I don’t know how’s the weather where you live, but it’s still relatively cold here in north Italy. The sunlight, the flowers, the birds singing—everything seems to talk about a new start. But it doesn’t really feel like it to me.
Maybe it’s for the cold. Maybe it’s for the whole situation. After one year of something we’ve already seen happening over and over again we are all very tired. And the pushing energy of new beginnings coming from the Aries is now fading away, giving way to the stabilizing forces of Taurus.
Usually when the Sun enters Taurus we start feeling that spring sleepiness. The forces of fixed Earth seduce our just awakened senses. We want to enjoy life pleasures more. Good company and good food. It’s time to take a break.
The activity of our spirit turns itself outwardly. Contemplation of the beauty of Nature and Art comes easy, as the Anima Mundi—the Soul of the World—exhales out of the Earth, longing for the skies.
Venus, the Goddess of Love and Harmony, thrives gracefully in Taurus. She’s at home.
The Goddess and the Garden
The Archetype of the Garden finds its best expression in the zodiac sign of Taurus, when the forces of Nature are in full bloom. And as the Lady of the Garden herself walks through it, the Sun and Mercury accompany her. All together they find here Uranus, the rebel, the chain breaker. And here this Archetype immediately resonates with Lucifer—the Snake of the Garden of Eden.
So what’s the meaning of this beautiful imagination forming in the sky? First of all we can say that the planets are aligning in a very quick stellium (cumulous of planets) in Taurus for the first third of the month. From the 5th of May, Mercury is going to leave the sign causing the stellium to progressively fade out.
But until then the energies of Fixed Earth are going to be very present. This is going to ease the tensions between Saturn and Uranus. On one hand through the help of Venus, which is absolutely agains war and struggle. On the other, by the fact that Venus and the stellium are going to resonate with a Mars in Cancer.
From April 24th Mars is going to be in Cancer until June 14th. In this sign the God of War is more concerned with defense rather than with offense, manifesting as “the rest of the Warrior”. And being in good aspect (sextile by sign) with the planets in Taurus, Mars is going to contribute to ease down the tensions.
The Impulse of the Stellium in Taurus
We all want things to go back to normal. And this is exactly the impulse brought by the Fixed Earth energy of Taurus. Stability, safety, and comfort. But are the governments, represented by Saturn, going to meet this need we all have?
In late January we saw the stellium in Aquarius. Back then the tendency was looking for the man of salvation—the person who would have made things right. And this expectation was quickly disappointed.
But now the tendency is different. It is going to be about hiding things under the rug, pretending that they will fix by themselves.
This for at least the next two weeks, since this formation is very quick. This happens because whenever the energy of a stellium can’t express itself directly, it appears in the opposite sign. In this case, Scorpio.
But how can we use these energies to our advantage? What can we do to not be led astray by the temptations of the senses that make us drowsy and lazy? The forces of Venus always bring with them a balance between polarities, a compromise between two extremes.
So instead of letting ourselves go completely, becoming prey to our own passivity, we can ask ourselves: in a context where we are apparently completely passive, what can we do to take a step towards where we want to go?
Balance becomes Progress
In our path through the Virtues of the Zodiac described by Rudolf Steiner, we find now Balance for the sign of Taurus. This is very different from the general attitude of Aries, which tends to burn energies pushing stubbornly towards a direction. Balance here is a moral, inner gesture.
The gesture of Venus is the gesture of the Artist. At first, you let yourself completely go to the artistic process. You let your nature to express, letting the senses talking. But then, you stop. You step back, to look at the bigger picture and not to get completely lost in the process.
So we are not suggesting to not enjoy the pleasures of the senses, or to not let yourself go a little bit. This is part of the process. But to complete the moral impulse coming from Venus we also need to step back, withdrawing into contemplation.
Contemplation is another form of passivity. But instead of being overwhelmed by the process, during this second moment we step back and watch. In contemplation and inner presence we let things to reveal themselves, effortlessly. We let things to speak to us.
In this way we can use Art as a way to reach awareness. What’s interesting here is that all mistakes or omissions show themselves to the esthetic eye by simply looking ugly. They are unsightly elements that our very nature, plunging back into the process, will correct by itself.
And over time, all this can only inevitably lead to a constant form of progress. So not only Balance becomes Progress, but we also refine our taste and artistic sense.
Thanks for reading, as always if you enjoyed this article please subscribe to the Astronomicon Newsletter with the bar at the top of the website to receive weekly updates, and not to miss the future posts about the Virtues of the Zodiac. Thanks again, and have a good week.
I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.
