This is exact later today, the 19th February, just before 4 pm GMT.
The moon and sun will be at 0 degrees of Virgo and Pisces, respectively. 0 degrees of any sign is very concentrated and potent energy. In addition, the rulers of Virgo and Pisces – Mercury and Neptune – are nearly exactly conjunct in Pisces at this time.
It's a beneficial melding of Virgo and Pisces themes. Virgo is about cleanliness, order, health, routine and painstaking attention to detail, and Pisces is about spirituality and ego loss. So under this full moon we should be trying to find the holiness in the everyday – ordinary tasks like washing the dishes and taking out the garbage are inherently spiritual. Instead of hating and avoiding these everyday chores, you can approach them with attention, care and mindfulness. Getting your external house in order is a prerequisite to making internal spiritual progress – these things aren't separate.
There's a very transformational vibe to this full moon -- recall that we are still under the influence of the new moon in Aquarius two weeks ago, which was all about breaking free. It's no accident that Marie Kondo's show about decluttering is one of the most-watched things on Netflix at this time, and it fits the symbolism of this full moon precisely.
Now is a perfect time for internal or external spring cleaning and you can make great progress in whatever you set out to do. The full moon is beneficially aspecting Mars and Uranus, which are conjunct. This is like having some rocket fuel behind you, and as Mars is in Taurus, it's a slow and steady burn. Once you get started, you can carry through to the end and achieve a transformation, however enormous the task looks at the beginning. Just start.
We also have Venus, Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn at this time, which is about solid value in love and money matters. It's not an easy or feel-good influence, but it's definitely something you can use. All this Capricorn can be pretty ruthless about weeding out what is not essential, be it a possession, a situation, a habit or a relationship. Focus on keeping and maintaining only what supports your constructive growth. Remove your energy from what you know to be toxic or stagnant, and if that means allowing certain relationships to die, so be it.
At this full moon, it's important to remember that the motto of the Virgo-Pisces axis is “serve or suffer” - both signs need to serve something larger than the ego or they're prey to a lot of self-involved angst. With Virgo, the angst takes the form of endless worrying and nitpicking; with Pisces it's emotional turmoil and addiction. The way out of this angst is to do something practical and/or to help someone else. It's a pretty foolproof formula.
We are heading into some heavy Pisces influence over the next month, so please keep this formula in mind. Also, it's a good idea to avoid boundary-dissolving substances such as drugs, alcohol and fairy-tale romance. We'll have a new moon in Pisces on the 6th of March, with Uranus re-entering Taurus on the same day for extra weirdness. We'll also have a Mercury retrograde in Pisces beginning the day before the new moon, and running till the end of March. The Mercury retrograde will end on the 28th March, with Mercury exactly conjunct Neptune as he is now.
I think you put it all together and March looks like a real head-melting scenario, with a lot of weirdness going down around Mercury themes especially (that's thought, communication, travel, vehicles, appliances, trade, infrastructure, Brexit talks, etc). So the more you can get things streamlined, clear and functional at this time, the better prepared you'll be for the topsy-turvy weirdness ahead.
We have a stellium in Virgo for this: sun, moon, Mercury, Mars and Venus. This is a big blast of organisational energy - it's a great time for working on projects, cleaning up, attending to routines and getting necessary things done. It's also going to be a big month for working on relationships. The point of all this careful, systematic work is described by the north node in Leo - it's about putting in the necessary effort to create a future with more authenticity and joy in it. We are building the kind of lives and relationships we want to live in.
Virgo can be painfully critical, though - try to stay sober, to see clearly and to be kind. There's a big danger of going off on nitpicky tirades fuelled by delusive thinking, hurt feelings or boundary-dissolving substances: Mars is conjunct Mercury in Virgo, which is sharp-tongued and critical as hell, and both planets oppose Neptune, planet of dreams, delusions and addictions. Make sure your version of reality is not just a paranoid projection, before you sit down to tell someone everything you think is wrong with them. It's safer to look to your own shortcomings first. People will be liable to say very nasty, cutting things in the interests of "helping" - and with the sun and moon opposite Chiron, there is bound to be deep hurt and woundedness involved.
