DR. G’s FLUTE HOROSCOPES May 2022
by Rachel Taylor Geier
Welcome to May! I hope April was a positive month full of forward thinking and strategic planning for the future. May promises to be quite the opposite. A Mercury Retrograde mid-month will cause a few miscommunications. Remember to reflect on the lessons that arise during a Mercury Retrograde. Are there better ways to communicate with others that are perhaps a bit more genuine? Make sure to also backup all technology and avoid signing contracts until Mercury goes direct next month. Messages should be kept brief to avoid muddled misinterpretations. A Lunar Eclipse mid-month will force you to make some honest yet tough decisions. Where are you struggling? Is there a way to remove obstacles from your life and replace them with things that lift you up? Life is too short to live in a state of frustration. Edit whatever needs to be edited. May is all about reflecting on the good, the bad, the ugly, and brainstorming better paths forward in the future.
1Taurus (April 20-May 20) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. Practice what you love when Venus moves into your 12th house. This is actually a great time to work on new repertoire for your next recital as you will easily and immediately recognize which pieces resonate with you and which ones are not your jam. Read through some of your favorites and go with your gut.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. Practice all of the things when Jupiter joins Venus in your 12th house. Think beyond just repertoire and work on some of those method books that you put aside for a rainy day. Jupiter is bringing your rainy day to you! If you’ve attended a masterclass recently, consult your notes and add some of the recommended exercises to your daily routine. Keep an open mind and read through everything.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 2nd house of income. You may have misunderstandings at work when Mercury goes retrograde. Keep ensemble emails short and concise. We’ve all read through those group emails that are so long that they lose their impact. Simplify, use bullet-point lists, and keep the most important information in bold at the beginning of your message so your audience knows what to do on which deadlines. Others will thank you for your clarity during an already unclear time.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 7th house of relationships. There is a relationship in your life that will need to change significantly or, more likely, end around the time of this Lunar Eclipse. This is something that you have been struggling with for a while. You’ve procrastinated the inevitable confrontation that will need to happen to relieve your stress and move forward in a healthier, more constructive direction. This is likely in connection with a student that does not practice and clearly does not want to play the flute or even a teacher that you just do not see eye to eye with. Mercury is in retrograde so conversations will be muddled. Ty to remain calm and schedule an honest chat. Something needs to change.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 2nd house of income. Your focus with shift onto your job when the Sun moves signs. This is a great time to apply to a new opportunity. Check out the audition boards. Is there an opportunity in your community to perform with a new orchestra? Is there an exciting opportunity to perform with a group in another city or state? Is there a teaching job at an institution that you’d love to teach with? Brush up your CV and send in those applications.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. Mars will encourage you to continue practicing. You might even find creative new ways to pack in a few extra practice sessions throughout the week. You may also finally have the energy to tackle those super difficult etude books that you’ve buried deep in your music library. Roll up your sleeves and get to work!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 1st house of identity. Venus will ask you to think about all of the reasons you love the flute and creative ways to add more of what you love to your daily life. Is it performing? Schedule more performances (even impromptu ones at the mall or the park). Is it teaching? Host a few more masterclasses around your community. Focus on the activities that make you smile.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 2nd house of income. This New Moon indicates that you will receive an exciting new job offer at the end of the month. You’ve done all of the interviews and rocked it at all of the auditions. It’s time to move upwards and onwards to the next step in your career. Nice job!
