By my reckoning Beltane was Sunday at 4:18 am EDT, meaning that’s when the Sun reaches the midpoint of Taurus. That in turn is the midpoint between the equinox and the solstice (known as the cross-quarter). It’s a tipping point of the year and for us in the Northern Hemisphere, a moment when we know spring has actually arrived.
That is, unless you live in that swath of Iowa, Kansas or Minnesota — hardy people out there, who are currently buried under enough snow to require front-end loaders to move it out of the way.
Beltane is a time for the ritual of Hieros Gamos — playing out the sexual communion between God and Goddess, symbolic of the harmonization of opposites. We spend a lot of time frustrated with our opposite, and this is a time to release that and reach a natural state of harmony.
For this event, the Moon was in Pisces (it’s in Aries now), and Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pallas Athene are all in Taurus. It’s quite a chart. Mercury is making an opposition to Saturn in Scorpio (exact yesterday, but still in effect). Since we’re on the topic of sex (apropos of Beltane) this aspect is worth a moment of reflection along the theme of sexual communication.
There is potentially an imbalance to be aware of here. You’re not hallucinating if you’ve noticed that many people put a lot of energy into stuffing or otherwise denying their desire. There are many reasons for this: fear, the notion of losing control, the need to feel like a moral person, not having a model for how to express the energy, some form of old pain or grief, guilt, shame, etc. — and it’s very difficult to negotiate with these emotions.
But Mercury wants to; it wants retrograde Saturn to open up and let out some of its feelings. Mercury is asking Saturn not to be so invested in the past. Mercury in Taurus makes perfect sense, but this is not about sense. I would suggest that instead of trying to convince anyone to change, or waiting for it to happen, that you find people on your wavelength and share with them. Otherwise what you’re doing is making someone else’s hangup into your own, which becomes a kind of excuse not to be free to choose for yourself.
“Trying to get someone to open up” sounds like trying to work out parental material with a partner; that rarely works.
This is a special Beltane season, since there’s an eclipse coming on May 9 at 8:28 pm EDT. We’ve covered this eclipse in a recent SKY column (a regular feature in our premium membership mailings). The eclipse also contains a cautionary note about parental material — it’s conjunct Pallas Athene. That’s a caution about doing things designed to get your dad to approve of you.
One nice element in the eclipse chart is that Venus will have moved into Gemini by then, where it’s open to additional viewpoints, and more concerned with having a good time than it is with monogamy or commitment. Mars in Taurus is closer to the South Node, so it’s an integral element of the eclipse. There’s a message there about being aware of attachment, and what that means as opposed to loving someone. You don’t need to let go of desire or pleasure or even love when you let go of attachment; what would help is if you have enough self-esteem to recognize that love is real.
Which brings me to masturbation month. Sometime in the 1990s, the Good Vibrations sex toy stores in San Francisco and Berkeley designated May as Masturbation Month. This is interesting given that Beltane is the season of coupling, but I associate Taurus, where the Sun is through most of May, with masturbation. Think of this is Hieros Gamos with yourself.
Plenty of what goes on within a person involves conflict between and among various inner male and inner female archetypes, and explored consciously, it’s possible to have a lot of fun and bring yourself into tune.
Thank you Eric for your article, if I have understood correctly we would be in a season for sex? and if we add nine months that will place a small Aquarius… I wish you a good cycle of the Moon 🙂
One of the most interesting things about astrology is that the same aspect can manifest ten different ways for ten different people.
In 1998 I had a very serious car accident that could have been fatal. I was living in East Chatham, New York and about to leave to go to the dentist. Uranus was exactly conjunct my Sun at 13 degrees Aquarius. I was wearing a pair of loafers and looked out the window to find it was snowing lightly and said to myself, “I should put on my rubber boots just in case it gets worse.” Len would call it the influence of Orcus in my chart. There was very little snow on the ground. It was the end of February. Half way there, I hit a patch of black ice. My car flew to the other side of the road and back again. Heading off the road I knocked over two pine trees and the major electrical pole for the area which was sitting on the roof of my car. Throughout this time, all I could think of was Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda and I told myself that if I relinquished control and went with the experience, I would be alright and at that point I took my hands off the wheel and stopped trying to get the car under control. Little did I realize was that my car was conducting 38,000 volts of electricity. I had flames on the other side of my windshield and the current was arching. I thought the gas tank would blow so I did something you are never suppose to do – I got out of the car. I had landed on the front yard of this poor man who was watching a morning talk show and I blew up his TV. Over 25 rescue people came to the scene and no one could believe I had survived without a scratch. Holes were eaten throughout the body of my car, the tires were blown. They all told me they had never seen anyone survive an accident like mine yet alone walk away. It was seven months to the day of my father’s death and I have no doubts he was with me.
I had had a reading done for my birthday a couple of weeks before and called the astrologer as well as two friends who are both professional astrologers. No one had picked up on the possibility of the aspect. The obvious response is Uranus – electricity – but there was nothing to indicate an accident of that magnitude. The accident caused a power outage for a very large area and, in fact, there were 11 car accidents that day due to black ice. Intuition and my rubber boots kept me alive.