So unless you're looking to eviscerate someone, it's probably safest to just keep your mouth shut for the next couple of weeks and attend to the practical tasks at hand. Remember with Venus in pragmatic Virgo, love is what you do, not what you say - and it can be shown in the tiniest, most mundane ways.
This sky is still tough on relationships - Jupiter in fairness-minded Libra is opposing Uranus in me-centered Aries (exact the 28th September). This describes a conflict between the desire to say "to hell with it!" and shoot off alone vs. the necessity of maintaining balanced relationships. As this is an opposition, it will play out interpersonally - we'll have plenty of tests to our sense of civility and fairness this month, and relationships will remain fraught.
We have the equinox on the 22nd September, as the sun moves into Libra - this describes a turning-point. And then we'll have a full moon in Aries on the 5th October, which really looks like it's all about balancing love vs. war, and figuring out how to make relationships work in a practical, everyday way. Seeing the other's point of view and striving for balance and fairness will be very important here.
A new moon in Scorpio is always witchy – the dark of the moon is a time of powerful, shadowy inceptions, and Scorpio is a forceful and covert sign, having to do with sex, death, the taboo, regeneration and transformation.
But this new moon is especially witchy. It falls nearly on Samhain (now Halloween), the pagan festival of the dead – the time of year when darkness is in ascendancy and life retreats underground. Traditionally, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thought to be most porous right now.
And this new moon reinforces the Samhain theme of the thinning of the veil. It is conjunct Mercury in Scorpio (deep, incisive, instinctual thought and communication) and trining Neptune in Pisces (dreams, dissolutions, spirituality, art).
Mercury and Neptune together mean magical communication. So this is about messages from the depths – our minds will be open to the Otherworld / the collective unconscious /the great beyond – or the will of God, if you like. The lunar cycle this new moon opens looks very deep and quiet and full of inward revelation to me. Intuitive in a shadowy, instinctive way.
But the new moon also sextiles the north node in Virgo, which is about humility, realism, routine and systematic work. So this is deep intuition that can be put to everyday use – practical magic.
In short, it's powerfully magical, full of the potential for healing and regeneration. It's the exact right time for doing magical rituals, channeling messages from the beyond, making art and music, committing to a spiritual practice. (Or having lots of sex. There is a big relationship slant to all this, which I'll get to – and Scorpio requires intense merger, ahem.)
I think it looks great. It doesn't make any harsh aspects. Very like last year's new moon in Scorpio, really - a serpent's egg, full of coiled-up power and depth.
You can trust your gut and your intuition here – there is solid guidance at hand. There will be something to build on. A a new idea or revelation, a new possibility, a dream with solid potential.
--And maybe a decisive ending. What is no longer viable will have to fall away so that something new can take shape.
Mercury-Neptune contacts can be flaky and ethereal to the point of incoherence and delusion. But because this is a new moon in unsentimental, no-bullshit Scorpio - and because we have the pragmatic north node in Virgo involved - we are not talking half-baked New Age nostrums here. Quite the opposite. This is about grounding the otherworldly and ethereal in the here-and-now, putting it to work.
The point is regeneration and healing. Virgo and Scorpio both have an association with healing: Virgo is good at identifying problems and crafting solutions in a detail-oriented, systematic way. And Scorpio weeds out energy drains. It zeroes in on whatever is diseased, rotten, false; and it does all the life-or-death, disgusting work no one else wants to do – it drains out the pus, amputates the gangrenous limb, sews in the sutures.
So you put these energies together and you have a very unsentimental, surgical kind of vibe, focused on survival and regeneration.
Reinforcing this theme, we have the rulers of Scorpio (Mars and Pluto) both in Capricorn, sign of work and structured achievement. They are still loosely conjunct for this new moon, and Pluto is beneficially aspecting the Virgo north node.
Mars and Pluto together do not make for the most fun influence – this combination is known for killer rage and eruptive violence. And though Mars is moving out of the conjunction, he'll be squaring Uranus this new moon – an influence that magnifies the potential for shocking violence and accidents. So be careful driving and operating machinery this month, please! And avoid rage zombies.
