Your Horoscope in May, 2011
By Monica Smith
The New Moon in Taurus on 3rd of May, is a time for concrete and practical activity, time for dealing with the material dimension of life. The challenge of a new beginning is to keep the fire going, and this lunation sows the seed of a cycle focused on giving concrete material support to what has just started to manifest in the previous cycle in Aries. The sequence of the zodiacal signs is mirroring the unfolding of all natural growth processes; each lunation sees the Moon travelling across all signs spreading a new impulse, so that all perspectives will be taken into consideration, metabolized and hopefully integrated in our worldview.
With a stellium of planets in Aries still in place (Uranus-Venus-Mercury-Mars-Jupiter), the atmosphere is charged with impatience, restlessness and high expectations. If we are the agents of this wave of change, and for the adjustments that need to be made, it is necessary for us to find the means to support this process: the frame of mind, the perseverance and determination to endure. If, on the contrary, we are unwillingly involved and/or pushed by external situations, to make the necessary adjustments, it is necessary for us to deal matter-of factly with reality; playing a victim in this case will not help but only delay inevitable decisions.
In the art world, Saturn in Libra in opposition to Venus in Aries can be seen reflected in the many episodes of intolerance towards artists that, as we can see, are becoming more violent and frequent. In periods of transition toward a new worldview, artists get a whiff of the new order more keenly and earlier than others, because their sensitive spirits resonate and seek eagerly to explore new ways, long before the actual need emerges. New paradigms manifest themselves in art, literature, poetry, much before philosophy and politics start to get a grip on them: the resultant creative growth is a natural response to a deeper need that is often hard to articulate, and not merely an intellectual construct. Art is the humus, the rich nourishment for the spirit in search of cathartic images, manifest expressions of a new aesthetic ethic. That is the reason why artists are often at the center of revolutionary movements, at least at their beginning, and they are perceived and depicted by the status quo as dangerous, and their art is seen as deviant and destructive. With Saturn in Libra, the ruling aesthetic norm is “beautiful, good, and true”: Venus in Aries, on the other hand, spurs art and artists to actively challenge this aesthetic, not just with their visually challenging, works.
In this phase, we feel pulled in two directions: on the one side, fear and desire to control the situation grips us, and this leads to new rules against the existing aesthetic order in an attempt to contain it; on the other side, we become anxious and impatient to solve the problems as soon as possible, in order to get back to “normal.” But even if in our personal life we are prone to misperceptions, delusions or confusion, the phase brings major changes that cannot be controlled or ignored. We need to understand that it doesn’t matter how far these upheavals will affect us, as long as we know that we are in their thrall.
The great instability we experience, also means great opportunities, but only when we allow the transformation to go deep inside and shake our core thought structures and old habits, we will be left high and dry. Without the transformation that accompanies them, these opportunities will bring little satisfaction and only a great feeling of unsettledness. How difficult will the transition be depends how and when we will start, and how long we take to at last acknowledge and address issues regarding our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life. That’s why it is important to increase the awareness of the global situation in which we are living and wake up to our responsibility to our world and to ourselves to be able to realize fully our nature, talents, ideas, and dreams. What we need is to be open, flexible, and accept the necessity of making major changes in our life.
The need for practical adjustment in the chart is shown by the quincunxes of the New Moon with Saturn. It is an angular relation of 150° degree, different from an opposition (180°), or a trine (120°), because it is connecting two signs that are not so compatible in terms of elements: Taurus/Earth and Libra/Air. Materialistic pragmatism versus ethical diplomacy, fact versus dialogue: there is little space for communication if we don’t dig deeper and find a possible common ground.
Quincunxes are aspects that can represent unpredictable outcomes, because a creative approach is needed in order to express their energy. Earth and Air have different qualities, but if we consider that it is “the empty vessel which makes the greatest sound,” with matter and space having a very important connection that we need to recognize in order to appreciate and take full advantage of this natural creative relation.
Venus rules both Taurus and Libra, signs connected by this quincunx, and transiting in Aries, Venus is picking up elements that can be useful bridging the gap between ideals and practical actions. In our lives, this means that we can solve the contradictions between practical aspects of living and our ideals by learning to travel light, find a model of essentiality, a Zen quality, in a sense. This communion between something beautiful and something real, authentic and connected with the “material” aspect of life occurred in the 1930s with the emergence of the Bauhaus; in the 1960s in Warhol’s Factory. Nowadays, artists are engaged in raising social and ecological issues, using their visibility to give voice to collective issues, and exploring new creative kind of connections between art and economy.
Pluto-Saturn-Uranus T-square is still active in the chart, with Pluto representing a kind of cellular disaggregation and purification, necessary to reach the deeper strata of the crystallized structures in society as well as in our psyche, in order to reach new humus and allow transformative renewal.
The Czech philosopher Z. Bauman defines “liquid society” as the one we live in made of networks that constantly fluctuate. It is important to develop new ideas and new model-images of what today could be considered as “stability.” We need to find a good balance between fullness and emptiness, to be practical but leave an open space for different types of content. To maintain a connection to the earth allows movement and growth.
Neptune, now in Pisces, makes no major aspects to other planets, beside the large sextile with Pluto that is in place since the 1960s. Its move from Aquarius to Pisces is an important transition, even if it is not accompanied by a big press. The elusive planet that rules collective trends, art, imagination and spirituality, is back in his own sign after travelling the zodiac for more than 160 years and it is now shifting focus. From the Aquarian area of innovative science and technology, once considered a source of solutions to all human problems, with the expansion of social networks and virtual friends, salvation will soon assume another face. The need for a state of fusion and empathic connection will be expressed in different ways, but first possibly there will be a sort of disillusionment, a sense of emotional dissatisfaction: we have already started to feel the first “symptoms.”
In our personal life, the passage of the New Moon from Aries to Taurus, suggests that there is now a need to give solid foundation to those dimensions of life in which the spark of a new idea gives you hope and enthusiasm … or an unexpected offer generates a sudden change that pushes you in a new territory. We can feel excited and hopeful, scared and insecure, or a bit of both, because the tension between the desire for “freedom” and the need of “security” is still present, but the phase we are entering will contribute, with all the concrete elements, towards a careful evaluation of the pros and cons.
On the 1st of June the cycle will start again with the Sun and the Moon in communicative Gemini, but this of course is another story....
