New Moon in Capricorn / Cardinal Grand Cross



by Tom Thomson

 
This one happens at around 11:15 am GMT on New Year's Day.

And holy crap, what is there to write about this kind of intensity? It's so stark.

Here is a Pavement tune for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9FYkXEFlE8

& another, while we're listening to Pavement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NPeykShUVA

New moon in Capricorn conjunct Mercury and Pluto (deep, austere thought and communication). Opposite Jupiter in Cancer (big emotion), squaring Mars in Libra (social aggression, or a drive for relationship) and Uranus in Aries (individual revolt). It's a cardinal grand cross again, jagged and tense, demanding change.

What austere, difficult story is being initiated here? Is it about the beginning of an ending? Or the beginning of something absolutely true - all dross stripped away? All illusions burnt away.

A dream flayed alive, all stripped down like a winter tree... But surviving.

& this was on the other side of the Simple Machines 7" with that Scrawl song, so I'll include it. Holiday joy. Haven't heard these in a long time.

Yeah, it's Capricorn time again. Dark of the year, but with the promise of new light. The landscape in hibernation: stark and quiet, no frippery. The trees hoarding their light deep underground; enduring.

Earthly incarnation is hard going. That's the message of Capricorn...it's hard going and you will have to work for your security. And there will be times where you're stripped of everything but essentials, standing out in the cold wind and just holding on.

Capricorn is also about building something solid and reliable. Committement. What have you achieved this year...what can you build on? What are you committed to?

If you have committed to something unreliable, you'll know. With this cardinal grand cross in effect...you'll know because it will be battered to bits.

--Where I live, the winds were so high last night I thought the roof was going to fly off. It held.

But the same sort of testing is in effect with regard to relationships and investments of all kinds. Venus - ruler of love and money issues - is in Capricorn, demanding solidity.

And this lunation is disposited by Saturn, ruler of Capricorn. Saturn is about limitation. Duty, rules, karma...also fear, constriction, loss.

Saturn is in Scorpio now, so the karmic load is pretty damn heavy and dark. Not a lot of leeway here. We are facing into the consequences of collective patterns, not just our individual ones...and the changes required of us, especially in relationships, are profound.

Failing deep commitement and the will to relate profoundly, we are likely to see some shocking nastiness under these skies. People either get it or they don't. Either they're doing the work, striving for integrity and decency...or they aren't. It's that stark.

And the ones who aren't, you'll want to stay away from these days...they'll be loose cannons. If a person hasn't established some sort of bedrock ground to stand on via their words and actions...avoid them if you can, for your own safety.

People will be stressed and tense, overburdened and easily pissed off. And sudden violence is quite possible, given the Uranus-Mars opposition.

Sudden accidents are also likely, so drive carefully please!

Yeah...stark is the word for this new moon allright. But Jupiter in Cancer is also about faith and hope and emotional buoyancy. And Capricorn is about faith too. However dead and stripped-down the landscape looks...we are past the solstice, the days are getting longer. Grim endurance is not a permanent condition - soon enough it'll be spring again.

Happy New Year!

And no, it will not be an easy one. But we are getting used to this state of affairs by now, right? If we've come this far we can go the distance.

Here is a link to hexagram 32 from the I Ching. It's about enduring, persevering. Staying balanced amid the changes. It's a good hexagram for the skies at the minute.

http://deoxy.org/iching/32

by Toshi Yoshida



Full Moon in Gemini / Uranus Direct



by Ivan Bilibin

Ok, this Gemini full moon hits exactitude at 26 degrees Gemini on the 17th Dec, around 9:30 am GMT. And then at around midnight on the 18th, Uranus goes direct at 8 degrees Aries after a four-month retrograde period (since July 17). And all this ushers in a very fraught and edgy holiday season.

Let's look at the full moon first. This one appears to be about communication, big-style. The sun will be conjunct Mercury in truth-seeking (but sometimes bombastic and verbose) Sagittarius, opposing the moon in restless, chatty Gemini.

A Gemini moon is not very emotional: it needs mental and verbal stimulation first and foremost. Witty banter, wordplay, amusement, gossip, news headlines, reality tv: it's pretty value-free. It just needs to keep jittering around from one thing to the next - to avoid boredom and stagnation.

Gemini is like the Internet: a network of loosely associated content. You can surf from one link to the next forever but you never exactly get anywhere--and that's the whole point. It's not about getting from here to there or finding meaning or seeking out capital-T Truth - that's what Sagittarius is for. Gemini is more about knitting something together: networking. And shallow as it may seem, nothing really exists outside of this networking. Our minds and lives and communities are emergent properties of the network.

So for example we have a lot of individual trades creating a marketplace, or a community's life emerging from the back-and-forth of individual conversations among people. Or the communication of neurons in the brain collectively creating a mind.

Gemini is about information, communication, commerce. Thought - but the actual physical process of thought, not the products. The leap of a signal across the neural synapse: the intangible, lightning fast transmission. With Gemini, it's not the actual message that matters but the act of messaging. The messenger isn't supposed to read the message or interpret it or act upon it, only convey it.

And this relates to the association of Gemini with twins: in order for there to be a message, there has to be a gap to be bridged: a separation. A duality or polarity, as between two neurons in the synapse. Or the cathode and anode in a battery... Duality is what calls the intermediating spark into being.

(JEDWARD BREAK!!! I'M SORRY.)

Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is represented as a winged messenger in the mythology, with a cloak of invisibility. A merchant, a trickster and a thief; volatile ('mercurial') and hard to pin down. A real jumpy, nervous, shiny chicken of a god, always rushing around on some errand or another, stopping along the way to perform random little acts of mischief.

Anyway, back to the full moon. This Gemini moon is disposited by (and in opposition to) Mercury in Sagittarius, and this is problematic for our shiny chicken messenger. This is a face-off between the need for distraction, stimulation and networking, vs. a drive for meaning and truth. And Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, is in Cancer and trining Saturn in Scorpio--so this is about a sustained, steady drive for emotional truth, deep soul engagement and opening up old emotional wounds so they can heal.

How do you jitter around at paties, relaying gossip and talking about the Kardashians or whatever...and be profound and true at the same time? It's pretty damn hard. It could wind up looking like the Jedward video above. Gemini backed up by Jupiter in Cancer: big spurts of female water & a pair of manic teenagers jumping around singing about true love.

(Ok YES I KNOW, that Jedward thing is deeply disturbing.)

Anyway it's likely people will be playing out the two polarities of this dichotomy in their interactions:

some will be jiggling from foot to foot nervously while others try to engage them in long-winded philosophical dissertations.
Some will be replying to deep and heartfelt revelations with ridiculous and inappropriate jokes.
Some will be going on internet dates and spilling their guts to uncomfortable strangers.
Some will be blurting dark family secrets at lighthearted social gatherings.
Some will be blogging about the esoteric meaning of Gemini in windy Sagittarian style, then inserting Jedward videos to illustrate.
Some will be taking absurd selfies at Mandela's funeral and they are the president of the goddamn United States, show some dignitas already please.

Etc etc.

So awkward! --And hey, what about that guy who was supposed to be doing the sign language at Mandela's funeral and it turned out he was only flapping his arms around? Amazing! That is a Gemini-Sagittarius conflict story if ever there was one. "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"...except of course it didn't involve sound or fury; it was just dumb.

Anyway, the above examples are pretty harmless and amusing...I'm trying to keep things light, Gemini-style. But Gemini is known for twisting the truth, and the truth is, this stuff isn't really light. For one thing, Mars is in Libra now - the signifier of war in the sign of social harmony - and social faux pas are a big deal. A very very big deal, as Libra moves into cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto. People will be very edgy and the consequences of breaches of social etiquette may be severe - and potentially traumatic.

And Uranus, which represents sudden shock, is going direct after the full moon, with Mars in opposition: so things can get explosive and dangerous very quickly. You do not fuck with people under these skies. And if they fuck with you...well I guess you'll have to resist the urge to annihilate them. Unless they really really deserve it, and you are willing to deal with the consequences (such as going to jail for the next 40 years).

Things can turn on a dime and get violent and out-of-control very quickly, so be careful. This is the whole holiday season we're talking about: the second half of December and the first week of January, roughly. The potential for family conflict, with Jupiter in Cancer aspecting Mars, Uranus and Pluto, is very high. There could be breakthroughs as well: big beneficial shifts in relational power dynamics. But these kind of changes don't come without discomfort, and the energies at work here look very uncomfortable.

Anyway, Happy Christmas; Happy New Year. Stay safe and take no chances. Pace yourself, make sure you get enough rest, avoid risky situations. Use your words carefully. You probably say dumb things when you're drunk; we all do. But the consequences over the next few weeks could be serious, so be careful about holiday drinking.

There is a new moon in Capricorn on New Year's Day, and it looks like a doozy. Conjunct the sun, Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn, and aspecting Mars, Jupiter and Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross. I'll write more on it later. Suffice it to say for now: things are going to change in a big way this holiday season; there's no way around it. Let's see what happens.

"May all your crises be opportunities!" sayeth thee Philosoraptor

(as he devours yr brain...)

New Moon in Sagittarius

This new moon happens at 11 degrees Sagittarius on the 3rd of December, just after midnight (GMT), and it represents a bit of emotional bouyancy and relief after months of very stark skies.

Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign symbolically represented by a centaur with a bow and arrow: a creature half-human, half-horse, shooting its intention and drive toward some far-off target. And the sign is like that: nomadic, half-wild, adventurous, unsuited to settled life. It wants space and freedom, open sky and a change of air. It is always literally or metaphorically galloping over the plains, seeking what's past the horizon; never content with staying within the staid old boundaries.

It's like this poem:

http://www.portablepoetry.com/poems/alfredlord_tennyson/ulysses.html

"I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and forever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!"

Yep, that's very Sag.

& this: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

That's the purpose, the goal. The never-ending seeking is itself the goal - each provisional goal, attained, is only a marker along the way, never the end in itself.

And notice Ulysses is totally unexcited by the prospect of hanging out with his aging wife in Ithaca and administering his domestic domain... Man what a boring-ass scene that is, when he could be out sailing off the edge of the known world. It's wonderful, isn't it? I think it is. He is unable to accept stagnation - he'd rather die.

Anyway, here are some Sagittarius keywords and phrases: restless, optimistic, outward-looking, expansive, happy-go-lucky, generous, blunt. OTT, funny, randy, full of hot air.

Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is about luck, blessings, expansion, higher education, teaching, faith. It's probably no coincidence that Jupiter (the 'great benefic' in astrology) is a gas giant, the biggest planet in the solar system, holding some of the largest moons in the system within its massive gravitational field. The four inner ones were named after some of the Roman god's multifarious sexual exploits by Galileo. Big huge randy gaseous guru planet, over-the-top everything, full of lightning and howling winds and storms the size of the Earth—it's interesting how the astrological meanings of planets line up with the actual physical objects. (Remember the meanings were devised long before the physical objects were observed via probe or telescope.)

But that line of thought would lead me into a digression I will not follow right now. (Digressions - especially philosophical ones - are very Sag too!)

