Before dawn (in my eastern time zone), the Moon reaches the semisquare to the Sun that signals the opening of the Balsamic phase.
Here the Moon is once again a thin crescent, losing light until she disappears into the New Moon conjunction. With the Moon in Taurus, this Balsamic time will feel quiet, grounded, and slow.
In this phase, we release what is completed, what we no longer need, to concentrate the essentials of what we have learned and accomplished.
The Taurus Moon helps us release old patterns by connecting deeply with our bodies. What do we know that is based in our own experience of the world?
This Moon has just passed her conjunction with Uranus: What is radically true? What do we feel right down to our roots?
We can also ask, what do we know in our hearts? This Moon sextiles Mercury in Cancer, who is moving so slowly it is no movement at all. Before the Moon leaves Taurus, Mercury will station retrograde.
When the Moon enters Gemini, she, Venus, the Sun, and the North Node will all be ruled by Mercury retrograde in the Moon’s own sign.
This Balsamic phase asks us to focus on the Moon’s arenas: the body and the heart.
Does this mean we’re no longer thinking? We’re running on wild emotions and sensations? This is the mind’s perspective. It is the one privileged by modern culture, but it is not the only valid way to see and experience the world.
During this Balsamic phase, drop into your heart. This is something you can do, truly. Begin by locating your consciousness in your head. (This is where you will usually find it. It could be elsewhere in your body or outside your body somewhere.)
Breathe in. Breathe out.
When you are centered, let your consciousness drop into your chest. Feel it happen. Allow yourself to look out at the world from your heart center.
How does that shift your perceptions? How does this feel? This is the view from the Balsamic Moon in Taurus. Spend time here.
Image by Wolfgang Hasselmann
https://unsplash.com/photos/UcNhoxAs6PQ