Slow down! - it’s Taurus . . .

There is a gradual loosening of the pressure of that last exact Uranus/Pluto square which peaked on the weekend 19/20 April (Pluto square Uranus square Jupiter square Mars). It was an energy squeeze in which any pressure could have felt almost overwhelming. Somehow we were held in to relationships, with people or situations, that seemed to require total transformation to get them working the way we personally wanted. Our truth needed to be shared so that we could see, in action, how we limit our lives through desire and expectation - transformation happens when we relax from trying to control.

Now the pressure is releasing. We can breathe again, get back into our bodies and lick any wounds that were exposed through our interactions - our own wounds and those of others. Taurus is the world of nature, spirit manifesting on the physical plane; here spirit is most readily accessible in its simplicity. Relax, breathe, notice what is here now around you, and settle into that truth. The physical world is our way into this incarnation - we cannot be truly here in the ‘now’ if we are not in our bodies.

Magic - when you can’t see how it happened, but it did

On the physical level, we can see what needs changing, we know what we have set in motion, and what the next step might be (Sun/Moon with Mercury, in Taurus trining Pluto). Often the result of pressure is forward movement, development, which may not be recognised at the time but shows in an altered perspective later: we find we have accepted something, that seemed intolerable at the time, yet allows for benefits we couldn’t have imagined; or we cleared a difficult piece of work, and discover that a new opportunity is showing up.

Not just what you do, but how you do it

This New Moon has a different focus from last month: there’s an encouragement to extend our emotional mastery by remembering we are spirit, as are all things (Sun/Moon and Mercury sextile Neptune in Pisces) so that we can see our difficulties as complex challenges full of growthful potential, rather than dreadful punishments, or an obstacle course to ‘get through’. Something we are being reminded of is that the element Earth is not just operated on the purely physical level, but depends on the emotional energy being applied.

9 May - experience true nature

I don’t usually pick out particular days, but I noticed that, during 9 May, the Moon completes a 6-pointed star pattern, in a ripple of contact from Pluto at 9am to Saturn at 10pm, UT or GMT. This is a lovely pattern anyway, but it suggests a day when universal energy can potentially alleviate the really hard conditions showing up in parts of the world. I wonder if our deepest, most loving prayers could be particularly effective at that time, perhaps even just sitting in the most loving atmosphere we can create and offering our space as a channel for harmonising. It looks like a gap in storm clouds for light to beam through into any place open to receive it, mental, emotional and physical, personal and global (Moon connects one after another with Pluto, Jupiter, Chiron, Sun, Saturn, all in Earth and Water signs). We are each alone, and we are all one.

Change the attitude to change the experience

What we have to contend with in our world leads us along a path, and at every point we are surrounded by the unknown and fascinating, as well as the familiar. Our connection with all of it will have the qualities of our chosen attitude, and we are being nudged towards, acceptance, caring, and compassion (Jupiter trine Chiron trine Saturn, all in water signs). Such open gentleness allows our world, and our people, to open to us like flowers, giving beauty as well as sustenance. What we receive from our world is always a reflection in some form of what we give, which is the same as how we choose to perceive it. The person with a ‘glass half empty’ attitude experiences receiving far less than the ‘glass half full’ person

As spirit does - accept yourself now, as you are

So, the way to work this month is to check out what your basic attitudes are in the different areas of your life, especially perhaps those areas where you feel somewhat poverty-stricken. It’s not only what you give in action that is reflected, it’s what you feel emotionally when you give. It’s also how you feel about yourself in that area - not good enough, unworthy, overwhelmed, unrecognised, or any other constricting belief. All this is the area to focus on, where any effort you put in brings solid results (Saturn in Scorpio is part of the mix), not forgetting compassion for the exhaustion of that part of oneself that has struggled in the past - kindness, too, is necessary (Venus trines Saturn).

. . . a thought to bear in mind . . .

Our own reactions, to whatever events and situations are receiving most coverage in the world news, are showing us where we need to face our judgemental selves, our angers and hates, our own victim-mode and aggressor-mode, our smouldering resentments and desires for revenge. When huge emotional interest is shown in a civil war or a single court case, we are seeing not only what is happening or ground-breaking ‘out there’, but also seeing our own attachment to something in that struggle - a reflection of something inside us. Be fascinated to find out what that is in yourself, and kind to yourself for being one of the human race.