Tuesday, May 15, there’s a New Moon in Taurus at about 7:45 am EDT. Three and a half hours later, Uranus enters Taurus.
This is big. It’s something we’ve known about––astrological transits can be predicted as far in advance as you like––yet, because this is Uranus, what actually happens is going to be fast and unpredictable.
Taurus does not like this. Taurus is all about the steady, peaceful, and unchanging. Even thinking about Taurus and Uranus together is a stretch.
New Moons are times for setting intentions. We partner with the cosmos to co-create in alignment with the Moon and Sun. This New Moon opens the door into a major shift, inviting us to prepare. Instead of worrying about how Uranus will disrupt our lives, we’re invited to consider what we want.
Consider, by the way, comes from two Latin words: con, in this case a version of com, meaning “with,” and siderus, which is a constellation, or group of stars. To consider is to work with the stars.
The New Moon happens at 24 Taurus, in the third decan. (In traditional astrology, the thirty degrees of each sign are divided into three parts of ten––the decans.) This part of Taurus is ruled by Saturn, enhancing the serious, pragmatic side of Taurus. The strongest aspects for this New Moon are trines to Pluto and Mars, both in Capricorn, ruled by Saturn.
Taurus is fixed Earth, the culmination of spring when the Earth is green and blooming. Sensual delights abound as the silent darkness of winter gives way, fully and finally, to birdsong, croaking frogs, breezes stirring new leaves, scented petals drifting across fields, water burbling in streams.
This is the glorious Venusian side of Taurus, worth reveling in. The gifts of Earth are unendingly abundant and we love to experience them fully, giving ourselves over to slow time.
Taurus is not really a grasshopper, though. He enjoys the Earth through work, nurturing and protecting her gifts to help them grow. He is a steady support who is in the game for the long haul. He is loyal, quietly dedicated, and calm. He is also stubborn as hell. Once committed, he finds it very difficult to change.
This side of Taurus is highlighted at the New Moon. This is where we are when Uranus the revolutionary walks in.
Uranus is inherently unpredictable. Taurus much prefers the steady, consistent, and reliable. It’s going to be stressful.
It’s not that Uranus always brings bad things. He’s just as likely to bring happy surprises. But we, in our Taurus earthiness, don’t like change. Research on stress now includes this understanding in the distinction between distress and eustress.
Distress we understand right away––when bad things happen, it’s upsetting. What many of us miss is that eustress also takes its toll. A wedding, a baby, a new house, a move to a new place, winning the lottery––these are also stressful, sometimes more so because we think we should be totally ecstatic.
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One message of this New Moon, then, is to consider how we respond to change. Are we flexible? Are we resilient? There is no point in being the stalwart oak if we can’t weather the storm. An excellent all-purpose wish for this New Moon is the Serenity Prayer, the one about having the wisdom to know the difference between what we can and cannot change.
In the days leading up to the New Moon, we’re definitely getting messages about that. Taurus is usually an oasis of calm, but things have been volatile, fiery, and in flux.
It’s especially important this month to wait until after the New Moon is exact to make your wishes. In fact, I recommend waiting four more hours, until Uranus has entered Taurus.
Uranus was last in Taurus 84 years ago, from June 1934 to May 1942––not one of the most upbeat and expansive times in history. This was era of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. The US experienced the Dust Bowl, an environmental crisis triggered by drought combined with government policies that encouraged settlers to move into the arid Western plains and plow grasslands up to grow wheat.
The generation that came of age during the Depression and WWII is the one Tom Brokaw named The Greatest Generation, in his book of that name. He felt these men and women embodied traditional values of hard work and doing what is right, values Taurus is known for.
The generation that followed, actually born during these years, was named the Silent Generation in a Time magazine article of 1951. This article described this generation as “unimaginative, withdrawn, unadventurous, and cautious,” which sounds like Taurus on a really bad day.
They have also been referred to as the Lucky Generation because they grew up in a time of recovery and economic expansion when wages were rising, pension funds were healthy, and many working class families could afford to buy their own homes. The American dream seemed within reach of more people than ever before. These are all things of value to Taurus.
How do we update this picture to anticipate what we might face?
Taurus traditionally rules money and banking. In 1934, a volatile and risk-filled period in the financial world had come to an abrupt, cataclysmic end. While there are parallels to our current situation, especially with the massive deregulation happening now in the US, the uncertainties surrounding Brexit and the EU, and massive shifts in markets worldwide, the situation today is not quite the same.
With Uranus entering Taurus close to the beginning of Saturn’s three-year trek through Capricorn, markets are not likely to expand, and might contract, perhaps harshly, but I am wondering about something else.
Taurus’ association with banks reflects, I believe, a focus on investment, on the idea that what we care for requires prudent tending over the long term. Today’s financial markets don’t seem to espouse these kinds of goals at all any more, being focused on the manipulation of capital with an eye to extracting the highest short term returns.
