Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 14 and Mercury stations direct that evening at six degrees Taurus. We may need to be more aware than usual in honoring mother on Mother’s Day this year. When Mercury is stationing, our minds seem to fall into a semi-pralaya (sleep). We can be so internal as to not be present. Communication with mother (whether here or in heaven) is most important on Mother’s Day. Wherever they are their hearts are aware, open, alive and listening. It’s important to offer words of kindness, recognition and gratitude.

All mothers, an assignment, a spiritual undertaking and a job description, are constantly learning how to be mothers. The task of mothering is demanding, arduous, daunting, difficult, confusing, filled with suffering and paradox. Mothering is an Initiation, actually. Some (adult) children are estranged from their mothers. Such sadness! It’s good in this case to remember the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, saint of Right Human Relations. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.”

In our mothers’ later years, they will need to look to us for guidance. Let us promise this to them, safeguarding our mothers with understanding, compassion and love.

Mercury remains in its retrograde shadow until June 1st. We remain quite inward until then, the world gradually coming into clear alignment. We continue to order & organizing resources, considering our values – what we value, what is of value, ourselves as valuable.

When stationing (being still) direct, it takes Mercury three days to reorient itself to moving forward. Very slowly we too begin to move forward, putting things back into place again. We no longer feel like we are walking backward into a mist.

Although Mercury will no longer be retrograde, Pluto is retrograde with more retrogrades to follow. Mid-June Saturn retrogrades and in July we will have five retrograde planets. The most important will be Venus, retrograding at 28 degrees Leo. By August we will have seven planets retrograde, including both Mercury and Venus. Knowing this information we can prepare for our future more efficiently and effectively. Autumn will be a season of inner observation, scrutiny, examination, study, reflection, re-assessment and contemplation (the meditation phase of Libra).

ARIES: As we move through the season of spring, tend to all promises, follow all rules, act like a Taurus (which may feel a bit daunting and restrictive but it is very illuminating) and make sure that no resistance, aversion or opposition colors your attitude and ways of being. Honor is most important and one progresses more easily when the virtues of patience, understanding and grace are cultivated. These become of great value to your sense of self in the months to come.

TAURUS: Your energy is up and down, high and low, there and not there. Your responsibilities however remain and each day more and more appear. You would rather turn away, find friends to chat with, take short trips to the bank and back, garden, and either envision or research all that’s needed for the future. When responsibilities and the need for freedom collide, it’s best to simply focus on goals. Or garden. Then you can continue to dream. A gate soon opens. Its arch is all twelve signs of the zodiac.

GEMINI: Heavens! There are two distinctly polarized situations occurring. One keeps you hidden, protected and behind the scenes and the other out and about in the world. Here all your values are apparent and you talk about them openly because sharing them helps define you. You are at times pulled into quietude and silence, a sort of repose before the outer world or the storm or Sun or something calls to you. Perhaps it’s a lot of praise. Or a move. Or a book.

CANCER: Many consider your valuable resources and wonder if they can be used to redirect a group or a committee or a village or a town. And you wonder if how you are using your resources efficiently for both long- and short-term needs. Then family needs crop up and you worry and fret and don’t sleep nights and the past reoccurs and you’re sad sometimes and need help to realign. It’s hard to ask for help. And hard to trust it will come. Ask anyway. Always when we ask, it is given.

LEO: Each day there is more and more clarity about your work and purpose in the world. And each day you feel more courage to pursue the goals of freedom and justice, to fight for what’s right, to realize that a values shift is taking place in your life and this shift may create a personal future you only hoped for. A new two-year cycle has begun and it’s calling up all hopes, dreams and wishes you’ve ever had and asking you to follow your heart. Where is it (your heart)?

VIRGO: The past years have been challenging for Virgos. There’s been a shifting of structures, a sense of being under a taskmaster and you’ve had many tasks and responsibilities to tend to. Soon, this will shift a bit and you will feel a new sense of freedom and relief from the taxing demands and tests undergone. What actually will occur is a new path forward appears. Saturn in Pisces calls you to a new order of things. You quietly celebrate.

LIBRA: A more restrained and thoughtful view of life is quietly beginning to take hold of your thoughts, actions and feelings. This is good, though it could feel restrictive. Simply consider it as another step in growing up, being responsible, learning how to tend clearheadedly to the demands of life and how to act with more diplomacy, sensitivity and refinement. There’s a struggle for balance, a struggle to be heard and understood. There is no compromise. Be strong and call for courage. Forgiveness helps.

SCORPIO: You had obligations. Then your dreams appeared and disrupted all your obligations. And it became clear that you had to choose. And then relationship issues (questions?) cropped up and you had more realties than you could handle. A burning ground has appeared. Something is changing within. It’s pushing you to break all previous habits, to drop the past and all previous patterned ways of being. Follow this. It’s a call from your future. Don’t resist. Three steps up to a door appears.

SAGITTARIUS: Tremendous work was called for this past year and it will continue. If you take each day and work slowly through it (like a Taurus), then you will come to the end of each day with feelings of great success and pride in what you have accomplished. Is there someone special contacting you? Or the possibility of money from someone close? Be prepared, after a small respite, for new work to appear. High energy will be called for. Rest for now. Before the new lighted path appears.

CAPRICORN: You have presented yourself this year as a great server of those in need. This is discipleship work. There is another side to you – the creative side – activated in gardens, woods, fields and meadows. It can be found with hands in the earth, plants with deep roots, and a pantry (or lunchbox) filed with sweet and savory homemade foods. You need comfort and safeguards as you serve others. We are always and only asked to come forth with our gifts when there is a need. Those you are serving are deeply grateful.

AQUARIUS: There is a focus on relationships, whether it’s friends, acquaintances, or the many people in your life seeking your attention. You have a need for care and intimacy with another. Sometimes needs make us feel unsure of ourselves. But you have confidence to ask for what is needed. Be aware some people will not be able to respond. But many more will. You want to have a clean well-lighted place of security and beauty. Many things about home and resources will occur in the coming months. They are good things. You can rest in this assurance.

PISCES: You are being presented with a greater field of recognition. This is a new expanded stage of work needed for humanity. Know you are fully capable and have the essential qualities and gifts to fulfill the situations being offered. You will rely more on your gifts as you move forward into your future and make correct decisions. There is an army of angels and supporters ready to assist you in this work. You are not alone. Courage and confidence present themselves. Wear them like a mantle and a crown.

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