© 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved
Spa Day Moon
Love. Beauty. Luxury. The Taurus Moon is a nice place to visit where comfort in the body feels fabulous. I’d even want to live there. Moon in Taurus feels like a spa day, and when it colors a month’s cycle, it’s easy to spin fantasies of lots of R&R and maybe even winning the Lotto. I want to go to Calistoga for a mud bath, eat bonbons, count my money and dream of ways I can bring in more money to make life even richer and easier.
However, being The Radical Virgo, I also want to figure out how I can use those resources to serve the Earth and not live just for selfish indulgence. (My Taurus Rising insists that luxury be at least part of the package. I’m willing to compromise!)
There are those who feel Taurus rules the Earth itself and want to leave Venus to a solo rulership of Libra. This has some legs, in my humble opinion. But I think this is the important question, whether you own this moon natally or are just visiting this month: Why is the Moon considered exalted in this sign?
Crescent/Crescendo
The Moon is often drawn as a crescent in its New Moon, waxing phase. This is also related to the musical term, crescendo, which involves a built-up of volume—in the waxing Moon’s case, a build-up of emotional, instinctual energy, felt physically. The Moon is exalted or “at its best” in Taurus because of the Moon’s relationship to instincts and feelings and how we feel those intuitions as sensations in our bodies. Our bodies are considered made of the earth element. (See Earth Day chant, “Earth my body …)
When you combine intuition and body wisdom, you have Taurus Moon. The Empress card in Tarot often has Taurean symbols around her. She’s likely to be a Goddessy, natural woman dancing her prayers in a spiritual circle ritual. The male Taurus Moon may be both muscular and somewhat large and teddy bear huggable, taking you out to an eight-course gourmet dinner complete with vintage wine, special ordered. The energy is physical. The senses are holy. The Taurus Moon celebrates the best the Earth element has to offer.
When you combine intuition and body wisdom, you have Taurus Moon. The Empress card in Tarot often has Taurean symbols around her. She’s likely to be a Goddessy, natural woman dancing her prayers in a spiritual circle ritual. The male Taurus Moon may be both muscular and somewhat large and teddy bear huggable, taking you out to an eight-course gourmet dinner complete with vintage wine, special ordered. The energy is physical. The senses are holy. The Taurus Moon celebrates the best the Earth element has to offer.
Taurus Moon Contemplation
- What place does sensuality and luxury hold in your life?
- If you have too much or too little of it, how will you rebalance the distribution this month?
- Tune in this month to gut instincts. Have the “guts” to follow them and see where they take you. You are likely to be surprised—pleasantly.
- What have you done for your physical body lately, just to feel good?
- What is your relationship to physical resources? How do you share them?
- What will you do for the Earth to celebrate Taurus Moon? (Reread my Earth Day message for some ideas.)
- How do you feel intuition in your body? (Is it in your stomach, do you “hear things” in your mind, do you get a twitch or a sensation somewhere in your body?) How could you develop this further?
In honor of this New Moon, just once, go eat or drink something completely decadent without guilt. Or spend money on something you consider totally sensuous and/or luxurious without giving it a second thought. Ahh. Now that’s Taurus Moon.
In Love Your Astrological Neighbor—You’re Alike, my alter ego Auntie Joyce joshes about the relationship between Taurus and the preceding sign of Aries:
Taurus – A Taurus is just an Aries who’s tired of pioneering, crusading, and getting there first who just wants a lazy, luxurious sit.
This is no joke under this New Moon. It serves us up a Sun/Moon conjunction in Taurus with a stellium in Aries right behind it. Five planets in pioneering, innovative, fiery Ram! Who wouldn’t need to sit and put their feet up—to take a little break from this convention at the Ramada Inn?
One of the biggest stumbling blocks of Cardinality and fire signs can be summed up in a well-known nursery rhyme: “Ashes, ashes—we all fall down.” If any (especially if many) of your planets interact with 02-23o Aries, you’ve probably been running around, or at least creating things, like your pants are on fire. With Saturn cruising in opposition to the mid-range of this Aries arc, you’ve likely been working your tail off. It’s time to sit it in a chair before you singe it or otherwise hurt yourself. The New Moon is perfect for taking time to collect yourself and assess what you did last month and where you’re heading into the four weeks ahead. Under Taurus Moon, you can do this in beautiful, sensuous environments and luxuriate for a day or two in first gear before returning to Aries overdrive. (I’m sure all of us are grateful to be over our most recent Mercury Retro where major parts of life were moving backwards while other aspects of our existence were doing an Aries sprint, again within the Arc of the Stellium, the Holy Grail of Lately.)
