The New Moon in Taurus on May 19th, comes at what is, for many people, their favourite time of year. May is a beautiful month where I love; spring has consolidated its position and we know for sure that winter has gone. This New Moon is the New Strawberry Moon; a quick check on my strawberry plants has revealed they’re beginning to set the fruit that will ripen by the time of June’s Strawberry Full Moon. I can’t wait as there is nothing so rewarding as eating the fruits of your labour – not that I have to do a great deal as the strawberries tend to look after themselves pretty well…
And that – of course – is also the essence of Taurus; it’s the time of year when we plant and tend and nurture and grow and begin to see the result of our efforts. Anyone who ever had a vegetable patch goes through this quintessentially Taurus experience every year without even knowing it, as the time of the New Moon in Taurus often coincides with the peak time for planting seeds in the newly warm earth. It doesn’t get much more New Moon in Taurus than that. Like the spring flowers emerging from their buds, we feel the warmth of the sun on our faces and feel content. It’s a pleasurable time in the most sensual way.
New Moon in Taurus: The Essentials
I’ve already given you a few of Taurus basics in the opening to this post – but there is more to Taurus than the sensory pleasures of springtime. Taurus energy brings us back down to earth – often in the most literal sense. There is a move towards realism and stability and a practical approach to life. Taurus is a material sign concerned with value for money – and those concerns may reflect a deeper value system. The intrinsic worth of many of things we take for granted may be examined to see whether they are worth our time and effort, or whether they are simply a waste of resources. Taurus is known for prudence.
Of course, the practical, enduring and creative side of this New Moon in Taurus goes hand in hand with its more materialistic and sometimes its ‘tight-fisted’ reputation. As ever there is a fine distinction to be made between those two positions – sometimes you have to cut back in order to save up for something that’s really worthwhile. A little less in the short term may produce longer term benefits. Having less money also forces you to be more creative or conservative with what you have. Taurus is concerned with present reality and dealing with it as productively as possible.
However, Taurus is also a greedy sign; it often seems strange that such a conservative sign should be prone to excess – yet short term greed often causes a shortage of resources somewhere down the line. In astrology, however, there are two sides to everything and, within every problem, the solution is at hand. In Taurus, those solutions may involve hard work, good stewardship and a patient and persistent approach. Good old-fashioned ‘common sense’ is, perhaps, one of the Taurus traits that may be seeded – or heeded – at the time of the New Moon.
And the New Moon is the time to seed in a literal and symbolic sense. This New Moon in Taurus comes at a special time in this year’s astrological calendar, as it follows the ingress of Jupiter into Taurus that occurs on May 16th. Jupiter will be in this sign for lengthy stay – until May 2024 – and this makes this lunation particularly significant in that context: Jupiter is going to expand our consciousness of all of those things that have a Taurus theme – both in our personal lives and beyond – and the New Moon in Taurus marks the beginning of that process.
At a personal level, being confronted with financial reality or issues of self-esteem may make you more aware of your personal values and sense of self-worth. Those things are often connected – and this New Moon in Taurus may initiate a process of evaluating not only your material well-being, but you inner sense of personal worth, as well as your value system too. That’s likely to be most applicable to those of you with planets or points in contact with this lunation, but New Moons affect all of us – so don’t imagine that you will be immune from engaging with material reality in some form. And Taurus does form…
New Moon in Taurus: The Chart
New Moon in Taurus: The Aspects
The chart for the New Moon in Taurus shows exactly how influential Taurus energy is going to be in the coming months. The New Moon chart sets the scene for the lunation because it tells us what astrological influences are dominant – and relevant – at the time the new Moon in Taurus takes place. And, as you can see, Taurus is a packed sign; this earthy energy dominates the new Moon chart – in the same way that it will dominate out lives in the coming year thanks to Jupiter’s ingress into that sign.
