April 30 brings us a Taurus New Moon Solar Eclipse at 1:28 p.m. on the West Coast. It will be visible only in parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
When either a New or Full Moon occurs at a part of the sky close to the lunar nodes – the invisible points where the Moon’s orbit intersects with the Earth’s apparent path around the Sun – that’s an eclipse. It’s a super-charged New or Full Moon. Between fall 2021 and fall 2023, the lunar nodes are in the signs of Taurus and Scorpio, and that’s where all of the eclipses will be as well.
Ancient astrologers developed a system of dignities such that the Moon is said to be exalted, like an honored guest, in the sign of Taurus. One interpretation goes like this: the Moon has to do with our emotions and our needs for security and safety. Taurus, the fixed earth sign, is about stability, reliability, the resources we amass and conserve. Following after Aries, the sign of survival, Taurus is about having enough. It is a place of comfort, and so the Moon is said to be happy there.
If you have planets at five to 15 degrees of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius), you may feel the April 30 eclipse most intensely. Everyone’s natal chart has one of the 12 houses in Taurus. The signs fall in different houses depending on the time and location of one’s birth. Houses symbolize places, terrains. They correlate to general areas of activity (such as family, health, work and so on) and also themes within each of our psyches. At each lunation, we can look to see which houses the Sun and Moon will occupy in our own birth chart. That’s where the action is and where we can focus our attention.
I love it each month when the Moon passes through Taurus because in my chart, the Moon then graces the Ninth House, which is also the place of my “midheaven,” the high part of a chart reflecting career and mission. The Ninth House is all about higher education, religion, philosophy, internationalism and even publishing. I’m thinking of this April 30th eclipse like a punctuation point for my focus on spiritual study and public writing.
Take a look at where the sign of Taurus lies in your chart and you’ll see what themes are most activated for you at this time.
Taurus and its opposite number Scorpio, which is fixed water, have in common that they are both about sensuality, whatever that means to you. They also reflect opposite ends of the planting cycle: seeding versus decomposition, both having to do, essentially, with resources.
The glyph for Taurus is a circle with a little crescent Moon on top, like a pair of horns. That makes sense as the Bull is a totem of Taurus. When I think of Taurus, mid-spring, I think of what is the most essential resource for any farmer or gardener. It is soil, enriched with manure and compost. Good soil is like gold. So is knowledge of how to use earthly abundance, the fertile, yucky stuff that makes food and flowers grow. In this light, bullshit is a good thing!
Taurus is a curious sign because astrologers associate it with money and personal possessions and also with inner resources, the security of self-esteem. Society tells us, on one hand, that we should not base our self-worth on having material possessions as they are transitory. Yet most societies also connect status hierarchies with who owns a lot of things. We know from psychology that until we are fed and materially safe, we cannot attend to our inner resources. Our outer and inner resources are somehow entwined.
In springtime especially, one skillful use of resources involves sorting: keeping what’s useful and recycling or donating the rest. We now call this decluttering. It’s an ideal Taurean project. Taurus’ guiding planet is Venus, the bright star of beauty, love and also values. What is worth keeping but not hoarding?
At the April 30 eclipse, the Moon and Sun will be conjoined with Uranus, which has been in Taurus since 2018 and will be there until 2026. Uranus is the planetary force of instability and unexpected disruptions. Our whole planet Earth is feeling it. But on a personal level, the Moon’s conjunction with Uranus at the eclipse suggests that we might also be in for some lightbulb moments in the realms of our feelings and values.
At this lunation, the Moon and Sun are also in a facilitating sextile aspect with action-driven Mars, currently in the creative and intuitive sign of Pisces. That’s a good invitation to hitch whatever kind of innovative project you have in mind at this time to the potency of the eclipse. It is said not to start anything new precisely at the time of an eclipse, but rather, to contemplate and wait a few days to take outward action.
Mars at this time is part of a cluster of planets in Pisces. We are still in the glow of the April 12 conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces, which hadn’t happened in 166 years. At the April 30 eclipse, Venus and Jupiter – the planets of love and opportunity — will be tightly conjoined in Pisces.
That is highly auspicious, coming a day before May 1, May Day, or Beltane in pagan traditions. The word Beltanemeans bright fire. It is the mid-point between our March equinox in the north and the June solstice, making it the harbinger of summer. Gardens are lush, and we celebrate the love and delight of everything growing so green and fertile while the Sun’s in Taurus. And there, the Moon will be, too.
Bright blessings for the April 30 New Moon eclipse and the fires of Beltane!
~ Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
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