_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finding Heaven in Earth
Suddenly, without expecting it, beauty is there.
Ultimately, beauty is a profound illumination of presence,
a stirring of the invisible
in visible form.
In order to receive this,
we need to cultivate a new style
of approaching the world.
~ John O’Donohue, from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
There’s much talk, particularly since the pandemic suspended our lives as we knew them, of the need to live into a new story, a story that can sustain both the Living Earth and its inhabitants, and as well, the soul of the world (anima mundi).
Such a story would be grounded in an understanding of how we humans are here, put between earth and sky, to live a deeply and broadly interconnected life, conscious of, and lovingly related and attentive to, what lies beneath us and around us. It’s not difficult to do on an individual level, if we can change mind-sets, and turn the desire-body around. And it can even bring joy, meaning, and health—plus the possibility of miracles!
Not to be naïve: trauma and catastrophic losses abound for many if not most of us, and disaster looms large, as we are increasingly apprised of in the headlines. Polarized world-views and media sources that support these are at unprecedented odds with each other. And yet, as the Pluto “regenerator” archetype informs, suffering and even death are inextricably linked with birth.
My Qi Gong teacher casually mentioned today while preparing us for the “Pick the fruit from the tree” sequence, “My back was in an unusual amount of pain all last week – who knows why… I thought maybe it was Pluto.” Stranger things are possible. His comment made me feel connected as, being in the “Pluto” school of life myself, and particularly transit-wise lately, I am not free from pain either. With all the changes afoot, in both Earth and Sky realms, I suspect few of us are.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Genius of Nature
But on the Neptunian, miracles note – consider the accomplished field of biomimicry, as formulated and described by Janine Benyus in her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (1997). Benyus speaks, in a recent highly recommended OnBeing interview, of how science has spent 250 years learning about nature – and how now, those engaged with this innovative approach to technology are learning from nature: becoming helpers of natural processes, not managers, setting up conditions conducive to life, and basing designs on features of the natural world that have endured the tests of time. (These concepts are of course something indigenous cultures have never forgotten, and by which they’ve survived for thousands of centuries.) In the talk, she observes how nature designs using subtle, non-violent, and elegant means, with miraculous manifestations such as mangroves, abalone shells, and photosynthesis.
At the end of the interview, Benyus tells the story of a young native Hawaiian who was being instructed by one of the last of the Tahitian Wayfinders on how to navigate the vast open seas, over thousands of miles. Standing on the shore of one of the islands of Hawai’i, the elder asked, “Can you see Tahiti?” The young man said, “No, I can’t see it… But in my mind’s eye, I can.” And the elder said, “That’s how you’ll find it. Keep it in your mind’s eye.”
Perhaps this is how we, too, can navigate our way to what feels like the very far distant shore of a truly sustainable life for all on Earth. Keep it in our mind’s eye.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Innovative Uranus in Taurus
Helping us to digest and live into these concepts of innovating with nature, and of navigating with the imaginative mind, is the archetype of revolutionary change and innovation as invoked by the planet Uranus, in the Earth sign Taurus for another three years. I know all the astrologers are talking about the “big news” of Pluto entering Aquarius, where it’s been for almost a month. This is indeed significant, but we’ll have 20 years to chew on this one! So I’m looking at Uranus here as it’s in our soon-to-be Sun sign, Taurus..
Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018. Since that time, the ‘shocking news’—Uranus being about radical change, insights, and shocks—of the effects of climate change has grown ever more shocking. (Although we’ve known about it since the 1980s, it’s become unavoidably obvious even to ‘deniers’ in the past five years.). But along with this has grown a new awareness, both in the public dialogue and in our small lives, of the need to love, respect, tend, and listen to the Earth. Since Uranus entered Taurus, there has been a marked focus in my arenas online on valuing the earth, caring about and preserving resources, and slowing down.
The break from the mad rush of modern life brought on by those first months of the pandemic, for those of us blessed not to be on the front lines of essential work, brought a deepening into the world of nature all around us, and not just among humans. Stories abounded of how the animals, birds, and fishes showed up in ways never before seen, as soon as we humans backed off from our noisy, fuel-spewing travels. That’s when I felt compelled to make my bike become my primary mode of local transport. An impulse one could say inspired by Uranus in Taurus – a lifestyle innovation that keeps me closer to the earth, and that protects it, too.
The shelter-in-place moment saw a type of awakening to our interconnectedness with the earth, and with others around the globe, and as well further centered the earth as the arena of cutting edge thinking—so, a turn earthward in awareness on many fronts. There has been with it much talk about the healing effects of “nature” (such as forest bathing, or gardening), and an equal focus that I’ve noticed recently about how the very fact that we use the word “nature” is itself off the mark, as it implies nature is separate from and outside of us. When in fact, we are as inextricably joined with the “more than human world” (a phrase coined by powerful writer and eco-philosopher, David Abram), as we are to our very breath, whether or not we know it.
