Astrology

The Sun is very active and this is the year of the solar maximum. More than just an astronomical event, this creates spikes of excitability that has been noted by researchers. It's rather wild timing, what with the square of Uranus and Pluto exact (Monday).

The tension of that square -- to break down and re-form -- meets the power of the solar flare as a catalyst. Keep in mind, squares form a third creation. With the Uranus-Pluto square, there is a revisioning of how to live on Earth. Uranus is the planet of awakening, with downloads of new energies. And solar flares seem to be activating as well, for the whole being - even physically.

Today the Earth gets a glancing blow from on of the four X (highest) flares -- see Spaceweather. There's also a high probability of more to come. The geomagnetic field is the one to watch and on this NOA Solar Data site it reads unsettled. It's possible it will read Storm! at some point today, or the next few days.

I came across an article by Michael Forrester called, Increasing Solar Activity and Disturbances in Earth's Magnetic Field Affect Our Behavior and Increase Our Health. Though it's from 2012, It's a great overview of the Sun's activity -- the levels of flares, the 11-year solar cycle, the solar maximum (2013) and even how it relates to spontaneous manifestation.

Forrester points out a study by A.L. Tchijevsky, a 19th-century Russian scientist, who studied solar flaring and human response over hundreds of years. (from 500 B.C. to 1922 A.D.) Says Forrester, "He (Tchijevsky) investigated the histories of 72 countries in that period, noting signs of human unrest such as wars, revolutions, riots, expeditions and migrations, plus the number of humans involved. Tchijevsky found that fully 80% of the most significant events occurred during the years of maximum sunspot activity. He maintained that the "exciting" period may be explained by an acute change in the nervous and psychic character of humanity, which takes place at sunspot maxima."

There are real reasons to be alert, and listen to your body. One is the link between suicide and solar maximums. Earth watchers are on alert for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

But Forrester notes that for some, there is a silver lining, and that's a quickening of the power to recreate their lives. He writes, "The interesting fact about this energy is that since it is of a higher frequency it creates the power of instant manifestation of our thoughts, which means whatever we think, we create instantly. This never before happened in our lifetime and that is why many people are writing books on the subject on the Power of Attraction."

• Watch your thoughts -- look for ways to divert away from shame spirals, and dark imaginings about the future.
• Go barefoot -- imagine the energy moving down through the body and into the Earth.
• Avoid crowded, bad vibe places or personalities that jar you.
• Exercise supreme self-care, altering your schedule if necessary.
• Find the catalyst portals and send off your burning impressions -- the vision of your highest self.
• Watch loved ones for signs of temporary insanity, edginess and depression.
• Keep it simple, slow down, turn off background noise.

The Sun gets all the glory in astrology -- it's the answer to "What's your sign?" But doing readings this week, I'm reminded of the Moon as the soulful underpinnings. The Moon is how you get cozy, the private self and self-care. It's behaviors you fall back on when in a crisis, when you can't think, you just act instinctively.

In times of losing touch with yourself, it helps, of course, to come back to the home of the Moon. This is found in the traits and house of the Moon in your chart. If your Moon has hard aspects, your life story could be one of seeking that home feeling, and creating it for yourself.

What's the relationship (aspects) between your Sun and Moon? The Moon is how we emotionally synch up with other people. And when your way is known -- more knowing thyself -- it's clearer why you naturally feel at home with some and not others.

The Sun is in a solar maximum this year, and that means it is predicted to cast off a peak of flares. After a bit of a lull, there were three X flares in a 24-hr period, starting early Monday. And Spaceweather reports a 40% chance of more to come. The X flaring was not Earth-directed, but this sunspot is rotating toward our planet. So let's review solar flares and geomagnetic storms (the result on our end).

The phenomenon of spaceweather -- and its effect on us -- is a kind of frontier field. Susan Joy Rennison is a scientist and a philosopher -- she wants to distance herself from the new age catchall. She has a JoyFire Spaceweather Facts Slideshow that's a great overview of what it is, and what, in her view is happening.

The nutshell version is that the Earth's protective shield has been diminishing. This lets more spaceweather in, a main contributor to climate change. We've lost our protection, but we've also lost our frequency fence to the greater cosmos. Rennison gets into mythic terrain, saying that the Earth is letting down her guard and welcoming the purifying rays of her partner, the Sun. And we're being made anew, by these pulses, since they carry frequency, and awaken us to our connection to the great beyond.

Michael Erlewine makes the connection between creative flashes of genius and solar impacts. "In his yet-to-be published book Children of the Light,astrologer Theodor Landscheidt (who was a supreme court justice in Germany) and friend of mine, documented the effect of such massive solar events on the creativity of many great writers, scientists, and artists." Confusion is a side effect, says Erlewine, so he says, "This kind of experience is not a call to activity and getting things done, but more like an imprinting, a taking things in, allowing this new information to enter and register deep within us. Later, we will (or can) read it back out as it affects us personally and make some kind of sense out of it. It is creative!"

