New Moon in Gemini

This is on Wednesday the 28th May, around 7:45 GMT. The sun and moon will be conjunct at 7 degrees Gemini. Sparkly, hyperactive, hyper-communicative Gemini!

This is a breath of fresh air after all the intensities of the cardinal grand cross. Some fun, finally.

Plus, Mars is finally moving forward again in Libra, after months of lousy retrograde motion! Things are coming unstuck. Time to go out and party and network and generally jitter around like a crazy thing.

News, messages, gossip, communications...you can expect a bunch of that. I've written about Gemini here if you want to refresh yourself. It's a fun sign. Light and jumpy and adaptable, which is a relief. I've had about enough of heavy. I don't feel like writing ANYTHING else about heavy.

OK, but needless to say, more heavy is coming. Mid to late June, Mars is headed for cardinal t-square territory with Uranus and Pluto, and things get all fraught and dangerous and intense again for a while.

I don't want to think about it now, thanks! Let's just watch some Sparkle Motion.

Aaargh, that ending is NOT FUN! Let's forget all about it!!

Well that's the kind of scenario you could be looking at here. Neptune (dreams, delusions, lies) is heavily involved with this new moon. It exactly squares it from 7 degrees Pisces. Plus Mercury, ruler of Gemini, is trining Neptune in Pisces from the last degree of Gemini.

Gemini is pretty flexible with the truth, and Neptune fogs it out altogether. So while there may be plenty of information swirling around, figuring out what's true and what's false might be a tough business. Paying attention to unpleasant facts might be a tough business too.

This can go two ways, I think, because Neptune has two guises and is all illusion.

Either you are dealing with lies and delusions, your own or other peoples: misinformation, deception, confusion, propaganda, general bullshit.

Or you might find yourself inspired, intuitive, creative...channeling the ethereal realms and whatnot.

Maybe both at the same time. ''Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art'', per Oscar Wilde.

Or Yeats in "The Circus Animals Desertion", making much the same point, in a more elaborate and disillusioned way.

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart. 

This is a good new moon for masterful images growing out of pure mind – for poetic licence; beautiful lies. Finding your personal mythos via art.

Don't forget the imperfect reality all art and mythology is based on though....otherwise you court massive disillusion. Like poor old Yeats, looking back at his work at the end of his life and seeing a circus, all tinsel and bullshit.

Neptune has to do with idealization, and idealization can be so beautiful and dreamy that we forget how dangerous it is. Putting people on pedestals is never a good idea. It leads to ugly power dynamics. It's a denial of reality, in which nobody is perfect...and when reality asserts itself after the dream ends, life looks bleak and degraded: a foul rag and bone shop.

Neptune is about drugged-out bliss and the channeling of ethereal realms. It is also the hangover when that state departs. It's about the dissolution of personal boundaries to let in the divine, but also the dis-illusion that follows.

I guess you don't really get one without the other. You don't get the ethereal realms and fairy lights without the return to reality, and having to do the dishes and take the garbage out.

Anyway, with this new moon so wound up with Neptunian energy, expect new endeavors to be quite unclear and maybe too good to be true. Read the fine print. Be prepared for confusion and disillusion...try not to get in over your head.

And as always with Neptunian energy, beware of psychoactive substances. They can be portals to the divine, and they can also screw your head up completely, and render you gullible and vulnerable.

Overloaded mental circuits, scatty thinking and brain fog are also very likely. Maybe make sure you have some time away from people and their endless chatter...you might need a bit of solitude in which to mentally regroup.

Did I start this out by saying this new moon looked fun?!! And now I'm talking about danger and overload...

Well you know, this is sort of an illustration of how Neptune works. The sirens promise pleasure and then devour you...It takes some heroic self-possession to keep a clear head while they're spinning their beautiful bullshit.

Anyway, warnings aside, the new moon does look fun and sociable, and kind of higgeldy-piggeldy with new developments and interactions. Like the Tarot card for the 2 of Pentacles.

Everything kinda topsy-turvy and changeable...but not in a bad way. Just there's a lot of juggling involved. You can see how keeping a clear head becomes difficult with this level of distraction.

So to sum up...enjoy this new moon because it's pretty light compared to what we've been experiencing, and there's some more tension and difficulty ahead. Maybe start some new creative or artistic project...something lovely and dreamy, that doesn't rely too heavily on logic!

Just don't believe anybody's hype, not even your own, because you can find yourself deluded and befuddled all to hell pretty fast. Try to keep a clear head and watch out for the substances. They might be more fun that usual right now...but also more dangerous.

Let's listen to some Bollywood. These energies remind me of Bollywood: dreamy and romantic, hyper and dancey at the same time. More fun than will ever be humanly possible! Completely disconnected from reality...but this is the sort of illusion that makes life worth living.

I could just keep posting Bollywood videos forever. Better stop now, before the sirens of Bollywood devour my brain. Very dangerous stuff!

Mercury into Gemini / Venus Opposite Mars / Full Moon in Scorpio / Mars Direct

by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

There's a bunch of stuff going on in the sky at the moment, & I'm inclined to feel that the intensities April promised are all hitting about NOW. Last week was a doozy and I think the next few weeks will be tough as well. You know, the cardinal grand cross, at its height, felt like immense blockage and pressure – everything at an impasse. It's still in effect, but things are starting to come unstuck...just kinda explosively. So it's not exactly relief.

Ok, so what have we got? First off, Mercury has just moved out of Taurus into his home sign of Gemini, and this represents a shift in our thinking and communication style. From slow and deliberate to speedy, darting, sparky, hyper. A trine to Mars amps up the energy: people will be popping up with news and messages and gossip all over the place. A square to Neptune means be careful what information you trust: plenty of room for deception, delusion and misunderstanding here.

