Hurry Up and Calm Down

Astro Notes for Taurus Season (April 19-May 20, 2026)

Let’s begin by revisiting the central themes of the year to provide a larger context for this Taurus season. (You can watch my presentation of these themes HERE.) 

This is one of the most consequential astrological years of our lifetimes, a threshold moment marking the emergence of a new era for humanity, with no turning back. It appears to be a fiery initiation, with multiple signals indicating the potential for escalating tension and discord in the collective throughout the year. 

Yet these same symbols also reveal an exceptional opportunity for individuals to take action at the grassroots level to bring their long-held dreams and visions into form. 

Meanwhile, the three outer planets move this year into an extraordinary configuration of harmony, suggesting that at a deeper level of consciousness and culture, a new pattern of coherence is developing beneath the chaos on the surface. 

Taken together, this year resembles a complex system undergoing a phase change, holding the potential for the collapse of old structures alongside the rapid emergence of new ones. At the heart of the shift is the rise of a more Aquarian world, in which decentralized, peer-to-peer networks of sovereign individuals begin to replace centralized institutions as the primary drivers of cultural creativity and change. 

Aries season involved an eye-catching concentration of planets in the sign of the Ram — the faster moving planets of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars joining longer-term residents Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, and Eris.  That’s a tremendous amount of firepower, fueling both aggressive actions and ambitions at the global level and the beginning of bold new endeavors at the grassroots.

As we enter Taurus season, we are surfacing from one of the more sensitive periods of the year. The New Moon in Aries on Friday, April 17 formed a conjunction with Chiron (the archetype of the wound). Then over the weekend, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn moved into a rare triple conjunction in Aries. This may have coincided with the surfacing of a core wound that resists immediate resolution. 

At least, that’s how it unfolded for me. I was fortunate to be on a spiritual retreat last week, so I had a conscious container to support my process at this time. The material we worked with indeed opened a deeply painful layer, and over the weekend all I could do was stay present as best I could while different parts of my psyche pulled me into a pretzel. (And yet, there is something profoundly liberating to allow such deep material to surface and be witnessed, despite how hard it is to go through at the time.)

Mars conjunct Saturn has been likened to having one foot on the accelerator while the other is on the brake — intense effort meeting complete resistance. It is striking, then, that over the weekend Iran effectively re-closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical choke points in the global energy system. 

Another recent occasion when Mars made a conjunction with Saturn was March 2020, coinciding with the onset of global lockdowns and the stalling of the global economy as Covid began to spread. 

It’s not unreasonable, then, to consider the possibility of a significant contraction in the global economy as the downstream effects of a severe disruption to the flow of roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply begin to unfold. 

This brings us to Taurus season proper. When the Sun moves through Taurus, it’s our annual invitation to slow down, take a breath, and honor the simple needs and rhythms of the body. Taurus sustains and consolidates what was initiated during Aries season, allowing the new energies to take shape in a stable form. Coinciding with the peak of Spring in the northern hemisphere, Taurus season is also a time to allow ourselves to be nourished by the serene beauty of Nature.

Yet this year, it’s a little different. The Taurean call for embodiment and grounding takes place against a backdrop of acceleration, intensity, and continued Aries activations. Our bodies may want to rest while our nervous systems remain alert. This makes it all the more important to take advantage of whatever opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment may present themselves. 

The most significant astrological event during Taurus season is the ingress of Uranus into Gemini on April 25. Uranus has been moving through Taurus since 2018. We had a preview of this new pattern when Uranus first entered Gemini from July to November last year, before moving back into Taurus for one final pass. When Uranus re-enters Gemini on April 25, it will remain there until 2033. 

This marks the completion of a rare sequence of major planetary sign changes. Pluto entered Aquarius “for good” in November 2024, and will remain there until 2044. Neptune moved into Aries in January this year, and will stay there until 2039. With Uranus entering Gemini, the basic contours of a new pattern of reality are now established for the next seven years. 

The new era is here. 

Uranus in Taurus is an awkward combination of energies. Uranus brings unforeseen, abrupt, disruptive change, but Taurus — fixed Earth —  is perhaps the sign most resistant to change, preferring to stay in its comfort zone. I think we can all agree that the last seven years have not been comfortable! During this time, many of us have been pushed to develop new ways of relating to our material security and sources of income, our bodies and physical health, and our overall foundations. Uranus in Taurus has been breaking up a lot of dense, crusty, resistant structures — in ourselves and our world — to prepare us for the acceleration ahead.

With Uranus now entering Gemini, we move into a slipstream of rapid change. Uranus is sudden illumination — like a flash of lightning — while Gemini moves at the speed of thought. We may see a surge of technological and scientific breakthroughs, especially in the realms of communication and learning, as inventive Gemini takes Uranian insights and runs with them, in multiple directions at once. What has been slowly destabilized over the past seven years may now begin to move much more quickly. 

Yet whether this acceleration unfolds creatively or destructively will depend, in large part, on the quality of consciousness we bring to it.

This acceleration during Taurus season is accompanied by significant intensity. 

The Full Moon in Scorpio on May 1 forms a t-square to Pluto in Aquarius, suggesting the potential for a deep emotional revelation, involving the surfacing of shadow material that may not be easy to immediately resolve. A few days later, on May 6, Pluto stations retrograde, deepening the process, drawing our attention once again beneath the surface, particularly to issues of power, compulsion, and control.  A series of challenging Mars transits from early to mid-May then carries this energy forward, raising the question of right action: how do we respond to what has been revealed? 

There’s a shift in tone around the New Moon in Taurus on May 16, inviting us into our bodies and into a new cycle of living at a slower, more grounded pace. Yet we’re still not fully in the clear, as Mars conjoins Chiron on the same day, re-activating the core wounds stirred up by last month’s New Moon, calling on us to meet our vulnerability with courage. 

In the final days of Taurus season, Mercury moves into its home sign of Gemini, Venus into sweet and sensitive Cancer, and Mars into peace-loving Taurus — a cascade of energy shifts that may come as welcome relief after the intensity of the preceding weeks. 

Yet just a few days later, on May 25th, Mars in Taurus forms a tense square with Pluto in Aquarius, bringing another spike of intensity and challenge.

One of the defining features of this year is the relative absence of long, uninterrupted periods of ease and flow. Instead, we are moving through successive waves of intense activation, each followed by relatively short windows of integration.

One way to understand this pattern is that it doesn’t give the familiar self much time to fully reassemble. Instead, we are asked to stretch — and then stretch again. While this may feel demanding, it may also create the precise conditions necessary for deep, enduring transformation.