You walk the path of self-unfold­ment, to become what you are to become. Your jour­ney is long, the lessons are many. But there are some who have gone ahead; they have accom­plished what must be done. They have shown the way. Their life, their mes­sage is a gift that lifts your spir­it as you strug­gle to under­stand what is it all for; and in the sto­ry of the Bud­dha we have the reas­sur­ance that no one will be left behind, the door will not be shut, ’til all have come back home again.

Today we cel­e­brate what many con­sid­er the great­est of these Great Souls, The Bud­dha. Sid­dhārtha Gau­ta­ma was said to have been born at the Full Moon of Tau­rus; achieved Enlight­en­ment at the Full Moon of Tau­rus; and left of his own voli­tion the human phys­i­cal form at the Full Moon of Tau­rus. The teach­ings that he shared are some of the purest expres­sions of the Ancient Teachings.

The Ancient Wis­dom has been passed down from the begin­ning of time; it forms the core of under­stand­ing behind Sci­ence, Phi­los­o­phy and Religion…and Astrol­o­gy. At times more revealed, and in times more obscured, it endures as the promise that there is a pur­pose to your jour­ney and a path that you must fol­low. Many teach­ers have come, many unsung and known but to a few, but all have sought to re-affirm and pass on the truths of your existence.

The core under­stand­ing of the Bud­dha con­cerns noth­ing less than the way to ful­fill your human des­tiny. The heart of the mys­tery is that we are sparks of the Divine and our jour­ney through all the forms of exis­tence is so that the Divine may become man­i­fest. Yet, in mov­ing through these forms we become attached to form and so suffer.

We, as spir­its of the One Spir­it, must descend and be “formed into forms” that delight us, and yet lim­it us. These forms help us to grow, learn and under­stand our true nature as our pow­ers unfold. Yet, ulti­mate­ly our mov­ing into forms caus­es suf­fer­ing, because each form is lim­it­ed and must even­tu­al­ly fail us.

The Bud­dha’s mes­sage, which is so beau­ti­ful­ly demon­strat­ed by the Sun in Tau­rus and the Full Moon in Scor­pio today, is that the jour­ney of Spir­it is from the Un-Man­i­fest to the Man­i­fest, from Pure Poten­tial to Mag­nif­i­cent Fullness…and back again. This is your jour­ney, to go out into the Uni­verse and by your con­tin­u­ous “becom­ing”, to evolve through your expe­ri­ence of Spir­it in Mat­ter-Forms. You move from the Ide­al of Val­ue and Beau­ty, to Val­ue and Beau­ty Real­ized. But your true nature is Spir­it, and it is always about this jour­ney of Spir­it, and so you must con­tin­u­ous­ly move through the forms, and not stay in any form.

Bud­dha taught that the nature of your mate­r­i­al exis­tence leads to suf­fer­ing because you become attached to the form of val­ue. He showed that the way to peace, the way back home to your Spir­i­tu­al home, is through devel­op­ing the “Way of non-attach­ment”. The key to life…is to be the light flow­ing through the forms, breath­ing life into the forms, but not iden­ti­fy­ing with the forms of existence.

This is the great mes­sage of the Tau­rus Full Moon. That pre­cise­ly when you feel most strong­ly the life force surg­ing, and all of the delights of Mate­r­i­al Cre­ation are arrayed before you so that you wish to hold onto the form of val­ue, when all your sens­es are aroused, and you are most keen­ly aware of your phys­i­cal self, it is then that you need to remind your­self that this is only for a time.

Yes, you should gaze with won­der at the dawn of a new day, and dance in cel­e­bra­tion at the resplen­dent abun­dance of life increas­ing, but you must always be ready to release the val­ue-spir­it behind the form when the day is done. The les­son of Bud­dha is that even as we cel­e­brate and move through the forms of val­ue, we must devel­op in equal mea­sure our capac­i­ty for non-attach­ment to the form.

You left long ago on a jour­ney of self-real­iza­tion, of self-unfold­ment, of becom­ing. You start­ed as an unself-con­scious spark of the Divine. You will return when you have achieved a ful­ly awak­ened con­scious­ness, which is your gift that you offer to the Spir­it upon your return. How far away that is no one can say.