In spite of this potential violence, I'm inclined to see the Mars-Pluto stuff as beneficial here. It means there is vast energy and drive to put toward whatever needs fixing or (re)building in your life.
With the current Mars-Pluto stuff, if poison bubbles up out of the depths - it is a symptom of a larger problem, and you can potentially address the problem at its roots right now. It is not a time for ignoring the ugly stuff - you have to be willing to dig deep and get your hands dirty.
So I think it's beneficial overall, even if it manifests as some kind of eruptive ugliness.
Another beneficial influence: we have love and money planet Venus now in Sagittarius. Sagittarius is an optimistic, free-spirited sign; Venus in Sagittarius is tolerant and happy-go-lucky. So this is great!
Plus she is in mutual reception with Jupiter in Libra – ie, Venus is in the sign Jupiter rules, and Jupiter is in the sign Venus rules. And these two lucky, traditionally “benefic” planets are also in beneficial aspect.
This is really lovely and bouyant, especially for relationships. A bit of fun and lightness in an otherwise very heavy and serious sky.
But it's not all kittens and ice cream. Venus is also conjunct Saturn, and this is exact the day before the new moon. This conjunction can represent some form of limitation, delay, blockage or fear - especially re. relationships. But it also denotes great seriousness about the future, and a willingness to commit to a vision of what's actually possible. And to work for it..
So there are limits and boundaries here, and maybe endings – what's not actually possible or workable will have to fall away, so that something real can take its place. Trust your gut on this. You will know what cords have to be cut.
At the same time, there is a future for the building here. There are dreams that can come true, given a bit of work.
All in all it looks very positive to me. Jupiter in Libra, remember, is about balance and fairness, being able to see the other's point of view and to compromise... also big love and luck in relationships. And paired up with Venus and Saturn in Sagittarius, this is about realistic plans re. partnerships and money.
It looks like love that can go the distance, or a solid new direction, or a grounded and sincere kind of happiness. You just have to trust in it and be willing to put a bit of work in. Jupiter and Venus together denote a gift, but this is the kind of gift that takes good faith and commitment to secure - and time, and patience. It's not just going to fall into your lap.
Luckily, the Mars-Pluto conjunction will supply the necessary stamina and drive.
--All that said, we are still dealing with the north node in Virgo opposing Neptune and the south node in Pisces. This is a slough of despond – a real swamp of fantasy, delusion, addiction and escapism. So please keep in mind, you have to keep moving past the pull of destructive nostalgia and addiction. There is really no going back; you know that. And no running away either.
The north node in Virgo dictates the way forward: humble, systematic work. Don't let your emotional ungroundedness or moodiness get the better of you. Just focus on the day-to-day details and keep dealing with what needs doing as it comes up. If you start freaking out about the future or obsessing about the past, try to do something grounding and healthy. Or focus on how you can serve others.
This is tomorrow night: 9th March, around 2 am GMT.
We have a lot in Pisces at the time of this new moon – sun, moon, Mercury, Neptune, Chiron and the karmically weighty south node. And Venus moves into Pisces on the 12th of March.
I don't want to be all doomy, but the month-long cycle this new moon ushers in looks like a real swamp of head-fuckery to me. For the next two weeks especially – until we reach the spring equinox, as the sun moves into Aries – we are in some deep, chaotic and dangerous waters.
Substance alert: be careful with the drink and drugs, please. They'll hit harder than usual. Pisces dissolves boundaries, so you can really lose yourself when you combine this influence with boundary-dissolving substances.
That may sound like fun! But with so much Pisces / Neptune involved, the hangover will be miserable.
I think if you have any kind of addiction or propensity to addiction, you should be real careful this month. It will be so easy to get sucked back in. The temptation will be strong.
--With Venus in Pisces, that includes an addiction to idealistic romance. If you find yourself gushing about how some poor fallible schmuck is your perfect dream soulmate twinflame whatever and oh my god, it's just like a fairytale! – please take a step back. This is the kind of thing that precedes massive disillusionment and loss.
Keep in mind that when you are dealing with heavy Neptune energy like this, and things seem too good to be true – it's usually because they're not true.
Anyway, the substance alert applies to medications / foods / chemical exposures / cultural products as well - people are just a lot more sensitive and porous right now. Be careful what you take in. Try to take good care of yourself physically, because we're all likely to have lower physical immunity at this time. It's much easier to become physically drained and / or ill.
With Mercury in Pisces – and conjunct the sign's ruler, Neptune – we will also be more mentally porous than usual. This can make for really vivid dreams, creative inspiration and psychic revelations. It can also make for brain-fog, delusion and full-on mental breakdown.
So take care of your mental and physical health, please. Eat well and try to get some fresh air and exercise every day – and also try to have some kind of positive daily interaction with other sentient beings. It could just be your cat, if that's all you can handle.
You might feel like being a complete hermit, lying around on the couch eating potato chips and watching boxed sets for 14 hours a day. There are times when that sort of thing can help you feel better. Not now, though! Seriously.
Pisces south node vs. Virgo north node
Please try to keep a grip on the practical, healthy, utilitarian Virgo stuff that I have been harping on about for months, because it's really important to hold onto everyday reality and to keep your ship afloat and help others keep their ships afloat too. I think it will be so easy to sink, physically and mentally, under this sky.
For this eclipse, we'll have the sun and moon in Pisces conjunct the south node and Chiron. This just looks very painful and draining to me. Chiron is an unhealable wound, and the south node in Pisces is about being pulled backward into addiction, emotional overwhelm and delusion.
Plus we have Mercury (mind and communication) conjunct Neptune (dreams, delusions, addictions, lies). So basically, our brains will be underwater or off in cloud-cuckoo land at a time when it'd help to have them working properly. This is exact the 11th March, the same day as the sun makes a painful-looking conjunction to Chiron, but it's in effect now.
Maybe I'm being overly negative, but I just don't like the look of it. Pisces and Neptune can be beautiful, transcendent and spiritual influences, sure. But they can also represent the worst, most insidious traps human beings get themselves into. There are so many ways you can fuck yourself up with this stuff. I keep thinking of fairytales that turn into horror stories. And addiction in all its guises – how every means we use to evade suffering can become a trap and source of suffering.
That's Neptune – that's the reversal he engineers. He makes you feel like you're in fairyland for a little while, gives you a big rush of magic – then dumps you back into grim reality. The reversal is acutely painful, and it's the cycle underlying any form of addiction – we keep trying to get back into fairyland, and fairyland keeps receding.
The denial / avoidance of reality that underpins the whole process is also Neptunian. Denial is a hallmark of any kind of addiction.
The only way out of the whole mess is surrender. You give up trying to avoid or control reality. You let yourself feel the pain you feel, and be undone by it. It's a kind of death. But people resist death with all their might.
Maybe some people will hit rock bottom and surrender to their higher power under an eclipse like this one. Eclipses are about supercharged new beginnings. But as the last sign in the zodiac, Pisces is also concerned with dissolution and endings – and every new beginning is also a death. I'm sure we'll see some actual endings.
Anyway, it's not all dire. It's really what you make of it – whether you sink or swim.
These influences can be great for artists and musicians and intuitive types. You can channel inspiration from the beyond and give it a concrete form.
In fact this eclipse is great for anyone trying to give a dream concrete form. You can articulate your dream, set your intention, and then work toward it in a practical, incremental way.
The eclipse opposes Jupiter and the north node in Virgo (pragmatism, attention to detail), and squares Saturn in Sagittarius (realistic vision, perspective). And all this represents a tremendous amount of tension that you can use to pull yourself out of the doldrums and make necessary changes in your life. Pluto (death, rebirth, transformation) is also beneficially aspecting the eclipse – so there is a lot of transformative potential and raw power here. It's a great set-up for letting go of influences or habits that drain or destabilise you. Also great for cutting your losses, forgiving and forgetting, moving on.
Saturn is trining Uranus – so there really are new horizons opening up. And Mars has just entered Sagittarius, reinforcing this theme of an open road.
Just, the future will have to be worked for.
