by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this month's Taurus Solar Eclipse chart which will show us a new life order and which way the winds of destiny are blowing. This is the time to mobilize and break on through to the other side!
This Lunation, along with the inner planets, continues sign concentrations within the usual "anchoring" span occupied by slow moving planets. Due to the shift toward Jupiter and away from Saturn, the occupied span runs from Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces to Uranus in Aries and completes with Jupiter in Gemini. In this New Moon, there is a huge cluster of planets in Taurus, showing that area of our charts will be very intense and active for the next few weeks.
We’ve now returned to having only one nozzle planet for this “Bucket” Jones Pattern. Jupiter in Gemini was the primary nozzle for quite some time, since it’s been outside the occupied span. However, due to the cluster of planets in Aries, Saturn is now the nozzle for the rest of the energies. So in this chart, Saturn is the nozzle for, and focuses the occupied span from Capricorn through Gemini.
So What is a “Bucket Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets in about half the signs with one outside that span wide enough to be a handle, creates a “Bucket” Jones Pattern. The energies of the occupied half are focused through the “handle,” or “nozzle,” in this case Saturn, which is termed the “focal determinator,” and represents the way to greater effectiveness, the cause to be embraced, the lack to be filled, or the way to use the total energies of this time in a focused manner.
Dr. Jones states “the bucket type indicates a particular and rather uncompromising direction in the life effort.” This pattern gives “interest in a cause,” with executive tendencies that will adapt allegiances to maximize results of the effort. He says “the bucket type at its best reveals the real instructor and inspirer of others, and at its worst the agitator and malcontent.” This is the larger planetary pattern within which we’re all trying to do what we do.
We are also told this pattern is more about finding an effective release for energy within social settings, but also about the self imposing its pattern on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So all of us can expect some sort of focused attention on the house where we have early Scorpio.
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 5 planets in Earth signs, 2 in Water, 2 in Air, and 1 planet in Fire. That shows a heavy emphasis on practicality and material things as we flow through feelings and ideas, with relatively little focus on inspiration. The emphasis on Earth shows it’s a time for being efficient and practical, and organizing things so they are in our “enlightened self-interest.”
Air and Earth are cool, Fire and Water are hot. With so many planets in Earth coupled with two in Air, it will be a time when things and people are more cool and practical. This can bring a sense of grounding within our experience of a vaster time frame and a sense of finality at the threshold of a new “law of life,” with a sense of what needs to be done and when.
With Saturn in Scorpio, expect more feelings of being connected on deep and vast levels. This is a time to recognize what you feel, and move that deeper and vaster feeling into action in conformity to the new life order already presenting itself.
As noted in a previous article, this Lunation is the eighth New Moon with Saturn in Scorpio. In 2012 we cultivated a new strength, came to a philosophical completion, and finished repairing or reconstructing something so that some final dues are now paid and old karmas left behind. We are growing into a new intensity, focus, emotional depth, and greater maturity relative to shared values, shared resources, deeper ability to commune with others as well as Nature and Spirit, and getting a more structured connection and a more powerful Spiritual linkage with others and ourselves.
Wherever we have Taurus and Gemini is going to be highly active, due to the presence of 6 planets in that 35 degree span between Mars in mid-Taurus and Jupiter in mid-Gemini. If you have a planet anywhere in that area of the zodiac, you’re going to go through major changes in the part of your psyche represented by the planet and the part of your external affairs symbolized by the house it’s in.
The general theme is that we are being pushed through crises into character development, and can clean out old ideas and see which way the “winds of destiny” are blowing. This will lead us to many new discoveries of things we may not have noticed before now, or things that are “below the surface of daily living.” It’s a time when lots of new information will have to be processed in simple straightforward ways, and those who can still their minds can receive reflections of a higher light.
Since Saturn in Scorpio is one of the “handles” of the Bucket pattern, you may want to regard Saturn in that position as symbolizing a type of “bone regeneration,” or the elimination of all in our skin and bones that would block our ability to meet and greet others at a higher level of dignity, reserve, and “civilized” behavior. This shows us a long wave elimination and regeneration work each of us is doing in our own ways and times.
On a final note about Jones Patterns, Saturn will be the nozzle for the rest of the energies for quite a few weeks to come, since it’s a long time until the inner planets are in Leo, Virgo, or Libra. However, by May-June, the larger pattern will alternate between Bucket and Locomotive, but once Jupiter and Saturn are in trine, a lot of what we’ve been dealing with that seems unfocused and spread out will stabilize.
Important Aspects
Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. This New Moon makes only one forming aspect, while the other planets also make few, but EXTREMELY important.
The only forming aspect the Lunation makes is the novile to Uranus, which will bring emergent forms of spiritual awareness and a need to let things gestate as they become more solid. However, a much more important set of aspects is made by Venus, which is triseptile Saturn, septile Uranus, and square Neptune, coupled with Saturn triseptile Uranus.
