Sun Into Taurus 2012: Love And Money

    When the Sun moves into sturdy, dependable Taurus at 9:12 A.M. PST on April 19th, it initiates a cycle abundant in earth sign resources, and one that includes a full Scorpio moon and the beginning of a Venus retrograde in thinking, communicative Gemini.  This cycle is also preparing us for a set of powerful eclipses on May 20th and June 4th, the Venus occultation of June 5-6th and the Uranus Pluto square of June 24th.  As more systemic change approaches planet Earth, the patient, powerful Bull arrives to share its enduring wisdom.  Its ruler Venus is traveling close by and urging us to make love our guiding principle, a choice that will make all the difference.

    Astrology’s earth signs are associated with nature, finances, health and the physical realms of reality, and Taurus is renowned for its capacity for construction.  Whether a personal chart is heavily aspected by planets in earth signs or not, the cycle ahead is loaded with ample opportunity to turn thoughts into things.  First and foremost, the new Taurus moon of April 21st. with Its trines to Mars and Pluto in fellow earth signs Virgo and Capricorn, sextiles with Neptune and Chiron in Pisces and conjunction with expansive Jupiter, now also in Taurus, offers a sound and inspiring foundation for building.  The Sun follows suit and bolsters our enterprises with a Neptune sextile on the 22nd, Mars and Pluto trines on the 23rd and 29th and a Jupiter conjunction on May 13th.  Those harmonious angles to indelible Neptune and healing Chiron in holistic (water sign) Pisces are important. Taurus’s easy going style agrees with Piscean gentleness, and this combination helps us access our creativity and intuition.  On May 8th, our minds also acquiesce to the Bull’s calm assurance when Mercury enters centered Taurus.  From there it sextiles Neptune on the 10th and trines Mars the 13th and Pluto on the 14th.  On May 16th Mars and Pluto trine, and on May 18th the Moon returns to Taurus.  The earth sign stamina, solidity and stability available throughout this cycle provide especially fertile ground for seeding our immediate and long-range goals.  They can also instill a sense of security that will prove useful as 2012’s larger events (the 99% Spring, earthquakes and changes at the Fed?) unfold.     

     To counteract an unhealthy emphasis on the material side of life, every Taurus cycle includes a full Scorpio moon.  Destructive and transformation, Scorpio demands honesty and necessary change.  This year the annual battle between the tangible and impermanent takes place on May 5th, the same day Mercury, still in independent Aries at the time, will oppose unyielding Saturn in arbitrating Libra.  Our Taurus quest for sensual pleasure and gratification is accountable to no less than the truth, and individual desire must be reconciled with communal concerns.  Part of a larger global trend, these aspects remind us that the exploitation of resources via our economic and environmental practices must be brought into line with our values and balanced with our impact on others.

    In case anyone misses the memo from the full Scorpio moon, pleasure-seeking Venus turns retrograde on May 15th.  Transiting Gemini, this retrograde will ask us to reflect upon what we value and to speak and act from a loving place. Lasting through June 27th, this extremely significant retrograde includes the solar and lunar eclipses and occultation.  Long before cherubic depictions of romantic love and Victorian notions of femininity, Venus was a Roman Goddess associated with sex, fertility and military victory, along with her familiar roles in love and beauty.  Similarly, the full scope, power and meaning of the planet Venus has been understated over time.  However, giving us time to review our resources and priorities through alluring Venus is only part of the 2012 mission.  

     Occurring roughly six months prior to the culmination of the Mayan calendar, this Venus retrograde is a proverbial return to love, with self-love as its starting point.  If we enter this retrograde with a willingness to shine the Light of unconditional love onto our shadows first, completely forgiving and embracing all of our being, the healing begins. Call it Bull medicine.  Call it the Power of Love.  Call it evolution.  The cosmic message is clear; love is the alchemical solution to all that ails us and our planet.  Aligned with its transformative truth, we and the world will shift. If we do the internal work during this retrograde, by the time Venus goes direct in late June, we will emerge lighter and brighter, with a much greater capacity to give and receive love. In the meantime, the celestial Bull is here to ground and nourish our dreams. Happy Birthday Taurus!

