Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth!

Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!

Earth of departed sunset — earth of the mountains misty-topt!

Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!

Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!

Far-swooping elbow'd earth — rich apple-blossom'd earth!

Smile, for your lover comes.
Walt Whitman - Song of Myself

 Beltane always falls when the Sun is in Taurus; if you celebrate Beltane astrologically, the Sun will be exactly halfway through Taurus, and halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice — always a few days later than May 1st. (This year, it fell early on Sunday, May 6th) Whether you are heading towards summer or winter, the Earth is in transition. Perhaps this is why the sign of Taurus is so concerned with security, with farming, and the Earth. Taurus’ other main focus is a sensual connection with the Web of LIfe, and the creation and enjoyment of beauty.

The New Moon Eclipse on May 9th will highlight Taurean themes for some months to come. There are four planets (a stellium) in Taurus in this chart — Sun, Moon, Mercury and Mars — and if you follow this blog, you’ll recall that the influence of a solar eclipse can be as long as a year. Saturn in Scorpio provides a balance point for all that Taurean energy. Though there is no direct opposition, as I noted in this post,  “We can look on the progress of Saturn through Scorpio over the next 2 ½ years as an initiatory undertaking  — a deep, transformative time when, if we will discipline ourselves to fulfill the requirements of the body and the Earth, we can create with power, insight and spiritual awareness.”

Venus, the ruler of Taurus, has just moved into bright, aware Gemini, where life is a question to be answered, and connection to others is key. Venus is square to Neptune in Pisces, and Pisces' other ruler, Jupiter, is also in Gemini, unaspected, making it even more of a wildcard than usual.

All of this suggests that in the months to come, issues of material security will be raised again and again at varying levels of intensity depending on how this configuration falls in your personal chart. Are you stuck in a rut somewhere? Has the pursuit of security smothered your creativity and playfulness, or do you need to pay more attention to how you support yourself on this Earth? What are the personal and social costs of the way you live your life? If you don’t ask yourself some of these questions, they will be asked of you, and the answers will demand both action and clear communication.

I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
Walt Whitman - Song of Myself

Another area of life that you might want to think about carefully over the next number of months is your relationship with your body, and with the body of the Earth.  It helps to first look the problem in the face and admit that, as a culture, our relationship with the Earth is an abusive one. Even those of us who are well aware of this and try to lessen our impact cannot avoid living in the toxin-spewing, resource-destroying matrix of modern life. It is likely that historians and/or archeologists will look back on our time and diagnose mass insanity, based on our treatment of the Web of Life that supports us. What passes for food in the supermarkets these days is mostly devoid of life and stuffed with various laboratory-created substances that are generally poorly tested, if at all, for their effects on human health.

Many — most — people try to ignore these unpleasant facts, if, indeed, facts are even on their radar.  If you are reading this, you are probably not one of those people. The upcoming months will offer opportunities for aware, engaged people to do a lot of healing in regards to their body and their relationship with the Earth.

“The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies, it wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess’d them.”
Walt Whitman - Song of Myself

Trauma — and we all experience it, just at different levels — tends to lodge in the body, causing or exacerbating health issues. Healing the body of trauma helps heal the mind and the emotions. Take some time over the next few months to figure out when and where you are fully-embodied, and where and when you tend to fly out of your body due to fear or trauma. Become more aware of your body, and give it the love and attention it deserves as the vehicle your soul is using to express itself in this lifetime. Find where trauma is lodged in your bones, organs and muscles, and do what you can to heal it. (Both yoga and tai chi work on the energy body as well as the physical one). Lower your stress levels. Go easy on your body. Give it rest, relaxation, and real food. Think long and hard about your priorities and personal values, and if your health isn’t near the top of that list, you may want to re-prioritize. When emotional issues do crop up, try doing something different with your body — walk instead of eating reactively, shoot some hoops to let off steam, take a hot bath or do some yoga before responding to whatever triggered you, listen to some music and let yourself cry. (Tears actually remove stress-caused chemicals from our bodies)

"Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it.
For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,
Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and deposited it with care.
All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me,
Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul."
Walt Whitman ‑ Song of Myself

There is a bumper sticker that is popular here in Asheville which says, simply, “All One”. Whether you see that phrase as a distillation or an over-simplification, it expresses an understanding of life based on the deep inter-connection of all beings. That sort of spiritual connectedness flies in the face of the “rugged individualist” so idealized by our capitalistic, expansionist culture. And yet, the creativity that is required to become an individual, to express our uniqueness, is also spiritual and sacred. The expression of beauty, emotion and insight (art) is an individual expression.

“Every man and woman is a star”
Aleister Crowley: Book of the Law

With Venus in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces in this Taurean chart, we may find ourselves in discussions — both private and public — about empirical, organized knowledge vs. intuitive, mystical  knowing, about social butterflies and religious martyrs, about how the individual supports the collective, and vice-versa. The world of art — particularly politicized, revolutionary art — will also be highlighted during this time. (Why political, revolutionary art? Look at the U-P square in this chart, and Jupiter as well. Also, the Taurus stellium which emphasizes both art and the conservative “Establishment”) .

The needs and rights of the individual vs. the needs and rights of the collective is an ongoing conversation that will be punctuated by events and arguments as the Uranus-Pluto square makes the remainder of its exact aspects. Those of us who have thought about those issues, who have examined our values and know where we stand, will be the ones who can navigate the crises this aspect will bring, as opposed to being dashed on the rocks. Stability will be needed, stability will be challenged. Ask yourself, what brings stability to your life? At the risk of (endlessly) repeating myself, I will note that meditation practice invariably increases inner stability.

A New Moon eclipse is an opportunity to re-vision our lives, to set new goals, to invite new perspectives and move in new directions. This New Moon asks us to renew our commitments to our bodies and re-vision our relationship to the Earth.

"Space and Time! now I see it is true, what I guessed at,
What I guessed when I loafed on the grass,
What I guessed while I lay alone in my bed,
And again as I walked the beach under the paling stars of the morning,
My ties and ballast leave me, my elbows rest in sea gaps,
I skirt sierras, my palms cover continents,
I am afoot with my vision."
Walt Whitman ‑ Song of Myself