Expand and Have Fun

The Sun left the red Aries and entered the orange Taurus on April 19. The red Mars has been retrograde since April 17; the yellow Mercury is retrograde from April 28 through May 22. The orange Jupiter has been retrograde since January 7, and will go direct on May 9. So we have an auspicious alignment from May 9 to May 20 when orange can shine in its true brilliance in Taurus and Jupiter because the red of Mars and the yellow of Mercury are drawn back.

Taurus and Jupiter reflect the Sun’s light in nourishing and expansive orange rays of universal knowledge of the future, according to Rudolf Steiner. Throughout the year, orange vibes are strong every Thursday, the day of Jupiter. And every year between April 19 and May 20, as the Sun passes through the constellation of the Bull, the orange influence is extra powerful.

The planetary being Jupiter, a benevolent leader and a warm presence, softly embraces us with the sound of O (pronounced “oh”). He encourages creative cosmic thinking. Not the everyday scattered monkey-mind activity, not the logical thought processing, nor pondering of the past, but cognizing in pictures. The kind of immersion in images that happens when we read a well written book, or listen to good music. Any art that engages, yet, doesn’t overwhelm the senses, will do the trick to enrich the mind with internal visualization, the multidimensional storytelling in the personal etheric bubble.

Imagination is thinking in picture forms in the present, a gift of Jupiter. Logical thinking is analyzing the past, a gift of Saturn. Both are needed. Saturn is indigo blue, which is inward, contracting. The lurking dangers are negative thoughts, cynicism, sarcasm. Whereas the Jupiter’s orange brings the expansive rays of universal knowledge of the future. To perceive the Jupiter’s insights, we have to uplift our vibrations with a positive attitude; otherwise its wisdom stays in the subconscious.

Rudolf Steiner reminds us that memory is the past, imagination is the present, inspiration is the future. All three are human thinking capacities. Yes, we need to be well versed in logic, and have to learn from the past. But cannot remain stuck there. We must strive to consciously form pictures in our mind. This is not the same as clairvoyance. Images perceived through clairvoyance are given to us by other spiritual beings: all that is required of us is to be clean and open recipients, yet passive. Don’t get me wrong: it’s good to receive information via heightened sense of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting. But psychic abilities are not supposed to be the end goal. We should not passively rely on them.

Each one of us is a spiritual being in a human body. As human beings we merge the animal and angelic qualities. Our task is to elevate our physical existence to the angelic levels through higher cognitive and perceptive capacities. We contribute to the Universe by consciously developing imagination and creative thinking, which inspire us to create in the world of matter.

We must get into the habit of creating sparks of inspiration within us. The outside world of matter and Spirit can encourage and nudge us, but without the inward spark and inner fuel, we cannot accomplish much.

The orange Taurus with its airy rolled R enables us to expand the projects we began in Aries, so that they can fully shine in yellow Gemini and breathe. Let’s enjoy the airy rolled R of the Bull, full of creativity and fun.

I find it interesting that in English, the sound of R is growling, grounding R. It’s still an air sound, and fluffs up the physical matter. According to Rudolf Steiner, English is the language of the future. Other Indo-European languages have a bright rolled R; the French R is a bit different, and leads to a deeper English R. One day I’d like to research the historic progression of this consonant a bit more.

“O Cow: Your strength out of the language, which Stars reveal to me.” (Rudolf Steiner, 1923)

The full moon in Taurus, which marks the festival of Wesak in Buddhism, was on April 21. It celebrates Buddha’s birthday; and some Buddhists also commemorate his enlightenment and death on the same day. Buddhist monks wear orange, and Tibetan monks wear shades of orange, red, yellow.

In Christian tradition, Whitsun or Pentecost on the 7th Sunday after Easter is usually during the Sun’s transit through Taurus as well. It’s coming up on May 15. Both occasions—Buddhist and Christian—are about spiritual expansion, about receiving the universal wisdom.

Taurus the Bull is associated with the Goddess in pagan traditions. Many such images can be seen in Paleolithic and Neolithic art across Europe and Middle East. The Beltane festival on May 1 (or on the full Moon just before) is the festival of fertility and Union. Gradually, the union of the Bull and the Goddess was broken, and the Bull was set against the Goddess, the Cow. The myth about the rape of Europa is one example. If we observe what’s happening in the physical reality, we notice that the bulls and the cows are suffering: bull-fighting, abusive animal husbandry practices, and unsustainable milk production. Isn’t it time to heal this ancient wound?

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