Your Stars May 2012

Taurus

The adage that says the harder one works the luckier one gets is applicable this month, when past graft on the job front promises to finally pay off. The full Moon weekend of the 5/6th has something of a karmic touch to it, and since said Moon is bang opposite you (in Scorpio’s skies) this is a time to skip showdowns unless they are forced on you. The general mood is over-excitable (not you, obviously, but others).

Once past this high tide moment, luck – serendipity, kismet, call it what you will – is very much in the air. The Taurus Sun’s conjunction with Jupiter on the 13^th is a happy omen that rolls around only every dozen years (good excuse for a Babette’s Feast blow-out), and with Mercury the messenger zipping through your skies between the 9^th and the 24^th, you’d be crazy if you didn’t talk up yourself and your chances.

A rich romantic life is, of course, part of the extravagance that Jupiter represents. Here, April was likely a crucial turning point, one way or another. With Mars now back in forward motion, desire and  ‘love hunger’ are back on the agenda. If that drags you out of your way, it looks worth travelling the extra mile (or hundred).

Downsides? Only that a solar eclipse in your cash zone – on the 20^th- requires you to look under the bed to ensure your collection of signed first editions (or equivalent) are still in place, and that no odd transactions are disturbing your internet banking. Otherwise, it’s all clear to be the proudest, bossiest Bull in show.

 Gemini

Like your symbol, The Twins, your horoscope is facing two ways at the same time. One face is turned inwards to your private self, to your personal past (in particular to events of last autumn) and to duties and/or the help you wish to give others. All quiet and contemplative then.

The other face, represented by Venus, is outgoing and future-oriented, calling for optimism, romance and a touch of dressing-up-for-the-hell-of it.

Over the course of May and June, your introspective Twin is gradually displaced by its more extrovert sibling, as various planets move from Taurean skies into your own. The most important of these is the Sun, which arrives on May 20^th and immediately forms a new Moon that is also a solar eclipse. If your birthday is the 20/21^st this is an especial harbinger of change, but all Twins experience a degree of transformation (and perhaps uproar!) this summer. Another eclipse arriving on June 4^th re-enforces that message.

The last ten days of May look significant in terms of getting news, encountering fresh, forceful people, and generally getting ahead. Mercury – your planet – arrives on the 24^th to smooth your way and inspire your words. With Saturn strong in the planetary mix, however, some of you, especially those with birthdays circa June 13/14, will be resolving weighty issues from 2011. If those include a less than happy romantic scenario (jealousy, unfaithful behaviour), then best look upon it as an ongoing process that will likely linger on through the summer. You are better placed in June.

Venus’ turning retrograde in mid-month is a handy cue for a rethink of a love affair, for a second chance at a date you just missed, or for bumping into an old flame. In the immediate term, issues about home and family are open to swift resolution, perhaps with help from the dreaded builders. The family member that’s been driving you nuts all year? Best not lock horns.

 Cancer

Cancerians are creatures of the Moon, this being the Crab’s ruling celestial body, which makes a full Moon like that of the 4^th/5^th especially pertinent, perhaps poignant, for you. If you’re an outgoing Cancerian, it appears this is your turn to lead the party. If you’re a romantic, it seems there’s a chance to come on strong, if you’re the sentimental sort, keep a handkerchief to hand.

The greater emphasis in June’s horoscope remains on your public life, however, the place where you cut a career path, impress so-called superiors with your acumen, and generally circulate, network and generate interest and (ahem) money. Here your ‘scope is in obliging mode throughout the month, with the 15^th especially well aspected. As noted last month, your horoscope favours your role as a team player…and as a solo maverick. Be both!

Romances that involve a homebody who is also a misery look like an endurance test for now. Here, the moment of clarity arrives around your birthday. Clandestine affairs, or a relationship with an attractive but manipulative other half (or ex) call for super-fine handling this month (make that summer) if they are not to blow up in your face. Draw your boundaries with great care and clarity.

The new Moon of the 20^th, which is also a solar eclipse, draws attention to a secret side of your life, to retreat and spiritual practice perhaps, or to helping those in distress. Polish your halo accordingly.

 Leo

Putting a little starch in your collar, figuratively speaking, won’t do your professional chances any harm. Since you appear to have the chance to rub shoulders with luminaries and benefactors, a touch of pomp and formality may be in order, certainly in the first three weeks of the month. With your ruler, the Sun, resplendent at the top of your ‘scope and in conjunction with Jupiter (the aspect is exact on the 13^th), you are due a break. Figuring out your best shot is the task.