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 11th house of groups and communities. This is a great time to host a few sectionals or jam sessions with your fellow ensemble members. Venus will help make woodshedding those complicated technical passages a bit more fun. Talk about it amongst yourselves – Are there creative ways to practice chunking as a group? What other creative ideas do your colleagues have to help get everybody on the same page? Encourage each other, laugh, and have some fun creating music.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 11th house of groups and communities. Jupiter will encourage you to spend as much time as possible in small and large ensemble settings. Volunteer to sub for a local community band or symphony. Ask to lead a few sectionals with local middle school and high school flutists. Connect with others and share all of your best creative music-making ideas.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 1st house of identity. Mercury will ask you to search your soul when it goes retrograde. Are you on track to becoming the flutist you’d like to be? What stands between you and achieving your most important flute playing goals? Are you giving your time to activities that do not really align with these ambitions? Reassess.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. Something in your daily schedule is about to significantly change or even end. Are you serving on a committee or advisory board that just does not work with your schedule or does not really uphold your truest flute-playing values? Ditch it! Life is too short to invest in projects that you do not believe in or ones that prevent you from living your best flute playing life.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 1st house of identity. Your focus will shift onto your most important goals when the Sun moves signs. Make yourself a flute-playing bucket list. Create a list of 50 goals. Which ones are your top 10? Which ones are your top 5? Make a list of 3-5 action items that you can do right away to move closer to these top goals. You will feel totally empowered just taking the first steps.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 11th house of groups and communities. Mars will have you knee-deep in rehearsals at the end of the month. Make sure not to double book yourself! Invest in a really great calendaring app to help keep you organized. Also make sure that you are practicing some form of self care to avoid burning out. Hydrate. Get enough sleep. Take actual breaks. Mars sometimes does not have an off button!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. Practice what you love when Venus moves houses. Dig out some of those old favorites. – You know, the ones that always make you sound like Jean-Pierre. Can you reimagine some of the tone colors? How can you bring out something new? Write your own cadenzas. Tinker with tempos. Create new dimensions with dynamics.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 1st house of identity. In all of your soul searching this month you may have identified one goal that holds more importance in your flute life than all other goals. The New Moon will bring you a priceless new opportunity to move closer to this goal. Perhaps you will be offered a chair in very important orchestra or asked to teach a masterclass at a very important institution. Seize your moment!
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 10th house of career goals. Venus will ask you to take a second look at some of your career goals. Make a list of goals you would like to accomplish in one year, five years, and 10 years. Which of these goals would make you happiest if you were to accomplish it? Are there any goals that you are trying to achieve out of obligation to somebody else? Or because you think it is something you have to do to get ahead (regardless if you want to do it or not)? Ditch them! Your career should make you happy. Your goals should lift you up. If they don’t, it is totally okay to shift gears.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 10th house of career goals. Now that you have identified the goals that will make you the happiest, Jupiter will help attract all of the necessary resources to make them happen. Do you need to overhaul your flute for audition season? Find yourself a very talented flute specialist and schedule an appointment. Do you need training in a particular type of business or industry knowledge in order to do something unconventionally creative? Sign up for a class!
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. Try not to lose your cool in the practice room when Mercury goes retrograde. You are likely working on a piece that, despite all of your best woodshedding efforts, is just not coming together. Slow it down and patiently work on separate chunks. You may need to completely rethink your approach. Powering through isn’t going to work this time. Record yourself (even through your mistakes). You might not be hearing yourself clearly.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 5th house of creativity and joy. Have you been toiling away on a creative project, Cancer? This Lunar Eclipse will test your commitment to this project. You will likely need to do a bit of revising. Has the scope of your work spun out of control? Where can you streamline? Take a close look at your musical examples – Do they truly support your main argument? Sometimes less is more.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. You will be clocking a lot of time in the practice room when the Sun moves signs. Remember to take a step back if things aren’t working. Avoid practicing out of frustration. Slow things down and break up complicated passages. Practice something else for a while if all else fails. This is also a great time to experiment with the way that you practice. How can you change up your routine for the better?
May 24th – Mars moves into your 10th house of career goals. Mars will encourage you to get to work on your immediate career goals. Do you have an action plan in place? What are the next steps? Schedule auditions and circulate your CV. Mars is asking you to jump into the fire. You never know what opportunities may be out there with your name on them. Go for something awesome and just outside of your comfort level.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 11th house of groups and communities. Sight-read some fun new works with your chamber music group. Start looking at interesting new works to program for next season. Read through some fun arrangements of crowd pleasers. Are there any new works that fuse other types of music such as pop, rock, or jazz? Think (and play) outside the box!
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. This New Moon will encourage you to practice a new piece. Bury that piece that has been stressing you out deep in your music library and start reading through new works that inspire rather than frustrate you. Music should be fun! Find the fun again and listen to your gut. You will no doubt find a piece that really clicks with your personal playing style.
