Beltane Part Two: 15 Degrees Of Taurus

As mentioned previously, there are two dates for Beltane; one always begins the eve of May 1st, while the other is always when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. Now, as I live in a society that doesn’t place the same importance as I do on having a handbag sized ephemeris within arms reach, I can see May 1st is a sensible option, but my heart lies with the old style 15 degree festival.

A bit of background to skip for those familiar with the origins: Beltane is one of 8 festivals of the solar year, and marks the midpoint in the Sun’s journey between Spring Equinox (0 degrees Aries), and Summer Solstice (0 degrees Cancer).

0 degree’s of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, mark equinox and solstice points. Midway between those points lie this 15 degree spot, always in a fixed sign, so along with Taurus/Beltane, there’s Scorpio/Samhain or Halloween, Aquarius/Imbolc, and Leo/Lammas.

The festivals carry the qualities of the zodiac sign they fall under, which means you can get a feel for what they're about and what they connect us with in ourselves, by studying the sign associated with it. Sometimes it’s obvious: how about Scorpio and Halloween for starters. Others need a lot more contemplation, but it’s worth the effort to reach those satisfying lightbulb moments.

So what about Taurus and Beltane? Well, with Venus as ruling planet, Taurus is about value and relationship, and being an earth sign it’s specifically about acknowledging and appreciating the value of our connectedness to the physical world.
And this is something we have to take personal responsibility for, as no-one can tell us what makes us feel good being in this world but us, through our emotional experience with physical form.
It’s whatever floats your boat that gets your good times flowing, which hasn’t got much to do with morality but everything to do with accountability, so it's easy to see why Beltane wasn’t received well by a number of religions and belief systems in days of yore.

This year the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus on the May 5th, a Friday, the day sacred to Venus. As Venus has just begun a journey through Aries, she's in warrior Goddess mode. This is a fiery and feisty energy, and relationships work best with a direct approach and an open agenda.
And while Beltane is a celebration of quality rather than quantity, with Venus in Aries and Jupiter opposing the Sun, it might be more of a challenge to remember it's not just about who’s got the biggest Maypole.


astrology, beltane, taurus

Beltane Part One: May Day

The offical date for observing Beltane (as decided by the collective unconcious), is May 1st, but I like to stick with the astrological date, which is when the sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. It varies each year, always during the first few days of May. This year it's May 5th.


More on that later, but for now, just spent an intriguing few hours researching Beltane, May Day and the various associated traditions.
Was chuckling away at the Puritans making Maypoles illegal in 1644, when I came upon this Wikipedia description, linking Maypoles with the Axis Mundi, or World Tree.

There's also an undeniable similarity between the Caduceus and the Maypole. What about the chakra energy spiralling around the spine in this image... and remember the Nebula in the shape of DNA?
This is what I love about symbolism, once you start looking you see repeating patterns everywhere, and can't help but be absorbed by the mystery of the underlying connection.

(Beltane Part Two is here)


astrology, beltane, May Day, symbols

New Moon In Taurus

This New Moon is carrying a real mix of energies. There's a lot of highly focused, concentrated creativity flowing at the moment, thanks to the strong and disciplined aspect between Sun/Moon in Taurus and Saturn in Leo.
And Venus, ruling planet of Taurus, is coming to the end of a journey through Pisces, but not before making an intense connection with Pluto in Sagittarius over the next few days.

Taurus, as a fixed sign, is all about focusing energy. A good friend told me recently that focus is about making a continual choice to follow the same direction, and as Taurus follows what it values, with Venus in Pisces the value lies in the imagination.
Venus has been happily navigating the boundless astral seas of the imagination for a few weeks now. The indefinable, indefinite, fuzzy edged reality offers limitless possibilities, which means fertile ground for new ideas. It's this along with the creative authority of Saturn in Leo, and the Phoenix-rising energy of Pluto that makes for such a magical mix of energy, because the earthbound Taurus New Moon can anchor and ground dreams and schemes that might otherwise have vanished under the harsh glare of critical conscious thought.