If it isn’t elevation up the greasy pole of success that’s on offer, then long haul travel or similar escape from a constricted lifestyle may fit the bill. One way or another, this is a boundary-busting month. As much may involve your social scene – here, any recent breakthroughs are to be nurtured – or a new romance (ditto). The new Moon of the 20^th also involves an eclipse of the Sun, implying a shake-up in your friendships or your professional team, or the re-assessment of a love affair. – patience (not always a Leo strong point) is a necessary virtue this spring and summer.

Money has been a distinctly funny subject around Leos all year, and while Neptune continues to call attention to any financial contracts you have (including those with your other half), the switch-round of another planet, Mars, promises to clarify and, yes, increase your income flow. The trick, of course, will be not to spend it.

For all matters, personal or professional, the Leo Moon of the 25^th/26^th makes those days of facilitation.

 Virgo

One way or another, you have had pause for thought during April. It may not have been a comfortable a moment of reflection, but it almost certainly moved you on to a fresh phase. Mars at a standstill in your skies ended several months of prevarication, not least where a significant other or ex is involved. A potent new Moon in Taurus should have put a lifting wind under your sings

In the immediate future is the full Moon of the 4^th/5^th that emphasises anything that fells like ‘liberation’ – from an association, a friendship, a legal tangle. As you have Mars finally marching forwards again, you’re also promised an exit strategy from an impasse with a significant other – not necessarily a romantic affair, a business partnership is as likely to be the cause of the lockdown. Virgos are often painted as meek and mild types, but feel free to show that you can be stormy as well as jolly decisive.

June looks all action on other fronts, especially for those of you involved in education, or with major travel plans lined up. Even if you are staying put, any international links play helpfully for you this month, with the 13^th/14^th especially favoured. Running round the neighbourhood on those ceaseless errands of yours also gets a tick from your planet, Mercury. It’s a busy and productive time, when you can make friends and money.

A solar eclipse at the very apex of your ‘scope – as on May 20^th – is a super-rare event, and coupled with other planetary action in Gemini signals a change in your professional outlook. At the least this is an opportunity for you to reconfigure your career path, and re-assess your way forwards. Alternatively, a shake-up might come via the boss being dramatically removed or some other regime change over which you have little control. Late May and June look like times of major flux, what you can do is keep your antennae finely tuned to developments and act quickly when called on to do so. Whether you are responding or initiating, the 28/29^th are highly auspicious.

 Libra

By astrological tradition, planets correspond to metals (as well as flowers, food and much else). That Saturn’s metal is lead tells you plenty about its association with issues that are weighty and seemingly intractable (key word ‘seemingly’). In May, however, the heaviness of Saturn in your skies is offset by Libra’s godmother planet Venus, suggesting solutions to your most dogged problems are not as remote as you might imagine.

Though the key strategy with Saturn is thoroughness, you can also draw on lighter aspects of your being – in its current position Venus represents social gatherings, travel, long distance love affairs, helpful females, study, publishing and higher education. Adjust your sights accordingly, since these are topics that are not going away – the solar eclipse of the 20^th gives your outlook a further tilt towards them. Overseas and international contacts may have a liberating role to play this summer.

Where significant others are concerned – partners in love or business, rivals, ex’s, double acts of every stripe – the emphasis remains on change, perhaps of an uncomfortably radical kind. March and April had plenty to impart here, May asks you to digest it.

The month’s other planetary event, the meeting the Sun and Jupiter (on the 13/14^th), falls on your cash axis, hopefully signalling a handy windfall from Great Aunt Bertha, but at the least asking you to think and plan positively about your financial future.

 Scorpio

You start May with a full Moon in your skies over the weekend of the 4^th and 5^th, the perfect time to show out/party wildly/ discover how popular you are/ disgrace yourself in public/ pick an argument with your other half/ gaze upon Luna beauty and feel inspired. The usual options in fact.

This year’s Scorpio full Moon has an extra frisson thanks to the presence of Jupiter in your opposite sign, Taurus. Like all planets, Jupiter is ambiguous – in this position the solar system’s giant can introduce you to a mentor or rich lover, or prise you apart from a relationship that has gone sour. It certainly puts huge emphasis on partnerships of all kinds, romantic or not, and the full Moon turns up the heat under whatever has been going on over recent months.