The sun enters Aries on the 20th March – that's our equinox! I think it'll be a relief. A burst of energy and fire.
Then we'll have a full moon eclipse in Libra on the 23rd, and Mercury will be in Aries by then too. I'll talk about it closer to the time – but I think the atmosphere should feel a lot less heavy and confused by then. Things will start getting all zingy and dynamic!
So keep in mind, we only have a little over two weeks of heavy Pisces / Neptune influence to get through. If you find yourself sinking and you feel like this is a permanent state – rest assured, it's not. Please don't commit suicide for a couple of weeks, anyway!! Wait and see what the full moon brings to light.
Some songs by Townes Van Zandt. He was born under Pisces, and he's a good illustration of what this sign is about. Sensitive, suffering, dreamy, spiritual, artistic. He was also alcoholic and self-destructive.
Kurt Cobain too, while we're at it. Another Piscean. Look how he became this Christlike cultural icon via suicide - there's your Neptune, throwing a shimmery veil of glamour and romance over a horribly sad, sordid reality.
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.
The sun and moon will be conjunct at 27 degrees Taurus. This is a slow, steady, solid, grounded energy. Also utterly determined. Fixated.
Normally Taurus is about pleasure and solidity – it is comforting. A new moon in Taurus is a good time to focus on eating a lot and lazing around in the sun like a simple happy creature. Or to focus on what makes you feel happy and satisfied in general.
In this case things don't look so comfortable, though. This new moon is quite stressfully aspected. This looks like steadiness allright - but of discomfort and pressure.
The moon and sun will be loosely conjunct Mars, now in communicative, mentally hyperactive Gemini – and this speaks of mental and emotional reactivity. Also mental fixation.
The new moon is also opposite party-killing Saturn in Sagittarius, a dour influence on our minds and moods.
Mars and Saturn are known as the lesser and greater malefics...not such easy planets to be caught up with...and Mars-Saturn aspects are about frustration, blockage and cruelty. We currently have an opposition between these planets - it peaked on the 15th of May and is waning now. But this energy colors the tone of the new moon and the month ahead.
Mars is life drive, will, desire, anger...and Saturn is limitation, karma, fear. So with this opposition, we are looking at blocked will, blocked desire, intense frustration – specifically in the realm of communication and self-expression, as Mars is in Gemini. A frustrating inability to say the necessary thing or to communicate, and potential violence and nastiness connected with that. Communication hitting a wall – painfully.
Also, the ruler of Taurus – Venus, dispositor of this new moon – is stressfully aspected. She's currently in emotional, nurturing, motherly Cancer - and opposing Pluto, king of hell (exact on the 22nd May).
Venus-Pluto aspects are about love and power. Also love and death, love and pathology. Love that takes you to hell, toxic love, obsessive love. Dead loves coming back from the grave to haunt you.
At best, Venus-Pluto can be about regenerative, transformative love...but at worst it's about power plays and destructive relationships. Because Venus is currently in Cancer, a sign concerned with emotion – there is some very heavy, hellish emotional stuff connected with this aspect.
Venus is not just about relationships – she also has to do with money, values and self-esteem. These are Taurean themes. So this new moon really highlights a poverty vibe - deep feelings of lack in the love, money and self-esteem departments; frustrated desire courtesy of the Mars-Saturn opposition...aargh.
No satisfaction!
The new moon happens in the late degrees of Taurus, and in a few days the sun moves to sparky, communicative, jittery, social-networking Gemini. So this is actually the opener for Gemini season – and a particularly neuron-frazzling, hyperactive, wyrded-out Gemini season it is. Communication issues and blockages take center stage this month.
Gemini's ruler, Mercury, goes retrograde in his home sign the day after the new moon (19th May). Mercury retrogrades are times of communication breakdowns, glitches, problems with transportation and communication devices...
This retrograde lasts until the 11th June, and Mercury will be in Gemini till the 8th July. So altogether, he will have spent about two months in Gemini and by the end of it I guess we are going to be kinda fried in the brains department.
And Mars will be in Gemini as well – till the 24th June. Mars is moving to conjunct Mercury in Gemini (exact 27th May).