The septile series aspects create a non-rational configuration that will throw us into critical choices and changes wherever we have mid-Aries, early Gemini, and early Scorpio, as well as houses related to Taurus, Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius. The hot zones include 9-13 Aries, 30 Taurus-4 Gemini, 22-26 Cancer, 13-17 Virgo, 5-9 Scorpio, 26-30 Sagittarius, and 18-22 Aquarius.
If you have a planet or an angle in any of these zones, expect important developments that will throw you into your “destiny.” Many of these changes will involve new discoveries that will either a) put the brakes on old ideas and ideals, turning us to new ones, or b) release our ideals in forms that show how we can be effective on larger or broader levels. Decisions will be made based in these new ideas, views, and discoveries that will throw us quickly into new directions, purifications, regenerations, alternative views and potentials, and many will receive important messages that will help them shift magnetism.
Venus will release the Neptunian energies, and Neptune can be a vehicle for demonstrating Venusian forms of new ideas and ideals. Handling this square between Venus and Neptune will require precision and an eye to details and sequence of function, as well as a broad view and sense of humor. Some will have “reunions with kindred fighting spirits,” or will have to demonstrate skill and fairness in “playing the game” while moving through “the ups and downs and round and round” of emotions. Divine discrimination is required regarding what’s core and what’s peripheral, what’s important and what’s unimportant.
Other than these aspects, other important forming angles include Mercury conjunct the Sun, Mars quintile Neptune, Jupiter sesquisquare Saturn and quintile Uranus, Saturn trine Neptune, and the ever grinding revolutionary energies of Uranus square Pluto.
Mars quintile Neptune will bring specialized conditions wherever these planets are transiting in our charts. Affected areas are 3-6 Pisces, 15-18 Taurus, 27-30 Cancer, 9-12 Libra, and 21-24 Sagittarius. Similarly, Jupiter quintile Uranus opens specialized beginnings, innovations, and ways of externalizing something of future benefit. Affected areas are 8-11 Aries, 20-23 Gemini, 2-5 Virgo, 14-17 Scorpio, and 26-29 Capricorn.
Though the Grand Irrationality is not directly involved in this Eclipse, it will be triggered soon when Venus and Mercury transit through the Gemini zone of the configuration from May 21-25, followed by the Sun from June 3-9 and Mars from June 19-29. I’ll of course compose more as these times get closer.
I recently gave you the 7 current “hot zones” where the Grand Irrationality is most active in the article Astrology in April 2013 – Entering the Grand Irrationality which included times in April when the Moon and Mercury are activating this configuration. Even though this Eclipse isn’t under the influence of the Grand Irrationality, there are many who are being affected by this configuration due to planets in one of the 7 hot zones. If you’re directly affected by this irrational, obsessive-compulsive, hard-edged, and weird energy field, let go of believing it has to make sense, and see what choices you must make so your future trajectory is to your best benefit.
Spirit walks with this configuration, and what direction you choose will determine if the Spirit will grow stronger and closer with you, or if you will move in directions away from Spirit. Given that most of this community is intentionally trying to live in harmony with Life, Nature, and each other, chances are that whatever you – yes, YOU the reader – are confronting will show you a deeper, richer, more powerful Spiritual life. Which is a good thing.
The separating aspects show reality already experienced, or things already set into motion. Aspects of note are the Lunation conjunct Mercury and Mars opposed Saturn, quintile Neptune, trine Pluto, and sextile Chiron. We also see separating Mercury conjunct Mars opposed Saturn, quintile Neptune, trine Pluto and sextile Chiron, Venus conjunct Sun, Mars opposed Saturn, trine Pluto, and sextile Chiron, Jupiter biseptile Neptune and triseptile Pluto, and Saturn sextile Pluto.
Taken together, these indicate we’ve been through a very productive and stabilizing period showing the way of a more accurate intuition and understanding of the core of things. We’ve all confronted fears, endings, loss, and stuck situations that forced us to search for “The Mystery” and find ways to feel secure and cared for. This has led us to the threshold of a greater collective dedication, though it may take some months for that to become clear.
The Sabian Symbols for the New Moon
A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following 4 weeks will demonstrate. This Eclipse will have far reaching effects for the next 45 months. This Lunation falls at 20 Taurus. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol is “Wind clouds and haste.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Exalted state of consciousness; lightness and breadth of being and understanding,” and “mystical and ecstatic self-expansion.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves "the awareness of spiritual forces at work.” He states this degree shows us that “any emergence of life potentialities from the depth of the vast Unconscious is answered by the spiritual activity of superconscious forces” that represent “the ‘Signature’ of divine Powers confirming (our) progress.”
