20 Apr I Got Rhythm ~ Taurus Season Forecast – April 20th – May 21st, 2023

Birds in the trees sing their day full of song
Why shouldn’t we sing along?

On April 20th, 2023 the hot flames of Aries season will soften into the mellow yellow of the Sun in Taurus. The transformation of cardinal fire into fixed earth signals a time to slow down and appreciate the beauty of life. 

All the freshness of early spring steadies itself into a groove, inviting the peace and calm that rhythm and repetition summon. 

In Aries, consciousness is perceived as a flame, igniting new life and passion. But in Taurus, consciousness is perceived as vibration, the hum of life stirring deep inside the earth. In that vibration, nature’s rhythm emerges: the pulsation of blooming spring. Warm sun, hot colors, and sweet fragrance weave together in perfect harmony. 

The light of the Sun in Taurus illuminates the senses, like a tingling warmth that envelops the whole world. The touch, taste and fragrance of everything is enlivened. 

Enchanted by the beauty of blossoming flowers, your soul is caressed by the alto chant of honeybees. The wisdom of Taurus cultivates patience, the ability to be still and receptive to the slow motion ecstasy of spring. Patience allows things to come into bloom, never disrupting the process of discovering full potential.

Days can be sunny

With never a sigh

Don’t need what money can buy

The Season Ahead

The season begins on a shrill note, with the Sun squared to Pluto right on the heels of the Solar Eclipse in Aries. The next day, Mercury stations retrograde in Taurus. On May 5th, the Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio will dredge up some painful memories and dark secrets.

But when Jupiter moves into Taurus on May 16th, everything concludes with a velvety bass note. This will establish a new rhythm of growth that will unfold over the next 12 months. The influence of Jupiter in Taurus wants to fructify and expand your health, wealth and happiness.

And that expansion is established through rhythm: getting into a groove, an ebb and flow that builds momentum. A rhythm that gathers power through action and reaction, push and pull, work and leisure.

 I got rhythm.

I got music.

The climactic soul purpose of Taurus is to transform a barren wasteland into a pleasure garden. And with Jupiter entering into Taurus, you’ll have a long-term plan to cultivate something magnificent that will offer you beauty, nourishment and sanctuary for many years to come.

This pleasure garden might be literal, becoming a wonderful season for growing fruit and flowers. But the Taurean pleasure garden is also symbolic of what you treasure the most in life: art, relationships and spiritual knowledge. Jupiter will expand whatever you need to help you prosper in body, mind and spirit.

Who could ask for anything more?

Whatever you choose to cultivate, in the heart of springtime the only thing that matters is the quality of time. 

As Mercury retrogrades in Taurus, remember that you’re not just living in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without sensual experience are meaningless. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

Time slows down so you can absorb your experience more deeply, letting things unfold gracefully.

This Taurus season will encourage great patience and adaptability. With Mercury’s retrograde, the Lunar Eclipse, and Jupiter’s ingress into Taurus all unfolding in the weeks ahead, this season will catalyze a major breakthrough. 

And this breakthrough won’t happen through explosions or eruptions of fire. There’s nothing impulsive about what’s coming through. It’s a seed that’s been gathering strength within you for a long time. 

This seed is an idea whose time has come.

Midnight Sun

This Taurus season begins in between eclipses, initiated by a harsh square between the Sun and Pluto in Aquarius. This is a harsh glance at the condition of the collective psyche, deeply wounded and wracked with frustration. The mass mind has been brought down very low under the shadow of ceaseless propaganda, economic fallout and the gross incompetence of global “leadership”. War is a racket. 

The square from Pluto in Aquarius reveals the bottomless well of corruption that the permanent political class draws its power from. As of this April, the US alone has sent $130 billion to Ukraine and there’s no resolution in sight. History reveals that when there’s no relationship between the actions of the ruling class and the needs of the people they serve, a revolutionary spirit arises.

These first few months of Pluto’s transit through Aquarius reveal a seed of new light germinating.

On a personal level, there’s a part of your soul that’s been lost, stuck inside a pit of darkness for a long time. And yet, underneath it all, a seed of light has been expanding its network of roots, quietly building strength inside you. This is something that began stirring back in 2018, when Uranus entered Taurus. Now, with Jupiter’s upcoming ingress into Taurus, the flowering begins! 

I got daisies

In early May, as the Sun in Taurus conjoins Uranus, that seed will become like the dandelion that breaks through concrete.

When your breakthrough occurs, your “sudden” bloom will seem magical to others. And you’ll finally appreciate the long journey of self-doubt and struggle that brought this quality forth. 

I got starlight

And do I have sweet dreams

Dream a Little Dream of Me

The best way to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of Taurus is to delve into the life and work of someone born under this sign. And though there are many great Taureans to choose from, the spirit of this season of breakthroughs is best embodied by the enchanted life of Ella Fitzgerald.

If you want to understand Taurus, just listen to her sing.