Other thoughts: Venus and Mercury are closely conjunct in this New Moon chart, as are Jupiter and Mars. Talk about the ability to communicate your heart’s desire then make it so in a big way.
This is a month of major manifestation mojo. It works in a trio formula: think, want, and then do—BIG and almost simultaneously. What you think during this lunar cycle has never been more important!
To take it a step further, I believe this configuration of four planets in Aries in a row this month, with Uranus not far off for inspiration, is a preview. It’s a preview of human evolution. One of the major shifts in consciousness going on right now is best described by Flip Wilson’s unforgettable character, Geraldine: “What you see, is what you get.” Often she would add, “Mercy.” [1]
Yes, mercy. If your thoughts and visions aren’t clear and if your heart isn’t loving, you could go out and manifest one big mess. On the other hand, if you’ve been doing your personal evolutionary homework, you will see the good ideas in your mind and the love in your heart merge to take your positive intentions to places you have never gone before. It’s a big wow, and with Saturn bringing you back to earth from its opposition point in Libra, you can put these visions into practical application.
Now for a memoir moment. This is happening to me a lot lately—and to those around me. For instance, our local NCGR chapter was reborn from the ashes of its previous incarnation after more than seven years in the past six months. Our mission is Ambassadors for astrology in times of transformation. The leadership team is a group of eight creative and on-purpose people. I’m President.
Out of the blue (there’s Uranus), Sacramento Magazine contacted us recently, wanting to include some astrology activities in its Things to Do in Summer in Sac feature. While we had our regular meetings to report, we had done nothing yet in our coming-back-to-life curve for community outreach to the general public. In a heartbeat, we put together an open house we’re calling Open to the Stars: How Astrology Can Help You in These Fast-Changing Times? It will include four mini-lectures on topics we think will fascinate those who wonder about astrology enough to attend. There will be food, mini-readings, and lots of info and opportunities to talk to real, live astrologers. We plan a follow-up mini-course a month later. Think, want, do—BIG.
Lately, there’s also plenty of visionary and creative help for anything you want to manifest with Neptune and Chiron traveling side by side in Pisces. This echoes—and defines in a larger cycle—how important vision and embracing healing are for people on this planet now. Dreamwork, art, music and creations of all kinds will be vehicles for healing and helping yourself and others.
A cycle of history is now repeating itself as Uranus in Aries squares Pluto in Capricorn with Chiron in Pisces. These three planets had prominent emphasis in the 1960s. In that case, Pluto and Uranus were conjunct in Virgo—same planets, different sign and aspect. Service and issues of “what’s right” were up for reckoning, and the Viet Nam war, that to many defined the Uranus/Pluto conjunction, featured heavily the issue of involuntary service (the draft) and the refusal of some men to serve in the military when it conflicted with their personal sense of integrity. From this era, some of the greatest music and healing modalities were born, the last time Chiron was in Pisces. What will Pluto in Cap and Uranus in warrior but innovative Aries bring this time around? How will we heal through the arts and feel our oneness once more? (For more on Chiron in Pisces: Integrity and Integration, read or reread my article of the same name.)
Back to the shorter-term specifics of this month’s New Moon chart, I love that the North Node of the New Moon Moment is in Sagittarius trine Jupiter and Mars. Time for getting the cosmic support needed to go out there and share our knowledge and wisdom in order to expand others and ourselves. It’s a month of synthesizing our learning, and it takes that New Moon rest stop to channel how best to target your zest and zeal as it bursts forth in an Aries and Sag bonfire.
Think about this month’s present astrological winds and fires, as well as the larger cycle of past parallels to the ‘60s during this peaceful, loving Taurus New Moon—and, again, in two weeks when the Moon is Full. Share your insights with us in the Comments. To everything, there is a season …
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Photo Credit: © Crimson - Fotolia.com
NOTE
[1] If you miss Geraldine and Flip Wilson as much as I do, enjoy this classic interview of Geraldine Jones by David Frost. (You’ll hear her classic line, “What you see is what you get,” about 2:15 into the 8:48 clip. She even sings!)