Happy Taurus season! If your Aries season was chaotic or over-stimulating, this month is a good time to literally and figuratively slow down to stop and smell the roses. Taurus energy is characterized by practicality, perseverance, and sensuality. Taurus’ ruling planet Venus will enter Aries on May 2nd, which might lead some of us to make impulsive decisions in regards to relationships, even if we are trying to learn Taurean lessons about patience and dedication. In addition, Mercury will retrograde May 10th, encouraging us to look inward before communicating our truths with others. Jupiter will enter Aries the same day, marking a potent time for us to embrace our independence and prioritize our self-knowing as a means of expansion. Taurus energy is much more inclined to trust itself than to trust others, and the full moon in Taurus’ sister sign of Scorpio on the 16th will center energetic exchanges around depth of understanding and healthy boundaries. Once we have processed these lessons in staying grounded, the sun’s movement into Gemini on the 20th will bring opportunities to feel free from obligation and dedicate our energy to exploration and play.
ARIES
This month the sun will transit your 2nd house, marking an excellent time to ground the ideas that most excited you last season. If you are feeling renewed as you enter your new astrological year, this is a good time to metaphorically (or literally!) tend to your garden. Though you may prefer to stay in Energizer Bunny mode, Taurus season is here to teach you to stay practically-minded in achieving your many goals for the next year. Both Venus and Mars will enter your sign this month on the 2nd and the 24th, respectively, heightening your relational perception and encouraging clarity about what and who you want to dedicate your energy towards.
TAURUS
Happy You season, Taurus! Thank you for your tenacity, sensuality, practicality, and general no-B.S. attitude. This month the sun will transit your 1st house, bringing with it a new sense of purpose and self-awareness. Your ruling planet Venus will enter Aries on the 2nd, and you might be acting a bit more fiery than usual, which can be beneficial or cause conflict, depending on your attitude. The full moon in your sister sign Scorpio on the 16th will highlight lessons around reciprocity, intimacy, and trust; the way you carry this fiery Aries transit will affect whether these lessons are about building bonds or breaking them. Mercury will retrograde back into your sign on the 22nd, marking an opportunity to examine your communication with yourself.
GEMINI
Gemini energy and Taurus energy are about as different as it gets—Gemini embodies mutable air, and Taurus embodies fixed earth. Taurus season might feel a bit stifling initially, but there are great lessons to be learned about stability and persistence if you are willing to take them on. Your ruling planet Mercury will retrograde on the 10th, and you might be feeling a desire to retreat into yourself despite spring bringing so many opportunities to connect with others and learn new things. If you follow your intuition and focus on grounding, this season is a potent time to build material stability. Additionally, the sun will be transiting your 12th house, encouraging you to clear your subconscious and connect with your divinity.
CANCER
The sun will transit your 11th house this month, and you might be particularly focused on how you can provide support to your community without burning yourself out. Cancer energy can tend to be overly giving, and can even veer into codependency. By making Taurus-like decisions that focus on personal stability and strong boundaries, you will experience outcomes that benefit your community and humanity in sustainable, healthy ways. The full moon in fellow water sign Scorpio on the 16th will highlight the lessons you’re meant to learn in this arena. Love yourself first and let others do the same.
LEO
Taurus season is bound to feel very dynamic for your already dynamic self, and as the sun transits your 10th house you are being encouraged to make the necessary moves in your career or passions to further ground them on the physical plane. The sun (your ruling celestial body) will square Saturn the same day as the full moon in Scorpio, May 16th. This energy will hit everyone intensely, but might hit Leo placements strongest as you work through ego concerns, awareness of your public image, and your deeper, perhaps hidden emotional reactions to these facets of your life. If you are mindful of your communication and true to your word you will be energetically rewarded. If not, you might have to learn some harsh lessons.
VIRGO
This season’s Mercury retrograde on May 10th will affect you particularly strongly. Your ruling planet will spend the first half of the month transiting your 10th house, encouraging a focus on building stability in your career and public image through dedication and patience when communicating with others. Your naturally high-strung nature might feel particularly reactive during this transit, and learning when to speak your truth and when to hold your tongue will figure prominently in the growth you experience this month. Mercury will enter fellow earth sign Taurus on the 22nd, bringing a much more grounded energy to your interactions.
LIBRA
Libra and Taurus are both ruled by Venus, planet of receptive feminine energy and sensuality. Venus will enter your sister sign Aries on the 2nd, and you might feel particularly compelled to prioritize your individual needs (for once). Embracing this energy could be very rewarding if you can figure out how to wield it, particularly in regards to your partnerships and relationships. The sun’s movement into fellow air sign Gemini on the 20th will bring opportunities for intellectual pursuits, new friendships, and adventure. The new moon in Gemini on the 30th is an excellent time to set intentions for how you can show up most authentically and clear up (or clear away) harmful communication patterns.
SCORPIO
This season the sun will transit your 7th house, asking you to examine interpersonal relationship patterns as well as your relationship to beauty itself. Taurus is your sister sign, meaning that there are large thematic overlaps between your patterns, lessons, and ego concerns, but that your modes of operation can seem in opposition to one another. Taurus’ grounded nature can teach insecure or overly self-protective Scorpio energy to be less concerned with the thoughts and actions of others, and Scorpio energy can teach Tauruses to give their emotions credence and attention when they might prefer to avoid them. The full moon in your sign on the 16th will highlight material and energetic discrepancies along this axis, and hopefully for you will result in a deeper understanding of self and of the material world as it is.
SAGITTARIUS
After what was surely an action-packed Aries season, Taurus season is here to lovingly force you to examine your mental and physical health as a self-contained individual. When your ruling planet Jupiter enters fiery Aries on the 10th you might feel invigorated and unstoppable, but this energy should perhaps be tempered with a healthy dose of practical self-care and realistic expectation setting. The sun’s movement into your sister sign, Gemini, and the new moon in Gemini on the 30th both represent an inclination towards free thought and unrestricted play time. This period has great potential for reward if you have used the first half of the month to ground your energy.
CAPRICORN
The sun will transit fellow earth sign Taurus this month in your 5th house of individual creativity, love, and passion. If you’ve been feeling a lack of romance in your life, or lackluster in general, this month is a good opportunity to ground yourself in your sensuality and affirm your own beauty and power in realms outside of the workplace. What would you pursue if you could be purely creative outside of societal expectations? Making time for these pursuits this month could lead you down interesting new paths.
AQUARIUS
This month might feel like two very distinct periods to your highly perceptive nature. Taurus is also a fixed sign that seeks stability and clarity, relying on what is knowable vs. what can be intuited. The sun will be transiting your 4th house though, which is a very intuitively inclined house that encourages loving more fully in ways that are not necessarily explicit. The full moon in fixed sign Scorpio on the 16th is an excellent time to examine the ways you do and don’t show up in your home and family life, and perhaps become more emotionally aware and adaptable in this arena.
PISCES
Mars will continue to transit your 1st house for the majority of the month, highlighting issues around aggression, perseverance, and passion. You might find that these examinations are particularly related to communication and intellectual pursuits as the sun transits your 3rd house. Pisces is stereotypically one of the least aggressive signs, but this can take on a negative energy when Pisceans use their sweetness to manipulate things in their favor. Be honest with yourself when you feel upset with yourself or others, and this season will help you become a more honest communicator. The new moon in Gemini on the 30th is an excellent time to release toxic patterns in this arena and embrace methods of being that are more straightforward.
illustration by Artemesia Trapeze