Written in the Stars: With Taurus season comes new beginnings

Taurus season has officially arrived — my favorite time of year. Throughout the 31-day period, everything starts locking into place and I always seem to be a bit more in tune with myself. 

I may be biased, as I have a Taurus moon and a Scorpio sun (Taurus’ complimentary “sister sign”), but it’s hard not to enjoy the warmer weather and the visibility of the spring semester’s finish line growing clearer each day. 

Taurus season is the second month of the astrological calendar. The first is Aries, which spans from March 21 to April 19. As the season of a cardinal fire sign, Aries season is typically full of chaos: new ideas, rash decision-making and always being on-the-go. Combine this with the energy of a new year and things can either go horribly wrong or wonderfully right.

Look at the relationships in pop culture right now: It’s not a coincidence that Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift broke up, Millie Bobby Brown got engaged to Jake Bongiovi, and Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet started dating all early this month. It’s not surprising if, this past month, you also experienced relationship woes or triumphs, an identity crisis, friendship drama or any other kinds of mayhem that felt life-altering. 

But starting April 20, Taurus season calms us down. It’s the time when the themes of the astrological year that we began to explore during Aries season really start to show. It gives us a chance to take some endings we may have experienced and look for new beginnings. It’s the time to take all of that chaos and turn it into something actionable, something to ground ourselves in.

If you’re entering a new relationship, now is the time to foster your connection to bring into the times ahead. If you’re leaving one, remember that your relationship with yourself is the most important one you have, and now is the perfect time to figure out what you desire — independent of anyone else’s opinions. 

If you don’t have a summer internship lined up, use this time to reflect on your career goals and where you truly see yourself after graduation. Foster your non-career-related passions and you might be surprised at what you learn about yourself. 

As if Taurus season isn’t transformative enough on its own, we’re coming out of a solar eclipse, and not an ordinary one. This past Wednesday, we experienced a hybrid solar eclipse, which occurs when some areas of the planet observe an annular eclipse, and others a total eclipse, because of the proportional distance between the sun, moon and Earth. 

When an eclipse occurs in the last degree of a sign, as this past one did, its intensity is heightened. Because of Aries’ fiery nature, you could have felt more impulsive and exhibited poor decision making. But whatever issues arose Wednesday are probably ones you should take a closer look at, and Taurus season will give you the space and grounding to do so. 

To add yet another ingredient to this thrilling astrological cocktail, Mercury has once again entered retrograde, which can cause miscommunications and technology issues since the planet rules communication and learning. We’re coming out of a longer break than usual, with no retrograde since Jan. 18, but starting this past Saturday, Mercury’s backward motion has returned until May 14. It’s easy to let miscommunications get in the way of what could be a very transformative time right now, so make sure you’re paying extra attention to the people around you and how you’re getting your ideas across. 

This retrograde won’t be as negatively impactful as the last few, as it’s in — you guessed it — Taurus. With Taurus’ mindful energy, now is the perfect time to do some self reflection, especially as we head into the endless possibilities of summer. 

It’s always bittersweet when a semester ends, independent of any astrological reasoning. There’s nothing quite like hitting “submit” on your last Blackboard assignment, handing in your last exam to your professor and closing the surplus of tabs that have been open for months on your laptop. But it’s hard to realize until the final moments that throughout the grueling process of classes, you’ve made new friendships, settled into routines and made a home away from home on this campus — and this is why, sometimes, Taurus season can be one of the more difficult seasons despite its positive energy.

I’m more sad to leave this semester behind than I have been in the past. With this being only my fourth semester on campus because of the coronavirus pandemic, I can’t even begin to fathom that next year will be my last. The post-grad world is becoming more tangible every day, which is both exciting and terrifying. Nevertheless, I know that at this time next year, I’ll have a similar sense of hope — as I’ve had every Taurus season before this without fail. I’ll be sad to leave the world I’ve created for myself at USC behind, but there will be something so incredibly exciting to look forward to. Because no matter how hard endings are, you never know what beginning lies ahead.

Jenna Peterson is a junior writing about anything and everything astrology related. She is also the managing editor of the Daily Trojan.