Descent into the Balsamic Temple of the Senses
After some glorious Autumn days in Naarm/Melbourne, the weather’s turning cold again just as the Moon deepens its descent into darkness, presaging this weekend’s hugely powerful Taurus New Moon (Saturday 20 May @ 1:53am AEST). The Balsamic Moon can feel a little confusing as the light diminishes but the word ‘balsamic’ comes from the ancient Hebrew for aromatically perfumed resin, which was used to soothe and heal. As such, the Balsamic Moon is associated with rest, release and healing rather than figuring things out, and it reminds us to anoint ourselves with sweetness as we do so.
It’s a time to give ourselves the space we need to be wherever we are with whatever’s actually happening in our lives and to make it as beautiful as we can. As the Moon enters her exaltation in Taurus, sign of the senses, and conjoins Jupiter, the planet associated with the search for meaning, it’s the perfect time to cosy up and reflect on what’s limiting, outdated and extraneous in our lives so we can prepare for release, and to dream on what glimmers and inspires to plant seeds for a fecund new cycle on Saturday.
This week’s astrology is some of the most significant of 2023 sweet friends, and that’s saying something after this recent eclipse season, I know. Saturday’s exalted Taurus New Moon segues into a hugely powerful dynamic the following day but the events leading up to it this week really set the stage. What we seed on this lunation unfolds, as always, over coming weeks but with Jupiter newly entered into Taurus, their influence could feel more enlarged than usual.
Mercurial magic & monkey business
Mercury, the monkey mind, stationed direct in Taurus on Monday, signalling an easing off of some of very strange and annoying tech, communication, money and business-related issues and glitches we’ve been encountering since about April 7. Thankfully, as always, we’ve learned some valuable lessons in the process and they’re now enabling us to implement inspired and innovative new solutions. They could help us improve our efficacy, regain lost ground, broaden our reach and possibly even open up new connections with long-lasting benefits.
Mercury remains in shadow until Thursday 1 June, however, so we could experience some ongoing frustrations until then and I find it helpful to think of the Mercurial trickster, god of magic and commerce as helping us stay on track in reconstruction mode with these antics, reminding us to build momentum and efficiency slowly, artfully and with careful consideration as we draw on what we’ve recently learned.
Between Thursday 18 May and Saturday 20 Mercury will make a sweet sextile to Saturn, which offers us a window of flow for making recent creative lessons manifest. The planet of the mind, communication, commerce and magic, in the sign of what matters to us most and getting it with ease, combines with the planet of disciplined devotion and material reality in Pisces, realm of visionary imagination, dissolution and healing. Ideas, endeavours, projects and practices that involve a synthesis of the practical and poetic, the sensual and therapeutic, the beautiful and imaginal, the material and socially idealistic could begin a process of crystallisation now that will bring long-lasting, tangible, beautiful results.
Jupiter, god of good fortune, enters Taurus
On Tuesday this week, Jupiter, planet of amplification, abundance, joviality and largesse, entered Taurus, sign of the gloriously fertile garden. If you’ve been noticing some major astrological buzz around this event, that’s because Jupiter’s movement into Taurus signifies a general improvement in fortune for people and situations across the board (with some caveats of course!). As one of the traditionally ‘lucky’ planets, Jupiter is now leaving Aries, sign of one of the ‘unlucky’ ones, Mars, and enters the sign of the Lesser Benefic, Venus, second ‘luckiest’ after the King of the Gods.
In reality, Jupiter expands, enlarges and amplifies whatever it touches, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill, however the ultimate outcome always results in some kind of positive personal and collective growth. As the planet of belief and the search for meaning, and the archetype of the generous teacher, Jupiter also expands whatever ideas and beliefs we invest in intellectually and energetically. Jupiter also governs the concept of ‘the greater good’. In the sign of Earth’s resources it suggests that if we focus our efforts, endeavours and enterprises to benefit the many and the diversity of Earth’s inhabitants and expressions, the personal and collective benefits could be enormous.
For one whole year until 26 May 2024, the god of the glorious blue sky, of far-reaching visions and optimistic expansion, of wealth and good fortune will focus its slow fertilizing growth in the sign of material resources, sensual pleasures, the body, beauty, art, food and what really matters to us most. It’s going to be travelling in the same sign with Uranus though, so we can also expect some unexpected twists and turns, some whirlwind energy, breakdowns, shocks and breakthroughs during the course of the year, however, the Jupiter-Uranus combo virtually guarantees that there’ll the lasting and valuable innovations as a result.
If all goes well, Jupiter’s sojourn through Taurus should magnify our creative opportunities, enhance our pleasure and improve quality of life particularly as we relate to our own bodies, resources, talents and relationship to nature. With any luck - and both Jupiter and Venus signify luck - the Greater Benefic’s passage through Taurus over the next year will usher in more financial stability personally and collectively as well.
On the downside, Jupiter in Taurus can amplify all kinds of addictive tendencies and their repercussions; the kinds of desires that can never really be satiated, which poison and corrode self-worth. So it’s important to know if this is the case this year, that there’s also a positive evolutionary intention behind this kind of exaggeration. This is an extremely powerful year to work with or seek out trustworthy and inspiring teachers, to explore wise spiritual disciplines, to focus on body-centred healing practices that attend to trauma. Depending on where Taurus falls in your chart, various topics are likely to be enlarged to both positive and challenging effect this year but their purpose is to achieve positive growth.
