Astrology of May 2023
“Only in chaos are we conceivable.” - Roberto Bolaño
May comes in with the Eclipse Season culminating with its aura of inevitability of change. On the first day of May Mercury retrograde is going through the heart of the Sun as Pluto goes retrograde in Aquarius. This can create a pronounced sense of restlessness, but also difficulty to drop into the restful state fully. The intensity and heat of the second Mars ruled Eclipse is going to hold all the way through May 5th, when Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio comes swinging its sharp energy through the trauma bonds, shame narratives and fear masquerading as illusory control. We have been on this ride for a while now, this is the part of the journey where we are asked to start tying up loose ends and surrendering to the next spiral of our experience, the upleveling is on the grand scale right now.
Mid month Jupiter enters Taurus where it will stay until May of 2024, offering us an opportunity to develop an elevated perspective of the changes we need to make to really align with our internal value compass. Jupiter is going to make some really profound connections while in Taurus, helping us to expand in the ways that are sustainable for us and for our communities. The fixed sign of Taurus is going to continue to be under the cosmic revision, as should we revise our attitudes towards the concepts of wealth, stability, pleasure and preservation of what truly matters.
By the end of the month, the fixed cross is activated through the aspects between Mars in Leo, Jupiter and North Node in Taurus and Pluto in Aquarius. If there is a configuration that is going to move the needle in our collective and individual direction, this is it. Tend to your nervous system like it is your main job, and keep reminding yourself (especially if you have planets in the first degrees of the Fixed cross) that anything worthwhile doing will take time, and giving up or acting destructively is not a way out. Some trust in the magic of time is always needed when it comes to fixed energies. This fixed and quite frankly tumultuous t-square can create an environment of towers collapsing all over, but we cannot lose sight of the long term goals as we find ourselves in the middle of this centrifuge. Chaos is a fertile space for making choices that would be hard to imagine otherwise, choices that can make a real difference in our lives. This month we are invited to make some moves that are affirming of our true essence and have an edge of the unknown.
May 1st: Pluto goes retrograde in Aquarius. Mercury Cazimi
Pluto turns retrograde for the very first time in Aquarius as Mercury meets the Sun through its retrograde path. Now we have an opportunity to reflect and consider the signs and symbols that have been communicated to us since the ingression of Pluto in Aquarius on March 23rd. Pluto is going to be standing still through the first week of May, creating a sense of energetic stagnation and powerful emotions swirling underneath our skin, trying to find the way out. If you have planets between 29 degrees of Capricorn and 2 degrees of Aquarius ( or any point/planets in that range of the fixed cross) or even if you don’t now is the time to reflect on the powerful messages coming through that are ultimately here to catalyze the evolution of the direction our life takes. For some this can play out as a feeling of heaviness and energetic demand that is out of our scope at the moment, and it would be wise to pause, and rest for a bit. For others this can feel like all engines in your system are being activated, and are pushing you to get out of your habitual patterns, and it would be wise to allow these energies to find the outlet, cause bottling them up can create havoc, if you moved by this energy, then move, if you are stopped then pause.
May 5th: Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at 14 degrees of Scorpio
The final Eclipse in Scorpio arrives on May 5th and it takes on a role of the massive salt water wave lifting all the gunk and leftovers that has come to the surface in the last year and half. This energy is washing off so much of what is inflammatory and painful in our lives. You may consider this a grand finale of purging in relation to Scorpio placement in your chart. This Eclipse is really about overcoming our lower impulses, toxic attachments, manipulation dynamics through cultivation of value systems that are nourishing and prioritize that which is truly the essential to our earthly existence.
Scorpio South Node asks us to release the weight of the past we cannot carry any longer, to find a seed of the new world within, and plant that seed in the fertile soil on the Taurus North Node. The vector that is leading us from the past into the future with the Taurus/Scorpio axis is about overcoming dependency in any form that is robbing us of our highest value. The North Node is Taurus reminds us of the joy of being able to create stability where there was none, to create comfort where there was pain, and to nurture the world around us by being the purest expression of primordial pleasure.
This Eclipse is inviting us into the sensitive lands where security and control, possession and loss, material and intangible are intertwined for us to see the connection between our desires and our fears. We need to understand the depth of toxicity that we cling to, the manipulation we are so comfortable with, the collective debt we have acquired in the pursuit of pseudo control. The ruler of this lunation Mars is in Cancer and a lot of the fear and shame based attitudes are rooted in the lack of care and denial of certain parts of our being as deserving of integration and understanding. This Eclipse is about acceptance and it is about resolution to be infinitely compassionate when we face the sharp edges of our being. This lunation is about loving and protecting parts of ourselves that no one else has protected or accepted before.
