Current Transits for May 2011 Current Transits for May 2011Here's some of the important astrological news this month ...
The Pack -- a tight pattern of fast moving planets, the only game in town now.
Juno Dierct Station at 13Vi59, 5-1
New Moon at 12Ta30, 5-3
Mars enters Taurus, 5-11
Full Moon at 26Sc13, 5-17
Pallas Retrograde Station at 5-31
Coming Attractions...
Hindsight...
An online ephemeris for the month is available.
What you make of May depends on the lens you use to look at it. The waveforms for the month show a 2 week long, fairly powerful planetary storm that emerges from and then dissolves back into weak noise. Through this lens, the middle of the month appears to be a very active time for us, astrologically speaking. But then when you look at the more typical view of the planets in terms of aspects and the like, May seems totally devoid of interesting events to talk about. Seriously, this issue suffers from a lack of material to discuss. April was a busy month and June looks to be quite impressive, but May has nearly nothing. My intuition is that we are in some kind of transitional period between the huge, never ending storm that dominated the last year and whatever is coming up next. The planets, especially the slower moving ones, need some time to play musical chairs and change places. In the meantime, we're experiencing a drought of "big aspects" and other events. There is one curiosity this month that I'll refer to as "The Pack". The fast moving planets Mercury, Venus and Mars are moving across Aries and Taurus in a tight bunch all month, roughly a 10 degree spread the entire time. Now that's not even close to being a tight orb, but it does mean that any slow moving planet in their path gets hit repeatedly and over a longer length of time. Given that the slow ones are spread out as well, we get a 2 week period of Koz Alert energies -- most storms last only half as long. It's a lot of "one thing after another", but there's just something broken or out of joint about the energies this month. We're building towards big things in the future, but their time has not come yet. Wait until June, most likely...
As I said, May is a slow news month. Mars moves into Taurus and 2 asteroids reach their stations. Not much else to talk about...
Before talking about the usual events, I do want to discuss the Pack phenomenon a bit. Normally, the fast moving planets move along the zodiac at very different speeds, so any patterns they form tend not to hang around very long. May is different. First of all, Mercury is usually the most fleet footed of all the planets (except the Moon), but he's coming off his retrograde cycle last month and doesn't get up to speed until May 8 or so. This gives Venus a chance to keep pace in the first part of the month. Further, Venus, Mercury and Mars are lined up with the fast bodies in back and the slowpokes in front. When you put all this together, you wind up with a pattern that remains intact all month, racing across Aries and Taurus. The spread between these 3 planets is roughly 10 degrees or less all of May. As the Pack moves past any given slower planet, there's a protracted ping-ping-ping! from the Pack. Each of these slower planets becomes active for a week or more at a time. As the slower planets separate from their recent big storm (from May 2010 to Feb 2011), there are gaps between them finally. We get to feel one, maybe two of these deeper influences at a time, rather than having them drop all at once on our heads like a ton of bricks. Maybe this space is what we need now to assimilate the big storm, an opportunity to check out each energy separately. Anyway, Mercury is the thinking mind, Venus is the emotions and intuition, while Mars is your will power and call to action. We experience the higher spiritual levels right down in our everyday lives, especially during the 15 day storm this May. This gives us the chance to ground the higher energies in the routines of normal living, bringing a little more insight and openness to the mundane. It's important to follow the Pack planets in coming weeks, as they point to all the important lessons and changes crossing your path on a day to day basis. Work in harmony with these energies if you want to get something useful from the storm.
Juno reaches her direct station of 13Vi59 on the 1st. This ends a retrograde period that started back at her retrograde station of 29Vi41 back on Jan 19. Juno is the Queen of Relationships, the Lady who is in love with being in love. So when you see her in a retrograde tailspin as she's been the last 4 months, you know relationships are up for review. Juno tends to emotional extremes. She's either high as a kite in love and filled with passion for her partner or she's feeling cheated and slighted by him. Rage and jealousy are the flip side of the coin from love and commitment for her and the smallest incident can cause her to flip. Her lover doesn't even have to do anything particular "wrong" to warrant her wrath -- sometimes even suspicion is enough to sour the picture. Juno has high expectations of her relationships, often impossibly high standards. When she's living in a fairy tale world, no mortal person can truly fulfill her demands. Which brings her to a retrograde cycle in Virgo. To be honest, Virgo is not a terribly romantic or sexy sign. She's quite the opposite: practical, down to earth, analytical, measured. Due to that retrograde cycle, Juno is spending a lot of time in Virgo. It's a time for our Queen to look soberly at her relationships and her expectations of them, to separate the fantasies and suspicions from the more reasonable, practical considerations. Oh, she hates being practical and reasonable -- it's not her style! But it certainly helps the relationship when her partners aren't being measured against impossible standards. Relationships may be less exciting and manic when you take the drama out, but a slower, less demanding pace allows love to simmer and grow. An untamed Juno can actually sabotage your partnerships, especially when nobody is good enough for the Queen. Give her a chance to mature and grow up, however, and love is everywhere. You just have to know how to look for it. Anyway, Juno's retrograde cycle is completed today. Whatever lessons and insights into the ways of the heart you've learned in recent months, it's time to put them in play. Juno just needs to come down to earth from time to time.
