by Robert Wilkinson
New Moon coming soon! The next month will be a time when the new individuality awakened by Uranus two years ago will come into focus, promising confirmation, rewards, and the appearance “of the Beloved” on the balcony of our life. The clearer we can be about our heart’s desire the more likely it will show up in some form these next 4 weeks!
This Lunation introduces a new focus wherever we have 19 Taurus, a technique of allowing our spontaneity up and out. The 108-110+ degree span we’ve been experiencing the past few months is now expanded to 113+, never to compress again for 300 years! So the span between mid-Pisces and late Taurus will be the focus of activity for the next 4 weeks.
The heavy Taurus presence shows it’s time to enjoy ourselves and what we’ve accomplished up to now! If there’s work to do, be cheerful in plowing the field which is yours to plow. Having left a lot behind earlier this year and done our Mercury retrograde review in April, now we can move forward with speed, focus, and knowledge that our momentum is feeding our flow, and the flow is feeding our momentum. Have compassion for yourself for whatever has been, since you made it to here!
With the Lunation at 19 Taurus, we’re invited to cut loose and allow our creative potential to come forth. This will lead us to a much higher “ecstatic” state of consciousness as we embrace the “new time, new way, and new day” already opening since Jupiter conjuncted Uranus a few weeks ago. Be joyous that you’ve made it here, that things are moving forward, and the hindrances of the past are no more.
An Overview of the New Moon
Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 2 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.
This activating, stabilizing, optimistic, healing and ultimately uniquely pleasing New Moon at 19 Taurus occurs at 8:22 pm PDT on May 7, 4:22 am BST on May 8. This is the next phase of Lunations with Pluto in Aquarius, showing us the sprouting of Aquarian seeds of the future which will impact generations to come. This is the first one since Pluto went retrograde on a degree of defiance, rebellion, and refusal to obey authoritarian patterns.
In Jan/Feb, Mercury, Venus, and Mars all conjuncted Pluto and set new forms of 1 Aquarius into motion. These are core Plutonic principles related to the global future oriented work in motion since 2020. Any conjunction with Pluto brings pinpoint clarity and a penetrating insight to the core of whatever is coming together.
We are now in a time of the Sun shining Light on all of us in our Taurus sector, giving us strength and momentum propelling us into the future. As noted earlier, we’re just barely coming out of the last Grand Compression for 330 years, with all planets still within a fairly narrow degree span. This stabilizes and consolidates our ability to move swiftly into the future and reap concrete rewards. Things will really crank up now that Mars is in Aries, with more to come when it’s in Taurus in June and July.
This New Moon will jumpstart Taurus energy wherever it falls in our chart. As that sign is now a focus of activity, along with a healthy dose of Aries, use your power to show your special qualities in a spirit of “cosmic optimism” and seeing which “garden of Life and Mind” you want to tend this month. Some will revise ideas “back to source,” while others will have to put themselves in front of a public to “win an audience.”
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Taurus has Venus in Taurus as its worldly ruler, and TransPluto in Virgo as its spiritual ruler. As Taurus is in the axis of the Archetype of the Warrior/Guardian, we can be the stable focus we want, enjoying ourselves as we know when to advance, when to retreat, when to hold the line, and when to adapt. Guard boundaries and resources, and remember not to clutch at disappearing forms.
The Lunation/eclipse is ruled by Venus in its home sign of Taurus, She rules the stage! Mercury’s in Aries, ruled by Mars in its home sign of Aries. Jupiter in Taurus is ruled by Venus, Saturn in Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, Uranus in Taurus is ruled by Venus, Pluto is ruled by Saturn, and as usual, Neptune occupies its home sign continuing as a long wave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness.
So this month all the planets are ruled by either Venus or Mars, which are both “final dispositors” of all the others except Neptune. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.
The Sun/Moon Sequence and Its Shifts
There are two patterns: one with the Sun in the same sign as the Sun in the following Full Moon (New Moon between 1-15 degrees of a sign), and one with the Sun in a different sign than it’s in at the following Full Moon (New Moon between 16-30 degrees of a sign). I term these the “Natural” pattern and the “Alternate” pattern, since the Natural pattern shows a continuity of the Light, whereas the Alternate pattern bridges the Light across two signs. Each pattern has its importance in the Soli-Lunar sequence, and at the end of each period of the Natural pattern we shifd into a pattern which “bridges the Light” across two different Light signs in the Lunation cycle.
