The Sun enters Taurus II The Lingam Yoni, on April 30, 2023 at 10:35 am EDT — the region of the sky that the Hellenistic era associated with the Horae or "hours", the spirits of the seasons and the changes of time that bring about shifting weather conditions from snow to rain to sun; shifts in plant behavior, from leaf to flower to fruit; and shifts in animal behavior from shelter to adventure. All things have their due season and time, and this is the season for honoring the spirits that set the times for all activity.
The descending Chaldean Order assigns this decan to the Moon — the very agent and instigator of swift-moving change. It's often in this season (at my address, anyway) that planting begins and the wild flowers start blooming. The leaves have been on the trees for a few days, and now the ground starts to turn green as fresh growth pokes through the leaf-litter. A translation of the Sufi poet Rumi goes something like this: the rose is tearing off her gown // now the lilac bows to the cherry, // "come walk with me in this meadow." // The green ones are returning. // Something of that energy now infuses the world — the return of the green ones from their long winter sleep.
The ancient Greeks of Alexandria gave this decan to the celebration of the Horae, a trio of goddesses whose name means "the hours" but who watched over the seasons of the year. Today we tend to characterize their number as four — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter — but in truth they're pretty variable based on location: my wife and I, in speaking about our local seasons, tend to identify around ten, starting in spring: Reddened Maples, Mud, Flowers, Lettuces, Fruit, Squash, Halloween, Holidays, Cold and Miserable, Snowbound, Gloomy. Sounds cheerful, right? What are the seasons where you live? Are they goddesses? Gods? a mix of the two? Or are they cheerful dwarves, singing "hi ho!" on their way home from work?
T. Susan Chang the Tarotist and co-host of the Fortune's Wheelhouse podcast, has noted that this decan is associated with the three of pentacles in Tarot — a card that shows merchant, architect, and priest in conversation to achieve the goals of a large and on-going project, too — the idea that decisions must be made now, in order to achieve greatness.
Austin Coppock chose to name this decan The Lingam-Yoni, after the abstract but sculptural symbols of the penis and vagina used in Hindu mythology and ritual. Often carved of stone or wood, they are visual emblems of the god and goddess Shiva and Shakti or Parvati, and represent the life force of the whole universe. Without the dance of sex and sexlessness, the dance of interaction and exclusion, the dance of consent and denial, the relationship between personal agency and uncontrollable desire — these symbols suggest, there is no cosmos. It's easy to suggest that this is the part of the sky that's concerned with making cosmic sex-jokes... but in a larger sense these ten days are less about the interplay of masculine and feminine, than about the idea of consent and agency. Not every hole wants to be filled; not every hole that wants to be filled wants to be filled right now, or with a specific phallus. Agency here is far more fundamental than the masculine-feminine dichotomy — and it's best remembered that attraction, desire, self-management, and autonomy are all in play... and are all play, on a cosmic scale. When autonomy and agency are respected, the Bull of Heaven is quiescent. When roused to anger, the Bull stomps his foot in a way that makes all the dishes rattle in their cabinets. Oh... you didn't know you were standing in a china shop, did you? Surprise!
The dodeks, or twelfth-parts, of the middle decan of Taurus are associated with Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. This is the analysis and study of a potential sexual or romantic partner, the evaluation of them as a good and marketable partner and the determination of agency — "do you wanna?" "I do." — followed by the actual consummation of the deed. What follows is the wisdom and insight that emerges from the quenching of the fire in the loins, and the languid rest that follows the activity.
Planetary Placements
Mars is just above the eastern horizon in a day chart at 10:30 am local time for me, empowering Jupiter and Saturn and the Sun, but limiting the potential for Venus and Mars. With only the Moon below the horizon, we may expect to have a mass of anxieties and seething emotional concerns around issues connected to our extended family and friends and community — while major public events play out on a stage where we have little control.
Mars in the first house is a triplicity ruler, but only by night; in this chart he's the off-duty officer of the watch hanging around the bridge, hoping something exciting will happen. In the second decan of Cancer, The Walled Garden, he's about as useless as a clothed body builder in a bonsai show — he's got nothing to show off, and moving around a diminutive tree is beneath his abilities, and by and large there's nothing to excite or interest him here. Trouble is about the only thing he can stir up — and such trouble is likely to get incited by his rowdy friend Uranus, with whom he shares a nearly-exact sextile. This is a terrible ten days for us to let ourselves get riled up or to say, "you think that's cool, here — hold my beer and watch this."
The Moon is in Virgo in the 13th Mansion — a private sex-club called "The Wings" filled with wonderfully kinky people enjoying themselves in an environment of entertaining decadence. She's about to form a trine with the Sun in Taurus. The sun and Moon occupy decans in an arrangement called mutual reception, allowing the Sun to see your friends with more analytic yet intuitive understanding, and permitting to the Moon to shine a clear bright light upon familial matters and neighborhood gossip. Many friendships that are deeply intimate may shift toward a less-familiar acquaintance-ship in the next ten days; and many acquaintances may deepen toward a holier richness. The Moon almost invites the formation of friendships-with-benefits on the eve of the modern Beltane (c.f. "Goshen Maying"), but the separating opposition from Saturn suggests that it may take a long and winding negotiation to get there, or to get out of it once begun; larger precautions against undesired pregnancies are recommended.