This is nearly too much mental energy and communication. Just zingy as hell, incredibly social and distracted. Intense mental chatter – frazzled synapses. Repetitive thought loops that just go and go and go. A good way to ground this kind of excess mental energy is physical movement and exercise - you pull it down out of your head and into your body. Letting it run riot in your head is a recipe for craziness.
Re. craziness: Mercury will be squaring Neptune in Pisces for much of this transit of Gemini – in fact this Mercury retrograde ends on the same day that Neptune stations retrograde. Mercury-Neptune aspects are about inspiration, intuition, guidance from beyond, creativity and art. But also mental delusion, lies, siren songs, general wooly-headedness...
Gemini is not the most truthful of signs, and Neptune is all illusion – so watch what you say and don't believe everything you're told. The rumour mill will be running at warp speed this month – you might want to turn off the social media, turn off your smartphone, avoid getting caught up in the hype. There will be a lot of frenetic gossip going on, much of it bullshit and insinuation. Try to avoid becoming a source of it.
(Aaargh, silly video. But the song fits.)
This influence will be strongest the last week in May & heading up to the full moon in Sagittarius on the 2nd June – which looks like a bit of a headfuck. I'll write about it closer to the time.
An aside – I was confused about what this new moon meant. I got in my car and turned on the radio, and immediately heard the two songs linked above, which seem to encapsulate the themes – poverty consciousness, frustration, romantic obsession, hectic social chatter, gossip.
Getting guidance from the radio (or billboards, the tv, random things you overhear people saying, or wherever) is a Mercury-Neptune thing. Messages coming from the aether.
This is a good time to pay attention to the messages you get - signs and synchronicities, your dreams, the advertising jingles stuck in your head. All these things can be considered messages from the unconscious – your unconscious mind instinctively hooks onto the information it needs. So don't ignore this stuff – it's valuable.
But use some discrimination too. Not everything is meaningful, not everything is true. Let your intuition be your guide - you'll know deep down what information you can trust (without necessarily being able to articulate why).
All the Venus-Pluto and Gemini stuff is happening as part of a yod - a tricky, tense, uncomfortable aspect pattern, in effect from now till late June. I am not going to describe this yod thing in detail, because my brain will explode...but the apex of the pattern is Pluto in Capricorn, which is about unearthing the truth underlying a corrupt status quo. The point of all this dissatisfaction and confusion this month is finding out what's true - what you really feel, what you really value, what's really fulfilling (all Taurus themes). And acting on your values; voicing them - in order to regenerate situations that have become blocked or ossified...or to do away with them so that something new can develop.
Taurus is supposed to be about fulfillment and comfort. But in this scenario, discomfort, lack and frustration act as spurs to direct us toward what might actually be fulfilling. And our intuition - the Mercury-Neptune stuff - serves the same purpose. There is a guiding design at work here, if we can calm down enough to receive the directions we're being given and act on them.
--Also, Taurus is about what's tangible, what we actually possess. Focusing on what you actually have as opposed to what you lack should help with the frustration. And focusing on the tangible, physical reality of your life can cut through the mental chatter and distraction.
--Forgot to say - drug & booze alert for the remainder of the month and the beginning of June. It's pretty easy to get in over your head with mind-altering substances right now, so be careful.
Social stuff can also function as a drug / addiction / distraction. For example, it's funny how many people I've heard talking about facebook as an addiction lately...I think that will be a theme. If you are overly influenced by social media, it might be good to take a break about now or set yourself some limits, because our circuits will be overloaded enough as it is.
OK, so this is an intense and really stressful full moon. Maybe you can feel it building.
Today (1st May) the moon in Libra is tangled up with the Uranus-Pluto square, which is still in effect, though loosening. This is a jagged and disturbing emotional tone. Painful, eruptive, explosive...
People will definitely be on edge heading up to the full moon, which happens early on the 4th May, around 4:40 am GMT.
A full moon in Scorpio shines a stark light on what is viable in your life vs. what is unviable. It should be pretty damn clear. Full moons represent culminations or endings, and that's exactly what we're looking at here.
