The Wednesday Witch Astrology: May 2020
Happy May Day, comrades! All around the globe people celebrated International Workers Day on May 1, and the labor movement’s century plus fight for protection, dignity, and justice in the workplace. We’re mid-Taurus Season and correlated issues of food, scarcity, abundance, hoarding of resources, labor, job security, and workers rights are at the forefront of our collective dialogue. Millions of people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and the positions that are available involve an undue amount of risk. The federal government’s solution to the economic crisis has been to simply print more money, driving us deeply into debt. The patriarchs at the helm allocated trillions of dollars in bailout, yet the majority of beneficiaries are large corporations and millionaires. The old boys club is driving us towards our collective demise. These desperate times call for drastic measures.
More and more people are starting to wake up. They are asking fundamental questions like, how can a job be considered essential during a global pandemic yet not include health insurance or pay a living wage? The demands of the General Strike on May 1, for safe work conditions and paid sick time, of workers at Whole Foods, Amazon, Trader Joes, Target, and Instacart, were similar to grievances of the Chicago Haymarket rioters. These are not new struggles, as power concedes nothing without demand, but this crisis does require new solutions. Enter Uranus in Taurus.
It’s no coincidence that May Day occurs on the pagan holiday of Beltane that marks high Spring (or the beginning of Summer in some places). Taurus is Venus in her Gaia form, which brings all things that humans find most pleasing--pleasure, food, sex, art, flower, baby animals, etc. But when you get the bull mad, there is no stopping the charge. Che Guevara once said, “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” This month has a lot to say about love, but we will have to listen closely.
Beltane is a time to celebrate life and reaffirm that all human beings deserve health, wellness, and work with dignity. On a personal level we see the sprouting of whatever was seeded at the Winter Solstice on December 21, 2020. What have you gestated through the long, dark nights of winter? What is coming into maturation, and what is bursting forth unexpectedly? We knew that Taurus Season would never look the same once Uranus entered in March 2019, but this is certainly not what anyone had in mind. However, there are hidden gifts and simple treasures to be uncovered. Look for them the first weekend in May. Be sure to get out and connect with nature in whatever way feels good to you and thank the glorious earth for her beauty that manifests in endless patterns.
April showers bring several May retrogrades: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Pallas Athena. Venus is moving slowly at the start of the month when she squares Neptune at 20 Gemini on May 3. This energy has a bewitching or befuddling influence on relationships. Similar to Alice in Wonderland, Neptune can cause you to fall down the rabbit hole and glimpse an enchanted world. Your altered vision may distort the truth, but when you emerge, you’ll have a fresh perspective on mundane life. That’s the best case scenario of the transit. A worse option would be getting back together with your ex that you just started texting again in quarantine. Pump the breaks on any impulse to slide into that situation or you’ll regret it in approximately 10 days.
We got some big news at the end of April when Mercury conjoined Uranus on April 30. The notices of schools closing for the rest of the year in Massachusetts, coupled with the reopening of Florida beaches and Georgia gyms had everyone’s heads spinning. That sense of information overload will peak when Mercury goes cazimi, in the heart of the Sun, at 14 Taurus on May 4. We’re half-way through Mercury’s cycle, which marks a transition point when they begin to move from morningstar to evening star. They made their inferior conjunction during the Pisces retrograde cycle on February 25. Think back to where you were then, and what’s happening now. Pisces is the inner journey, and Taurus makes things real. Information gets internalized during the retrograde and we spend 6 weeks relating to it on a personal level. The superior conjunction marks the point when we are ready to take it public and apply it collectively. What do you need to commit to for emotional health for the rest of the Spring?
