Astrological Happenings
Newsletters by Beth McDonald
OK, breathe and buckle up, y’all. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Writing this one has been a bit of a road race: it moves fast, has hairpin turns, and, if you are not careful, you can wipe out. It is quite a thing. An open mind, a laser focus, and a child-like sense of wonder, humor, joy, and delight are essential to success.
Normally, the Taurus New Moon is a wonderful return to all the best things about being in a human body on this planet, especially in the spring. Taurus rules beauty and balance, harmony and love. Taurus rules nature and Earth Day. Taurus rules the divine feminine archetype and aspects of mothering and Mother's Day. Taurus rules aspects of fertility, the spring, and the sacred rituals of Beltane. Taurus rules teams and teambuilding, as well as aspects of leadership.
Retrogrades, Eclipses, a Stellium, and an Abundance of Caution
Okay, I haven’t seen this sort of a thing in a long time. Part of it is the current transits (Mercury Retrograde in Aries, Venus Retrograde in Aries and Pisces, a fat stellium, and a pair of eclipses, one in Aries and the other in Virgo and Pisces). The other part is the extreme variety of ways people are feeling and responding to those transits. I have seen people handle worse transits with more joy, ease, and grace. I know part of it is the socio-political-economic impacts of the times we live in. But still, it made me curious. And cautious. I had a feeling there was more to it than that.
February packs so much beauty, power, energy, and emotion into such a short month. Navigating it requires exceptional commitment and extraordinary strength. As winter starts to wane and the spring starts to unfold, we need more time and energy to address everything that is happening and everything that stands before us. But the juxtaposition of the marathon that is 31 days of January and the relatively minuscule 28 days of February—even fewer, depending on how many holidays fall on weekdays—is just such a brutal push.
Oh, January.
You always feel like a month of Mondays. Blue Mondays. The shorter, colder days that are slowly, almost imperceptibly getting longer. The longer, colder nights that are slowly, almost imperceptibly getting shorter. And the promise of warmth in the coming spring.
