New Moon in Taurus

6 of pentacles - about having and not having - see here

And here's a poem by Yehuda Amichai -


This is on the 18th May, around 5 am GMT.

The sun and moon will be conjunct at 27 degrees Taurus. This is a slow, steady, solid, grounded energy. Also utterly determined. Fixated.

Normally Taurus is about pleasure and solidity – it is comforting. A new moon in Taurus is a good time to focus on eating a lot and lazing around in the sun like a simple happy creature. Or to focus on what makes you feel happy and satisfied in general.

In this case things don't look so comfortable, though. This new moon is quite stressfully aspected. This looks like steadiness allright - but of discomfort and pressure.

The moon and sun will be loosely conjunct Mars, now in communicative, mentally hyperactive Gemini – and this speaks of mental and emotional reactivity. Also mental fixation.

The new moon is also opposite party-killing Saturn in Sagittarius, a dour influence on our minds and moods.

Mars and Saturn are known as the lesser and greater malefics...not such easy planets to be caught up with...and Mars-Saturn aspects are about frustration, blockage and cruelty. We currently have an opposition between these planets - it peaked on the 15th of May and is waning now. But this energy colors the tone of the new moon and the month ahead.

Mars is life drive, will, desire, anger...and Saturn is limitation, karma, fear. So with this opposition, we are looking at blocked will, blocked desire, intense frustration – specifically in the realm of communication and self-expression, as Mars is in Gemini. A frustrating inability to say the necessary thing or to communicate, and potential violence and nastiness connected with that. Communication hitting a wall – painfully.

Also, the ruler of Taurus – Venus, dispositor of this new moon – is stressfully aspected. She's currently in emotional, nurturing, motherly Cancer - and opposing Pluto, king of hell (exact on the 22nd May).

Venus-Pluto aspects are about love and power. Also love and death, love and pathology. Love that takes you to hell, toxic love, obsessive love. Dead loves coming back from the grave to haunt you.

At best, Venus-Pluto can be about regenerative, transformative love...but at worst it's about power plays and destructive relationships. Because Venus is currently in Cancer, a sign concerned with emotion – there is some very heavy, hellish emotional stuff connected with this aspect.

Venus is not just about relationships – she also has to do with money, values and self-esteem. These are Taurean themes. So this new moon really highlights a poverty vibe - deep feelings of lack in the love, money and self-esteem departments; frustrated desire courtesy of the Mars-Saturn opposition...aargh.

No satisfaction!

The new moon happens in the late degrees of Taurus, and in a few days the sun moves to sparky, communicative, jittery, social-networking Gemini. So this is actually the opener for Gemini season – and a particularly neuron-frazzling, hyperactive, wyrded-out Gemini season it is. Communication issues and blockages take center stage this month.

Gemini's ruler, Mercury, goes retrograde in his home sign the day after the new moon (19th May). Mercury retrogrades are times of communication breakdowns, glitches, problems with transportation and communication devices...

This retrograde lasts until the 11th June, and Mercury will be in Gemini till the 8th July. So altogether, he will have spent about two months in Gemini and by the end of it I guess we are going to be kinda fried in the brains department.

And Mars will be in Gemini as well – till the 24th June. Mars is moving to conjunct Mercury in Gemini (exact 27th May).

This is nearly too much mental energy and communication. Just zingy as hell, incredibly social and distracted. Intense mental chatter – frazzled synapses. Repetitive thought loops that just go and go and go. A good way to ground this kind of excess mental energy is physical movement and exercise - you pull it down out of your head and into your body. Letting it run riot in your head is a recipe for craziness.

Re. craziness: Mercury will be squaring Neptune in Pisces for much of this transit of Gemini – in fact this Mercury retrograde ends on the same day that Neptune stations retrograde. Mercury-Neptune aspects are about inspiration, intuition, guidance from beyond, creativity and art. But also mental delusion, lies, siren songs, general wooly-headedness...

Gemini is not the most truthful of signs, and Neptune is all illusion – so watch what you say and don't believe everything you're told. The rumour mill will be running at warp speed this month – you might want to turn off the social media, turn off your smartphone, avoid getting caught up in the hype. There will be a lot of frenetic gossip going on, much of it bullshit and insinuation. Try to avoid becoming a source of it.

(Aaargh, silly video. But the song fits.)

This influence will be strongest the last week in May & heading up to the full moon in Sagittarius on the 2nd June – which looks like a bit of a headfuck. I'll write about it closer to the time.

An aside – I was confused about what this new moon meant. I got in my car and turned on the radio, and immediately heard the two songs linked above, which seem to encapsulate the themes – poverty consciousness, frustration, romantic obsession, hectic social chatter, gossip.

Getting guidance from the radio (or billboards, the tv, random things you overhear people saying, or wherever) is a Mercury-Neptune thing. Messages coming from the aether.

This is a good time to pay attention to the messages you get - signs and synchronicities, your dreams, the advertising jingles stuck in your head. All these things can be considered messages from the unconscious – your unconscious mind instinctively hooks onto the information it needs. So don't ignore this stuff – it's valuable.

But use some discrimination too. Not everything is meaningful, not everything is true. Let your intuition be your guide - you'll know deep down what information you can trust (without necessarily being able to articulate why).

All the Venus-Pluto and Gemini stuff is happening as part of a yod - a tricky, tense, uncomfortable aspect pattern, in effect from now till late June. I am not going to describe this yod thing in detail, because my brain will explode...but the apex of the pattern is Pluto in Capricorn, which is about unearthing the truth underlying a corrupt status quo. The point of all this dissatisfaction and confusion this month is finding out what's true - what you really feel, what you really value, what's really fulfilling (all Taurus themes). And acting on your values; voicing them - in order to regenerate situations that have become blocked or ossified...or to do away with them so that something new can develop.