Leo (July 23-August 22)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 9th house of travel and higher education. Are you craving a vacation? Want to attend a masterclass in other city or even another country. Venus will encourage you to spread your wings and fly away. Start pricing air travel and designing your ideal itinerary. What can you book now? How long will you be away? What would you most like to do on your trip?
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 9th house of travel and higher education. Jupiter will encourage you to plan a bigger and better trip than you had imagined. Extend your dates and do a bit of site-seeing. Schedule a lesson or two with a local flute teacher you admire. Are there any local performances you could catch while you are there?
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may have a few miscommunications with members in your performing groups (or even your conductor) when Mercury goes retrograde. This is not a great time to host sectionals as communications, both verbal and musical, will be muddled. Try to be as patient with your colleagues as possible during this time. They are not hearing pitch differences clearly and may be struggling to match style. Take things one step at a time.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 4th house of home and family. Something in your home environment may not be working for yourself or your family members. Change is on the horizon. You may have been struggling with this for a while. This Lunar Eclipse will force you to finally take some action. Perhaps your home practice and/or teaching space does not quite offer you the proper recording environment. Time to renovate! Can you switch spaces with another room? Will you need larger scale renovations? Stat planning!
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 11th house of groups and communities. Your focus will shift onto your performing groups with the Sun moves signs. You will likely be knee-deep in rehearsals and performances during this time. Try not to overbook yourself and make sure to take breaks and hydrate to avoid burnout. Be patient with yourself and others through any mistakes. The performance season finish line is in view!
May 24th – Mars moves into your 9th house of travel and higher education. Book your vacation when Mars moves houses! Buy your plane tickets, reserve your hotel room, and request all concerts tickets and site-seeing reservations. Request time off from your job and finalize your itinerary with all involved parties. Looking forward to this trip will help motivate you to make it through your performance season successfully.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 10th house of career goals. Venus will ask you to take a second look at some of your career goals. Make a list of goals you would like to accomplish in one year, five years, and 10 years. Which of these goals would make you the happiest if you were to accomplish it? Are there any goals that you are trying to achieve out of obligation to somebody else? Or because you think it is something you have to do to get ahead (regardless if you want to do it or not)? Ditch them! Your career should make you happy. Your goals should lift you up. If they don’t, it is totally okay to shift gears.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may be auditioning to a new orchestra at the end of the month. This is a group that you very much would like to perform with. Put your best foot forward! Prep your excerpts by holding mock auditions for your family and/or colleagues. You’ve got this! Remember to hydrate and chillax on the day of your audition.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 8th house of banking and finance. Is there something that you would like to buy, Virgo? If you were handed a winning lottery ticket, what would you spend it on? Chance are, it is a new flute. Who is to say that you need to be a millionaire to make this happen? Start window shopping. What bells and whistles would you like on your flute? What types of headjoints would you like to try out?
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 8th house of banking and finance. Jupiter will help you attract the financial resources to purchase your dream flute sooner than you might think. Research available financing options at various flute retailers. You may qualify for plans that help lower your monthly payment over a longer term, therefore making your payment fit into your current budget. You may also hear from a wealthy friend or relative willing to issue you a gift or a private loan. The Universe definitely wants to help you purchase this instrument.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 10th house of career goals. This is a great time to reexamine some of your career goals. Start by taking a look back at your New Year’s Resolutions from the beginning of the year. How many are related to your career? How important is it to achieve these goals by the end of the year? Are you on track or have you become distracted by other things these past few months? Most importantly, do these goals hold the same importance to you now as they did at the beginning of the year? If not, create new ones!
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 3rd house of communication. Are you working on a book and/or article, Virgo? This Lunar Eclipse will ask you to do some serious proofreading. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Have you veered off-topic in any way? Do all of your sub-chapters connect back to the larger arguments? How clear are your musical examples? Do you have enough? Or too many? Gather your courage and show your work to a trusted colleague – Do they have any good suggestions?