The meeting of Jupiter and the Sun on the 13^th repeats the message, allowing you to forge a dazzling alliance (again, not necessarily romantic), though you may have to cede more ground than you like (other signs can be just as stubborn as you).

Given the way planets are scattered across your horoscope, you seem unlikely to be without company this month. Your totem planet, Mars, is now moving at full speed through the zone of colleagues and cool connections, linking you simpatico souls and helpful fellow travellers. Advantage comes from being a team player.

Romance, a theme outlined in last month’s forecast, continues to resonate in May, not least because the new Moon cum solar eclipse of the 20^th is at the point where dates and friendships turn into something more passionate. As Venus simultaneously turns to backwards motion in the same spot, you look wither in luck and in love, or just possibly in the money.

 Sagittarius

The somewhat relentless quality of your current stars shows little sign of waning in May, whether it’s work or your personal life that’s at issue. Work is by some distance the more straightforward of those two topics. Now that Mars has turned round and is marching across the roof of your ‘scope, recent uncertainty about your prospects should have been removed. Plain old graft is the principal message here, coupled with a willingness to work solo if a certain person at work proves too much of a pain to handle. If you don’t have work, the conjunction of the Centaur’s planet, Jupiter, and the Sun on the 13^th is omen of hope and good will.

In work or not, if required to give an account of yourself cut out any sentimentality and concentrate on the facts. That applies especially to May 7 and 8, when the Moon in your skies raises your profile and hands you a potential advantage: good time to confront a difficult colleague over an issue that has become a running sore.

Personal matters are another story. Having Venus in opposition for a highly unusual four months has its good points – an outbreak of peace in the valley, the arrival of a contender for your affections – but the omens are complex. The month of Gemini, your opposite number, is not, with the Sun in opposition, normally your strongest few weeks of the year in any case. Plus May 20^th brings a solar eclipse with its new Moon, a chance to wipe the slate clean with one particular relationship and either start again or walk away. A lunar eclipse of June 4^th in your own sign simply restates the scenario.

To some extent the ball is in the court of a significant other, but you can’t lay supine and wait for judgment day. Better to engage in vigorous dialogue with you-know-who and try to wrest some initiative back. That Mercury arrives in Gemini on the 24^th shows there is lots of talking to be done.

With two ‘outer’ planets also in the mix at this first eclipse – Neptune and Uranus/Prometheus – it may feel like you are being swept along by a weird and powerful emotional current, in which case you just have to go with the flow in the short term.

If you are single it’s a simpler scenario, one calling for an open-minded, experimental approach – there would seem to be plenty of possibilities in the air, and as a Centaur, you are not one to be easily tamed.

 Capricorn

As those old-timers in Tin Pan Alley put it, accen-tuate the positive, and with your fellow sign of Taurus in major play all month, there would seem to be sweet company to keep and feasts to be eaten. As much may be true of the first weekend of the month, when the full Moon of the 5^th/6^th lights up the zone of fellow travellers and good friends. A week later, the meeting of the Sun and Jupiter likewise highlights your ‘scope’s pleasure zone.

If you can duck some of your most onerous career commitments, all looks well – the first week of the month is ideal for exchanging business-like words with the powers that be about your way ahead. The pattern of your working life is due an overhaul – the new Moon cum solar eclipse of the 20^th arrives in the zone of your ‘scope concerned with infrastructure and routine. You are, granted, unlikely to ever downsize your workload significantly, but at least try to trim it during May and June.

Elsewhere the renewed march of Mars opens up the possibilities of international travel, or at least, links with people in far-flung places. There has been some prevarication in the early months of 2012, but you look poised, finally to achieve lift-off. If you have romance on your mind, that folds in neatly.

The odd upheavals in your home life, whether it’s property malfunctions or a parade of misfit flatmates to handle, remain alive for now. The control that all Capricorns seek is just round the corner, however.

 Aquarius

There are the delights of home, and there are the delights of getting clean out the house and mingling with a bunch of friends and strangers. At present your horoscope is more inclined to the former scenario, albeit not for long. Last month’s new Moon and the full Moon of May 6^th both stress the importance of firm foundations and the support of kith and kin, perhaps even the possibility of a new or overhauled home.

