Healing Our Sensual Relationship With The Earth Part One, Or Uranus Transit Through Taurus

Uranus has been transiting the zodiac sign of Aries for the last 8 years and with the passage of time we have seen an intense combination of those two archetypes take hold of the collective conscious. One of the most prominent expressions of Uranus in Aries was the new found expression of the self, and it’s will to manifest it through actions. If this will was suppressed than trauma was experienced and this mental trauma could have taken root in the physical body, emotional body, and the spirit body. For many they faced the past traumas of expressing their will, and this pattern was hopefully met with objectivity and seeing the larger picture, finding a new strategy for acting on the desire’s of the will. We have seen the motivation to individuate while still being accepted, to go through our personal initiations as a woman, a transgender, a person of ethnicity, etc.  Equality is the balance to Aries and the energetic flow between the zodiac would point to Libra. Taking in consideration the other’s will and desires can strengthen our own progression if we make an alliance to those with the same values, needs, and goals. 

On May 15th of 2018 Uranus will move from Aries into Taurus. I personally feel and can see the collective shifting from the Yang energy of Aries into the Yin energy of Taurus. This is meant to be a dramatic shift after all the turmoil of the Uranus - Pluto squares that took place from 2010-2017. Depending on your personal perception of orbs in astrology we could find fault in these numbers but once a transit manifests its a trigger and the domino affect has begun at least in my observation and correlation of the human relations to the cosmos. 

Uranus’s Transit Through Taurus

Taurus in Uranus has been talked about amongst astrologers and that focus has been predominantly financial talk. I agree with this interpretation of the archetype as one of Taurus’s facets, but I would like to give another perspective to this archetype. I want to discuss personal values, pleasure, sensuality, healing the body, and partnering with the Earth, because Taurus is the first Earth modality of the zodiac, its a feminine sign and is ruled by Venus, and this is a rich and lush expression of the sprouting seed that will help to promote healing of this unique fertile planet we call home. 

As Taurus will be transiting  the inner side of Venus, in the school of Evolutionary astrology interpretation, this means that Venus is seeking to know herself, internally. To have a self driven relationship, where as Venus in Libra, the other home of Venus, is the external relationship that Venus has with her environment and with another person, or group of people. As time will drift on the currents of material reality we will see this expression of the Will ( Uranus’s Transit through Aries) turn into a desire to go with-in our self, in our bodies, and FEEL our experiences and desires. 

This Yin nature, the feminine roots of our wants and needs take to the Earth, which supplies us with her sustenance. Shelter, food, clothing are all supplied by the Earth, once we have secured our survival we seek pleasure, and Uranus in Taurus will call for sensing our desire to move past our immediate needs into the needs of future generations. The abundance that our mother Earth has offered us for so long is in question, now that we have taken with out reciprocation, respect, and gratitude. Will our future generations receive her abundance and grace or will we desecrate her further until their is nothing left of her green glory? 

This inner relationship to the senses (Taurus) that create this reality we all share is calling to us, for it is the starting point of real healing. The healing of our bodies and our relationship to the sensorial world. 

Our sensorial input is gathered through: Touch, Taste, Sight, Scent, and Sound. This leads to information gathered in the brain, which tells us how to react to the material world. All of our human senses result in one basic motivation which is SURVIVAL. This may seem primitive but our mammalian brain is still very much in charge of our neuro-chemical reactions to this incoming information and dominates our reality. Second, to survival is PROCREATION and our senses interrupt cues that  lead us to procreate with a partner who manifests this deep level of survival in our off spring. This is all under the Taurus archetype. 

The Earth supplies us with abundance and if this abundance is taken away from us this will trigger trauma. Uranus is the indicator of mental trauma in our natal chart by house and sign and the aspects its making to other planets, so any withdraw of our capacity to use our senses, and our separation to the Earth may manifest through this 7 year transit.  

Uranus, may need some further explanation into its role and negotiator of trauma. Jeffrey Wolf Green the channeler of the School of Evolutionary Astrology’s explanation of mental trauma  or the mental body is, “astrologically this will correlate with Uranus as the primary significator, and its lower octave Mercury as secondary significator. The types of trauma associated with the mental body are stroke, various type of psychological or psychiatric disorders, epilepsy, various diseases of the brain, sudden, unexpected changes that alter the psychological reality of the individual and the external structures of his or her reality that have defined their sense of identity up until the unexpected changes begin to occur.”

Dane Rudhyar and his vast explanation of Uranus explains another facet of the role of Uranus and this is Transformation. Uranus transforms, Neptune dissolves, and Pluto Regenerates. When we use the word Transformation we have to not accept this word to be accommodation or modification. Uranus demands truly a dramatic alteration. What was once something, must become completely different. I would use a butterfly as the analogy for Uranus. Butterflies were once a caterpillar and molecularly they have evolved from one state to another unrecognizable state. Uranian transits are electric, stimulating, active. In my personal experience mind altering. Physically and mentally demanding, because you are molecularly changing. Your brain could experience almost a constant dendrite growth. Connections are building like an electrical storm.  

Uranian Transits are altering our predisposed beliefs and putting sudden and immediate strains as a catalyst for change in our psyche, but with the influence of the Taurian archetype we are experiencing a deep re-evaluation of our values through Uranus’s electrical pulses. 

Now that we have put a little ground work down for the archetypal representation of Uranus and a little of Taurus/Venus lets put those two archetypes together to create a more rich and detailed picture of possible ways these two might manifest. Since story and myth hold such profound capacity for absorption of ideas and concepts. I would like to use the Mayan Goddess TLAZOLTEOTL  as one facet to the archetypal cohesion of Uranus in Taurus. 

