The Beltane Moon

The Tuatha dé Danann once ruled Ireland, so they say, in ancient times.  A people of mythic proportions, they came at Beltane, arriving in ships borne on the mists of the sky.  They conquered by means of their magical powers, but would eventually be overcome by a following wave of invaders, who drove them into the hollow hills, where they continued to live as the Sîdhe, or fairy folk.  In legends they are pictured as tall and regal in bearing... but it is said, that over time, with the loss of their connection to ordinary human-kind (and starved of their spiritual sustenance), they diminished in size and stature to become what are known as, the wee folk, or the little people.

Lilac Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker

May 1st, or Beltane, is one of those corners of the year when the veil between the ‘seen’ and the ‘unseen’ worlds is thin.  It is said that May is the time when the fairy folk can be seen among us, if we but look for their sign. 

In the Spring time, the Weeping Sisters, the Pleiades, rise just before sunrise.   So this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, is also associated with the ‘waters’, the rains that nourish the growing plants, bringing the blossoms out on the trees, and the blooms on the vine.  It is also the time when the Fire of the Sun, meets the rich fertile soils of the Earth, bringing all to a quickening and rebirth.  Beltane was often celebrated with bon fires, and lusty liaisons in the forests and fields... said to bring fertility and bounty to the harvests.  And so we welcome in, the lusty month of May.

However, with Saturn opposing Taurus ruler, Venus, as we commence this week, there’s a little haze on the lustiness.  Disagreements, breakups, and a little heart-break mar the pre-Beltane festivities... or perhaps a sense of duty, a sense of poverty or despair, loneliness, separation from loved ones, or a strong sense of reality settling in that wakens us from our presumed assumptions... but not to despair!  Lustiness, creative fertility, and hope come in the wake of the ancient one’s magical ships... The New Moon in Taurus on Monday/Tuesday brings both joy and hope, and maybe just a little creative magic.. and we could all use some of that just about now.

Remember to read your Rising sign as well if you know it:

Aries
If you can’t have what you want, love what you have.  And what you have, charging into the weekend is an indomitable sense of purpose, and energy.  If you set a goal for yourself.. nothing and no one will be able to break your spirit, your drive, and confidence, and keep you from getting it.  You’re flying.  The Taurus New Moon, is the time of year for Aries to set financial goals, and to reaffirm faith in themselves, and their own self-worth.  Seek to attract to yourself, those experiences, things and people who will let you know how good you are at what you do, and reinforce your own belief in yourself.

Taurus
As you approach this weekend, there is a sense of poverty of the soul, or a feeling of unfulfillment.  A sense of responsibility has you going through the motions, but your heart has not been in it.  There’s a difference between that which you desire to do, and that which you have to do.  But do not be daunted for long... There is much joy for Taurus in the month of May... so break out your fairy wings, and be ready to alight: a sense of gaiety and lightness arises, as you rediscover your Taurean soul.  “‘Pan, who and what art thou?’ Hook cried huskily.  ‘I’m youth, I’m joy,’ Peter answered at a venture, ‘I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.’” - JMM Barrie.

Gemini
We don’t have much Morris dancing here in the US, but I understand it can involve a lot of bells attached to one’s legs, handkerchiefs tossed about, and various other festive accessories.  It’s the festivity of it all that is rather attractive, as well as the idea that you have to do this with others in a group.  If you don’t have Morris dancing in your neck of the woods either, look forward to other excuses to get together in a festive manner over the next few weeks.  Sing, play music, and dance with bells on, if you so desire.  But also seek out some alone time as well, for it will be in those moments of stillness that you will be inspired.  

Cancer
This is the wishing New Moon for Cancer.  This is because the capacity to make your dreams come true is implicit in the fact that the Moon is in the fertile sign of Taurus, the 11th sign from Cancer.  And it will soon be followed next month by expansive Jupiter.  New Moons are always good times to set intentions, make wishes, or initiate a project.  But this week, for Cancer, it has that much more positive strength.  Therefore sow seeds of confidence and joy and peace... visualize, make a whole list of wishes if need be, and just remember to request that these be fulfilled in only the best of ways, harming none, and for the good of all concerned.

Leo
Having a little wander lust?  A desire to explore new places, new environments, new ideas?  This is a great week to embark on an adventure, especially in the company of like minds.  Seek new horizons, seek freedom and open spaces.  However, this is also a very good week to make an impression on the boss, or to be noticed, especially for any creative proclivities.  You won’t need to be seeking out the spotlight, for you will be illuminated with floodlights wherever you wander this week.  Bask in the glow.

