FALCON New Moon

May 16th 2026, 4:00pm Eastern

New Moon at 25* 57’ Taurus

5th Shape: FALCON

21° 25' 43'' Taurus – 4° 17' 09'' Gemini

Today’s New Moon in Taurus, occurring in the 5th shape of FALCON sits in an odd position against the backdrop of so much early degree outer planet activity across Aquarius, Aries and Gemini. The conjunction of Sun and Moon occurs at the end of 25 degrees Taurus. The Sun only a few days prior made a conjunction with Mercury, whom the Moon will catch up with and revisit some mere hours after this lunation. The resetting of analytical faculties to material affairs, basic rhythms and grounding substance draws us in both objectively and subjectively. This foreshadows well Mars’ long stay in Taurus scheduled to span May 18th until June 28th. As Mars is governing Saturn and Neptune’s obligations to widen perceptions on effectively wielding energy and securing high saturation levels of autonomy, this slow, steady, momentum building effort approach to tactical affairs will preside the upcoming period in a tactile way. As Moon, Mercury and Sun plan all to proceed into Gemini very soon and conjoin Uranus, the look, feel and info exchanging will not conform to direct, critical challenges being of a stubborn, methodical nature. On the contrary, the ideas and outlooks will be radically varied and epiphanically alternative to what has been the status quo; we may just need to work at it and accomplish that final push, last mile of the marathon drive to get to the actuality of revolutionary concepts. 
This reflects Uranus no longer residing in Taurus after a stretch that began in May of 2018. The past couple weeks have returned the modeling clays of reality to their soothing and fertile quality and what has been tectonically quaking to change for the last eight years but refused to budge, probably because it was the ground upon which you were standing on, is now ready to metaphorically or literally flip, with a only a normal amount of effort and elbow grease, so if you haven’t run out of steam for that in all the years of beating a dead horse, then yes, you can now finally saddle up and ride, as long as you apply proper planning and preparation to your journey. With Neptune out of Pisces, wishful manifestation is not the way. You actually have to use wit, skill, accuracy, and alert capabilities— but, new endeavors are mandatory, so choose wisely and aim well.

The lunation is also upon the degrees of the star Algol, famous for demonic levels of raw nature expression, think the Gorgon’s head, and to ward off such derailing amounts of nature’s worst chthonic wallops you've got to go apotropaic and show Medusa her own reflection, i.e. banishing and warding protocols— Evil Eye trinkets, Eye’s of Horus, Feng Shui mirrors, garden Dragon-Dogs and whatever else your grandmother told you keeps away bad mojo. The metaphoric thread is to simply keep your head screwed on tight, your eyes peeled, your wits about you and don’t fall prey to carelessness and clumsiness. This degree I’ve found is common in the nativities of mariners, especially when Cancer placements are also present, and indeed, this lunation sextiles Jupiter in Cancer, so if you’ve spent any time on boats you know going offshore without precautions in place that consider drowning, sinking, catching fire, running out of food or water, succumbing to exposure or losing the ability to communicate with shore are all standard practice and unwise to embark if not in place. It’s not that Algol equals disaster, just that it reflects the not necessarily and automatically friendly side of nature. The sextile to Jupiter who wants us to be coherent of fulfilling abundance in Cancer is interesting. Austin Coppock’s 36 Faces describes the 3rd decan of Cancer being partly about spectrums of abundance vs lack and the 3rd decan of Taurus being partly about the possibility of losing crops before they are ready to harvest. Again, warding as well as preventative measures that are put in place so easily avoidable disasters do not occur.

The Picatrix talisman is for gaining the “favor of kings”, the PGM's Falcon is undoubtedly a symbol of Ra, the Eye of Ra/Horus are implicated, the Gorgon’s head wards away disasters, the seal of Verum’s Fleurity (deputy to Superior Belzebub) also displays a man’s head, the synchronized Exu is a messenger for powerful and primary orixá Ogum— who uncrosses hexes and rights injustices but is also dangerous, the Rigvedic suggestions of the 5th Nakshatra include lunar Soma, Ojas or life-essence and lustful procreation, the transition of ancestors and the 5th Chinese Xiu also discusses disasters born of mishap derived from lust, reversals of fortunes due to neglected dead, inappropriate mishaps and the seduction of fox-spirits. We may synthesize and summarize that for the successful "succession of kings" to occur, i.e. for you to be successfully creative in your life in a rewarding, stable, and material way, you must not get swayed by that which compels you into excessiveness, greediness, hedonism or causes you to neglect your assets or what got you to where you currently are in the first place. We’re in a biiiiiiiig pivot between past and future stories, so make sure you finalize all your mundane business before leaping directly into what the devil on your shoulder is telling you to do next. In fact, better to just tune that Devil out and listen to your own animating spirit (your consciously aware spirit-mind) to stay a few steps ahead of the archetypal Devil by being keen, nimble and non-attached. Get a birds eye view of your scene. This outside perspective might be a good map of possible moves on the board you are currently unaware of. Either way, if you are transitioning from near to far you ultimately begin with what’s currently at hand and within arms reach.

In the spirit of Taurus, and of the moment and overarching Aries theme of ‘it’s likely better to not waste words and to make sure to conserve your energy’ I’ll say not much more and keep it at this. I think you get the point. Make sure you’re rested, ancestors are calm, you’re sober enough to not fuck up, not doing anything precarious, and directly readying yourself for epiphanic leaps forward when the time is nigh. The compulsion driven world is a maelstrom of orgiastic excess and senseless violence. Your destiny is in your hands. Staying with the trouble may be keeping eye contact with the mountain lion, not turning your back on the predator, swimming towards the shark while snorkeling causes it to flee rather than pursue— this is holding your center, not joining in on the mayhem and becoming bloodthirsty one’s-self. There’s enough parasites and hungry ghosts in the world; but we are lacking in ensouled, spirit-connected, lucid individuals holding power with humility.