Dear Friend and Reader,
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, May is the season of Beltane, also known as Midspring holiday. The theme is love and abundance, explored consciously as part of our relationship to the planet. No matter how weird things may get on Earth, we are still in a relationship to the planet, and Beltane is the time to take that in a positive and creative direction. The timing is when the Sun reaches the midpoint of Taurus, usually on May 5.
It’s a tipping point in the year, a moment of concentrated energy to set intentions and manifest what you want for the coming seasons and through the inevitable winter. This year, we have the Taurus New Moon two days ahead of Beltane, so if I were the astrologer to the High Priestess, I would be suggesting Beltane celebrations begin the evening of May 2 and continue through the week. Some traditions take the whole month, and the festival is known as The May. There is a lot of fire in the Beltane chart — the Sun is in Taurus and many other planets are in Aries.
Lovingly,
Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions
Aries (March 20-April 19) — You may still be feeling hesitant from the recent retrograde of Mercury in your sign, but the winds of fortune are strong against your back. You can afford to act on your confidence, as long as you’re proceeding with sincerity. You have so much drive and passion, those are the last things you need to concern yourself with. The idea is to make sure you’re pursuing your heart’s desire. The time has arrived to be absolutely real — no faking, no delaying your true priorities, only moving from an authentic space. You may be thinking, How do I know what I really want? I would say: you do know. If you set aside all your excuses, all your rationalizations and you don’t let your mother make your decisions for you (overtly, or covertly) you will be on solid ground with yourself.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Many factors seem to be influencing you — if only you knew what they were. But what if you knew? What if you could see through all your doubts and seeming confusion? Stop and listen to yourself. If your inner monologue has been louder than usual, listen to what that voice is saying. Literally, what do the words mean, and what do the images you’re seeing show you? It may seem overly simple, but ‘knowing thyself’ actually does involve witnessing the contents of your awareness. The key is slowing down long enough to size up what is helpful, what is destructive, and giving yourself a moment to make a choice what to respond to. By choice, I mean a mentally oriented decision rather than being pushed or pulled by your emotions.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You go through phases of searching for your own identity among the people around you, and after what you’ve been through the past month, I am guessing you’ve figured out that it doesn’t quite work. Besides which, it’s likely that the people you care about are looking to you for some idea of how to maintain their stability in our uncertain times. You actually have a better sense about yourself than most of them have about themselves. How could this be? You’re more accustomed than others to dealing with the many possibilities of who you are. You know that a human mind is complex, and you embrace that complexity. You also know that there are no guaranteed outcomes, and your comfort level with uncertainty feeds your self-awareness.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — This continues to be a vital time for emphasizing your professional goals. By goals I mean what you discover at the intersection of ‘I am’ and ‘I do’. You can add to that ‘I want’. It takes a few different factors to make a goal worth pursuing: a sense of identifying with the goal; a love of the activity; and the desire to make it happen, or to invest yourself. Most folks run into problems because what they think of as their goals don’t meet any of the criteria here; it’s possible to fudge and make excuses, but they don’t actually get the job done. Even meeting one would be helpful, though with the planets being what they are, I suggest you go for total authenticity. As you’ve figured out, a learning curve is involved, and this is a very good sign.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — What is possible? Ask yourself that question, and listen to your answer. That will reveal your state of mind. If you want to know who can support you in your goals, ask them what they think is possible and, rather than trying to convince them of anything, listen to what they say. Some people live for yes, and some live for no. Some live for maybe, and others for maybe not. It’s true that if you study the pages of The New York Times or watch CNN for an hour, you may not feel like you have any reasons for optimism. Despite the prevailing doom and gloom of our era, we’re in a moment of rich potential. Part of what is feeding that potential is the chaos. True enough, it takes a special kind of person to see the possibilities when many merely see loss and devastation. Just keep your faith that a new world will arise from what is left of the old one — and part of how that will happen is the vision that you’re offering.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — What is an asset and what is a liability? This is the main question you have to ask yourself. I can give you a clue that you’ve probably mixed up a few of these — certain things you thought were helpful are not so helpful and other things you thought were harmful are turning out to be pretty good assets. This is not so much a matter of perception as it is about correcting misperception. Yet there’s also another little issue, which is that most of the time we actually don’t evaluate our lives on the basis of what helps and what hurts. When we apply that question consciously, real information is forthcoming. The deeper question would then be, why are so many people attached to what hurts them, and how are you doing letting go of those things?
