PLANETARY ENERGIES

In this issue:

High Spring, Passion, and Finding Our Way

Beltane symbolism and rituals

Beltane this year

The Planets May 1—June 21

 

The Merry Month of May

 

“All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual.”                          Honore de Balzac

 

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”                        Albert Camus

 

 

High Spring, Passion, and Finding Our Way

 

I walked Balthazar the dog in the Savernake Forest yesterday, on a beautiful spring morning, bright sun shafting through the oaks and beeches. The Savernake is one of England’s ancient forests, and although now a tenth of the size it was in the eighteenth century, it is still big enough to imagine getting somewhat lost in, and to find unexpected marvels – follies, monuments to kings, and wild animals. In Tudor times the Savernake was a hunting ground much favored by Henry VIII, who met his third wife, Jane Seymour, at Wolf Hall, home of the hereditary wardens of the forest, and a hop, skip and a jump from my house.

On this bouncy spring morning, a deer ran across the path a hundred yards ahead of us, and Balthazar ran after it. It was twice his size and anyway, he’s not a hunting dog and I wasn’t worried he would harm it, but called him back anyway. He came, most reluctantly, and the next second I understood why. I was now at the place where the deer had crossed the path, and the air was still heavy with its warm musk. I walked through a patch of hot, scented air that made me almost dizzy. It carried all the energy of mating, sex, and desire. It smelled of the earth, of spring, and of instinct immune to the mediations of intellect and morality. It stopped me in my tracks and made me marvel.

Sometime later the dog became excited again, and this time I didn’t see the deer, but walked through the hot wall of scent just the same, so I knew it had run through just minutes before. The smell was so strong that even an untrained nose like my own could follow the deer and trace its fast running journey through the trees. The smell got stronger and at this point Balthazar ran off the path, into the woodland, and disappeared. It was too much for him to resist.

It’s taken me a long time to understand how my dog operates, but after nine years, there are some things I know. One of which is that if he gets distracted on a walk, he will eventually return to the last place he saw me. Not where I would logically be going if I carried on walking, but the last place we had been together. So I waited, and called him every thirty seconds or so, and ten long worried minutes later he came tearing through the trees and up to my feet, managing to look both wild-eyed and sheepish at the same time.

So this got me thinking about losing our way and finding our way home, about the power of passion to enliven and also to distract us. And often, when an urge, a desire, an oh-so-attractive whatever, has diverted us from our path, the best way to get back on track is to return –either literally or in our imagination — to the last place we felt clear, to remember the last time we felt connected to the soul level of inner knowing.

But, oh, passion is a difficult thing to write about: like anything powerful in life, it is fraught with paradox. Some passions do indeed lead us to our fulfillment, others distract and deplete us. Campbell’s dictum to “follow your bliss” should always come with the caveat that bliss alone is not enough to make wise choices, yet sometimes, it is all that we have. Bliss, passion, and our freedom to make our own mistakes can lead us into folly, but that folly can also be the source of renewal and the unexpected opening to truth. So there’s no easy answer, no simple recipe for when or when not to follow passion, but at Beltane, the instincts, the land, and the pattern of the ages all encourage us to put desire above restraint, sensibility above sense, and to answer the call of our longing, wherever it may lead.

 

Beltane: Symbolism & Rituals

Beltane, May Eve, is the most glorious of the ancient fire festivals  and persists to the present day as May Day or the Spring Holiday. Historically the largest festival of the ceremonial year, at Beltane we celebrate the blossoming of spring, and the fertility of land and livestock. The name Beltane is thought to have meant bright or sacred fire, (bealltainn in Gaelic) and on this night the hilltops would be ablaze with huge bonfires, and the woods and fields ablaze with the fires of love.

Beltane occurs exactly at the opposite end of  the ceremonial year to Samhain/Hallowe’en, and celebrates life as Samhain honors death. Beltane is the time of conception, of the physical beginning of new life. It is the most physically passionate of the ancient festivals. Beltane falls midway in the annual passage of the Sun through the sign of Taurus, ruled by Venus, the planet of sexual love and sensual experience. At 15 degrees of Taurus this energy is ripe and charged for activation.

Like Mardi Gras, Beltane functioned as a ritualized antidote to the rules and laws of relationship and sexuality that keep society well-ordered. These rules, if adhered to rigidly, can cause depression, aggression, and general malaise. At Beltane the rules were lifted, in honor of the burgeoning, expansive energy of springtime, and the primitive need to ensure the fertility of the fields by sacrificing the individual personality to acts of sacred, impersonal sexuality.

