Insights for Taurus
April 19
Sun enters Taurus: 09:39 PM EDT
Mars conjunct Saturn
About 7 years ago, Uranus, planet of disruption and unexpected, ‘unprecedented’ events, entered Taurus (2018-2026). Given the events of those years, it’s easy to associate Uranus inTaurus with a wrecking ball, breaking Taurus things like the economy as well as abuses of the body (pornography and trafficking). Significantly, these years also saw an acceleration of changes on Earth – climate change. Taurus reminds us that Earth is The Garden, an actual paradise: beauty and abundance supporting all manner of diversity. (First comes Taurus with its beauty and solidity, then Gemini with its 10,000,000 things.) In a few days, Uranus will leave Taurus and enter Gemini. It won’t be back for about 80 years. It’s unlikely we will instantly return to the Garden where beauty and pleasure reign. It will take effort to re-green this earth. As we deepen into spring and the Sun travels through Taurus, we can do the work of Taurus any time we enjoy the beauty of our home and native planet.
Mars and Saturnremind us to do what we and do it well.
As the Sun travels through Taurus this year it will square Pluto, sextile Jupiter and conjunct Mercury. If you follow along with asteroids you might take note of the Sun as it squares Juno on April 27th (close to when it squares Pluto), and conjuncts Ceres on May 14 and of course it will oppose and conjunct the Moon. Stay tuned, below.
April 20
Mercury conjunct Saturn and Mars
Consider the fantasy of individual responsibility. For thousands of years, the few have told the many that it’s up to us to change our circumstances, curb our use of fossil fuels and smartphones, conquer addictions, leave abusive relationships, and protect our children. We are indeed responsible for our actions. As we realize how our nature has been systemically manipulated to encourage us to consume more than we need of things we can’t afford, we suspect we aren’t in control of as much as we have been led to believe. It’s one thing to relax your nervous system and quite another to throw out your phone because it’s made to be replaced rather than recycled. All this Aries energy reminds us to rise up, to assert our right to live well on this planet with other earthlings. The fault is neither in our stars nor in our weakness. It’s in the human struggle to overcome greed and lust for power in favor of empathy and peace. There are ways to free ourselves, to break the bonds of tyranny!
April 23
Venus conjunct Uranus
When did the course of true love ever run smooth? Why do we expect so much of ourselves and our partners only to be shocked and disrupted when things don’t go the way we expect? Everything, including our expectations regarding relationship is changing. It falls to us, the living, to see that we don’t abdicate our capacity ability to feel each other through our senses – to touch and hold, to share a meal or an activity in real time and space. Human interaction is messy and we need to be done with the period of shock and awe regarding how things have changed. Gen Z is knitting. Parents are creating communities of real-time playdates, people are breaking up with dating apps and scammers. Joy to the world!
April 24
Venus enters Gemini
Ready to play with the randomness of life? Maybe it’s true that ‘if it’s in the way, it is The Way’.
April 25
Sun square Pluto (close to squaring Juno on 27th)
As the Sun moves into a square with Pluto it also squares Juno (Hera) one of the 4 biggest asteroids in the asteroid belt. Juno and Pluto in Aquarius definitely lean into the notion of ‘No Kings’. Aquarius is the sign that ‘cannot get the favor of the king’ according to ancient astrology lore. This is because it opposes Leo, the sign of kings. Kings tend to imagine that they are just short of being Gods or maybe not just short. The Sun, at this moment, isn’t in support of kings. We face the challenge of unseating kings – outer as well as inner ones. We are the people.
*Uranus enters Gemini*
Big News! Uranus is done with Taurus and enters Gemini. Much has changed (understatement) during its stay in Taurus. Uranus brings change wherever it goes. In Gemini the change will come from innovation. New ideas. The willingness to play with seemingly random synchronicities and invent new possibilities. The last time Uranus was in Gemini (1941 – 1949) brought the innovations of war, leading to a post-war remake of the world. The sorcerer’s apprentice is stirring. They could make a mess but it’s already a mess. Consider the possibilities! I think when a planet first enters a sign we catch a glimpse of all that it can do over it’s time there (until 2033).
Astrologically speaking it appears we have been struggling at the threshold of change since 2023 when Pluto first entered Aquarius. It took untill 2026 for Neptune and Uranus to catch up and change their signs. The time is upon us. One more step toward that confusing possibility we refer to as The Age of Aquarius.
April 26
Venus sextile Neptune
Mercury square Jupiter
Everything and anything is possible yet we are frustrated by our lack of freedom. Nothing is absolute. Everything is a work in progress: our bodies, minds, culture, politics, religion and beliefs. For some this is a playground, for others a burden. Even that changes from moment to moment. Are we fickle or is it simply our endless engagement with impermanence?
April 28
Venus trine Pluto
We hear, when we listen, the underlying possibilities in the hopes and dreams of others. We are fascinated and drawn to a better future even if it requires a catastrophic reset. If not now, when? We love this world and the fullness of diversity Life offers. We recognize that we are one-of-a-kind, just like everything that lives. There is no cookie cutter solution to the mess we are in. Reaching beyond ‘getting and spending’ invites the soul. She knows how to listen. She knows what she hears. She distinguishes truth from lies. Easier when we unplug.