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 10th house of career goals. Your focus will shift onto your career goals with the Sun moves signs. While Mercury has asked you to double-think some of your career goals, the Sun will help you devise new ones. What is the next best step? Brush up your CV and woodshed some of your excerpts. You never know what new opportunities may manifest in the near future.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 8th house of banking and finance. Mars will motivate you to start saving up for your new flute. How much money can you safely put away each month until the end of the year? You may be able to make a larger down payment on your purchase if you wait a few months to bulk up your savings account. In the meantime, schedule a trial or two of your top choices.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 9th house of travel and higher education. Are you craving a vacation? Want to attend a masterclass in other city or even another country. Venus will encourage you to spread your wings and fly away. Start pricing air travel and designing your ideal itinerary. What can you book now? How long will you be away? What would you most like to do on your trip?
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 10th house of career goals. You will likely receive an exciting new job offer at the end of month. Seize this opportunity! This is no doubt a gift from the Universe that is perfectly aligned with your refurbished career goals. Crush it on your audition and wow your committee during your interviews. You’ve got this!
Libra (September 23-October 22)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 7th house of relationships. This is a great time to connect with some of your favorite flute friends or even flutists you admire from a distance. Chat about current projects and future ambitions. Are there any opportunities to collaborate in the future? What advice can they offer about exciting new directions to pursue in your flute life?
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 7th house of relationships. Jupiter wants you to eat, sing, and be merry with all of your flute connections. Plan virtual coffee visits with flute friends from around the World. Schedule a flute retreat with some of your besties over the summer. Start making plans to connect during national and/or international conventions. You may even bring some flute choir works to read through for a bit of fun.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 9th house of travel and higher education. A trip you had been looking forward to may be canceled or postponed during this Mercury retrograde. Try not to panic! Instead, plan a bigger and better trip for a future date. Summer is just around the corner – Book something wonderful on a far away island. Or perhaps travel to Europe and explore historical musical adventures in Paris or Vienna. Can you catch a performance by a prestigious orchestra in one of these cities?
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 2nd house of income. You may make the decision to leave a toxic job environment around the time of this Lunar Eclipse. Something in this job does not work for you. It may be the long hours. It may be a micro-managing boss or overly competitive colleagues. Whatever is stressing you out, it no longer needs a place in your life. Search for a new opportunity with a better organization that values your unique skill set and fresh perspective. Life is too short to be stuck in a rut!
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 9th house of travel and higher education. Your focus will shift back onto travel when the Sun moves signs. Start booking tickets and reserving hotel rooms. What can you add to your trip to make it more exciting? Site-seeing adventures? Hot air balloon rides? Helicopters trips? Book tickets for concerts and other side adventures.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 7th house of relationships. Network. Network. Then network some more. Connect with other flutists at local flute events or even during virtual masterclass events. What are folks working on? What performances are coming up? Are there any auditions that your flute friends are preparing for? Reach out to other flutists you admire. What advice would you like from them? What inspires you the most about their playing? Connect!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 8th house of banking and finance. Is there something that you would like to buy, Virgo? If you were handed a winning lottery ticket, what would you spend it on? Chance are, it is a new flute. Who is to say that you need to be a millionaire to make this happen? Start window shopping. What bells and whistles would you like on your flute? What types of headjoints would you like to try out?
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 9th house of travel and higher education. You may receive yet another opportunity to travel at the end of the month. If a conference you had planned to attend was unexpectedly canceled, you may learn around this time about another conference to attend in its place. Apply and book your travel! The Universe is urging you to expand your horizons with this new travel opportunity.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 6th house of work and health routines. Do more of what you enjoy and less of what bores you or brings you down when Venus moves signs. Scorpios often do things out of obligation to others, sometimes to ensure their value as a collaborator and other times to retain control of a situation. This month, however, Venus wants you to be priority number one in your daily life. Write down your typical weekly schedule (if you are Scorpio, you probably already have this recorded somewhere). Highlight the tasks you enjoy. For the remaining items, which ones can be delegated to others? Which can be removed completely? Which are unnecessary? Weed out your schedule so you have more time to spend on the highlighted items. You deserve to do whatever makes your soul shine!
