On the Erotic Ecliptic for May 2024

Our bodies are the revolution

Photo by Malvestida on Unsplash

May 2024 Dates to Note

1^st: Venus in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius (12:30 am ET)

2^nd: PLUTO STATIONS RETROGRADE (1:46 AM ET)

3^rd: Mars in Aquarius sextile Pluto in Aquarius (1:55 pm ET)

6th : Mercury in Aries conjunct Chiron (10:27 pm ET)

7^th: Sun in Taurus sextiles Saturn in Pisces (1:42 am ET), NEW MOON IN TAURUS AT 18 DEGREES (11:22 PM ET)

12^th: MOTHER’S DAY

13^th: Sun in Taurus conjunct Uranus (5:14 am ET), Venus in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces (3:45 pm ET)

15^th: MERCURY ENTERS TAURUS (1:05 PM ET)

17^TH: Mercury in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius (3:44 am ET)

18^th: Venus in Taurus conjunct Uranus (7:41 am ET), Sun in Taurus conjunct Jupiter (2:45 pm ET)

19^th: Sun in Taurus sextile Neptune in Pisces (6:45 pm ET)

20th: SUN ENTERS GEMINI (8:59 am ET)

22nd: Sun in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius (11:14 am ET)

23rd: Venus in Taurus conjunct Jupiter (4:29 am ET), Venus in Taurus sextiles Neptune in Pisces (6:50 am ET), FULL MOON IN SAGITTARIUS AT 2 DEGREES (9:53 am ET), VENUS ENTERS GEMINI (4:30 pm ET), Jupiter in Taurus sextile Neptune (5:4 am ET)

25th: Venus in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius (7:16 am ET), JUPITER ENTERS GEMINI (7:15 pm ET)

27th: MEMORIAL DAY (US)

29th: Mars in Aries conjunct Chiron (8:33 pm ET)

31^st: Mercury in Taurus conjunct Uranus (1:54 am ET)

The astrology gods packed so much into April that we may feel like we’ve exited to a different dimension as we step into May. The effect of Mercury Retrograde in Aries with an eclipse in the same sign was like time arching forward achingly slowly, yet simultaneously at the speed of light: this might feel like dream paralysis or being at the top of a rollercoaster as it suddenly stops. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction ushered us into a kind of revolutionary warp speed, and since they’ll remain in orb through the end of May, we may not feel like we’re able to get off this ride, if we want to get off, that is.

Speaking of getting off, it’s Masturbation May and May 1^st is May Day – a favorite confluence of events for me, as the liberatory power of pleasure is something that I think about all the time. I invite you to acquaint yourself with the idea that revolution(s) are made accessible when you strip out shame and allow yourself pleasure — even during what feels like an apocalypse. In honor of all of this, I’m reviving my #30DaysofOrgasm program that I last did in August of 2022. (As always, this is free, so stay tuned to my socials because the first post will go up within the next 24 hours. Find me on Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, and Threads.)

We are deeply enmeshed in the spirit of liberation at this moment, yet it might go in directions that make us feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I urge readers who are watching the world on fire right now to cleave to their compassion and know that when genocide is unfolding, it may look like people are doing things that you perhaps would not do, and it may seem like they’re unhinged. But maybe they’re just willing to push against systemic forces of oppression that we’ve become inured to.

This is what happened in 1968, when the youth rose up against the Vietnam War as Uranus, Pluto, and Jupiter all came together in Virgo. Once again, Uranus is exploding norms and conventions while Jupiter amplifies this expression of revolutionary energy. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction was exact in Taurus on April 20^th, and within days the next iteration of a global antiwar movement was born on college campuses.

In Taurus, we’re talking about our value systems, our relationship to money, and if we’re getting specific — the way our tax dollars are used to fund wars and weapons we deplore. In 1968, there was an uprising on the campus of Columbia University in April — and a police riot in the streets outside the Democratic convention in Chicago — where it will be held this summer. The resonances are eerie af. There is still time, though, for us to do it differently, less violently, and to use the energy of revolution to bring peace and safety for all.

If you’ve read my work or follow me online, you may know that I’m Jewish. Loudly, fiercely Jewish, born into an ancestral line of Jews from Ukraine, Hungary, Germany and Poland, and the great-granddaughter of the first Jewish Speaker of the New York State Assembly. I don’t shut up about my ancestry because I’m proud of it, especially about the part where we, as Jews, stand up against injustice and practice Tikkun Olam – god’s admonition that we heal and repair the world.

This is why I am so angry that people are using antisemitism as a slur against this movement. Yes, we have seen antisemitic slogans and posters and videos, and there have been right-wing agitators outside of campuses who’ve engaged in outright antisemitism – I condemn all of that in no uncertain terms. If you’re confused about the left and antisemitism, I wrote a Twitter thread that might be helpful. It provides some historical context.

