New Moon in Gemini

See here:

This is tomorrow, the 16th June - around 3 pm.

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.

T.S. Eliot, from “East Coker”:

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.

Full Moon in Sagittarius / Summer 2015

by Mary Hamilton Frye

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.

see here

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.

New Moon in Taurus

6 of pentacles - about having and not having - see here

And here's a poem by Yehuda Amichai -


This is on the 18th May, around 5 am GMT.

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.

Full moon in Scorpio

Mary Magdalene by Georges de la Tour

Some poems, to get us in the mood:

Marina Tsvetayeva.

And Louise Bogan.

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.

New Moon in Aries

This is on the 18th April, around 8 pm GMT. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, so a new moon in Aries is like the real New Year. So happy New Year!

The sun and moon will be conjunct at 28 degrees Aries, and they will be pretty much un-aspected by everything else in the sky. This is self-contained and intense - a big burst of fiery will, courage and absolutely self-focused energy.

Mars (will, drive, energy) - the dispositor of the new moon - is now in slow, steady, realistic Taurus. He is conjunct Mercury (mental energy) and squaring Jupiter (expansion, enthusiasm). He is also in harmonious aspect with Pluto.

This is the will and energy to get a job done, and to get it done properly. Bravery and energy combined with realistic thinking and unswerving will.

I like this a lot. New moons are about new beginnings, and whatever you initiate at this new moon – be it a new project, a situation, an intention – it will have real sticking-power and force behind it. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower. 

Appropriately, the poem linked above is about the life force containing a death drive as well. Pluto – which symbolises death, rebirth, metamorphosis and transformation - goes retrograde the day before the new moon (17th April). This is about a deep, relentless and internal process of transformation. Self-transformation - as we are dealing with Aries, the sign of ME! in all its raw urgency.

Re. Pluto retrograde: you want to know how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly?

It's not pretty - it's actually kind of nauseating.

“First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.”

Did you think metamorphosis was supposed to be all adorable and sweet, like in a children's book? Ha!

Transformation on this order is not a 'nice' process. It's primal, disgusting, gruelling – also relentless and intense. This is Plutonic depth-work. Self-digestion.

Like the phoenix, which resurrects itself by destroying itself...

(by FJ Bertuch)

On a psychological level, this is like the Dark Night of the Soul, or the Nigredo in alchemy – the place you come to when you've burnt out on what you used to believe in and are forced to look into the darkness and unknown in yourself – because there's nowhere else to look, everything external has broken down as a source of meaning.

This kind of breakdown is necessary for growth (see here), but it's about as pleasant as the caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation detailed above.

OK, I don't mean that we're all gonna be digested alive or have to go through the Dark Night of the Soul...though plenty of people will need that kind of inwardness, pressure and darkness for their further growth.

But I do think some kind of internal reckoning is required, for just about everyone - and that's what this Pluto retrograde is about.

We've come through a very trying time over the past few years - the Uranus square Pluto years (2012-2015). The pressure for deep, systemic change in our lives has been intense. Many of us have been through some crazy shit, and things will never be the same again. It's like the aftermath of a natural disaster. The scales have fallen from our eyes in potentially traumatic ways...and we may have lost things we thought we couldn't live without.

And here we are, still alive! And what was strong enough to survive has survived. Look around you – look at what in your life is still standing, still functional, still sustaining you. Of course nothing is permanent, but whatever has stood the test for you over the past few years has to be pretty damn strong. Whatever wasn't strong enough will be gone.

I think externally, things will be settling now. We will not be dealing with the same levels of external shock and urgency.

But internally, there is a need to process the changes we've been through – to come to terms with all this upheaval on a personal level. And to not slack off in our efforts to get clear of old conditioning.

It's like, you have a house that's been half-destroyed by a tornado, and it's looking pretty bad. You are not gonna be able to do a patch-up job here. You will probably have to strip it down to the foundations, and then assess the stability of the foundations before you rebuild – maybe even re-cast the foundations. And what you build will be entirely new. Even if you re-use old materials, you're not going to build the same house.

Or you may have found yourself in a new world, building a new life. And maybe structurally, this new life is sound! I hope it is. Because you are going to have to be looking at the structural integrity of it – all the stuff you mightn't have wanted to think about, in the initial euphoria of newness and change – till the early autumn of this year. It's not as easy to establish the new as we might like. It can take a lot longer than we thought it would.

But we have Pluto retrograding through Capricorn till September 2015, through territory he was in during the final Uranus-Pluto square...and we also have Saturn (karmic necessity) grinding backward through Sagittarius and into Scorpio, sign of psychological depth and healing. Pluto and Saturn will be in mutual reception again (each in the others' sign, fostering an easy dialogue between these energies) from mid-June to mid September.

