Constellation of Taurus.

May is the season of Beltane -- the peak of springtime and the pre-Christian celebration of life, love and Eros. This year we have the Taurus New Moon occurring directly on Beltane, May 5. The New Moon is often an internally-oriented time, though deep inner space is an excellent place from which to share with yourself or with someone you hold near. There is a mysterious Full Moon in the very last degree of Scorpio on May 20, which is a reminder to not check your sense of humor at the door. Later in the month, Mercury begins a retrograde in Gemini. This lasts from May 27 until right before summer solstice on June 20. In one of those cosmic synchronicities, Neptune turns retrograde the same day as Mercury, suggesting an entirely new approach to both mental processes and intuitive ones. There is indeed another side of the story, another way of looking at the world and another way of relating to ourselves. It's waiting for us, if we are open to it.

Mars is Calling Taurus What is it about Taurus men? Is it possible to get through that impeccable exterior to the inner core within? Sometimes it seems not. There are those days when many among them seem unreachable, or so determined to focus on their own way of seeing the world that there seems to be no other. Here is the secret: Taurus men don't do anything they don't want to do. If they're doing it, they want to do it. If they're not doing it, they don't want to do it. Mars calling explores the inner psyche of men born under the sign of the Bull. Pre-order just the Taurus edition, or all 12 signs here. Mars calling is being distributed one chapter at a time, as the Sun goes through that particular sign.The chapters are generous and cover the Sun and Moon for each sign. Aries was distributed about a week ago; Taurus is coming around May 8. We will introduce Venus Calling as a separate series starting with Libra in October.

Aries (March 20-April 19)
If you are experiencing your potential more like a violent tug than a gentle ascent to grandeur, look for where you're resisting internally. Around you there is nothing but opportunity. No glass ceiling separates you from the sky; no walls or locked door divides you from the terrain of existence that is spreading out around you. Yet what is developing internally is calling you to match any possibility you might hope for in the world with an inner revolution. One will make way for the other. For the most part, people are willing to live unconsciously, or they insist on doing so because awareness is too painful, or too much of a hassle. The most profound ignorance does not involve worldly knowledge, but rather is that which veils who we are from ourselves. This is what you are being called upon to let go of, and admittedly this takes some guts. You may feel like you have to release some aspect of denial all at once, and if that happens you may fear you're going to be left in totally unfamiliar territory, with no sense of orientation. Even if this were possible, you would be a lot better off experiencing that than attempting to sort out your life one grain of rice at a time.

Taurus symbol. Scanned from reproduction of a medieval book of astrology (15th century). Photo: Wikipedia.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
As a stunning New Moon sweeps through your birth sign this month, I suggest you ask yourself one question: is what you want based on what you want, or is it based on some extreme external conditioning? One's work or mission must be based on an inner process in order to be authentic. While it's impossible to sort out all external factors, there are a few you need to be aware of. These principally involve the effects of what you were told you could not do. The equation parses out like this. If you were blocked, chastised, or punished for expressing your talents, this can trigger a kind of obsession with ambition. The effect would be to make you object oriented rather than process oriented; in spiritual terms, you could stay hung up on the supposed destination rather than the journey. You will have a clue about whether this is happening if in some way you emphasize image over substance; if you are concerned more about what people think than how you feel. The most helpful thing you can do at this point is discern whether your goals are really your goals. Where exactly did they come from, and what other options do you see? For where you are at now, is it necessary to have goals at all, or do they conceal something deeper -- something you truly want and need?

