Toronto, Ontario, Tuesday, May 9, 2006
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NOTE to readers in eastern Canada, please see the Toronto astrology conference announcement in the cover blog. I will be presenting twice this week, once on astrology and activism, and once on Chiron. Planet Waves writer and Astrology Secrets Revealed coordinator Arwynne O'Neill will also be presenting Saturday on the Saturn-Neptune cycle.

Taurus Birthdays 2006

Introduction

NEPTUNE has been in your 10th solar house for a long time. Depending on the day you were born (day, not year), Neptune has been gradually making a long square to your Sun. We could sum this up in one question: "What am I doing here?"

And there may not be an answer so fast, as you have no doubt noticed. But when you've asked the question, you're at least halfway there. You may have the idea that there would be the perfect career for you, if only you could find a place where people get along. But the 10th is about a lot more than one's career. It is about the sense of a necessary mission, and for you that mission involves learning, teaching, service, coordination with others, and some kind of group activity. What Neptune has been doing is saying, 'Yes, there is something, there is something very important -- but we're not going to give it a name, as it may not have a name. It has a feeling, but the feeling is hard to describe.'

I don't ever remember reading in any astrology book about what raging idealists Taurus-types are, but I've known quite a few I would describe as such in a rather guarded way. This is a Taurus-styled Aquarius influence, and it manifests where you strive to express your ideas, push for success, build your reputation, and essentially establish a relationship with the adult world. The tension between Taurus and Aquarius is interesting to say the least, because both have such an interesting relationship to change.

With Taurus, the unending change goes on so deeply it can take decades to come to the surface. It can be so intense it's unbearable at times, all the more for being so difficult to express, and so challenging to locate. With Aquarius, which is prominent in your chart and in your life because it's on the 'fixed cross' -- just like Taurus -- you get the possibility of two things going on: one, "the only constant is change," and second, someone who is on one level a revolutionary and on another deeply committed to the status quo. With both signs there is enormous tension between change and holding onto something stable. But they are inside-out versions of one another. Taurus seems conservative on the outside and is a revolutionary on the inside. Aquarius seems inventive and progressive on the outside, but at the core is often a certain kind of live-and-let-live conservative.

With Neptune working this house over for the past seven or eight years, that special something slowly, maybe without you realizing it, has gradually become an obsession. Neptune is a lot like Pluto -- astrology underestimates this one. But it's just a lot less focused; you have to do the work. Which is not easy.

Imagine you're the Executive Assistant to the Senior Vice President of an insurance company and your job is to run the sales floor of 27 reps and managers while your boss plays golf. You do it well, you've done it since your third job out of university and you're really good at it, but you keep having this recurring dream that you don't understand.

The skyscraper you're working in is made of salt. One day it starts raining outside, this special rain you've never encountered before, never read about or heard of, and you know it's gradually melting away the building from above. Every time you have the dream, the building melts a little more and the water is coming closer, and you know that sooner or later, you're not going to be able to manage this floor full of sales reps, mainly because the floor will eventually collapse. But the thing is, it never does.

One night, you have the dream yet again and it's different. Your boss is out playing golf and it starts to rain, but now it's a thunderstorm. You look out the window of the skyscraper and you can see a great distance. He's out there playing golf and you're afraid he's going to be hit by lightning. In fact, you realize your fear is a kind of hope. You hope he's going to get struck on the head by lightning and liberate you. But then you look closely and you realize it's really you out there on the golf course. And then suddenly it happens, but not like you expect it. This slow-moving arc of electricity reaches down and touches him/you on the head and you're transformed. It's an odd combination of slow motion transformation and instant metamorphosis, a bit of a paradox.

But you know you've changed. You've changed due to some seemingly external factor, and also because you took your power back from something outside yourself -- something that was 'there' but not available. Something real, but annoyingly unreal.

Let's look more closely at each of the Taurus birthday weeks to find some specifics. What follow are the initial short-edition birthday reports, which are "first thought best thought" writing, followed by an explanation of what I was getting at.


From April 21, 2006 - Weekly Horoscope #607

If it's an adventure, it's love. And if you also need stellar, perfect commitment and the promise of eternal stability, what then? I think that fidelity is the part of this equation that's going to take care of itself. Passion is the part you need to commit to, and moreover, notice when it's not there. That's when to push the envelope, do something different, be someone you need to be, and generally explore the unknown -- the more disorienting the better -- including unknown people. Don't worry, to the 'outside world' you will seem like the very picture of propriety. Nobody will believe you could be so utterly inappropriate.

