Beltane

Astrological news this week: Care for the soul with Neptune and Ceres

Astrological update for the week of May 2-9, 2022

art by Amanda Clark

For the first few days of the week we are still under the influence of the April 30 solar eclipse at the Taurus New Moon which is nice grounding influence to help balance the mystic wonder of a Pisces stellium of four planets.

Pisces’ modern ruler Neptune is in a challenging square to Ceres, the planet that inspires us to care and nurture our physical bodies, so it’s important right now not to become so wrapped up in the Pisces care for the soul that we forget the other two legs of the stool, the body and mind.  The exact aspect was May 1st, but the influence will remain in effect for a couple of weeks and then Jupiter will square Ceres later in the month (May 18th).  This could lead to a tendency towards over-indulgence so establishing a good habit now will really help us to maintain our balance throughout the month.

One of the four Pisces planets is Mars, and when Mars (action) is in Pisces we often wonder where our “get up and go” went as the old saying goes. Taurus isn’t a very energetic sign either, so we may feel that it’s difficult to motivate ourselves.  This will start to lift when Venus (relating) enters Aries on May 2nd and begins to invigorate our interactions with others.

Jupiter, planet of optimism and expansion, is in a harmonious aspect to Pluto which peaks on May 3rd, and the entire first week of May will be infused by a boost of self-confidence and a clear path to our goals. The faster moving planets are helpful now with this endeavor; the Sun and […]

Share this article...
By |2022-05-01T08:09:06-04:00May 2nd, 2022|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Passion and adjustment: Scorpio Full Moon May 7, 2020

artist unknown

At any Full Moon we are dealing with two opposite signs with opposing polarities, each one needing what the other one possesses in order to become truly whole.  This can serve to bring out our inner contradictions, and heighten the intense emotionality for which the Full Moon is well known.  The Scorpio Full Moon features an opposition to the Taurus Sun: the intensity and passion of Scorpio needs to find balance against the need for serenity and peacefulness of Taurus.  Both are fixed signs: stubborn and powerful, with a tendency towards rigidity and difficulty letting go.  Scorpio, though, is intensely emotional and dramatic where Taurus is, or at least wants to be, placid but still powerful – very like the bull for which it is named.

This Full Moon reminds us that we can become our best selves when we find balance between these two dynamics:  the power of emotions and the power of stillness.  The potency of this time is echoed in the fact that the astrological Beltane, a fire festival honoring the god Belenos (the shining one), occurs at the midway point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, at 15 degrees Taurus.  The Vesak festival honoring not only the birth of Buddha, but also his enlightenment and death,  is a festival of lights which takes place each year at the Scorpio Full Moon.  Scorpio is ruled for its passionate potency, and the Scorpio Full Moon has the potential to create a powerful force of Will which can be used to create and manifest.  The Scorpio Full Moon calls on us to explore the deep realms of the unconscious and our own passionate natures and come to terms with our own inner […]

Share this article...
By |2020-05-05T08:41:44-04:00May 5th, 2020|Moon|10 Comments

Happy May Day, and a few more Royal Wedding thoughts

Today is the first of May, widely celebrated by neo-pagans as Beltane, the fire festival which honors Bel, the god of fire.  Because Beltane is a “cross-quarter” festival, meaning it occurs at the halfway point between the equinox and solstice, it will not actually occur until May 5th when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus. In any event, with so many planets still in Aries, including Mars and Jupiter which reach their peak conjunction today, a fire festival is an excellent way to channel some of the fiery energy that abounds right now.

astrology of the royal weddingI’d like to return briefly to the Royal Wedding discussion.  Many astrologers have pointed out the fact that the wedding chart shows the Moon void of course at 26 degrees Pisces, meaning that the Moon is unaspected and will not make aspects to any other planets until it reaches the next sign (Aries) which it did on Friday just after the wedding.  Electional charts (charts that are used to “elect” a particular date typically would never have a Moon void of course which suggests that an astrologer was probably not used in planning this wedding.  (Whether or not the void Moon has an impact in our daily lives is a matter of great debate and most astrologers agree that focusing on such minutiae is not always helpful in our daily lives.)

In any case, since the Moon in a wedding chart represents the heart of the marriage, that void Moon reinforces my sense that the emotional heart of this marriage will not take hold.

One of my readers commented that Dharmaruci has the best posts on the Royal Wedding and while normally I would be offended by a comment suggesting that another […]

Share this article...
By |2011-05-01T09:58:09-04:00May 1st, 2011|Astrology, Moon, People|4 Comments

Happy Beltane and Wesak 2010

A portion of this article is reposted from previous work

(A portion of this article is reprinted from an earlier post)

In ancient Celtic times, the wheel of the year was honored as the turning of the seasons. In the northern hemispheres, the winter solstice was the shortest day of the year and represented the return of the light, and the summer solstice, being the longest day of the year, was the Celtic fire festival. The equinoxes represented the points of balance when day and night were of equal length: the vernal equinox represented planting and fertility, and the autumnal equinox was the time of harvest. (Southern hemisphere civilizations had their own traditions of marking the seasons which obviously were very different than in the north.)

Halfway between these solar events are the “cross-quarter” days, the times of magic. Still celebrated today for their imaginal power, these were the periods when the Sun was at the midpoint of the fixed signs: Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius. In the astrological wheel, the cardinal signs of initiation are followed by the fixed signs of stability, which are followed in turn by the mutable signs of adaptation. So we have cardinal Aries at the Vernal equinox (in tropical astrology), followed by fixed Taurus at the cross-quarter, which precedes mutable Gemini. Cancer begins the summer solstice, followed by Leo at the cross-quarter, which precedes Virgo, and so it goes around the wheel.

Each of these “triplicities” as they are called has a different energy. The cardinal signs demonstrate leadership, they initiate action, each in its own way according to its element (fire, water, earth and air). The fixed signs are stable, rooted, grounded. In many ways they are the most powerful because they don’t […]

Share this article...
By |2010-04-30T11:33:40-04:00April 30th, 2010|Life, Moon|2 Comments