The Moon will begin a new phase with the Sun at 7°4′ of fixed earth sign Taurus on April 27, 2025 at 12:31 pm West Coast time. This lunation comes just a few days before Beltane, May 1 and 2 . Beltane is the midpoint between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It’s the early onset of summer, as days are growing longer. Beltane, also known as May Day, is a celebration of the fertility of Gaia and all of Her creatures.
The symbol for Taurus is a circle with a little crescent Moon on top, looking like the head of a bull. It’s also a symbol of wholeness and receptivity. Taurus, ruled by Venus, loves physical comfort and beautiful objects. When the Moon’s in Taurus, it’s time to take in good food, good music and art, good company. It’s time to tend to one’s finances, to stock the pantry and fridge, to plant flowers and vegetables. Funny how the bull or cow is Taurus’ totem animal as what comes out of these animals’ behinds is fertilizer for the earth.
For all of its desire to indulge in pleasure and comfort, Taurus is, after all, a fixed sign. A Taurean personality is stereotypically reliable, immovable and stubborn, even resistant to change. Plants thrive in soil that is stable. But for a person, too much stasis can make someone just plain stuck. The trick for a Taurean personality is to know when to keep one’s heels dug in and when to break up the metaphorical clods of dirt to allow something new to grow.
Taurus, with its staying power, is ruled by Venus, making a Moon in Taurus a time to luxuriate in love of self, love of others, love of possessions. This may sound frivolous, but it really isn’t. In the natural zodiac, the first sign, Aries, is about the instinctiveness of birth. Taurus comes next, and after birth any creature is focused primarily on securing the means to survive. Taurus expresses the desire to acquire and hold onto resources whether that means material wealth or intangible things like knowledge and connections.
Ancient astrology developed around a system of dignities and debilities with planets observed to be symbolically more or less at home in particular signs. The Moon is said to be “exalted” in Taurus, like a guest of honor. That may seem odd because the Moon is the fastest moving visible body in the sky, changing signs every two to three days, while Taurus is unyielding. The paradox here is that the fast-moving Moon finds ease when traveling in the steadiest of signs.
The most striking transiting aspect of April 27 is an opposition in play between Mars and Pluto. (The opposition was exact on April 24 and 25 .) Mars at 4° of fixed fire sign Leo and Pluto at 3° of fixed air sign Aquarius are making a tense t-square with the New Moon. The energy of a fixed t-square is the exact opposite of the ease and relaxation of a Taurus Moon. No one’s willing to budge.
Mars’ domains include anger and fighting. Pluto is about power, both within and projected outward. Add a tense square to the Moon, and emotions are likely to be volatile if not explosive. Yet everything in astrology is multivalent, carrying many different possibilities. Mars is also courage. Leo is creative individual expression. Mars in Leo is like the warrior spirit necessary to face off against abuses of power and anyone trying to limit our individual and shared freedom (Aquarius). Under a Mars/Pluto opposition, there’s the possibility, with focused attention, to dredge up one’s own plutonian psychological shadow material and to face it, bravely.
Taurus is good medicine for the Mars/Pluto opposition. The whole month of Taurus season (April 20 to May 20 ) is optimal for spiritual practice with the earth element. “Earth is both womb and tomb and the recycler of everything,” writes Ivo Dominguez, Jr. in The Four Elements of the Wise, a book I revisit on a regular basis. Our bones are made of the minerals of the earth, and to dust each of our bodies will one day return. Reflecting on this fact as often as possible is humbling and encourages a sense of surrender to life.
Grounding and centering is key to practice with the earth element. One way is to, daily, breathe for some minutes with awareness of the bottoms of one’s feet, standing or walking. This naturally focuses attention on “being here now,” mindful of the breath in the body, not worrying about the future or lamenting the past. Grounding and centering is an active way to remember certain truths, including the fact that one’s own individual well-being is not to be taken for granted.
No matter how much the earth shakes, shimmies, and slides, it reliably returns to a state of repose, making the earth beneath one’s feet the ultimate resource, a power be trusted, and revered.
Blessings for the Taurus New Moon and 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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