This is tomorrow, the 29th December, around 7 am GMT.
We have a lot going on in the sky heading into this new moon. Today (the 28th) in particular, is an important day. Today Uranus stations direct in Aries in exact opposition to Jupiter in Libra, and in tight trine to Saturn in Sagittarius. Plus Saturn squares Chiron in Pisces. Plus retrograde Mercury conjuncts the sun in Capricorn.
This symbolism here is of illumination – hidden truth coming to light, or a flash of insight that lights up the road ahead. As Mercury is retrograde, you will not have all the information, so don't make the mistake of thinking you do. (That will come later, as Mercury stations direct and moves to conjunct Pluto in January.)
What you will have is something solid to go on – a hunch that'll lead in the right direction. There will be practical things you can do with it, and your next steps will probably be quite clear.
Because this Mercury retrograde is so tied up with Pluto, what's revealed might be uncomfortable and ugly. With Saturn squaring Chiron, it could bring hopelessness and a painful awareness of limitation. And with Mars conjunct Neptune on the south node, it might feel easier to get drunk or take refuge in fantasy than to deal with what's happening. This is not exactly a feel-good new moon.
But it's better to know the reality than to be left in the dark – because then you can start taking practical steps and figuring out how to work with the situation. We are not eating pie in the sky in cloud cuckoo land here. It's just a shit sandwich on Planet Earth and we have to try to make the best of it.
As Mercury is retrograde in cautious, sober Capricorn, the appropriate response to new ideas or information right now is not a headlong rush to action. It is calm and quiet and industrious – focused on pragmatic, strategic structural changes and adjustments.
The new moon trines the north node in Virgo, which helps! Rome wasn't built in a day – it took a lot of little steps. Virgo is all about the little steps.
Here is hexagram 53 from the I Ching – it feels relevant to this new moon. It concerns the need for gradual progress in order to build something of lasting value.
Please don't be discouraged if the road ahead looks long and hard! “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”, per Martin Luther King. It's a very Jupiter in Libra sentiment – faith (Jupiter) in balance and justice (Libra) – and it's the way to go right now.
We will need more than faith though; we will need effort. I think this new moon looks fantastic as a scenario where faith and committed effort come together, along with righteous anger and the desire for change.
We do have a Mars-Neptune conjunction at this new moon, exact on New Year's Day and very close to the south node. So discouragement is definitely an option – dissolution of energy and will. This can be about illness, exhaustion and vulnerability to drugs, alcohol and delusion. Careful with all these things, please. The boundary-dissolving substances are especially dangerous this month.
That said, the Mars-Neptune conjunction beneficially aspects this new moon. What this says to me is that disillusion and disappointment can act as a spur here, and not as a swamp you get stuck in. It's when our illusions drop away that we're most capable of working with reality as it is.
I think the key to this new moon – and to the month ahead – is Uranus, planet of shock and revolution, stationing direct NOW in Aries, sign of anger and individual will.
Change is demanded. We are not going back to the old realities; we are creating radically new ones. New models of relating, new ways of making a living, new values, new visions of the future, new political groupings, new modes of protest and collective action – everything has to change, and all the old tried-and-true stuff we took for granted is just not gonna work anymore.
This kind of structural change is not going to happen overnight. But here at this coldly realistic new moon in Capricorn is where we get a sense of the road ahead - an intuition of what's possible - and start plotting our next moves.
The time to start implementing changes will come soon, as Mercury stations direct on the 8th January.
We'll have a stomach-churning full moon in Cancer on the 12th January. It looks tense, and I'll write about it closer to the time. I don't think the month ahead looks emotionally easy at all! But it does look great for gaining clarity about the road ahead, putting necessary changes in place, and getting things done.
It's a good time to make your New Year's resolutions. I think, make them wilder and stranger this year than you've ever dared. Why the hell not? Happy new year to all!
This is tomorrow, the 14th November, around 2 pm GMT.
It's a supermoon, as I'm sure everyone has heard. The biggest one since 1948 apparently – and we won't see another this big and bright till 2034.
Given the societal tensions we've been seeing and the way full moons amp up people's passions, I'd be kinda nervous about this...except this full moon is in settled, stable, reality-based Taurus. That should calm the emotional tone down a bit and make the tension easier to manage.
The story the sky is telling right now is one of tension, though. Go figure. Basically, everybody is angry, people are taking extreme stances and it has become very hard to know what's true. Talk about politics at your peril - firefights are the norm now.
--We have the sun in extremist, polarizing Scorpio, and this is intense by definition. Plus we have Uranus in Aries (populist rage) sending an edgy inconjunct to the Scorpio sun, triggering bursts of destructive collective anger.
--We have Mars (aggression, drive) in the revolutionary sign of Aquarius, in mutual reception with Uranus (shock, revolution) in Aries, a sign which is all about individual will - and this is about popular rage in action. People out on the streets demanding change.
