Tag Archives: New moon

The Day of Nurturing Support: Birthdays and Planet News

If Your Birthday is May 4
The Day of Nurturing Support | Order Your 2019-20 Taurus Reading | All Other Signs

Take advantage of any idea or event that inspires you to master a particular skill, or to develop yourself in general. A birthday is always to some extent the beginning of a new cycle; however, this year you may find yourself with an entirely blank slate, and the freedom to fill it as you please. Aim for subjects, occupations and goals that really light up your passion, and pursue them unapologetically.
— by Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Today the Sun and Moon conjoin for the Taurus New Moon. Occurring at the midpoint of Taurus, this is happening at Beltane — the ancient Pagan cross-quarter holiday that marks the middle of the current season and celebrates our connection to the Earth itself. If you have actual seeds to plant, this is traditionally a good time to do so — and of course, the same holds for the metaphorical seeds of your intentions and desires for this next lunar cycle. Some general themes to keep in mind: anything relating to your body’s senses and your relationship to your body, sex, your values, the material resources you possess and those you’d like to cultivate.

Yet this New Moon is also in aspect to a curious array of minor objects. It appears that if you’ve been wrestling with a feeling of stuck-ness in some regard, there’s an opportunity to begin to move beyond that feeling — even just a little, and even if you’re convinced that’s not possible. Uranus is doing its part to surprise us all out of old habits, but let’s face it: sometimes that’s not enough by itself. After all, we tend to get by with a little help from our friends, and other objects in the New Moon chart suggest people who may be able to help lift you up or facilitate next steps. It’s also possible that in filling that role for someone else, you’ll indirectly energize your own cause.

Either way, see if you can get out in nature today or tomorrow. Make actual contact with the ground if weather and location permit — as in, bare feet or bare belly directly on the earth. Can you feel just how solidly you are being held by this planet, and offer some thanks to it in some way? Collectively, we’ve spent many years doing the opposite, but Uranus appears to be linking us to some ancestral support today if you feel inclined to invoke the wisdom of many generations past.
— by Amanda Painter

Have you tried the Astrology Readings Channel?

Planet Waves offers readings for all the signs and rising signs. These readings are must-haves among a core group of people who love them, though perhaps you have not heard what Eric is doing. We’ve taken many readings from 2018 and put them on a 24-hour audio stream, which anyone can tune into. Whatever your sign, you will find it interesting no matter when you tune in. If you’re up late and want something soothing and informative to listen to, or if you’re curious about astrology, tune in here. No login is required.

The Day of Human Observation: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is May 2
The Day of Human Observation | Order Your 2019-20 Taurus Reading | All Other Signs

Keep your aim in sight, and remember that the point is to get there rather than moving above a certain speed. Haste without deliberation may result in your needing to retrace steps; instead, plan your route carefully, and draw as much information as you can from all sources. There will likely be moments when you have a clear road in front of you; at these times, you should be fine to forge ahead.
— by Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

As we approach Saturday’s Taurus New Moon (which is smack-dab in the Beltane zone), the Sun makes a rather auspicious aspect to help you warm up for any weekend festivities. Specifically, the Sun is conjunct Lempo, an asteroid rather recently named for the ancient Finnish goddess of fire and fertility. (You can read a little more about her here and also here.) Get fired up — but if you’re not actually planning to celebrate your fertility by making full use of it, do remember to use a condom (that is, if you’re in a hetero situation and not honoring the goddess on your own).

Today’s sky also features a square between Mercury in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. This looks like a reminder to beware of obsessive thoughts (possibly sexy thoughts in particular — channel that energy physically rather than getting stuck in your head about it). When dealing with others, try to keep an open mind in important matters. Do you really need to coerce someone to your point of view, or can you let them have their opinion? If you can use this energy to get introspective about hidden parts of your psychology, you may reap a deeper awareness that’s truly useful.
— by Amanda Painter

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Breath and Butterflies, Blue and Beltane

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By Amanda Painter

On Saturday, we have a New Moon right at the midpoint of Taurus — the Beltane zone, when the ancient Pagans celebrated the fertility of the Earth by having sex out in the fields. I’m supposed to tell you all about this interesting chart, and I will; but to be honest, I’m still ruminating on some of the events and recurring themes I encountered last week while I was away, during the Sun’s first conjunction to Uranus in Taurus.