The New Moon in Taurus is in a wide conjunction to Uranus (whose passage through Taurus I documented here some time ago); Jupiter is conjunct Mercury in the early degrees of this sign. However the Jupiter-Mercury conjunction and the New Moon are connected through the aspects they make and receive from other planets – principally Mars and Pluto. It’s those aspects that I’m going to focus on below – but not before I’ve set the scene.
New Moon conjunct Uranus
First, I’m going to look at the wide conjunction from the New Moon to Uranus. It has an 8˚ orb – but that’s fine, as this is a lunation we’re dealing with. Uranus is one of the planets that gets things moving – often in an unexpected way. It provides us with changes of direction, changes of mind – and, I suspect, in Taurus it may change our priorities, or the way we perceive material reality.
It’s the planet associated with revelation – and that may be anything from the bright idea that changes the way you see things, or some unexpected news or information that has a similar effect. Uranus is a change of direction in some form – and that is what is signalled here. And that’s because the same dynamic is seen in the shift in Jupiter’s sign that provides the ‘background noise to this lunation – and that’s what I’m going to look at next…
The Jupiter Complex
I’ll be producing a post on Jupiter’s ingress into Taurus shortly but, in the context of this lunation, I think we need to examine Jupiter’s conjunction with Mercury – and the t-square aspect pattern that connects that conjunction to Mars in Cancer and Pluto in Aquarius. When Jupiter and Mercury are close, it’s often a ‘bolt out of the blue’ moment where information is concerned. This is, incidentally as close as this conjunction gets, as Mercury is currently retrograde. Mercury retrograde often means you need to pay more attention – with Jupiter, you need to do that big time. It’s about intelligence – and intelligence comes in many forms.
Intelligence in a Taurus context, may mean working out what is the most productive, rational or sensible thing to do in any given set of circumstances. The presence of Mars in Cancer in this t-square aspect pattern suggests a lot of emotional ‘sound and fury’, so cutting through (Mars) the emotive issues (Cancer) in order to find the best way to move a situation forward may be a challenge at this time. You may have to tread carefully through an emotional minefield (your own or someone else’s) or at least work out how to do so.
Pluto’s presence in Aquarius is likely to be an added complication; whatever is signalled by this Jupiter complex, it carries the flag of inevitability. Pluto’s shift into Aquarius represents a permanent move towards a future that is different to the space you inhabit now; there is no going back, so the challenge contained in the Jupiter complex is working out how to get there without things blowing up in your face. Pointing out the practicalities of any situation and taking a cautious approach may be the best thing that you can do. Doing nothing is not an option.
The New Moon Complex
So, we come to the aspect pattern that contains the New Moon in Taurus, and our old friends Mars and Pluto. The New Moon in Taurus is connected to the Mars – Pluto opposition via a trine (to Pluto) and a sextile to Mars. Trines in predictive astrology often signify things that are ongoing, or things that develop quickly. There is nothing to say that something ‘ongoing’ can’t escalate by the way! This lunation is going to seed that change (or escalation of change) indicated by Pluto in Aquarius. It’s time for something new. Move on.
The sextile to Mars in Cancer is also part of this process. Sextiles in predictive astrology often indicate an opportunity – they open the door (even though there’s no obligation to walk through or take the opportunity that’s presented to you). Whatever event (internal or external) that the New Moon in Taurus represents in your life, it will represent a new beginning and it’s one that you may have been waiting for – patiently – for a while. It’s a moment you won’t want to miss.
Mars suggests that you need to act to make your situation more secure than it may currently be. Both Taurus and Cancer are concerned with taking care of things – and while one may be practical and the other emotional – it’s a reminder that the two things are fundamentally connected. If you have the opportunity to start on a course of action that’s going to enable you to put down roots (Cancer) stabilise and grow your potentials (Taurus) and embrace a new and dynamic future (Aquarius) – then do so.
This lunation suggests we may all have to accept that in order to embrace the future we need to leave the past behind. The trick may be to have the intelligence to realise it – and the pragmatism to accept it and let things run their course. Reality will tell you that there is no other way.
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© Sara Shipman 2023