You can take com­fort in the knowl­edge that your jour­ney is guid­ed, encour­aged and inspired by those who have gone before you. For at the end of the path, The Great Ones, the “Bud­dhas of Com­pas­sion” stand, watch and wait for you to return. This is the Bud­dha’s great sac­ri­fice; that although he has fin­ished his jour­ney in the human form, he will not cross over till all have com­plet­ed their jour­ney. The door will not be shut.

We began as many com­ing from the One. We return to the One, bring­ing our gifts of expe­ri­ence, of life and love made man­i­fest. So cel­e­brate the Tau­rus Full Moon, of life surg­ing and beau­ty beheld for it is a nec­es­sary part of the great cir­cle of Life-Consciousness-Spirit…and then think of those who patient­ly wait for your return, and be thankful.

Her­mes, the Mes­sen­ger of the Gods, the “fleet-foot­ed” one, over­takes Aphrodite and bestows a gift in pass­ing. Remem­ber it was just last Mon­day that Venus passed over Mer­cury; today Mer­cury catch­es Aphrodite…we are danc­ing a “do-si-do” indeed!

Now Her­mes calls the tune as he brings stead­ied thoughts to your appre­ci­a­tion of the beau­ti­ful; lis­ten for the mes­sage that he brings from the Sun. The Solar Logos, the man­i­fest­ed Light of the light that is with­in you, calls upon you to remem­ber that the source of value/beauty, the true foun­tain-source of love, is to be found with­in your­self. The light that is with­in you is a spark of the Divine; it is that which con­nects you to every oth­er part of this Uni­verse. The true source of your val­ue, of your love, of your poten­tial to be ful­filled, is that you and all of cre­ation are sparks of the divine; we are all lights of the Light. You are tru­ly of One Mind, One Love, and One Spirit.

Her­mes tim­ing could not be more per­fect as he pre­pares you for the great bless­ing of tomor­row, the Full Moon of Tau­rus, the Bud­dha Moon! This is one of the most sacred events in the cal­en­dar year; you fol­low the “Shin­ing One” who has walked the path that you are still upon. As you approach this sacred event, anoth­er mes­sage of illu­mi­na­tion is offered by one of our plan­e­tary companions.

While Mer­cury and Venus dance their dance today, the gen­tle voice of Nep­tune, the plan­et of imag­i­na­tion, illu­mi­na­tion and tran­scen­dence whis­pers to them both. She is mov­ing through her home sign of Pisces and bestows her bless­ings upon your inner companions.

To Mer­cury, Nep­tune offers the wis­dom that in order to per­ceive the truth you have to remove your blind­ers and see what has always been there. Wash away your illu­sions with Nep­tun­ian trans-lucidity.

To Venus, Nep­tune offers the wis­dom that in order to hold the truth you have to remove your shad­ow and see that you have always been loved. Wash away your fears with Nep­tun­ian compassion.

Now, turn to the heav­ens and pay homage to all those who have shown the way. For tomor­row is the day of the Full Moon and we should all bow our heads and acknowl­edge the con­tin­u­ing sac­ri­fice that has been made for us all.

As Her­mes catch­es up to Aphrodite, she slips away and dances into Tau­rus. There is no place like “home”; and Venus is back in her sign of sen­su­al, mar­velous, mate­r­i­al manifestation.

With Venus rul­ing val­ue and beau­ty, the earth­ly delights of Tau­rus are a source of true joy for Aphrodite. You appre­ci­ate the fin­er things in the world now; indulge your tastes, sing your song of cre­ation and bring more beau­ty into your world. The ide­al of aes­thet­ics has been con­sid­ered; now it is time to draw down the ide­al and make man­i­fest the good. Enjoy the next 3+ weeks as you remem­ber how won­der­ful it is to be able to touch, taste, smell, hear and see the world around you.

Cel­e­brate Venus as she brings you clos­er to the Beau­ty of Wisdom.

Right on the heels of Venus, Her­mes fol­lows into her gar­den of earth­ly delights. The mind is tem­pered; your thoughts become more focused, steadied…slowed down. After all the excite­ment and fre­net­ic agi­ta­tion in Aries, it is nice to take time to con­sid­er what’s important.