--We have Mercury (speech, communication) newly in Sagittarius, where he is prone to ideological ranting. He is aspecting Mars in Aquarius. This fires up the rage and the potential for wounding, crude, shocking (and/or incisively insightful) communication.
--We have Neptune in Pisces stationing direct on the 19th November, nearly exactly conjunct the south node. This is a swamp of confusion, delusion, lies, inertia and stagnation. Destructive nostalgia; the pull of old addictions, utter head-fuckery and bewilderment.
--We have Jupiter in Libra getting set to square Pluto in Capricorn (exact 24th November) and oppose Uranus in Aries (exact 26th December). This is a test of our civility, our tolerance, our ability to find common ground in the midst of disagreement. It is also a painful magnification of the sense of a corrupt power hierarchy (Pluto in Capricorn) and individual rage against it (Uranus in Aries).
In short, we have not seen an end to populist rage, or to duelling ideologies, or to polarized discourse. Or to the reign of utter crazy bullshit and delusion. Or to the dissolution of everything we thought to be true and stable...
We are still dealing with the aftermath of the transformative, destructive Uranus-Pluto squares (2012-2015), and we will be dealing with this for a long time. Recall that the last time we had a series of squares between these two planets was the 1930s, during the run-up to World War II. This is similar.
Pluto (toxicity, corruption and transformation) entered Capricorn, sign of the establishment, in 2008. That was the year the banking system fell apart. It was propped up at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.
Then Uranus (shock, revolution) entered Aries, sign of individual will and combativeness, in 2011, and collective anger erupted. That's when we watched the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which demanded accountability from governments and the financial system. That's also when we saw the Arab Spring explode all over the Middle East, as people took to the streets to demand change.
Pluto and Uranus squared each other seven times between 2012 and 2015, and they hit like a wrecking ball, reducing a lot of lives to ruins. Populist revolt and shocking violence (Uranus in Aries) vs. extreme efforts on the part of authorities to maintain control, though the systemic rot could no longer be hidden (Pluto in Capricorn). Syria is a perfect example of how this sort of thing plays out on a collective scale - and with Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, the horror of that war can't be contained to just Syria; it is a contagion affecting the entire world.
But on the individual level, plenty of people have been through their own private apocalypses these past few years. Much of this (job and home loss and financial difficulty especially) is tied to the collective catastrophe - the failure of governments and the financial system to provide stability.
This year, to top it all off, we had three squares between Saturn (structure, order, reality) and Neptune (dissolution) – and this has dissolved the scorched earth right out from under people's feet. We no longer know what to expect. The future has always been uncertain, but this is something else entirely. None of it makes sense. And this uncertainty fuels more extremism – people retreat to polarized viewpoints when their sense of stable reality is threatened.
So here we are, at this supermoon in Taurus, and I hope it brings some calm and pragmatism, because we all have to figure out how to move on from here. New foundations have to be constructed; new realities have to be attended to. The old ones are torched.
The sky offers some clues as to how to move forward. Chiron in Pisces (a sense of existential woundedness) supports the full moon, and this says to me that compassion is the right response to turmoil – hard as it may be to come by. Compassion for the oppressed, and for the suffering that underlies the rage of the oppressors. We are all in this planet-sized shit show together.
Chiron is also about healing, and I hope some of that will be on offer. Because the collective polarization and savagery have grown hard to bear.
Another way forward is highlighted by the north node in Virgo, now exactly opposing Neptune and the south node in Pisces. I have been harping on about this for ages, but it bears repeating: pay attention to reality, to the bedrock facts of your everyday life. Attend to the little details of what needs doing. Stay grounded, serve others, help whenever you can, keep to your routines. Do not get stuck in the swamp of your own inertia or delusion or emotional ungroundedness.
All this is easy to say, but it will be pretty damn hard to do. Especially as Neptune stations direct later this week conjunct the south node, and in square to Mercury. It will feel like a complete headfuck, and the temptation will be to retreat into cloud-cuckoo land or a bottle of gin. Try to stay anchored in reality, one mundane task at a time. This has been important all year, with the north node transiting Virgo. But it is absolutely imperative now.
There is a yuuuuge need to accept and be willing to work with reality at this full moon - we must get down to business. We have Venus newly in security-seeking Capricorn, moving to conjunct Pluto on the 25th November - and this, along with the Scorpio-Taurus stuff, is about a fairly ruthless, realistic assessment of the bottom line in relationship and money matters. What you give vs. what you get back.
And by “bottom line”, I don't just mean money – I mean energy, though money and energy are often interchangeable. With Jupiter in balance-minded Libra, exchanges have to be fair, above-board and equal. The energy drains have got to go. This may entail getting rid of things you're quite attached to, and it will hurt.
But you have to drop the dead weight in order to move forward - and the dead weight in this case may be your dreams and illusions about how life should be. We have to work with what life IS.
