It’s often said that one’s experience of the world is based upon their perspective.
Some of us choose to look for the negatives in situations and circumstances, often resulting in a victim mindset or defensive, self-protective, or sometimes even aggressive stance in the face of challenges or conflict. Others of us choose to look for the positives in situations and circumstances, often resulting in a pragmatic mindset or an open, inquisitive, and sometimes collaborative stance in the face of challenges or conflicts.
Ceres moved into its native sign of Taurus at 9:06p PDT on Saturday, 16th July 2016, and will be a very instrumental part of helping us determine which mindset we choose to adopt.
Taurus is a fixed earth sign, representing the physical-material resources and interactions we need in order to sustain our self-identities created in and represented by Aries. Wherever Taurus resides in our charts represents the areas of our lives where we seek and find the resources we need in order to have and maintain our desired lifestyles, our sense of physical and material safety, security, and stability in our lives, and/or do our best to maintain a status quo.
I consider Ceres to be the ruler of Taurus, revealing what we value most on a personal level and where (and how) we make sure we have the physical-material resources and support we need in order to sustain the physical representations of our self-identities. I tend to think of Ceres as “the earth mother” who nurtures and cares for each of us on a physical, material, and financial level.
In both cases, we value our physical resources and interactions because we need them in order to thrive, and in some cases, in order to simply survive. We value food, shelter, sex, and trade or money because they ensure our fundamental survival. It’s the level to which we have these resources (or believe we must have these resources) which determines our lifestyle values.
At any other time, Ceres in Taurus would probably make our lives seem more solid and secure. Yet in mid-July 2016, it arrives at a time when a sense of uncertainty and instability is heightened and prevalent. People aren’t really sure how stable, secure, or safe they are in their familiar environments. As result, the 2016 Ceres in Taurus reveals a stubborn determination to maintain what is left of one’s comfortable – or at least familiar – lifestyle conditions.
As we witness and experience the compromised integrity and the collapses of major institutions, political parties, governments, and international alliances around the world, acts of terror, and shifting dynamics and definitions in regard to class, religion, and culture, we are each beginning to notice which perceptions of the world we carry and how we perceive what is happening in the world. Our perspectives are beginning to show.
This is why this 2016 Ceres in Taurus period will have many if not all of us asking – are we operating from the perspective of lifestyle resources or survival needs? Are we looking at our lives from a perspective of “how do I make what I have work for me” or from “how do I hold on to what I have”?
It’s an important distinction. On one hand, there are the things which help us maintain our comfortable existence – the things we are used to having access to, things we are used to being able to receive, ways of being and living we are used to enjoying. That is a lifestyle resource perspective. Lifestyle is a matter of how you choose to live.
Lifestyle resources are often confused with survival needs – the fundamental basics of living. Do you have something to eat? Do you have shelter? Are you personally physically safe and secure? That is a survival perspective. Survival has no choice other than to live or die.
The fact is…the 2016 Ceres in Taurus is helping each of us recognize what is most important to us in these turbulent times – what we each value most when it comes to our physical-material comfort and/or our basic survival AND whether or not we perceive comfort and ease as a matter of lifestyle or as a matter of survival. The more things become uncomfortable, the more our individual perceptions of the world begin to emerge and the real perspectives we each have of the world and the people around us are revealed. These times of uncertainty and instability are helping us learn what is really most important to others and to ourselves.
What may be most interesting about this 2016 Ceres in Taurus is that even though we are experiencing many events collectively, the takeaways from these events will be very individual and personal. Each person will be pushed out of their comfort zones to figure out which values they stand for. Which values align with their authentic selves, their individual inner truths?
This 2016 Ceres in Taurus period will not only reveal what each of us values– it will also reveal who among us has an individual or independent values and who has collective or community-based values. In other words, we’ll learn who acts upon their own personal values and seeks community with like-minded individuals, and who bases and determines their personal values upon the values of others around them or succumb to “group-think”.
It will be a very interesting time, indeed.
There aren’t too many 1-to-1 aspects for Ceres in Taurus coming up in the next few weeks. However, the planetary geometry configurations are important to note, and involve the following:
- Taurus Ceres opposite Scorpio Juno (within orb NOW through 26th August) – This reveals that in order to claim a sense of balance in the changing world, we may look to or go to extremes to defend and protect what we perceive to be our self-identities and our survival needs. This opposition began while Ceres was still in Aries, giving it a distinctly aggressive tone. Now with Ceres in Taurus, aggression gives way to a perception of physical-material realism. It’s no longer a perception of anger – now it’s perceived as a matter of survival. One’s individual perspective will determine whether or not this realism is approached with an open and creative approach or a closed and defensive/protective approach. This opposition will be within 3° orb for quite a while, with Juno finally pulling away from Ceres on 26th August.
- The afore-mentioned Ceres-Juno opposition becomes even more complicated when the Cancer 7 Sun moves into Leo 7 energy, squaring both Ceres and Juno to form a Fixed energy T-Square on 22nd July. Though it will be within 3° orb late on 20th July in Cancer (bringing people’s basic emotional responses to the surface), the Leo Sun will gradually bring the entire assortment of value systems vying for attention to light. People will become much more aware of their personal values, want their values acknowledged, and are more likely to take clear positions on matters as this t-square tightens up, making its most exact formation about 6:00p PDT on 23rd July and being in effect through 26th July.
- The Moon passes through to form a Lunar T-Square with the Ceres and Juno opposition twice – once late evening-early morning on 1st-2nd August, and the other on 16th August (from Aquarius). The former will likely be individuals boldly speaking up or speaking out on particular matters, while latter will be more community/collaboratively driven and will more likely show up as mass public responses or demands. Both forms will be emotion-driven expressions of personal and collective lifestyle values. Both of these transits will be short-lived, only lasting a few hours. But the effects of their energies may have enduring effects.
- Ceres in Taurus will also form trine and sextile aspects with Mercury and Venus in Virgo coming in early-mid August. Though they don’t form any major geometric configurations, they will provide moments of clarity and pragmatic support as we continue forward on this rather turbulent journey. This is where “how do I make it work” versus “how do I hold onto what is mine” will likely be sorted through.
We will be dealing with our lifestyle vs. survival perspectives for a pretty long while. In fact, the 2016 Ceres in Taurus begins a retrograde cycle on 31st August, giving us plenty of feedback and second chances to adjust our values and align them with our authentic selves; re-enters Aries on 12th October, and finally re-enters Taurus in early February 2017 for a straight-thru run until late April 2017.
We’ll see how round two shows up once we get there.
In the meantime, you have some choices to make about how you’re choosing to see the world and your place in it. What do you value most, and what do you intend to do to stand for those values?
Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
