The Cosmic Story: Beltane and the Taurus/Scorpio Lunar Eclipse 2023

 

The Wheel of the Year: Beltane

The Spring winds are still blowing swift and cool, but the Sun is warming the air, rain is falling, coaxing the forsythia, daffodils, tulips and azaleas to blossom. The trees are already unfurling their green leaves or opening up their blossoms.

The Wheel of the Year has moved six-weeks further into the New Year, grounding in the season of Spring. The Spring Equinox winds have given way to Beltane’s beauty.

Beltane arrives in the middle of Taurus, officially on May1^st but astrologically when the Sun hits 15* Taurus, which is on May 5^th this year. May 5^th is also the Scorpio Full Moon lunar eclipse, which occurs a few minutes before the Sun hits 15*. So like the first Aries New Moon which occurred the day after Spring Equinox, we have a major alignment of the new season with the lunar cycle, and an eclipsed lunar cycle at that.

This all points to major shifts and changes during this flowering Beltane season. Since Beltane ushers in a season of growing warmth, color, light, fragrance, beauty and sensual energy, don’t fight it! Let your body feel the energies rising, and listen to what it tells you about life. That’s what Beltane’s gift to us is. To experience the pure beauty of life, whether in a flower or a child, in a beloved animal companion or a friend or lover.

It’s time to experience the enchantment of life as Nature comes awake again, because this is the energy that will fuel us through the rest of the year. Aphrodite, who is the goddess to call on this Beltane season (May 5 – June 21), is the enchantment that radiates from things and beings and enraptures the senses with its smile. This is the way to experience the beauty and charm of this season of Beltane: a time of flowering and extraordinary growth as Nature slowly unfurls herself, trailing beauty wherever she goes.

 

 

Beltane is a magical time, when the veils between the worlds are thin (as they are at the opposite gateway of Samhain), and the powers of life return to us (for more on Beltane). The more open you are, in your body, your mind, your heart and your imagination, the more you will gain from this bountiful season. When we align ourselves to Earth’s biosphere, we align with her energy and her purpose. Right now, as Spring is grounded in, her energies of life and growth and passion are strong and growing. And they are available to us – if we attune to them.

Beltane occurs while the Sun rises through the signs of Taurus and Gemini. Fixed sign Taurus is the time of embodiment. Mother Earth takes the fiery life energy of Aries’ Sun and uses it to create Nature’s bounty. In a slow, sensuous dance, Sun in Taurus adorns Mother Earth in beauty, warmth and fragrance, grounding in life. When the light grows as the Sun rises even higher North in the sign of Gemini, the rhythm of life quickens and life spreads out and thickens. Vines grow longer, fruits start to emerge, flowers blossom in profusion. People and animals go out into the light and mingle. The light urges us to connect and communicate, to explore and to be curious.

Gemini is a mutable sign, a liminal time of transition between the season of Spring Equinox and the season of Summer Solstice. By the end of this Beltane season, we will have come halfway around the Wheel of the Year, from the birth of the Light at Winter Solstice, to the full Moon fullness of that Light at Summer Solstice.

While our world seems to be in crisis, (out of chaos a new form arises) the best thing each of us can do is learn to take care of ourselves, so we can help others in the future. A good way to do this is to learn to ‘know yourself’ (journaling, therapy, astrology, meditating) and then to attune to Mother Earth and her seasons. When we ground into the cycles of nature, we learn to understand how to live in balance with nature and ourselves.

So stay true to the season (although down in the southern hemisphere, you’re celebrating the Dark and Samhain), and celebrate life. Life returning in beauty and freshness.

Aphrodite, Goddess of Beltane

Aphrodite the earth-born Kore is also sea born, as becomes an island Queen, but more than any other goddess she becomes Ourania, the Heavenly One. . . She is the only goddess who in passing to the upper air yet kept life and reality. . . .As man advanced in knowledge and in control over nature, the mystery and the godhead of things natural faded into science. Only the mystery of life, and love that begets life, remained, intimately realized and utterly unexplained; hence Aphrodite keeps her godhead to the end.

I’ve been working on my book on Aphrodite, the Solar Feminine goddess who initiates our souls to help us discover what we love and are here to create. So I’m excited to share some of what I’ve learned about this ancient and powerful Goddess. And why Aphrodite is the Goddess to call on to guide us through this beautiful season of embodiment and growth.