Venus sparkled and shimmered through Pisces like sunlight through water. It's been all rainbows and dancing glittering waves, but with a link-up to Pluto in Sagittarius the undercurrent runs deep, and the pot of gold lies buried way beyond the horizon.
It's important to keep things in perspective with this kind of aspect, but also remember that there's plenty of room for some big ideas. Yes it's molehills and mountains, but it's also acorns and oak trees.


astrology taurus moon

Full Moon In Libra, 13th April

Any full moon is about a culmination of energy, but April's full moon in Libra is particularly strong in this energy, as the current pattern of planets repeat and reinforce the message in so many ways.

Firstly, the sun is nearing the end of its time in Aries, and it's the conclusion of a series of eclipses between the Aries/Libra polarity. This means the moon's nodes are also ending their stay in this area of the zodiac too; the end of a cycle that began late 2004.

Ruler of Aries, the mighty and motivated Mars is completing its journey through Gemini, wrapping things up with an opposition to Pluto, a planet that makes a point of being at the no return spot.
And at 90 degree angle to this opposition is communication and mind planet Mercury, also near the end of its stay in Pisces, but also significantly, at the conclusion of its retrograde phase which began late February/early March. It's taken this long for Mercury to step fully out of the shadow phase and return to the retro starting degree.

So the message of this moon speaks strongly of a culmination in events, and according to my internet search, a culmination can be:
- a final climatic stage
- the decisive moment in a novel or play
- a concluding action

Moon in Libra is focused on fairness and justice, and is hungry for equality and balance in relationship, while a full moon brings about fulfilment and fruition. This means events can also bring about a result related to your Libra story that you’ve been waiting for, for a long time.
All kinds of plans, hopes and dreams can manifest and thrive in this kind of atmosphere. So have you been careful what you wished for?


astrology aries libra moon

Mars opposite Pluto, Saturn Direct.

It's been building all week - Mars in Gemini opposing the newly retrograde Pluto in Sagittarius, while Saturn stations after a long retrograde phase.
What good could possibly come from the god of war at odds with the god of the underworld, as we move from the Aries new moon eclipse to next Thursday's Libra full moon eclipse?

Well, the image on the Judgement tarot card says it all about the current pattern in the skies. Naturally linked to Pluto, this card is about beginnings from endings; what you thought was laid to rest is brought to life again, and situations that seemed to be at a dead-end have new life breathed into them.

It's about rebirth, and rebirth only ever happens as a result of becoming aware of that irresistible, deep down sizzling zest for life, love and the universe that we all have surging through the heart of our most dearly held desires.
It's a card that challenges us to wake up and choose LIFE, and it takes the power of Pluto and the will of Mars to make such magic happen. It's here and it's now.

Aries Eclipse March 29th

It's the new moon eclipse in Aries, and it's the last in this set of eclipses covering the Aries/Libra polarity till 2014. So, there's an element of wrapping things up, tying loose ends, and finishing old business.
To gain a perspective on how this set of eclipses are manifesting in your life, cast your mind back to the libra eclipse last October, and see where the libra themes became an issue, and how those issues brought about change (some libra themes here).

In this eclipse, Aries gets things moving. It's a fearless sign because the focus is not on the future but on the now, and the burning desire that requires instant gratification.
When out of balance this can become extreme selfishness, with an intolerance to anything that gets in the way of its desire (ruler Mars is the roman god of war), which is why the opposite sign of Libra is so important to Aries... and vice versa of course, as Libra without Aries overthinks plans but never makes a move, ending up paralysed by possibilities.

But when in balance, Aries is assertive, pioneering, inspiring, courageous and passionate - basically just the kind of energy you could do with right now; a breath of fresh air after all the slow, sludgey astrology which put the brakes on everything for so many months. If you have been praying for a new start, looks like you've got it.

PC World And My Mercury Retro Nightmare

Finally back online after big computer fiasco. Being a Gemini with a Virgo ascendant, and knowing what I know about the power of a Mercury retrograde phase, you'd think I'd have more sense than to purchase a new computer just as the shadow phase began last month.