So perhaps we look instead at a broader idea of investment, in where we put not just our money, but our time and attention. In this regard, we find millenials already there, the target of clickbait headlines about how their disregard for traditional finances is ruining the real estate (and other) markets, while they squander their money on avocado toast.
Apart from the fact that I quite like avocado toast, this ignores fundamental shifts in economic realities. A large proportion of millenials can’t afford houses, don’t have pensions, barely have health insurance, carry significant student debt, and experience “job security” as an oxymoron. An increasing proportion of boomers, especially the tail end of the Baby Boom generation, are joining them. We are asked to accept all this as the new normal, what children born now will experience as given.
Maybe that won’t be true. Maybe Uranus will upend our experiences, our understandings, and our expectations. Perhaps this will come about through adverse events that reveal the costs of shredding our social safety nets. Perhaps it will come about as younger generations take the helm and reverse course, creating new policies that focus on long term well being.
I’m also thinking about other kinds of banks. Like seed banks. Taurus is the Earth’s gardener. There is little doubt we are depleting our biosphere recklessly. The only question is, how close to the brink are we? During these years of Uranus in Taurus we may find out. How many catastrophes will it take before we wake up? Will the new discoveries Uranus can also bring unfold and be implemented in time?
What about sperm banks, or more broadly, the banks of information our DNA represents. Who controls our biological data? Who has access to it? We can use it to find a serial killer but other follow-on effects might be less desirable.
Uranus rules technology, so we can include data banks too. Our various online profiles are the very real connection between our virtual and physical selves. Who controls that data? What are they allowed to do with it?
The ability of technology to alter our reality through false information, including, now, the tools to create sound and video that look real and are not, cuts directly into Uranus in Taurus territory. What is real? What does reality even mean now?
I’m also thinking about the maker movement, the more-than-a-trend in which ordinary people meet to share skills and make their own stuff. The movement dates back at least to 2005 when the first issue of Make:magazine appeared, but has a Uranus in Taurus feel to it.
After all, Uranus is very Promethean, stealing fire from the gods to help humanity. Perhaps the next seven years will see bolder ways in which we the people will regain some control and agency by building what we need and want with our own hands.
The ingress of Uranus into Taurus affects everyone. How personally we feel it depends on our birth charts. So, as I always say, check yours. Look for the following:
• Which house or houses are ruled by Taurus. These areas in your life will feel Uranian disruptions. Here is where we need to be prepared to make quick decisions in the face of change.
• Planets or key points anywhere in Taurus. Uranian energy is strong enough to affect all of Taurus, while naturally having stronger impacts on the earlier degrees right away.
• Anything at or near 0 degrees in any sign, but especially those strongly aspected. So, Taurus (conjunction), Scorpio (opposition), Leo and Aquarius (squares), Virgo and Capricorn (trines), and Pisces and Cancer (sextiles).
We can take what we learn and fold it into our New Moon wishes and intentions.
A personal example: My Moon is at 0 Virgo. Normally, I enjoy it when planets enter Taurus, especially the transiting Moon. This feels calming to me. I relax, slow down, enjoy life.
I watch Uranus’ approach with some trepidation. Of course, he’s been breathing down my neck for weeks now, creating an out-of-sign trine from fiery Aries that has not felt pleasant.
Maybe Uranus actually entering Taurus will feel better, but I suspect he will instead trigger every fear I have, possibly all at once. Anxiety is, after all, a Moon-in-Virgo thing. His gift, if that happens, will be to help me (force me) to get right underneath those ongoing obstacles, figure out which ones are real, address them, and jettison the rest.
One of my New Moon wishes (which I will carefully wait to make after the New Moon) will ask for the courage to stay the course, that kind of steadfast, one step at a time, fortitude that Taurus excels in.
This New Moon trines Mars in the last degree of Capricorn. We are meant to take action. There is also a trine to Pluto at 21 Capricorn. We are meant to act in the knowledge that we are in a deeply transformative process, one we participate in but do not control.
Meanwhile, Mars squares Uranus, engaging in what feels like a kind of brinksmanship. There are moments when we hold our breath.
This New Moon also widely opposes Jupiter in Scorpio, who trines Neptune in Pisces, just out of range of the New Moon. This is another reminder that big, deep things are going on.
It’s OK though. We will keep walking in the quiet strength of Taurus, work through the surprises and crises of Uranus, and come through on the other side into a New Earth.
I use Unsplash for almost all my photo illustrations. All astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title, created from the photo of a leopard gecko hatching by Andy Morris (I think it’s a baby dragon, myself), the photo of the numbered bank boxes by Tim Evans, the photo of the hands holding soil by Gabriel Jimenez, the photo of the beans and spices by Paul Morris, and the rustic barn by Mick Haupt.