In earlier Athenian myths, Aphrodite was called Aphrodite Urania, the eldest of the Fates. This is the heavenly Aphrodite, the one who speaks to us about the Cosmos, daughter of Uranus, the god of Cosmic Laws. In most ancient cultures, there is a trinity of goddesses who control our individual fate – the Spinner, the Alloter and the Unturnable/Death. Our modern culture tries to forget that we all have a Fate, but we’re beginning to remember that we all have something unique to add to life, perhaps laid out in our natal birth charts.

 

 

If Aphrodite is an older version of this archetype of Fate, then love must be an intrical part of working out our fates here on Earth. For Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love, of Connection and of our body’s Wisdom. These are the tools of Fate - that we find ourselves through love, through our connections to people and animals, and most especially through our inner Wisdom. If Free Will also asks us to accept our Fate – to meet what comes to us in the best possible way, rather than rejecting what comes-- then honoring Aphrodite and her gifts might make that acceptance sweeter and easier to deal with. Love and beauty, truth and great sex can do that!

Aphrodite of the Greeks, Venus of the Romans, is one of the most vibrant archetypal images of the Goddess that has come down to us from antiquity; the aspect of the ancient Goddess that was never totally forgotten, the form of the Goddess written about and romanticized down through the ages until She truly embodied 'the mystery of life, and love that ‘begets life'.

Aphrodite is the Goddess who combines the spiritual and natural worlds, spirit and body. She does this through Her essence. She embodies the energy of connection, for She brings everything into relationship, from electrons to people. As Goddess of Beauty, she connects us to Truth, which is the ultimate reality because Beauty is the true reality of a person or thing. She is the Goddess of Love, love that is rooted in the body and which is playful, sensual, and erotic. As Goddess of Sexuality, she engenders all physically passionate love: non-marital and marital, heterosexual and homosexual. As Goddess of Wholeness, she drives our individuation and awakens Psyche within us.

She is Aphrodite Ourania, Queen of Heaven, who was in the Beginning and who created all the worlds. She is that spiritual Love we call compassion, the love which unites us in our humanity and makes us all One. She is the Wisdom that teaches us greater consciousness, in her role as Soul/Psyche’s initiator. Her energies fill us with longing to connect with ourselves, with others, and to create Life!

What makes Aphrodite fascinating is that she is liminal. Liminal means pertaining to a threshold, a boundary. What this means is that Aphrodite bridges physical reality and metaphysical belief. She opens us to our imaginations and our inner visions and then generates the passion to manifest our intentions.

Aphrodite is also the flower maiden, for her sacred space is a garden, where we work with nature to create beauty, pleasure and peace. Aphrodite brings together the wild and the tame to open us to the wonders of life, just as she unites people and animals in the pleasures of sexual union.

Starhawk wrote that Beltane is a time when ‘sweet desire weds wild delight’. This is Aphrodite’s gift to us as Spring deepens and blossoms. While Spring is a time of youth and innocence, each year we can become young again if we let ourselves merge with these energies. We just have to take Aphrodite’s bath and renew our virginity, our wholeness and our bliss. So let Aphrodite guide you for the next six weeks. Take delight in the sights, sounds and smells of Mother Earth renewing life and let your own body be renewed.

Friday is Aphrodite/Venus’ day. Take time to delight in life each week!

Natalie Merchant has just written a song about Aphrodite where she calls on her for help.  This is another aspect of Aphrodite -- she helps those of us who ask!

The Astrology of Beltane’s Season: May-June 2023

Taurus is the fixed Earth sign of the zodiac. It roots in the new energies of the year. It is the sign of embodiment and when the Sun moves through Taurus (here in the northern hemisphere) our senses wake up after a long winter’s sleep. This is the time to give form to, nurture and develop the vision that has been percolating within us since Imbolc (February 2).

As our senses awaken, we look at the pleasures that life affords us. Massages, delicious foods, fragrances, beautiful fabrics and art fill us with possibilities of enjoyment. Think of the Tarot card of The Empress – she who fills the land with abundance and beauty. This is the power of Taurus – to build, to shape, to make the Garden. This leads to Taurus also ruling over material resources, wealth, security and contentment. 