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You need to leave yourself plenty of room to change your mind. I know this sounds like telling a Pisces they need to go to the beach, but it would appear that you are going to reconsider something about which you are at the moment feeling confident and committed. Please don't let the secret desire for commitment substitute for the real thing. As you progress through these weeks, you will have access to all the information you need; when you look back at this time, you'll be surprised by what you already knew, and how early you knew it. But in advance, you may not be assembling the pieces. Then one afternoon, a revelation arrives: but is it doubt, or is it a breakthrough? Is it hesitation and insecurity, or are you being given some authentic inspiration? These are the approximate choices you have available. In other words, when you get to the reversal point, you get to define what it is and why you are there. Consciously reach into the wisdom of insecurity. Touch that moment when you have no options at all. If you get to the place where you seem to be standing in a vacuum, remember you can fill it with anything you like.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You have been learning so much about yourself, you could fill a library or two. Yet so far, you've had limited opportunities to put your knowledge into action. Currently you have the option to create a new strategy for life based on what you have discovered about yourself in the past year or so. You know a lot that you're not admitting: about your preferences for how you spend your time; where, and with whom. Certain people have begun to impact your life in a way that would have been highly unusual not long ago, and you may be recognizing that not everyone is as wholesome an influence as you would have liked. You have options you never quite imagined would be real. And finally, you may feel that the potential for failure has never been greater. Usually that is a pretty good portent. For any possibility to be made real, it helps to contact all the other possibilities too. This is not merely about thinking you have some choice in the matter of your life; rather, it's about making contact with the fact that life is comprised of cycles and of elements that often contain their opposite force of influence. Being mindful of this balance will give you strength, sanity and some extra freedom.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Fair to say that over the past six months, you've faced some of your worst fears. You're not only still alive, you have made it fully intact into a new season of your life. You've also come to terms with the essentially fearful nature of human emotions: we tend to be fixated on what can (and what we think will) go wrong, rather than what we know we can achieve. Unlike most people, you don't tend to be negatively obsessed; rather, there seems to be a fearful thought that pops up and threatens your peace of mind. This is the tiger that you've been learning to flirt with. Large fears are made of small ones that have gone out of control. Doubts about the great matters in life are often related to small or seemingly insignificant insecurities. You have been taken on a grand tour of all of these states of mind, and by now, the connections between the great and the petty should be obvious. Events over the next few weeks will reveal to you how potent is your influence on the world. You may find that people rebel against your strength or influence. Now, however, you can take it in stride, even as a compliment.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Saturn transiting your birth sign is about helping you feel more settled and solid in life, which is a necessary precursor for freedom. Pluto in Capricorn is helping you push through some of the overcooked boundaries and restrictions you place on yourself. These may feel like contradictory influences: breaking up restrictions while at the same time embodying the Saturn principle. Rather, they work together as one combined influence. Saturn is often perceived as a kind of stuck influence -- but not when it's making a transit. Then it moves the world, moves you, and gives you the strength to overcome the ideas or changes you may have resisted for years. Pluto is working in perfect harmony with Saturn now, and it too has a job to do: to take you back to the feeling of being young. There are reasons you have chosen not to take certain risks in life, and these are being dismantled. One quality that you are overcoming, and will be for the foreseeable future, is a tendency to conserve your energy rather than explore, expand or extend it. You could say this results in a kind of conservatism, though currently it looks like you're liberating your energy. The result will not be about being liberal; the result will be liberation.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You may wonder how deep you need to dig into yourself until you feel secure. You may want to try digging into your parents and their ideas about life, which your soul is challenging with every quantum of its strength. Now is the time to let go of the delusion (held by most of the Western world) that our parents really don't influence us all that much. In truth, they created the structure in which you live. In the days of yore, this used to be something practical, like a house. Today, it is restricted to our self-concept: our ego structure, and these are rarely useful. What you may be noticing is just how isolating that structure really is. Despite the fact of so many people being interested in you, your tendency to hide in a room in your mind would make you better suited for life on an island. You can come out of that dark space, if you want, but you will need to brave the unpredictable emotional elements of life in a direct way. If you don't, they will find you where you are retreating. Many have noticed that putting up barriers only serves to increase the intensity of the storm raging outside. If you think of it more as an adventure, I assure you it will feel like one.