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 6th house of work and health routines. Say yes to new opportunities that you know you will enjoy. Volunteer for committees whose mission really speaks to you. Teach a free masterclass to flute students in rural communities who may not have access to good teachers. Go hiking in the woods or strolling on the beach. As Sheryl Crow observes, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.”
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 8th house of banking and finance. Keep an eye on your bank account when Mercury goes retrograde. Are your direct deposits hitting correctly? Are there any strange charges that you cannot explain? If you have recently set up any loans or other financial agreements, read carefully through all of the small print. Try to avoid signing on the dotted line during this retrograde unless you clearly understand all of your roles and responsibilities. Contracts tend to become muddled during a Mercury retrograde – Be prepared to make change if necessary.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 1st house of identity. Get ready for some serious soul searching, Scorpio. This is lock-yourself-in-your-Scorpio-cave time. Think carefully about your most important goals. You have gone through a number of changes over the past few months, many unexpected and many that have completely changed your outlook on certain facets of life. Your ambitions for the future may have changed as well. Start by looking at your New Year’s Resolutions. Do these goals still hold importance for you and are you on track to achieving them? If not, create new goals. This can be your New Year’s Resolutions do-over. Make a new set of goals to accomplish by the end of the year.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 8th house of banking and finance. Your focus will shift onto your finances when the Sun changes signs. You may be in the market for a new flute. Start looking into all of your possible financing options. Meet with a financial advisor at your local banking institution – Are there any short-term loans or credit card programs with reasonable interest rates that you qualify for? How much will you need to save each month to purchase a new flute by the end of the year?
May 24th – Mars moves into your 6th house of work and health routines. Mars will help give you the energy and motivation to literally cross everything off of your daily to-do list (aka a Scorpio’s dream come true!). You will be so incredibly productive that you will finally have enough time to squeeze in an intense daily workout or two. Try out a new sport. Attend a Zumba class. Work it!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 7th house of relationships. This is a great time to connect with some of your favorite flute friends or even flutists you may admire from a distance. Chat about current projects and future ambitions. Are there any opportunities to collaborate in the future? What advice can they offer about exciting new directions to pursue in your flute life?
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 8th house of banking and finance. You may receive a gift from a wealthy friend or relative around the end of month to help you pay for your new flute. The Universe is trying to help you purchase this beautiful new instrument sooner rather than later. Start scheduling trials of your top three choices and various headjoint options for each. Carefully select your favorite and move on to the next steps in the purchasing process.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 5th house of creativity and joy. Whenever the planet of creativity moves into the house of creativity, there are bound to be lightning bolts of sudden inspiration. Have you always wanted to try your hand at composing? Now is the time! Start with a theme and variations. Think more creatively than sixteenth notes. Add in some extended techniques, pitch bends, or even some beatbox-y elements. Concerto for the Cool Kids, perhaps?
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 5th house of creativity and joy. Jupiter will help you attract all of the resources you need to get your creative project off the ground. Do you need a collaborator or accompanist to try out some of your ideas? Schedule a time to meet to test out a few themes and variations. Perhaps the gift that Jupiter gives you is time. Schedule a writing retreat in a beautiful location to work on your manuscript.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 7th house of relationships. You will likely experience a number of miscommunications with, well, everybody. Be careful with all outgoing messages (particularly those sent via email or text). Keep statements short and clear. Be patient with others if they need clarification. It is really difficult to interpret both verbal and non-verbal communications during a Mercury retrograde, making this not a great time to host masterclasses or sectionals. Try to postpone to a later date.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. This Lunar Eclipse will ask you to rethink your practice approach. Do you practice the same things in the same order for roughly the same duration? Time to mix it up! Schedule practice theme days. Wednesdays could be devoted to etudes while Fridays could be your sight-reading and improv days. Use the next six months to experiment with different ways to organize your routine and practice schedule. Find something that works a bit better for you.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 7th house of relationships. Your focus will shift onto the others in your life when the Sun moves signs. The Sun will help you smooth over any disagreements (likely influenced by the Mercury retrograde). Schedule a few coffee meet-ups (virtual or otherwise). Listen patiently to their side of the story and try to explain your side clearly and without exaggerations. A little patience will go along way to repairing strained relationships.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 5th house of creativity and joy. Mars will encourage you to roll up your sleeves and get to work on your creative project. You probably have collected an entire notebook full of ideas. Start incorporating these in your work. What works? What doesn’t? Can you expand on some of your best light bulb moments? Get to work on your best ideas!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 6th house of daily work and health routines. Do more of what you enjoy and less of what bores you or brings you down when Venus moves signs. This month Venus wants you to be priority number one in your daily life. Write down your typical weekly schedule. Highlight the tasks you enjoy. Which items can be delegated to others? Which can be removed completely? Which are unnecessary? Weed out your schedule so you have more time to spend on the highlighted items. You deserve to do whatever makes your soul shine!