 

We just had a solar eclipse on April 20^th at 29* Aries, a critical degree of completion, linked to the Taurus North Node. This second Aries New Moon shifted the lunar cycle so that for the next 18 months or so, the Full Moon in a sign will come before the New Moon. This shift gives us a different perspective on our lives, crossing from one sign to the next within a cycle.

That solar eclipse was squared by Pluto at 1* Aquarius, pushing us to evolve our relationship to Earth and each other. Here in the US, if corporations can be protected under the law as ‘individuals’, Mother Earth should also get that right as She already has in other countries.

We’ll be feeling this solar eclipse energy for the next year as Pluto moves back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius, hitting 29* Capricorn squaring the 29* Aries Solar Eclipse. What new energies do you want to cultivate since Aries is the sign of new beginnings. If you have planets at the end of a cardinal sign or the beginning of a fixed sign, you’ll be dealing with power – either your own or others.

Speaking of Pluto. Pluto turns retrograde on May 1^st our official Beltane, and will back up into Capricorn again on June 11^th to continue to deconstruct the old framework of our world’s governing structures since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008. We now have a bookend for its time in Capricorn – another bank failure. Let’s see if it’s dealt with differently. Hopefully, things are changing. Look at old patterns that you take for granted and know that by 2024, things will probably look different. Change is evolution, and that’s what Pluto brings us.

2023-2024 are transition years as Pluto returns to Aquarius on January 24, 2024 until September 2, 2024, when it will return for its last look at Capricorn (during the U.S. presidential election) before heading into Aquarius for good on November 20, 2024 until January 20, 2044. Hopefully, Pluto in Aquarius will unite us as we deal with the most important issues our world faces – climate change, freedom and equality and peace.

Taurus-Scorpio Lunar Eclipse, May 5, 2023

 

 

This Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio/Taurus is a South Node Eclipse, so watch for things in your life to come to a completion. All Full Moons are about a culmination, but with the South Node in Scorpio, this is about shedding old skins, letting go of a past cycle and moving on from past traumas. Understand what the trauma was about, and work to heal it now. Look for old secrets, deep wounds, compulsive patterns. What habits and patterns do you need to move away from? 

 

 

This Lunar Eclipse is especially potent as it occurs on the power gate of 15* Taurus, Solar Beltane, with the Sun conjunct Uranus, the planet of change and awakening. When we let go of something, we need to fill that empty space with something new or else the old patterns creep back in. To help you fill in the blanks, go out into Nature and feel your body. Work to release any toxins your body is dealing with. Clean out and give your body a break. Awaken to your senses and connect to Mother Earth’s energies. Uranus in Taurus opens us to revelations about our embodiment, so let this energy help create new patterns and behaviors. Also, expect the unexpected, especially if this Lunar Eclipse aspects any of your natal planets. It’s hitting my Sun/Venus conjunction in Taurus, and I’m paying attention!

This is also the Buddha Full Moon, Vesak, when the Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and later died. The fact that this Full Moon engages the energies of both groundedness and transformation tells us a lot about how we can be spiritual beings having a human experience. What the Buddha taught us is that our culture and all its trappings are just that. Traps that do not nourish our soul’s essence. Once we can step away from all those made-up desires that our culture offers us, we can find our own wholeness. 

 

Mercury went retrograde on April 21 at this same 15* Taurus and will conjunct the Sun on May 1^st, so our mind knows that it’s time to listen to our body as well as listen to the Earth. Taurus is the sign of our foundation, our grounding. As the old world collapses, it’s a great time to take back our authority. At the Lunar Eclipse, Mercury conjuncts the asteroid Vesta, our inner priestess who guards our fire, our energy and our creativity. Taurus rules money and resources, so think about money and finances and how these issues might change for you. Put some cash aside. Find new ways to deal with the details of life before we head into the summer. This Mercury retrograde has been all about the details. Mercury turns direct on May 14^th at 6* Taurus.

Jupiter at 25* Aries just conjuncted Eris on April 23^rd, the dwarf planet who is the warrior of the heart. It’s time to fight injustice and not be afraid to follow your heart. Jupiter will be finishing up its time in Aries and will go into Taurus on May 16 for a year – going retrograde at this same 15* Taurus of solar Beltane and the Scorpio Lunar Eclipse on September 4^th. So Taurus will be highlighted for the year, and since Jupiter expands whatever it touches, we’ll be dealing with issues of beauty, nature, money and resources.