Shamans and Scientists
As testimony to this merging of the realms of heaven and earth, “scientists are starting to talk like shamans, and shamans are starting to talk like scientists,” asserts anthropologist Jeremy Narby in a short Bioneers film called, Nature’s Intelligence: Coming Down from the Pedestal. And further, “nature” is starting to behave like humans! (Or didn’t it always?) Although Narby wrote the book, Intelligence in Nature back in 2006, few scientists back then were prepared to accept the concept of intelligence in nature, and the book first fell on rather deaf ears. “What science has produced since then, however,” says Narby, “has been an enormous confirmation of the surprising capacities of plants and of unicellular organisms, of fungi, of trees and networks of trees, and of interspecies communications. At this point, there are no articles on stupidity in nature. [But] thousands of articles and bits of research on the surprising capacities of all kinds of species for communication, learning, remembering, and perceiving. Plants perceive, they smell and they hear.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Striking the Earth Technology Balance
We might do well to take a page out of the plants’ book, and focus more on our own re-membering and perceiving. Speaking in the podcast, What Could Possibly Go Right, indigenous writer, teacher, activist, and lawyer Sherri Mitchell shares how the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, through the lens of capitalism and patriarchy, are a new episode in our 5,000-year history. She suggests that humanity needs a “rehydration” of ancient knowledge from our roots, a knowledge that helps us to be on and in the earth, allowing such wisdom to arise on how to sustain and balance our lives. “The more that we can get away from the technology and reconnect our bodies to the earth, the more realigned we are with those old stories and the more they emerge, the more that teachings rise up out of the earth.
“We do that by learning to be quiet. We do that by walking away from all of the technology, from our fear of missing out, of being irrelevant. We do that by reconnecting with that flow of information and truth that has been right beneath our feet since the beginning of time, since the beginning of life, certainly on this planet, [as] there’s a continuum there that’s steady.” In another talk, she suggests a practice of simply laying on the earth for 20 minutes a day to get our bodies aligned and reconnected in times of dis-ease. I did this when I had a bad case of Covid last fall – it was the highlight of my days during a stressful time, when I joined with the magnetic earth below, as well as the wind and birdsongs coursing through the trees above.
Ironically, Uranus, with Aquarius as its modern co-ruler, is the significator of technology—of ground-breaking inventions such as the computer and the iPhone—and yet in the sign of Taurus, the innovation we are being brought to by our indigenous teachers, and by the field of biomimicry, and other realms of science now attributing great intelligence to nature, is to return to the genius and wisdom of the Living Earth.
We’ve got three years left of this celestial opportunity to assist with the rising tide of Earth care and awareness, as by May 2026, Uranus will have slipped for good into Air sign Gemini. (It makes its first foray into Gemini in June 2025, and then will retrograde back to Taurus for some months.) In Gemini it will have a more conceptually-based focus in the abstract Air sign realm of communication and information-sharing. May we use this remaining time with Uranus in Taurus wisely, because, while Taurus can get stuck in its rhabits and attachments, if managed with discipline and awareness, it is a vital portal to heaven in Earth.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New Blue Moon Solar Eclipse
So that leaves the Sun, Mercury, and Uranus, all in Taurus as of the 20th. Meanwhile, on Apr. 19 at 9:13pm we have a rare New Blue Moon in Aries, where the Sun and Moon are conjunct in the 29th and final ‘anaretic’ degree (signifying karmic completion) of the prior New Moon’s sign, where Jupiter and Chiron still reside. (It’s called a Blue Moon because it’s rare to have two New Moons in a row in the same sign, as they usually progress forward to the next Sun sign each month.)
The New Moon again in Aries means the impulse to be rash and impulsive, or loose with one’s temper, may be still surging in the coming month (being as the New Moon sets the tone for the entire four-week moon cycle, until the next New Moon.) Also there may be a rather electric effect, as Mercury is conjunct Uranus, which is the higher octave of the thinking/communicating realms of Mercury, drawing in flashes of insight from higher realms.
And, Mercury turns retrograde (Rx) on Friday the 21st. So sign your contracts and repair your apparatuses before then if you can, so you can enjoy a Rx period of reflection, review, and research (along with any other “re-“ words of your choice) without the hassles of mishaps!
