New Moon in Taurus: Earth and Fire

Ahhhhhhh, the New Moon in Taurus. Every spring, we reach this moment of peace and compassion, the time to plant something beautiful, secure in knowing the seeds will grow and flourish. Wednesday, April 26, just after 8:00 am EDT, this New Moon arrives, offering its fruitful darkness.

This is a quietly content Moon. We step outside and breathe deeply. We listen to birdsong, the patter of raindrops on leaves, the rustle of some small creature nearby. We smell the heady scents of trees laden with blooms, or water as it churns over a fall of rocks, or the fresh air of morning. We might taste the sharp bite of an oxalis leaf on our tongue. We might see if redbud flowers really are sweet. We might hum, a quiet contented sound, or break into song, just because.

At the New Moon in Taurus, the world is a good and beautiful place. We need this respite. We hope the good and the beautiful are real and strong. We look for signs that our Earth is vibrant, that she will survive.

This is the time of Earth. And this year, the presence of Fire is strong.

A glance at the New Moon chart shows us that the Fire we’ve been walking through for the past months is still hot. See how the Uranus–Eris conjunction in Aries leans into the New Moon. Notice how Mercury, currently retrograde in Aries, is walking from the New Moon back toward Uranus and Eris. Saturn, also retrograde in the Fire of Sagittarius, trines Uranus, Eris, and Mercury–and the New Moon as well.

These energies of Earth and Fire are linked. We are invited to bridge this divide.

One way might be to feel ourselves walking out of the Fire of Aries in the calm, supportive arms of Taurus. “O.M.G.!” we say, “I could not have made it one more day! At least I can breathe here for a little before heading back into the flames.”

This is OK. There are so many ways in which we’re invited to slow down, reflect, and take care of ourselves now. We do need times of respite. Take the time to feel how good this New Moon is.

But we might not want to leave all of our experience in the Fire behind. I mean, are we walking on hot coals for nothing? Is the Fire of our lives only something we endure and escape? Or are we learning, growing, wresting essential wisdom from all we go through?

These days, I am leaning into the idea of growth. Maybe in the past I put my head down, gritted my teeth, and told myself if I can just get through this, my life will be on the other side. Now I am realizing this is my life. I don’t want to wrap myself in asbestos to come through fire unscathed; that stuff is toxic anyway. I want to participate. We were made for these times.

Under the right conditions, fire and earth combine well. This is how we make bricks. This is how we make pottery, creating containers for food, water, and everything else we need to support life.

So at this New Moon, I am examining what the Fire has given me. There are always “lessons learned,” which often seem to be of the “don’t touch a hot stove” variety. Now I want more than that. I want seeds to plant that will grow into vibrant, exciting, brilliant new somethings in my life.

New Moons are times for planting. No sign is a better gardener than Taurus. Anything planted now will receive the best nurturing this Venus-ruled Earth sign can offer. There is a window here for starting something that can take root in fertile soil and bear luscious fruit.

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Look at your birth chart. See where this New Moon falls. Which is your Taurus house? I have mid Taurus on my midheaven, so this New Moon falls in my Ninth House of journeys. That transiting Fire is in my Ninth too: Eris, Uranus and Mercury all there. What a perfect metaphor and message: Where has this Fire journey taken me? What seeds for future growth have been offered to me?

Look to see what this New Moon might be touching in your chart. The New Moon is trining my own Virgo Moon and also my North Node in Capricorn. Am I being invited to see how my Virgo qualities are supporting or inhibiting my life path? What needs to be transformed so my life can be shiny in new ways? This New Moon is also opposing my Saturn in Scorpio. Gee, did I need another reminder that hard work will be involved? Maybe not, but it’s there anyway.

If you are not working with your birth chart––or not yet, anyway––there is still much to be gained. You can ask, what challenges have I faced in recent months? What have I learned, not just about endurance, but also about creating a juicy life in the midst of chaos? What seeds do I want to take root from these experiences?

Some seeds can only germinate in the intense heat of fire. Lodgepole pine cones, for example, are coated with a resin that seals the seeds tight until a fire melts it away. Giant sequoias need fire to create breaks in the forest canopy, letting in sunlight to invite new sequoias to grow. Some plants in chaparral communities seem to sacrifice themselves: The flammable oils they secrete cause mature plants to burn fiercely, which lets new seeds germinate and grow.

What in us has been melted away? What has been released in this new environment? What might be able to take root now what was blocked by tangled, dense undergrowth has been removed?

The word “fire” has two roots. One referred to fire as inanimate, fire as a substance. The other, which led to our word “ignite,” saw fire as a living thing. At this New Moon, we are invited to see the life in the fire. After all, what is a seed, except a tiny, concentrated package of life force?

Despite the calm peacefulness of Taurus, we are in an intense time. Venus, who rules Taurus and therefore rules this New Moon, sits in the final, intense degree of Pisces. She is no longer retrograde, but still stays close to Chiron, her healing work not quite finished.

Pisces is a place of connection and also dissolution. Venus might ask, What must we let go of now? What has been healed that we can release into the ground?

This transition is an important way forward. The Taurus New Moon also flows energy to the North Node, currently at 0 Virgo. So what we do now will affect our life path. It might feel like a pause, a stopping place, but it is not only that. In the midst of challenge, sometimes we need space to remind ourselves what our goals are. In her spiritual memoir, The Fruitful Darkness, Joan Halifax said: “Silence is where we learn to listen, where we learn to see.”

In the quiet peace of the Taurus New Moon, we listen for messages. We identify the vibrant seeds of our future life. We plant them gently in the dark soil. And we wait.