A moon in Sagittarius is symbolic of a happy, roving, freedom-loving sort of emotional tone — a great need for space and broadened horizons, an emotional buoyancy. We can all use this after the difficulties of the past year — we can use a bit of a lift.

And this particular Sagittarius moon is in mutual reception with Jupiter in Cancer. This is a beneficial relationship, and the theme of emotional buoyancy is um, further buoyed up! Further inflated. It looks pretty happy and cheerful really. Nice time to eat way too many holiday snacks and hang with the fam', singing rousing holiday carols around the hearth and weeping and telling dirty jokes and shooting each other with little water pistols and whatnot.

Might as well...it's been a grindingly difficult year for so many, and the one ahead is gonna be no picnic either. This new moon is about getting a much-needed breather, a jolt of hope and fresh air and light in the midst of difficulty and darkness.

The moon and sun in Sagittarius will be trine Uranus in Aries, and this represents more uplift, more energy and future-directed hope and faith. And Jupiter in Cancer will be trining Mercury and Saturn in Scorpio: this stabilises the emotional tone and facilitates deep communication. It will very likely be possible to examine old relational patterns and emotional wounds in depth, especially family ones...and to gain some sort of freedom from them; to transcend them. People are going to be less likely to want to stay stuck in the past, dwelling on their petty little personal grievances...and this is great, needless to say. Because under Saturn in Scorpio, the weight of all that old grievance, combined with the knowledge of collective difficulty...well it can be too much. It's lovely to get a breather like this. Thanks Jupiter!

The new moon will also be squaring Chiron in Pisces, so here's the catch: this is only a breather. The awareness of pain and loss will never be far from the surface, however festive and rambunctious things may get. The undercurrents here are deep and serious, and they are not going to be going anywhere for a while.

So enjoy yourself, drink some freaking eggnog with a triple shot of rum, bask in the affection of your crazy family... and set your intentions for a cheerful holiday season. Come the full moon in two weeks, Mars will be in the early degrees of Libra, just entering Uranus-Pluto cardinal t-square territory. And then things are likely to get considerably more jagged and uncomfortable.

OK, I have another poem about this new moon. T.S. Eliot this time.

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/Ts-eliot-marina-lyrics#note-2052767

"The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships." Yep, that's it exactly.

The boat may be falling apart; forgetfulness and awareness of death ever-present. And yet there are other shores calling like birds from the fog. Very like Tennyson's Ulysses, really: an old man facing decrepitude and death, but fired with the spirit of enthusiasm and adventure nevertheless.

Well whatever rapids and whirlpools lie ahead, we can resolve to face them with that same exploratory spirit. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."




"Otherworld" Andrew Wyeth

Taurus Full Moon / Venus conjunct Pluto

So tomorrow (17th November) we have a full moon at 25 degrees Taurus.

Taurus is a fixed earth sign concerned with material and physical stability, money, solidity, self-esteem, values. Like Libra, Taurus is Venus-ruled...but the Taurean Venus is a different creature than the Libran. In Libra, Venus's role is intellectual and airy and somewhat impersonal: she interrelates. She bridges gaps between people and creates social unity and harmony.

But in Taurus, Venus is all about personal pleasure and satisfaction...and groundedness. What do you actually love--not intellectually, but physically? What gives you pleasure and a sense of profound unshakeable satistfaction/security; what is the ground of your self-esteem?

Knowing the answers to these questions in a deep-down, physical way is what Taurus is all about.

A Taurus moon is about an emotional need for stability and solidity. And this particular Taurus moon is disposited by Venus in Capricorn, which is all about rock-hard standards and security in relationships: are your relationships strong enough to last and to build on? Can you rely on them for the long haul?

The Taurus moon will be facing off against the sun in Scorpio, sign of deep soul truth, intuitive understanding, healing and absolute trust. And the Scorpio sun is disposited by Pluto in Capricorn: so there's not much room for covering over or avoiding what's rotten here. No whitewashing. The rot is too deep and too systemic: it has to be addressed. You cannot put a band-aid on a bunch of pustulent gangrene or throw a pretty floral rug on the freakin' Death Star.

Likewise, you cannot continue giving energy to people or situations you know to be toxic and rotten. I mean, you can try--you can go on wasting your energy on these dynamics that you already know to be unbalanced and screwed-up. By all means do that if you need to...but understand that it can't work for long. You are going to have to face the music sometime....

So how about RIGHT NOW. It's the full moon after all: whatever's happening should be all lit up and in your face like a hundred watt lightbulb.

The alternative is to keep doing this:

Driving this message home, Venus, dispositor of the Taurus moon, is in Capricorn and conjunct Pluto in Capricorn, dispositor of the Scorpio sun. It doesn't get much more clear-cut than this.

So I will write it again in caps: VENUS IS CONJUNCT PLUTO IN CAPRICORN. That's really what this full moon is all about. Love and death.

(Sorry!!!)

But seiously: love and death. Or the death of love. Or till death do us part: rock solid devotion. Or dead loves coming back (unexpectedly! courtesy of Uranus in Aries) to haunt you and force you to exercise your Scorpionic skillset of bullshit-detecting and rot-amputation.

But this doesn't even have to be about relationships necessarily: remember that a Taurean Venus is also about money and values. It might be time to really sit down and sort out your financial situation. It might be impossible to avoid doing so.

Or it might be time to really look at what your values are about, and how they build or undermine your character.

Anyway, Venus is going to be in Capricorn for a good while. Until March actually...and nit-picky Mars in Virgo will be hitting her with trines till early December. Meaning: it's time to get real picky and high-maintenance and somewhat ruthless about who and what you choose to relate to and spend your energies on.