A quick glance at the waveform for the new moon isn't very encouraging. There's one important group of planets to examine, consisting of the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Neptune and Saturn, mostly in the 11-15 degree region; Neptune fits in via an octile to Venus-Mercury and a quintile to the lunation. All 4 of the major feminine asteroids also fall into this group, an interesting subplot. (In fact, the tallest peak in the waveform is over Vesta and Pallas.) Except for Saturn and Juno, all the planets fall into roughly one third of the chart, forming a pattern called a Bucket. Mars and Jupiter are closely conjunct, but otherwise disconnected from the rest of the chart. Uranus and Pluto are by far the weakest planets.
The new moon falls in Taurus, but there are still 5 planets in Aries. There's a restlessness in this chart, an urge to do something, that the Taurus Sun and Moon can barely focus and contain. With the Pack in Aries, trampling Jupiter and aspecting Neptune, we're kind of bursting at the seams, looking for someplace to channel all that energy inside. With Saturn opposite the Pack, there's an added sense of restriction or frustration, especially if other people have conflicting ideas about what you should do. And then there's Neptune, a siren call from a lofty spiritual plane. As Neptune is the only planet with a vision in this pattern, it's trying to inspire us to some idealistic action, which is probably out of touch with the more mundane "get up and go" of the rest of this group. Aries is also a highly masculine sign, quite at odds with the tight asteroid grouping in this chart. I'm not sure how to read this feminine influence, but it seems to be a quiet counterpoint to the more active parts of this chart. In fact, there are a number of balancing acts going on. The Taurus lunation is also trying to temper the Pack's call to action. Meanwhile, Saturn and Juno (the handle of the Bucket) balance off all the other planets. Quiet, restrained and respectful concern for others is opposed to the "me first" activity of the Aries squad, a call to slow down and consider the consequences of your plans. There are many mixed messages in this chart, which is probably why it fails to pack much of a punch. Slow and steady, taking each day one at a time, seeing what the situation requires -- that's more the Taurus way. Do what you can with your chosen goals, aware that it's tough going now. Don't sweat the obstacles...
Mars moves from Aries into Taurus on the 11th. He'll be traveling through this sign until Jun 20, when he shifts into Gemini. Technically speaking, Mars in Taurus is supposed to be a rather negative placement for our Warrior God, but over the years, I've come to see it in a more positive light. Mars rules Aries and he feels right at home there. Aries allows him to be himself, throw his weight around, get things done, be wild and crazy. That's all well and good for awhile, but you can burn out after too much of that. Taurus is more settled and sedate than that. He gives Mars a chance to downshift to a slower gear that can be maintained for the long haul. Aries may be good for starting new projects, but it lacks persistence. Taurus is better at seeing a chore through to the end, as it allows Mars to plod along, one foot in front of the other, until the job is finally done. Another advantage of this placement is that it gets Mars back in his body -- Taurus is perhaps the most physical of all the zodiac signs. It's a good placement for attending to the body's normal appetites and drives, leading to a healthier and less stressful approach to living, if only for a time. This includes your sex drive -- this placement can be quite a spur to romance. It diverts Mars from wanting to conquer the world towards simply enjoying being here and savoring the fruits of living. Perhaps taking the "war" out of the Warrior is not his idea of a good time, but I've always thought that Mars is more interesting when you give him something to do besides fight. Slow down and smell the flowers before you trample them...
There seems to be two distinct planetary groups at work in the full moon chart, which you can see in the double spiked peaks in the waveform. One group involves the Sun and Moon in league with Jupiter and Saturn. The other group is based on the Pack planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars), now focused in a tiny 3 degree spread. They are leaving Jupiter and Neptune behind, concentrating on Uranus for now, and soon to move on to Chiron and Pluto. This second group is extremely dynamic and hard to tease apart.
The full moon seems to be playing out on two distinct levels. There's the arena where the individual (Sun, Moon) is assessing his or her place in society and the world at large (Jupiter, Saturn). Your sense of stability and trust is at odds with a feeling of insecurity and suspicion. Despite the many advantages we experience through living in a society like ours, the demands and responsibilities we face can wear us down occasionally. A feeling of frustration is just under the surface, commonly manifesting when the topic of politics comes up. But beyond this is a second level. It's debatable whether the description "spiritual" applies here, but it's certainly beyond the normal reality of Jupiter and Saturn. We feel this in many ways through the Pack planets -- our thoughts, feelings and actions are all empowered by outer planet input. Right now, Uranus, the Higher Mind, seems to be the strongest influence. The common person needs to wake up and see the world through a different lens of understanding. This is not just a superficial mental understanding (the Mercury mind), but something you can feel in your bones. Of course, other outer planet influences are active as well, opening us up on so many levels at once -- that's why this energy has a spiritual feel to it. Too bad that this kind of awakening is rarely experienced for too many people -- it's too weird for them, outside of normal reality (Jupiter-Saturn again). The world needs all the "aha!" moments it can get right now.