Commentary

The Sun's ingress to Cancer came with a conjunction of the Moon in Capricorn and Pallas Athene in Capricorn. If there is an aspect that says you can get away with anything, this is the one. But there is a Venus-Uranus conjunction and that tells me that there's a lot you've got brewing, that wild ideas are calling you, and that in truth you just may use some of your fairy dust to pull off some exciting plans, and still come out wearing white.

Friends play a very strong role in pushing you to make sure you really do what you want. They are a constant and necessary source of inspiration and set an example for you to change in ways you never would have thought of. You identify with them; they with you; together you are able to think bigger, realer and freer.

Like all Taurus charts this year, Jupiter is in your opposite sign, Scorpio. This is presenting a situation where there may be what feel like long moments of lack of access in personal relationships, but you have a certain skill to get through that. In a sense, the reason is because you are so compelling, people who are not so willing to come out of their shell will do so anyway, despite themselves -- if you remember the intensity of the influence you hold over them. You could easily feel guilty for being so powerful; I don't recommend it at all.

In truth, you have much more important things to do than waste your time doubting yourself. So if you're feeling doubt, you have to learn how to get past it and make up your mind that so much more is meaningful. And that is likely to represent some form of decision about yourself and the direction of your life that is no small matter. At the Taurus ingress, Mars is exactly square the lunar nodes. It's in your 3rd house. This to me looks like a crucial decision about a relationship.

Rather, it's one of those things that is about a relationship on one level, but you know in truth it's about so much more. But the strange thing is, you may somehow feel that really, this other person needs to make the decision. I can pretty much assure you that while it involves them, you are the one doing the deciding in your own life. This would be good astrological advice any day of the week, but it certainly is so right now. Remember that your life, your evolutionary path, your freedom to choose what you want, are more important than any relationship, and the relationship must play second fiddle.

You are more likely to get your needs met, and get along with people if you do this, than if you live some other way.



From April 28, 2006 - Weekly Horoscope #608

Challenges you now face are most likely the kind that are the result of success. You may not see it that way, but you can, if you want, look at it that way. Had you not made so much progress in the past year, following a time where it seemed that setbacks were a way of life, you would not be in a position to make the kinds of decisions you find yourself needing to make today. You may feel, and rightly so, that circumstances are compelling you more than anything to be a different person. You may feel that this is unfair or undue pressure. But that is the price of individuality, and of personal success.

Commentary

The chart is the Taurus New Moon. The 10th house Neptune transit described above, though it reached its peak in your life a few years ago, is active again, in part because of the presence of Chiron in your 10th, and in part because Ceres is in an exact conjunction to Neptune. Chiron's presence in the 10th house (indeed, of all those born under the sign Taurus) suggests that success is a lot more likely than 'failure' but that you will have to work for it, sorting out your goals, making sure you're doing what you need to be, and getting obstacles (particularly psychological ones) out of your way.

Now is a good time to expand your understanding of the ways your mom pushed you to 'be something or someone'. The thing you need to look at is: how did her sense of loss or sacrifice influence her to want something, or not want it, for you? There are a lot of possibilities here, but the two big ones are: one, she did not get what she wanted out of life and wanted to make sure that you did. But, in doing so, did not factor in that you wanted something different; two, she was overwhelmed by a sense of sacrifice and short-circuited your goals and ideals, not necessarily intentionally, but in a way that affected you.

Why am I not saying that the influence was completely positive? Well, feel free to look for that, look for the gift of a certain level of 'push energy' she gave you -- but mostly I see you having a crisis about your power that is mingled up with her crisis over her power. If she's available, you might want to conduct a little interview with her, that includes getting an understanding of her sense of loss about being a mom; about what she wanted for you; about what her mother wanted for her; and about how she tried to influence you.

Why mom and not dad? This is a 10th house transit and it involves Ceres. But, if you're getting the feeling that it could be dad, look in that direction, but to me the astrology talks about a legacy that comes from the general direction of the elder women in your life, including 'mother figures', teachers and grandmothers.

It is possible to come to a real understanding at this point, and to clear some of this energy and even find authentic healing. Because Neptune is involved, it may take time to go through the layers, the illusions and the misunderstandings, but Neptune rewards us when we do these things slowly, carefully and gently.


 
From May 5, 2006 - Weekly Horoscope #609

The arrival of Mercury in your sign so close to your birthday says that you are finding yourself in some unusual and meaningful way. It's as if you've been struggling to find the words for how you feel, what you think and what you want -- and this has been slowing you down. You have not been lacking for ideas, but ideas are not enough. Words are not enough. What you need -- and what you are getting -- is a clear sense of who you are, which will give you the focus and clarity to express that in the world.

