In a year bristling with chaos, ⁽¹⁾ let us take a few weeks out to celebrate the boundless fertility, order and serenity of Nature. As May begins, half the planets in the pantheon are in earth signs ⁽²⁾. When we connect the dots between their placements in the sky, the configurations they form are sublime.

What appears are a couple of equilateral triangles, the most harmonious pattern in astrology. The Sun, Jupiter and Pluto form a Grand Trine right on time for the luscious sabbat of Beltane.

This is a teaching about pure sensuality.

Sexy vs. Sensual

It is to Taurean experience that the word sensual most closely applies. (By the way, have you ever noticed that the word “sensual” gets pressed into service as a euphemism for “sexy” by people who seem to think “sexy” is naughty?⁽³⁾) Taurus, ruled by Venus, is hardwired to recognize the pleasure of having a physical body in a physical world.

High-level Taurii revere the sacred in all physical experience, and the closer to Nature, the better. If mosses and cows and oak trees are holy, how could the human body not be holy, too (to paraphrase Alan Ginsburg, who had Venus in Taurus)?

Beltane

In the pagan Wheel of the Year, the festival associated with Taurus in full blossom takes place when the Sun is at the middle degree of Taurus: Beltane in Celtic tradition, a.k.a. May Day. For countless millennia — until the sky-god religions came along and declared sex scary and bad ⁽⁴⁾ — this festival celebrated the Earth by celebrating young lovers cavorting in the sweet green grass. At Beltane, we are all queen of the May.

Mercury in Taurus (retrograde until the 22^nd) reaches the fullest expression of its earthiness around May 13^th, during its conjunction with Venus. They come together at 16 degrees, completing the trine between Jupiter and Pluto to make another Grand Trine.

All Systems Go

Jupiter is still in mutable earth – Virgo – where it is stationing direct on May 9^th at the fourteenth degree. This station represents a moment of re-orientation. The planet of big plans and grand ambitions, retrograde since the year began, has slowed down in recent weeks, almost to a halt;⁽⁵⁾ and is now pivoting… ready to plow ahead.

Do you feel a change of direction? Check your chart for the middle degrees of Virgo. The house and aspects signified will tell you what part of your life has been trying to grow, perhaps in fits and starts.

The uneven quality of our learning arc has been due to the fact that Saturn has been squaring this same area, off and on, impacting the same set of issues. It’s been pushing us to compress the same projects Jupiter has been trying to expand.

But the square is weakening. We may now start to feel the wind at our backs.

Notes

1 2016 is dominated by our efforts to stem (Saturn) the tide of chaos (Neptune) in many different forms; discussed in detail in this webinar.

2 In addition, three are in fire: Mars, Saturn and Uranus. Only one is in water, but it gets extra wetness points, because it’s Neptune, in the sign of its rulership, Pisces: the wateriest placement imaginable. There are no planets in air; the times are not favoring reason or logic (as anyone following the American presidential campaigns can attest.)

3 The language of astrological archetypes, by contrast, is extraordinarily exact.

Scorpio comes to mind as the sign most closely associated with sex, but what it’s really about is merger; which includes procreation and the mysteries that lead up to it. From the fact that Scorpio is a water sign we know that its meaning lies in the psychological and emotional realm. The physical act doesn’t mean much to Scorpio; the body is just a vehicle.

Leo, too, is associated with interpersonal heat; but neither is it about bodies, as Earth is, nor is it about merging, as Scorpio is. Leo craves the fun of it all: the pageantry of dating and courting.

Then there’s Libra, another relationship-oriented sign; the most purely romantic sign.

Libra is air, which means its interest lies in ideas or ideals—in this case, the ideal of union. If sex comes with the partnership, that’s part of the package; but what Libra is really after is the idea of love.

But don’t read these comments as being about merely, or even mostly, Sun signs. More relevant to sexual relating are the Moon, Venus and Mars, Juno and Vesta.

4 For a brief history on how this came about, see this article.

5  It’s an optical illusion, of course. Here’s AstroWiki‘s explanation.

Image sources:

Ama blessing a calf

Arthur Rackham: “Freya”

Alex Howitt, La Joconde au bain

Tightrope walker: María Ines Vallejos with Litsa Milonaki