It's OK to be picky and have high standards! In fact it's very important. This is all about building something solid that will see you through. Life is not easy and it doesn't get easier as you get older. So who the hell needs fellow-travellers who are only going to make it harder: more full of needless drama and headgames and bullshit? Nobody! Unless you're into that sort of thing, in which case you are welcome to it...but it won't work out so great, I'm telling you now. And the whole sky is behind me on this...

Re. Uranus: Mr. crazy rebel planet is tightly squaring the Veuns-Pluto conjunction, adding an element of wild unpredictability to the mix. Maybe there are some shocks to your self esteem or your money situation or your relationships in store. But I would also take it as meaning it's a good time to cut your losses and get the draining, lousy crap out of your life. Like NOW. There is just no room for that stuff, going forward.

It can feel dull sometimes to be harping on about what these times mean. One week after another, and the theme stays pretty much the same. Heavy Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces: deep, redemptive, traumatic, transformative, ruthlessly magical times. Stripped-down and simple, yet dreamlike and strange. Horrible/beautiful in equal measure...

Maybe life is always this way, but I don't think so.

And sometimes I don't feel there is much to say about it all - the words don't go deep enough. They can't. Mercury is in Scorpio conjunct the north node, after all: maybe the less said, the better. Holding back verbally is a necessary form of energy conservation...

But it's definitely a time of all the chickens coming home to roost, all the crappy old karma coming due (Saturn in Scorpio). Payback time...and you will know by the shape of your life right now what the payback is.

Anyway it's amazing enough just to be here and watching it play out, right? We're very lucky.

To sum up: the take-home message re. this full moon is this. Better get your values straight already. Know who and what you would trust with your life; get your committements stripped down to basics and nailed down. And get the energy-suckers and manipulators and day-trippers out of your life pronto, if you haven't done so already. Maybe you could make them a delicious cake, Taurus style:

New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio / Uranus square Pluto

I didn't get a chance to write anything for the full moon eclipse in Aries a fortnight ago (18^th October). I was in transit, Venus in Sagittarius style—and the exact Mars in Virgo to Neptune in Pisces opposition was sending me out on some beer-fuelled adventures. It was a lot of fun, but a little too hectic for writing about at the time!

Anyway, for a quick synopsis of that fiery, dreamy, drunken, free-wheelin' full moon eclipse: it was all about relationships, a culmination of the themes of last month's new moon in Libra.

The moon was in headstrong, headlong, impatient Aries, disposited by Mars in the early degrees of Virgo—not a very aggressive placement for Mars. Mars in Virgo is a stickler for detail and a bit of a nag. He is driven to perfect things; he wants to be useful. In this case he was opposing Neptune in Pisces: this is like a man transfixed to hypnosis by his smartphone. Or a watchmaker getting drunk in a bar by the water. Or a drugged-out classical musician. Or a lovelorn dude nagging, nagging, nagging at the object of his affections out of a sense of utter uselessness. (Well those were some of the themes I encountered anyway!)

The sun was in lovely Libra, sign of relationships, disposited by easy-breezy Venus in Sagittarius. Venus in Sagittarius is your basic good time girl. She's just passing through—she doesn't feel like committing to anything real heavy. In the case of last fortnight's full moon, Venus was harmoniously aspecting Uranus in Aries and squaring Neptune—basically this was a firecracker of a lady looking to get drunk, dance on a table, meet some foreigners & have some exciting adventures before moving halfway across the country. Venus in Sagittarius doesn't want to be fenced in or guilt-tripped or coerced in any way—she likes her freedom.

So we had this wild-horse, commitement-phobe Venus and this OCD Mars facing off symbolically during that full moon eclipse, both of them drinking a shit ton of liquor. Well I dunno about anyone else...but I thought it was really fun! What I can remember of it.

I guess the most interesting thing about it was that despite all the superficial excitement, there was this inescapable heaviness and darkness underlying interactions. A poignancy; a sense of fatedness or loss. So much Scorpio in the sky—there's no way it could've been a shallow kind of party. It was more like this:

or this.

Anyway, here we are almost two weeks later, headed for Halloween 2013 & a new moon eclipse in Scorpio. Deep Scorpionic skies now: Saturn, Mercury, the sun, the north node, all conjunct in Scorpio. And the moon will join them for the new moon eclipse on the 3^rd November.

This story is about depth, death, absolute trust, transformation, regeneration, hardcore insight. All the deep lessons you've been learning this whole hard year about who and what you can trust; who and what you can't; what saps your energy and depletes you; what nourishes and drives you at the most basic core level... Well it's time to process all that. The harvest is in and the days are getting short. Time to sit by your hearth and watch the sky out the window darken, and (silently, methodically, intuitively) process what you've learned. That is—if you are lucky enough to have some silence and solitude. If you are lucky enough not to be in crisis. A lot of the people I meet these days are undergoing crisis of one sort or another—par for the course as the Uranus squares in toward Pluto. More on that in a minute.

Anyway, this Scorpio season, the places inside yourself that scare you most: that's where you have to go. Why? To perform surgery, to cut away the rot, to bring light and air to what is stagnant and stuck. Ultimately to heal.

This is a time of epic endings and you are well advised to start learning how to let things go...especially the things you hold onto the most tightly. It is a time of shattering revelation, and you are well advised to start learning to look fearlessly into the dark and the depths. There's no easy way to gloss things over, and trying to do so will not serve you well.

The Scorpio stellium sextiles Mars in Virgo and trines Chiron in Pisces: this deep internal processing really is all about healing. Bringing the rotten stuff to consciousness, doing the necessary work. Mars in Virgo is all about creating healthy physical routines: eating right, exercising, getting enough rest, clearing out physical and mental clutter. It's a good time to start new health routines or commit to cleaning out your living space. Mars will be in Virgo until the first week of December, and he is currently trining Pluto in Capricorn: if you're willing to put the work in, it's a very good time for making the necessary deep structural changes.

