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Highlights for May 9-15, 2022: Do Impossible Things

Do Impossible Things

Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.

Making room for the new

For weeks, a stack of client files has balanced precariously on my desk. The cats have knocked them over at least once. But there simply was no room left in my filing cabinet to put them away. So yesterday, I spent a couple of hours culling inactive client files and filing away the new ones.

Browsing through the files was a trip down memory lane. It was also a reminder of either how busy I’ve gotten or how dulled my memory has become, because some of the names didn’t ring a bell at all. I’d look at one and think, wow, I must not have seen this person for years – only to peek inside and realize I’d met with them six months ago, and my notes brought all their stories back.

This is the type of project I love when Mercury is turning retrograde (May 10, 2022, 4:47 am PDT, at 4º51′ Gemini) – one that involves time travel, remembrances, and catching up on paperwork. Mercury will be retrograde in early Gemini and late Taurus through June 3. Try to find a few hours here and there to let go of a little bit of the past to make room for something new.

Take Bold Action

Each time Jupiter enters a new sign every twelve months or so, we receive specific instructions about how best to broaden our horizons. The instruction as Jupiter enters Aries this week (May 10, 2022, 4:22 pm PDT) is succinct and to the point: Take bold action.

Jupiter’s sojourn through gentle, adaptable Pisces, which began on May 13, 2021, is not completely over. Jupiter will revisit that sign for one final curtain call between Oct. 27 and Dec. 20, before vacating that stage for another twelve years. But for now, it’s time to get a taste of Jupiter in Aries – and that means waking up from Pisces’ dreams of adventure and plunging headlong into making them a reality.

Taking action requires courage. Here’s a good rule of thumb, while Jupiter is in Aries: The scarier something feels and the more impossible it seems, the more likely that it’s the right course of action.

Jupiter gives us a new pair of shoes and says, “These will feel a bit tight at first, but once you’ve broken them in, you’ll wonder how you ever walked in anything else.” And when Jupiter is in Aries, his advice for breaking in those shoes goes something like this: “Here’s a sledgehammer – give ‘em a good smack, and you’ll be amazed how much better they feel!”

With Jupiter in Aries, don’t take no for an answer. Embrace challenges. Break in those shoes. Do impossible things.

(Jupiter was last in Aries June 5-Sep. 8, 2010; Jan. 22, 2011-June 4, 2011.)

 More Perfect

The Sun squares Saturn this week (May 15, 2022, 11:49 am PDT) at 24º55′ Taurus and Aquarius, respectively, on the Sabian symbols 25 Taurus: A large, well-kept public park and 25 Aquarius: A butterfly with the right wing more perfectly formed.

A large, well-kept public park sounds nice. But what’s the deal with a butterfly that has one wing “more perfectly formed” than the other? More perfect? I mean, it would seem to me that perfect is already…perfect. How can it be more so?

The Sun square Saturn is an aspect of struggle, hard work, and yes, the quest to make ourselves – and our world – “more perfect.” When we’re comfortable and well-fed in the moment, relaxing in that large, well-kept public park, it’s hard to find the motivation to do that kind of work on ourselves.

But as the Sun in comfortable Taurus is square Saturn this week (May 15, 2022, 11:49 am PDT), our desire to get comfy and enjoy the relaxed Taurus season have been thwarted by limitations, obligations, and a nagging sense of unease about the future. A changing landscape calls us away from complacency and toward action. The future can no longer be ignored, and it’s time to become the people who can face that future.

The Story

Sometimes, a good, solid nap is just what you need to refuel your mind, spirit, and creative juices. A lunch break overlooking the ocean or a lake, or in the company of a good book, can do the same. Do it for the right amount of time – not too much! – and you’ll be refreshed and productive for the remainder of the day.

When the Sun in Pisces conjoined Neptune back on March 13, it was nap time; as it passed through Aries (March 20-April 19), we woke up, started gathering supplies and making outlines. And now, as the Sun sextiles Neptune (May 15, 2022, 12:15 pm PDT) in Taurus, new tools, ideas, and resources are added to the mix. What story are you getting ready to tell? Look to Neptune’s placement in the Pisces house of your chart (don’t know how to find it? this blog post/video might help) to locate the plot of the story, and the Taurus part of your chart to see how you’ll tell it.

Excavation and Accountability

At this week’s Scorpio Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse (May 15, 2022, 9:14 pm PDT), the Sun and Moon are both square Saturn. Eclipses tell us that something in our lives needs changing, and an eclipse in aspect to Saturn brings a crisis of accountability. In what areas do you want your life look different than it does right now? And what must you do to make it look that way?

This is the first eclipse in Scorpio since Oct. 23, 2014. Its degree point, 25º18’ Scorpio, falls in an area of your birth chart that hasn’t seen this particular brand of emotional excavation for eight years. The first eclipse in a sign after many years unearths all kinds of stuff – and Scorpio stuff is pretty intense and emotionally raw.

In particular, this eclipse echoes back to a total Solar eclipse on Nov. 13, 2012, at 21º56’ Scorpio – an eclipse that also made a close aspect to Saturn (a conjunction). Perhaps you made a promise to yourself back then, that you’d step up and take responsibility in the Scorpio area of your life; how well have you kept that promise?

This eclipse, and the others in Scorpio over the next year (Solar eclipse on Oct. 25, 2022; Lunar eclipse on May 5, 2023), will touch us in sensitive places, and ask us to review and to renew our commitment to greater integrity and deeper emotional strength.

Writing and images © 2019-22 by April Elliott Kent

For more on this week’s planetary news, listen to my podcast!

Helpful things…

1 comment to " Highlights for May 9-15, 2022: Do Impossible Things "

  • I think April that you took a ‘happy pill’ when you wrote this week’s column. I am smiling; I so appreciate your humor. It’s a boost to start this week. And typical April mode, you slip in some comments as homework for us to take a deeper look-see to the Scorpio depths.

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