Saturn will finally leave Scorpio (till 2041!) on the 18th September, a few days ahead of Pluto stationing direct on the 25th September.

So basically, these two heavyweights will be working in concert to facilitate psychological depth work, restructuring and processing – it's very important this summer. Especially coming as it does after the revolutionary and historic Uranus-Pluto squares.

Remember external change is just not good enough. More than that will be demanded of us. There is a level of deep psychological insight and realism demanded, before you can fully inhabit the place you're standing now – and before you can move forward.

Reinforcing the "reality check" theme, we'll also have Venus (now in sparkly, hyperactive Gemini) involved in a fairly painful t-square with Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Sagittarius for the new moon. With Venus involved, this has to do with relationship and money matters especially – but also self-esteem and values. We are looking at dreams vs. realities in these areas – longings and delusions (Neptune) vs. pragmatism and boundaries (Saturn). And some potentially painful disillusion and loss.

From Charlotte Joko Beck's “Everyday Zen”:

“In a relationship, whenever we sense unease -that point where it doesn't suit us - a big question mark should shoot up as to what is going on with us. How we can practice with the unease? I am not saying that all relationships should be continued forever, because the point of a relationship has nothing to do with the relationship itself. The point of relationship is the added power that life gets in working with it as a channel. A good relationship gives life more power. If two people are strong together, then life has a more powerful channel than it has with two single people. It's almost as though a third and larger channel has been formed. That is what life is looking for. It doesn't care about whether you are "happy" in your relationship. What it is looking for is a channel, and it wants that channel to be powerful. If it's not powerful life would just as soon discard it. Life doesn't care about your relationship. It is looking for channels for its power so it can function maximally. That functioning is what you are all about; all this drama about you and him or her is of no interest to life. Life is looking for a channel and, like a strong wind, it will beat on a relationship to test it. If the relationship can't take the testing, then either the relationship needs to grow in strength so that it can take it, or it may need to dissolve so something new and fresh can emerge from the ruins. Whether it crashes or not is less important than what is learned. Many people marry, for instance, when nothing is being served by their relationship. I am not advocating that people dissolve their marriages, of course. I simply mean that we often misinterpret what marriage is about. When a relationship isn't working, it means that the partners are preoccupied with "I": "What I want is . . ." or "This isn't right for me." If there is little wanting, then the relationship is strong and it will function. That's all life is interested in. As a separate ego with your separate desires, you are of no importance to life. And all weak relationships reflect the fact that somebody wants something for himself or herself.”

Remember the north node is in Libra, sign of balance, harmony and right relationship - so relational issues are highlighted. I think the above passage is one of the most useful and interesting perspectives on relationships I've read, and it's directly relevant to the themes of the new moon - so I'll leave you with it.

Full Moon Eclipse in Libra

 Justice card from the Tarot (see here)

This is on the 4th April, around 1 pm GMT.

It's quite an emotionally raw and jagged scenario. Full of potential relational conflict and harsh words that can never be taken back – so please be very careful what comes out of your mouth, and try to abide calmly with whatever crazy aggro shit other people say to you. Try to stay rational, balanced, polite and civilised. Try to do the decent thing, even when the people around you are acting like infantile dickheads.

I expect it'll be kind of hard to do. The path of least resistance here is rage. And in some cases, it will be justified.

If there are things you really must say in the interests of justice, or in order to expose shoddy relational dynamics – well that's one good use of this energy. Just be quite sure that you really want to be rid of whatever (or whoever) you're verbally blowtorching – and permanently. If you're not entirely sure about it, hold back! Words have the potential to be explosive, traumatic, painfully blunt and incisive...and final (and this holds true for the next week or so, as Mercury in Aries transits the Uranus-Pluto square).

Full moons represent endings, and this one is an eclipse, meaning it is a supercharged ending. It involves the Aries (me) and Libra (we) axis: self-will vs. partnership. So it is inherently about relationships. We are closing the book on a lot of corrupt, manipulative, imbalanced relational dynamics here. They might be social, familial or one-on-one...but some kind of ugly interpersonal conflict is likely to erupt. If you have planets or chart angles in the mid-degrees of the cardinal signs especially (Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn), be prepared for a jolt.

The moon in Libra will be conjunct the north node (karmic direction) in Libra – so ultimately this story is about a deep need for peace, justice, balance and right relationship. Reciprocity. This need is the focus of the story: the goal.