Chiron was/is part of the pattern as it turns out. At 16 Aquarius he is trine Pallas-Athene at 15 Gemini in the Pluto-Ingress-Capricorn (#2) on 11/26/08. Being in league with the warrior queen – Goddess of Wisdom would explain his appearance at this time in the U.S. armed services challenge to overcome their history of sex abuse crimes.
We know how active Chiron is presently, but looking at his own ingress into Pisces on February 8, 2011, tells us more about his mission; his game plan for this 8 year stay in Pisces. The nodes had reached the end of the cardinal axis of Cancer-Capricorn, with the north node at 1 Capricorn and the south node at 1 Cancer. Since Chiron was sextile the north node and trine the south node, it would appear that part of his plan was to facilitate the upcoming transition of the nodes into the mutable-transitional axis of Gemini-Sagittarius.
At that time Pluto at 6 Capricorn was not only conjunct the north node but also Venus and Vesta both at 5 Capricorn. This combination suggests a transformation (Pluto) of institutional (Cap) values (Venus) and what we invest our capital in (Vesta). Chiron was in a position to help dissolve (Pisces) those values and investments which had out-lived their purpose.
Another triple conjunction symbolizing three simultaneous new cycles were in Aquarius; Sun (19 degrees), Mars (18 degrees) and Nessus (20 degrees). These three were aspecting an opposition of Moon (the People, feelings, family) at 22 Aries opposite Saturn (Government, endurance, law) at 17 Libra rx. The Sun, representing consciousness, and his 2 companions were trine Saturn, providing a thoughtlessly (air) unconscious ease of operation, and their sextile to the Moon, needed just a little more effort in the operation, but still do-able. With Mars as the Sun’s companion #1 (being the ruler of the Moon’s sign of Aries), it was going to be a well-balanced division of weight – a “fair” fight.
With Nessus as the #2 companion of the Sun, unconscious and unpleasant aspects of humanity’s nature would have to be brought to the surface during Chiron’s stay in Pisces. As if that weren’t enough for the Sun (consciousness) to deal with, Karma (what goes ’round. . ) at 22 Aquarius, Damocles (imminent danger) at 19 Aquarius and Urania (staying to the bitter end) at 18 Aquarius were also close providing moral support(!) This was the picture in early 2011 and what Chiron brought to the table for the 8 years to follow.
One last little detail to watch for in Chiron’s ingress chart is an opposition between Uranus at 28 Pisces to Juno at 28 Virgo rx. In this chart, Uranus, unconscious by design, and Juno, suppressed by choice, symbolize a period of time where total freedom (Uranus in Pisces) must come to terms (balance) with responsibilities (Juno in Virgo) in many areas of human participation. I believe it is a clue as to how we must integrate what DOES work, as Amanda tells us, in our relationships (responsibly and spiritually) and discard what doesn’t stimulate growth. This chart has a symbolic bowl pattern with the brim of the bowl across the Aries (Moon) and Libra (Saturn) axis containing all the major planets (energy). What’s open for exploration is all the space between Taurus and Virgo and that’s where we meet the (not so) minor symbol of Juno who represents connectivity and equality. Nobody said it would be easy.
be
Sexual abuse crimes in the military is an obvious manifestation of this planetary pattern. Chris Hayes interviewed a woman in the Air Force on tonight’s program who also represented a group challenging the stagnation in following up on these charges by the military, since they are under the authority of ranking service members. It was so in-your-face that I wondered if Chiron wasn’t also part of the pattern. Will check out Chiron’s ingress into Pisces chart, as well as Neptune’s to see if there is a connection.
be
My bad. . . In the Pluto ingress Capricorn chart, Pallas-Athene was quincunx (not trine) Venus and Saturn in Cap, who WAS trine Saturn in Virgo, but square Pallas-Athene in Gemini. Not so easy after all.
Still I see how having Venus conjunct Jupiter might make the quincunx adjustment a little easier. Fact is, even though Uranus WAS square Pallas-Athene, he was also sextile Jupiter and Venus in the Pluto ingress chart of November 2008. That would make a nice segue-way from “societal” shift to “universal” shift. Even better!
be
Works for me. . your reckoning that Beltane and cross-quarter, and the midpoint between equinox and solstice was reached yesterday when the Sun reached 15 Taurus. I would assume that on the day after the solar eclipse, when Mars reaches 15 Taurus, it should also be cause for observance. Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson in their book Mythic Astrology say that “There is an astrological tradition that the central point of each fixed sign (i.e., the 15th degree of each sign) represents this maximum focus of power.” (pg. 218)
They go on to give an example of when Pluto reached the 15th degree of Scorpio in 1989 . . . the Berlin Wall came down, and again when Pluto reached the 15th degree of Scorpio (the 3rd time in 1990) Iraq invaded Kuwait. Maybe it’s just a fixed sign thing.