But what we are looking at here are also problems that are not just personal but collective. The Scorpio stuff sextiles Pluto in Capricorn (rotten structures) and Chiron in Pisces (collective wounding). And in the case of the collective wounds, the problems go so deep and are so systemic that the only healing response possible would appear to be a radical acceptance of mortality. Yesterday I read this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-fukushima-workers-specialreport-idUSBRE99O04320131025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71&google_editors_picks=true

and this

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-operation-spent-fuel-618/

Diligent worker drone Mars in Virgo is staring down Chiron in Pisces: a poisoning that has no boundaries; a sacrifice that defies logic. What better metaphor for the abused and coerced sacrificial cleanup workers at Fukushima? Do you think those poor guys in their thin little suits are gonna be able to get those fuel rods out of Reactor 4 without bringing down (as the somewhat breathless article puts it) “a true apocalypse”?

(So what is it now, then: a middling one? A low-level apocalypse?)

Further: do you think your personal health and well-being is something you can safeguard against this kind of threat? What is your personal well-being even worth, in the midst of so much loss?

Doubtless we will all be finding out in the months ahead.

“Apocalypse” comes from the Greek for “uncovering”, “revelation”. Expect all kinds of revelations to begin to come to light in the next few weeks. They are likely to be traumatic because of the nature of the cosmic weather at this time. The 4^th square (of 7) between Pluto (the lord of death, the rapist) and Uranus (sudden shock) hits exactitude on the 1^st of November, 2 days before the new moon eclipse at 11 degrees Scorpio.

This is some very dark and spooky Halloween weather, and potentially stressful as all hell. I don't want to get all dire about it...I'd like to be positive and chirpy. Like, “you can work with this to effect beneficial change in your life!!” etc. And you very likely can, given the way Mars in Virgo is aspecting Pluto and the Scorpio stellium. But these are outer planets we're talking about, and they don't operate in predictable, controllable ways.

Try to stay healthy and focused on the details. Avoid toxic people and situations. Mind yourself. Watch what you say. Go deep.

Happy Halloween.

New Moon in Libra

Hasui Kawase "Autumn at Funatsu, Near Lake Kawaguchi"

On the 4^th of October, we have a new moon at 11 degrees Libra. New moons represent new beginnings, and this one looks like it’s about making a commitement to confront difficult, covert relational issues and energy imbalances—even if it hurts. It’s a kind of verbal and intellectual surgery that is required here. Clear-sightedness and honest, direct communication that cuts through the bullshit and rot.

Let’s break it down. Libra is an airy, intellectual sign ruled by Venus, planet of relation and values. Libra energy is all about finding the balance-point between different people and their differing needs and values. Bridging the gaps between people and creating harmony.

As a high-powered cardinal sign, and one so concerned with beauty and pleasure (Venus), Libra can be controlling and shallow. Libra energy can lazily whitewash out difference instead of doing the difficult work of enacting a fair balance. It can insist on a superficial show of outward harmony even when everything’s rotten underneath the pretty façade.

Thankfully, this kind of strategy is just not an option under these skies. Or say: it’s an option, it’s always an option. But it won’t work, so whitewash at your peril!

Why won’t it work? For one thing, Libra’s ruler, Venus, is in Scorpio, a no-bullshit sign that sees straight to the core and strips away the layers of rot surrounding it, cutting in order to heal. Venus in Scorpio is just not ok with superficial relation. It requires something volcanic, molten, metamorphic; something from the depths.

For another, Mercury, planet of thought and communication is in Scorpio too…and conjunct Saturn and the north node in Scorpio. This is the conjunction Venus passed over last month, the day before the full moon in Pisces. The karmic direction of the current story is in Scorpio, and Scorpio doesn’t whitewash. Scorpio transforms.

But with Scorpio, this transformation involves stripping away what’s dead or amputating it. Flaying the dead from the living tissue so that regeneration is possible. Scorpio is about surgery: careful, precise, unsentimental… and necessarily painful. But at best it is a form of compassion, bloody and wounding though it may be.

Venus’ conjunction with Saturn and the north node last month highlighted the need for sorting out our values, especially regarding love and money. With Mercury involved this month (and until December, as Mercury retrogrades through Scorpio), necessary relational transformations are effected via careful, precise, unsentimental thought and communication.

And in case there were any doubt as to what it this story is about, the sun and moon in Libra form a cardinal t-square with the ongoing Pluto-Uranus square, the traumatic and transformative aspect which defines these years.

It’s very simple really. Transform or die. No illusions, no excuses. Break free of what you already know is draining and depleting you, cut your losses, get out of unbalanced energetic exchanges. If words are called for, be simple and honest and direct; lay the situation bare, but try to stay balanced and kind. With Mercury conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, less is more in terms of verbal communication.

It’s beautiful when the sky is this unambiguous. Not to say it is easy. There is really not much ease or let-up to be had here—it’s all pretty hardcore. And just wait till we hit November and the fourth exact Uranus-Pluto square, and a new moon in Scorpio that pounds home these same themes, in case you haven’t been listening!

But awareness of just how much is required of us these days is a great fortifier. Knowledge is power: that’s a perfect phrase for Mercury in Scorpio. And there will never be a better, more powerful time to transform how you relate to the world than right NOW. 

There is really not much choice. “The fates lead him who will; him who won’t they drag”, as Seneca wrote.