On the upside, the Aries energy is a good balance to the slowed down Taurus rhythm—helping us keep moving on new and creative ventures, blending the ‘let’s do this’ thrust of Aries, with the deep, synthesizing mastery of the Taurus brand of creativity. Also to consider is that Mars, ruler of Aries, is in the Water sign Cancer for the next month. This could draw us inwards, in the way that Saturn in Water sign Pisces is already doing, asking us to design a feminine approach to action, one of deep listening and receiving, of flow and surrender.
We will need artful discrimination and good boundaries to navigate wisely with these water energies in the archetypal arenas of Saturn (outer roles and responsibilities) and Mars (actions and desires). Sensitivities and feelings may run high, asking for inclusion, but without indulgence.
For added punch, this New Moon is also a rare (once a decade) Solar Hybrid Eclipse (so-called because depending on viewing point, it varies from total to partial). It is said to portend major transformations, endings and beginnings, and unexpected occurrences or opportunities. Often solar eclipses are very positive, but the flavor carried by the aspecting planets is important. Further stressing its transformation potential, this eclipse is in almost an exact square to Pluto, now at 0 degrees Aquarius. So, we can expect the unexpected, and perhaps would do well to invoke the British approach: Keep calm and carry on!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Other Key Players: Pluto in Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces
I won’t risk using up your precious attention span on Pluto this time, other than to say that we are in the first months of a transition phase from a 20-year cycle of Pluto in Capricorn, significator of traditional structures such as the corporation, government, nuclear family, and church, into Aquarius, which lords over new-horizon innovations like technology—chat GPT and AI— and social (in)justice matters, not the least of which are fairness and equality for all beings (that would certainly be new!), as well as my game, astrology (not new but hopefully put into an increasingly respected spotlight in coming years!)
Pluto will be retrograding back into Capricorn twice before November 2024, when it will ingress into Aquarius for good. But it’s in Aquarius for the next two months, and with this Solar Eclipse squaring this shadow-invoking planet, you might notice an old wound or trauma being surfaced, asking for examination and ultimately, healing. Pluto’s methods take time. This will be particularly so if you have planets at or near 0° of the fixed signs. (Might be a good time to come for a counseling session if you find stuff coming up, so as to best use the energies of transformation so clearly prevalent now.)
This is also a time to be thinking about how and where we hold boundaries, with Saturn now well established in Pisces. Pisces, archetype of dreams and fantasy realms, abhors boundaries, preferring to flow and seep through cracks and the ethers, but Saturn is determined to hold to structures, and responsibilities.
So there is the ongoing paradox of needing to flow, to allow, to surrender to our inner knowing (Pisces), while also being disciplined enough to honor our obligations and roles, and set boundaries (Saturn) so that we don’t fall into over-giving, or allow our energy to be drained. Surrendering to what is is also in order! With all these various energies going on, I will again invoke my favorite saying from Bayo Akomolafe (whom I mentioned a couple of blogs back), as it is totally relevant for our current blend of Aries-Taurus!
The times are urgent. We must slow down.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Further Meanderings
Biomimicry with Janine Benyus –https://onbeing.org/programs/janine-benyus-biomimicry-an-operating-manual-for-earthlings/
David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous – https://www.davidabram.org
Nature’s Intelligence, with Jeremy Narby – https://bioneers.org/natures-intelligence-coming-down-from-the-pedestal-jeremy-narby-and-j-p-harpignie/
Author and Teacher Sherri Mitchell – https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-10-31/what-could-possibly-go-right-episode-90-sherri-mitchell/
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
All photos copyright Diana Badger 2023
1 thought on “Finding Heaven in Earth – Taurus”
This was great reading Diana, thank you. Always good to have perspectives on the celestial seasonings of life on earth. I especially appreciate the Uranus in Torus oops Taurus information. Nature’s intelligence and true nature are completely interwoven and actually unified. I use the word intra-connectedness to point to the Unified Field of pure Being within which all is, with which we are. or can be, in conscious union, as well as our Oneness in the realms of infinite diversity — and how all is designed to work together harmoniously preserving Life.
This week the advent of bio-luminescence arose for exploration. It seems perhaps an earthy sign of realizing it’s all crystallized Light forms that we see. As we penetrate through the surface appearance our 5 senses give us with their higher octave functioning, we see that all is ordered and organized by, what I call eco-logos: a living open system of Life that is of the Logos, the Word/primodial sound made flesh/earthy, if you will.
The advent of heaven in earth has to do with our deeply apprehending/grokking our true nature begets our natural intra-connected state in which we abide within the Indwelling Presence abiding in us, that is the All-In-All. In so many ways, we are much much more than what we’ve believed is human up until now.
Thanks for this opportunity to explore the heavens and discover more of the influences of the universe’s diverse combinations in conversation.
Anrael.
PS, does my email show publicly?