Tlazolteotl, which translated from Nahuatl, means garbage, or I would like to describe her as recycled. Old, dirty, deteriorated, worn out thing. To the Mayans, tlazolli, means filth and refuse, while teoltl, means deity.

Tlazolteotl

Tlazolteoltl was called the “Filth Eater” and by no means was this a degrading term for the revered goddess. In our modern times and in our culture excrement is seen as an excepted part of the human experience, its made fun of by small children, but its mostly kept taboo unless your communicating to a doctor about your condition. To the Mayans gold, silver, and gems are the excrement of the gods and goddesses themselves. Elaborate systems of excrement accumulation in the city of Tenochtitlan was used for compost for the unique water gardens called ‘chinampas’ and also for agriculture. Filth was seen as dirt, thus the Earth, and all that comes from the Earth eventually returns to Mother Earth. 

Tlazolteoltl is the healer of ‘sin’ and would eat sin (filth) making her mouth painted/stained black as one of her main identifying marks in the ancient codices predominately documented by Catholic priests and the Spaniards, but in her gruesome form with snake in hand, riding a broom, wearing cotton spindles in her headdress, we can remove our patriarchal lens of Tlazolteoltl and see her as the accumulator, space-holder, then transmuter, of trauma who offers herself up in sacrifice as the Earth does by taking in ‘filth’ and returning it back to it’s self, for our purification. “She also symbolized the transformation of waste into humus, that is, the revitalization of the soil.”(Sullivan 1982)

To the Mayans balance was a part of their daily life, the balance of sexual relations, diet, psychotropic plants, ritual, and even sacrifice to the gods/goddesses, cleanliness of the body was very much a part of the process, steam saunas were a traditional form of detoxification which was also affiliated with Tlazolteotl. Filth/Cleanliness are two sides of the same coin interplaying between positive perspective and negative perspective depending on each individual scenario in Mayan myth. 

Imbalance was seen as ‘sin’ not the guilt ridden, shameful, word indoctrinated in us through the forced European religious belief system which lead to the demise of the natives of North and South America but, imbalance meant separation from natural law which is defined by Nature. 

Tlazolteotl brings us back to balance as Tlazolteotl Ixcuina, as the ‘Cotton Goddess’ she is the cycles of time and the seasons, represented by four sisters; Tiyacapan (first born), Teicuih (younger sister), Tlahco (middle sister), and Xocotzin (youngest sister). These phases correspond with the four phases of the moon, or the half of the eight faces of the moon. 

Since Tlazoteotl is the ‘Mother of All Seasons’, and the parturient of birth and of death, that the process of reciprocation to the Earth is defined by our relationship with Tlazolteotl. The Mayans would call to her to be present during the final days of life and her invocation was in prerparation to be brought back from which we came, back to the Earth, slowly broken down to dust.

Tlazolteotl as the feminine energies, correlates with the sensual aspects of Taurus in Uranus as she over looked sexual  misconduct, excessive and compulsive sexuality, this resonates deeply with Venusian issues in Taurus as sexual relations with the self and other has lost its value in our culture. Sensual intimacy is cheap and sprawled over media as a marketing tool. Beauty is no longer sacred, its bought in a bottle smothered on the skin causing toxic side-effects. 

Woman are seen as sexual objects and that is our responsibility to change this perception. Our mothers, mothers, womb wounds have not been healed, our ancestors blood memory has affected the eggs which we carry in our ovaries and we will pass these wounds to our children and continue the disrespect of women. Invoking Tlazolteotl is asking her to transmute your sexual and sensual wounds to the Earth through the blood, and finding deep healing with the sacred act through an equal partner.

Tlazoteotl, Astrology, and the Tzolk’in

 Tlazoteotl as a lunar and earth deitiy shows the deep relationship between the ancient astrological relationship between the Moon/Venus/Earth.  As the only female archetypes in Astrology,  following the Tzolk’in is key to the sacred correspondence of these two sisters and their relationship to our Mother Earth. The Mayans and before them used their calendar to decipher the eclipses and Venus’s relationship to the Earth. The sacred calendar is 260 days which is roughly the gestation cycle for humans, 260 days corresponds to Venus as an evening star then 260 days makes Venus the morning star on average. 18 months is the length of the Haab calendar or solar calendar and the Venus cycle is 18 months. Tlazoleotl ruled over the lunar cycle as a birthing deity and kept track of time as the 13th, 14th, Trecana. In Ptolemaic astrology the Moon is exalted in Taurus or Venus, symbolizing the matriarchal line of woman in the role of the creation. 

As I ponder the many archetypes of Uranus and Taurus I truly feel that Tlazoleotl will signify many aspects of our journey through our subconscious over the next 7 year transit. I will continue to utilize her sensual perspective as transmitted to me over time. I have made her a part of my daily thoughts and continue to find ways she communicates with me as a bridge between the material world and the in-between places or the unseen realms. 

For my continuation of “Healing The Sensual Relationship With The Earth” series of blog posts I want to observe and correlate the latest findings of the human micro-biome with the micro biome of the soil, the degraded health of our land for agriculture, biodynamic farming by Rudolph Steiner and the use of electricity in treating and re-mineralizing our Mother Earth, the use of the elements, gems, stones, and crystals, as an ancient healing modality during the Transit of Uranus through the zodiac sign of Taurus.

Align yourself with the cosmos…

Wolf Green, Jeffrey (1986) Uranus Freedom From The Known, 8-9.

Rudhyar, Dane (2008) New Mansions For New Men, 

Sullivan, T. “Tlazoleotl-Ixcuina: The Art and Iconography of the late post- Classic Mexico, Ed. Elizabeth Boone. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC. pp. 7-37