Coming in with a bang: Jupiter squares Pluto
We might receive a glimpse of some of those initially amplified challenges when Jupiter enters Taurus and immediately squares Pluto at 0 Aquarius in a hard tension with echoes until the end of May. The planet of death and putrefaction, revelation and transformation could lay a heavy burden on our initial enthusiasms, indicating that our magnificent garden party visions may require some deeper excavation and stinkier composting to fertilise the fecundity and lasting foundations of our future-fruiting arbors of joy.
The desire for security and stability is in tension here with the need for deep change that might require pushing boundaries or breaking free from societal norms and expectations. And ultimately the part of us that wants to dig in and resist ‘necessary’ destructions always loses out to the titanic force of Pluto, especially in Aquarius, which is fundamentally future bound. The crucial thing to remember with Pluto dynamics is that what seems terrible initially turns out ultimately for the best, and it’s a HELL of a lot easier when we surrender rather than resist the process. Keep in mind sweet friends, that SHIT is the stuff that actually nourishes growth and abundance. It’s NOT a reflection of our worth or what we deserve but it does highlight the fact that there’s a better way on the other side, and that some thing must give in order to get to it.
Staying present to the messages and insights that surface through the muck between now until the end of May and softening to receive the hidden wisdom of intensities will help enormously to ease suffering. Paying deep attention to the nuance and deeper meaning and significance of these experiences could also reveal to us the ways in which they’re already nourishing growth and transformation in our lives, which can feel buoying and motivating. Anything that feels extra challenging this week invites tender attention, compassion, curiosity and a radical acceptance of what is. Accepting reality creates that magical space in which transformative change seems to happen almost effortlessly.
TAURUS NEW MOON
Saturday’s lush New Moon in Taurus sets the stage for some big astrology. A more potent window for initiating intentions than the average New Moon, this is a lunation to dream on what we care about most, to purify the toxic shadows of belief and experience that have been clogging our hearts and power, to experience a passionate renewal that allows us to act courageously on our values and beliefs with a synergy and exuberance that magnifies positive outcomes. Although Pluto, lord of the underworld opposes Mars, god of war and planet of passion, drive, courage, will, anger, violence, conflict and cutting on Sunday, and Jupiter, god of the greater good, squares them both in a profoundly transformative tension, we could feel the waves of magnitude before.
The Moon finds her exaltation in the fertile Taurean temple of the senses but on this lunation she also rules and is ruled by the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, in Cancer. Both goddesses are empowered by mutual reception and sextile here, which ups the ante on their capacities not only for luxurious nurturing and loving care but also for compassionate maternal authority. It’s as if they’re overseeing the impending confrontation between the young, emotionally reactive god Mars, who’s been emotionally triggered in Cancer since March 25, and the god of death and destruction who is aeons older and more powerful, and whose purpose in Aquarius and sense of reckoning is focused on the bigger picture.
Venus’ entry into Cancer on May 8 has already helped to soothe some of the Martian inflammation around topics of family, feeling and the past, and she continues to exert a pacifying influence on Mars on this New Moon, as does the exalted Moon herself in an almost exact sextile to Mars, restraining impulsive aggression with a sweet and reassuring hand. Neptune, planet of illusions, memories, forgiveness and healing is almost exactly trine to Mars, which can both soften and dissolve the urge to assert ourselves in a triggering power dynamic or fuel the delusional stories we draw on as evidence for sticking to our guns. But with so many positive forces at play on this lunation, it’s as if Venus and the Moon beckon Mars from the ledge of this destructive 29th degree of its fall in Cancer with an invitation to eat a delicious, heart-warming feast.
On Sunday 21 May, when Mars finally enters Leo, the relief should feel considerable but the planet of fiery passions runs right into an existential conflict with the god of the underworld, planet of death, psychology and deep transformations, Pluto. At the same time Jupiter, god of meaning and the greater good, already squaring Pluto since Tuesday, now squares Mars as well. The nature of this dynamic could find its reflection in a deep and profound sense of catharsis and renewal, a passionate drive to realise endeavours that make a difference in the world while generating greater abundance, or in hugely powerful psychological breakthroughs that feel like a victory against inner demons or overwhelming forces that literally transforms the status quo.
However, we could also see this dynamic reflected in power struggles, explosive and exaggerated reactions, confrontation between the needs and desires of the self and those of the group, or conflicts of belief relating to values, money and resources and impact on self worth. If we do find ourselves swept up in the vortex of these energies, we can trust that something rich and profound is wanting to emerge through these processes of intensity, dissolution, destruction, revelation and regeneration. Wherever possible, avoid power plays that could cause damage and find flow in the transformations wanting to come through. They present hugely positive opportunities for abundant growth.
To optimise our receptivity to these energies we might pay attention to the power of what’s playing out and meditate on its transformative significance, take time to appreciate the beauties in our lives and connections, lead courageously from our hearts, empower others, protect vulnerable inner children, champion unusual and innovative ideas that could benefit the many, express heartfelt truths that transform power dynamics with love, seek sweet reprieve in nature, dream up opportunities to synthesise the desire for playful self expression with ideas that make a difference , and above all, by cultivating faith in the miraculous and mysterious power of life and the painful experiences that transform us by compelling a deeper and more conscious relationship with ourselves and with the world, which rewards us with riches. Seed big intentions with passion and power on this Taurus New Moon sweet friends.
As children, few of us are taught to understand and prioritize our feelings….There is a set of rules and expectations put upon us that is not about exploring who we are or what we’re capable of… As artists, our mission is not to fit in or conform to popular thinking. Our purpose is to value and develop our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 257-8
