New Moon @ 14 Taurus 11
May 4, 2019 @ 6:46pm EDT, 3:46pm PDT, 11:46pm GMT,
May 5 @ 8:46am AEST
Image: Vesta illustration from my Planetary Gods & Goddesses Coloring Book, colored by Claude Richter. “The Priestess of the Sacred Fire has a quite glow about her. She is the brightest of the asteroids. Eldest sister of the Olympian gods, Vesta is honored for her loving devotion in the circle of home and hearth. She also creates an uplifting sanctuary in places of worship—temple, church, cathedral, mosque, synagogue or sacred site in Nature. Her flowers are the poppy and angel trumpet. Her Greek name is Hestia.”
This New Moon in Taurus is hunkered right in the critical center point and turning point of this fixed Earth sign, a power degree of the zodiac. This sign digs deep into earth, planting seeds that bear fruit over time.
For the next 7 years, the Taurus Sun will get charged up, excited yet again with this paradigm-shifting transit of Uranus through Taurus. This year it was on April 22—do you remember any special thing going on for you that day?
The thinning crescent Moon met Venus in the pre-dawn sky on Thursday and went dark on Friday, May 3, ending a lunar cycle that began April 5. The Moon enters its dark phase wielding the sword of Kali (Pluto) as it sweeps up the last vestiges of deceptions unveiled in the last Moon to throw into the holy fire of Venus. Throw any fears or worries into that fire. One basic choice we have in life is to live from fear or to live from love.
Venus rules Taurus, as does Gaia Earth herself, therefore we look to our home planet and our sister planet for guidance as we dig deeper into this new 7-year cycle. This New Moon in Taurus demonstrates our current position and posture in the face of changing times. Something highly significant is happening, reshaping the landscape and the territory we inhabit. This comes from the deep vein of the Earth’s molten heart, reaching out to its sister planet, Venus Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, Beauty and Bounty—and Joy. We are invited to bring these emotions more centrally into our lives, basing decisions and inevitable life changes these lovely energies. Is it possible to live this way? Let’s find out.
Venus is in mid-Aries, accompanied by Vesta, Devotional Priestess of the Sacred Flame, the hearth fire. Any such fire we kindle for warmth or prayers is mirrored by the deep central fire in the Earth’s heart and, beyond that, the cosmic eternal fire in the heart of the galaxy. Yet, as universal as her heart may reach, she always brings our attention back to the mundane. Vesta lights up simple moments of life, as we attend to daily chores like sweeping up or washing dishes, remembering to look out the window at trees unfurling fresh spring green.
One of my daily winter chores has been tossing logs into my woodstove, emptying the ashes in my woodstove, and periodically starting a fresh fire. I appreciate the special penetration and deep warmth of heating with a woodstove. As the season shifts to spring here in the New England, the daily attention starts turning toward the soil and in the garden, finally revealed again from under piles of snow.
In Volume 2 of his Astropoetic Series, Master Astrologer Joe Landwehr writes of Vesta:
“She is not just serving herself, or even the collective, but the ancestors and the gods and goddesses in whose footsteps she walks. Vesta ups the ante, challenging those under her tutelage to find within themselves a deeper reason for doing what they do: one rooted in increasing allegiance to and identification with the Divine Intelligence at the Heart of One. As the personal work of healing is embraced…, the transpersonal power of the One shines through unimpeded, and Vesta is an important guide to this process.”
On this New Moon, Vesta attends Venus, as they stand between the Nodes of the Moon, influencing the current course of destiny and channeling the intense transformational necessity of Saturn and Pluto. In the old Greek myth, Pluto invisibly erupted from below the surface, the realm of the Underworld. That story is being replayed in some modern, third millennium way, as dormant volcanoes are stirred and earthquakes rumble up from deep below the Earth’s surface. Some not so pretty collective and personal stuff is coming to the surface as well, to be revealed and healed. Venus and Vesta together help ignite dormant brain cells and deeper strands of our DNA to come to the service of healing and awakening.
Following this New Moon bizarre events may surprise and shock—that’s the nature of Change-Agent Uranus, the Awakener. When it changes sign every 7 years, like it just has, new developments swiftly come to our attention. Someone on the radio just now is talking about “normalcy bias,” referring to a tendency humans have to expect things to go on the way they always have, or that the current unsettledness will eventually return to “normal.” This is a self-deception we can’t afford, as something unprecedented is going on that will be challenging to deal with, hard to perceive and conceive of. We are invited into new experience that arises from the current chaos that announces any fresh start or pioneering adventure. Chaos theory says that if we can tap into the heart of the chaos, we find the creative seed that leads to the new unfolding reality. Perhaps we can expect the best rather than the worst.
This New Moon begins a month to ground new developments in our lives. While the Moon is dark, we feel our way deep within to find strength, to steady ourselves and to grab hold of that creative seed we seek to reorder our lives. When the New Moon crescent becomes visible on Monday, the 6th, we celebrate the emergence of our new creation. We tend its growth, feeding it with attention, love and action, while dancing and singing hearty and vibrant songs of the Deep and Renewed Earth.
O sing unto the Lord a new song…Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.
Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful…
—Psalm 98:4-8
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