Dear Friend and Reader:
Once again we are in a concentration of events, especially Saturday’s Taurus New Moon simultaneous with Mars conjunct Chiron in Aries. Today’s extended readings are based on reading those aspects as one concurrent event. I approach this differently in each of the readings for sign and rising sign.
These are the concluding stages of the concentration that has run from Pisces through Taurus all year. When the astrology gets like this, it represents environmental pressures that are actually what you’re responding to.
Mars moving through the Chiron-Eris mix describes factors that are pushing true self-expression and self-actualization despite an environment making these things very difficult.
The Arrival of Vesta: Haven of Inner Awareness
There is a new factor that describes our moment: as of today, Vesta has entered Aries. This places it in the Aries Point repeating station or amplifier that connects the individual to world events and collective awareness.
I don’t just mean this in the sense of your phone rattling you, but rather the total intrusion of global issues on your immediate consciousness. This will be true whether you think you watch the news or not. The influence is coming from the whole environment, both human and technological.
Vesta is saying: make some room for who you are, as a conscious act. Define an inner sanctuary, and cultivate it. Keep some kind of fire burning there: creative, spiritual, sexual, gardening, journaling — something you come back to regularly where you can connect with yourself.
The purpose is to have a haven where you can hear and observe your own thoughts. We don’t need to “unplug” so much as we need to cultivate inner awareness. Vesta represents some influence or factor that will help facilitate this. The essence is keeping that fire lit every day, all the time.
The Not So Small Matter of Truth
One of our most devastating problems in the digital environment is the crushing of the idea of truth. It has been reduced to a variety of substitutes, such as “the truth is what’s true for you” or “everyone has their own truth” or “there is no such thing as the truth.”
This is like filling up on junk food and saying that’s proof that there’s no such thing as wholesome food. What I mean by junk food is that I see people have a tendency to go back to presenters who lie to them. That is, people in the current environment have many choices for who will deceive them, and are free to pick the one they like best.
There is rarely even a meek effort made to sort things out. People keep asking me, “Where do you get your news?” That’s like asking an organic farmer where they get their milk. But I finally figured out what the question means. It means, “Who do I allow to tell me what to believe?”
The reason doing this is so popular is that most people cannot stand the idea of making up their own mind. That not only takes work, and effort that most don’t want to extend, it means taking responsibility for what you determine to be true. It means knowing you could be wrong.
The Taurus New Moon
Due to the pressure wash quality of digital conditions, the very concept of inner-awareness often seems to have been eliminated or faded to a dim memory. This is the frustration and exasperation you are feeling. Your inner awareness is recoverable, but only if you want it, and are willing to do the work. Recovery is always a matter of intention and persistence. And it is a matter of acting on what you say you value.
The Moon conjoins the Sun at 4:01 pm EDT on Saturday, May 16. This is a cluster of four points, Moon, Sun and Ceres, with Mercury about three degrees out way at the end of Taurus. The concentration is right on fixed star Algol, at 26 Taurus 29, less than one degree away from the New Moon at 25 Taurus 58.
Algol is the fixed star with perhaps the worst reputation of the lot. The deeper questions are: how do you, and we, as a society, respond to violation? And second, how threatened are you by your own creative power? The violation is not some kind of mythical event but rather something that is present in the moment.
Ceres and Algol: Of Food and Feelings
With Ceres present in the aspect pattern, the questions go to what is in our food, and does the world make room for grief?
The food question is crucial. All of the factory food we eat is toxic to an extent that it has never been in the past. I have a friend who lives on a small farm out west. She warned me to never give wild birds feed that includes corn, due to GMOs and Roundup. We eat that too; and it should be a point of discussion in our society. We should be outraged that a chemical known to cause lymphoma is sprayed on our food.
But as long as people get their Taco Bell, most seem to be happy.
Ceres also represents deep feelings of grief and loss. Western society does not acknowledge this in any meaningful or collective way.
Yet we can, if we want, create a world where feeling is allowed. When it’s not allowed, the result is chaos and competition. Pain honestly felt and experienced is not competitive. It’s not a matter of mine is worse than yours. It’s a matter of making space for everyone. This calls for a lot of allowing, and consistent empathy.
One might say that we’re all suffering from “compassion fatigue.” However, it seems that the real struggle is rather with numbness. The electronic environment extends the central nervous system to a global phenomenon, and that seems to necessitate cutting off and trying to shut down. Yet the challenge is to stay present and make space within yourself to feel whatever you’re experiencing.
Mars Conjunct Chiron: Spiritual Warrior
At the same time, like, within minutes of the New Moon, there is the alignment of Mars and Chiron in Aries. Counting this one, there have been a total of four in Aries since Chiron first entered that sign in 2018. They occurred in 2020, 2022, 2024 and now 2026. The next one is in early Taurus in 2028.
Mars conjunct Chiron in Aries is the full-on call to self-awareness and awakening to who you are. It will help if you notice all of the influences that are demanding you do no such thing.
Chiron and Eris are still very close. Mars was conjunct Eris on Tuesday, May 12. Eris always operates subversively. As you are probably aware, I associate Eris with the infiltrating and transformative property of all of this digital gadgetry and 100 wireless networks we are surrounded by. Again, the initial response is to cut off.
Chiron takes the opposite approach, to bring things into full focus and awareness. This includes awareness of injury, struggle and matters that are calling for healing, often long-neglected. This is why people hate Chiron and think of it as a bad actor. It would seem that way if one’s goal is to stay in a fog, in denial or asleep.
Thinking Beyond Ourselves
With Chiron, there is always more work to do: whether for yourself, or making the rounds to those who need attention and healing. Mars would seem to make this personal, about you and you alone. But we are past that, and many factors speak to the ways that our situation is about all of us.
Yet the unloving economics of, “I got mine and you got yours” are all over the place. They are unavoidable and yet you have a choice. Of course, if you start taking care of people, you might not know when to stop — and this is why so many people don’t get involved. You just might offer a large portion of your energy and funds to help those in greater need than you are.
As Chögyam Trungpa wrote in Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (a foundational text influencing my work at Planet Waves): “We must try to think beyond our homes, beyond the fire burning in the fireplace, beyond sending our children to school or getting to work in the morning. We must try to think how we can help this world. If we don’t help, nobody will. It is our turn to help the world.”
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ —
