What’s Happening in May 2025

New Moon happening soon! We’re still in a run of New Moons on the social and emotional levels of life.

This New Moon gives us glimpses of things to come so we can prepare accordingly. This one shows some things falling apart this next month to ease the way into the new Saturn in Aries era coming soon.

This Lunation introduces a new focus wherever we have 8 Taurus, a degree of “using knowledge and skill” to anticipate a stage yet to come. This New Moon helps solidify elements of the emerging era even as Venus, Saturn, and the North Node continue to help us grow by saying goodbye with grace and allowance, blessing the passages.

Due to where the inner planets are now, the focus of activity these next 4 weeks is in the 40+ degree span which includes Saturn at 28 Pisces, North Node at 27 Pisces, Venus 29 Pisces (same degree as the Solar eclipse Venus), Neptune at 1 Aries (same degree as the eclipse Mercury degree), Mercury at 11 Aries, and the Lunation at 8 Taurus. As you can see, it’s a very crowded situation wherever we have late Pisces through early Taurus in our chart.

An Overview of the New Moon

Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 2 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

This forward looking, stabilizing, and revelatory New Moon at 8 Taurus occurs at 12:31 pm PDT on April 27. This helps us turn the corner on the Aquarian pulse for 2025, and sets the themes which will yield a new global “Buddha Wisdom” at the coming Full Moon Wesak Festival on May 12 at 23 Taurus/Scorpio. As Venus is still in Her shadow zone, we’re still practicing our wisdom acquired during the recent Venus retrograde period.

Based on the separating T-square of the Sun squaring both Mars and Pluto recently during their opposition, this is an “aftermath” of that integrative frictional configuration. The hard changes have already happened, and the Solar eclipse continues to remove old patterns from the house where we have 10 Aries. The next few weeks will show us elements of the journey of our Soul, with entirely new initiatives emerging from the cosmic ocean.

We are still in a time of no non-Lunar oppositions. We’ve now completed the third opposition of Mars and Pluto, with no more coming until early August when Mars at 2 Libra opposes Saturn and Neptune at 1 Aries. So Mars continues to be far outside the occupied span, representing the nozzle or handle of how we can express all the other energies during the time the Moon is between Capricorn and Gemini.

At this time of year the Sun shines a light on all of us in our Taurus sector, allowing us to ground the larger Aquarian emergent energy. This New Moon eclipse will jumpstart Taurus energy wherever it falls in our chart, whether through easing into a comfortable groove, or new ways to substantiate our new lives as we stand in the twilight zone between the past and future.

So What Rules the Lunation?

This New Moon in Taurus has Venus in Pisces as its worldly ruler, and TransPluto in Virgo as its spiritual ruler. As Taurus is in the axis of the Archetype of the Warrior/Guardian, we can be the stable focus we want, enjoying ourselves as we know when to advance, when to retreat, when to hold the line, and when to adapt. Guard boundaries and resources, and remember not to clutch at disappearing forms.

The Lunation’s ruler Venus is in Pisces, the sign of Her exaltation, which means She is in her sign of greatest development and so She rules the stage! Venus in Pisces is ruled by Jupiter in Gemini, giving us both adaptability and the need for clarity.

Mercury is in Aries, ruled by Mars in Leo, Mars is ruled by the Sun in Taurus, ruled by Venus. Jupiter is ruled by Mercury, Saturn in Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, Uranus in Taurus is ruled by Venus, Pluto is ruled by Saturn, and as usual, Neptune occupies its home sign continuing as a long wave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness.

So this Lunation we have a “chain of dispositors” ruling all the other planets involving the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.

Who Leads the Light?

At this time, the “gateway to the light” is Mercury at 11 Aries. This indicates the “entry to illumination” involves an awareness of the trajectory of our Soul’s growth as we see the future unfolding in the now.

Mercury will continue to be the gateway to the Light until it conjuncts the Sun on May 29/30, after which Venus will be the gateway to the Light until the Sun conjuncts Jupiter in early Cancer. The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of understanding how the planets work in sequence.

The Sun/Moon Sequence and Its Shifts

There are two patterns: one with the Sun in the same sign as the Sun in the following Full Moon (New Moon between 1-15 degrees of a sign), and one with the Sun in a different sign than it’s in at the following Full Moon (New Moon between 16-30 degrees of a sign). I term these the “Natural” pattern and the “Alternate” pattern, since the Natural pattern shows a continuity of the Light, whereas the Alternate pattern bridges the Light across two signs. Each pattern has its importance in the Soli-Lunar sequence, and at the end of each period of the Natural pattern we shift into a pattern which “bridges the Light” across two different Light signs in the Lunation cycle.

We are now at the eleventh New Moon in many months where the Sun sign of the New Moon is also the Sun sign of the following Full Moon. A while back we finished an era when the New Moon Sun sign was different than the Sun sign of the following Full Moon. This month’s New Moon Sun is at 8 Taurus, and the coming Full Moon Wesak Festival Sun is at 23 Taurus. This indicates that we’re in a time when the illuminated seed forms of the New Moon are the same energies which will find fulfillment at the Full Moon.

The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced and made pleasing in Libra, purified and focused in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.

Eclipses Effects in Play

The 2023 and 2024 Solar eclipses have been removing parts of our lives where we have 10, 20 and 30 Aries, and 11 and 22 Libra. We now care about other things, have a new focus, and can join with others for mutual strengthening. We continue to eliminate old ways of self-expression and equivocating in relationships, and now have eliminated old associations to create space to join with others to overcome “seasonal impotency.” We are now freed of many old ideals and areas we used to work within. All of these eclipses ask us “What is the purpose to what you leave behind and what you’re moving into?”

The recent powerful Total Lunar eclipse at 24 Virgo/Pisces will remove many things from that sector for the next few months. The Lunar and Solar eclipses in March 2025 were the last with Neptune in Pisces, as Neptune will be in Aries for all future eclipses.

Jupiter and Saturn

A new era began at the 22 Taurus Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in April 2024, launching a new 13 year adventure into new lives. That conjunction theme is about us seeing “the white dove flying over troubled waters” which promises that our ordeal is completed and we are or will see a sign from Spirit announcing a new day, a new land, and a new life wherever we have 22 Taurus. Mars activated that energy right before it conjuncted Uranus at 27 Taurus in mid-July. This will become clearer beginning May 2025.

Jupiter is in Gemini and in direct motion headed for its entry into Cancer in June. It will then make the third square to Saturn from 2 Cancer to 2 Aries. The first square was in mid-August is from 17 Gemini to 17 Pisces. The second one happened Christmas eve from 15 Gemini to 15 Pisces. The third one is next June and falls from 2 Cancer to 2 Aries.

In this chart Jupiter promises us that fate plays a hand these next 4 weeks as we will see clashes between instinct, ego, and the future which is opening. We’re still in a time of leaving ghosts of the past behind and a purification process which won’t be completed until January 2026.

Saturn is extraordinarily important in this New Moon because it is at 28 Pisces, a degree of “abundance.” This degree has been triggered numerous times in the past year, six times this year alone as Mercury and Venus went over it direct, and then again retrograde, and then again in direct motion in recent days.

Last month Saturn was septile Pluto. This is the emergent septile to Pluto, indicating the larger Aquarius era has now hit a major “fork in the road” with hard edged, non-rational events in play. The final turning of the wheel will be in December. At 28 Pisces we continue to finish our lessons related to faith, forgiveness, compassion, and the willingness to be responsible in how and when to let go.

We’re now solidly in the next stage of our life renewal as we experience “non-local awareness” with our Spiritual Sisters and Brothers within the One Life. We have “walked with our Wisdom” and found the nourishment we need at the end of some labor. This is the time to learn “physical awareness and enlightenment,” finding hope in new feeling discoveries. Saturn in Pisces certainly tests our compassion for everything and everyone! Still, if we have faith in something and it's true for us, our patience can see the object of faith made manifest.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Because Saturn now draws near its end of sailing the open seas of Pisces, we can use the spiritual maturity, patience, and compassion to demonstrate our understanding of the power of blessing the passages as we prepare to leave the seascape of the collective feelings of all humanity over all time. We’ve all had a powerful restructuring of spiritual force wherever we have the late degrees of Pisces in our chart. Saturn has taught us a Master Class in compassion and forgiveness practices as we’ve learned a sober view of the human condition.

Making friends with our inner Saturn is the most important thing we can do to fulfill our spiritual destiny. If you want to know more about your power to throw off oppressive chains, limitations, and fears, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We all need to make friends with our inner Saturn if we would claim our power to fulfill our higher purpose for being alive as Spirits in the material world.

The book offers ways to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to master life on your own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy in life, by owning our ability to demonstrate Saturn's virtues, we take command of our destiny and become the living purpose we were born to make manifest!

It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and will assist your understanding of how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and power to turn away from unhelpful karmic cause and effect patterns. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.

A Look Back - The Great Compression of 2020 in Capricorn Still Affects Us

We’re now in our sixth year of a long term focus wherever we have late Capricorn and early Aquarius in our charts. In the first 90 days of 2020, we had a “Great Compression” of planets involving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all making conjunctions in the last decan of Capricorn, setting off a number of Saturn cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We then began an accelerated phase of our collective spiritual evolution which will take us from the threshold of the Age of Aquarius into the Age itself.

You can find out more about the very powerful Sun, Mercury, and Saturn's conjunctions with Pluto by revisiting The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn. That lays out the long wave patterns set into motion then.

Because of the Capricorn conjunctions set in motion in 2020, we reorganized our lives wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. These cycles will impact all of us for some time to come. Especially with three Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto that year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things were “expansively purified.”

When Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020, it set a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the December 2020 Grand Mutation on the same degree. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launched both a new 20 year Aquarian cycle AND a new 200 year era of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. That means less materialism than the past 200 years, with more focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200.

Saturn in Aquarius led us to understand a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. Since then we have deepened with Saturn in Pisces. As always, Saturn in the harvest signs at the end of the zodiac challenge us to ask “What is our purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do we need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?”

Chiron in Aries

In this chart, Chiron is direct at 24 Aries, the degree of its retrograde station in 2024, opening the doors to “concentrated doses of spiritual energies.” Chiron is said to help us “heal into our Higher Self” and the themes of 24 Aries promise “good fortune upon the putting forth of effort.” Be receptive to higher energies, as they’ve been blowing through our mind-windows for many months!

Chiron involves mentoring or being mentored, assisting or being assisted related to these themes. This will help us focus our potency or move us toward our potential. Chiron is now moving us forward in the level of social or emotional potency.

This continues our adventure related to Chiron’s healing and mentoring energies in the last half of Aries. We now have two major Chironic themes in play: one was set into motion when Mars conjuncted Chiron in Aries in 2024, which I explained in Mars Conjunct Chiron at 23 Aries. The other major Chironic cycle was set into motion when Chiron went stationary direct in late December, which I wrote about in Astrology Healing Cycles in 2025 - Chiron Stationary Direct at 19 Aries.

So Aries continues to dominate the Mars/Chiron cycle, with a new long wave Chironic pulse added at the Jupiter/Chiron cycle which began at 15 Aries in March 2023. This began a new cycle of “the expansive healer,” “opportunities to mentor and be mentored,” and "healing and teaching through humor." The last Jupiter/Chiron conjunction happened in late Aquarius in 2009, and this one lasts through 2036 when they meet again at 17 Gemini. This is an important cycle which will help us “heal into our Higher Self” at crucial points over the next 13 years.

Summing Up - The Big Picture

The Capricorn conjunctions of early 2020 continue to condition the long wave cycles unfolding since then even as we simultaneously build a new Aquarian social-spiritual ideal. Jupiter raced through Pisces and Aries at perihelion after its time in Aquarius and opened infinite potentials to be actualized over the next 20 years. What Jupiter opened in 2021, Saturn crystallized in 2022.

We’re now at a stage where we have been flowing into our mastery, our archetypal Self, and our part to play in the bigger picture of our spiritual journey. With Saturn in Pisces, while endings may feel heavy, the immediate lightness which follows helps move us into a new life adventure.

We are solidly in the dawning of the Pluto in Aquarius era, with new work to be done. We are now on a new adventure, so enjoy the clarity of Uranus trine Pluto coming this Summer. We are learning how to stabilize and express the dawning Plutonic seeds of the emerging Aquarian era, so things will be very “transitional” from now through early 2026.

