06 May Synaesthesia ~ May 6th-12th, 2019

Nature is a temple, where the living

Columns sometimes breathe confusing speech;

Man walks within these groves of symbols each

Of which regards him as a kindred thing.

Following last weekend’s New Moon in Taurus, this week you should begin to feel increasingly strengthened and embodied. Stirred by fertile flowers and lingering warmth, when the Sun is in Taurus the touch, taste and fragrance of everything becomes elated by a new richness and depth.

You are now in the heart of springtime, the stable conjunction that lies in-between fire and air, action and ideas. In this place, the only thing that matters is the quality of time.

To live in appreciation of the quality of time is to see the world through the eyes of a poet. The gift of the season is to appreciate the quality of time with a patient mind and full embodiment in the pleasures of the senses. These days will be remembered more by the soft kisses, the velvety scent of roses and the warm breezes that twirled through the curtains.

At the beginning of this week, Mercury will enter into Taurus, shifting the collective mind away from the mad rush and into a contemplative position. Here the mind finds richness, depth, and sanctuary.

You will become keenly aware that the gasping gulping oblivion of modern life has taken a toll on your ability to think straight. When Mercury is in Taurus, you will begin to shift your strategy, thinking about the future in a very practical sense. Your problems will be solved by yielding to patient long-term plans. At this time, there is nothing to be gained by rushing forward.

To sink into the senses is to let everything make an impression. When Mercury is in Taurus, your mind lingers more on precious moments, letting wasteful words evolve into the pregnant pause.

The conjunction between Mercury and Uranus will heighten your sensitivity towards the beauty in your surroundings, inspiring some interesting developments in your tastes and proclivities. Imagine the scent of roses suddenly uplifted by a swirl of orange blossoms, the way a song is uplifted by violin strings.

Under the influence of this transit, you may begin to enjoy a new genre of music, or a new style of literature may suddenly resonate. When Mercury and Uranus unite in Taurus, expect to be tune in and turned on to the beauty that surrounds you.

With all this emphasis in Taurus, this week you will be granted the blessing of finding beauty everywhere. As a Venus-ruled sign, the arc of development throughout Taurus season is meant to inspire a deep communion with nature in her most lush and fertile forms.

The spirit of Venus can often be evoked through classical romance and traditional odes. But this first year of Uranus’ transit through Taurus is not meant to feel very traditional. In Taurus, you experience the romance between spirit and soul. With senses awakened, your lust for life is aroused. You should feel inspired to flourish and prosper.

As the long echoes, shadowy, profound,

Heard from afar, blend in a unity,

Vast as the night, as sunlight’s clarity,

So perfumes, colours, sounds may correspond.

But this week presents many challenges, many threats to being able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Venus continues the last legs of her debilitated journey through Aries squaring with Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. These squares will force repression and lies to come to the surface, summoning a harsh confrontation with reality.  

The squares between Venus and the dark planets in Capricorn are going to demand that things change. There will be a battle. Either between yourself and another or between two divided sides of yourself.

As Venus squares Pluto, she will also trine Jupiter in Sagittarius, blessing the outcome of the conflict initiated by the squares. It is cathartic for this tension to be released and the sensation of positive growth will relieve many of the fears and concerns that arise. In many cases, a great sense of relief will be enjoyed. When all is said and done, it is the truth that sets you free.

The week’s energies are challenging and complex. Emotions will be raw, catalyzing some rapid transformations in your priorities.

However, in Taurus season, even the most tortured moods inspire an increased appreciation for beauty and art. With Mercury and Uranus in Taurus in aspect to Neptune in Pisces, expect the increased sensuality of the season to emerge as synaesthesia. In this state, the senses blend and blur into one another: colors might emit sounds or evoke a certain fragrance.  

Synaesthesia dissolves the boundaries of perception, defying the Aristotelian distinctions between the five senses.  A great student and explorer of the synaesthetic experience was the French poet Charles Baudelaire, one of the inventors of the Symbolist movement.

The symbolist poems did not describe, but evoked. The meaning of the poem was offered through symbolic imagery which reflected the soul of the poet. According to scholar Marshal Olds, to the symbolists,

“The physical universe… is a kind of language that invites a privileged spectator to decipher it, although this does not yield a single message so much as a superior network of associations.”

As the week unfolds, I invite to enjoy Baudelaires sonnet, Correspondences which describes a synaesthetic journey into the superior network of associations that the poet is gifted to see.  

Odours there are, fresh as a baby’s skin,

Mellow as oboes, green as meadow grass,

Revealed through the language of the senses, the “correspondences” are the links between the physical and the spiritual. The journey of synaesthetic reveals that at a certain depth, all sense perceptions have a unified source, blurring the distinctions between sounds and colors, feelings and scents.

It puts the reader in touch with a powerful sensory presence, a primal unity or synthesis of impressions.

Others corrupted, rich, triumphant, full,

Having dimensions infinitely vast,

Frankincense, musk, ambergris, benjamin,

Singing the senses’ rapture and the soul’s.

Monday/Tuesday: Nature is a Temple

On Monday, Mercury will join the Sun and Uranus in Taurus shifting the tone of the collective mind from excitable to contemplative. The journey of Mercury through Taurus is shifting the focus of your mind to explore the sensual.

When Mercury is in Aries, he is on a conquest of ideas. But when he transitions into Taurus, he instead becomes a gardener, cultivating thought rather than conquering it. This is an opportunity to let your mind to surrender to the pleasure of the senses, like a thought lost upon the scent of a sweet rose.

On Tuesday, Venus squares Saturn. While at first this aspect seems to be a battle against reality with the odds stacked against you, its outcome will reveal a refined strategy in the never-ending war against reality. Battleplans will be stolen, alliances will be broken. It doesn’t matter who stabbed who’s back. The ends justify the means in the struggle to rule your reality.

Wednesday/Thursday: Blend in a Unity

On Wednesday, Mercury will conjunct Uranus and the Sun will sextile Neptune in Pisces. This will create a unique experience of the sensual, one that is open to mystical revelation and ecstatic communion with the divine.

On Thursday, Venus will square Pluto in Capricorn summoning a dark and manipulative energy to arise. Whatever has been repressed, hidden or swallowed will be more likely to emerge at this time. Your position of power in significant relationships and your sense of financial security may all come under Pluto’s penetrating gaze.

Troubled romances will suffer. Faulty financial deals will certainly disappoint. Whatever emerges, the influence of Pluto will demand that you submit your problems to a process of deep healing and transformation.

Fortunately, on this day Venus will also trine Jupiter in Sagittarius, blessing you with a sense of acceptance and optimism. You will feel aligned with the necessity of any sacrifice you’ve been asked to make. Jupiter brings a brightened vision of your future.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Rich, Triumphant, Full  

The weekend brings a beautiful and supportive trine between the Sun in Taurus and Saturn in Capricorn. You will experience a great reward for work that you’ve been putting in for a long time. Your patience, discipline, and perseverance will begin to bear fruit.

You will also be inspired to erect the boundaries needed to better protect your time and energy from any wasting or corrupting influences. This new fortress of protection offers you the strength and stability you will need for the months to come.  

On Sunday, the Moon enters Virgo, completing the ensconcement in the earth element. In honor of the Sun in Taurus, appreciate the quality of this time. In honor of the planets in Capricorn, let yourself strategically retreat into a safe haven. And in honor of the Moon in Virgo, let this moment of sanctuary guide you to purify and heal yourself of any illness of stress.

 

All images by Hilma af Klint