Taurus is supposed to be about fulfillment and comfort. But in this scenario, discomfort, lack and frustration act as spurs to direct us toward what might actually be fulfilling. And our intuition - the Mercury-Neptune stuff - serves the same purpose. There is a guiding design at work here, if we can calm down enough to receive the directions we're being given and act on them.

--Also, Taurus is about what's tangible, what we actually possess. Focusing on what you actually have as opposed to what you lack should help with the frustration. And focusing on the tangible, physical reality of your life can cut through the mental chatter and distraction.

--Forgot to say - drug & booze alert for the remainder of the month and the beginning of June. It's pretty easy to get in over your head with mind-altering substances right now, so be careful.

Social stuff can also function as a drug / addiction / distraction. For example, it's funny how many people I've heard talking about facebook as an addiction lately...I think that will be a theme. If you are overly influenced by social media, it might be good to take a break about now or set yourself some limits, because our circuits will be overloaded enough as it is.

Full moon in Scorpio

Mary Magdalene by Georges de la Tour

Some poems, to get us in the mood:

Marina Tsvetayeva.

And Louise Bogan.

OK, so this is an intense and really stressful full moon. Maybe you can feel it building.

Today (1st May) the moon in Libra is tangled up with the Uranus-Pluto square, which is still in effect, though loosening. This is a jagged and disturbing emotional tone. Painful, eruptive, explosive...

People will definitely be on edge heading up to the full moon, which happens early on the 4th May, around 4:40 am GMT.

A full moon in Scorpio shines a stark light on what is viable in your life vs. what is unviable. It should be pretty damn clear. Full moons represent culminations or endings, and that's exactly what we're looking at here.

The moon at 13 degrees Scorpio (intense desire, emotional unrest, transformation) will be opposite the sun in Taurus (comfort, habits, values, self-esteem), and both will be in exact square to Jupiter in Leo, which amps up the intensity and tension. Ugh.

This looks like a very uncomfortable reckoning, especially as far as love and money stuff is concerned. Commitments and contractual obligations will be cemented and solidified – or ended.

It's kind of a life-or-death thing. What's viable, you commit yourself to. What's unviable – you let go of or amputate, painful though this may be.

It's very simple...but also hard as hell. It can be as grindingly difficult as breaking a long addiction.

Breaking an addiction is a good way of looking at this scenario, actually. We have Taurean comfort-seeking and habit coming up against the Scorpionic imperative for transformation and purgation, and something's gotta give.

Look back to the new moon in Scorpio in October of last year – that was the start of this cycle. What began for you then, or ended? What kind of psychological roller coaster have you been on for the past half-year, as we moved through the last of the Uranus-Pluto squares?

Basically, if you are still holding onto things that are draining or harmful – well you'll have had a good six or seven months of wake-up calls and revelations by now. Longer, probably! You can't really pretend not to know any better anymore, can you?

This full moon is a culmination and a cut-off point.

That's not to say we'll be done with the particular Scorpionic issues it raises...We still have some psychological reckoning to do, as Saturn heads back into Scorpio from June to September of this year. This is about the karmic fallout – the consequences. Or the processing period and recovery.

Scorpio issues revolve around sex, death, emotional intensity, trust, power, pathology, the Shadow. Also debts, shared resources, inheritances.

Energetic transactions, basically – and these can be emotional, monetary, physical. But you'll know what belongs in your life by the way it makes you feel: what gives you energy vs. what depletes your energy. If something – a habit, a relationship, a situation – consistently drains and devitalises you, it has to go. Or if leaving it is impossible, it has to be transformed somehow...

But please rein in your illusions that situations or people can be transformed if they have consistently disappointed you. With Scorpio, the most viable option is usually amputation. Cold turkey, yo.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn supports the full moon with beneficial aspects – this is about internal reckoning, depth work and restructuring. Neptune in Pisces (dreams, compassion, intuition) also offers support – so it looks like there'll be compassion, hope and faith on offer. This is all nice, given the level of discomfort and intensity we're looking at.

Saturn is now at 3 degrees Sagittarius, moving backward toward Scorpio, which he'll hit in six weeks. We'll have Mercury in Gemini (hyper communicativeness) opposite Saturn (blockage) for this full moon, and both will be squaring dreamy, delusive Neptune in Pisces. And this looks tough. Blocked or deceptive communication; communication hitting a wall. A requirement for truth and free expression, or for absolute clarity – denied. Negotiations hitting an impasse. Anxiety, depression and the inability to think straight. Mental confusion.

I dunno – the whole thing just looks hard. Like something very deep and of far-reaching importance has to be hammered out and decided – and the emotional imperatives driving this are huge. But actually solidifying anything via thinking or communication will be difficult, with this Mercury-Saturn-Neptune square going on.

In circumstances like this, where you can't necessarily trust people's words or your own thinking – it's best to go with your gut instinct. If you feel like someone is lying to you or obfuscating, they probably are. If you feel you might be deluding yourself, you probably are. Don't talk yourself out of what you know deep down.

A Scorpio moon can be a ruthless bullshit detector, with great instinctive insight into people's deepest motivations and trustworthiness. It's a kind of tingly spider sense. That bodily knowing is much more reliable than verbal communication right now – so trust it.

Here is a link to hexagram 47 of the I Ching - it seems relevant. The hexagram is about fated adversity and constraint - a situation where words won't change anything, and you have to stake your life on following your deepest intuition and will.

This full moon setup also reminds me of the Tarot card for the 9 of wands:

It's like a line drawn in the sand. An energetic blocade - and the willingness to defend what you value. And what's at issue is crucial - this is a matter of psychic survival, and of safeguarding your will to live.