Summing Up – The Immediate Picture

We are now in a transition between an old way and a new life, finishing up old duties and responsibilities while embracing a new dedication and a new world of experience. This should be an effective month for those who keep it simple while “thinking in the future.”

The next four weeks bring the emergence of many things even as we finish an old way which kept a lot suspended in past months. Keep finding ways to direct energy to what is already speeding up and taking preliminary shape. Because of the recent Solar eclipse and Mercury going SRX on the same degree, we’re in a time of reinterpreting many things, finding new meaning in old images.

The October eclipse is already helping us release old superficial ways of relating to others, and enable us to see how to assists and teach from a different perspective. While hard adjustments and sacrifices will be evidence the next 5 years, be kind to yourself and communicate truths the best you’re able in a balanced elegant way.

Use vision, foresight, and a sense of the trajectory of your Soul’s flight to move into a new way of relating to self and others. While much is in the past, we’re still in the transition between the old fogs of Pisces obscuring our vision and the emergent new era. So if you get confused, remember the wisdom of Nelson Wilbury, “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there.”

Final Thoughts

In 2020-2022, Capricorn helped us to find new forms of social power, while Aquarius took it into a much vaster context of a greater good. As you journey into the “new lands” promised by the April Jupiter conjunction with Uranus, remember enlightenment is a verb, not a noun, and our connection with the World Soul allows us to act in harmony with “All That Is.”

Because of our total immersion in Aquarian energy in 2021-2022, we’ve received innovative ideas and know who our spiritual allies are. In the past 4 years we’ve broken away, broken free, and broken through whatever used to block our flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and we’re now in a time of new initiatives!

We’re still becoming more conscious of our interrelatedness within the spiritual field and moving through an immersion in a new sensitivity to the generic human condition. The new era dawning will show us that we are in fact individual sparks of Light within an infinite ocean of Light. We are not separate from any other thing, since all things are Light and therefore we are one with All.

This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at times may be chaotic, violent, intractable, and irrational, but there is power in our unified vision of a better future. Stay clear about what your vision is, and let go of all which prevents you from flying free with your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters into a better future. Keep the course steady despite the compressed tensions of this time, and know we’re on our way into the future together!

And now, a word from our sponsor!

As Venus is still in late Pisces, Her sign of exaltation, She again is very powerful and a “guiding light” for Saturn, with both pulled into growth by the North Node and Saturn on a degree of abundance. Having reviewed what She experienced in late Pisces and early Aries, she heralded what we’ve been experiencing the past few weeks which will impact the rest of the year. Because She conjuncted Saturn at the Solar eclipse and is till conjunct Saturn at this New Moon, Venus is at Her mature best, elegant, compassionate, visionary, and forgiving. A lot of ghosts from the past will leave our lives thanks to the Aries eclipse.

If you want to know more about Venus retrograde or Venus in any sign, and find ways to change what and who you attract to your lives, finding your heart’s desire and a lot of joyous relationships which fulfill your Soul, please consider getting your copy of my book, The Magic of Venus: Friendships, Soul Mates, and Twin Flames. It’s the most comprehensive book on Venus ever written, and takes a deep dive into how our Venus shapes why we like or don’t like the people and things we do, and how we can change our patterns of attraction to make future relationships more fulfilling. It explains the world of relationship from the angles of psychology, astrology, spirituality, and worldly experience.

I’ve heard it helps people find strength to turn away from unhealthy relationships and understand how not to attract anything similar in the future. It examines the qualities in healthy relationships and friendships, and offers tips on how to create long lasting personal relationships and friendships, why Soul Mates come into our lives, and how to know the difference between a Soul Mate and our Twin Flame.

It has chapters on the qualities of each sign’s natural mate, the qualities of Venus in each sign, Venus retrograde, and when crucial choices and changes are made, affecting who we attract in the future. It was written for both astrologers and lay people, and as it has a thousand gems for better relationships, with self, others, and Source, please consider getting your copy by going to the link above! (And when you’re done, please leave a review on Amazon, since it helps the book and all other books on astrology as well!)

See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2025 Robert Wilkinson