There’s a big shift on May 5 when the North Node moves into Gemini, although we won’t feel it right away. The lunar nodes, called Rahu and Ketu in Vedic astrology, are celestial points where the light of the Sun or Moon gets eclipsed at the New and Full Moon. They move in 18 month cycles. We’ve been having eclipses along the Capricorn-Cancer axis, since January 2019, heightening the tension between these polarities. The North Node/Rahu represents the head of a dragon that is always hungry and reaching more, and the South Node/Ketu is the tail of the dragon, where we let go and experience endings. They are places of karmic resonance, where a pattern left its mark on us. Rahu is what we are growing towards in this lifetime, and Ketu is what we revert back into. We’ll begin having eclipses along the Sagittarius-Gemini axis starting in June with the Sag Full Moon lunar eclipse on June 5. Look to your chart for the topics that’ll be activated for growth and weeding over the next two years.
The Scorpio Full Moon on May 7, has a message from Mars in Aquarius, coming through. Mars brings heat and activates dynamics, and this lunation gives us a taste of what’s to come over the next four years. Stone cold Saturn’s passage through Aquarius from December 2020-March 2023, will be epoch defining. Partially because he’ll square Uranus in Taurus several times. We’re getting lots of intel about what that journey might look like during Saturn’s test run from March 21-July 1. Mars is ruling this lunation from the site of that fixed T-square. We’re encouraged to structurally innovate (Aquarius) in the material realm around resources and commodities (Taurus), and for that process to be informed by the unhealed wounds we’re carrying as a culture (Scorpio). It might not be the most cuddly Moon, but it has the potential to be powerfully transformative. We’re in a shedding phase for two weeks afterwards, so let yourself release in order to renew.
We become aware of emerging solutions when Mercury trines Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn over the weekend of May 9-10. This is a good time to talk things out, but don’t get lost plumbing the depths. Focus on possibilities and new perspectives and chase those silver linings.
Monday dawns loud and clear when Saturn stations retrograde in Aquarius on May 11, and begins his slow journey back towards Capricorn. He will re-enter Cap on July 1, but not station direct until September 29. In mythology, Kronos/Saturn, swallowed his children because he feared losing power. Instead, he relentlessly pursued an outmoded style, hurting his family as he went. But fate will not be denied, and he was eventually overthrown. This story is thousands of years old, but modern humans are at a collective turning point when we must break-free from the past and the rule of the father to move forward towards a more egalitarian future. The sky-God Jupiter will enter Aquarius days after Saturn, on December 19, and together those old adversaries, father and son, will forge a new era at the winter solstice on December 21. This retrograde period is a time when we must examine the ways we’re afraid to move forward, and how we might be suppressing our own creative progeny. The world needs your brilliant babies of visionary genius so let them out.
Mercury enters Gemini on May 11, bringing clarity to issues held in this important patch of sky. Gemini prefers to flit about, but Venus gets real deep with it when she stations retrograde on May 13, at 21 Gemini. The 40 days and nights during her descent into the underworld will be an exploration of what you need in love and relationships. It’s long enough to make or break a habit so notice what you’re being called into leaving and committing to in the Gemini area of your chart.
Mars enters Pisces on May 13. The last sign he will visit before moving into Aries on June 27, and staying there for the rest of the year. Normally no one is especially excited about Mars moving through the mutable sign of the fishes, but we should cherish this final transit before he gets hot under the for a full 6 months.
The Sun enters Gemini on May 20, and immediately moves into a trine with Saturn. The air signs are going to be working with Saturn’s grounding influence a lot over the next three years, so pay attention to how that collaboration flows on May 22. The light footed ruler of Gemini, Mercury, moves into a conjunction with retrograde Venus at the Gemini New Moon on May 22. The spiritual goal of Gemini is to create synthesis between the two sides of themselves that are always talking but never listening to each other. This Moon is a unique opportunity to do so because Mercury is broadcasting what Venus is experiencing down below. The support from Saturn indicates the potential to make long-lasting change. This Moon wants you to talk it out so make sure you give yourself time to think through things and share yourself with a trusted advisor.
Mercury is moving quickly, and enters Cancer on May 28. Venus will remain in Gemini until August 7. There is still much more of this airy terrain for her to travel. We will come to know the heart of the issue when she goes cazimi, in the center of the Sun, on June 3. I hope you all stay well and safe until then.
Beltane blessings.