This is not a time for burying our heads in the sand - this full moon is all about accepting reality, working with it and striving for fairness and balance in the face of conflict, delusion, polarization, shock and instability.
It's a very tense and angry full moon – full of potential emotional violence. Also full of potential happiness, blessing and freedom. It really looks like a fairy-tale battle to me: the forces of light vs. the forces of darkness, simplistic as that sounds. There is such a contrast between the heavy, dark, emotionally claustrophobic stuff and the joy and release on offer. (But they are two parts of the same story, remember.)
It's like, Perseus cuts off the Gorgon's head – this monster whose gaze has the power to turn life to stone. And Pegasus, the beautiful winged horse representing freedom, inspiration, poetry – is born out of the wound.
I keep thinking of that story in relation to this full moon! I guess it's really an allegory for facing what we fear. Fear ossifies.
Anyway, there are some very scary monsters to be faced here. And there is the possibility of really defeating them, really getting free – getting to the root of the toxicity and amputating it from your life.
There is also some crazy magical aid on offer to help you in this task. I am not exaggerating here – it is actual magic, and it's on the side of human happiness and freedom.
I think this is all about the idea of a 'threshold guardian' - the force you have to defeat before moving to a new level, like in a video game. When you've just reached the crossing between two different states of being, there is always a struggle, and this can be internal or external. There are powerful forces of inertia and fear that manifest as blockages, setbacks or demons you have to fight. If they can scare or discourage you enough, you back down, stay on the same level and stagnate. If you keep fighting to get past them, you eventually break through to the next level - a new world., where you are no longer defined by your pathology or other people's craziness or the family ghosts or whatever.
A new world is definitely on offer - life really can turn on a dime right now. You really can get free between one minute and the next. But it looks like you have to fight for that freedom.
Maybe the freedom on offer takes the form of a painful loss or an amputation – you might have to let go of something you thought you couldn't live without. Loss can open up a space for something new and unimaginable to enter your life.
Anyway, re. the dynamics of this full moon: Mars and the sun in Cancer will be facing off against the moon and Pluto in Capricorn.
Mars in opposition to Pluto is quite violent, focused, brutal energy. It is likely to play out as interpersonal conflict - the kind that feels like a fight to the death.
Having the moon involved with Pluto and opposite Mars – and disposited by Saturn in Scorpio - means there is quite a hellish emotional load here. This speaks of buried emotional stuff coming up to be dealt with – especially family stuff. Toxicity, rage, control issues, manipulation, secrets, debts, illnesses, shattering losses. The full weight of the past. It's tough.
If battles, ordeals or painful revelations are coming up in your life, externally or internally – well you just have to face what you're afraid of. Have to. You can't let fear ossify and block up your life – there are absolutely no rewards for doing that.
Saturn (duty, karma, fear) in Scorpio is the dispositor of the full moon, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Saturn in Scorpio is intense, scary and all-or-nothing. It demands a fierce commitment to emotional excavation and dealing with your shit. Sorting out the energetic imbalances, the debts, the trauma and garbage. Doing the dirty work.
I have written plenty about Saturn in Scorpio and won't re-hash it here. It is quite dark and hellish, but the effort to deal with your demons will pay off.
At the same time, we have heaven on offer: Venus is now conjunct Jupiter and trine Uranus. This is intense, unexpected sweetness and luck. Magical loveliness, lucky breaks, open doors of possibility. Unicorns and rainbows, seriously.
Neptune in Pisces is also involved with the full moon, harmoniously aspecting the moon and sun. Meaning dreams, art, compassion and faith can carry the day.
More unicorns and rainbows!
You cannot go wrong with unicorns and rainbows, and that's a fact.
It reminds me of all the epic fairy-tale battles in Lord of the Rings-type movies. Somehow, against all odds, good always prevails. Life defeats death.
Ask yourself: what's the worst that could happen, if I face what scares me most? Is it worse to take a chance and potentially fail...or to go on living under Mordor's rule?
It's really about life or death – that's the choice on offer. And the life option involves fighting what you're afraid of, fighting for the kind of life you want.
This may involve hardship and pain - but please remember that this story favours bravery, openness, joy. Taking chances, accepting new opportunities, walking into the unknown, getting unstuck.
Unicorns and rainbows, seriously. And magic, and singing frogs.
(Please note - when I talk about fighting, I don't mean fighting by returning whatever ugliness is thrown your way. To win this fight, you have to be better than the forces arrayed against you - more aware, calmer, more compassionate, kinder. You have to be the bigger person and keep doing the right thing, even when it would be easier to just blowtorch everything. Good is all set up to prevail, so you have to put yourself on the side of the good, and not be dragged down to the level of whatever is opposing you.)
For the past month we've been looking at nearly too much mental energy, frenetic socialising, and a driving need to communicate.
This new moon in hectic Gemini, sign of thought, communication and social networking, continues the theme. We are opening up another very busy 30-day cycle here. One in which anything – really anything – could happen.