Beltane was also a time when new bonds could be formed as inhibitions loosened, inspired by the blossoming, heart-opening atmosphere of full spring. Beltane/May Day is the juncture of the year hardwired into our DNA as the strongest moment of life-giving lust. Children conceived at Beltane were considered to be special, produced from the union of two people meeting the god and goddess within each other, and not just the temporal man and woman. The Maypole is more than just a phallic symbol: the twining of the ribbons around the pole evokes the DNA spiral, and symbolizes the eternal round of life.

May Day is still a festival in many countries in the world, and often associated with freedom and with labor (this was the time when hands would have been hired to work in the fields). Beltane coincided with the moving of livestock to summer grazing areas, an activity that took people out of their homes and into the woods and fields. Modern day equivalents for this include planting frost-sensitive flowering plants and crops, moving winter clothes to the back of the closet, buying new furnishings after the Equinoctial spring clean, and spending as much time as you can outside in the countryside.

Here are some ritual ideas for a modern day version of Beltane, taken from old ceremonies: Light a fire/candles, and let the smoke purify you, (you can also use sage or incense for this). Dance clockwise around the fire, praying for fertility (of body and/or mind). If you are attracted to someone, this might be a good time to talk to them about your feelings and see if they are reciprocated. Whether your relationship is new or old, it’s a great time to go with your beloved into the countryside for a day, or better still a camping  trip that allows you to sleep outdoors and perhaps build a campfire.  And this is an ideal time for a party.

 

Beltane This Year

Beltane is usually celebrated on either April 30 (May Eve), or on May 1. Before there were calendars, Beltane was signaled by the blooming of the hawthorn (also known as the may). And traditionally, the cross-quarter days were celebrated when the Sun was at 15 degrees of the fixed signs, in this case, Taurus, ruled appropriately by Venus, the goddess of love, fertility, and abundance.

This year the Beltane cross-quarter day falls on May 5, and we also have a New Moon in Taurus the same day. So this is a great time to celebrate Beltane this year, and is a highly activated period for seeding new creative projects, for planting literal seeds in the land, and for establishing new relationships, especially sexual and romantic ones.

 

The Planets March 21—May 1

Overview: Stations and Retrogrades, Changes of Sign

Lots going on this month. Comings and goings, but mostly good, with several planets moving into signs in which they are happier than the places they’ve recently been – Venus moves into Taurus, Mercury into Gemini, and Mars into Leo. Saturn stations before turning direct, Jupiter does the opposite a week later. In June Pluto retreats back into Sagittarius for five and a half months. At the end of May both Mercury and Neptune go retrograde on the same day. Fog city.

Neptune is conjunct the North Node of the Moon throughout this phase, which could show up as a spiritualization of some collective matter – I’m thinking Tibet being more center stage than it has been for decades, as an example of this. Chiron is also close by, and so this suggests that deep healing is possible, for nations/tribes as well as for individuals. If 20-24 degrees of Aquarius/Leo is active in your chart, then something deep could be coming up for review and healing at this time. Get help if you need it, and try to allow enough time to focus on this, because it could be a breakthrough time.

There are no exact aspects between any of the mid and outer planets throughout this coming period apart from a potentially inspiring sextile between Jupiter and Uranus on May 21. Saturn and Pluto are within orbs of being in trine, and are pulled together by Venus on May I. The aspect between Saturn and Pluto is almost exact on May 3 but not quite, and then Saturn moves forwards and pulls away definitively from retreating Pluto. This trine has been very potent over the past year, and most recently for people with early degrees of earth signs active in their charts. They’ve been experiencing a lot of activity, much of it good, but some of it also challenging. This will continue to be felt through the first two weeks of May.

Details

Thursday, May 1: Beltane. And a passionate day, with Venus having just moved into Taurus, its own sign, and immediately making a trine to Pluto, followed later by a trine to Saturn. Thus Venus activates the energetic influence of the Saturn Pluto trine and again activates the early degrees of the earth signs. This is all very supportive of sensuality and bodily pleasures, and of making concrete plans that for some may be quite big. In addition, the Moon conjuncts Uranus, sextiles Jupiter and trines Mars. Should be a pretty sexy and/or creative day.

(rest of the next six week’s astrological details for subscribers only)

 

Meanwhile, the cycle of the seasons continues regardless, and is there for us to marvel at and enjoy. So make the most of Beltane and the merry month of May by connecting with your passions, and enjoying the blessings of your life.

With love,

Lara

April 30 2008