We are now in a time when the New Moon Sun sign is different than the Sun sign of the following Full Moon. The New Moon Solar eclipse at 30 Aries in 2023 was the first in the current sequence, as the subsequent Full Moon Lunar eclipse was at 15 Taurus/Scorpio, indicating the Light of the seed forms of that New Moon was illuminated in the next sign energy two weeks later. This month the New Moon Sun is in Taurus while the Full Moon Sun is in Gemini. This indicates that while the seed forms of the New Moon are of a Taurus nature, the fulfillment in form at the Full Moon illuminates Gemini energy. This New Moon falls at 19 Taurus, and the Full Moon two weeks from now falls at 3 Gemini/Sagittarius.
The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced and made pleasing in Libra, purified and focused in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.
Eclipses Effects in Play
The 2023 and 2024 Solar eclipses have been removing parts of our lives where we have 30 Aries, 20 Aries, and 22 Libra. We just finished many months under the influence of the October 2023 Lunar eclipse at 6 Taurus/Scorpio and begun several months of “Cosmic recycling” wherever we have 6 Libra/Aries. We now care about other things, have a new focus, and can join with others for mutual strengthening. We continue to eliminate old ways of self-expression and equivocating in relationships, and now will begin to see the results of what we visualized before now, or see the need for a more careful visualization of what we want to see made manifest.
We are now freed of many old ideals and areas we used to work within. All of these eclipses ask us “What is the purpose to what you leave behind and what you’re moving into?” Certainly the recent Total Solar eclipse is going to shut down some things in our Aries/Libra sectors so we may grow toward the stellium conjunct the North Node in Aries. Time to move in new directions with new people!
Jupiter and Saturn
Jupiter’s conjunction with Uranus at 22 Taurus began a new 13 year adventure into new lives. That conjunction theme is about us seeing “the white dove flying over troubled waters” which promises that our ordeal is completed and we are or will see a sign from Spirit announcing a new day, a new land, and a new life wherever we have 22 Taurus. Especially with Jupiter quintile Saturn, show compassion and forgive a lot as you move into a new orientation to life, love, and power.
While Jupiter remains in Taurus, it brings its energy to the sign which enjoys life to the fullest, so continue to accept the expanded capacity for a greater joy taking birth! This month it’s on a degree of “seeing the Beloved appear at our balcony,” encouraging us to define role, function, and imagery precisely according to our heart’s desire and we will see it appear on “the balcony of our Life and Mind.” As Mars is septile Jupiter, it’s a huge fork in the road of what we’ll be showing our world in the future, as Mars occupies the exact degree as the Sun in the recent Lunar eclipse! That will certainly activate something related to that eclipse!
Saturn is a fantastically productive force in this Lunation thanks to the Sun/Moon sextiles to Saturn on a degree of “revising ideas back to source” and for some, putting themselves out there “to attract a following.” As Venus is septile Saturn, this is a point of “crucial emergence” for this year’s Venus/Saturn cycle, shown as some sort of choice “which garden to tend,” or getting an entirely new look at how to tend whatever needs tending.
Areas most affected include 16-20 Pisces, 8-12 Taurus, 29 Gemini-3 Cancer, 20-24 Leo, 12-16 Libra, 3-7 Sagittarius, and 24-28 Capricorn. If you have something in one or more of these zones, you could be in for a “karmic” meeting of some sort in the near future!
June 2023 through February 2024 called us to forms of life renewal, and now we’re in a new sector of Pisces. We’re now solidly in the next stage of our life renewal as we experience “non-local awareness” with our Spiritual Sisters and Brothers within the One Life. Soon we’ll be “taking a walk with our wisdom” en route to finding “what nourishes us at the end of our day of labor.” Saturn in Pisces certainly tests our compassion for everything and everyone!
Looking Back, Looking Forward
This is the fifteenth New Moon of the Saturn in Pisces era. We are now in the fifth year of the cycle set into motion at Saturn’s rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn in January 2020, which I discuss a few paragraphs down.
Taking a look back, 2020 brought a “cosmic visitation” which mobilized us to “escape from adverse conditions.” That year Nature challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, evaluating what in our Self-discipline and limits worked and which didn’t. Whatever happened then will erupt in new forms this year and next thanks to Pluto!