So yes, our politics and culture may continue to move at warp speed, but May is definitively slower and much more sensual than April. It is overall a softer, smoother month with fewer fissures and one major planetary shift at the end.

As the month begins, Mars has just moved into domicile in Aries, keeping our fighting spirit alive, while Venus is in domicile in Taurus. In this season of all things Taurus, with Venus in the sign she rules, I want to speak for a moment about the art of receiving — the subject of the Venus chapter of my book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac. This Taurus season, we should try to make space for the way we feel when we are offered pleasure, from simple sensorial pleasure to more elaborate partnered sexual pleasure. Venus teaches us to feel comfortable in this, to relax in this, to experience peace in the act of receiving.

Venus and mars are strong in their own signs, and erotically, this is a lovely way for these cosmic consorts to meet each other as friendly neighbors. If we choose to, we can be with our bodies this month, experiencing the spring with our libidinous instincts and sensual impulses turned to full volume. And well we should, because Jupiter’s entry into Gemini at the end of the month will speed things right up again, taking us deeper into the age of air.  

On the 1^st, Venus squares Pluto and on the 2^nd, Pluto stations retrograde. This combination could feel like rage or jealousy, or rage-fueled jealousy, or the urge to destroy something that you love because you are terrorized by the idea of losing it. As Pluto moves back over the degrees of Aquarius that it has covered since January, it’s time to review your progress in this part of your chart. Have you been too heady about it? Between now and the fall as Pluto retraces these steps and briefly reenters Capricorn for the last time in the next 250 years, you can address that and tweak it.

Mercury, now direct, is again conjunct Chiron on the 6^th, reminding us of the healing journey we took in April, depending on where in our chart Aries lives. My experience of this transit and the eclipse was quite surreal and awful: I got Covid in the days before my birthday on April 14^th, and woke up very sick the next day. I’m better now, but still moving more slowly through the world than I’d like. What a hell of a solar return – and deeply instructive to me as an astrologer on the perennial question of whether one should observe an eclipse when it’s near the degree of your Sun – the answer, for me, is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT.

The New Moon arrives at 8 degrees of Taurus on the 7^th, far enough away from the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction to avoid shaking us up, offering an excellent excuse to indulge in sensualities and perhaps celebrate Masturbation May with a new toy. Setting goals for the Taurus house of our chart is also favored now.

Mercury finally enters Taurus on the 15^th, just a few days after it clears the shadow of last month’s retrograde. If your retrograde story is still unfinished or the denouement unclear at the start of the month, by this time you should have all the information you need and be able to close that book, or at least the most recent chapter you’ve lingered on.

The 18^th and 19^th might be fun and offer relational or erotic surprises as Venus conjuncts Uranus and the Sun conjuncts Jupiter. The Sun enters Gemini on the 20^th, sending our synapses into a tailspin for the next month, one that Jupiter will blast into the stratosphere when it enters this sign a few days later.

But in-between, we’ve got some wow factors erupting as the Full Moon in Sagittarius pops off in the midst of a whole bunch of other aspects, including Venus conjunct Jupiter in Taurus – SO DELICIOUS AND AMPLE AND SEXY. Next, Venus enters Gemini and then almost immediately trines Pluto, allowing us to course-correct for whatever we may have done to our love lives at the start of the month.

And the moment we’ve been waiting for for 12 years arrives on the 25^th: JUPITER ENTERS GEMINI. Air signs can GET IT for the next 12 months. Traditionally Jupiter is weak in Gemini (it’s in domicile in Sagittarius) but honestly? I’m not mad at it. Jupiter in Gemini can be excellent for those of us who enjoy a life of the mind, the big talkers and writers and journalists and thinkers. However, it can also take us out of our bodies because our nervous systems are so speedy and stimulated. This is cosmic caffeination to the max.

It will be up to us to remain calm steady and avoid being so enmeshed with our phones that our social feeds replace our relationships. Jupiter in Gemini can exacerbate the loneliness epidemic, as parasocial connections might seem as crucial to our lives as real, live ones. So enjoy what feels intellectually sexy, play lots of Wordle, engage in witty reparteee, but remember not to be completely mired in online spaces, because there is a life outside. In other words: touch lots of grass and be with others who want to touch you.

My book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac went to print last week! I’m starting to book events and podcasts and will keep you posted on all of this. I will continue to offer the 10 percent discount on sessions to anyone who preorders a copy and sends me a receipt. Finally, I’ll be posting sign-by-sign horoscopes for paid subscribers on Thursday and Friday this week, but in the meantime, my May WELL+GOOD forecast is up.

xoxo

Stefanie