Jupiter in Aries squares Mars in Cancer at this lunar eclipse. Mars is the ruling planet of this Scorpio Lunar Eclipse (along with Pluto) as well as Aries, so where have you neglected to take care of your body, your family, your sources of nourishment for body, mind and Spirit? Jupiter expands things, so watch out for Mars anger, especially around family and self-care issues. Cancer is the sign of our soul, what makes us uniquely ourselves. Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself now.

Venus, the ruler of Taurus, is in the last few degrees of Gemini, opposite the Galactic Center. It also squares Neptune in Pisces, opening us to other dimensions of reality. What do you need to communicate and to whom? What are you listening to? What is your truth? What do you really love? Venus, like her sister Aphrodite, rules beauty, love, money, the Arts and our inner Wisdom. In Gemini, she likes to talk and explore and satisfy her curiosity. See who and what you link up with in the next week.

Venus leaves Gemini for Cancer on May 7^th, where she’ll stay until June 5^th, when she enters Leo. She is an Evening Star now, but once she enters Leo, she will quickly descend in the evening sky and disappear for 15-23 days in the glare of the Sun before she re-emerges as a Morning Star. Venus goes retrograde on July 22, 2023 at 28* Leo and will turn direct at 13* Leo on September 3^rd and will finally leave Leo on October 8^th. As you can see, Venus retrograde lets Venus linger in Leo for four months, where she’ll spark your creativity and sense of play.

Venus in Leo is warmhearted, generous and playful and just wants to express herself in many ways. Girls just want to have fun! She is the Queen and enjoys her pleasures and her power. This is the time to honor our solar Feminine nature. More on this in my Summer Solstice newsletter.

There’s a Taurus New Moon on May 19^th at 28*25’ just a few days before the Sun enters Gemini on May 21^st. Gemini is a mutable sign, a transitional time between late Spring and early Summer. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, which will move out of Taurus and into Gemini on June 11^th, just an hour after Pluto moves back into Capricorn, forming a trine with the planet of evolution. Can you see a pattern here? It’s time to change how we think about our lives and our world. As the early feminists found out, the personal is political. If we want a better world, we have to step up, speak out and do something about it. Once you know what is important to you, you will want to make sure that those governing us don’t take away our rights.

Saturn turns retrograde at 8* Pisces on June 17^th until November 4^th. It’s a great time to ground in your spiritual practices this summer.

This is a time to relax and enjoy life. Even in the midst of chaos. Ground into yourself with breath-work, meditation, some form of qi gong or yoga. Relax and enjoy the Garden!

Blessed Be!

Cathy

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again

Navajo Blessing Way

The Cosmic Story: Spring Equinox: Emergence and Rebirth & Pluto Goes into Aquarius

 

The Cosmic Story: Spring Equinox 2023

Emergence and Rebirth 

 

 

Spring Equinox: Autumn Equinox

While I’ll be talking about the northern hemisphere and the Spring Equinox, I want to acknowledge those of you in the southern hemisphere as you begin to let go of the light and slide into the fall.

The Equinox impacts both the North and South in the same way – there is a balance of day and night, light and dark. That moment of balance happens twice each year, as the sunlight waxes and wanes.

Onward we go round the Spiral

Touching darkness, touching light.

Twice each year we rest in balance,

Make choices on this night.

Make choices on this night.

In the South, you’re gathering in the harvest. Up North, we’re beginning to see flowers emerging. The crocuses have come out, heralding the return of life. If you haven’t already, it’s time to ground yourself in Mother Earth’s life and death cycle. We belong in the natural cycle: many of our cultural problems come from being cut off from it.

The choices we make for this new year will have ramifications for the next few years. With Saturn’s entry into Pisces, we have the chance to completely regenerate the roots of our sense of security and grounding. While it might seem scary to root ourselves in the waters of the Collective Unconscious, what we’re really being called upon to do is to root ourselves in our spiritual beliefs. Which means, establishing a strong spiritual practice so we stay centered while our collective culture undergoes a much needed transformation. To be in the world (society) but not of it.