2021 involved spiritual acceleration by getting a vision and a plan, with “New mutations” arising from Cosmos in late 2021 and all of 2022. June 2022 marked a threshold in our emergent Aquarian work when we began to learn how to administer “spiritual power” effectively. We then had to "rise to some emergency" and overcome something “out of control" between October 2022 and March 2023. Since the Summer of 2023 we’ve gone through a renewal, and now are in a time of revising many ideas.
One of Saturn’s divine qualities is understanding as a door to wisdom. With Jupiter’s transit through Aquarius in 2021 leading the Saturn transit in 2021-2023, Saturn tracked what Jupiter opened. As Saturn traverses the span where Jupiter has danced, it will crystallize its understanding of what that span of experience is about, and how we can use it wisely if we find the right structure and discipline. This year and next Saturn structures what opened when Jupiter was in Pisces the first 4 months of 2022.
Who Leads the Light?
At this time, Venus at 11 Taurus is the “gateway to the Light.” This indicates the “entry to illumination” involves an awareness of what makes us feel at ease or comfortable, whether alone or with others. Learn to relax and enjoy! With Venus leading the light at 11 Taurus, be willing to share your “garden of Life and Mind” with others while checking out what they’re cultivating or failing to cultivate.
Venus will continue to lead the Sun (except when the Moon is between it and the Sun) until Venus conjuncts the Sun on June 4. After that Mercury will resume being the Gateway to the Light until the Superior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun on June 14. At that point Jupiter will be the gateway to the Light until the next Inferior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun in mid-August. The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of understanding how the planets work in sequence.
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn now sails the open seas of Pisces, the part of us learning how to be spiritually mature and grateful for our understanding of healthy boundaries and self-disciplines is now in a seascape of the collective feelings of all humanity over all time. This is a powerful restructuring spiritual force wherever we have mid-Pisces in our chart. Saturn now leads us in a Master Class in compassion and forgiveness practices, and learning a sober view of the collective human condition.
Between 2018 and early 2023, Saturn taught us to be more spiritually effective within a group work than we were before that period. We’ve used those skills since then in our Capricorn and Aquarius areas to achieve closures, helping us prepare for the new era coming when Saturn enters Aries in May of 2025.
Making friends with our inner Saturn is the most important thing we can do to fulfill our spiritual destiny. If you want to know more about your power to throw off oppressive chains, limitations, and fears, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We all need to make friends with our inner Saturn if we would claim our power to fulfill our higher purpose for being alive as Spirits in the material world.
The book offers ways to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to master life on your own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy in life, by owning our ability to demonstrate Saturn's virtues, we take command of our destiny and become the living purpose we were born to make manifest!
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and will assist your understanding of how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and power to turn away from unhelpful karmic cause and effect patterns. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.
A Look Back - The Great Compression of 2020 in Capricorn Still Affects Us
As mentioned earlier, we’re now in the fifth year of a long term focus wherever we have late Capricorn and early Aquarius in our charts. In the first 90 days of 2020, we had a “Great Compression” of planets involving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all making conjunctions in the last decan of Capricorn, setting off a number of Saturn cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We then began an accelerated phase of our collective spiritual evolution which will take us from the threshold of the Age of Aquarius into the Age itself.
You can find out more about the very powerful Sun, Mercury, and Saturn's conjunctions with Pluto by revisiting The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn. That lays out the long wave patterns set into motion then.
Because of the Capricorn conjunctions set in motion in 2020, we reorganized our lives wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. These cycles will impact all of us for some time to come. Especially with three Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto that year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things were “expansively purified.”
When Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020, it set a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the December 2020 Grand Mutation on the same degree. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launched both a new 20 year Aquarian cycle AND a new 200 year era of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. That means less materialism than the past 200 years, with more focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200.
Saturn in Aquarius led us to understand a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. Since then we have deepened with Saturn in Pisces. As always, Saturn in the harvest signs at the end of the zodiac challenge us to ask “What is our purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do we need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?”
Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Aries
In this chart, Chiron is direct at 22 Aries, giving us a first look at this social-emotional span in Aries as it prepares to go stationary retrograde at 24 Aries, promising us all a “concentrated dose of spiritual energies” this Summer. Chiron is said to help us “heal into our Higher Self” and the themes of 22 Aries involve “cosmic optimism” and joying in life’s dance.
Some will be given opportunities to mentor or be mentored in assisting or being assisted related to these themes. This will help us focus our potency or move us toward our potential. Chiron is now moving us forward in the level of social or emotional potency, eventually going SRX at 24 Aries.