– It has all the elements of a good fairy story, really. A seed in the mind coming to fruition...then suddenly it's a magic beanstalk, a road to the otherworld. And later this cycle, we come face to face with the giant – what we most fear maybe.
That's at the full moon in Capricorn in two weeks' time. I'll write about it closer to the time - it's a heavy one. But for now we'll focus on the new moon:
The sun and moon in Gemini will be conjunct Mars in Gemini. And all these planets are disposited by Mercury, also in Gemini, his home sign - and direct since the 11th June.
This is just a lot of busy-bee energy. A lot of jittering around, mentally and socially. People are going to be needing to talk and share information.
The new moon will also sextile the Jupiter-Uranus trine, which is nearly exact now. It will be exact on the 22nd June, but it's in effect. Lightning grace is underway.
It's about bravery, eureka moments, sparkly energy. Creativity, magic words; artistry and mastery. Inspired communciation and derring-do.
Magic, per Crowley, is "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will". This new moon looks like a pretty good setup for magic. Inspired solutions to old problems, or a new point of departure entirely. An opportunity to turn dreams into realities.
But please remember, magic is not something you play around with. Saturn is back in Scorpio as of this morning.
I've written about this plenty (see the tag-cloud entry for “Saturn in Scorpio” below) and will try not to repeat myself here. But this is a last-chance kind of transit – a three month window (mid June to mid-September) for dealing with Scorpio issues (sex, death, power, transformation, the Shadow, shared resources and energetic transactions).
It's time to take your psychological garbage out – unless you want to carry it for the next three decades or so.
There is great opportunity here - also great peril. Great pain, maybe. This transit feels so somber to me, and final. And frightening. It's not for wusses.
But it's what's required. After all, what is magic worth if there's nothing real at stake? What would a fairy tale be without monsters to fight? What is bravery worth without the possibility of loss and failure?
Saturn currently opposes Mercury – and this new moon is all about Mercury (mind, thought, communication, messages). What this means is, beneath all the surface social energy and activity, beneath all the chatter - there are very weighty, karmic issues preoccupying us. It may seem like a light time because of the Gemini emphasis. It is not light.
Further, Chiron in Pisces – representing an unhealable, inchoate sense of wounding – will be squaring the new moon and Mars. This is quite raw and uncomfortable, emotionally and mentally.
Again, very fitting for a fairy story. What starts a story in motion is dissatisfaction, unease, the sense of something wrong or lacking. Something out of joint with the world, something you desperately want, just out of reach...
Mercury is also trining the north node in Libra – so remember the aim of this story is harmony, balance, justice, right relationship.
So as in a fairy story, there are quests to undertake, dragons to be defeated, risks to be braved, prizes to be fought for...and a big alchemical wedding at the end.
--Sometimes I wonder how anyone could possibly find life boring. It's the biggest, most dangerous adventure anyone could ever undertake. People forget - in the grip of routine or inertia or ego – that the ground of our existence is magic and amazement. Magic is our birthright.
Beneath the 'mundane', socially agreed-upon surface of the world, beneath the scripts and programming we live by, life is a deep mystery and an endless strangeness.
There is, it seems to us, At best, only a limited value In the knowledge derived from experience. The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies, For the pattern is new in every moment And every moment is a new and shocking Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm. In the middle, not only in the middle of the way But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble, On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold, And menaced by monsters, fancy lights, Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly, Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession, Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God. The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
OK, so to sum up: we are living in a weird fairy tale this month. (Always really. But especially so this month, and this summer.)
Remember fairy tales are brutal and dangerous, like life. There are awful people in them who create terrible suffering. There are murderous bridegrooms, evil sisters, usurping kings. There are man-eating giants and wicked witches and monsters galore.
Also fairy godmothers, magical helpers, tricksters, talking animals. And moral laws whereby evil ultimately destroys itself and kindness and humility prevail.
There are quests and follies; there are inescapable realities of violence, injustice, loss... and the possibility of ultimate redemption.
And there are lucky portals of dazzling promise that open at a moment's notice – but you have to be brave or foolhardy enough to step through, into the unknown. To leave your known, comfortable reality behind.
Fairy tales and myths encode the way life actually works. If you're in any doubt on that score, watch how reality twists and morphs this summer.
Anyway...Let's look briefly at the next couple of weeks:
--the sun moves into Cancer the 22nd, followed by Mars on the 24th. Mars (warrior planet) is uncomfortable in Cancer, sign of emotions, nurturance and family. He can get very emotionally reactive, moody, manipulative and defensive here.
Mars will be in Cancer from the 24th June till the 9th August – the best use of this is to be a warrior, emotionally – to express feelings, to stand up for your emotional truth, to defend those who are in your care. To feed people like a big Italian mama. It is a fiercely protective energy – like a mother animal defending her young. Fiercely focused on family, clan, 'your' people and belongings and emotional security – your home and personal domain.