 

 

At Spring Equinox, we emerge from our Winter hibernation and prepare ourselves for another year of growth. Each year we learn something new about ourselves and each year when we integrate that new part of ourselves, we create a new story. This year’s new story is about Freedom. The freedom from patriarchal rules and perspectives and beliefs. That doesn’t mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater. It means freely choosing what you value and how you live those values, without the guild, shame and fear that patriarchy thrives on. Clean out your psychic ‘gut micro-biome’ of unhealthy self-talk, negative emotions and most importantly, fear.

Open yourself to your community and to the causes that you’re passionate about. That’s what Spring is all about. Coming Out. Emerging.

March’s Astrological Shifts in Energy

Spring Equinox is the beginning of the new astrological year. This Spring Equinox comes in the midst of important collective energetic shifts. 

 

 

The first was Saturn going into Pisces on March 7^th. For the past, tumultuous five years 2018-23), Saturn has been in the two signs it rules: Capricorn and Aquarius (along with Uranus). Our physical and mental lives have been shaken up, our illusions about our collective life shattered. As Saturn’s archetypal energy of structure and security begins to dissolve in Pisces’ oceanic womb of our collective psyche, our sense of reality is going to shift. Just look at the hot movie of the year: Everything, Everywhere All At Once. It’s about parallel worlds and alternative realities. And most important, it’s a story about the power of Love.

The Aries New Moon, March 21^st, occurs one day after the Equinox, naturally aligning with the shift in season. (This is often not the case with Aries New Moons.) There will be a second Aries New Moon at 29*50’ on April 20^th, switching the lunar cycle from New Moon/Full Moon in complementary signs to Full Moon/New Moon. The last time it flipped with two New Moon was in July 2020 and it flipped back in August 2021 with two Full Moons in Aquarius (a Blue Moon).

On March 23^rd, Pluto, the planet of evolution/death&rebirth/power, dips its toe into Aquarius for a little over two months before moving back into Capricorn, giving us a preview of changes and challenges we’ll be facing as a society when it finally stays in Aquarius from 2025 – 2043. 

 

 

When Pluto moves into a sign, it usually picks up on what’s really not working right away. In 2008, when Pluto moved into the sign of Capricorn – the sign ruling financial systems, government, collective institutions – we had one of the worst financial crises we’ve faced. Instead of taking the bull by the horns and addressing the real issues of wealth inequality and power, the government gave banks the money they needed and left people to swing in the breeze. Instead, they could have allotted each of us a certain amount of money that could only be used to pay off debts, thereby laundering the money for the banks through us, keeping all of us economically healthy.

But they didn’t. Perhaps because Pluto was just beginning to show us what was rotten in the system. Now as Pluto ends its stay in Capricorn, we’re seeing another bank failure out in Silicon Valley. A nice tidy bookend to these past 15 + years. What will be our response now? How did this happen again?

If we take this as a metaphor for our inner lives, what have we been ‘banking’ on? And have we put our energy into a solid structure?

When Pluto moves into Aquarius, we’ll be dealing with new ideas about our society, about what is fair, about technology companies and how we use and abuse social media. (I love to imagine us getting rid of social media during these years. It reminds me of an old Star Trek: Next Generation TV show where they pick up some people from our time who were in frozen stasis floating in space until cures could be discovered. When they asked about TV - social media wasn’t around at the filming - they were told ‘we got rid of that along time ago’!)

The last time Pluto was in Aquarius our constitution was written. Pluto in Aquarius is invested in our personal power and our freedom. It’s interesting, and a bit disturbing to once again see them using astrology for their own purposes, that right-wing conservative money is funding a push in red states for a new constitutional convention to re-write our constitution – perhaps to institute a more Christian-based society. This is another aspect of Pluto in Aquarius – manipulating public opinion through mass media.

Pluto will be squaring the Nodal Axis in Taurus/Scorpio most of the year. This new vision of life must include the Earth and all of Nature. It will also bring about major transformations in our political life. Last time Pluto was in Aquarius, the French Revolution brought down the monarchy and shifted power to the people.