May 1
Full Moon: 11* Scorpio: 01:23 PM EDT
Venus sextile Saturn
Mercury conjunct Chiron
As we witness Great Change, we notice the power of loss (Moon in Scorpio) to sharpen our sense of life’s value (Sun in Taurus). To witness, know, and accept what is, as it is invites us to live fully in the joyful sorrows and the sorrowful joys of life. Taking the Full Moon message to heart, imagine that the Moon is full everywhere on Earth. Wherever we are, the Moon illuminates the night world . Maybe (some) humans have been at war with nature since God cast out Adam’s first wife. Whatever you believe, the Full Moon reminds us that all life on Earth lives under the same sky, sharing finite resources. Maybe the real mystery is why we don’t act accordingly.
May 2
Mercury enters Taurus
This is the placement of stubborn, pragmatic thinking. Taurus often says ‘NO’ before it says ‘YES’. Not because it’s inherently negative. More likely because once you say ‘yes’ you are committed but a ‘no’ can be changed to a ‘yes’: On second thought… Taurus is generally aligned with what already exists. It likes to stay in the groove that has already been created. If our thinking is stuck in patterns of attachment this placement won’t help us change. However if change is what we want Mercury in Taurus is practical. How practical is it NOT to change when the status quo seems determined to wreck the joint?
May 4
Mars square Jupiter
Whatever you were expecting, double it. Impulsive excessiveness invites chaos. Mars wants to barrel through. Jupiter would like to protect life. War is not healthy for children and other living things.
May 5
Mercury square Pluto
Pragmatism requires a plan, an ideal, a blueprint. We are individuals with individual needs and resources, living in a time of massive social change. To want to hold on to what we have is instinctive. Today, however requires us to let go and lighten the load of attachment. The three Rs offer good guidance: reduce, reuse, recycle.
May 6
Pluto stationery retrograde
What intrinsic human qualities cannot be lost? How can you strengthen the ones you believe are worth shoring up? We are the ancestors of the future which will ‘inherit’ us. Our footprint is our legacy. “What did you do in the Great Change?” the Future asks. What traces of our lived existence will reverberate down through the ages? Maybe we are like ‘some rough beast, slouching toward Bethlehem to be born”. But maybe we are seeds inevitably given to sprouting into something life-affirming in a future we cannot imagine. Pluto is a slow moving planet reminding us to take the long view.
May 10
Sun sextile Jupiter
This week began with a stressful Mars Jupiter square yet it ends on a positive aspect. Count your blessings. Shifting perspective from anxious FOMO to awareness that we aren’t just taking up space, we belong here in this moment. For better or worse it is ours and to count it as a blessing spreads goodness like butter on toast.
May 13
Mercury sextile Jupiter
The mandate is to share what you enjoy and enjoy the sharing: To find the bargain and relax because you are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
May 14
Mercury conjunct Sun
Sun conjunct Ceres
In the heart of the Sun (cazimi) is renewal, mercy, pure unadulterated love. Hard to catch, impossible to hold. Movement is unstoppable. Yet at the center of every turning wheel, a still point. Be still. Listen to the conversations within. Earth the body. Sun, fire of the heart, keeping time with the Great Spirit.
May 16
New Moon: 25* Taurus: 04:00 PM EDT
This New Moon is in close conjunction with Mercury and Ceres (May 14th). Ceres (Demeter in Greek Myth) is mother to children who have been lost as well as those that have been returned to us, harmed but alive. She cares for children birthed by other mothers as well as her own. She reminds us that there is sorrow as well as joy in parenting: that we must care about all children if we want a planet in which we can raise our own. We are the children of mothers as well as mothers (parents) to the children - all of them.
May 17
Mercury enters Gemini
Venus sextile Chiron
Mercury conjunct Uranus
Here is a new idea, an invention, the possibility of tricking the tricksters so we can get on with the human experiment without destroying everything.
May 18
Mars enters Taurus
Venus enters Cancer
More ‘ingressing’ which is to say, new starts. Good ideas require effort and consideration. Innovation is only worthwhile if it supports and nurtures life. Every sparrow matters.
May 19
Mercury sextile Neptune
Venus sextile Mars
Opportunity knocks as we listen to our dreams and respect our desires. Knowing what we want before we are manipulated into wanting what we don’t need is powerful. Dreams offer insights into actual experience. Reality is not as substantial as we think. The ‘real’ world is a flimsy, shape-shifting construct of something much more subtle, ephemeral. ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on’. “The invisible, unfettered, ungraspable non-material life of the imagination and what it invents, that is the basis of reality… Not ‘stuff’.
If you wonder why my insights occur on some days and not all days here is why:
We have been ‘trained’ by newspapers and social media over many long years to think of our horoscope as a daily thing. There are many options for that on the internet. Daily horoscopes use the Moon to sense the tone of the day. When I set out to have an astrological column for the public I considered students of astrology who are challenged trying to figure out what it means when planets aspect each other. Planets are like people. They move around in the sky and do their ‘thing’ in predictable but capricious ways. It’s as though they are a family of characters who support, undermine, challenge, depend and enjoy each other. Sometimes they forget something and have to reconsider the past. That’s when they go retrograde. Other times they have had enough of that and they just want to get on with their projects until the next station. This is when they go direct.
The word ‘planet’ derives from the notion that they are wandering stars. Actual stars (except our own Sun) appear to stay put or fixed in the heavens.
The day that their aspects (relationships) are exact is the day I use to describe these interactions. We often feel these things a bit before and after they are exact.
Astrology is based on the notion, as above, so below. Our lives play out somewhere in the middle. It’s downright messy in the ‘below’ but quite predictable in the ‘above’. And so we look for insights above us to help navigate our experience below.