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 7th house of relationships. You will likely make an important new friend at the of the month. Are there any opportunities to collaborate with this new contact? Can they contribute to your project in any way? Perhaps a premier performance? Pool your collective talents and plan a wonderful performance and/or project in the not-so-distant future.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 4th house of home and family. Move your practice and teaching work to your home studio this month. You are in need of some good, old fashioned family time. Involve your family in your flute life as much as possible. Ask them to serve as the jury for a mock audition. Host a Sunday night living room recital. Teach your little nephew to play Hot Cross Buns on a headjoint. They will enjoy learning more about what you do.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 4th house of home and family. Jupiter will ask you to host a large-ish masterclass or flute choir rehearsal at your home. Do you have a large garage space and chairs for all? Make sure to invite your family and, if space, participant’s families. Try to make this gathering as informal as possible. Just give your students a safe space to perform, learn, and have fun. Sometime as flutists we take ourselves and our music too seriously. Help your student relax and enjoy the learning process.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. You will experience a number of disruptions in your schedule when Mercury goes retrograde. Students may cancel their lessons at the last minute. Rehearsals may be unexpectedly canceled or moved to a new location without much notice. Meetings will be rescheduled at impossible times. Try to go with the flow. Make schedules work where they can but do not stress too much if rescheduling is a hassle. You will naturally become frustrated by the chaos. Remain as flexible as possible.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may be calling it quits in one of your performing ensembles. This may have been brewing for quite a long time. Perhaps you have been surrounded by difficult relationships with your colleagues or simply not seeing eye to eye with your conductor. Audition to other groups around the time of this Lunar Eclipse. It is totally okay to move on to a new performing environment. Try not to burn any bridges and do whatever you can to make the transition easy for all involved.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 6th house of daily work and health routines. Your focus will shift onto your schedule when the Sun moves signs. Start removing any tasks that drain you. Delegate what can be delegated and remove what is no longer necessary. Are you getting enough time to practice? Are you working out on a regular basis? How many hours of sleep are you getting each night? Find a better work/life balance by simplifying your schedule.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 4th house of home and family. Mars will encourage you to roll up your sleeves and make progress on any home or studio renovations at the end of the month. Fix any broken doors, window screens, cabinets, or baseboards. Update outdated technology and purchase sleek new studio furniture. Invest in a beautiful piece of artwork. Do your best to create more space to teach and practice.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 5th house of creativity and joy. Whenever the planet of creativity moves into the house of creativity, there are bound to be lightning bolts of sudden inspiration. Have you always wanted to try your hand at composing? Now is the time. Start with a theme and variations. Think more creatively than sixteenth notes. Add in some extended techniques, pitch bends, or even some beatbox-y elements. Concerto for the Cool Kids, perhaps?
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. You will likely be asked to serve on an important committee around the time of this New Moon. This a wonderful opportunity to connect with another community. Perhaps you will be asked to serve as a judge for a local music scholarship contest. Or maybe you will be asked to sub for a local symphony. Put your best foot forward. You never know if this opportunity will snowball into more important roles in the future.
Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 3rd house of communication. Do you have a flute blog yet? This is a great time to start one! Write about what you love. Is there a particular type of music that you like performing? A composer whose work inspires you? Do you use creative teaching techniques that your students seem to enjoy? Write a series of blogs and schedule release dates.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 3rd house of communication. Jupiter will help you write up a storm! Use your blog platform to write about a number of topics this month. Write a few op-eds about hot topics in the flute community. Devise a few flute polls or flute quizzes for younger flute students. Analyze one of your favorite pieces. Write. Write. Then write some more. You might be surprised what you learn your own writing.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 5th house of creativity and joy. You may need to rethink a creative project when Mercury goes retrograde. Take a step back and look at the overall theme of your work. Do the individual components all support the main idea? Where can you improve upon your best ideas? Where can you streamline some of the larger sections? Do you need a second set of eyes on your work? Edit what can be edited. Sometimes less is more.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 10th house of career goals. Something in your career just isn’t working. It hasn’t worked for a while now. You may need to leave it behind. Use the energy of the Lunar Eclipse to ask yourself some honest questions about your career goals. If you are on the wrong track, how did you get there? What will you need to do to get back on track? Have you been chasing somebody else’s goals? Abandon these ambitions and work towards becoming the flutist that you truly wish to be.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 5th house of creativity and joy. Your attention will focus back on to your creative project when the Sun moves signs. The Mercury Retrograde has probably given you some great ideas for ways to edit your work. Get to work making these changes, however tedious. You will have a much better project in the end if you put in the work to hash out all of the details now.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 3rd house of communication. Mars will give you the energy to write up a storm. It is quite likely that your blog series has given you a great idea for a book or article. Take your writing to the next level! Start by outlining your ideas before launching into a rough draft. Find a colleague to read through your work before you submit for publication consideration. They may have some great ideas for last minute additions to your article.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 4th house of home and family. Move your practice and teaching work to your home studio this month. You are in need of some good, old fashioned family time. Involve your family in your flute life as much as possible. Ask them to serve as the jury for a mock audition. Host a Sunday night living room recital. Teach your little nephew to play Hot Cross Buns on a headjoint. They will enjoy learning more about what you do.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 5th house of creativity and joy. You may be inspired to start brainstorming ideas for a new creative project based on your writings at the end of the month. If you have written about a certain composer, you may be inspired to create a mini documentary on their life and works. Interview other performers who have debuted works by this composer. What are their thoughts on the composition style and strengths and/or challenges of particular pieces?
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 2nd house of income. Venus will help you manifest a boost to your income at the beginning of the month. This is a great time to ask your boss for a raise. Make your case! Why do you deserve to make more money? What additional responsibilities can you take on to justify the additional bump in salary? Don’t be afraid to look elsewhere if you are denied a raise. Know your worth and fight for a better income doing what you love.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 2nd house of income. You may just get that raise when Jupiter joins the party. Can you negotiate for more? Remember: value is not necessarily tied to money. Can you ask for a certain amount of vacation time? Or a flexible work arrangement? What are your benefits like? Jupiter wants you to have all of the abundance in the world. You just need to ask for it and accept it when it comes your way.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 4th house of home and family. You may have some disagreements at home when Mercury goes retrograde. This is a great time for a family meeting. Remember that messages will not be heard clearly at this time. Think of this meeting as more of a city council type gathering for your family to air grievances. They might really dislike your practice schedule. Or were bummed that you did not invite them to your last chamber music performance. Maybe they wanted to go on a trip that coincided with your performance schedule. Simply use this time to reflect on what is working and what is not. You can devise solutions once Mercury turns direct next month.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 9th house of travel and higher education. You may be seriously rethinking your commitment to a course of study. Did you sign up for a professional development program during the lockdown that has not really proved to be fruitful in your career? Is it not quite worth the lofty price tag? It is okay to move on to something else. Not every new opportunity works the same way for everybody. Use this Lunar Eclipse to research a better program elsewhere.
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 4th house of home and family. Your focus will shift onto your family when the Sun changes signs. Brainstorm some possible solutions to some of the issues your family addressed earlier in the month. Perhaps there is a certain time of day that is more reasonable for you to practice screeching piccolo excerpts. There may be alternative trips to plan that do not interfere with your performance schedule. Maybe you need to leave your flute in its case once a week to spend quality time with your loved ones. Start planning something fun you can do as a family.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 2nd house of income. Mars will have your crushing it at work at the end of the month. Teach all of those make-up lessons. Reschedule all of those meetings. Arrange that studio masterclass. Apply to that crazy awesome job you heard about a few states away. You may be surprised by an invitation to interview in the coming weeks.
