Astrology of May 2010 by Henry Seltzer (www.astrograph.com)

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The Astrology of May features Mercury, Chiron, Saturn and Uranus. A slow-moving Mercury, out of retrograde only on the 11th and recovering for the remainder of the month, indicates that this monthly time period will be a thoughtful one, when activities have indeterminate results and when reflective introspection provides rich rewards. This entire month is therefore a good time to journal and inwardly regard your situation, but not a great time to push the river.

Meanwhile Chiron, newly entered into Pisces, provides plenty of food for thought in its own right. Chiron, in the early degrees of Pisces, is also greatly enhanced by Pluto in Capricorn, forming a sextile, and also aspected by Uranus when it goes into Aires at the end of the month as Jupiter stands nearby. The sign of Pisces, ruled by Neptune, is intensely sensitive and even otherworldly. Chiron here indicates that we might keenly feel the lack of relevant meaning in some aspect of our spiritual lives and instead have to go our own way toward our own truth, heeding the beat of a distant drummer over the routinized rhythm of consensus thinking.

Saturn and Uranus are still nearly exactly opposite in the sky. Their opposition heralds an intensifying of the tyranny of polarity that we have come to expect in politics ever since November 2008 when they were exactly opposed for the first time. The push-pull that they symbolize of going forward versus staying back is intensified in our personal lives as well. Wherever we are concealing our inner dictator and our inner rebel, their fierce tug of war is likely to come to consciousness more readily over the next few weeks. We might need to find resolution in a third way that leaps between the horns of the dilemma. The opposition is emphasized by the New Moon of the 13th, the First Quarter Moon of the 20th, and then once again on the 30th, when Saturn stations. Uranus enters Aries on the 27th in a chime with the Full Moon on the same day. As it squares Pluto, Uranus's opposition with Saturn becomes a T-square. Saturn, in direct motion after the end of the month, is moving toward Libra again, which it will re-enter in June. When it does, there will be another exact hit of its opposition with Uranus, and this time in Cardinal signs.

The New Moon of May 13th is powerful because it sextiles Jupiter in Pisces, while aspecting Saturn and Uranus, bringing their opposition once more into focus, as indicated above. This New Moon also makes a sesquiquadrate to Pluto, so that you will feel the transformational thrust of this powerhouse planet wherever the early degrees of Capricorn fall in your chart. The Full Moon of May 27th has the Sun in aspect to Pluto, and there could be a kind of completion that takes place at this time, one phase of many still to come as this climactic summer unfolds. The years of 2010, 2011 and 2012 will be progressive stages in a development so startling that we will not understand its full import until the months pass and we find ourselves in the midst of them.

May 5th Last Quarter Moon
This is an interesting crux of time, because the Sun and Moon occupy the middle of Fixed signs, 15 degrees of Taurus and Aquarius respectively. These are two of four points of the Zodiac that mark what are known as the "cross-quarter" holidays of the pagan world, since they come exactly between the solstice and equinox points, the 0 degree mark of the four Cardinal Signs, such as Aries. The pagan holiday of Beltane is celebrated at this time, at the Taurus midpoint. Since the Sun and Moon also square and oppose Mars in mid-Leo the energy for contention and confrontation is strong.

May 13th New Moon
This New Moon in Taurus is another in the series of powerful mid-month configurations that aspect the outer planets. In this case the aspects are far more minor than in recent months, but the relatively wide square to Neptune and the sesquiquadrate aspect to Pluto still pack a punch. Jupiter is drawing near to Uranus as well, which also serves to emphasize the polarization implied in its oppositions to Saturn. Mercury, now in direct motion, makes a trine to Pluto as well, with Chiron now in Pisces at the midpoint. This is could prove to be another indication that ideas and desires bubbling beneath the surface of our psyches might come to light in this timeframe.

May 20th First Quarter Moon
This is traditionally a time when the rubber meets the road with respect to changes that we are experiencing and that stem from the New Moon of the previous week. This Sun and Moon position are particularly telling since they are the last degree of their respective signs of Taurus and Leo. We are all trying to "get" Taurus one last time before the Sun moves on to Gemini. Additionally, these late degrees occupied by the Sun and Moon aspect the degree of Neptune in late Aquarius, and also of Uranus in late Pisces and of Saturn in late Virgo, emphasizing once more the polarity of their opposition. With Neptune configured there is bound to be a prevailing element of confusion as well.

May 27th Full Moon
This Full Moon in Sagittarius and Gemini represents another crucial turning point, a flowering of the impulse from the mid-month New Moon that preceded it. The Sun makes an inconjunct to Pluto, bringing the transforming effects of that powerhouse planet once more into consciousness. More importantly, Uranus enters Aries on the same day, where it will aspect Pluto more closely than at any time in the last forty years. Their conjunction in the mid-sixties signaled that watershed time period of revolution and ardor. The current square between them will undoubtedly characterize the tumultuous teens that we are embarking upon in much the same way. This month's configuration is one more giant step toward that inevitable direction.