In the case of these X-flares, there's a slight chance of geomagnetic storming later this week. The flaring happens, and then the energies enter Earth's atmosphere (if they're Earth-directed) in a few days. As a sensitive, I find it helps to make sense of different symptoms or moods, and there are many sites like this one -- SolarHam -- to see Sun activity.

• Solar Eruptions and the Self by Michael Erlewine: "It is like the solar blast blew our concept of our Self into a million pieces and now we are trying to pick them up and come up with a half-decent image of our self again."
• Solar Eruptions, DNA and the Third Eye "Adonai says, 'We are physically, mentally, and emotionally altered by electromagnetic charges from the sun, our body can feel sleepy but also become highly energized.'"
• Insomnia and Solar Flares "Dr. Robert Schoch, a tenured professor at Boston University, says, 'Oh yeah, it seems to be affecting people, there are definitely mood changes and it affects sleep patterns, that sort of thing.'"

This is an unsettled month astrologically, and the Uranus-Pluto square on May 20th adds a sense that something is going to happen. It's important not to let fear and imagined scenarios cloud the picture. There's danger of that intensifying, with Neptune playing with our minds this week. And yet, it's possible to turn it around, and use the fluid nature of reality these days to see from many angles, and shift our shapes.

Neptune and Mercury (by way of Gemini) together -- in squares to the weekend -- invite Dragonfly medicine. The key word, in the Medicine Cards, is illusion. "Dragonfly's shifting of color, energy, form, and movement explodes into the mind of the observer, bringing vague memories of a time or place where magic reigned."

Is it possible to play with illusion, and let it guide us to the changes we're longing to make? Venus (love and beauty) is in Gemini, and squares Neptune today (Monday). This lingers through the week, for unusual encounters and serendipity. You could meet some genuine crazy people, for example. Or feel temporarily crazy yourself. Where's the genius in the crazy?

Mercury zips into its own sign Gemini at mid-week, for a quickened pace -- more chatter! Those who work with the public might find it easier to make small talk, and even enjoy it. There's ease of flow with the grapevine -- word travels fast! This is a speedy tour, as Mercury goes into Cancer on June 1st. It's a good time to gather documents, canvass, make friends, and enjoy random conversations with anybody and everybody.

Keeping it light is wise, as Mercury will square Neptune (at 5 degrees Gemini-Pisces) on Friday. This makes details go fuzzy, like the small print of a contract. And yet, squares have a way of creating cracks that let new light in. Gemini and Pisces are both signs that see from within and around many worlds. There could be a breakthrough here, for those wanting to widen their perception.

I'm using multiple glasses, as stand-ins for my bi-focals that broke this morning. I need the reading glasses for the ephemeris, and another for the computer. I want to throw up my hands and say, "I can't see!" And yet, I can see it as a little prank from cosmic trickster -- an invitation to let go of the frustration of the square. And to see where the energy of friction takes me today. This is seeming very symbolic for this week, and circumstances of seeing through different lenses. Have a great week!

An astrologer friend used to refer to the South Node as the inheritance. The South is the past and cumulative experiences -- the familiar -- and the North node is where you break new ground in this life.

Author Eileen Grimes steps back to view the lunar nodes with a personal epiphany and notes from an astrological session. The not-so-random way life holds us to a path of experiences, says Eileen, is a natural path toward accumulated rewards. There's a golden thread there, that's sensed more and more, with the passing of years.

New Article: The Lunar Nodes by Eileen Grimes -- Out of the comfort zone...into the rewards.

Love gets kooky with Venus into Gemini, with a more free and light atmosphere. Love grows when making each other laugh, like breaking the death grip with a droll comment. The social vibe is restless, with wonderfully odd combos of people mixing it up.

Venus begins to square her own higher octave Neptune at mid-month, and that's when weird and sublime encounters are possible. Beware of people who live double lives, or seem all talk and no substance. A high expression of this aspect is showing many faces of who you are, and feeling (and sharing) the joy of change. Venus is in Gemini to June 2nd.

Author Eileen Grimes has fresh 'scopes for May, and they have the flavor of Venus Gemini baked in. It's a time to loosen things and perhaps for some, take a short trip.

• See May Love Scopes from Eileen Grimes

It's the birthday of Taurus David Gahan (May 9th, 1962), frontman for Depeche Mode. Gahan has one of those instantly recognizable baritone voices, deep and sultry. Many Bull performers have resonant voices, to go with their sensual moves -- here's Gahan just last March at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in NYC.

Wiki tells us his nickname is "The Cat" because he's had several brushes with death, and an addiction to heroin. His Sun is opposite Neptune, in the sign of death Scorpio. There can be an allure, with this aspect, to that threshold of life and death. I dare say it gives his presence and music a kind of supernatural undercurrent -- as if he's deciding whether to stay or not.

