New Moon in Taurus, 23 April 2020, 03h26 BST
The Libra Supermoon is followed by a New Moon in earthy Taurus on April 23, which encourages us to take pro-active steps to generate bodily health and wellbeing by going back to basics – eating well, getting physical exercise and spending time outdoors in the sun, fresh air, and nature.
Taking place in the 4th degree of Taurus, the Sabian symbol for which is ‘A Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow’ (see more below), it is also urging us to work on generating abundance in a new way – from the heart and with the help and guidance of our inner spiritual teachers.
The Moon is exalted in Taurus, for obvious reasons. She is the celestial mistress of terrestrial life, of birth and generation, so naturally she would feel at home in an earth sign that represents the fecundity of nature. Taurus is Venus-ruled, echoed in the beauty of the spring flowers we see now, which will ripen into lovely round, sweet-tasting fruits and berries later in the year when Venus reaches her other sign – that of Libra. But for that to happen, we have to prepare the ground well, planting good seeds and then nurturing them as they grow – a process highlighted during Taurus season.
Sabian Symbol
THE POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW
Keywords: The promise of riches, in whatever forms these may take. Creative imagination. Goals and ambitions. Alchemy. Splashes of color. Rewards contained. The search for the treasure. Seeking communion with nature and life’s bounty. Wealth derived from changing perspective. Talent and beauty. Fantasies. Illusions vs. reality. Fairylands.
The Caution: Seeking easy, tempting solutions. Thinking that rewards are always just “over the horizon”. Thinking that one is never going to get near “it”. Elusive success. Forgetting the more immediate things in life. Seeking perfection. Castles in the air. Pipe dreams. Fool’s paradise.
Inversion – Turning the World Inside Out
The key message from the cosmos right now seems to be that, despite appearances and the limitations of external circumstances, there is a real opportunity here to create a new and better life for ourselves, if we can bring ourselves to detach from the fear and panic that coronavirus is generating and flip things on their heads, a process I refer to as inversion and which writers such as Tom Cheetham call turning the world inside out. For this is what is required if we are to see things more clearly.
However, this may not be an easy or straightforward process – we may have to break from some old paradigms and ways of thinking – something emphasized by the square between the luminaries, who will be orbiting close to revolutionary Uranus, on one hand (= pragmatically combining mind/heart/intuition) and Saturn, in his guise as patriarch and archon of linear time and mortality. All of which is likely to create a fair amount of internal conflict and tension. This is potentially like the Tower card in the tarot where we see the lightning bolt of Uranus striking the crown at its pinnacle. Taurus season is asking us to ensure that, as we move into the new era marked by Saturn’s ingress into Aquarius at the March Equinox, we build our futures on solid foundations, to avoid the collapse of the old world order that began with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January.
Saturn and Uranus, however, have a long history that is intimately connected – and in a lot of ways, these two planets are cut from the same cloth. Both have the potential to be cold, cut off from the heart – and even fairly tyrannical – here I can’t help thinking about Tom Cheetham’s discussions about the connection between magic as a manipulation of the four elements, on one hand, and our views of technology, on the other. The key is to find these commonalities now. Such as, for example, the fact that the way we are being asked to revision the world may not actually be that new – they may, in fact, be very ancient indeed…
Hierosgamos – Union of Oposites
Every New Moon is, in essence, an alchemical marriage between the cosmic opposites, the Sun and Moon, which come together in the same sign in order to create that ‘third thing’ – the cosmic child or third dimension, which is physical reality. This, too, is how manifestation works – combining consciousness/thoughts/visions (Sun) with repetition/emotion (Moon) is what enables thoughts to become things ala The Secret.
However, this requires us to let go of long-held assumptions and ways of viewing the world, and the methods we use to generate abundance, success and happiness. This is one of the secrets of the Great Tree, the card for the Hierophant (= Taurus) in the Splendor Solis tarot. Something I discuss in greater detail in my lunar forecast video.
To detach from the fear of death, which is the predominant and overriding current running through the news and western culture (which is obsessed with youth and longevity), requires us to see reality in spiritual terms – not as an end of life, but as a return home for the soul. This requires us to invert materialism, which has been dominant since the start of the so-called Age of Reason, on its head. Quite literally!
The wonderful Abdul Saad of Vital Mind psychology said it so beautifully recently when he suggested that the opportunity inherent in the current coronavirus crisis lies in the death of ‘isms,’ including capitalism in its current form (which has become nothing less than modern feudalism in which many people are enslaved in a debt spiral). But more importantly, it should strip away the tyrannical grip of scientific materialism that has encouraged us to behave like Faustian magicians, inflated with pride and unaware of their ego-based hubris, using the powers of technology to manipulate – and destroy – the natural world. To essentially rape the planet.
There’s no getting away from the fact that this crumbling of the fabric of our lives, initiated by the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 12, is scary. Death and endings are painful – even more so if we cling to them, afraid to let go of the familiar, even though we know in our hearts that what was is simply not fit for purpose – a system that is working only for a few bad apples, if you’ll excuse the metaphor. So we have to ask ourselves if this is really something we want to return to once the dust from the current pandemic is over?
Take a trip with Alice…& Plato
Instead, we are being urged to walk through the looking glass – to heed what almost every philosopher has told us. To remember, as Plato tells us, that we are born into this world, like the Hanged Man in the tarot, ‘anatrope’ or upside down, our memories temporarily wiped clean by the waters of forgetfulness in order that we can learn the spiritual lessons and fulfil the soul contracts that we agreed to before our souls incarnated into bodies.