He continues that the “winglike clouds” may also symbolize the presence of angels and devas “blessing and subtly revealing the direction to take, the direction of ‘the wind’ of destiny.” He finishes with this concluding a process where we should find ourselves “more securely established in (our) own original nature, receiving the blessings of super-natural forces.”
He says it falls in the span of Enjoyment, and it’s the final degree of the actional level of the scene of Confirmation in the Act of Differentiation. So for this month (and the next 45) we’re being taught how to let go of an old form of action that used to confirm things in our lives, and find new ways to confirm new life directions, new ways to enjoy life, and new ways to see which way “the winds of destiny” are blowing. Just be patient, and keep it simple and straightforward as you move through various “crises” that confirm your evolved character and values.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “the transiency which characterizes life,” and “the instability which results from the disinclination of most people” to give of themselves due to ego limitations that cling to “superficial excitement.” He offers that “there is a real spiritual lightness here as an outer mark of the soul’s fundamental freedom.”
He offers us the keyword of EXALTATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “efficiency in controlling events at any point of transition or crisis.”
So we enter a time of enjoyment in knowing the direction of our future destiny. This is about a type of action that stabilizes and confirms something of worth. Keep it simple as you let go of moving in old directions and sense new directions being indicated by subtle or natural forces. The next 4 weeks, as well as 45 months, is a time to do what must be done, with an eye to enjoying the journey. This period opens new directions, new values, new resources, and new ways to concentrate energy directed toward new discoveries.
Other Influences
Pluto, the Cosmic Purifier, will be in Capricorn for many years. It continues to teach us deep lessons about practical, organized economy of energy and efficiency in sprouting seed forms of the new "laws of our lives" we can relax into. 2012 was mainly about being organized in finding and demonstrating ways to get beyond fear and radiate harmlessness and mature fellowship with Nature, whether your own, another's, or Nature Herself.
We’ve now moved into unknown Pluto zones, and can see life as a science experiment as we master discouraging feelings in the collective field. We can now reinterpret “emotion arousing images from our past,” and get a broader perspective in what’s been awakened the past 3 years. This Taurus stellium will help us stabilize the Uranian beginnings first launched in 2011 that were renewed last month.
The next 4 weeks continues to be a time to open to new ways of viewing how to claim our divine power and express it creatively and without fear as we explore the natural laws underlying manifestations, and see Nature Herself as a laboratory where we learn about how our system is constructed. We can “pierce through appearances” to see the magic at the core of things, and through a “keen vision” can find or demonstrate a “universal living touch.” This sets a threshold pattern for what will surface in August as a search for a Mystery.
Jupiter in Gemini
As noted in previous articles in this series, due to the effect of the very strong Gemini eclipse of June 2011 being activated by Jupiter in the recent past through the early April, we have been liberated from the ghosts of the past and letting go of burdens we no longer need to bear since then. Having found what we've been looking for and opened to new ways of doing our Being, we can be more natural in our search for deeper insights into meaning and processes as we reach out to new and more complex vistas of potential interactions.
We’ll go through another layer of peeling off the ghosts of the past in May and June 2013. This is one of the final ones connected to the Gemini Solar Eclipse of 2012. Much in the Gemini area of our lives has been shut down since then, I’ve added links to those articles at the bottom of this one so you can check out how the specifics of the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse and understand what’s ended and continues to end and why in 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Jupiter in Gemini continues to invite us to open to new ideas, new perspectives, and new ways of seeing what’s fair and what isn’t. We have been learning how to take the patience and persistence we cultivated while Jupiter was in Taurus between June 2011 and June 2012, and since then have had opportunities to open to alternative ways of understanding new discoveries and new interactions that have rapidly opened since January that continue through June 2013.
Especially with Venus, ruler of the Eclipse, in Gemini along with Jupiter, keep open to new ideas and perspectives, new ways to learn, and see the higher truths all around you. Jupiter accelerating allows us to see various ways to discover and adapt to our expanding vision so we can become more versatile in becoming part of the "corrective force of Nature Herself."
In practicing our unique individuality we can become the answer to some collective need, whether large or small. The next 4 weeks (and 45 months) will show us “a prodigal distribution of life resources,” our “inner wealth,” “rich supply,” and “discriminative use of natural energies.” We’ll begin seeing this May 24-25, and these should be in full motion in our lives by June 26-28.
As Jupiter speeds up in motion, it will accelerate the remainder of our Jupiter in Gemini adventure that lasts through June. Everything happening has the January stationary direct degree as the platform underneath all that we reach out toward during 2013. The degree is “An old fashioned well,” and we are told it’s a degree of “personal self-renewal and simple organic integrity.”