Mer­cury will only be here for about 2+ weeks, (he’s still pick­ing up speed after that ret­ro­grade), so do not miss this oppor­tu­ni­ty to cen­ter your mind by har­ness­ing your point of view to last­ing, prac­ti­cal val­ues. The only ideas that mat­ter now.…are the ones that work! No flights of fan­cy; your thoughts have to be sol­id and your answers have to work. The good news is you will cer­tain­ly see your ideas becom­ing real­i­ties as Mer­cury moves through Taurus.

Cel­e­brate Mer­cury as he guides you to the ever­last­ing Truth.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! Here comes a dou­ble dose; Good For­tune & Good News!

Venus, hav­ing just passed over Mer­cury, now catch­es up to Jupiter. Venus is called the “less­er benef­ic” and Jupiter is called the “greater benef­ic”. Put them both togeth­er and you have a potent release of Good Ener­gy. If there ever was a “lucky day” vibra­tion, well this is it! This is the day to take a chance; you nev­er know… But of course with Jupiter, as with any surge of good ener­gy, you have to be care­ful not to over­do it; too much of a good thing is still too much!

Spir­i­tu­al­ly, the con­junc­tion of Venus/Value with Jupiter/Principles offers you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to re-align your per­son­al self with your social self. You are giv­en a chance now to begin anew; to refresh, renew and strength­en the bond between your love of self and your love of another.

The mes­sage of Venus/Jupiter is that the foun­da­tion and foun­tain source of love is…Trust that is shared.

Mean­while, just behind Venus, here comes Mer­cury pass­ing over Jupiter today. Mer­cury rules thoughts and com­mu­ni­ca­tions and the align­ment with Jupiter, well let’s just say today is a day for THINKING BIG! Some­times you are bet­ter at focus­ing upon the details, and some days you do bet­ter with the big pic­ture. But today you can do it all, the micro and the macro. Again, as with any con­tact with Jupiter, you have to watch out for, well for too much.…So, though your mind is very pos­i­tive and enthu­si­as­tic today, be care­ful not to over­promise, over sell or sim­ply say too much.

Spir­i­tu­al­ly, this meet­ing of Mercury/Mind with Jupiter/Principles cre­ates an oppor­tu­ni­ty to re-align your low­er mind (of obser­va­tion and data points) with your high­er mind (of Prin­ci­ples, Phi­los­o­phy and Truth). Jupiter is here remind­ing Mer­cury that those things you call “facts” are not “things in them­selves”; instead, they are cre­at­ed, shaped and expressed by your belief sys­tem, by your point of view. You are offered a chance here to re-exam­ine, re-affirm and re-con­nect your beliefs/assumptions with your facts.

The les­son of Mercury/Jupiter is that by re-align­ing your own mind you will cre­ate the pos­si­bil­i­ty of right under­stand­ing between your­self and anoth­er. First you must seek to know your­self bet­ter, to know how you are cre­at­ing your real­i­ty-view. Then true under­stand­ing between your­self and anoth­er will be cre­at­ed by agree­ing to a com­mon set of shared beliefs, prin­ci­ples and truths.

The mes­sage of Mercury/Jupiter is that the foun­da­tion and foun­tain source of com­mu­ni­ca­tion is…Wisdom that is shared. 

It is time to slow down, smell the ros­es (lit­er­al­ly) and remem­ber that haste makes waste. Mars moves into the sen­su­al earth sign of Tau­rus and you need to enjoy touch­ing, tast­ing, hearing…really do any­thing that con­nects you to the real and makes you happy.

Actions become more focused, ground­ed and though you are slowed down there is a sense that real pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is now at hand. For the next 40 days it is time to dance the dance of fruit­ful­ness, boun­ty and plea­sure. Take off your shoes, feel the earth…as a show­er pass­es by, smell the earth…as the fruit ripens on the vine, taste the earth.

Cel­e­brate the Earth, your moth­er. With Mars in Tau­rus you can act through earth now and make some­thing beau­ti­ful, make some­thing lasting.…create some­thing wor­thy of you.

Move towards stability…build towards security…reach towards your destiny.