The South Node and the Lot of Fortune are both in Scorpio — while both of these positions in astrology are not physical, their effects are real and observable. The South Node here indicates that it is secrets, and the speaking of secrets, that keeps us from our desires and damages our access to entertainments and makes family mealtimes unpleasant — that get us in trouble with our children — that damage our standing with young people around us. However, the Lot of Fortune invites us to consider the other side of secrecy — that of revealing information like little treasures or proffered gifts. Be cautious of using words as weapons in sociable company these next ten days; but treat your entertainments as a means by which you give out valuable stories and physical mementoes — give surprise gifts, not wounds, for your entertainment.
Pluto the amplifier is in the first decan of Aquarius the Mark of Exile — empowering the worker who knows what to do much more than the lord or lady that claims ownership. For the last several years, the planet whose powers seem to be connected to force-multipliers of various sorts has been in a place that empowers landlords, proprietors, owners, and managers — but the balance of power is shifting significantly in favor of the workers. It's going to be 5-10 years of back-and-forth between capital and labor... but remember that the tide is going to go all the way out before it comes back in again. The sextile to Neptune will add to this sense of washing-away of norms or of the empowerment of working class folks, as well, while the square to Jupiter creates unresolvable political tensions as legislators and executives try to ignore their way out of the problem or pass punitive but unenforceable rules.
Saturn and Neptune occupy the first and last decans of Pisces, holding the extremes against the middle. Saturn is the planet of tradition and structure, and squats in The Labyrinth like a minotaur prowling for Theseus, determined to destroy any opposition to "the old ways" or the "historic norms". On the other side of Pisces (the sign that is practically the poster child for the indecisive "on the one hand... on the other hand..." sorts of arguments) is Neptune in The Cup of Blood, easily diluting and washing away any argument or policy position based exclusively on dogma unsupported by fact. It's an explosive combination, unlikely to be resolved before February 2026 when the two planets meet in Aries' first decan The Two Bladed Axe: efforts at finding compromise or common ground will occasionally come, but are unlikely to be completely resolved. Look for challenges and controversies in the next ten days in transportation, higher education, and hotel accommodations.
Jupiter in the decan of Aries called The Burning Rose offers some gracious diplomacy and moments of lovely service in the coming ten days, but with a tension. Ever read one of those "feel good" stories like this? A group of customers chip in a few hundred dollars each to buy a loyal and responsible employee in an essential role a cheap used car so he doesn't have to walk ten hours to work each way? There's going to be a number of stories like that in the next ten days, efforts to show how good employers and wealthy customers can be to the dedicated workers. It's not going to go so well for the writers and publishers of these stories; the blowback, as they say, is likely to be explosive and difficult.
The eleventh house and Taurus is where most of the significant action of the next ten days is centered — we have a Mercury cazimi on May 1 at 7:28 pm EDT, along with the Sun's annual conjunction with Uranus on May 9 at 3:51 pm EDT — and a Solar Eclipse on May 5 at 1:22 pm EDT. This ingress chart shows that it's mostly friends, professional associates, and work colleagues that are going to be caught up in a mass of sudden communications, unexpected upheavals, and challenging experiences — the tension between workplace on the one hand and home and family on the other is likely to ramp up significantly, even while the lines of communication between self and significant others (business and romantic partners, spouses, and even rivals) are never likely to be clearer or more open. Respect transparency, openness, and agency in the next ten days, and recognize that your own secrets (and shame around those secrets) are likely to be a cause of pain and trouble — but that you can get through this. The truth will come out: better it come from you, through honesty and (where appropriate) regret and apology.
Venus is in Gemini, where she's peregrine in the third decan The Executioner's Sword. Ordinarily, I think of this position as one of little dignity, especially cadent in the twelfth house. Yet she's in a place where she shares mutual reception with Mercury in the eleventh house in Taurus, granting her additional powers — and she also sits (in the current sky) on the shoulders of the constellation Orion like a helmet... or a head. In my conception of astrology, this grants her an unusual and unexpected dignity and power. There will be a number of stories of women standing up for themselves (and for other women) in the next ten days, communicating their rage and anger and doing their best to protect one another from harm. Yes, this includes cis women standing up for trans women, and fighting back against controlling men in their lives. The square to Neptune suggests a certain amount of self-serving criticism of accepting help from "perverts and groomers" in US news — but pay attention to the main story, which is largely about resistance to the excesses of patriarchy in prisons, hospitals, law courts, and legislatures.
Horoscopes by Rising Sign
The horoscopes of the second decan of any sign are open to Patreon subscribers only. If you'd like to receive the horoscopes for the third decan of Taurus, you can sign up for my mailing list.
Colophon
I have a Patreon account for those who want to support this column as it continues its third year. Those funds support artists, artisans and thinkers that I regard as contributing to the well-being of the world. You can also buy me a Ko-fi in $3 increments; any column I write after receiving a Ko-Fi donation will be open to the public). You can also schedule an appointment with me using Accuity Scheduling, for a natal or solar return consultation.
If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.
I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts. I also use Hugh Tran's Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.
I use Christopher Warnock's The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock's 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.
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