Born on April 25, 1917, Ella had her Sun conjunct Venus in Taurus, right on top of her midheaven. Her Sun in Taurus was the ruler of her chart, merged with Venus in her most sensual place of rulership. And with this glimmering light at the top of her chart, you might say that she was destined to become a star: a daughter of Venus famous for her radiant beauty.

But to add even more dimension to her ascendancy in the world, she also had Mercury and Jupiter in Taurus, giving her a unique physical power to sing with unparalleled ease, grace and purity. Her voice seemed almost supernatural. 

Lord, I got daisies!

But astrologically, her immense gifts as a singer aren’t surprising. In medical astrology, the sign of Taurus is associated with the development of the throat and the larynx. And so, her voice contains the power of her Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter in Taurus!

From an evolutionary perspective, in Aries, consciousness is perceived as a flame, igniting life and lust. But in Taurus, consciousness is perceived as vibration, the hum of life that’s stirring deep inside the earth at spring.

And so, with such an abundance of Taurus in her chart, you can imagine that Ella Fitzgerald’s voice emerged from something so deep, so primal, and so natural within her. Her voice was like the wisdom of the earth itself, receptive and flourishing, the element that combines fire, water and air to create new life.

A great singer unleashes all that their heart has to offer, and so she did. About her own talents she once said: 

“Everybody wants to know about my style and how it came about. It’s no big secret. It’s the way I feel.”

When she died at the age of 79 in 1996, New York Times columnist Frank Rich summed up her significance:

“It’s not just that her singing is beautiful. It is also liberating, transporting us into a realm of pleasure beyond all barriers, whether of race and age, of jazz and pop, of high art and low, or even, when she floats into scat, of language. That timelessness will never fade.”

The wisdom of the earth is in combining elements, breaking things down into raw materials and inviting new flowers to grow wherever they may. Above all, the wisdom of the earth is in its rhythm, reliable rhythms of back and forth, bloom and decay.

This was exactly what Ella Fitzgerald expressed in her music. Everyone said she knew how to swing. Her sense of rhythm was in her bones, giving her an inexhaustible well of improvisational creativity. Her effortless ability allowed her to cross genres, races, and generations.

She had the indomitable spirit of a gentle flower, that smashed through all the concrete over her head. 

Throughout her career, Ella Fitzgerald earned the title of the “First Lady of Song” and “First Lady of Jazz”. She sang all the great American standards, including the Gershwin songbook, interpreting them with her style of luxuriant tones and melodic contours. Ira Gershwin once said.

“I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them”

Ella Fitzgerald’s story is the stuff of legends, for she truly lived the American Dream of rags to riches: a black woman who rose to fame in a white man’s world. Dizzy Gillespie once said, “I can sum Ella up in one word…”

 “…Woooooooooow.”

Over the Rainbow

Old Man Trouble

I don’t mind him…

Tragedy struck when Ella was 15 years old. Her mother suddenly died of a heart attack and she became so grieved that she dropped out of school and turned to the streets. She worked for local criminals, running numbers and delivering cash until she was arrested and sent to a reform school. There she was physically abused, until she finally escaped. But her freedom from the abuse meant that she was now homeless, living on the streets of New York City.

Just like a fairy-tale…

…one fateful night in 1934, 18-year old Ella Fitzgerald entered a talent contest at the Apollo Theatre. She was dressed in rags and had planned on doing a dance number. But the girls that were on stage right before her were much better dancers and she knew she couldn’t follow that act. She knew she’d have to try something else.

According to those who were there that night, she stood on stage in awkward silence, gathering strength. The audience started booing, trying to get her to give up. But something inside her broke through, and she started singing her mother’s favorite song. A wave of silence fell. And Ella Fitzgerald received her first standing ovation and encore that night. A star was born!

Who could ask for anything more?

1934 was a long time before Civil Rights. As you might expect, she was subjected to all kinds of abuse and discrimination. She was welcome to play anywhere in Europe while she was banned from many theaters back home in the United States.

But she and her entire band refused to accept the normal discrimination that was present in hotels, restaurants and concert halls, insisting on walking through the same doors as everyone else.

Before the 1960’s, courageous people with some influence had to inspire common decency to prevail. One celebrity with real Venusian grace was Marylin Monroe. Ella Fitzgerald shared a story about her, saying:

“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. . . After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

Flowers breaking through concrete.

Someone to Watch Over Me

From the 1930’s to her death, Ella Fitzgerald’s star never fell. She was never consumed by scandal or shadowed by personal failure. She watched the world change from a very high branch, remaining popular and beloved as a timeless icon of virtuosity. 

How do I get that way? Look at what I’ve got

I got rhythm, I got music…

This Taurus season, a long-awaited breakthrough arrives. A seed of light hiding inside your heart will begin to bloom. 

It’s time to believe in yourself because there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Who could ask for anything more?

Much Love,

Rachel