Pallas is standing still at her retrograde station of 15Aq49 on the 31st, starting a 4 month period. She'll back up to her direct station of 27Cp11 by Sep 23. Pallas represents the mental-intuitive part of the mind. She's a good strategic planner in the sense of gazing over a situation and knowing intuitively exactly how to get from point A to point B in the easiest manner. She's also a bit of an artist on the side. As she enters a retrograde cycle for the summer, each of these areas is up for reexamination. As with all such cycles, this part of you becomes less reliable and needs to be upgraded. In part, that intuitive decision making ability becomes less trustworthy, your choices more suspect. Look at the signs for this retrograde zone, namely Aquarius and Capricorn. Aquarius is an idealist, but he also deals more in theory and abstractions than concrete reality. Capricorn is more the general that needs to make things work in the real world. You make your plans in grand sweeping terms, but you have to execute them in practical, concrete terms where details matter. This is a time to get your head out of the clouds and pay attention to the little things. Beware of dealing in grand generalizations that guide your choices along paths that don't take the little things into account. Sometimes when Pallas goes underground like this, she needs to go through a creative period where something inside needs to be expressed. Such work doesn't necessarily have to be art in the conventional sense of the word, but it brings an important human understanding up to the surface to be seen by all. Very often, this creative streak is in response to the problems of the intuitive mind, a way of examining those problems and probing for a solution. Hopefully, you emerge from this period with more clarity and wisdom than you have now. Go within, if that's what it takes, and see what is inside trying to come out. Make that your gift to the world...
Since I have some empty space left over, let me quickly mention some of the big events coming up in June. Not only is there much more news next month than during May, but many of the major stories come up very quickly early in the month -- here's a brief heads up.
First of all, we're entering a busy eclipse season. There's a partial solar eclipse on Jun 1 (11Gm01), a total lunar eclipse on Jun 15 (24Sa23) and another partial solar eclipse on Jul 1 (9Cn12). The last one is interesting since it is the initial eclipse in a brand new Saros family (Saros family S156). Eclipses spaced 18+ years apart fall into these families that persist for 12 to 14 centuries. This new Saros is a new astrological cycle that lasts until the year 3237! So as unimposing as this partial eclipse may appear, it is a kind of birth chart for this family that unfolds over the next millennium and then some. It will be intriguing to see what this new Saros feels like.
Another important event is Jupiter's passage into Taurus on Jun 4. Jupiter didn't stay long in Aries, having only moved there back on Jan 22. His trip through Taurus is a more typical 12 months. Of course, he will make several "big aspects" once he moves in, in particular, a sextile to Neptune on Jun 8 and a semisextile to Uranus on the 28th.
There are a number of significant stations as well. That includes Neptune on the 3rd, Chiron on the 8th, Saturn on the 12th and Vesta on the 21st.
That's a lot of changes in a short amount of time. Not at all like May...
What was it about the last week of April? It seemed like every day there was another major news story. The list includes the asinine flap over President Obama's birth certificate yet again (the 2012 race is still in its silly season), the monstrous tornados that swept through the South, killing hundreds, the royal wedding in London and the bombing in Tripoli that killed members of Gaddhafi's family.
I heard astrologers at a lecture discussing the wedding chart for the royals that evening already: why get married with Venus opposite Saturn and a void-of-course Moon? Neither is a good omen for a successful marriage in traditional terms. I haven't looked into this chart myself yet.
However, the story that most caught people's attention was the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 1. Reports claim he was killed at 3:30 PM EDT (7:30 PM GMT, 12:30 AM on May 2nd Pakistan time). The news media have been saturated with coverage of this story ever since, a kind of national catharsis for the US. The chart for this time has Uranus closely trioctile the midheaven and Juno in the 8th house trioctile the ascendent, both "timing aspects" in my opinion. Juno (partners) in the 8th (house of death) reflects the fact that one of his wives was present in the compound when he died and was in fact wounded herself. With Virgo on the 8th cusp and its ruler Mercury in Aries (the head), along with 5 other planets, it's little wonder that the fatal shot was in the head. The ascendent's ruler, Saturn, is opposite all these Aries planets, not a good indication. Curiously, the ascendent (28Cp17, more or less) is very close to the US Pluto, another sign of how this country has been obsessed with Bin Laden for so long. The conjunction of Mars and Jupiter would have assured a successful outcome for the raiding party, despite the failure of one of their helicopters. I'm sure there are other hints in this and related charts, which I'll have to research later.