Virgo
If you want to ask for a favor, or a loan, or you just need a little help, this week is a good time to ask... though this may be hard to believe at first.  This will become even more so as the week moves on.  A lot of what seemed so limiting these past few weeks, is being relieved.  You could also find your attitude shifting as the result of a conversation shared with others.  Sometimes all it takes is a change in perspective, in order to open up a whole new world of possibilities, and a whole new passel of creative ideas.  

Libra
Coming into this week feels like you are carrying an extraordinary burden, with little to show for it, and not much help from others, and this curious feeling of procrastination and malaise.  But it will soon become evident that things are not quite so worrisome as they seemed, and others will be there for you, if you need them.  Expect a surge of creative inspiration amidst pleasant social activities this week.  If you are hoping to make a change, eliminate a bad habit, or remove something from your life that you are not happy with, this is the week to do it.

Scorpio
Whatever problem has been irritating you, it will either become inflamed to the point where you are forced to contend with it once and for all... or it will suddenly just go away.  Poof!  Either way, if something needs to be fixed, fix it, and you will be filled with a sudden surge of energy and freedom from what was previously irking you.  This is a good week to make a whole new start or commitment within a partnership or close relationship.  Doing so will bring possibilities beyond your wildest dreams. 

Sagittarius
Love makes the heart grow fonder.  If anyone is fertile these days, it’s Sagittarius with everything piled in your house of love, children and creative self-expression.  And if anyone is seeking adventurous and lusty liaisons in the fields and woods, it’s you guys.  But don’t overdo too much of a good thing, as Sag is often inclined to do.  You’re supposed to be paying some attention to your health this week too, whether this means eating more consciously, or just taking it a little easy!  Okay, we give up.... 

It's wild! It's gay!
Depraved in every way
The birds and bees with all of their vast
Amorous past
Gaze at the human race aghast,
The lusty month of May. ~ (Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Lowe “Camelot”) 

Capricorn
It often feels like if you want something done, you’ve just got to do it yourself.  And one can get kerfuffled when you see everyone sitting on their butts while you’re slaving away.  But sometimes, all you have to do is ask, and you’ll be amazed at how much people really do want to be there to help you out.  Feeling less inspired than usual lately, it will come as a relief to know that things are beginning to open up creatively in your life.  It’s time to rediscover your deep connection to the rhythms of the earth, and to those people and things that you hold near and dear to your heart.  It’s time to sing.

Aquarius
There are times when one feels isolated from everyone.. they seem so far away.  And it feels hard to believe in fairies these days.  But in only a matter of days your world is going to be filled with laughter and happy voices, and you’ll be wondering what all the forlorn woe-begotten meanderings were all about.  This is a good week to make changes at home, or to make a new commitment to family, home or country in a way that promotes peace, security and your sense of connection to the earth that you live on.  The fairies are in your own back yard.

Pisces
Now if anyone is capable of seeing fairies, it’s Pisces.  Although they may not be fairies you are seeing.  But you’re still seeing something, so let’s just call them fairies.  However, don’t listen to them if they try to give you advice about money.  You’re more inclined to take financial risks this week... However, by the same token, you’re also more likely to win... provided you keep it real, especially if you are planning any large purchases.  Get all the practical information you can, provided you get the information from reliable, non-mythical sources.. you know what they say about an educated consumer. 

Neptune enters Pisces

Neptune entered Pisces April 4th

Silence of the Mists by Prozac1

Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is gray and yellow white.
But we decide which one is right.
And which is an illusion?~the Moody Blues

conscience, compassion, humility, oceans, water, gases, poisons, oil, unity, art, film, artists, music

In society, Neptune is the idealistic backdrop in the human community.  Its entrance into the various signs, and the major aspects Neptune makes, are reflected in the culture, through the Neptunian lens of essential unity and conscience.  This is the inner understanding of our connection, not only to other human beings, but to all sentient beings everywhere, as well as to all of life, including the planet we live on.  The more we identify with Neptune, the more the attributes that are associated with that Oneness are expressed: compassion, humility, inspiration, imagination, artistic expression and a realization of that which is spiritual within: interconnectedness with nature and humanity, a healthy conscience, and ultimately transcendence and enlightenment.

imagination, inspiration, deception, confusion, delusion, illusion, addiction, victimization, sacrifice

When the channels to Neptune are filled with filters made up of paradigms, rationalizations, and preconceived notions, these same attributes become distorted and confused... leading to the erroneous idea that spirit or deity is separate from us, or that we are the sole possessor of deity.  This in turn can lead to other more malevolent distortions of Neptune, such as thinking one is superior to others, and conversely, thinking of oneself as inferior, helpless and hopeless: the victim/savior dichotomy; glamour and enchantment which leads one down the garden path of deception; and a detachment from the material world due to mental illness, or deliberately through drugs and alcohol. 
 
charity, social welfare, altruism, transcendence, escapism, enlightenment, enchantment, glamour, deity, fairies, magic, myths

Neptune in its home sign of Pisces, allows Neptune to be expressed in all its glory, for the good and the ill.  It is pure Neptune.  So the same planet that rules transcendence and enlightenment, also rules mental illness and escapism.  And the same planet that rules the imagination, and artistic expression, also rules liars and con artists.  But the difference between the con artist and the Buddha, is the degree to which the essential quality of Neptune, its essential conscience and link to the divine, is expressed without the distortions of rationalization and selfishness.  Without what Buddhists refer to as the deception of self-cherishing.