--As an aside, Seneca was a Roman poet and dramatist of the 1^st century AD. Stoic philosophy combined with a life full of political intrigue and scandal, culminating in a forced suicide after an alleged plot against the emperor Nero. The skies make me think of him, speaking as they do (as he did) of stoicism, perseverance and integrity. Here are some more quotes, very relevant to the current astro-weather:

What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.’ That is progress indeed. Such a person will never be alone and you may be sure he is a friend to all.  

Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live and what will amaze you even more, throughout life you must learn to die.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.

 You want to live-but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?

Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.

What view is one likely to take of the state of a person's mind when his speech is wild and incoherent and knows no constraint?

Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.

What is required is not a lot of words, but effectual ones.

Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.

A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.

You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.

So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.

I am telling you to be a slow-speaking person.

Be harsh with yourself at times.

 

Ok, enough heaviness! (But no question, it's all very heavy. No way around it.)

Happy heavy October!

 

Venus Conjunct Saturn & North Node / Full Moon in Pisces / Pluto Direct

We have a few days of heavy-duty magic as we drift toward the full moon in Pisces on September 19^th. And by heavy-duty, I mean no bullshit. This story is about having the power to change your life, no lie—but it only works if you use it the right way. There is definitely a right way involved, and a wrong way.

The right way involves seeing (in an intensely focused, probing, detail-oriented way) what is unworkable or diseased in your life… and REMOVING it. Cutting it out. 

The wrong way involves wishful thinking, pining for the impossible, fantasy, escapism, self-delusion. But thankfully, the current cosmic weather makes grand illusions hard to sustain. Reality itself, seen clearly, will have more than enough magic and strangeness in it—you are not going to be needing your bullshit, or anyone else’s.

How does it play out? Well first, on September 18^th, Venus in Scorpio conjuncts Saturn & the north node at 8 degrees Scorpio. The conjunction exactly sextiles Pluto at 8 degrees Capricorn and trines Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. (The moon is involved today on the 17^th September—so you can try to tune in on what these themes mean for you via feeling, the day before it all really goes down.)



This is a very big deal. The theme of the skies at this time (signified by the north node) is all about karma coming due—and the reckonings involved are profound. Venus (love and money) joined with Saturn (responsibility) in Scorpio (depth and death), backed up by Pluto (transformation).

--I put a picture of a pearl here because the sky these next few days is making me think of pearls. Irritation and wounding (Chiron) transformed (Pluto) over time (Saturn) into something of great beauty and value (Venus). And it happens down in the depths of the sea, hidden from sight (Neptune). And the product of this deep-sea transformation (Pisces) becomes a symbol of purity and integrity, absolute simplicity (Virgo). The themes are all accounted for.

Regarding Saturn in Scorpio: this is all about getting back the energy you've given. Energetic return on investment. So if you've invested wisely in solid relationships or ventures and done the necessary work, you will know it. And conversely, if you've wasted your resources somewhere, it will be quite clear--you will know it's time to cut your losses.

We can't keep throwing good money after bad under Saturn in Scorpio--it's untenable; there is just not enough to spare. Resources (financial, relational, energetic) must be conserved and invested wisely. Squandering your love or your money or your limited and valuable life energy on folly and delusion—will not fly for long under these skies. Casting your pearls before swine: ditto.



However, there IS the opportunity to use your compassion and idealism in concrete, practical ways that ground and heal: that’s courtesy of Chiron and Neptune in Pisces trining the Saturn, Venus and north node conjunction. And Pluto in Capricorn gives backbone and integrity.


As I said above, it’s all about seeing clearly. Using discrimination. The sun is still in precise, detail-oriented Virgo, and Virgo’s ruler Mercury is Libra, just moving out of tense cardinal t-square formation with Uranus and Pluto. All the flaws and imbalances in your relationships have been on full display this past week, right? Maybe you’ve managed to stay out of any toxic verbal exchanges…but I’m sure you’ve felt the tension in some way. I sure have! The mental urge (Mercury) to completely torch what’s inherently flawed (Uranus square Pluto), and do it in words that can’t be taken back… To give the world a good tongue-lashing.

Well, I held back, mostly. And for me that’s been a good thing. It would only have made things worse…and in the end, Saturn (karma) will do what he does regardless. Rottenness WILL be laid bare under these skies, whether I open my big mouth about how rotten it all is or not.

But if you have something burning in you that MUST be said or done in the interests of individual human freedom (not individual self-aggrandizement—be clear on this)…well the days ahead might be the right time. Mars in Leo and Uranus in Aries are in easy trine formation, and Mercury is leaving the cardinal t-square—so the potential for explosive conflict via communication is reduced. Speaking up might even revolutionise matters.

Use discrimination, caution and compassion (in the form of ‘tough love’) and you’ll be backed up by the cosmic weather. Speak the truth if it falls to you to speak. Do it quietly and clearly and with concision—do not go overboard or fall back on emotionally manipulative tactics. The potential for doing so is built-in, via a square between Jupiter in Cancer and Mercury in Libra, so try to stay mindful. But don’t back down from what you know is true, either. And accept the fallout. Of course there will be fallout—there are situations and people you will have to walk away from, or they may need to detach from you. It may hurt. But it is imperative to accept the loss of what is no longer necessary and vital.

The day after the Venus, Saturn and north node conjunction, we have the full moon at 26 degrees Pisces. 19^th September: here is the pearl of great price, fully illuminated. Nurturance, compassion, sacrifice, suffering (Pisces moon) versus method, organization, discrimination, clarity.

It is entirely possible to balance these energies via service to others: that is ultimately what the Virgo-Pisces axis is about, and the energies complement each other. Notwithstanding the brashness of Mars in Leo, this is not a time for self-assertion, unless you are doing it in the service (Virgo) of the transpersonal (Pisces).