The worst use of this is emotional warfare, moodiness, clinginess, guilt trips and general emo crap. And getting all butthurt and sulky over stupid shit. Especially family shit. Over-identification with 'your' people to the point where you think you have a right to control and manipulate them.
(Grumpy care bear)
Another dumb expression of Mars in Cancer is comfort eating (or drinking, or drugging). Stuffing feelings down via food or other addictive behaviours:
On the plus side, having Mars in Cancer should help with Saturn in Scorpio's requirement for deep emotional excavation. Intense energy will be available to do the necessary emotional work - it's just a matter of channelling it properly.
In other words, do not get sucked into moodiness and drama. Do not construct a sob story around your shifting emotional states and use it to manipulate others or turn your life into a soap opera.
But do use this energy to understand your moods at their roots. What is going on way under the surface? What is this really about, deep down? When have you felt this way before – what kind of emotional pattern is being manifested here?
Other things happening in the next couple of weeks: Mercury will square Neptune on the 23rd June. This is about intuition, inspiration and messages from the aether. Beware wooly-headedness and delusion though – and imprecise, confusing communication.
At the very end of the month and during first week of July, we have some hardcore loveliness. Venus conjuncts Jupiter and trines Uranus. This is incredibly sweet and liberating and lucky.
But it's also quite powerful and deep. July 2nd, while all this sweetness is at its height, we have a really heavy-duty and dark full moon in Capricorn. It looks emotionally cathartic and intense – like a full-on fairy-tale battle. Dragons and monsters to fight, like I said. And magical helpers with gifts.
I will write it out closer to the time, but it looks like a great story.
This full moon is tomorrow, the 2nd June, around 5 pm GMT.
It looks like fun to me. Hectic, and full of potential mind-fuckery and confusion – but fun all the same.
It's really hard not to like a moon in Sagittarius! This is about a buoyant, unsinkable emotional tone; very happy-go-lucky. Exuberant, expansive, hopeful.
The moon will be facing off against the sun, Mercury and Mars in restless, mentally excitable Gemini. This is big mental and social energy: jittery, hyperactive, communicative, distractable, relentlessly networky.
So things will be buzzing like a beehive, or a crazy party.
And because Mercury is retrograde, a lot of the buzzing may be internal – it can be hard to get your own mind to shut the hell up under these circumstances. (Physical exercise is a good way to ground excessive mental energy, if you find yourself beset by swarms of angry bees in your head.)
Anyway, things are sure to be busy. Adding to the mayhem, the moon and sun (plus Mercury and Mars) will be squaring Neptune in Pisces, which is about dreams, inspiration, art, faith, compassion, delusion, deception, addiction...
So this is about big dreams, big opportunities, big inspiration and intuitive understanding and faith – or big delusion. A magical portal – or a lot of hot air.
Or a shot in the dark, a leap of faith. Trusting intuition to guide you.
This should be a great influence for artists, musicians, gamblers, pontificators and shit talkers, adventurers.
But you can see how confusing and frenetic this set-up can get. Exuberance, intense mental and social energy, and blurred reality. It's like a big insane super-happy party where everyone gets way too drunk and nobody talks any sense at all.
Or like this:
Nonsensical! And insane! Lots of fun though.
I wrote about the rumour mill running at warp speed in my last post – and this full moon amps it up like crazy. So beware of gossip, check your sources, don't believe everything you hear, watch your mouth. And as this involves Neptune, try not to drink yourself silly in public. It's looking like very drunken cosmic weather out there.
Mercury (mind, communication) and Neptune (dreams, delusions) do some nutty things with each other this month – they both shift direction within hours of each other on the 11th, and will be squaring each other for most of the rest of June. Meaning June is a headfuck, however you look at it – magical and dreamy, blurred and delusive. This can be great if you're an artist or musician or intuitive type; less great if you're looking for clear communication and solid facts.
Anyway, communication should be easier and clearer after Mercury goes direct on the 11th June.
The best use of the Mercury-Neptune stuff is to channel intuition and inspiration. This aspect, at best, is about a surrender to the larger design – a suspension of the ego, which is nothing but a control-structure made of thought.
Ego is useful and necessary, because it's how we get practical things done. But it's only a tool and it's fairly limited. Intuition is much more important, and much more neglected – it's the empty space in us that directs us, the part of us that connects us to the whole and instinctively knows the right path.
It's how all great art happens, and music, and real morality. I think it works like this:
Safe to say, those starlings are not thinking or worrying about anything – there's no ego at work there. There are no concepts or rules to what they're doing.
They are feeling out the unseen paths of least resistance in the air, flowing along them – making the invisible visible, and creating something new and strange.
That's how intuition works. It uses the natural flow of things instead of setting up obstacles to it. And it is inherently magical – it brings what is potential or unmanifested into the visible world, through us.
Anyway, it should be easier than usual to connect with intuition now, because of all this Mercury-Neptune stuff going on.