The moon at 13 degrees Scorpio (intense desire, emotional unrest, transformation) will be opposite the sun in Taurus (comfort, habits, values, self-esteem), and both will be in exact square to Jupiter in Leo, which amps up the intensity and tension. Ugh.
This looks like a very uncomfortable reckoning, especially as far as love and money stuff is concerned. Commitments and contractual obligations will be cemented and solidified – or ended.
It's kind of a life-or-death thing. What's viable, you commit yourself to. What's unviable – you let go of or amputate, painful though this may be.
It's very simple...but also hard as hell. It can be as grindingly difficult as breaking a long addiction.
Breaking an addiction is a good way of looking at this scenario, actually. We have Taurean comfort-seeking and habit coming up against the Scorpionic imperative for transformation and purgation, and something's gotta give.
Look back to the new moon in Scorpio in October of last year – that was the start of this cycle. What began for you then, or ended? What kind of psychological roller coaster have you been on for the past half-year, as we moved through the last of the Uranus-Pluto squares?
Basically, if you are still holding onto things that are draining or harmful – well you'll have had a good six or seven months of wake-up calls and revelations by now. Longer, probably! You can't really pretend not to know any better anymore, can you?
This full moon is a culmination and a cut-off point.
That's not to say we'll be done with the particular Scorpionic issues it raises...We still have some psychological reckoning to do, as Saturn heads back into Scorpio from June to September of this year. This is about the karmic fallout – the consequences. Or the processing period and recovery.
Scorpio issues revolve around sex, death, emotional intensity, trust, power, pathology, the Shadow. Also debts, shared resources, inheritances.
Energetic transactions, basically – and these can be emotional, monetary, physical. But you'll know what belongs in your life by the way it makes you feel: what gives you energy vs. what depletes your energy. If something – a habit, a relationship, a situation – consistently drains and devitalises you, it has to go. Or if leaving it is impossible, it has to be transformed somehow...
But please rein in your illusions that situations or people can be transformed if they have consistently disappointed you. With Scorpio, the most viable option is usually amputation. Cold turkey, yo.
Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn supports the full moon with beneficial aspects – this is about internal reckoning, depth work and restructuring. Neptune in Pisces (dreams, compassion, intuition) also offers support – so it looks like there'll be compassion, hope and faith on offer. This is all nice, given the level of discomfort and intensity we're looking at.
Saturn is now at 3 degrees Sagittarius, moving backward toward Scorpio, which he'll hit in six weeks. We'll have Mercury in Gemini (hyper communicativeness) opposite Saturn (blockage) for this full moon, and both will be squaring dreamy, delusive Neptune in Pisces. And this looks tough. Blocked or deceptive communication; communication hitting a wall. A requirement for truth and free expression, or for absolute clarity – denied. Negotiations hitting an impasse. Anxiety, depression and the inability to think straight. Mental confusion.
I dunno – the whole thing just looks hard. Like something very deep and of far-reaching importance has to be hammered out and decided – and the emotional imperatives driving this are huge. But actually solidifying anything via thinking or communication will be difficult, with this Mercury-Saturn-Neptune square going on.
In circumstances like this, where you can't necessarily trust people's words or your own thinking – it's best to go with your gut instinct. If you feel like someone is lying to you or obfuscating, they probably are. If you feel you might be deluding yourself, you probably are. Don't talk yourself out of what you know deep down.
A Scorpio moon can be a ruthless bullshit detector, with great instinctive insight into people's deepest motivations and trustworthiness. It's a kind of tingly spider sense. That bodily knowing is much more reliable than verbal communication right now – so trust it.
Here is a link to hexagram 47 of the I Ching - it seems relevant. The hexagram is about fated adversity and constraint - a situation where words won't change anything, and you have to stake your life on following your deepest intuition and will.
This full moon setup also reminds me of the Tarot card for the 9 of wands:
It's like a line drawn in the sand. An energetic blocade - and the willingness to defend what you value. And what's at issue is crucial - this is a matter of psychic survival, and of safeguarding your will to live.
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 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!
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!)
