Dear Reader,

I’m writing to you from my warm, sunlit kitchen on a late afternoon. The Sun won’t be setting for a few hours, and I’m all cozied up in my writing chair. The air is thick with the smell of lilac and sounds of swifts. I’m enjoying a cup of tea and the still, steady flame of a candle.

What are you noticing in your surroundings, and how are you experiencing this time of year?

The heart of spring

The beginning of May features a major seasonal crossroads in the yearly cycle of the Sun. At Spring Cross-Quarter, the Sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus and marks the exact midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the exact Taurus/Spring Cross-Quarter fell on May 5th, 8:19 p.m. CET (convert to your time zone).

At the height of spring, we’re entering the brightest time of the year, which will peak at the Summer Solstice at the end of June and stretch all the way to the Summer Cross-Quarter at the beginning of August. We’re in a time of growing life force and fertility, when the Earth is fertile and animals give birth to their young. It’s a time of sensual beauty, pleasure, and bliss, when nature is in bloom and blossoms are releasing their sweet fragrance. It’s a time of celebration and creative expression, when we can celebrate life in all its abundance and rejoice in our sensuality and creativity.

Taurus is a fixed earth sign and signifies a season of slow and steady growth. Belonging to Venus, goddess of love and beauty, Taurus promises a season of sensual bliss and creative enjoyment. As an earth sign belonging to Venus, Taurus season speaks of the delights of being embodied and living on this glorious Earth.

Are you ready to enter the heart of spring?

Where are you finding joy?

What are you feeling grateful for?

What are you celebrating?

What’s flowering in your life?

What will you nurture into growth?

What will you cherish?

The questions sprinkled throughout this post are written as gentle invitations to weave ourselves deeper into the mysteries of spring. You may take them on your walk, into your journal, your dreams, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice.

What this time of year is good for:

Spending more time outside, gardening, walking barefoot, making flower essences, adorning our homes with spring flowers, rituals of self-love and self-pleasure, making offerings to the Earth, laying down on the Earth, creating a flower mandala, sacred acts of creativity, pleasure, play, gratitude and beauty, rolling around in the grass and having silly fun

Transitioning into summer

At the Spring Cross-Quarter, we’re crossing over from the gentler energy of spring into the more intense energy of summer. It seems important to pause and replenish ourselves here in Taurus season so that we’ll be able to continue to flow with the ongoing expansion and growth of the summer with more ease and grace (and won’t burn out in the heat of summer).

In my own life, I’ve noticed feeling drawn to the outsides more, wanting to bathe in the warm sunshine and to connect with nature. On my walks along the river (and across town), I’ve sighted the first butterflies, including two of my favorite ones — orange tip and small blue. What lovely names! I’ve also made a new tree friend and look forward to making visits over the summer.

How can you support yourself in transitioning into the climactic energy of summer?

How may you ground yourself?

Until next time…

I very much look forward to writing to you again around the time of the Summer Solstice, which will mark the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, heralding a time of ripening and fruition. It falls on June 21st, 4:58 p.m. CET this year (convert to your time zone).

I’m wishing you a beautiful rest of spring wherever you are. May you be blessed with good health and natural abundance.