Commentary

Mercury is a much more interesting planet than most astrologers imagine, if you ask me. It's not just about radios, TVs and trampling our lives when it goes retrograde, one of its main properties is awareness, and solar returns this week have Mercury in early Taurus: a symbol of awareness, awakening and finding oneself.

When Mercury, like the Sun, is in one's previous sign, there can be a sense of being a bit lost. And like many things of a 12th house nature, you don't know it until you come out of it. And Mercury crossing your solar ascendant, the Taurus cusp is like a dawning of self-awareness. This may come in many forms: an idea, a change of one's mental state, or a lot of self-consciousness.

What is vital is that you focus on something other than what you perceive as your limitations. In an odd way the awareness of your potential can come with an equally strong awareness that there are no guarantees. Okay, there are no guarantees, but who really needs them? What would serve you very well is a conscious process of working through awareness of both potential and limitations and allowing that to lead you to a state where you take both seriously enough to work with them.

Though it's about awareness, Mercury is also about words. And part of the process of growth and evolution is going to come with the help of words. Words give us maps, and they give us an indication of what we are thinking that we can review somewhat more objectively than moment-to-moment feelings, which can be ephemeral.

Mercury, I have noticed, is about something I've never seen written: spiritual awakening. I think that of the basic planets, it's the one that says 'soul' the most vividly. Apologies to the Pluto and Neptune people, but this is an idea with a Gestalt flavor: awareness is soul. Or Krishna flavor: "I am the consciousness of creatures, the mind behind the senses."

Awareness is not always easy on this planet. For one thing, one becomes aware of how much suffering there is. For another, one's awareness can threaten others. One reason why even very creative people hold themselves down and stay in denial is because to do anything but that can shock people, starting with one's parents, and then peers, and before long, holding oneself down is a habit. Then there is the "community standard" that compels people to do the same thing all through their lives. So what happens is, typically, the development of communities of armored people who are afraid to feel too alive or aware because it threatens others.

Going past this is your mission, if you choose to accept it.

 
From May 12, 2006 - Weekly Horoscope #610

This is a peak moment in your life, and rather than saying you have to take the bad along with the good, I suggest that you take the good along with the usual challenges. That's because the usual challenges will always be there, and the art of living is being able to place the emphasis on what you want to experience and do your best to let the rest shift to the background. There is, however, one subject that is reaching for your attention, something that has been the subject of much uncertainty over the years. You are now ready to confront it; you are ready to have more influence over the direction of your life.

Commentary

The reading above is an interpretation of the grand water trine that is currently in town, noting the fact that the Taurus Sun gives an opening to express the grand trine. Taurus is well supported by the water signs any day of the week, and with the Sun in mid-Taurus and a Full Moon approaching this is especially strong. While other factors such as the fact that Venus is in Aires are distracting from emotional grounding, the rest of your solar chart points directly to something truly inspiring.

All in all there is pretty much a best-case scenario for Taurus because with the stable, radiant Sun in your sign, the emotional and sensual realms are energized by three strong planets in the water signs -- Mars, Jupiter and Uranus.

It may be true that 'life is never easy' because there are always challenges -- and at the same time, there are always excuses that people make not to feel alive, to be alive, to live fully. None of these is likely to work for you now, and you have not only every reason to go beyond them, but many opportunities to express yourself in unusual, vital ways.

The challenge is to live in something other than automatic mode, and it's a pretty important one. You need to be like a dolphin and take every breath as a conscious act. Walk as a conscious act. Feel as a conscious act. This may be easier at the beginning of the year than it is as the months progress. The Full Moon chart on which this reading is based has Venus in a strong sextile to Chiron, which is excellent energy for self-awareness and living innovatively, living in a direct way, but also in a balanced way.

As the year progresses, the next prominent Venus aspect becomes a square to Mars. And this emphasizes the ever-important theme of remembering that you have a male and female side. The tense relationship between these two aspects may come out as tension in relationships but -- if you remember that you can embody 'both halves of the whole' in any relationship you will learn quite a lot about yourself.

One way to do this is to see both sides of the relationship, and do your best to experience it emotionally from both points of view. This will save you a lot of strangeness and with Venus in Aries you are more than able to see the other point of view. With so many planets in water signs, it will also be easy for you to empathize with the feelings of others.

The Venus-Mars square is gong to work like an alarm clock that wakes you up every day. You may not like what you feel some days, but you will certainly get the chance to move through it and get to a better place, emotionally and psychically. Whether others cooperate with you is up to them, but there's a lot you can do to make that much easier. First and foremost, listen and feel, no matter how unusual the world says these things are.

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