New Moon in Taurus: New Horizons

Viola, having survived a terrible shipwreck, stands on new land she’s never seen and asks, “What country, friends, is this?”

The play, Twelfth Night, was written for the time-outside-time that was the traditional Christmas season, a night also known as Epiphany Eve.

Today is Earth Day. Tonight brings the New Moon in Taurus, a New Moon we usually experience as a time of calm, grounded peace, a sense (in the Northern Hemisphere) of seeds sprouting in soil, of new life beginning everywhere.

This year, though, we are in a new land. We don’t know what country this is. As modern people, we’ve never experienced a pandemic. As a world, we’ve never faced a pervasively global infection in a time when we also have global media.

Even as we navigate this new landscape in the context of our own cultures and political systems, we are all in this together. And we don’t know what will happen.

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This New Moon is conjunct Uranus, also in Taurus. Of course Uranus has traveled through Taurus before, yet we don’t know what to expect this time. The planet of the unexpected, of revolution, of catastrophe (including eucatastrophe, the good kind), doesn’t seem like a good fit with the sign of Fixed Earth, where change is generally unwelcome.

Another level of uncertainty appears in the almost-but-not-now trine between Venus and Mars. Venus, the faster of the two, should have caught Mars by now. But she will not. She explores the quick Gemini energy while slowing down, preparing to stop, turn back, look again.

This adds to our sense of being poised on the edge of something that is and is not happening. We can see a new world emerging. We can feel it. But we cannot touch it, or have it, or understand it. Not yet.

So what are we meant to do? New Moons are beginnings. What is this the beginning of?

There are plenty of dire predictions for this. There are real dangers. We are in the presence of death. How we live our lives has changed and will not return to what it was.

At this Taurus New Moon, we confront possibilities.

What if we explore the idea that the Earth herself is alive. Is a being in her own right. Has consciousness. Has a soul.

This is not exactly a new idea, although is it a radical one. (Remember, “radical” is a Uranian keyword.)

The Gaia hypothesis was articulated for the modern West back in the 70’s. It is, of course, part of many, if not most, indigenous world views. The trap in the 1970’s formulation was the idea that if the Earth, Gaia, is alive, she is also self regulating, wise, and can correct our human excesses in some way to bring herself back into balance.

Uranus in Taurus may be offering a more deeply radical and more ancient view: Yes, the Earth is alive and has consciousness but perhaps isn’t focused so much on the well being and happiness of humans.

As we experience the major disruptions of earthquakes, volcanoes, wildfires, and now a pandemic, we are forced to contemplate the idea that humans as a species are not so central, actually. It’s possible we are instead a problem.

The incredible hubris of the industrial and technological revolutions got us here and can’t fix the mess. Perhaps the humility of realizing we are part, a dangerous but small part, of a much larger whole can help.

There is something radically exciting about the idea that we are part of a much larger, evolving, problem-solving whole. How do we participate? What roles are open to us? What futures are possible?

At this New Moon in Taurus, we have the opportunity to see the world, feel and experience the world, in this new way.

There are no conclusions here. Much is uncertain. And still, we must live, and act, and explore, and try.

The New Moon and Uranus are ruled by Venus, who rules Taurus. She is in Gemini, the open-ended, curious, tricksy, mutable Air sign. She is the one currently slowing down to enter the retrograde portion of her cycle.

Venus in Gemini loves the unpredictable and open ended. We are about to dive deeply into this way of being.

The patterns surrounding this New Moon make intentions and wishes difficult. So much is unclear. How can we make a plan or focus on a particular outcome?

Instead, my sense for this New Moon is, we are asked to stay open. We are, now, at a new Epiphany Eve.

The wishes and intentions best suited to each of us will depend on how this New Moon interacts with our birth charts. Where is early Taurus in your chart? Where is Venus, currently in mid Gemini?

The houses and natal planets and points will highlight areas of our lives most affected by this New Moon and the coming Venus retrograde.

In general, though, I plan to set intentions to stay open to possibility. To wish for the ability to let go of old ways of thinking and feeling that keep me stuck. To move beyond old models and theories.

I am open to the possibility of magic, the magics of the deep Earth. Ancient ways of connecting with tree and stone, water and leaf, fox and wren and bull and bear. Moon. Stars. Fireflies. Cells. Molecules. Galaxies.

In this time of great change, anything and everything is possible. I choose to be part of it.

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The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the Donegal coast by Chris Marquardt,
and the following images:
the sunset horizon by Laib Khaled, and
the old map by Jakob Braun