Or maybe all the signs at their 15th degree symbolize something reaching it’s ultimate potency. I’m thinking specifically of when Venus reached 15 Gemini last June she occulted the Sun (2nd in a series of 2), and Gemini being a mutable sign, and mutable signs signify a seeking to balance, or a transition, it would be the most potent point in this sign for Love (or Values) to find a balance or harmony, or the ability to make a transition. As Gemini is involved in communication and associated with educating the youth, and the Sun symbolizes self-awareness and consciousness, then Venus (and Sun) at this degree could mark the beginning (conjunction) of communicating at the earliest level on how to find balance, harmony and to transition to the next level regarding love and values. There is some logic to this theory don’t you think?
In fact, when Pluto entered Capricorn for the last time in November 2008, Pallas-Athene was in the 15th degree of Gemini, and that got me to thinking about how both of these goddesses spring from myths about how they arrive on Earth full-blown, full-grown, and ready for action. Pallas-Athene (in the version most widely accepted) sprang from Jupiter’s head, while Venus (in the most widely accepted myth) sprang from Uranus’ seed that fell to the sea after his castration. Could it be that Gemini’s mid-point is facilitating a un-ordinary or even an extraordinary delivery of messaging the arrival of a new feminine symbolism full blown and ready for action?
You know, if you follow the mythological family tree, Venus and Pallas-Athene were related (even half-sisters in one version of Venus being the daughter of Jupiter and Dione). In the Pluto ingress chart Athene was trine Venus in Capricorn who was conjunct Jupiter who was trine Saturn. That leads me to believe that any transitioning (or balancing) might be at the level of society (Jupiter trine Saturn). But Pallas-Athene was also square Uranus in Pisces in that chart, a harder nut to crack. Maybe that’s why 3 1/2 years later (2012) Venus did her occultation of the Sun in that potent Gemini 15th degree. Her half-sister needed some help!
Here’s another interesting thing I learned about Venus in the Guttman-Johnson book, Mythic Astrology. Venus (as Aphrodite) was considered a “shape-shifter” (a common trait of those mythic entities born from the sea). (Page 42) And this. . Mutable signs are the “shape-shifters.” (page 222) And finally, in speaking of the mutable signs, Guttman and Johnson say “Combining the energies of the cardinal and fixed modes, they embody a paradox, a union of opposites.”
So if we accept that Venus is a shape-shifter goddess, and Gemini is a shape-shifter sign and a “union of opposites”, and the 15th degree (of any sign) is the most potent of all 30 in that sign, and Pallas-Athene symbolizes a woman in a man’s world, and that Pluto’s arrival in Capricorn is bent on uprooting out-moded traditional values as well as institutions, well then. . . . . . Transiting Mars in Venus’ sign of Taurus at the 15th degree on the day after the solar eclipse could ‘fix’ some Beltane initiative of a “harmonization of opposites” set by the Sun on Sunday, and supported by transiting Venus, Pallas-Athene and, most especially, the south node “release” point, and, most importantly, Mercury, in Taurus, opposite Saturn in Scorpio.
I think I’m finally catching on to just how meaningful that Venus Occultation (and simultaneous Moon Occultation of Pluto) of June 5, 2012 really will be for humankind. And mythology!
be
This is great Eric, thanks! I’m really cautious of continuing old stories as I don’t want them to continue to define my mental parameters. But my experience is also valid to draw on. I have a lot of desire and passion. It’s a vital connection to everything for me. It opens me to deeper awareness, expression, and relating. Connecting to it is the freedom to be all of me. I grew up with a significant influence that wanted to put desire in the background in favour of serving/helping others. I observed a lot of people doing the same because there was no guidance on how to release the shame or pain associated with enjoying desire and one’s sexuality. How does a woman talk to a celibate Lama that she was sexually abused? I mean really. Yes, there were teachings on how to transform the Kleshas into their wisdom aspect, do purification mantras, meditation, etc. ‘Not scratching the itch so that it doesn’t become infected with more desire’ (paraphrase) – a statement I really question now. But there wasn’t any real discussion and nourishment regarding the actual pain or trauma. I did my work quietly though and I can’t lie either that my practice allowed me a deeper insight into my own energy. There were several very special experiences I had too which I cannot write here that I know confirm this. It ultimately led me to where I’m at now and reconnecting a lot of dots. I’m not sure if I’m making sense. What I’m trying to say is “freeing desire” in conscious nourishing steps actually helped me to be more open to people around me. If my own cup is empty, how can I share it with anyone else? And I think by acknowledging my desires I move forward in every aspect of my life. I don’t exist in a vacuum of “third eye operation”. I exist from anus to crown, everything working together, and in my experience that starts with Desire with a capital “F”.
I put the “Cum” back into Communication.
It probably depends on what you mean by “denying.”
I am not saying that not denying = act on impulsively.
I am saying that not denying means acknowledging. Any healthy approach to desire would at least begin with admitting it’s there, then deciding what to do. This as opposed to pretending in some form, or psychologically subverting oneself.
Desire is one thing. Conscious self-control, which is necessary for conscious choosing, is another.
Negative aspects of “denying desire” are mentioned here – but there are positive aspects too… as in the option to love everyone equally without “that” in the equation. Everyone has different levels of desire. It doesn’t mean there is anything ‘wrong’. 😉