The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer.
The Voice of the Silence

The last time Neptune was in Pisces (1848-1862), we saw the emergence of Spiritualism in the United States, and Spiritism in Europe.  The belief that man was able to communicate with the spiritual world was not new, but the modern movement began with two young girls in upstate New York, in March of 1848.  The Fox Sisters had moved into a home, that had been plagued with curious knocking sounds and a history of ‘haunting’ presences.  The girls boldly figured out a means to communicate with the knocking sounds, that responded with accurate answers to the questions they asked.  Within a very short period of time the news of their discovery spread like wildfire.  The girls became an instant sensation, and spiritualists and mediums emerged from every nook and cranny, Spirit Guides in attendance.  

The Fox Sisters communications, were seen as proof, that man is more than just their human bodies, that there is existence beyond the material world, and that ‘we’ do not ‘die’ when the body perishes.   With Neptune newly ensconced in Pisces the time was ripe for the exploration of supra-terrestrial realms.  By the time Mary Todd Lincoln was engaging in spirit circles in 1862, historian Jean Baker noted that prior to the Civil War, there were more spiritualists than abolitionists. 

In the years that followed the discovery of the Fox sisters, variations on mediumship proved to be popular, not only from a spiritual point of view, but from a profitable one as well.  The Fox sisters were able to earn a living... and before long there were many and sundry ‘entertainers’ who would follow their lead, the result of which was often fraud, and extravagant tableaus.       

While the Spiritualists were gathering en masse in upstate New York, Henry David Thoreau had just returned from Walden Pond, and was devoting himself to the exposition of all that he had surveyed while he had been living in his remote ideal.  In September of 1847, he left Walden, and began his manuscript, which was published in 1854 as “Walden, or Life in the Woods”

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.~ Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau, naturalist, philosopher, transcendentalist, anarchist... he was also one of the first ecologists.  He wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”  He believed in a spiritual state that transcends the physical, and that insight is gained through one’s inner or intuitive connection to the divine, rather than through religion.  “Heaven is under our feet,” he would write, “as well as over our heads.”

Thoreau was also an avid abolitionist and supporter of John Brown.  So was fellow transcendentalist, Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, published in 1852, which brought to light the conditions that African-americans were subject to under slavery.  Although it created many stereotypes of African Americans that have continued to this day, its popularity was instrumental in inspiring and widening support for the abolitionist movement in the Northern States. 

A Ride for Liberty~Eastman Johnson

It was between the years 1854 through 1859, while Neptune was in the sign of Pisces, that battles between pro-slavery and free state settlers in Kansas reached such a furor... that it eventually led to the American Civil War.  It was also during the 1850’s that the Underground Railroad reached  its height.  It was the zeitgeist of compassion, a stirring of feeling for the disempowered and the disenfranchised, and a belief in the redemption of the soul that lay the backdrop of the Neptune in Pisces era. 


Also, interestingly, was the unintentional saving of the whales.  Neptune rules the oceans and the water.  With the increased use of ‘kerosene’, which was developed in 1846, and the ability to ‘fractionate’ oil... oil and kerosene would soon replace our reliance on whale oil as a source of light and energy.  Neptune also rules oil.  So perhaps we should look for more issues and resolutions surrounding our present reliance on oil.

Diaspora: A series of revolutions in Europe in 1848, led to mass migrations of refugees to other countries, but particularly the industrial cities.  And in response to the Industrial Revolution, many inequities in factories were addressed at this time, concerning working conditions.  The first trade unions were formed in the 1850’s and 60’s.  So perhaps we should see more issues surrounding refugees, immigration, and workers’ rights.

So, what can we expect in 2011 through 2025?  It’s the principles we need to observe.  The desire for spiritual confirmation, that we are not our bodies, that there is more to life than just this one mere terrestrial existence.  And if we were to know God, or Spirit, where would we look?  What about conscience?  What about our relationship to nature, the earth, and to each other?  Neptune in Pisces inspires us to consider those among us who have the least, who are disempowered, disenfranchised, the vulnerable or disowned, and issues of inequality.  These were the questions that arose in the previous Neptune in Pisces era, an era of enlightened conscience.  We can expect now to see more of the same.