In the bigger picture, Jupiter’s conjunction with Chiron in early 2023 began a very long wave healing and mentoring cycles wherever we have mid- Aries. Because Chiron’s last direct station was at 16 Aries, it means in 2024 Chiron is mentoring us and teaching us how to heal into our Higher Self through getting a new inspiration while seeing the relationship between the conscious and unconscious sides of life.
This continues our adventure related to Chiron’s healing and mentoring energies in the second decan of Aries. We now have two major Chironic themes in play: one was set into motion when Mars conjuncted Chiron in Aries in 2022, which I explained in Mars Conjunct Chiron at 16 Aries. This cycle will end soon with the next Mars conjunction with Chiron on May 29 at 23 Aries. The other major Chironic cycle was set into motion when Chiron went stationary direct recently, which I wrote about in Astrology Healing Cycles in 2024 - Chiron Stationary Direct at 16 Aries.
So Aries continues to dominate the Mars/Chiron cycle, with a new long wave Chironic pulse added at the Jupiter/Chiron cycle which began at 15 Aries in March 2023. This began a new cycle of “the expansive healer,” “opportunities to mentor and be mentored,” and "healing and teaching through humor." The last Jupiter/Chiron conjunction happened in late Aquarius in 2009, and this one lasts through 2036 when they meet again at 17 Gemini. This is an important cycle which will help us “heal into our Higher Self” at crucial points over the next 13 years.
Neptune now approaches the end of its depth immersion in its home sign of Pisces, and now is in its long term stay in the last decan, ruled by Scorpio with an added dose of Mars. This is “the end of the end” of the 360 degree “Whole Cycle,” and so encompasses all of the ghosts and unfulfilled mysteries of this past 150 year cycle since it was last here. It also allows us to purify and forgive much of the past and move into a deeper compassion regarding suffering humanity.
This New Moon shows Neptune at 30 Pisces, a degree of “dreaming the pre-formed future” and its stationary retrograde degree. This is the threshold where the future is just around the corner, so be clear about what you want to see made manifest in the next era. We are in a time which is a prelude to a new collective mindset coming in mid-2025. We began an acceleration in this “disintegration” energy when Mars conjuncts Neptune on this degree in late April. The end of Pisces allows us expanded “non-local knowing.”
Summing Up - The Big Picture
The Capricorn conjunctions of early 2020 continue to condition the long wave cycles unfolding since then even as we simultaneously build a new Aquarian social-spiritual ideal. Jupiter raced through Pisces and Aries at perihelion after its time in Aquarius and opened infinite potentials to be actualized over the next 20 years. What Jupiter opened in 2021, Saturn crystallized in 2022, and the promise of fortunate endings made when Jupiter was in early Pisces May through July 2021 and again in early 2022 is now being made real by Saturn.
Recent and current Solar and Lunar eclipses continue to remove old elements of our previous “field and focus” as we move into new ways of doing our Being. Continue to release, “let go, let god,” and get clear about where your heart’s loyalties are.
We’re now at a stage where, having heard Saturn’s “call to self-renewal,” we can now flow forward into our mastery, our archetypal Self, and our part to play in the bigger picture of our spiritual journey. With Saturn in Pisces, while endings may feel heavy, the immediate lightness which follows helps move us into a new life adventure.
We are now solidly in the dawning of the emergent Pluto in Aquarius era, with new work to be done and new lands appearing. This is a turning point in our relationships, so express your heart, your play, your creativity, and see how all of these are related to relationships in the past. We are now on a new adventure, so enjoy the initiatives and the productivity of Jupiter in favorable aspect to Saturn through May. This eases the pace as we anchor the dawning Plutonic seeds of the emerging Aquarian era, so things will be very “transitional” from now through 2025.
Summing Up – The Immediate Picture
Because we have all the inner planets within the outer planet span, the primary focus for the next month is in the span between Saturn at 18 Pisces and Jupiter at 26 Taurus, and more specifically the 33+ degree span between Mercury at 22 Aries and Jupiter at 26 Taurus, where we find SIX planets at the party! As the Nodes continue to occupy the same degree as they did at the recent Solar eclipse, remember that in this North Node in Aries/South Node in Libra era, Aries wants to get it in gear and Libra wants to look good doing it! As the North Node is in Aries, be willing “to boldly go where you’ve never gone before.”
