In her fabulous new book, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of our Ancestors, Perdita Finn tells a story about her husband’s grandmother, who’d just turned one hundred. The whole family had assembled at her house for a party. “At one point,” says Finn, “she told her great-granddaughters to go to her closet and take whatever cashmere sweaters appealed to them.” While there, she relates, they found a book atop the nightstand on how to “Supercharge Your Orgasm.” All weekend, people kept asking this matriarch about the secret to her longevity – when all they had to do was look at what she was reading.
How many of us, as we grow older, still keep the flame of eros alight – with or without a partner? Finn reminds us that eros is our life force, what binds us to all that is. And without the life force, we cannot renew ourselves. “That many middle-aged and old people are not having joyous sex should concern us,” she writes. Rather than celebrating the pleasures of the body, as our hunter-gatherer ancestors once did, we put our passions on the shelf. “The birds, the turtles, the trees and the frogs – the whole world is struggling against civilization’s extinction instinct, singing to renew itself. We must join forces with them with our very bodies.”
Taurus season (which we’ve been in since April 19) is all about the sensual pleasures of life. At the Taurus New Moon (May 16, 1:01 p.m. PT), we’re reminded to re-inhabit our body temples and find pleasure in simple things – in the garden, with our beloved, indulging in a wonderful meal or massage. As the Sun and Moon unite at 25 Taurus, they’re supported by a sextile from luxuriant Jupiter in Cancer. And they’re joined by Mercury at 28 Taurus – broadcasting the message of earthiness, prosperity and sensuality.
Sounds lovely, eh? Yet that same evening, the Moon jumps into lively Gemini to join wildcard Uranus – with Mercury to follow the next day. Quick texts, unexpected changes and mental flights of fancy take center stage. Mercury in Gemini sometimes plays fast and loose with details and factchecking, yet with Uranus in Mercury’s home sign, we can also expect liberating, brilliant ideas. Our intuition is heightened, revealing forgotten facts and memories. Revelations about galactic intelligence are likely. If you’ve got a thesis, an article or a memoir to write – begin it now! Just work in short bursts and take lots of breaks.
Once the Sun leaps into Gemini on May 20th, we’ll get even more clarity about what lightning-bolt Uranus will be up to during its tour of that sign over the next six years. The edgy, creative, changeable Gemini vibe gets ramped up even higher with the Sun also there. Breakthroughs are likely. With the planet of the higher mind in the sign of the everyday mind, revelations about daily life and habits may occur. Thoughts and words become super-charged. Cosmic transmissions arrive out of the blue. Especially if you have Gemini placements, your mind-body will be getting an upgrade, so it’s wise to do whatever you can (i.e. deep breathing, naps, no technology just before bed, time in nature) to calm your nervous system and avoid burnout.
Which brings us back to Taurus – and the call to eros. In Mothers of Magic, Perdita Finn offers us this advice from the ancestors: “We invite you to take off your shoes and step outside on the ground and feel the dirt beneath your feet. That dirt is the bodies of your ancestors. Crumble it in your fingers and know it comes from the bodies of insects and flowers and trees and stones that have died to give you a place to root and grow. Draw forth all that you need from the body of the Earth. Held in the gentle embrace of our care, you will slowly remember how to eat again, how to sleep and dream again, how to feel the guidance of the earth beneath your feet again. You will remember how to speak with the trees and birds and clouds and breeze. Only when you have recovered the easy experience of your own body, close to other bodies that nourish and protect you, will you be able to recognize your own desires. Before you can recover the old ways of making love, you must first feel loved by all that is.” Happy Taurus New Moon!