Photo by Amanda Painter; Orkney, Scotland, 2018.

So if you’ll pardon the indulgence, I’m going to start there and will make my leisurely way to the astrology. You know how a Taurus hates to be rushed.

With the gracious support of my Planet Waves colleagues, I was just immersed in a weeklong intensive class in Orkney, Scotland — a particular method for freeing the breath and voice for theater — taught by its 83-year-old originator (and fellow Taurean) Kristin Linklater. It was a rather spontaneous opportunity, though it built upon my 2018 trip there for the same purpose.

During last year’s class, Uranus — “The Awakener,” the cosmic sparkplug — made its preliminary ingress into Taurus. During my trip this year, the Sun made its first of its annual conjunctions to Uranus in Taurus between now and 2025. I already knew before I got the email for the class (three weeks before it started) that it was exactly the way I wanted to return to the sense of ‘being in process’ that had marked last spring; the moment I noticed the Sun-Uranus conjunction would be occurring, it was like a bell rang.

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The Day of Consequence: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is April 5
The Day of Initiative | Pre-order Your 2019-20 Aries Reading | All Other Signs

Focus your energy actively on your higher ambitions and thoughts. Resolve that distractions will be kept to a minimum. This is a pivotal moment for you, and you have every support possible at your disposal to facilitate constant growth. Treat the matter as if no door is closed to you, because that will be pretty near the truth. Even if getting through some of them might take considerable effort, set no limit on your sights.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

Today’s Aries New Moon — a conjunction of the Sun and Moon — takes place at the very midpoint of the sign. This means it’s also square the position of the Capricorn New Moon and partial solar eclipse that we experienced on Jan. 5. You might take a moment today to think back to that week (and the whole winter eclipse season). How does what you’re doing now relate to the clearing, intention-setting, constructing and initiating you were involved with three months ago? Can you see any continuation, development or sense of integration?

Also intriguing about this New Moon chart is that it features four separate conjunctions across Pisces and Aries: Venus conjunct the centaur planet Nessus in Pisces, Mercury-Neptune in Pisces, Vesta conjunct the centaur Chiron in Aries, and then the Aries Sun and Moon. Taking a broad view, this mix of spiritually sensitive and imaginative energy with the fiery get-up-and-go of Aries could be a potent combination for getting some things done. What might those things be? Healing of past hurts and growth processes is one possibility.

This chart also speaks of the process of bringing vision out of the clouds and into contact with vital life-force energy — whether that be through creativity, sex, or any other form of enacted agency. As in, the kind of thing that creates you as you are creating it. Any time we commit energy to tangible actions, we not only have an effect on our environment, but on our perception of who we are. That effect might be subtle; it might take a while to fully manifest, or for you to begin noticing the ways you’re growing into it. Why not plant some seeds of initiative and see what next step appears before you?
— By Amanda Painter

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Pairing Up with the Aries New Moon

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By Amanda Painter

Early on Friday the Sun and Moon conjoin in Aries for the Aries New Moon. This is occurring right at the midpoint of the sign, in a rather interesting chart. The sky right now features a strong mix of Aries and Pisces; and while that often occurs at the very beginning of this season, the mix is feeling especially striking to me this year.

Simplified chart section for Friday's Aries New Moon, showing the four pairs of conjunctions. From top: Nessus & Venus, Neptune & Mercury, Vesta & Chiron, Sun & Moon.

Simplified chart section for the Aries New Moon, showing four conjunctions in Pisces and Aries. From top: Nessus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, Vesta, Chiron, Sun, Moon.

I chalk that up partly to the fact that the Mercury-Neptune conjunction is still going strong, its influence seemingly all the more potent due to its level of exactness when Mercury stationed direct a week ago.

Related to that, for the last week I’ve been repeatedly confronted by a mix of my intuition being right on some things, and other thoughts and feelings — sometimes related to the same topic — being completely wrong. Heightened awareness of energetic, emotional or spiritual boundaries, particularly when I’m starting to overstep them, has been another prominent theme for me.