Aquarius as a fixed air sign: there are certain cosmic laws that shape our society and certain ideals which shape how we see our purpose in life. How we live those ideals is up to us. Air signs always speak to the need to improve our communications and personal networks. But Aquarius, especially, asks us to look at our experience as individuals in the context of society. What is our social responsibility? What part do we play as an individual member of our local community, the national community, the global community? We have the next 20 years to figure that out. But it starts with us, now. If we want to create a better world, we all have a part in making it happen.

So let’s watch and see what Pluto’s first ingress into Aquarius (March 23 – June 11) brings up for ourselves and for the world.

Mercury went into Pisces on March 2^nd and conjuncts Neptune and then the Sun at 27* Pisces on March 17^th. Then Mercury goes into Aries on March 19^th, right before Spring Equinox. So watch for Mercury conjunct the Aries New Moon and how it affects what you want to plant for this year.

 

Venus started March off in Aries connecting with Jupiter on March 2^nd. Luck and beauty. Truth and Compassion. Venus moves into her own sign of Taurus on March 16^th, right after she squares Pluto in the last degree of Capricorn. Venus rules money, so let’s see what happens with the bank crisis. Venus conjuncts the Taurus North Node on Spring Equinox and conjuncts Uranus in Taurus on March 30^th. 

 

 

Mars ends its long retrograde, 7 month journey in Gemini on March 25^th, finally arriving in Cancer to see how home, family and emotional security are feeling. Gemini offers a wide range of ways to think about life and the world. With Mars there for so long, have you settled on a new world view, a new paradigm that helps you understand the world? Mars in Cancer probably just wants to be home for awhile. So slow down that mind of yours and sink into your feelings. What do you desire most? When Mars moves into Cancer, it squares the Spring Equinox point of 0* Aries. What challenge will be offered us when Spring Equinox Aries Sun’s ruling planet moves into the soulful waters of Cancer?

 

 

Spring Equinox, March 20, 2023

The Spring/Autumn Equinox occurs on March 20 – 21, 2023 at 1:24pm AKDT, 2:24pm PDT/ 5:24pm EDT/ 9:24pm UTC/GMT.

 

 

When the Sun gets to the equator and enters the tropical sign of Aries, the fire of Spirit once again descends on us. The spark of life gets ignited. That’s Aries quest: Who Am I? What am I? Wherever you have Aries in your chart is where this spirit awakens in you. It has called to you from your birth, and it gets re-ignited each year on the Spring Equinox. 

 

 

The Aries Sun, so soon after its conjunction with Mercury, will continue that Mars/Mercury vibe we’ve been under while Mars retrograded in Gemini. Mars and Mercury’s blended energy indicates an energized Mind, and with the Sun conjunct Mercury for this Equinox chart (which influences the year), we’ll be having to make some clear decisions about what we want to accomplish this year.

The Equinox Sun semi-square Uranus in Taurus pushes us to include Mother Nature’s evolutionary genius in our plans. It’s time to adapt to a new world. Uranus awakens us to higher Mind – it connects us to cosmic consciousness. But as in the myth of Saturn cutting off Uranus’ phallus to stop him from coupling with Gaia, this cosmic consciousness has to be mediated by Love. We’ll see this cosmic message come up when we look at Venus.

Ceres, the dwarf planet, concerns how we nurture ourselves. Ceres in Libra is exactly opposite this Aries Equinox, reminding us to include others’ needs in our decisions.

The Pisces Moon, however, is a balsamic Moon – the last phase before New Moon. Under the balsamic Moon phase, we have to finish up old business. I call it graduating from graduate school – we know what we need to do and now is the time to do it. It’s an energy of completion, of sensing your destiny, of feeling secure in what you know.

This feeling of endings and new beginnings is echoed by Pluto in the last degree of Capricorn and Mars in the last degrees of Gemini. Something is coming to an end. Something new wants to be born. First, lay to rest the old story so you can put all your energy into the new one. 

 

 

Conjunct Neptune, this Pisces Moon gives our Equinox emergence a sense of destiny, a sense of spiritual initiation, and a great connection to our dreamworld. With Saturn sinking into this same collective womb, what we imagine for ourselves will connect with the imaginings of all of us. The more we focus our 3^rd Eye/ Imaginal Eye/ Moon on that better world, the more opportunities we’ll have to meet others who have those same passions. This is the time to let go of the old, Aries’ ‘I am alone in this’ belief for the Aquarian ‘I can be myself with others who I resonate with’.