Plus, speaking of magic: Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius and dispositor of the full moon, is perfecting his trine to Uranus. It'll be exact on the 22nd of June. The remainder of June and the start of July are coloured by this aspect, with Mars and the sun in Gemini currently supporting it.
This is about sudden, lightning luck and opportunity – magical doors that open out of nowhere and shut as suddenly. So be alert to those openings, and ready to accept your opportunities quickly. Seize the moment, because with Jupiter-Uranus, a moment may be all you're given. Don't be afraid to take a risk, because fortune favours the brave this month.
This is where intuition comes in, because you'll need it to avoid second-guessing yourself into immobility. Trust what you know deep down. Don't let your ego-stuff and incessant thinking and rationalising get in the way.
It's like this song: being a good gambler is all about timing and intuition. Luck too, of course. But there's a lot you just have to deep-down know and trust – and that knowing runs deeper than thinking.
Good gambling is also about reasonable caution. There's a lot of luck and opportunity on offer this summer, but it's still important to be cautious about what you get into, and to stay grounded. Saturn (constriction, duty, karma) retrogrades into Scorpio on the 15th June, for a transit that will last till the 18th September. So if you get yourself into any kind of stupidity involving misuse of sexual energy or other people's resources, Saturn will kick your ass – and I can tell you, it will hurt. Further, Saturn will kick your ass for the energetic stupidities you've committed during his tenure in Scorpio over the past few years (October 2012 to December 2014).
Scorpio is about intimacy, trust, emotional and energetic transactions, psychological issues and pathology, shared resources, sex, death, transformation. These are areas of heavy emphasis under this final transit of Saturn through Scorpio. The karmic backlash for dealing flippantly or unfairly with these matters will be extreme, and long-lasting.
By long-lasting, I mean approximately 29 years. Saturn is no joke, and neither is Scorpio. I think you can actually fuck up your life under this transit – you can set yourself up for long-lasting regret and pain, to a degree that just doesn't happen when Saturn transits other signs. It's serious and frightening.
Mid-June to mid-September 2015 will be payback time for whatever was left unresolved during Saturn's initial transit of Scorpio. It also represents a final chance to put things right to the best of your ability before Saturn leaves Scorpio for another 29 years.
So be prepared to approach Scorpio-themed matters with absolute seriousness and respect over the next three months. There's no such thing as getting into a light romantic fling under Saturn in Scorpio. There's no such thing as 'innocently' misusing other people's energy or resources or trust. There are no excuses for your refusal to look deeply into your own pathologies, and there are no rewards for clinging to situations you know are toxic.
--All that aside – there is a Jupiter-Uranus trine happening, so if a magical dragon offers you a lift to Narnia, you should probably accept ASAP. Or if a warrior cat riding on a unicorn wants to talk to you about philosophy, or whatever. That stuff is all OK.
In other words, if any kind of sudden opportunity opens to you – especially if it involves creativity, travel, opportunities for expansion and learning, or talking fairy creatures – you should accept it, as long as it doesn't potentially harm anyone.
But with Saturn back in Scorpio all summer, remember sexual and romantic (and also financial) opportunities are very fraught. They have to be approached with due caution and respect, and a willingness to follow through. Scorpio is extreme: it's all or nothing.
It may seem like a good summer for having flings, but it's really not. It's a good summer for having fantastic lucky romantic gifts dropped in your lap from heaven – but you have to honour those gifts, and not take them for granted. There is a heavy price-tag involved with Saturn in Scorpio. If you aren't willing to pay it, or you underestimate what's required, your gifts will turn into curses – and I can't state that strongly enough. This is not a time for playing around.
Anyway, re. the fantastic lucky romantic gifts from heaven: Venus moves from Cancer into fiery Leo on the 5th of June, and this heats things up on the relationship front. It happens on the same day that Mars sextiles Jupiter, and Venus will also be trining Saturn. In plain English, this is a good influence for taking (reasonable) risks in love and money matters – for the pursuit of happiness.
Venus will be in Leo until the 8th October, aside from a brief stint in Virgo in July. This is pretty nice! She'll be retrograding through Leo all summer, passing over Jupiter.
Venus and Jupiter are known as the lesser and greater benefics - lucky planets. So these conjunctions in Leo – the sign of loyalty, pride, joy, creativity and open-heartedness – are super lucky and wonderful. They happen on the 1st July and the 4th August, but they color the whole summer. I think people will be hard-pressed not to find something sweet in this – some gift or blessing.
It's shaping up to be a beautiful summer overall. Really truly magical – just please remember this is not the kind of magic to play around with or take lightly.
This is on the 20th March, 9:30 am (GMT). It's a total solar eclipse – symbolic of a supercharged new beginning – and it takes place at the very last degree of Pisces, the final degree of the whole zodiac, symbolic of the very end of a cycle. So it's beginnings and endings again. Death and rebirth. It's a scenario very reminiscent of the new moon in Aquarius last month – a reiteration of that theme.