What has your week been like? Your personal experience of the energy may vary considerably, yet Mercury-Neptune is the background against which tomorrow’s New Moon occurs, so it’s worth considering. I sometimes think of the Aries New Moon as kind of the ‘other shoe’ to the equinox. It’s a ‘restart button’ for a shorter-term cycle (lunar rather than seasonal) that invokes, concentrates and then releases into the same energy of newness, growth and initiative.

Yet what caught my eye about this New Moon chart is that the Sun-Moon and Mercury-Neptune conjunctions are only two of four conjunctions in effect right now across Pisces and Aries. There’s also Venus conjunct the centaur planet Nessus in Pisces, and Vesta conjunct the centaur Chiron in Aries.

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The View from the Other Side

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By Amanda Painter

At last, the major astrology of this week (this month, really) has occurred: Mercury is retrograde in Pisces as of Monday; Uranus is in Taurus as of yesterday, and the Pisces New Moon is separating. As I write this, it’s all so fresh that I’m still getting a feel for whether the edginess and sense of anticipation I’d been experiencing has dissipated.

Utility poles in Orkney, Scotland, the day after Uranus — the cosmic light socket — ingressed Taurus in May 2018. Photo by Amanda Painter

I’ve tried to think back to last May, when Uranus first dipped into Taurus, to compare how I felt and what was going on for me, to see if there are any correlations. I have to confess, though, I feel like last year’s ingress was easier somehow.

That could be more the result of time softening the edges of memory than an actual contrast. But I’m curious to hear whether anyone reading this has a similar sense of it all.

I know that last year, like this year, I was involved in a theater production; immediately after, I traveled to Orkney, Scotland, for an intensive workshop on voice and breath for theater. It was during that workshop that Uranus entered Taurus. I recall feeling busy before the trip; maybe a little overwhelmed; but when Uranus actually made its move, I was simply focused completely on the workshop and on exploring my surroundings when I was not exploring my own breath and voice.

So I’ve been wondering: was it partly being in a strange place, on an adventure of self-discovery, that aligned with the energy of Uranus and therefore seemed to smooth the change? Are my situation and activities somehow less in harmony with Uranus this year? Was it the resonance of a voice class with the sign Taurus (which rules the neck and throat)?

Or does this year’s edginess in the lead-up relate more to the succession of other planets we’ve had hanging out in the final degrees of signs? Maybe having Chiron in the sensitive first degree of Aries, conjunct Salacia, is providing more agitation than I’ve been giving it credit for?

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The Day of Creative Isolation: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is March 4

Order Your 2019-20 Pisces Reading | All Other Signs

Stretch into your visionary abilities: the power of your intuition and the breadth of your perception. There will always be moments when you are tempted to respond with a hot head, or to confuse emotion with philosophy. The present environment encourages that behavior. However, if you can keep in mind to pause and check in with your ethical compass, you will have access to a profound, wise and accurate source of inner guidance.
— By Amy Elliott

Written In The Planets
How’s your energy level — physical, mental, emotional, sexual, psychic? There are some agitating factors in the sky currently; yet we’re also just two days from a New Moon. So if you feel under pressure but also lack the ‘oomph’ to deal with it head-on (or in any way productively), there are correlations in the astrology. Namely: Mercury stations retrograde in the last degree of Pisces tomorrow; Uranus leaves the last degree of Aries to enter Taurus on March 6; and later that day the waning Moon meets the Sun for the Pisces New Moon. The New Moon is also square the polarizing Great Attractor (a deep-space phenomenon in mid-Sagittarius).

One way to deal with all of this is to go inward — to make a little space for yourself to settle down, settle in and take inventory of where you’re really at. Yet Jupiter is making a conjunction today to Varda, an object named after the deity associated with light in J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. If you feel more called to express yourself outwardly, it appears that any offerings of light will probably go big. Just take your time to think everything through carefully, and mind previously identified boundaries. Mercury is entering trickster mode. Double-check all emails and texts before you click send.
— By Amanda Painter

Merging with the New Moon; Uranus Makes its Move

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By Amanda Painter

I feel like it’s been weeks now that I’ve been experiencing and mentioning some kind of edgy or energized sensation to the astrology; I do sometimes wonder if it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. With only six days to go until Uranus leaves Aries and enters Taurus — and only five days until Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces — I think it’s reasonable to call out again an undercurrent of agitation or instability, mixed with a little mental and emotional fuzziness or diffuseness.

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