It’s where we take in and give out the substance of who we are, and are compensated for our efforts. It promises self-reliance and “uncompromising faithfulness,” inner assurance, poise, and holds the promise that if we can sense what is hidden that will nourish us, and then do the simple effort to bring it up to the surface of our lives, then we will find “a fundamental trust in and cooperation with life.” This will be the foundation for all that develops between now and late June.
What Is The Priority of Thinking, Feeling and Deciding?
As with recent Lunations, we’re now in a pattern of thinking, then deciding and then feeling. This New Moon Solar Eclipse shows that over the next 4 weeks we lead with thinking infused by feelings, and then must make decisions on the basis of those thoughts, visions, information, and understanding. After that we need to sit with the decision or action and go as deep into our experiences of them as we can.
So find a new view, a new understanding, new information, and new interactions that can help you see clearly what must be done and how. Then do it, and feel what you must on the basis of that decision. Periods of solitude may be required after a critical decision or action. After that direct experience of feelings the results of your decision and action, a new understanding will arise, or a new way to communicate, or a new vision.
Though this is a time when ideas, visions, and communication predominate, we must still follow through on those discoveries with decisions and actions. This is the time to see what we have to do, then do it, and then feel the experience of it after the act.
Given Venus rules the Eclipse and it’s part of the septile-driven configuration with Saturn and Uranus, we’ve now entered a time of very intense and compressed choice and change. As with recent months, eliminate all that doesn’t serve your highest social and cultural expression, and be versatile as you learn to navigate the flow of the many tides swirling around as you concentrate your efforts.
Don’t get antagonized by all that’s in motion, and when possible, reference your own maladjustments in terms of their larger significance. This period, while it will take much away, will also bring major blessings and new directions, as well as exalted states of consciousness. So if you feel things “lightening up,” well, they are. Use that lightness to expand in your awareness of subtle forces showing you which way your destiny is moving.
Here are the previous articles about this Annular Solar Eclipse in Taurus:
Astrology in May 2013 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus
The Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus May 9-10, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The May 2013 Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 3 – How Will This Lunation Affect Us?
Besides the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse that triggered the Grand Irrationality for years after, we’ve also had a couple of other Solar Eclipses since then that continue to affect all of us. Here are the articles explaining the "Ring of Fire" 2012 Solar Eclipse in Gemini still playing out on the world stage and in our lives in major ways!
Astrology in May 2012 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 3 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means
Since November and December 2012 brought inner planet transits very close to the degree of the November 2011 Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius (which is still in full force), and the Gemini Eclipses have opposed that Sagittarian Solar Eclipse, here are some links for you to compare and contrast how they are similar and different:
The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
I have a question.........I have no planets in Taurus. I have Scorpio rising (Neptune is in there also) and Taurus in my seventh house. What does it mean for me if I have no planets there?
Posted by: boo | May 15, 2013 at 02:32 PM
Hi Robert, great stuff as usual thank you!
I just felt compelled to comment on what you said:
"The septile series aspects create a non-rational configuration that will throw us into critical choices and changes wherever we have..."
It seems that I am "touched" literally by almost all of these "hot zones" including 9-13 Aries (natal Chiron), 30 Taurus-4 Gemini (natal Moon), 22-26 Cancer (nothing at all), 13-17 Virgo (nothing at all) 5-9 Scorpio (rising), 26-30 Sagittarius (natal Mars), and 18-22 Aquarius (natal sun). I suppose I'm just really surprised to be "named" very directly in 5 out of these 7 hotpsots...!
I'm wondering if anybody else is experiencing such a seemingly "unlikely" roll of the dice? Although, perhaps such a "roll" is perfectly non-rational lol :)
Posted by: JP | May 15, 2013 at 04:55 PM
Hi Robert, thank you for the post - exciting times! Feeling the lightness and expansion for sure. My sun is in Gemini at 17 degrees, I have four planets in Taurus (moon, mercury, mars and Jupiter) all 7/8th houses and I'm scorp rising in the 1st at 6 degrees! Curious to hear any insights you might have!
Posted by: KG | May 15, 2013 at 06:47 PM
Great overview of how things are shaping out. " This period, while it will take much away, will also bring major blessings and new directions, as well as exalted states of consciousnes". This to me, says it all.
Blessings be,
Nic
Posted by: Nic | May 16, 2013 at 01:22 AM
Robert, I also am untouched by the"hot zones" except for 17 degree Virgo in my 10th house. At present, this is the most important area of my life as I am looking for a new job. The critical changes occur in my 5th,7th and 12th houses.
Posted by: Suzanne | May 16, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Robert,
Just wished to say thank you for talking about the Grand Irrationality, as well as other less frequently discussed aspects such as the novile. The only other source I have come across that has information about these aspects, and but in a general though comprehensive way, is adze.com, in its astrology classroom, angle on the aspects. Thanks for making these relevant to ongoing planetary activity.
Evan
Posted by: Evan | May 18, 2013 at 08:47 PM