But that was the prelude. This, coming just after the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th March, is about life in the aftermath zone. Uranus (shock, upheaval, revolution) and Pluto (death, rebirth, transformation) are only a few seconds past their exact square in the chart of this new moon, so although the square will be loosening from now on, we are looking at a month colored by the high intensity and pressure of the final square.
It's like after a big earthquake - the aftershocks keep rolling through for a while. The shocks may be interior ones, or they may be in your external life – or both! But we are looking at unsettled situations that remain in flux for the next month, amid a sustained pressure for radical change. The dust won't really settle till mid-April.
Here's a link to hexagram 51 from the I Ching – all about shock, and how it wakes us up.
If you're feeling almost insane with the internal and external pressure, hang in there. Pay attention to the wake-up calls and revelations you're being hit with – and they're coming thick and fast these days, right? Don't tune out. Keep working to shoot yourself clear of your old patterns. We don't get this kind of opportunity for deep, systemic change – really ever. Ever. Many of us will never have it again.
Think about the last few years – the years of the Uranus-Pluto square (2012-2015). What can you never go back to? Where are you standing now, after the hurricane has dismantled your old life? What are you moving toward?
(NYC post Hurricane Sandy)
We have a big stellium in Pisces right now, and dreamy longing, blurred vision, regret and addiction to the past will be cheap and easy fixes for the next month. Let's not indulge in that stuff too much, tempting though it may be! It's one thing to process and release old pain – another thing entirely to wallow in it.
Try to keep the focus on where you're headed, not on what you've lost. There's no going back. But what's ahead of us could be very interesting...
The sun hits zero degrees Aries – the Aries Point, the start of the zodiac – around 10:45 pm (GMT) on the 20th. And suddenly it's spring! Anything could happen. We'll have Jupiter in Leo beneficially aspecting Uranus in Aries for a good while – all through the summer. All kinds of happy accidents and sudden windfalls are possible. So keep the faith, keep moving forward... even if things feel kinda hopeless and stuck right now. Remember life can turn on a dime.
Mercury in Pisces is just past exact conjunction with Neptune right now – this is a dreamy, poetic, otherworldly mental influence. He will move to conjunct Chiron in Pisces on the 24th March, and this can be about painful but necessary thought and communication. It can be great for dissolving old mental habits and conditioning - but it can also be the hangover to end all hangovers.
It's a brief influence anyway – Mercury moves fast. He will enter Aries on the 31st March, and this should be clarifying, as far as our mental processes and communications are concerned. The Piscean veils of insinuation, illusion and doubt fall away and we'll be able to see and communicate the obvious with blunt simplicity. (And with Mercury moving into the Uranus-Pluto square during the second week of April – well it looks like the obvious is damn well going to get communicated. Like it or not!)
Venus entered Taurus on the 17th March, and this is a stabilizing, grounding influence, especially in relational and money matters – something has been decided at the root level, even though it might not entirely feel that way yet. Stick to your values, whatever happens. Hold to what makes you feel happy, satisfied and secure in a deep-down way.
Mars will enter Taurus on the 31st March, and that should further stabilize and ground our energy and will, and help us to stick to our guns. With Mars and Venus in calm, steady Taurus – the explosive relational issues we've been dealing with over the past few months should start to settle.
We'll have a very fraught full moon eclipse in Libra on the 4th April, and this looks like a point of closure for those issues to me. It will probably come as a relief on some level, but Jesus - it doesn't look fun. Aaargh. I'll write about it closer to the time.
Anyway, nothing to do (ever) but keep moving forward. May the force be with us all.
Some dreamy Pisces songs for ya:
A "checking out & moving on" song:
And here is some cheese! Hair metal & power ballads will pull us through, if nothing else can!
This is tonight, the 5th March 2015, around 6 pm GMT.
We have an intense month ahead, as we head into the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th March. Things are shifting fast. The skies now are about accelerated relational dynamics and power shifts. Bedrock changes involving how we relate and what we value are afoot. Alliances are being formed and broken at astonishing speed, and people are waking up to how unfulfilling and insufficient their lives are within their old realities. Everything is pressing for radical change right now.
This full moon in Virgo shines a clear, analytical light on what has to change in our lives, and what practical steps we have to take to get to where we want to be. Virgo is about order, efficiency, clarity and detail work. It's about being practical and systematic, paying attention to the small stuff and not getting bogged down in emotional chaos or delusion.
This kind of grounded clarity is helpful, as the changes hitting us now can be overwhelming and painful. There are a lot of things we can't take with us, going forward. Bad relationships, addictions, romantic illusions, mouldering old gender roles and expectations, victim-saviour dynamics, the excuses we make for continuing down paths we know are no good for us – all that stuff has to go.
And regret for all we're having to leave behind will likely pull at us this full moon. The sun in Pisces will be conjunct Chiron (exact on the 8th March), and this describes deep wounding - an existential kind of hurt. And the sun and moon will be squaring Saturn, which is an emotionally constraining influence. Overall the mood is likely to be pretty serious and subdued.