Someone with Sun opposite Neptune becomes the object of projection -- fantasies and desires. This serves David Gahan as a performer, as someone who holds dreams for the audience. His presence and lyrics are both very physical (sensual and sexual) and ethereal, a mix of Taurus and Scorpio energies. And he's looking very seasoned-by-life, in a good way, as he turns 52. Many happy returns!

So this Taurus New Moon is the second of three eclipses. Taurus is fixed earth, and a sign of all things steady and deeply embedded. Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) hold focus, "fix in" a scenario so that plans and ideas can be developed to the fullest. Beware of what you're enmeshed in -- is it time to seek greener pastures?

Since Saturn is also in a fixed sign (Scorpio), and opposing the Sun and Moon, it's a time to choose the psychic and physical world you want to invest in. It's a big deal, because each individual's choice effects the whole. It's all the more dramatic, since we're in the time of re-imagining how we live on Earth -- the Uranus-Pluto square.

In his newsletter (posted on Wild Bee Grove) James Gilliland of ECETI speaks lines that carry the energies of Taurus and Scorpio. He says, "Exacting self worth though outer appearances and material acquisition is no longer applicable. Why? Because this society is so dysfunctional and wounded it has nothing more to offer. The ugliest and most painful trick you can play on yourself is aligning with it. Where is the security in aligning with a sick, corrupt, unconscious world imploding in on itself? "

It's a huge relief to realize you don't have to be rooted in the mindset and beliefs that have led to so much suffering. The Taurus lunation comes with a solar eclipse -- there could be big jolty events that quicken the return to harmony with the planet. And on the "me" level, each of us has big and little choices to make -- many each day -- that shape our vision for the world.

The Taurus stellium at the New Moon are over the 14 to 20 degrees -- a theme of the second decan is struggle. There is a metamorphosis in progress, so be patient with how it all looks. Look for these degrees in your birth chart for themes. For a forecast, see Taurus New Moon in the Houses.

My husband who loves tools just bought an actual antique scythe, which is a perfectly sensible thing to do since we are growing alfalfa. I noted with curiosity that I had a tinge of spooky fear at the sight of it. Maybe it's because of all those horror movie crazies that use sharpened farm tools, or because it's so often in the hands of the Grim Reaper.

The scythe has been a symbol of death and mortality along with the skull and hourglass. The Roman Saturn (and Greek Chronos) was the cosmic representation of time, its passage and its sobering reality. From the Symbol Dictionary, "The scythe symbolized not only impermanence (all things living will be cut down), but the nature of the life cycle- plants must die to feed animals, and the tool of the harvest is depicts the necessity of death for the renewal of life."

Saturn is in Scorpio, the sign that has sharp instincts for what must die or be composted, transformed, for life to renew itself. And Saturn is standing watch, as we descend into the Taurus New Moon/Eclipse. Saturn (Scorpio) is in opposition to the luminaries (Sun-Moon) and other planets in Taurus. Saturn's scythe has been in action, since this is a separating aspect -- the fat is being trimmed.

New Moons are refreshers! And Saturn's scythe is a tool to churn and turn, toss and burn, and work some magic of composting psychic material. It's a Dark Moon and lunation to clear away what's dead, draining and a waste of your time (a priceless resource). The more you release, the more energy comes back to you -- to invest in what will grow. The New Moon is this Thursday, May 9th at 8:28 pm EDT.

• Taurus New Moon in the Houses -- this one is at 20 degrees.
• Spring Eclipses - Scorpio/Taurus/Sagittarius
• Eclipses in the Houses

I love the back to school feel of Mondays. I like making my list of things to do, and going with that rhythm of productivity. My husband often goes off to work, and I sing a happy song to my dog Lulu with the one line, "Me and you. Me and you. Me and you." I guess I like my solitude! I've mentioned how my Virgo husband is the control man and high maintenance. During the week, I get into my work flow, my way. The snoring of my dog is my only metronome to keep me on task.

A fired up Aries Moon to mid-week makes for an alert mood. On Aries Moon days, we want to cut to the chase, and take action. It's a Dark Moon week, so while the solar cycle is waxing to Summer Solstice, the lunar cycle is waning. The fiery Aries Moon, though, makes lively aspects all week that charge up inner determination, and bring core realities to light.

There is a veritable feast of solid intel this week, with Mercury (the messenger) in Taurus aligning with Pluto (plumbing the depths) and Mars (motivation). Even under the waning Moon, not traditionally a time to act, there can be sensible moves this week. This is about finding traction in what feels substantial, and can be built upon.

The Taurus New Moon and Solar Eclipse is Thursday (May 9th) at 8:26 pm EDT). It's at 20 degrees Taurus (Sun and Moon) with Mercury and Mars there to firm up your intent. Look here later for tips for each house the Taurus eclipse is transiting. Until then, check out eclipses in the houses -- a forecast.