Sun Into Aries 2012: New Pathways Emerging

Typically when the Sun enters bold, inpatient Aries, it initiates a cycle that brings us a renewed sense of drive and dynamism. As the days lengthen, flowers bloom and temperatures rise, the invigorating energy of this Cardinal fire sign fills us with the annual impulse to forge ahead. With Mercury, Saturn and the Ram’s ruler, Mars, already retrograde, and a Pluto retrograde and some Mutable crosses in the immediate forecast, the action will be much more subdued in 2012. In the bigger scheme of things, a set of eclipses, a Venus retrograde and occultation, and the first of some massive Pluto Uranus squares will occur during the coming three months. The decidedly more cautious pace of this Aries cycle is signaling a season of discerned development. The careful application of Aries firepower can help us make mindful and meaningful progress as the game-changing variables in the offing unfold.

Irrepressible and indomitable, enlivening and enthusiastic, Aries starts the spring and inspires us with confidence and courage. On March 19th at 10:14 P.M. PST, when the Sun enters this initiating sign, that sense of possibility and provocation will be heightened because the Sun will meet up with thinking Mercury and inventive Uranus already in Aries. On the 22nd, the new Aries moon will add more fuel to the inextinguishable fire, and activate some Cardinal cross energy. Like intersections, astrology’s crosses represent perpendicular points of planetary collision. One force must yield to another in order for one to progress. By March 29th the Sun and Pluto will be in such an alignment. The Sun in Aries signifies personal will with an emphasis on individuality and independence, and Pluto in Capricorn represents a sober assessment of available resources. One of this cycle’s key yellow-light dates. this square is advising us to take a long-range look when making significant decisions about how we use time and money. The Mars retrograde in rational, methodical Virgo will help quell our passions long enough to weigh the options carefully, and Mercury’s backward movement into integrating Pisces, where dissolving Neptune also is, will support holistic solutions. By the way, Mercury will go direct on April 4th and Mars on the 13th.

The placements of Mercury and Neptune in Pisces and Mars in Virgo point to another important feature of this Aries sojourn, the Mutable influence. The Mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, end their respective seasons and are generally associated with closure, completion and change. On April 3rd, Venus moves into inquisitive, talkative Gemini. From this position Venus will square Neptune on April 5th, Mars on the 7th and Chiron on the 12th. The Sagittarius moon of April 9th through 11th will create another series of Mutable squares. With much less harshness than their Cardinal and Fixed counterparts, the adaptable Mutable crosses teach us flexibility and gentle release. 2012’s spring cleaning can be literal and physical and biological and neurochemical. The Mutable crosses support freeing ourselves from the past, and the Cardinal crosses endorse sowing the seeds of our desired new realities.


Like music behind our intentions, Venus can play a major role in shaping those new paradigms. The implications of the planet of love, relating and possessions in the sign of information, communication and technology are enormous, and this transit is a unique one. It will last for four months and includes a retrograde and occultation. Venus will reach the retrograde shadow point of 7 degrees Gemini on April 12th, and by May 15th it will be at 23 degrees when the retrograde that will last until June 28th begins. During the retrograde, the Venus occultation and next set of Gemini/Sagittarius solar and lunar eclipses will take place. Similar to an eclipse, during the occultation, Venus will appear to pass in front of the Sun. Venus occultations occur in pairs separated by eight years, but these pairs only take place every 121 years. The June 5th event is the second half of the 2004 set. Though I’ll be writing more about the eclipses and occultation in the Gemini edition, their influences will start during this Aries cycle when Venus enters Gemini.

The squares Venus will make to Neptune, Mars and Chiron in April are part of a larger spring trend. One possibility is that they will expose some of the fault lines in our psyches, the uncomfortable corners where the intent to change meets the old, internal resistance stored in our habitual negative thinking and emotional bodies. The presence of Venus in Gemini will beam constant reminders of life’s intrinsic beauty. The more often we recognize it, the more often we experience the Venus effect. As this template upgrades each individual operating system, the greater the possibility for collective planetary evolution. Excitable and unflappable, Aries is arriving to point the way forward and to cheer us up and onward. Though a few retrogrades may cause some pause, it’s time to celebrate this invincible force of spirit.