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Mars has spent nearly five months dancing around the sign Cancer, your 9th solar house. Contrary to any description of Scorpio that you will read, this has had you thrashing over whether your life plans are right or wrong. I trust that you have, by this time, begun to enjoy the process of questioning your intentions and determining whether something actually feels right before you thrust yourself into it. However, Mars has finally broken free of the retrograde effect that dominated the winter and early spring, and is about to cross the midheaven angle of your chart. This is the time to put your plans into action, with gusto. The sticking point may be a series of negotiations with others that could benefit from a thorough review for accuracy, integrity and whether they are realistic. I don't suggest you allow this to block your movement through the world, however. Most things you want to do don't call for the involvement of others. Those involvements might turn out to be good for you, and will definitely turn out to be good for them; the key is making sure that shared arrangements of any kind are good for everyone. So take your time where those discussions are concerned, and be bold about everything else.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
You don't necessarily consider yourself a creative person. Even if you're a talented artist, you're likely to be the type to say, "I'm just being me." You appear, though, to be in a struggle over what I will call your creative identity. This is part of a larger question that involves not being able to dial in the prior versions of yourself that in the past proved so dependable. The experience may seem like a spacecraft that has disappeared behind a planet and has lost radio contact with base. It's like the old scripts and ego identities still exist, but they're in a void that is compelling you to think of yourself in new ways. Please take advantage of this. A whole assortment of presumptions, largely the result of your talent for fashioning yourself into a kind of living myth, are now finally being questioned. You are on a journey into the unknown -- which I trust is suited to your taste for adventure. The real effect, if you allow it, is spurring your creative passions. Now, passions are strong, but they are a poor match for the oppressive and boring teachings of society. In other words, if you get a blast of creativity, run with it, lest it be subsumed back into the belly of the Borg.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You want action. Let's see if we can figure out where you're going to find it. Or rather, where it is going to find you. I think the word is directly. You're accustomed to one particular part of your life going with excruciating, even agonizing slowness. Keep your antennas up, because it's likely to pick up the pace. As it does, you may face various questions of appropriateness: Do I mix a sexual relationship with one that involves another commitment? Can I even think about it? Will I be giving someone too much power over me? Ya, these are the questions that nobody would have given a hoot or a toot about in 1975. But it's not the Seventies anymore; we are in another land, the land of boundaries and borders and limits. We are, collectively, moving through a time when fear is the reason to avoid everyone and everything except maybe prescription medication and a tall latte. Most people don't feel it as strange: it is very, very strange. You need a definition of integrity that allows you to have the fun you want, and by that, I mean the naughty kind of fun. Remember, integrity means being a whole person, not a pure one.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Keep building from the inside out. Forget ambition, aspiration, the big prize, the house on the hill. Remember your core, your rich, inner domain, the abundance of wealth that you stand on, live on, nourish yourself from. Rather than look up, I suggest you work on a horizontal plane. This is not the place to include a long rant over our culture's obsession with up and down as the only directions of movement; but then most people didn't make it through geometry. As one of the smartest signs of the zodiac, you are no doubt familiar with the concept of an X-axis as well as the Y-axis. Look out on your level of reality in all directions. Notice who you see: there will be a number of people who are sufficiently self-aware and in contact with their desires to be able to respond to yours. Note: you will meet the occasional egomaniac as well; you will recognize them by their visible tendency toward hostility. While you may want to express your usual tendency to tame or fix such souls, you would be wasting an opportunity to indulge in some excellent missing experiences.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Focus on keeping a positive attitude. The planets that are aligned around you are so solid, grounded and dependable that the only thing that could possibly stop you from having the time of your life is a negative state of mind. Therefore, addressing that is the starting point (and I don't see it as an issue by the way -- only as a potential pitfall that could affect anyone at any time on a seriously depressed planet). Take care of the basics first. Make a few moves and keep the bank balance in the black; don't let small tasks drag down your bigger vision. Do the dishes before you go to bed so when you wake up, the new day is not marked by the effects of the prior one. (This is a meaningful lesson in how karma works.) Keep clear with the people around you, and resolve differences quickly; don't let your conscience be troubled. Then, rock out: push the concept and the reality of freedom. Indulge the hedonist side of your nature for a change. Take chances that you would not ordinarily take: say yes, ask for what you want, and trade in being a perfect person for being a bold one. As a Pisces, you may feel you've seen it all -- but push the bounds of reality till you try something new, or till it tries you.