But the full moon is also bound up with the now-finished, but still potent Uranus-Pluto square – so superficial harmony and whitewashing just will not do. Not when there are deep, insidious wrongs and grievances to be addressed. The shitty dynamics need to be followed to their roots – and that means dealing with some very uncomfortable feelings and entrenched mental habits.

The painful relational patterns we find ourselves stuck in have deep roots, and we mostly play them out unconsciously.  Some of them we can trace to our families, and some go back further: they are archetypal and collective. But it's never only about the current scenario or person that's triggering you – it goes a lot deeper.

So whatever issues crop up for you this full moon, remember that the real point is not getting rid of the person or the situation – though you may have to do that; it may be well past time to do that.

It's really about recognizing, working through and transforming the pattern.

What deeply-ingrained, instinctual relational story - familial or societal - are you playing out? Do you want to keep on doing this?

And how do you stop being a puppet in this drama? How do you change the story or reinterpret it, so that you're no longer just reading out your lines like a robot – you're improvising something new, creating something new?

from an older post:

“Relationships are our crucibles of transformation these days, with the north node in Libra. Libra (ruled by Venus) is the sign of balance, harmony, fairness, partnership and right relationship. It is about bridging polarities – 'marrying' them into a workable whole. So that is what we're trying to achieve in this story – balance, peace, workable relationships, justice. But the way things are set up, getting there involves a fierce fight.

The south node, representative of what we are trying to move away from, is in Mars-ruled Aries – and this can be about self-will, anger, war, going it alone. Selfishness: 'me' as opposed to Libra's 'we'. This is the path of least resistance now, and it means self-sabotage is an ever-present danger.

For the past few months, we've had the Uranus-Pluto square mixed up in a cardinal t-square with the nodes of the moon in Aries and Libra. This is an aspect pattern forcing radical change and upheaval, in relationships especially. There is a definite gender theme to it – there are historical injustices and imbalances in relationships that need to be examined and addressed. We don't get to blindly continue the same old gender-based power dynamics and games, going forward – the rot underlying that stuff has become a lot more obvious than it used to be. People are just not having it anymore.”

This full moon looks like an end-point for relational issues we've been dealing with since the start of this year – mid-January to be specific, when the nodes of the moon in Libra and Aries lined up with the Uranus-Pluto square. (Well actually, for a lot longer than that. For our whole lives maybe. But things are likely to have come to a head early this year, forcing changes to our deeply ingrained patterns.)

The dispositors of the nodes – relationship planets Mars and Venus – are now in Taurus. This is a grounded, realistic, settled energy – meaning things have been solidified or decided. The course is set – Taurus holds stubbornly to its plan of action and powers its way calmly through obstacles.

You can draw upon this background calm and resolve if you start feeling overwhelmed by the tensions of this full moon. Remember the important thing is to stick with what makes you feel happy, stable and secure in yourself. If you have that internal sense of groundedness, it's a lot harder for others to drag you into their power plays and dramas.

Anyway, overall, this doesn't look like a fun full moon– but it does represent closure, which is a nice thing to have.

And after we've put this shit to bed, we do have some good things ahead of us. Jupiter in Leo resumes direct motion on the 8th April, after a retrograde period that started on the 8th December of last year - this is a big jolt of luck, happiness and creativity.

The summer ahead is colored by a trine between Jupiter and Uranus in Aries – meaning we have an open road before us, full of happy possibilities. Travel, excitement, creativity, romance, adventure, woo!

And we are officially FINISHED with the Uranus-Pluto square series, thank Christ. That jarring, hellish energy will be waning from here on in. Things are settling into their new order.

There are just a few loose ends to be tied up before we can properly move on, and that's where we're at now with this full moon...

You may not even need external conflict to attain the closure on offer. It may be enough to deal with this in yourself – to put whatever this is about for you to rest in yourself.

But it does look likely that there'll be interpersonal drama going on, so please stay aware and careful.

Here's some Kipling to get us through...

(though I would amend the last line! It shouldn't be about being a Man - but an honourable human being.)

And here's a link to Hexagram 21 in the I Ching – all about dealing with issues of law, justice and punishment.

And here's Ma'at, Eqyptian goddess of truth -

"Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that every Egyptian citizen was expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in manners that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, and god."

It's no different for any of us today. There are moral laws at work in the world, and we transgress these at our peril.

And with Saturn retrograding and headed back into Scorpio (June-September of this year - I wrote about it here) - matters of social justice take on an added weight and importance. You will get back what you've given. If you've done harm, karma's going to be a bitch.

Do as you would be done by - it's that simple and basic.

Happy Easter to all!

New Moon Eclipse in Pisces

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!