This May could prove a little schizophrenic with the month beginning with strong Earth energies and ending with an accent on the Air Element with the Sun having moved into Gemini, the Sign of the Twins, and a Stellium of three planets in the Mutable Air Sign. The twins can be a split personality, even multiple personalities, all reminiscent of the 1963 Lou Christie pop song ‘Two Faces Have I’.
Yes this month of May, sometimes referred to as the ‘merry month of May’, can have its ups and downs. But what month, what week and even now what day, doesn’t have its roller coaster of ups and downs?
The month begins with a strong emphasis on the Earth Grand Trine that has been influencing us since mid-November. We may be looking at planting our seeds of new projects, moving things along, and all with a solid, even plodding, manner. We are looking at taking care of details, focusing on the specifics, all the while keeping our eye on the ball and concentrating on the most meaningful and important facets of our lives.
We are still balancing our personal interests with the needs of other people. We can use people we trust as a solid sounding board, helping to temper our enthusiasm, restraining our impulsiveness and fine-tuning our approach so that haste does not make waste.
This balance, sometimes a push pull, between our personal needs and those of others could be stressed on the 5th when Mercury opposes Saturn on the day of the Scorpio Full Moon. We could feel a little down, hampered by our responsibilities and putting on blinders to see only that which we want to see and only that which lies straight ahead of us.
While we might feel a little irritated, even aggravated, by other people’s input, such detached perspective could keep us from stepping in it, overdoing things or heading off with great confidence but little patience. Otherwise, we might be lemmings heading the parade and moving quickly towards the precipice. We have to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate whether our desires are truly meaningful and self-fulfilling.
This is also a time when we need to look at our resources and, more importantly, be resourceful in regard to our involvements, our finances and our plans for the future.
We may do a major Spring cleaning in this first week of May, getting rid of stuff that no longer works for us and creating room for things that are more in synch with our essential selves. It would be wise for us to note what is going on in the world at large, for the influence of Scorpio that we feel around the 5th of May could give us a heads-up regarding energies and areas we might have to more significantly address from this Autumn period of 2012 through 2014 when Saturn transits Scorpio.
The mid-May period can be a time when we are feeling at the top of our game. It is a time when Nature is in full blossom, and we may be feeling something similar within ourselves.
On the 9th, Mercury exits Aries and enters Taurus adding greater influence to the Earth Grand Trine and joining the Sun in its transit of the Fixed Earth Sign. Mercury sextiles Neptune on the 10th, Mercury trines Mars on the 13th and Mercury trines Pluto on the 14th. Also on the 13th, the Sun conjuncts Jupiter. On the 16th, Mars trines Pluto.
This mid-May period can be a time when we are considering purchases and justifying them as necessary. We may be enthusiastic and confident, feeling able to meet any challenge and not merely survive but thrive even during these volatile times. If we avoid rushing the river, we could strategize a best practices approach, come up with the most effective and expeditious ways of achieving our goals, and have the focus in mind to convince even the loudest naysayer that our intentions and our plans are well-considered with a strong hint of brilliance.
Our thinking can be incisive and we can develop strategies to accomplish our goals concentrating both on the necessary details and on the bigger picture. This mid-May period allows us to hone our plans and focus our intentions.
Even if we have felt discouraged or blocked as a result of changing conditions over the past few years, mid-May has us with a fire in our belly and a focus in our mind. We can engage brain and brawn to get a great deal done.
It is essential that we always keep in mind the necessary tempering process. Even though we can move things ahead almost effortlessly, we have to look and not leap, evaluate, step cautiously and move forward all the while working with peripheral vision and being aware of the circumstances operating around us and mindful of the opportunities that can arise out of the blue.
This month can be largely paradoxical, with us easily gliding along in early May period and hitting bumps towards the latter part of May. It may seem as if this month is like a weather vane, whichever way the wind blows. And much of it can be due to the transits of the personal planets — the Sun, Mercury and Venus.
The personal planets transits through Taurus reinforce the Earth Grand Trine and provide opportunities for us to be highly effective and incredibly productive and strongly confident with optimism and enthusiasm to match.
The latter part of May increases the Gemini influence and with it a Mutable Sign T-Square as the Gemini-transiting planets square Mars in Virgo and square Neptune in Pisces.
On the 20th of May, the Sun enters Gemini and with it a Solar Eclipse at the time of the Gemini New Moon that day.
During this latter part of May, the hypesters and hipsters may be out in full regalia, selling their wares, enticing the unaware of prospects and potentialities that seem oh so good in presentation but have nothing truly to back them up. Like a Hollywood set, the appearance may be lovely and seem substantial but the truth is that the façade is being held up by two by fours with no real substance or depth associated with it. We should be wary of promises made and the intentions of those making the promises. This time could be a time when people are ‘talking the talk but unable to walk their talk.’
Although we might see a wide palette of possibilities, we could also feel either as though our hopes are dashed or that we are in a state of perpetual confusion during the latter part of May. The Sun squares Neptune on the 23rd. Mercury enters Gemini on the 24th, and Mercury squares Neptune on the 27th.
Although we still have the influence of the Earth Grand Trine, there is now increasing static with the liability of misunderstandings and misperceptions. We may still want to push ahead with changes and new ways of expressing ourselves thanks to the Gemini-transiting planets sextiling Uranus. But the T-Square of the Gemini-transiting planets first squaring Neptune, later squaring Mars, can indicate both a lack of clarity with a high likelihood of confusion initially and then a tendency to gloss over specifics and negate important details later on.
These two aspects of this Mutable Sign T-Square can serve as a prescription for disaster, or at the very least for badly stubbing our toes and a severe liability especially from the latter part of May through the first week of June.
As I wrote at the beginning of this piece, this month of May can be reminiscent of the Lou Christie song ‘Two Faces Have I’, the chorus of which goes:
‘Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry’
Awareness, mindfulness and due diligence will go a long way for us to maintain balance, do what we can do and not get sidetracked by specious promises or alluring possibilities.
This month is paradoxical but provides the energies for us to move things forward and to hone our abilities of making our way across the balance beam of the vagaries of daily life.
May 2012… some times Merry, some times Not…