With Mars squaring Neptune on March 14, the best use of this square energy in the Equinox chart is to stay open to your spiritual insights, using Mars to expand on what you intuit by looking up what symbols are appearing in your dreams and external life. And then learning to integrate them when Mars moves into Cancer. A great example of Mars square Neptune in Pisces is the character of Waymond in Everything, Everywhere All at Once. He’s compassionate, kind, willing to cooperate – he just wants people to stop fighting and to be kind. A spiritual warrior and redeemer.

There is big Aries’ energy in this Equinox chart, with the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Chiron and Vesta in Aries. This is good warrior energy, energy to give us courage to look at this ‘emergence’ as a real new beginning for ourselves and the world. This is the virginal energy of the goddess Artemis, which can stand on a frontier and take the risk of crossing over into new terrain.

I always think of Aries as the scouts of the zodiac. They go out alone and find what the tribe needs for food or safety. They recognize the signs before others do. So look for the signs of what you need and follow after until you find what you need. Since Mars is out-of-bounds, meaning it’s outside the normal north-south range of latitude for the Sun, there’s a maverick quality (thank you for this Pam Gregory) to how we might want to approach things. A bit of a rebel, a bit of just following your own path.

Venus is conjunct the Taurus North Node this Equinox, once again telling us, “All you need is Love” to see the truth of our world’s imbalance. Time to let go of our American identity of being ‘consumers’ and begin to take up our work as citizens and stewards of Mother Earth.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 1* Aries is: A woman just risen from the sea. A seal is embracing her. This is an image of a new impulse, a new feeling tone arising from the Collective Unconscious. This will be echoed during the Beltane part of the season when Aphrodite becomes our goddess guide. The seal is important in Celtic mythology and comes as the Selkie, or seal woman. This symbolizes our imaginative and creative abilities. When a new feeling life arises, it is accompanied by these qualities.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 19* Pisces is: A master instructing his disciple. This speaks to ancient spiritual wisdom being passed down. This is an image of initiation into the mysteries. Coupled with the Sun’s symbol, we are invited to use our intuitive abilities as well our ancient wisdom to guide us through the next year.

The Sabian symbol for Venus and the North Node at 5* Taurus is: A widow at an open grave. This is a great symbol for letting go of the past. And also to recognize that we are part of a natural cycle of birth-growth-flowering-harvest-release-death-rebirth.

The tenor of the chart is a strong energy that wants to push for action. All that Aries energy needs an outlet. The outlet is to Uranus, 45* away from the Equinox Sun. The best way to utilize this Uranian energy is to go out and listen to what the Earth is saying. Listen to your imagination. There is a mystical aspect to this chart with the Moon, Saturn and Neptune anchoring in Pisces, the Moon connecting the Lord of Time and the Lord of Eternity/Timelessness. Focus on what needs to be finished up and how that connects to your new ideas and hopes for this year.

Spring Equinox: The Season of Emergence

The Wheel of the Year keeps spinning. As we leave behind the Winter Solstice/Imbolc season of visioning and head into the Spring Equinox/Beltane season of flowering and new growth, we’ll see what our visions can produce.

 

Persephone ~ Susan Seddon Boulet

 

There are many goddesses we can call on for this season. In many ways, the most important one is Persephone, who returns each Spring from her stay in the Underworld where she is Queen of the Dead. This is emphasized by Ceres, the Roman Demeter and Persephone’s mother, opposite the Equinox Sun. In the Greek myth, at first she is called Kore, the Maiden. While she is out in the fields picking flowers, she is ravished away into the Underworld by Hades, the Greek Pluto, and becomes his bride. She has no name before she is ravished. When she returns in the Spring, she has a name and is a Queen, a woman of power and purpose. We have all gone through the darkness of the past few years, gone into our own private underworlds and hopefully dealt with our Shadows, so when we emerge this Spring, call on Persephone – Spring Maiden and Woman of Power – to help you step into this next part of your story with grace and beauty.

While Persephone epitomizes the returning energy of Spring, she is part of a deeper mystery along with her mother Demeter. You can read about Persephone’s return at my Wisdom Chronicle blog.

