Body Wisdom - Jupiter in Taurus

We are environmental creatures.
Our soul inhabits a physical body, our body inhabits a physical world. Every day we're walking planet Earth moving through an environment that is influencing us at all times though we are not often aware of these influences. Our material reality and flow of events within this reality is represented by the Moon. The same goes for our body and fluctuations of energy and emotions within.

We are creatures of comfort.
We come to this world from a safe and secure environment of our mother’s body. It feels good to be taken care of. We want to be nourished and nurtured. We feel content and happy when these basic needs are satisfied. We need to be intimately connected to other beings. We want to be loved and held. 

Moon and Venus both stand for what makes us happy and content in our everyday existence. They are both linked to our material existence through the sign of Taurus as domicile and exaltation rulers.

A great benefic Jupiter is now transiting the sign of Taurus. This earthly home of Venus points to what is at the core of feeling good and happy in life. Taurus is where beauty, joy and comfort meets. It is about stability that is needed for life to grow. It is about providing proper nourishment and care that results in a healthy mind and body. It is about stability that comes when we feel nurtured and supported.

This Venusian summer of 40 days and 40 nights provided us with a great opportunity to go to the core and strip ourselves of our outward identity, worldly achievements, fake labels and shallow desires. We’ve met with the life itself - a heart that is tirelessly pumping the water of life into our body. Through this internal journey, we were asked to let go, to leave things behind in order to be reborn. 

Jupiter has been involved in this process as well as Venus is the ruler of Taurus and they’ve been meeting up on several occasions through overcoming squares from Jupiter. Both benefics, Venus and Jupiter, are about comfort, about what feels good, about the experience of joy and pleasure. The square relationship that they’ve been engaged in since June of this year is of the nature of Mars. Squares bring conflict and discomfort, increased heat and intensity. Pressure and friction are part of this process like when you press the sander on the wood to remove flaky paint or rough edges. You can smell the wood, you can feel how hot it gets to become smoother and cleaner.

Benefics present us with a challenge. We often underestimate the challenges that they might bring or the real depth of transformation that they initiate. We often connect them with frivolous, superficial, supportive, uplifting energy that is all about fun and growth and while it is true, there is so much more juiciness we can dive into.

What happens when we cast off our dull image and face what’s hidden in the shadows? There comes a time when we realize that we can never escape ourselves no matter how fast and far we’re running. We're often way ahead of ourselves. Maybe we haven’t dealt with things that need to be addressed so that the things we desire and dream about can make us really happy. Benefics present us with the real test. They can bring us to a crisis point where we realize that we want better things for ourselves as an act of self-love. 
When we struggle, we often feel an urgent need to change things in our lives, to evolve but far too often we’re far into the future. We're looking for the next great thing, sparkling with a promise - a powerful solution that will fix our problems for good.
Medicine is often closer than we think.

Jupiter brings the big picture and the need for coherence. Jupiter aims to create an overall framework where all things can work in a harmonious way that allows whole system to strive.
Jupiter in Taurus can represent well-functioning support system that needs to be established in our life if we want to be happy in whatever life area we want to grow in further. 

We need to make sure our basic needs are met. Basics don’t mean they’re simple. We can´t go without basics. We only realize how essential they are when we don´t have them or when we are stressed or deprived for a very long time. We become depleted. We can function in this state for a very long time until a crisis comes. We can’t build life on shaky foundations. When we’re running on empty, Jupiter in Taurus can amplify our hunger for security. It can lead to a feeling of never having enough, a tendency to eat our feelings or constantly getting all these fancy pretty things that will quickly lose their appeal and leave us dissatisfied. The next goal or accomplishment can´t ever satisfy us when we’re starving ourselves, deep inside.

We are environmental creatures. We can’t steer away from external influences. The body is our most immediate environment. It is intimately linked to our mind. One influences the other. If we make adjustments to our physical regimen, we will be able to see improvements in our mental well-being and vice versa.

BODY. Feeling the body, touching the body, breathing, resting, feeling grounded and nourished. Sounds so simple and basic, yet it often feels like it is the last thing on the list. Our body is not a mechanical object even though this is how our bodies are often perceived and treated these days. Our body is a wild, untamed animal. It needs slowness, proper care and attention. 

Body is our private Taurean garden. We can’t just constantly harvest. The harvesting season is actually quite short. If you’ve ever had a garden you know that there is so much that goes into it. A big chunk of the gardening year is about planning, figuring out what to grow, what fits the given environment and sometimes you can’t have it all. You have to sacrifice that exotic plants as it does not make sense at all for your conditions. You need to prepare the soil for the season. During a growing season, you need to water your garden and feed it regularly. You need to remove weeds that could otherwise take over your garden. And of course, there are these continuous daily checks to see whether something needs to be addressed. A necessary part of the gardening cycle is also a dormant period, where you let the soil rest and integrate the nutrients so that it doesn’t get depleted.

Jupiter in Taurus might force us to look at the overall structure of our life. Does my everyday life has a stable framework to function within, a framework that will provide a solid foundation no matter what's going on around me? How is my daily schedule? Is there a regular rhythm? Do I wake up and go to bed at regular times? Do I have a stable sleep time routine? Do I have tools to self-regulate when stuff comes up? Is physical activity part of my daily regimen? What/how much information do I take in? Is there some unstructured time in my day when I can just rest, reflect and dream….? I could keep going but you get the idea. 

This all sounds so simple and basic but this summer I ‘ve realized how life-transforming this can be. For the first time in my life, I’ve started to take my sleeping schedule seriously. I am going to sleep around the same time every night and I get enough hours of sleep. I scheduled my Wi-Fi router to be shut off every night and the nighttime routine is so much more peaceful at our house. Getting enough sleep has changed my world. I am rested and I am a lot calmer. As a result of this, I am more grounded and it is easier for me to be provide a support for my kids. I keep see my boys are calmer as well. 

My days are shorter and I don’t manage to cram in as much stuff as I did before but they feel somehow better, more satisfying and enjoyable. There is so much more that I plan to change but I plan to go slow and steady this time. This slow simmering inward journey took me to a place where I don’t want more than is already present in my life. 

I want to keep my regular but slow-paced reading schedule.
I want to keep developing my astrological skills through writing. 
I want to keep dancing with my amazing ladies. 
And most of all, I want to take care of myself and my amazing boys.
Keep hope alive, keep dreaming.
Petra