New Moon in Taurus: Let the Forest Find You

On May 6, we welcome a lovely New Moon in Taurus. After a challenging April, we’re ready to revel in the sensuous delights of Beltaine, of Spring, of the glories of Gaia. It’s true that five planets are still retrograde, including Mars and Mercury, but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter as much. We smile. We relax. We stop and smell the roses.

The New Moon follows right after Beltaine, which, astrologically, arrives this year on May 4. Beltaine is the beginning of the light half of the year in the ancient Celtic calendar, a threshold time when the doors between the worlds are open. Depending on how healthy your relationship is with the land of Faerie, you might be looking for ways to prevent the Good Folk from entering your home, or inviting them in with open arms.

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Taurus, sign of the patient gardener, makes her presence felt. This is fixed Earth, reaching hands deep into the soil, sending roots questing for nutrients so trunks, branches, stems, buds, leaves, and flowers can flourish. The Sun and Moon are together at 16 Taurus, flanked by Venus at 8, Mercury at 21, and Vesta at 25.

Venus rules Taurus, and therefore rules this New Moon. She invokes the Earth goddesses as she entices us to embrace everything natural and wild. The Sun and Moon anchor a Grand Trine in Earth, with Jupiter and the North Node in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn at the other two apexes. We are thoroughly, lovingly grounded in Earth.

The poem David Waggoner adapted from a Native American tale, Lost, teaches us how to enter into this New Moon time:

… Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

Trines bring easy flows of energy. So easy, sometimes, we take them for granted. I love to bring attention to the trines in a birth chart because they often represent qualities we overlook and dismiss. “Oh, that’s not special,” we say. “Everyone can do that.” Of course, everyone can’t. It’s fun to point out where we are extraordinary.

This Grand Trine in Earth at the New Moon says, our Earth is extraordinary. Nature is incredibly amazing. Best of all, we humans are part of nature. We’re not perfect, but we are natural. Let’s not miss that. And please, let’s not take the Earth for granted.

Notice that deep transformation is built into this New Moon: Pluto the alchemist is part of the Grand Trine, as is Jupiter the expander, and the North Node of the future. Stability is not based on everything staying the same. Instead, what carries us through is the constancy of change. Each Spring is the same. Each Spring is unique. Great forces of transformation are in play, some of which we have created for ourselves. Where the future will go is unknown. We can influence it, for good or ill, but we cannot control it. We can’t even predict it.

What do we do? Doesn’t Taurus want to know things will always be the same? I don’t think so. I believe Taurus is wiser than that. I believe Taurus trusts the Earth, and believes Gaia knows best. This deep trust is what keeps Taurus so unflappable, and allows her to celebrate the glories of life even in the midst of uncertainty.

At this New Moon, we are invited to join the great circle of beings. We are nudged to join in the dance of life, the spiral of becoming that underlies everything in the cosmos.

There are consequences for our choices. Saturn at 15 Sagittarius is squaring the Nodes of the Moon, a reminder that how consciously, how intentionally, we engage with life will determine how well we can reach our own goals. The fact that Saturn is inconjunct the New Moon, an aspect that points to an absence of relationship, puts us in our place. The Earth can continue without us. We cannot continue without the Earth. Therefore, wise partnership is preferable to foolishly pretending we are dominant.

This is a time for literally planting seeds. Our New Moon seeds, in the form of our wishes and intentions, reflect what we want to see taking root and growing in the coming year. Check your birth chart to see which House the New Moon will appear in, for you. This will be a particularly fertile area for new growth.

This Taurus New Moon in the First House might focus on excellent self care, an approach that goes beyond treating the body as a machine to be maintained, to embrace the body as a gorgeous and wondrous expression of our life. The New Moon in the Seventh House might look for ways to celebrate relationship by nurturing the life of our partner, friend, colleague … or even learning to appreciate the uniquely human qualities of an enemy.

If you have planets or chart angles in and around 16 degrees (especially anything from 11 to 21 degrees), those places in your chart will be activated and can become the focus of wishes and intentions. In my birth chart, the New Moon is happening right at the top of my chart, at the Midheaven. I’m invited to nurture and celebrate the ways I express myself in the world, to grow new ways to let myself show up creatively. I’m being nudged to move into more self expression despite my deepest fears.

Remember to wait until the New Moon arrives before making wishes and setting intentions. This New Moon in Taurus is exact at 2:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time in the US. You’ll need to adjust for your time zone. My New Moon Wishes page reviews the basic guidelines for working with the New Moon.

No matter where this New Moon falls for you, Taurus tells us to slow down, appreciate the physical, let go of tension, and embrace the natural world. We shouldn’t need research to tell us that spending time is nature is good for us. But if you need an excuse, the information is out there. Being out in the woods, by a stream, in the desert, in the mountains, by the ocean, reduces stress and increases well being.

If you do nothing else for this New Moon in Taurus, get your feet on the ground somewhere that isn’t paved. If possible, get those shoes and socks off and put your bare feet on the ground. Love your Mother.