And finally, the day after the full moon, Pluto goes direct, having been retrograde since April. There will be no avoiding deep structural changes to your life now. The gears mesh up and the big wrecking machine sputters to life. Whether it’s going to grind your world to dust or seed the ploughed-up ground for new growth, the machine has its own momentum—you really just have to suck it up and get out of the way when Pluto’s involved.

What in your life needs to die? What are you holding onto that is already dead? By now you know exactly what it is…it should be clear as day.

Whatever you are unwilling to let go of now will be ripped from you regardless—so best let go if you can. Make a sacrifice of it on the Pisces full moon. Sit down and name it, define it (Virgo)…and then let it go.   

New Moon in Virgo Opposite Chiron in Pisces

Plastic-filled albatross: see here

It’s very hard to know even a little about the damage we’ve inflicted on the world’s oceans without feeling overwhelmed and depressed. Among the most obvious—and difficult to address—problems are overfishing, pollution, and acidification due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.

With a human population projected to hit 9 billion (from a current 7 billion) by mid-century, the prospects for ‘fixing’ the damage we’ve been doing are dim. In many respects, things are already too far gone to fix.  

Life on Earth depends on the health of the oceans. They are the circulatory system of the planet. We came from the sea and the salinity of our blood mirrors the composition of seawater: the amniotic fluid we developed in.

Pisces is the sign of the sea and the last sign in the zodiac. It signifies our origins as well as our ends: the final dissolution of the ego and the personality; of all the seeming boundaries that make us separate and individual beings. Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, has been in the sign since April of 2011—so in a very nebulous way, our intuitive awareness has been focused on the seas these past few years. And Chiron, the asteroid signifying profound wounding, has been in Pisces since January of 2011, conjunct Neptune—so this awareness we have of Piscean matters is inherently painful. We all have this dim background sense that something is very wrong, whether it can be articulated or not, whether it is faced or evaded (and Neptune is famous for self-delusion and escapism).

Shortly on the heels of Chiron’s ingress into Pisces we watched the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfold in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of barrels of oil from a blown-out wellhead gushed into the Gulf from April to July of 2011, an environmental calamity with ongoing consequences.

I remember watching the ‘spillcam’ live video footage in horror that spring and summer, hypnotized by sight of oil billowing from the broken pipes. Like blood from a wound that wouldn’t heal.

Chiron, the unhealable wound, is also supposed to teach…but I don’t know what it taught in the case of the Macondo blowout. There is a Neptune-tinged helplessness and despair in the face of such destruction: a resignation to profound loss. BP, the corporation accountable for the disaster, continues to evade real culpability. It is a Pluto in Capricorn theme.      

And now, just in time for the September 5^th new moon in Virgo, comes an escalation of the ongoing (since March of last year) Fukushima crisis: another profound wounding to the health of the seas, and thus, to the overall health of the planet. Another poisoning.

But the situation at Fukushima is much scarier than the Deepwater Horizon disaster because the threat is invisible, intangible. Much easier for corporations and governments to lie about and whitewash into non-existence. How Neptune is that?

Except Saturn is in Scorpio, in mutual reception with Pluto in Capricorn—and the attempts to cover up or avoid dealing with inherently rotten situations can’t work for long these days. Again we are seeing, clear as day, the criminal failure of a corporate structure to prevent or adequately deal with the destruction it has unleashed. 

And again we are seeing environmental catastrophe on a scale that induces abject horror and helplessness. A wound that can’t be fixed, with ramifications that spread across national borders (more Neptune) to encompass the whole web of life on the planet. 

Virgo is the sign of attention to detail, health, orderliness, self-purification. The new moon in Virgo is a good time to start new health regimens or get your physical or psychic house in order.

The question posed by this new moon, which opposes Chiron in Pisces, looks to me like this: how can you adequately safeguard your physical integrity and health in the face of disasters like Fukushima, that threaten everything and everyone indiscriminately? Of what use is it to get your own personal house in order—clean and germ-free!—when the entire planet is being poisoned?

Ultimately there’s not a lot we CAN do, except live with the consciousness of wounding and profound loss these disasters entail—and this is also a consciousness of our own mortality. I mean, we can write letters to ‘responsible’ government bodies; we can avoid eating Pacific fish and seaweed (or anything grown in Japan for that matter); we can move to locations on the planet we hope are ‘safe’ and ‘clean’; we can organize and march in the streets against the expansion of nuclear power generation… and all these actions are necessary and valuable.

But ultimately they only give us the illusion of personal agency. And what’s happening is (always) much bigger than our pitifully limited personal agency. We can’t personally or collectively stop the process that’s underway at Fukushima. It is out of control, and even the attempts at mitigation have proven to be dreadful failures so far. A process has been set in motion that is out of anyone’s hands. 

And it is terrifying and painful to know this—but also healing. Because ultimately our lives are uncontrollable in exactly the same way, and this lack of control must be accepted. You can try to systematize your existence, to purify and perfect it (Virgo)…but the boundaries and routines you build and uphold are temporary and foredoomed to failure. Your attempts at self-mastery are foredoomed…the self does not endure. All boundaries dissolve eventually: you are destined to become part of everything again.

And the retaining walls and containers at Fukushima, sooner or later, will dissolve. Invisible poison will disperse through the world’s bloodstream unhindered, and everything alive will partake of it in some way, for generations and generations. It’s terrible, but it’s the reality. How do you live with this knowledge? How do you live with the knowledge that even if this situation is ‘contained’, there are currently hundreds of nuclear power plants around the world, each as potentially destructive as Fukushima Daiichi?

It’s like asking: how do you live with the knowledge that someday you will die? That despite all your best efforts to eat right and stay healthy and be a decent human being…one day you will die and this is entirely out of your hands?