May 7th: Venus enters Cancer
When Venus moves in Cancer the focus will shift to being embedded in the familiar, deep appreciation for ancestral ties, infusing our daily activities with nostalgia and sentimental quality. While Venus is in Cancer emotional and soul centered connections will become so much more important, tending to our innate needs and bringing a joyous vibe to the way we nurture ourselves is Venus in Cancer goals. Tis’ the time to honor our home, our sense of safety and our profound need for deep connection. Until June 5th we are called to think about what safety means to us and how it is integral to our well being and our ability to drop into pleasure. Venus in Cancer is a guardian of our most sacred values, the pleasure is found through receptivity and gentleness, in the vast waters of Cancer we find stillness and comfort of emotional release, and in that there is so much joy. Now we tend to our home within and without, so home can tend to us, so we can discover the abundance of spirit to be joyful and safe.
May 9th: Sun conjunct Uranus in Taurus
This yearly meeting of Sun and Uranus in Taurus will happen until 2025, so we have 2 more conjunctions. This is a revolution of values happening slowly, but surely. This aspect ignites the desire for unconventional expression, for redefining what stability means to us, refusing to abandon our creative urges in the name of illusionary permanence. This dynamic of Sun and Uranus in Taurus craves stability that is achieved by following one’s divine spark, by asking oneself if joy and pleasure are considered as essential components every step of the way towards creating the environment that is supportive of our natural gifts.
May 14th: Mercury goes direct at 5 degrees of Taurus
After 3 weeks of the retrograde period, Mercury goes direct in Taurus. This retrograde in the fixed earth domain has brought themes of non-reactivity, creation of enough space for ourselves to gain perspective, deliberate choice of words and the way we deliver them into re-consideration. The language we use that is not informed by a sense of self care and internal value needs to be looked at, as likely that kind of language will not produce a foundation that is going to sustain, support and nourish us in the long term.
May 16th: Jupiter enters Taurus. Jupiter squares Pluto in Aquarius
Jupiter, the great benefic and the expander of truth, comes into the sign of Taurus on May 16th for the first time since 2011-2012. Interesting to note that 2011 the year of the last ingress of Jupiter in Taurus was declared an International Year of Forestry by the United Nations and that is also a year Occupy Wall Street protests started. This time around as soon as Jupiter enters Taurus it forms a destabilizing square to Pluto in Aquarius. This cycle started in April of 2020 on the conjunction in Capricorn, so we are going to see the unboxing of the events that originated back then.
The ruler of this transit Venus is going to be in the sign of Cancer during the ingression, highlighting themes of food safety, housing market and the foundation for our long term security. Though Jupiter is a benefic planet, I think it is widely misunderstood as an easy one. Jupiter is not concerned with ease or relaxation, but it is concerned with truth, awakening and justice. The way we arrive there, in my experience, is not always smooth sailing. Just looking at the mythology of Jupiter, we see that transformation of the new order came through difficult choices, sacrifice and death. I don’t want to scare anyone, but I see too often the misinterpretation of Jupiterean purpose. Jupiter cares about the highest view point, about looking at the matter with the perspective grand enough to have our priorities straight, in accordance with the Universal Law. In Taurus we are tasked with gaining a more expansive view on the matters that are connected to our stability, to the foundations we choose to build life on and to the incredible resources provided by nature. Jupiter famously expands what it touches, our job is to make sure that what it finds within us and in our lives is worth expanding, the value that is uniquely and personally understood, the self care is not conflated with indulgence, and abundance that is never confused with excess.
May 19th: New Moon at 28 degrees of Taurus
The first New Moon in Taurus that is not an Eclipse in almost two years arrives on May 19th, and it is truly such a sweet and gentle New Moon, that offers us an opportunity to take slow yet deliberate action, to start putting things in places in accordance to all that we have learnt in the last couple years, to take our time in how we approach every new beginning, to be infinitely gentle with ourselves and be patient in this process of rebuilding ourselves and our communities. This New Moon may lead us to understanding that if what we are building is not a labor of love, we might need to sit still a bit longer.
May 20th: Mars enters Leo. Mars opposite Pluto in Aquarius
On May 20th Mars enters Leo and forms a t-square with Pluto in Aquarius and Jupiter in Taurus that is going to have an impact through May 24th. This whole configuration might feel like the very ground underneath our feet is moving, as the intensity of the world changing is pulling all sorts of reactions and eruptions within the systems we have built internally and externally. This fixed, rare t-square is going to be a catalyst for the most stubborn parts of the outdated ideas and rotten structures about the way our society should function to be disrupted and broken down, possibly through events that are not particularly comfortable. But sometimes that’s what is required so that radically different approach can manifest and take root.
May 21st: Sun enters Gemini. Sun trine Pluto in Aquarius
The season of mutable air is here, everything is possible if you are willing to let the universe surprise you and play. The connection to destiny requires radical openness, a touch of naivete and desire to learn, and Gemini energy has all those in plenitude. With so many astrological influences jam packed during the Gemini season, it will be, most certainly, a wild ride. But if there is a sign that can navigate change of plans and change of opinions with a necessary lightness, it is Gemini. What we know, the validity of the information we get and how we communicate it are all about to undergo a major transformation. Let’s welcome the changes with a spirit of curiosity, versatility and a touch of experimentation. In a world where everything is shifting so fast, we should take advantage of Gemini season to tap into the energy of possibility through trying on different hats. Little mischievousness and playfulness doesn’t hurt.