If that’s what you are after then the next six weeks are a window of opportunity, as Jupiter finishes its transit of your roots zone.  If not, then the encounter between Jupiter and the Sun on the 13^th is a bonzer time to gather the clan together.

The second option is already in progress, thanks to Venus’ first month in residence in the zone of your ‘scope concerned with parties, culture, creativity, and shameless flirtation (select your options).  The same zone is under a kind of siege from late May, beginning with the solar eclipse that accompanies the new Moon of the 20^th – very much the beginning of a new page, maybe even a new life chapter. Given the subsequent arrival of Mercury (and next month, Jupiter), the cosmos seems intent on pressing the buttons marked ‘going-out’ and ‘paint your masterpiece’.

If you’re already deep into a relationship with someone, then the return of passion planet Mars to forwards motion is good news in terms of clearing up misunderstandings from recent months. There may even be some financial pay-off from any squalls.

The planet that modern astrology claims as the signifier for your sign, Prometheus/Uranus, remains in obliging if also demanding mood. You may not want to abandon your old chums, but a different social scene, a more unorthodox tribe, is what this most contrary planet has in mind.

 Pisces

You’re somewhat between things as May starts, though not in a bad way. In fact the message beamed first by the full Moon of the 5^th/6^th, and then by the close encounter between the Sun and your planet, Jupiter on the 13^th is ‘Enjoy’. Both these celestial events have a sociable, perhaps educational quality to them. Ad given that the quarter Moon you’ll spot (cloud permitting) on the 13^th is in Piscean skies, you might justifiably expect, or actively seek, good company and big, bright ideas.

More revolutionary times lie just ahead. Very rarely does a solar eclipse arrive bang at the root of your solar chart, as happens on May 20^th. This opens a significant new chapter for either your living space and family or your career – or both. The two ends of the career-domestic axis are under continuous emphasis this summer and beyond – Venus back and forth in the same position during April was merely starters for the more profound change of outlook that kicks in during late May and June.

Extra value comes from the eclipse’s link to Neptune, the mysterioso planet that arrived in Pisces skies earlier this year. For birthdays between 19-24 February, this promises to realise some of your most idealistic plans, especially anything concerned with art, music, movies, utopian politics or spiritual pursuits. What you don’t need to be tangled up with are dodgy gurus, criminality, escapism or con-jobs, all of which come under Neptune’s dark side. Enough said.

A situation you are leaving behind, albeit by degrees, is the somewhat antagonistic scenario represented by Mars in opposition. Many of you will have endured a fractious few months with the red planet – angry partners, unreasonable ex’s, a sports injury – but now that Mars is moving onwards, the ‘unreasonableness’ of certain individuals is easier to counter. No panic, but you might like to nurse any of those sporty-style knocks with extra tenderness in May.

 Aries

First, consolidate any breakthroughs from your birthday month (there must have been some!). Fresh faces you meet need to be logged in, deals you struck need to be signed on and delivered. There are lots of figures and piles of paperwork to be checked over, and some half-understood ‘understandings’ to be brought into the open during the first phase of May.

The full Moon of the 5^th and 6^th may well be part of that, though it’s an emotional weekend too, especially if an ‘ex’ is involved. Money is a big issue in May, and may well be entangled with a spouse or former partner. The period around the 13^th, when moneybags Jupiter meets the Sun, is especially sensitive to cash flow matters, and how you can prise what is rightfully yours from powerful people or institutions. It’s well worth investing energy in research and invoices.

Although fiscal matters continue to take a high priority through to mid-June (so chase what’s owed), your outlook shifts with the new Moon cum solar eclipse of the 20^th. Whether you are experimenting with new technology, unveiling a website or going on a training session, late May and June promise something of a revolution in your personal digital realm. Good moment, then, for a phone upgrade, all the better to keep in touch with the new faces that are promised by Venus’ presence in this same zone of your ‘scope. There’s even a new car to consider (but don’t buy close to the 20^th, eclipses being energy ‘black holes’).

Where newly flowered romance is concerned, best be patient. Your ‘other half’ planet, Venus, turns to retrograde motion in mid-May, so there may be heart-searching on both sides. It’s still a promising phase of the year for the tender-hearted, however, with much, much more to come in June. Where relationships are long-established, best realise you’re in ‘reconsider’ mode, where you might just have to put up with a grumpy partner in the short term.

Work? Aries’ planet, remains very keen on it, no matter what the unemployment statistics.