil is at it's crispy thinnest.
The tarot's Wheel of Fortune card is flipped over for this month of two Scorpio Full Moons, telling us volumes about the karmic responsibilities of the things we own - both literal and figurative possessions - and what we can or should live without (Scorpio). Again, Venus rules Taurus and Pluto rules the Scorpio Full Moons as the mythic personification of endings and beginnings, also known as the coroner and midwife rolled into one. If we can exercise our free wills - our imaginations - we'll be given the opportunity to move the Wheel 180° around, or just a peg or two depending on how much we're willing to let go of (Scorpio), or hold onto (Venus/Taurus). Venus moves into Her ruling sign Taurus on April 30, just in time for the New Moon of 5/5.
An appropriate way to consider this month might be in what happens to us if we're moving from a large home to a smaller one. Transporting everything costs more money, and there's not as much room in the new place anyway, so we have to sift through our belongings to see what we don't really need any longer (and give to charity). A look at the truly valuable (Venus/Taurus) things is needed in order to make the transformation (Scorpio) a successful one.
Alongside the above "practical" metaphor is an overriding spiritual mood that is encapsulated in Peter Gabriel's song "Here Comes the Flood" when he sings, "If again the seas are silent in any still alive, it will be those who gave their island to survive. Drink up dreamers, you're running dry." "The flood" would seem like the waves of bad news in world events pouring over us these days, and "those who gave their island to survive" links up with last month's Hermit card. It will soon be time to fully let go of the Hermit - away from the "me" energetic of the Saturn/Neptune oppositions once and for all - toward the upcoming "we" Saturn/Prometheus oppositions starting later this year and concluding in 2010, right on schedule for 2012.
"If again the seas are silent" would refer to the hope-filled opposite of the anxieties that we of good faith have been feeling lately - the sense of hopelessness we've been prone to by being witnesses to the numerous global challenges we're currently facing. "In any still alive" would be keepers of the flame for hope and justice, as well as the dreamer in all of us. "Drink up dreamers, you're running dry" indeed. Mercury leading the way into Taurus is a signal for us to not give up on, or let go of, our imaginations. They always serve us well when the veil is as thin as it will be.
Since Taurus is an Earth sign dealing with possessions both physical and non-physical, a paradigm expressed by many Masters throughout history comes to mind; "Be in the world, but not of the world." Said differently, experience life by enjoying what the world has to offer, but know that being too attached to it is where all suffering lies. The Sun in Taurus, along with the two Scorpio Full Moons, is therefore a perfect time to uncover and discover (rediscover?!) the things and ways of life that no longer serve us. Also, understand that loss - something we didn't necessarily or absolutely need in the first place - is a graduation of sorts. Then we can more fully appreciate the lessons we've been forced to learn over the past couple of years at the feet of the Good Professor Saturn in his oppositions to spiritual Neptune.
For a refresher course into Saturn's syllabus, first it was Saturn's opposition with Pluto that defined 9/11 and the role of "authority" through to 2003. Wars and recession followed, and things still suck with all things involved with this energetic. Saturn moved on to oppose spiritual Neptune the past couple of years, and the fearful dug in their heels to defend their fear-filled lives, while many others have felt locked in a trap of apathy in fantasy land. There has been a slight return to this energetic as Saturn has moved retrograde back to oppose Neptune within eight degrees of exact at the New Moon of 5/5, and even a taste of 9/11 as Saturn is currently trine Pluto thrown in for good measure. This isn't exactly final exam time, but this month might seem like it. Don't worry, a sense of positive change (Prometheus) will be in the air once again like it did this past October through February as 2008 rolls on.
Back to the present; shortly after the New Moon of 5/5, a major bit of weirdness evolves as Mars moves into Leo. Mars has been in Gemini, Cancer and Gemini again - direct, retrograde, and direct again - since this past September. This Mars retrograde cycle has been a major contributor to the mayhem of the male (Mars opposed Pluto) dominated realm of brute force, global finance, and matters relating to real estate and home life (Cancer). Mars in Leo promises a relatively brief clash of wills in financial circles and kingly (Leo) powers, especially as Mars moves into exact opposition with Jupiter in litigious Capricorn on April 24. Send lawyers, guns and money. We'll see who the really big players are, as well as increased snippiness among us all with a strong Leo/Capricorn axis. May cooler heads prevail as Venus moves into Her ruling sign (Taurus) on April 30.
To wrap up the two Scorpio Full Moons for this month, and hopefully put this whole mess into proper perspective and context, a playful look at the second Full Moon would help, but this is not a place for the fear-filled or squeamish. The Sabian symbol for the Full Moon of May 19 (30° Scorpio) is "Children in Halloween costumes indulge in various pranks." While this might not seem immediately too threatening, the costumes worn at Halloween would be frightful for people not inclined to participate in their deeper meanings.
Remember that Pluto rules Scorpio, and Pluto also rules the underworld that too many folks think only as that of the death energetic. Popular costumes at Halloween are images of the dead or half-dead such as ghosts, zombies, Frankenstein and the like which are overly simplistic representations of Pluto and Scorpio. While some folks consider death as utter finality, the aware know that the flip-side of death is always rebirth, and can be as simple as a free-will intention away while we're still alive in our current bodies. This is where things can get really fun, when we put on the costumes of children and pull playful and harmless tricks on each other!
Children, and their seeming innocence pulling pranks, evokes the Trickster energetic. The fearful almost always see the Trickster as something bad, or worse, evil. For the aware, the Trickster is a wise teacher - a messenger (Mercury) from the other side of the veil. The Trickster tries to trick us into believing one thing while the truth is masquerading as something else - something usually of mythic proportion - something involving traditional knowledge that we may have been disinclined to learn, but something we absolutely need to know. The "old teacher" Saturn seems to have failed in his attempts to learn us a few things, but behind his crocodile tear is the knowing smile of the genius Trickster.
Children are so much closer to the death/rebirth thing than we old farts are - we're too often busy fixating on the aging process as something scarier than any Halloween costume could ever be. Children see their new lives as being anything they want it to be in their various costumes of make-believe, until they are sadly forced to adopt the ugly truth of "reality" we older folks too easily dump on them. Astrologically, the "ugly truth" is represented by a debilitated Saturn, acting like a crusty old geezer that no one wants to be around.
On the other hand, a wise Saturn - our inner teacher and grown-up - lets the children play and get hurt, but also allows them to dream of idyllic worlds where positive change can take place in a moments notice. If "an old teacher fails to interest his pupils in traditional knowledge," maybe it's because the old teacher has failed to learn from the youthful idealism of his pupils? Have we stopped learning simply because we've passed our 30 th , 50 th , or 70 th birthdays? Apathy is the epitaph of the non-adventurous.
Throughout the month, the collective North Node slides in between Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius, all eventually within three degrees of each other. This is a not too subtle indication that spiritual healing (Neptune/Chiron) is needed for good global karma (North Node). The Wheel of Fortune would/should seem to be turning in favor of individuals working for positive social change - good karma - at this time.
Drink up dreamers, you're running dry.
(The Sabian symbols are from Dane Rudhyar's "An Astrological Mandala," 1972. Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood" from his first solo LP and Run It Music/Ear Pieces, BMI 1977.)
See the Aries Forecast here
See the Pisces Forecast here
See the Aquarius Forecast here
See the Capricorn Forecast here
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