New Moon in Taurus: Painful Pruning

On the surface everything looks fine. Better than fine. Everything in our lives are riotously blooming.  We are surrounded by lush greenery. Whatever we want is easily accessible and almost effortlessly instantly there. We are sitting in the lap of luxury. We are happy and satisfied and surrounded by so much love. Our cups are running over.

We have worked hard to get to this point. Over the past month, we have endured some really intense growing pains and pushed through those. We have played the cards we've been dealt, and we've had some insanely good hands lately, and luck has been on our side. We resisted the temptation to play it safe and the Universe has smiled upon us and rewarded us for our boldness and tenacity.

But as anyone who gardens knows, sometimes, when plants have flourished, they get way too big, way too fast. 

This is my peony bush. Full of fragrant springtime blooms. I have a rose bush which is also full of blooms. They are beautiful this time of year in their first blooming. My peony bush is done blooming for the year. But my rose bush is positioned this year to keep giving me lush blooms all summer long. However, in order for that to happen, I have to continuously feed it and keep the bugs off it. That will be my work all summer.

But the other thing that has to be done, especially with my rose bush, is almost constant pruning. Right now, it looks healthy and it's blooming but if I don't go in and deadhead the blooms that have died off, if I don't stay on top of things and cut off the leaves that begin to turn yellow and lop off the branches that are losing their viability, if I don't maintain that constant vigilance, and fearlessly cut, then I won't have any more roses this year. I've learned this the hard way.

This is the energy that we have been living in the past few days. There's nothing more wonderful than the Taurus New Moon. But this year, all that goodness feels excessive and decadent. It feels too much. Almost overwhelming. The temptation, though, is to leave things as they are. After all, it really does feel good. Good times have been few and far between these days. Big Daddy Jupiter on the opposite side of the New Moon encouraged us to revel in excess. 

The issue is that if we give in to the pleasures of the moment and lose sight of the overall vision that we have for ourselves and our lives, we will lose this momentum. In order to avoid the decay that inevitably comes when things are too sweet, we have to fearlessly take the pruning shears to our lives. 

This Moon came with the energy of Mercury and Uranus joining together in the early degrees of Taurus. Our Individual Minds were joined with the Universal Mind. I don't know about you but I saw clearly the vision of my future. Who I was, where I was going, how I fit into the larger scheme of things, and I felt the love that was there. It was a heady and intense feeling and which, over the past few days, has personally manifested in my life in ways that I couldn't foresee. In seeing that vision, I know what needs pruning. I know what needs feeding.

But Mercury moves away from Uranus, for me, the clarity is dissipating. Everything seems less sure now. The key now is to trust in the vision. As I descend from the mountaintop and the glow dissipates, I have to now make the everyday decisions that make that vision real. 

Uranus changes signs every seven years and to kick off its transit of Taurus with a conjunction to Mercury and the fecund and fertile energy of a Taurus New Moon gives us the gift of foresight. Unpredictable Uranian energy teaches us how to let go and to live life in the moment because tomorrow is not promised.

So we are taking out those pruning shears and, armed with the strength of our vision, we are pruning that which no longer serves us before Uranus makes us give it up. And through that process we grow greener and lusher and fuller.