I pose these questions because they’re the questions this Virgo new moon poses for me, not because I know how to answer them. Everyone has to find their own answers.

As we move toward the new moon, we also move into the current square between Mars in Leo and Saturn in Scorpio. It’s uncomfortable…it’s like, you can try to have fun and be lighthearted, but the awareness of just how bad things are, personally and collectively, will make that difficult. And as we move toward the full moon in Pisces on the 19^th September, Mercury also moves into the Cardinal Grand Cross zone that Venus has just left—so our minds are likely to be preoccupied with the weighty, shocking, difficult things we’re finding out. Pay attention. Don’t try to look away from or evade what you know deep down to be true.

All the thrust of the current story lies with Saturn in Scorpio, which is moving toward conjunction with the north node and Venus, exact on the 18^th September, the day before the full moon in Pisces. Attempts to skate along the surface, especially relationally, just will not work under these skies. The themes are depth and endurance. Find out who and what you trust, and stick to it! You should know pretty well who and what you can’t trust by now: don’t waste any more energy on it.

Aquarius full moon / Venus in Libra / Cardinal Grand Cross

Moon in Sagittarius today (August 16^th): emotional buoyancy! But can you feel the foreshadowing as it moves toward conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn tomorrow? The sense of something dark up ahead? There are some rough seas coming up, and tomorrow we get a feel for what’s involved for us as the moon hits Pluto and activates the cardinal t-square between Pluto, Uranus and Jupiter. The second half of August is intense!

What themes opened up for you at the Leo new moon two weeks ago? What traps did you recognise you needed to be free of? Where did you decide to direct your creative energies?

Now we see a culmination: what was only felt and known internally then is all out in the open now. Full moon in Aquarius on the 20^th. Moon conjunct Neptune in Pisces, opposite the Sun and Mercury in late Leo. This looks like some emotional drama to me. Great, MORE emotional drama! As if this summer hasn’t been emotionally dramatic enough already. Sigh.

Big egos and over-the-top pronouncements courtesy of the Leo stuff, emotional withdrawal and befuddlement courtesy of the moon-Neptune Aquarius/Pisces stuff. Let’s see how it pans out. It could also be wonderful and magical: great for creativity and artistic work in particular.

Pretty, right? But jellies STING! See, even as we're getting all this dreamy luminescent creative stuff, Venus is moving into a world of hurt in Libra.

 

Venus in Libra—finally a bit of air! All this water & fire feels like being a firefly in the rain. And Venus is happy in Libra--it's her own domain.

 

But Venus in Libra is not easy this time around—nothing in Libra or the other cardinal signs will be easy or harmonious for the next few years. It all gets hit by the stressful, transformative Uranus-Pluto square, forcing adjustment, purgation, action.  

This time around we have Jupiter in Cancer in the mix, so it’s a cardinal grand cross: Jupiter opposite Pluto squaring Uranus opposite Venus, active August 23 to 27th. The moon in Aries gets involved on the 23^rd, setting the tone for the proceedings: emotional freedom and authenticity, at any cost. LIBERATION.

But it’s painful. Do you think it hurts a butterfly to force its way out of its chrysalis; do you remember whether it hurt to be born? I guess it did; I guess it was terrifying. You know the one about having to break a few eggs to make an omlette? Every birth involves a death: there is no going back to the way things were.

Anyway, this cardinal cross is ugly… but I think it could be worse. The two benefics (Jupiter and Venus) are involved, and Uranus-Pluto gives the potential for sudden lightning change, deep transformation. Also relational ruptures that need to happen. Jupiter is happy and exalted in Cancer, and Venus is in her own sign of Libra. So the things that need to be changed, can be. And there is emotional healing and backup provided courtesy of the still-active grand water trine. 

But no question, it’s tense. Poor Venus in Libra. She just wants everything to be lovely and for everybody to get along. Everybody can’t get along, though.

Venus opposite Uranus (and the moon) in Aries: enough of covert or not-so covert manipulation and control, people aren’t going to be having it. 

Jupiter opposite Pluto: power struggles, yeah.

Ugh, it looks like the ‘Get-Along’ shirt.

 

Ha! Venus in Libra at her most insane, squaring Jupiter in Cancer (family fun). And Venus squaring Pluto: controlling love. And an opposition to Uranus--what a shockingly brilliant idea this 'get along' shirt thing is! I wish I had one to put my ENTIRE FAMILY in!

Aaargh.

On a personal or familial level, this stuff can (hopefully) be funny. But you take these energies and apply them to a collective and you are looking at explosive tension (Uranus-Pluto). Over economic issues (Venus), justice (Libra) and notions of 'home' & 'country' (Jupiter in Cancer). The current crisis in Egypt illustrates these themes pretty well. It will be interesting to see what happens there in the weeks ahead as the cardinal cross comes into full force.

Tense as it is, three days into the cardinal cross we get a little dose of magic. From the evening of the 25^th August to the morning of the 26th we have, holy crap, another grand sextile. Brought to you by the moon in Taurus and the sun and Mercury in early Virgo. And this is a beautiful, very welcome thing: it grounds the dissonant, difficult energies of the cardinal grand cross. It's like, in the midst of all the conflict, there is this magical calm; this great potential space to breathe in; to process the changes or to lick our wounds in.

 

So, maybe we’re not out of the woods yet; maybe there is no ‘out of the woods’, ever. But there are great gifts mixed in with the difficulties, always. As with the last grand sextile, the message here seems to me to be about engagement. The sun and Mercury will be in Virgo: self-improvement, a focus on the little details of earthly existence. There is no getting out of the necessity of working with the difficulties as they present themselves.  Assimilating the lessons, figuring out how to use them.