Taurus Solar Eclipse: Discovery & Growth

Several years back, a friend of mine had the ridiculous and lovely idea to gather our pals, make individual pieces of crop art, and submit our creations to the Minnesota State Fair.

I’m guessing your first question here is, “Jen, what the heck is crop art??”

To quote Wikipedia, “Crop art is an environmental art practice using plants and seeds in the landscape to create statements, marks and/or images.”

If you knew me well, you probably wouldn’t think of me as someone with a yen for turning grain into craftwork. But the idea of hanging with a group of buddies – who always made me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt by the end of the evening – seemed like a good one. So, one beautiful midwestern summer day, we sat outside, looked at what harvest supplies had been gathered, and tried to figure out what to make.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the colorful tubs of seeds, and I decided to fashion something that looked like my sun tattoo.* I sketched my drawing and got busy, carefully pinching individual pieces of colored millet and quinoa with a tweezers, and placing them onto a gluey piece of plywood.

In retrospect, the thoughts that entered my mind back on that lazy Minnesota afternoon resemble questions we can ask ourselves now, as we build towards an eclipse: What do we have to work with? And what do we want to create, to cultivate, to grow?

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“You’ll never hear the rain if you’re too busy screaming at the clouds.”

- Ben Braun, from his play Puzzle of Puzzles

On April 30th (3:28pm CT), we have a partial Solar Eclipse at 11 degrees Taurus.** Solar Eclipses occur when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun; they’re turbo-charged New Moons.

Eclipses can feel a bit like The Twilight Zone… they represent times when the lights turn off, and when they come back on, circumstances may have shifted, and things may not be as they were before. Senses tingle. Can you feel a shift happening?

Although New Moons always begin a new cycle, many astrologers advise not planting metaphorical seeds during eclipses: Who knows what’s happening in the dark? You may find that the theater props on the stage of your life are completely rearranged once the lights return. And with this eclipse happening next to Uranus – the jittery planet of all things unexpected – it’s hard to know what will happen, because the planet of upsets can bring surprises of any kind.

Taurus is a grounded earth sign, with a focus on money and resources: What do we have and what do we own? The sign is ruled by delightful Venus, who is currently in gentle Pisces, also asking: What do you value? What are you worth? And how can you live in better alignment with your principles?

There’s a spiritual element to this eclipse chart as well, calling to mind the label “seeker” that some folks use to describe themselves… walking along a sacred path, perhaps on a journey of self-discovery. And that’s not a bad word if that’s how you think of yourself; in fact, there’s a boundlessness to that term, and with so much watery Pisces energy in this chart, that certainly fits here.

But there’s another way to think about it: I once heard someone say (was it on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show?) that instead of being a seeker, they thought of themself as a finder. And that’s stuck with me over the years.

To me, the trick to being a finder is in the noticing: What beauty and bounty surrounds you? What do you already have? What can you discover all around you? That’s how a mindset of gratitude is cultivated.

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“Because eventually, for everything, no matter who you are, you will run out of time for the things you care about. The things you want to do, to say, to create… There just isn’t enough time. Time runs out. It always does.”

- playwright Ben Braun, Puzzle of Puzzles

I won a ribbon for my crop art at the State Fair that year, and believe me when I say, no one was more surprised by that than me.

My handiwork still sits on a shelf, although it’s a little worn down, and the colors have faded. The seeds have shifted a bit, too, and some have been lost over time, reminding me that as the aspirational Lunar North Node passes through Taurus asking us to grow-grow-grow, the releasing South Node continues its trek through Scorpio, a sign that is often accompanied by lessons in non-attachment and non-grasping.*** I think of times long passed, of people who I’ve loved and lost (including one friend who won a State Fair ribbon alongside me), of friendships throughout my life that have shifted just like those grains, and of circumstances – both beautiful and brutal – that have textured my life as they came and went.

But there’s a contentment that can come in the practice of discovery: What do we have?

Well, we still have now, don’t we? And I’m reminded, too, that perhaps time is our most cherished resource of all. It’s never too late, as long as we walk this earth, to observe what treasure surrounds us, and to try to cultivate something better for ourselves.

This Taurus Solar Eclipse invites us to consider: How do you want to spend the precious resource that is your life? What do you want to grow? And can you be a finder?

There are gifts in hand, if only we have the presence of mind and the eyes to see them.

Writing and photo ©2022 Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC 

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*Yes, I had a sun tattoo before I had an interest in astrology. Go figure.

**Note that you probably won’t see this Solar Eclipse, unless you happen to live on the tip of South America, are a penguin in Antarctica, or are traveling on a boat between the two land masses.

***If you’re interested in learning more about these concepts, read The Irony of Attachment at The On Being Project.

By the way, the banner that runs across the bottom of my website is an artsy photo of my crop art!