The Spring Equinox season includes Beltane, the cross-quarter fire festival that occurs when the Sun reaches 15* Taurus, between May 1 – 6. We’ll call on the great goddess Aphrodite for Beltane, but for these next six weeks, here are a few more Spring goddesses who exemplify the first flowering of the season.

Ostara

Pagans celebrate Spring Equinox as Ostara, the festival of Spring and new beginnings. We get the name Easter from this Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre, since so many of our Christian holidays are based on ancient pagan celebrations.

Ostara is the goddess of increasing light and warmth and the balance between light and darkness. Ostara was associated with rabbits, who symbolize fertility. This is Her legend.

 

 

Ostara is the goddess of spring. She is the divine maiden that brings forth the first light of day and springtime. Ostara is responsible for resurrecting the world after winter’s frozen grip has been withdrawn.

She blows the warm winds of springtime over the lands. Fields and trees become green again, and flowers blossom. However, one year, Ostara came a bit too late.

Already feeling a little bit guilty for arriving late, the Goddess Ostara was appalled when the first thing she encountered was a little bird who lay dying on the forest floor, his wings frozen by the snow.

Filled with compassion, Ostara took him as a pet or, as some versions of the tale have it, her lover. Feeling sorry that the poor wingless bird could no longer take flight, she turned him into a snow hare and gave him the ability to run rapidly so he could evade all hunters. Honoring his earlier life as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs in all the colors of the rainbow.

Eventually, the decision backfired when the goddess became enraged with his numerous affairs. In a fit of anger, she threw him into the skies, where he, unfortunately, landed under the feet of the constellation Orion (the Hunter). He remains there to this day and is known to us as the constellation Lepus (The Hare).

Softening her attitude a bit, Ostara allowed the hare to return to earth once each year to give away his colored eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring. (https://goddessgift.com/goddesses/ostara/)

This is a goddess who feels compassion, love, jealousy and forgiveness. She is a goddess of fertility and her totem animal is the Rabbit. (Where do you think the Easter Bunny comes from?) In medieval times in Europe, the March hare was seen as a fertility symbol, and a sign of spring. This species of rabbit is nocturnal most of the year, but March is its mating season, and so during March, hares are seen all day long.

Maia

Maia is an ancient Roman Goddess of springtime, warmth, and increase. She causes the plants to grow through Her gentle heat, and the month of May is probably named for her. Her name means "She Who is Great". Through the increasing warmth of Maia's spring season, flowers and plants sprouted and grew.

Flora

 

 

Flora is an ancient Goddess of blossoming plants, especially those that bare fruit. Without Flora, there would be no fruit, no harvest, no honey. In her myth, Flora was a nymph of happy fields. One Spring day while she was roaming meadows of new grass and wildflowers, Zephyr the god of Breezes saw her and fell in love. For her wedding gift he gave her the gift of perpetual Spring. Zephyr filled her garden with every kind of blooming flowers and called her Queen of the Flowers. She was the goddess who scattered seeds of narcissus, hyacinth, violets and more – she scattered the seeds for grains and fruits as well. Honey from her flowers were her gifts.

In Rome, her festival, the Floralia, took place from April 27 to May 3 and was marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers. Her priests released hares and goats, animals of great fertility. Women wore brightly colored clothes to symbolize the variety flowers and garlands in their hair.

Blodewedd

 

 

Blodewedd is a Celtic Spring goddess who was created by the Welsh Bran and the wizard Gwydion with magic from nine spring flowers to be the wife of Llew Llaw. This got around the curse Gwydion’s sister Arianhod had placed upon her son, preventing him from taking a human wife.

Artemis

 

 

Artemis is the Greek goddess of the Moon, sister to Apollo, god of the Sun. She was the divine huntress and the nurturer of young girls before they matured into women. She lived in the wilds and the girls before puberty came to her sanctuaries and were her ‘bear cubs’. They learned to be free and in their bodies, before they were condemned to be married and shut away without any rights. Artemis is the Virgin, the goddess who belongs to herself.

Just as Spring gives birth to so many beautiful and diverse plants and flowers, so too we have many goddesses to choose from. But what they all share in common is the idea of blossoming. The goddesses of emergence help us to get out of our shells and explore the world in new ways.

So have a blessed Equinox, both North and South, and may you blossom so that your harvest is full!

Blessed Be!

Cathy