If you naturally use stress and resistance to leverage movement in your life, you may be disappointed right now. With five planets retrograde, including our action hero Mars, there is nothing to push against you. It can be harder to get things done. Wait for it. I wanted to write this piece and with retrograde Mercury in the sign of “the silent one” and I had to wait for it. Just as Taurus wears a situation or person down through perseverance, I made like Sitting Bull, which fits the current climate. Right now we can accomplish so much by taking a feminine approach to goals, going within, nurturing and balancing our energies, enjoying the best life has to offer.

There are two feminine planets in astrology – the Moon and Venus, the High Priestess and the Empress, respectively. The High Priestess holds sway over the spiritual realm of our inner knowing and intuition while the Empress’ dominion is the natural, sensual world. In my chart the Moon and Venus, are square, in conflict, each arguing with the other. More often than not, the High Priestess/Moon wins, choosing to do inner work over other pleasures. The High Priestess sits on her throne, lovingly nurturing her inner oasis, consulting the ethers for answers to life’s big questions, while Venus/Empress mopes about with hasn’t-seen-the-salon-in-months hair, feeling cheated out of sunsets, ice cream, friendship and laughter, imploring her to come out to play, already. I admire friends for whom laughter and laziness comes so naturally. I drink from their well like a dry tongued desert-parched gypsy. I could farm Venus out to others entirely, but like the burr in my existential side, that darn square continually motivates me to intentionally nurture her, in myself.

This Taurus season I’ve been playing in the imagination of my female energy body, nourishing it with color and imagery because it makes me feel good and peaceful. I’ve been gardening. I’ve been listening to lots of music. I’ve been singing my heart out while driving, and when my husband interrupted me before I finished a song, to his clear annoyance, I made him… wait for it…till I felt complete. I’m being stubborn about what I enjoy. This goes against the grain of everything many of us are taught as women. We’re taught to over-give, and ask for little. We’re taught we have to push to make things happen. Yet when Empress energy is positively self-indulgent, when instead of stepping back, we step up and satisfy our self, we become balanced and magnetic.

To work with Empress energy we can take a cue from Mother Nature. The flower accomplishes everything by receptively waiting for the bee and working with her own flower energy. She doesn’t get all tied up in knots wondering, “Where is he? I told him to be here twenty minutes ago!!” but instead stays well-hydrated, digs her roots securely into the Earth, feels the sunlight on her petals, wonders at her own lushness and fragrant scent. From all appearances it would look like she’s doing nothing. But… wait for it…she is intentionally nurturing the space for life to find her, for the creative yang force to softly land on her petals, and make a proposition. In the animal world this may look like wearing our favorite outfit, a mani-pedi, going out of our way to eat a yummy lunch at our favorite restaurant. When we feed our feminine energy we are more vibrant, abundant, attractive.

Taurus New Moon has radiant feminine Earth Goddess magic in it. What do you want to magnetize during this current astrological climate of fertile stillness? Abundance? Creativity? Beauty? Love? It’s growing season.  In her book Intuitive Astrology Elizabeth Rose Campbell said Taurus stabilizes growth. In April and May, the Earth’s ecosystem slows down into a routine and rythym that predictably works toward fullness. We, too, slow down, to create consistent conditions to support new life. “The result? Resources that reflect the values of the creative person who built them.”

Do you want to play with your female energy? Here’s a meditation* for using the rich soil of your feminine to grow your intentions: Go to your happy place in your mind, that geographical, natural place, either real or imaginary where you feel peaceful. Ground your body into the vision. Steep in the beauty of your surroundings for several minutes, visualizing your energy body fill up with colors that feel good to you. Imagine a gorgeous rose in front of you-project your New Moon wish into that rose. Root those intentions, with your rose, into the deep, rich earth. Watch what happens. Does the color, or the rose, change? Just allow. Release your wish into the Universe.

It’s easy to give our feminine energy away to our relationships and roles, then wonder why we’re feeling tired or burnt out. Most of us could stand to better nourish our feminine to balance our giving and receiving energies. The Earth does both at the same time, giving nourishment, water and life, while receiving those same things in kind; that’s the nature of the balanced feminine. The astrological symbol for Taurus may be a bull, but the mystical symbol for Taurus is self-contained energy that, like a fountain, moves energy out, then back into itself. The message is clear: If we’re filled up in our self, on the goodies -laughter, joys, comforts and indulgences- that make life worth living, we can do the same, give and receive, effortlessly, without it costing us anything energetically. So at this New Moon take a feminine approach: root into the rich soil of being, generously nourish your fullness, set an intention and then stubbornly… wait for it.

*inspired by the class: use your feminine energy for healing by Mary St. Pierre.

image source: adobe photos