May 28th – Venus moves into your 3rd house of communication. Do you have a flute blog yet? This is a great time to start one! Write about what you love. Is there a particular type of music that you like performing? A composer whose work inspires you? Do you use creative teaching techniques that your students seem to enjoy? Write a series of blogs and schedule release dates.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 4th house of home and family. You may have a really great idea for a family vacation this summer. This has been a difficult year and you all need a break. Start making arrangements in a place that everyone wants to visit. Disneyland perhaps? Or hop on a flight to Hawaii? Where would you most like to go to escape the hustle and bustle?
Aries (March 21-April 19)
May 2nd – Venus moves into your 1st house of identity. This is a great time to treat yourself! Go on a shopping spree (within reason, of course). What new flute gear do you need? Would you like to revamp your concert dress? How is your music collection – Need some new repertoire? Would you like to change your look? Makeover time! Reinvent yourself this month with some good, old-fashioned retail therapy.
May 10th – Jupiter joins Venus in 1st house of identity. When Jupiter and Venus are in the same house, there is a tendency to overspend and overindulge. Jupiter wants you to have everything that your heart desires and Venus wants everything you purchase to be beautiful, whatever the cost. They are totally trying to play hookie from the all-seeing critical eye of accounting nerd Saturn. Remember to treat yourself but not break the bank. Ask a Virgo or Capricorn friend to check on you -They will stop you from destroying your credit.
May 10th – Mercury goes retrograde in your 3rd house of communication. It is always a difficult time when the planet of communication goes retrograde in the house of communication. You will likely have misunderstandings with, well, everyone. Remember to keep any messages clear and concise, particularly if they are sent over email or text. Avoid hosting any sectionals or masterclasses as others might find it difficult to understand both musical and non-musical messages. Intonation issues are likely during a Mercury retrograde and, if you do not keep your Aries frustration in check, tempers are likely to fly. Try to give yourself time outs if any problems arise. Be as patient as possible until Mercury goes direct next month.
May 16th – Lunar Eclipse appears in your 8th house of banking and finance. This is a great time to devise a plan to pay off one of your big-ticket items. Perhaps you had recently purchased a new flute and placed a majority of the bill on a financing plan. The Lunar Eclipse will help you create a new savings plan to pay down that balance faster than you had imagined. You may need to make some sacrifices in the interim (bye bye cable) but in the long run you will debt-free a lot sooner than you planned. You can do this!
May 20th – The Sun moves into your 3rd house of communication. Your focus will shift onto writing projects when the Sun moves signs. Do you have a great idea for an article or a book? Do you have a favorite composer that you would like to research or a great new technique that you use in your studio practice? Write about it! Grab a cup of tea and just write. You will be amazed at the ideas that seem to pop up out of nowhere.
May 24th – Mars moves into your 1st house of identity. Mars will encourage you to make some progress on your most important goals. Dig out that list of New Year’s Resolutions from the beginning of the year. Are you on track? Pick your top five most important goals. What is the next step you need to take to accomplish them? Are there any resources that you need? Can you book time in your schedule to focus on these tasks? Roll up your sleeves and get to work!
May 28th – Venus moves into your 2nd house of income. Venus will help you manifest a boost to your income at the beginning of the month. This is a great time to ask your boss for a raise. Make your case! Why do you deserve to earn more money? What additional responsibilities can you take on to justify the additional bump in salary? Don’t be afraid to look elsewhere if you are denied a raise. Know your worth and fight for a better income doing what you love.
May 30th – New Moon appears in your 3rd house of communication. Submit your manuscript to a publisher. This New Moon suggest that you will find a place to publish your work! You have some great ideas and now just need a platform to share them with a larger audience. Remember: The worst thing that a publisher can say is “thanks but no thanks.” J.K. Rowling was rejected by numerous publishers before she found an institution that would publish Harry Potter. And now she is a gazillionaire. Just go for it – You have nothing to lose!
Happy May!