I don't know if it's my Aries moon, or the ghost of my former astro-cynic personality that makes me continue to pooh-pooh phenonoma like retrograde warnings, but I still rebel against the good day/bad day versions of astrology, and push on to do whatever I want to do, whenever I feel like it. Which is why I found myself in PC World, spontaneously splashing out on a laptop, while Mercury in Pisces waited in the wings, his trickster hat at a jaunty angle, rubbing his hands in glee. He'd obviously read the ephemeris and had seen me coming a mile off.

The computer started going wrong the day after I got it. Not being technology savvy I kind of ploughed on regardless, or tried to, thinking it might be me and the way I was loading stuff onto it. It was overheating. Kept making sudden beeping noises, like it was going to self-destruct, then it would shut down, hotter than hot across the keyboard.
After procrastinating a couple of weeks, dreading the 'well it makes self-destruct style beeps then shuts down...' conversation, I returned it to PC World for an exchange. I was told the policy was to exchange only if they were absolutely convinced, Virgo-style, that there was a manufacturing fault, because if they sent it back and manufacturer found nothing, then PC World had to pay. 'It's to protect us from people messing us around' they said.
I handed my computer over to be tested, while trying to picture what kind of person spends hours loading software and personal files onto a computer, drives all the way to the shop, stands in a queue staring at the special offers, then tries for an exchange, just to mess other people around.

I returned next day (just to mess them round some more?), to have an assistant with a smug smile of the kind only seen on coffee adverts, tell me 'we have tested it and no, there's no problem with the computer...' We both inwardly finished the sentance that the problem was obviously in my head.
I thanked her and said 'but that doesn't alter the fact the computer is overheating and shutting down when I use it'.
'It's not showing anything when we test it' she replied, so I again pointed out that it didn't alter the fact it was overheating and shutting down when I used it.

Turns out there has to be undeniable proof. I suddently felt we were trying to prove the existance of a psychic breeze on Most Haunted. Just because it wasn't showing up on those hi-tec heat detector gadgets, it didnt exist and someone was faking it. While the psychic skeptics are fed a steady diet of nebulous table-tappings and creaking floorboards, here I found another product of our new age: the computer that 'only does it sometimes'. Catching the little devil in the act, that's the real problem of our technology driven times.
Until then, all computers are innocent until proven guilty, while their owners are potential scammers until evidence suggests the contrary. With another smug smile the assistant handed the computer back to me, and if laptops had hands mine would have been giving me the finger.

Hot and flustered with the unfairness of it all, I handed it back and asked for a retest. The technician was brought through. A laid back computer genius called Paul, who dealt admirably with my overheated protests. He agreed to test again and he would call me tomorrow. But you know what it's like waiting for a man to call you back... a couple of days later I hadn't heard anything, so in I went again, to be told he was still working on it, and would call me.

Turns out PC World also have a 'don't call us, we'll call you' policy. You can't phone the branch directly, only a call centre, who suggested I make another visit. Another couple of days later I was in the queue again, staring at the same special offers.
But this time, on the day of the full moon eclipse in Virgo, they told me THEY HAD FOUND A FAULT. Yes, I was okayed for an exchange. I was off the hook, innocent, I wasnt a scammer after all. But unfortunately the smug assistant wasn't there to witness my triumph. It was her day off.

So here I am on my new computer. This one has a dodgey CD drive. Sometimes it opens, sometimes it doesnt. I have 28 days to stop procrastinating and start the process all over again...
And what lessons will my inner astro-rebel take from defying this Mercury retro warning? well, I finally realised the similarity between weather forecasts and astro-forecasts. I mean, I don't get too het up if it rains on the day I plan to sunbathe... I don't feel like a puppet of elemental forces, nor do I feel a loss of personal power at my choices being limited by forces beyond my control. I'm just flexible with sunshine-focused plans for a few days, and carry an umbrella. And sometimes the forecast is right, sometimes it isn't.
All of a sudden I realised it's that simple. Emperical proof or not, there's no subsitute for learning through personal experience of a mercury retrograde nightmare.