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — No matter how much energy is coming toward you, flexibility is the key to keeping your balance. It’s true that you’re under a lot of pressure — more than you thought you could handle. But it’s not merely pressure; you’re being offered energy, opportunity, love and friendship. You’ve got an opportunity to participate in the world like you’ve hardly ever had before. The thing about participation is that it tends to draw in your full involvement. While many would think they are ‘giving up their life’, I would say that the one sure way to have a life is to be involved. Here, we come back to the question of balance, which for you means flexibility. Having options is a prelude to making choices. And one decision leads to the next.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Rest is important, but there are activities more restful than sleep. That’s a good thing, because your life has nothing if not activity at the moment. Notice that some things you do nourish you and some deplete you. Have you started to see a pattern, which is which? If you were to apply one criterion to evaluating everything in your life, this is the one. But let’s define ‘nourish’. I would include things that expand your capacity for achievement; desires that stoke your ambition to do good work; experiences that challenge your idea of who you are; activities that fill up your time in a productive way, and nudge out the things you don’t like to do, or that don’t serve you. What nourishes you may make you a bit uncomfortable — but only a little, and only at first.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The theme of this phase of your life is stretching your creative capacity. I think that to some extent, everyone wants to be creative, but you may be experiencing this as a kind of extreme restlessness that you cannot quite ground. A little focus will go a long way. Don’t worry about meeting your ‘full potential’. Rather, if you have to take out the trash, do it in an interesting way. If you have any kind of assignment at all, figure out a way to take pleasure in the work and do it as artfully as you can. Meantime, pay attention to the ideas that are percolating out of you, and when you feel a juicy one, explore and experiment with it. Take a chance. Allow yourself the space to do something unusual, and keep going till it takes on a life of its own.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may need to toss all your ideas of safety or sanity, but what do you do with all of the stress? If it’s coming out of your psyche in ways that are painful or disruptive and offer you nothing in return, I suggest you make some decisions about how you direct your energy. It may be time for a change, and by that I mean a significant change. One thing your chart is saying is that the past is not what it used to be, and it barely exists at all. What exists for sure is the way you can direct yourself into the future, and this looks like one crucial goal that you may be resisting. Any idea what that might be? Is there something you dearly want to achieve, but you’re having a little denial attack about? Focus on that goal and you’ll likely feel a heck of a lot safer on the planet.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Stay grounded, whatever that means to you. That mind of yours has a lot of activity and adventure running around in it — a bit much to leave you with a feeling of settling into any consistent ideas. In fact the nice thing about your ideas is that they are pushing you out of your comfort zone. Your grounding can come from tuning into a commitment that is truly meaningful to you, and orienting on that. It’s an idea that feels like home, or feels like a solid and meaningful place to gather your emotions. It could be a person, or a relationship. It could be your physical space, or your desire to create a solid home for yourself. Remember that this would best be a container for your abundant energy, rather than a place to barricade external influences away from you.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — This is an excellent time to get your financial life in order, and by in order, I mean beginning with a clear concept of the abundance and prosperity that you want. In case you haven’t figured it out, it’s a lot easier to create wealth when you’re not busy talking it down. Having enough is entirely unrelated to greed. Enjoying a glass of wine does not make someone an alcoholic. Be clear with yourself about your ideas here. Recognize when a prejudice is entering the picture, such as the notion that money corrupts someone. The only thing that can corrupt anyone is their own values, so if you proceed from understanding what is important to you and appreciating why that is so, you will have a guiding principle that will be truly useful as you realize just how resourceful you are.