And Venus has been in Aries for about a week. Venus in Aries is a firebrand who goes after what she wants. Except the way things are set up right now, she's going to have a hard time getting it. Let's look at this situation a bit more closely...

Mars, ruler of Aries, is in Libra, which is Venus's home domain - so each planet is in the other's home sign. This is called a mutual reception and it means these planets have some business with each other. Also, they're opposing each other: so definitely these two are talking. Or arguing more likely, from completely opposite viewpoints. Sparks fly between men and women under a Venus-Mars opposition.

Mars has slowed down in his retrograde motion and is stationing at 9 degrees Libra, getting ready to go direct on the 20th of May. This will be a big release of pent up energy and drive, but till then, it represents some real passive aggression and covert operating on the part of Mars. Or just plain dicking around. He doesn't know what he wants, he's dithering, he's weighing his options, he's acting like a wuss, etc.

And Venus is moving into exact conjunction with Uranus in Aries, meaning she's fed-up with this crap and getting ready to cut ties and move on. She is LEAVING.

But some things are not all that easy to walk out on...There are big consequences.

The north node in Libra and the south node in Aries mean that issues of right relationship take center stage right now. There is definitely something to be worked out via relationship here. And the sun in late Taurus is moving into opposition with Saturn in Scorpio: so what has to be worked out is heavy, karmic, depressing, full of blockages. But it has to be done.

This is all happening in the context of the cardinal grand cross, and needless to say, it doesn't look fun. It looks fraught and final. The weekend ahead is especially full of potential for hurt feelings and busted relationships: on Sunday the 11th, the moon conjuncts Mars and opposes Venus and Uranus, lending emotional intensity to the Venus-Mars opposition and to the cardinal grand cross it is tied up with. The Mercury-Neptune square will be exact that day as well.

Meaning amid all the tears and accusations and flying crockery...someone is LYING, deluding themselves, misunderstanding the facts, wilfully obfuscating, withholding information. Spreading propaganda. Maybe it's both parties.

See here for something ridiculous, but based around a dead serious subject...

Dialogue should be possible. Mercury beneficially aspects both the Venus-Uranus and Mars-Moon conjunctions. There is diplomacy and arbitration available to the warring parties...if they can see past their personal grievances and hurt feelings and look at things objectively. Easier said than done!

And in a lot of cases, we are looking at associations that are definitely OVER and need to be buried. Venus is squaring Pluto, and under this aspect you can expect old partners or relational issues to come back to haunt you. Toxic love.

(Never seen this video before, but it's creepy & weird as hell! Yikes!!)

Anyway, in such circumstances, please remember yr Dr. Phil:

Venus is not just about relationships: she also has to do with your self-esteem, money and values. So the issues haunting you now might have to do with the way you spend money, or how you undermine your own self-esteem or values. What toxic habits are you stuck in, that you want to get rid of but can't seem to shake? This is the right time to blow yourself clear of them, if you can muster up the strength.

Because however you look at it, something is ending here. We have a full moon in Scorpio on the 14th (around 8 pm GMT) to drive this point home. Full moons are culminations or endings, remember. Release-points. And Scorpio is about deep psychological insight, and an all-or-nothing stance toward life. Committing to what's real and amputating what's rotten.

So whatever in your life supports and stabilises you - you can recognize and commit to that. And whatever bullshit is dogging you now, whether it's a destructive relationship or a habitual pattern that screws you up, or an addiction...you have a chance to look deeply into it and cut it off. Abruptly. If you know something you're doing is poisonous to your self-worth or your values or your financial status...you can always just stop doing it. You can.

This is not to gloss over how potentially difficult this full moon looks. It is conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, which is really fucking uncomfortable, involving feelings of constraint, deprivation and fear. Something is dying, and for a lot of people right now, there are big losses involved that no amount of positive psychology can whitewash away. These times are hard.

But there is great emotional support and healing available too, in the form of a grand water trine between Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio and Chiron in Pisces.

What this means is, if you can let go of what you know you have to let go of, accept that this is uncomfortable and painful, have a good, long cry about it...you'll be supported and aided by these skies. But if you attempt to hold on you'll get all smashed up, and it'll hurt worse in the long run.

On some level I think we all know this is what's going down. It's very stark and simple, and there really isn't much else to say about it.

Except that you know, you might want to lay low and protect yourself this week. People will be feeling shitty and explosive, and you might be too. It's easy to get into big emotional blowouts over stupid crap right now, and things can go horribly wrong forever between people in about 5 seconds. Often as a result of simple misunderstandings or drunkenness (Mercury-Neptune).

Be careful driving and operating machinery too. We have a Mars-Uranus opposition going on, and that means sudden accidents are more likely. Especially when you combine it with all the emotional intensities that are in effect.

(Yep.)

Early on the 20th May, Mars will move forward again after an exhausting retrograde period that started in early March. I think this should provide a bit of relief: things will start moving again. Energy and will should start working properly again. Time to move on, for real.

And here's another road song, while we're listening to road songs:

They're always so sad! Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

Oh well, here is the mother of all road songs for Venus conjunct Uranus in Aries. I guess I have to play it. :)

(PS: I just want to emphasize how hazy things can get with the Mercury-Neptune square we have going on...it is a recipe for delusion and head-fuckery. Under the circumstances, drinking and getting stoned is pretty dangerous right now and can lead to all kinds of problems. Ok, I'm going out for a pint now, bye!)