The precise metaphor that Plato uses is of an upside tree, it’s roots fed by our connection to the higher spiritual levels of consciousness that are mediated for us by soul. Our physical bodies – and the material world – are simply emanations of spirit – the leaves and fruit on the Tree of Life. Which is why you frequently see metaphors about grapes, vines, trees and branches in relation to figures such as Christ and Dionysus. Once we know this, we begin to see the card of the Great Tree (below) in a new light.
There is, however, an alternative – one that is being presented to us in the form of a peculiarly interesting New Moon. One that challenges us to let go of the chaos, tension and fear being generated by dark forces and hidden elements within our society – people driven by less-than-honorable intentions, symbolised by the square between Saturn, Uranus and the luminaries at the start of this waxing cycle. And instead, choose a different path.
Birthing a New Earth
The vision of a better world – and a thriving planet – has been talked about for decades, with recent vocalists being people like Eckhart Tolle and Bruce Lipton. The Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter squares, together with the advent of the Age of Aquarius tell us astrologers that the time has come for us to start making this vision a reality. However, this process begins with coming out of denial – removing the scales from our eyes (we are in the time of Revelations, are we not?) and seeing through the illusion created by scientific materialism. Once we are in alignment with the truth, we can then begin to envision what is possible, and then with the help of those lightbeings who are standing by waiting for us to ask, begin to give it form and substance with our love and creative minds – before the doubts, confusion and mirages of May and June’s Venus and Mercury retrograde set in. This is the opportunity that lies hidden within the seed moment of this New Moon.
This is the jewel in the crown of corona borealis, the constellation of the northern crown, which I discussed in my recent Facebook posts, which focuses us on the role of the imaginal faculties talked about by people like Henry Corbin as the primary mode of perception for the soul, which, like the shamanic dreaming of Chiron, the wounded healer, is the key to joining the worlds of above and below, macrocosm and microcosm, heart and mind, Sun and Moon. For it is in this union of apparent opposites that new worlds can be born.
Fixed Star Focus: Alphecca
Alphecca, also designated as Alpha Coronae Borealis, is an eclipsing binary star [note: union of TWO stars] located in the constellation of Corona Borealis.
It is also one of the magical Behenian fixed stars and the brightest star of its constellation. Another name for Alphecca was Gemma, which is Latin for “jewel,” as the constellation is known as the Northern Crown.
Alphecca was associated with Venus and Mercury, it conveyed honor, dignity, and both poetical and artistic ability. The star was imaged as a crowned man or he, it gave chastity and the love and goodwill of men. It was also associated with topaz, rosemary, trefoil, and ivy.
Source: The Nine Planets
Tapping into the dimension of 444 & Aquarian energy
So, I urge you not be distracted by fear, chaos and uncertainty and use this golden opportunity being offered by the exalted Moon as she joins with the Sun in the 4th degree of Taurus – the degree of the Emperor – lord of 444 mastery – and make it our business to incubate – and then give birth to a new era and way of living at the New Moon, just like the Aboriginal elders tell us that they once did. Symbolised by the Garden of Eden, and signposted by astrological transits such as the upcoming conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, faith and reason, who are set to join forces in in Aquarius at the December 2020 solstice – something I discussed in my Saturn in Aquarius video.
If we have any doubts about our ability to birth something new and wonderful, we should just remember the promise of Jupiter in Capricorn at the December 26 solar eclipse to expand our world view and prosper through meaningful efforts – all of which are possible if we choose to let go of the illusion of Plato’s cave – unplug from the Matrix – and take the red pill, if we haven’t done so already.
Imagination and visionary activities naturally draw us to the crown and third eye chakras, both of which are located in the headwith this in mind, I have put a description of Alphecca, the alpha star of the corona borealis constellation, in a box above, because its symbolism bears pondering on, now that we have entered the Age of Aquarius.
Crown of Stars – or Grail Cup?
If we are wondering how to manifest this new world, starting at the New Moon, then a look at the Star card in the tarot may offer us some inspiration.
If we look at the shape of a rainbow and that of a cup, for example, we soon begin to realise that, like triangles which can be joined to form a diamond (or indeed, a six-pointed star!), these semi-circular shapes can be joined to create a circle – much like a crown – or indeed, an uroboros.
I found it quite interesting that in The Star tarot card associated with the zodiac sign of Aquarius, we have a semi-circle of seven stars surrounding a larger one, and a pale-skinned woman (perhaps a star being?) is shown, like the Temperance card,
Applying this idea to the constellation symbolism in the Star card today, at first I thought that these stars may actually represent the seven stars found in the constellation of corona borealis, the northern crown? Later, however, thinking about all the water in the image, I began to wonder if I had been wrong – and if, instead, the constellation surrounding Sirius, the large bright star of Isis in the centre of the card, is actually Crater, the grail cup, and not a crown of stars?
And then it occurred to me, that she is probably both, and that inversion is actually written into the whole process, much as it is when we are born upside down. For in the Grail legend, the Fisher King (with his crown) remains wounded UNTIL Parsifal reverses the question and asks, ‘Who serves the Grail’? Like the Sun and Moon, the earthly and heavenly realms must unite in order for life – and soul, which is a MIXTURE of the two – to be restored to the kingdom.
For me, both a crown and a cup are both equally fitting constellations for a star being who is also a water bearer…However, a cup is indeed, the perfect vessel in which to hold the central star of Sirius – brightest star in the sky and symbol of the Great Mother goddess, whose return is being heralded by many.
