Waning Moon Transitioning into Taurus

Today's Moon notes will review the Moon in Taurus time, which continues until Tuesday afternoon.

The Moon's last classical aspect in Aries was to Neptune at 4:47am EDT, so she is void of course now, held between one breath and another, suspended until she steps into peaceful Taurus at 10:35am. The Taurus Moon brings a sense of calm, an appreciation for the abundance of life, and the pleasures of the senses.

In this waning lunar cycle and the autumn of the year, we feel the poignant beauty of harvest. The year is turning. Each ripe fruit becomes a wonder to savor and a reminder that change brings losses as well as gains. The Taurus Moon serenely accepts both and finds peace.

Each movement of the Moon through one sign of the zodiac begins at 0 degrees and continues to 29 degrees, moving through those same energies each lunar month. The Moon embodies the constancy of change and the stability of its pattern, moving through one sign of the zodiac in about two and a half days, then moving on to the next, and the next, and so on around the circle.

If the Moon were alone in the sky, perhaps the repeating cycles would become stale, nothing more than the mechanical movements of a clock ticking off seconds of linear time. The Moon is not alone. She moves through her cycles as one dancer in the midst of a company.

In this dance through Taurus, the Moon first flows energy in trine with transformative Pluto, reaching him at 4:11pm EDT. Then she reaches a trine with the Sun in practical Virgo at 11:40pm today. This trine with the Sun brings a moment of clarity and understanding within the waning cycle.

The Moon reaches her flowing trine with Mercury, retrograde in careful Virgo, tomorrow (Monday) at 2:39pm EDT. With the Sun and Moon both in Earth signs, and Mercury retrograde in Earth, we may find ourselves connecting with a depth of understanding that flows through our bodies, grounding and centering us.

This deeply grounded feeling helps us maintain our balance when the Moon reaches a challenging square with Neptune and Chiron on Monday 2:39pm EDT. The Taurus Moon welcomes the imaginative visions Neptune and Chiron can bring, but wants to channel those visions into practical, real-world healing and growth.

The Moon in practical Taurus receives a new vision as she flows energy in sextile with Uranus in intuitive Pisces at 7:13pm Tuesday, her last aspect and the beginning of her time-between-times which ends when she jumps into bright, active Gemini at 8:19pm EDT.

We have entered the dance of the Taurus Moon, moving with the slow grace and sensual delight of this Earth sign ruled by Venus. From now through Tuesday evening, the Moon flows with the calm patience and steady loyalty of this sign.

Taurus is a lover of music, with a keen ear and a resonant voice. The Taurus Moon dances the patterns of the universe itself, following the musica instrumentalis of our earthly melodies and song; the musica humana of each human lifetime, and the musica mundana, the "the steady, slow rhythmic movements of the planets and stars." (Thomas Moore, The Planets Within)

The images of ripe grapes and measures from a sonata by Handel are available through WikiMedia Commons.