Because of so many planets in such a short space, it may feel like a crowded house wherever we have Pisces, Aries, and Taurus. These signs are where our transpersonal orientation by house feeds our individual self, so remember you’re learning your unique part to play in the larger future-oriented group work. Show Divine Grace and forgiveness when you can, and accept it by demonstrating gratitude and appreciation in boldly embracing your new life which has opened.
Final Thoughts
In 2021-2022, we cultivated new heart strengths as a result of “spiritual linkage through emotional stress” and “the blessings which come forth after the death of useless things.” We’re now living new roles in new relationships as we play our part in the Aquarian energy field growing stronger by the month.
In 2020-2022, Capricorn helped us to find new forms of social power, while Aquarius took it into a much vaster context of a greater good. As you journey into the “new lands” promised by the recent Jupiter conjunctions with Uranus, remember enlightenment is a verb, not a noun, and our connection with the World Soul allows us to act in harmony with “All That Is.”
Because of our total immersion in Aquarian energy in 2021-2022, we’ve received innovative ideas and know who our spiritual allies are. In the past 3 years we’ve broken away, broken free, and broken through whatever used to block our flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and we’re now in a time of new initiatives!
We’re still becoming more conscious of our interrelatedness within the spiritual field and moving through an immersion in a new sensitivity to the generic human condition. The new era dawning will show us that we are in fact individual sparks of Light within an infinite ocean of Light. We are not separate from any other thing, since all things are Light and therefore we are one with All.
This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at times may be chaotic, violent, intractable, and irrational, but there is power in our unified vision of a better future. Stay clear about what your vision is, and let go of all which prevents you from flying free with your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters into a better future. Keep the course steady despite the compressed tensions of this time, and know we’re on our way into the future together!
And now, a word from our sponsor!
Because Venus occupies 10 Taurus, leads the Sun, and is the Final Dispositor ruling the Lunation, Jupiter, Saturn Uranus, and Pluto, She has tremendous power behind the scenes. She is very comfortable and at ease in Taurus, and this month shows us gardens we’re tending, or need to tend.
She is a stabilizing force in this Lunation, and will help us value the ease which comes when we choose to enjoy life. There is beauty and charm this month, with “forks in the road of destiny” when it comes to emergent relationships, as per Venus’ septile with Saturn. Breathe easy with your new associations, as you’re supposed to “do your thing” in a way they can recognize.
Have faith that if you simply persist, you will find your way to stability and a new sense of value and appreciation for life. Once She moves across the Lunation degree, we’ll see the value in the spontaneity and “freshness” which was awakened by Uranus 2 years ago. All of this will show in the house where we have 19 Taurus.
If you want to know more about Venus in Aries, Taurus, Gemini and all the other signs, as well as explore your ability to change what and who you attract to your lives, finding your heart’s desire and a lot of joyous relationships which fulfill your Soul, please consider getting your copy of my book, The Magic of Venus: Friendships, Soul Mates, and Twin Flames.
It’s the most comprehensive book on Venus ever written, and takes a deep dive into how our Venus shapes why we like or don’t like the people and things we do, and how we can change our patterns of attraction to make future relationships more fulfilling. It explains the world of relationship from the angles of psychology, astrology, spirituality, and worldly experience.
I’ve heard it helps people find strength to turn away from unhealthy relationships and understand how not to attract anything similar in the future. It examines the qualities in healthy relationships and friendships, and offers tips on how to create long lasting personal relationships and friendships, why Soul Mates come into our lives, and how to know the difference between a Soul Mate and our Twin Flame.
It has chapters on the qualities of each sign’s natural mate, the qualities of Venus in each sign, Venus retrograde, and when crucial choices and changes are made, affecting who we attract in the future. It was written for both astrologers and lay people, and as it has a thousand gems for better relationships, with self, others, and Source, please consider getting your copy by going to the link above! (And when you’re done, please leave a review on Amazon, since it helps the book and all other books on astrology as well!)
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
Hi Robert,
Does the appearance of”the beloved” have to do with Uranus making retrograde station on this same degree in August of 2022?
Thanks.. J.
Posted by: Jrecamier | May 03, 2024 at 05:13 AM
Hi Jrecamier - Very astute! Yes, 26 Taurus is a degree of "A Spaniard serenading his senorita.." It's about "coaxing" something related to Soul to appear. That would be one's "heart's desire."
Posted by: Robert | May 03, 2024 at 08:16 AM