It doesn't matter – we have to keep moving forward.
Letting go of what you've invested your time, energy and love in is very hard, yeah. But when a thing is done it's done – there is really no going back. You can't let what is unviable or unsound drain you any further.
It's like the image above for the tarot 8 of cups – the pilgrim in the picture is leaving an emotional arrangement he has painstakingly constructed, because it no longer satisfies him. He's walking off into darkness and rough terrain alone, and the situation is not particularly happy or light, but there's a feeling of necessity about it. He has to find something more meaningful, even if it means facing hardship and loneliness.
This full moon should help you to discriminate between what you can work with going forward, and what you must leave behind – and to take the necessary practical steps, however crummy you might feel about it all. Venus is hitting the Uranus-Pluto square right now, reinforcing this theme of detaching from our stuck old patterns, especially as regards relationships, money, possessions and values.
It's a great time for a clear-out. This could be as mundane as clearing out your garage or bringing your old clothes to Goodwill...or it could involve getting clear of untenable relationship dynamics and old psychological conditioning, or a bad job, or habits that undermine your health, or whatever you know is a drain on your energy and resources. The important thing is to let go of what is no longer fulfilling and clear a space in your life for something new to happen. It's not fun, but it's necessary.
If you stay stuck in your old patterns out of regret, addiction or fear of change, you miss out on the great opportunity of this time – the potential for amazing new things to happen. But if you clear some space in your life and refuse to let it be filled by the same old shit, something new is bound to come along.
The 'something new' part involves a grand trine between Jupiter in Leo and Venus, Mars and Uranus in Aries. This is fiery, exciting influence, full of the potential for sudden windfalls, happy accidents, inspiration, new alliances, magic and opportunity. Saturn in Sagittarius is also involved, which grounds the energy and makes it easier to materialize whatever opportunities or inspirations come your way. This is luck you can work with.
It's really nice to have this happy, energetic, lucky stuff going on – because the weeks ahead are so tense. We are moving at warp speed toward the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th, and radical change is the name of the game. Anything could happen.
A lot of that 'anything' is potentially violent and shocking, especially with Mars currently conjunct the south node and moving to conjunct Uranus in Aries on the 11th March. So please be careful. Drive defensively and avoid crazy people if you can.
And don't take your guns to town, son...
If you start feeling all pent-up and enraged, it's a good idea to get in some physical exercise.
Mercury leaves Aquarius for Pisces on the 13th March - this should soften up our mental processes and communications, which have been all zinged up and electric under Mercury in Aquarius. Nice influence for artists and musicians – very intuitive and poetic. But it also means our thinking might be a bit underwater at a time when we need to keep our wits about us.
On the 14th March, Saturn begins his retrograde. It will take him back through the early degrees of Sagittarius and into Scorpio for a final revision period (15th June – 18th September) of the dark, thorny issues we've dealt with over the past two years during his tenure in Scorpio. This is kind of a drag – kind of dispiriting and exhausting. Just when we're itching to move forward and solidify the changes in our lives, we have this dark undertow dragging us back through territory we thought we'd finished with. Specifically, it's a retreading of ground we covered between mid-December of 2014 and now – any Scorpionic issues you were dealing with then will likely come up for revision. (Scorpio issues involve sex, death, power, shared resources, debts, the shadow).
Oh well. June to September of this year will be the last time Saturn is in Scorpio for nearly 30 years, so you might as well use it to make good and sure that you have really gotten the garbage out of your life and psyche. Anything rotten or unsound you are still clinging to: an addiction, a relationship, an ideology, a fantasy, etc...Well hopefully you have been trying to extricate yourself from what you know is no good for you. But maybe it hasn't been as easy to get clear of as you thought it would be. There is still some work to be done here – and messy and dark as it is, we'll have to do it if we want to move forward.
Hard-ass Saturn is telling us here: surface change is just not good enough. It's easy to declare you're finished with something but then go on to repeat the same pattern in a different form, like a dry drunk. Really getting free involves psychological work - digging down to the deep roots of a behaviour, and cutting them out so it can't regrow in another form.
Anyway, it looks like a pain in the ass, but it has to be done. Come September, it will really be time to move on from whatever this is about for you, and for good.
On the 16th March we have the 7th and final exact square between Uranus (shock, revolution) and Pluto (death, rebirth, transformation). It's a big deal. I wrote a lot about it in my last post, so won't re-hash it.
But suffice it to say, the weeks ahead are full of drama and intensity. Try to stay balanced amid the shifts – things are very pressurised right now. Take a step back if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed.
Virgo is about health and service, so a full moon in Virgo is a good time to focus on those things. Try to eat right, exercise and get enough sleep...and if you find yourself overly focused on your own issues, shift the focus onto what you can do for others. Those strategies can help to ease the tension.
