New York, April 26, 2013 | Read about the benefits of Planet Waves membership
May 2013: Moving Heaven and Earth

The story of May 2013 continues a story begun in late April -- that of eclipses along the passionate Taurus/Scorpio axis. This comes simultaneously with a large grouping of planets in Taurus, which will include Mercury, Venus, the Sun and Mars all contributing heat and action, plus the asteroid Pallas Athene contributing a cool, reflective and intellectual quality that will come in handy.

The partial lunar eclipse in Scorpio was Thursday, April 25, the first eclipse in a series of three. The Sun was conjunct Mars and the Moon was conjunct Saturn. Mars and Saturn are still in an opposition aspect. The energy of the eclipse is still cooking. Glyph legend here.

This is also the season of Beltane -- the time noted by the Old Religion when the connection between sex, fertility and prosperity comes to the forefront. That is exact May 5, though for several reasons this year has an extended and unusually powerful Beltane season. That is related to the eclipses that have found their way into our current region of the zodiac.

May is also the month of the third of seven Uranus-Pluto squares, which span from June 2012 through March 2015. I call this the "2012 Era Aspect," and it's the thing that -- whether we see it or not -- is shaping our world into the next world we will inhabit. I'll come back to that -- let's start with the eclipses.

Eclipses are about making progress -- they take us from one region of our lives to another. They are like rifts in the landscape of time, dividing one kind of territory and experience from another. They help us shift and create patterns, that is, let go of old ways of living and evolve into new ones. Spring is a perfect time of year for a series of eclipses, as the energy is already rising up out of the ground.

In the time of eclipses, it's necessary to project your life in the direction you want, and in a sense, to look where you want to be. It can be easy to be caught up in the drama of the moment, though there is enormous creative power in these events.

Most of the time eclipses come in pairs; the current run is a group of three. The first of these was Thursday, April 25, and was a partial lunar eclipse in Scorpio. Think of that as a very precisely aligned Full Moon, but not quite aligned enough to have a dramatic visual effect.

Taurus New Moon annular solar eclipse. Look at all those planets stuffed into Taurus! It's a regular herd of bovine critters, including Mercury, Mars, Pallas and the South Node, along with the Moon and the Sun. The eclipse is exactly conjunct Pallas, suggesting a thoughtful approach to unbridled passion. Glyph legend here.

Such eclipses can, however, have a significant spiritual influence, and this one is about draining old, clogged-up or sticky emotions. It's about letting go of attachment to the past, since the eclipse is conjunct Saturn in Scorpio. It's the first necessary step in the process. Saturn in Scorpio (which lasts into 2015 if you include its retrograde) is about clearing out our antiquated, ancestral, past-life values about the mysteries of existence, principal among them sex and death. There's a need to unravel the taboos on these topics, and to dissolve the emotional plaque that is clogging the conversation.

Next up is a solar eclipse in Taurus. This is an annular eclipse (what would be a total eclipse, but the Moon is too far from the Earth to block the Sun fully) in Taurus. This is also the Taurus New Moon. It happens as part of a cluster of planets in Taurus that includes (in order of degree) Mars, Mercury, the Sun, the Moon and Pallas Athene. The whole arrangement is loosely opposite Saturn, but implying that we can indeed be free of any emotional blockages, or we have them out of the way for now.

What's unusual about this eclipse is that it's conjunct one of the first-discovered asteroids -- Pallas Athene. She has a diversity of themes, including strategy, law, government, guardianship and one's relationship to one's father. In a sense this calls attention to our relationship with Big Daddy -- the government -- which is increasingly becoming a spiritual theme.

There's also something here about living with a conscious strategy. It's true that various forms of psychology and spirituality are suspicious of having a strategy; it's often equated with one's heart being closed. However here on the physical plane, it's necessary to direct one's life with intention, and I think this is what Pallas is saying in the most personal sense.

Penumbral lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. This is an exciting chart. The Sun and Moon are both square Neptune, which is dreamy and idealistic, even a bit visionary -- and Mercury and Venus are in a conjunction. That's about using the full spectrum of your intelligence -- physical, mental and emotional. The 'spiritual' angle enters through Neptune, though that's the one that's more challenging to grasp, being elusive to many but accessible to some. Glyph legend here.

Finally, there is a third eclipse -- a penumbral eclipse of the Moon -- that takes place May 25. This is four days after the Sun has ingressed Gemini, so you might think of it as being on another slice of the orange. It's the last eclipse on the Gemini / Sagittarius axis for several years.

By this time, much of the sky will have shifted into Gemini -- including the Sun, plus Venus and Mercury (in a lovely conjunction), all of which are joining Jupiter. The eclipse has an idealism and optimism to it -- it's exactly square Neptune, the planet of dreams. The Mercury-Venus conjunction is saying: use the whole spectrum of your intelligence. That means mental, emotional and intuitive.

Remember your independence. Remember that you're free to adopt another point of view than the ones the people around you might be taking. Don't be surprised if you see the world a particular way and others don't quite get it -- that's temporary.

There's one last feature for May, and that is the Uranus-Pluto square, part three of seven. As I've written before, this is the first major Uranus-Pluto aspect since the 1960s. Indeed, what we think of the 1960s was all about such an aspect -- the conjunction, in Virgo. Nearly half a century later this has evolved into the square, which reaches across the cardinal signs from Aries to Capricorn.

Uranus is about revolution and Pluto is about evolution. Uranus in Aries is encouraging radical self-awareness and expression, and Pluto in Capricorn is provoking deep questioning of 'the system', the family system, society and our role in it. Who knows what sense of progress will be in the air, as Uranus and Pluto meet up for the third time in the midst of these glorious, intriguing eclipses.

The spiritual path tells us that all progress starts within. This aspect is the perfect blend of self-consciousness plus a deep need to work the interior, the shadow side, the structures that we've internalized unconsciously -- and set ourselves free, always mindful of the necessary balance of liberty and responsibility.