The Sun enters Taurus II, the realm of the Horae, on 30 April 2022 at 4:47 am EDT — just a few days out from his annual conjunction with Uranus the revolutionary. And yet the chart itself is a night chart, with the Sun below the horizon just about twelve hours out from an eclipse and the dark of the Moon. Austin Coppock called this decan The Lingam-Yoni, correctly in my mind identifying it with autonomy, sensuality, personal empowerment, and the immediacy of physical encounter and immanence…

But it also has, through its association with the Horae, the idea of “everything in its proper season.” These ancient Greek spirits were thought to rule the hours of the day, and the seasons of the year. They acted as a reminder that it’s pointless to want berries in January or to try to collect the harvest in March, or to try to lay bricks at midnight — these things have their proper place in the seasons of the year and the day’s labor. Similarly, calling your business associates on their personal cellphone at 4:00 in the morning (their time) is more likely to result in a canceled contract than a favorable re-negotiation.

The administrator of this decan is the Moon, and we’re less than 24 hours from the Moon’s ingress to this place, during her cazimi, which is also her New Moon, and her solar eclipse — all around, we’re going to see an enormous amount of power exercised by the powers of night this time around, as the Sun gets blotted out at around 4:41 pm this same afternoon. Best visible from the Southern Hemisphere, particularly South America and Antarctica, it’s happening close to Uranus in Taurus — and it’s entirely possible that this should be best summarized in a little recognized in the title of William Cronon’s 1983 book about English colonization in the Northeast US and Canada, their encounters with Native people. The book’s title? Changes in the Land. The Eclipse lasts 1 hour 56 minutes, resulting in a duration of effects of not quite two years. I am not predicting a partial melting or the slide of all or part of the West Antarctic ice sheet into the ocean off the land (which would raise sea levels by about 4.2 meters or about 13 feet as that ice turned into seawater) in the next two years — that would be an overly dramatic and unnecessarily apocalyptic prediction. On the other hand, reputable sources such as National Geographic have been saying that rapid climate-shift in Antarctica has been a significant threat for 50 years now, and predicting catastrophic shifts in ice “within thirty years”, or most of my life. It’s kinda past-due, at this point? Worth keeping an eye on, is my overall insight, especially with another Antarctic eclipse coming in November.

Planetary Positions

Although it’s a Night Chart, we see a significant shift in the placement of the planets, with all of them in the eastern half of the chart, giving us all considerably more capacity to act in the world in ways that benefit us personally. The time of waiting and delay is perhaps coming to an end. Additionally — Aries, Taurus, and Gemini are commanding signs, while Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn are obeying signs — and so we see the planets in the private realm starting to have an effect upon the public one.

The Ascendant in Aries, conjunct Chiron, serves as a reminder that a great many people have suffered a bit of head-trauma around COVID in the last two years — but that there’s benefit in taking charge: masks or no masks, distancing or no distancing, the wounded healers are giving the best advice right now. Look to the people who care and who are kind despite injury, and treat their opinions as kingly advice. The Lot of Fortune additionally reminds us to follow our own leading — while not presuming to understand or contradict the choices that others make. Wear your own crown and assume your sovereignty, but don’t presume to take the sovereignty of others from them.

The Moon, the Sun, Uranus and the North Node are all sprawled out across the three decans of Taurus — The Plough (1), The Lingam-Yoni (2), and The Prayer Beads (3). In the second house, the place of finance and personal/mobile property, they’re indicating that it’s a good idea to get your six-month tune-ups, to review your stock market portfolio positions on the fundamentals, and (frankly) to be honest about what your needs and goals are. Uranus promises ongoing upheaval, and assures you that you are less in control of your money than you think; the Sun invites you to focus on what you really need, and … well, the Moon, and the Eclipse in a few hours, promises a roller-coaster over the next two years. Since the eclipse occurs in about twelve hours, its final position in these charts will be in the 8th House, indicating a strong connection between your own money and how you use it to express your responsibility to others; and how your responsibilities to others bring money and goods and service to you. Now is not the time to be thinking about casting off your connections to others — be thinking about how you can deliver better service and value to your customers instead.

Mercury in the third house, in their own sign of Gemini and in the first decan called The Apple of Eden, extends its command of the situation back to Jupiter in a public and advisory way. In one of the annual forecast podcasts I did with Arnemancy and T.Susan Chang, I noted that local conditions would take precedence over national or state directives: be aware of what your local health department thinks is the best course of action, more than usual, about COVID; and in general pay much more attention to local expertise and your extended family’s (actual) experts in various fields of study and knowledge.

The North Node/South Node axis runs between second and eighth house, with the hunger for more material possessions leading to a kind of sickness in how we treat our emotional responsibilities to others. It’s a bad time for offering opinion on social media, my friends (and what am I doing, writing an astrology column??) —and despite a number of brand-new shiny things squabbling for your attention, you’re better served by an almost alchemical dedication to your duty to others: slow and steady heat and attention, with much caution, will serve you better than the swift boil-over.

The Midheaven-Imum Coeli axis indicates the difference between public repute and private hope. Middle managers and site executives are cheering the goal of returning to office spaces, and “happy to have you back in the building”… there’s pizza parties and birthday parties and good cheer. But personally… ? You should check in with your inner child: is it really a good thing for you to be sitting in the cubicle again? Is the child with the mother? Is the nurturing family life at home better than this rudimentary and superficial celebration in the the office? It’s a question worth asking. Pluto amplifies the sense that you’re working for a billionaire, either directly or indirectly, and that most of the rewards of your labor go to him.

Saturn in Aquarius III The Knot in the eleventh house, indicates that there are challenges and limitations on your relationships with friends and associates and networks of sympathetic professionals in your line of work; these need untangling. You may need to sit down with your address book or Facebook friends list, and think through with more clarity than usual about what each person means to you, whether you think they’ve been helpful or harmful in the past two years, and what do you want to do about them now? You don’t have to cut things off completely, but … you know, it might be a while before you “circle back” to them or “close the loop” or “reconnect the line of communication.”

The Twelfth House, representing our obstacles and our dreams, is home to a four-fold council of Mars in the second decan The Net, with Neptune, Venus and Jupiter, clustered in the third The Cup of Blood. Battle has come to the internet (again? or always?), and questions of the purity of practice, of theory, of process, are all likely to rise again in the way that authorities promulgate directives and in how people ignore them. We’re invited to “all get along” somehow, but some positions are not truly commensurable nor able to be aligned with one another. Expect that issues will continue to be drawn out in discussions that last far beyond their expiration date, and that even authoritative declarations backed by expertise and factual data are likely to be ignored.

Horoscopes by Rising Sign

Horoscopes of the second decan are available to Patreon subscribers at the $3 tier and above; while Horoscopes of the first decan are free to all readers and the third decan horoscopes are available to email subscribers and Patreon members.

Colophon

I have a Patreon account for those who want to support this column as it continues its third year. I use Patreon funds (as well as my own funds) to support artists and artisans and thinkers that I regard as contributing to the well-being of the world. if you don’t want to become a regular patron, you can also buy me a Ko-fi in $3 increments, and any column I write after receiving a Ko-Fi donation will be open to the public.  You can also schedule an appointment with me using Accuity Scheduling, for a natal or solar return consultation.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts, appearing here for the first time! I use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.

I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me. My own book, A Full Volume of Splendour and Starlight, is now available as PDF download from my Etsy website, as is my Almanac for 2021. Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you’d like to schedule a consultation with me, you can find additional information on the Services and Classes page.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions mentioned in these columns. For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.