Insights for the Month of Taurus

April / May 2020

I tend to think that the issue for Taurus is the struggle between being and doing. And so… 

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

-Wendell Berry from Standing By Words

April 19
Sun enters Taurus: 10:45 AM EDT:
Taurus is about real things, their smell and taste, color and shape, texture and sound. The doors of perception, the senses, are found here. Although it’s long been forgotten in our world of hyper consumption, these sense doors are ground zero for our values. We like the way some things look and feel but not others. These preferences underlie the innate integrity of our senses which has little to do with greed or grasping. It just is what it is.
In the current unreality of our enforced confinement one positive side effect might be more being, less doing, a reawakening of simple pleasure and some awareness of core values. Our collective values create our economy. Uranus in the sign of Taurus, is the planet of deep change, revolutionary change, inevitable change. It has been hard at work crashing the system. There never was a better time to ‘be the change’, the one you want to see. 

April 21 
Sun square Saturn
Fresh out of the gate the Sun in Taurus encounters obstacles, restrictions, limits and the seeming impossibility of dealing adequately with them. Never have we needed to remind ourselves more that if it’s in the way, it is the way. Take that in fully before you make effort. We need resolve and commit to tackling the obstacles of the present moment. We waste a lot of energy looking for someone to blame and worrying about the future. Of course and however… if there are issues to straighten out you would surely see them today. Everything is easier to accomplish after the New Moon. Coming right up.

April 22
New Moon: 3 degrees of Taurus: 22:25 EDT
And a Happy Earth Day to you!
This new Moon is positioned neatly between the square to Saturn (yesterday) and the upcoming conjunction with Uranus on the 26th. Our intentions need to acknowledge the overwhelming circumstances that we are facing as well as our ingenuity and potential for dealing with them. Given that this is the territory, and that you, most likely, have accepted the mission, what is your intention toward moving through the next month? Not your pie-in-the-sky intention, not your longing to ascend and have it all behind (although we all would have it behind us). Rather your intention on the most practical of levels. The actual New Moon in the eastern time zone comes late in the day. There is time to identify, hone and fashion our intentions. Savor the process. Prepare today for that which you will declare tomorrow. One thing we have is time. Use it to be as present as you are able to the moment you are inhabiting. So says, Taurus! 

April 25-26
Mercury square Pluto and Jupiter
Every misunderstanding; especially in these times of unknown outcomes; every thought, word or idea that falls outside of its intended target is an opportunity (honestly!) to look in another direction, over here, not over there. To see the inner workings, the powerful projections and the deeper problems. Be willing to go beyond the field of right or wrong.  It won’t be the last time. Practice makes perfect. Or at least creates aptitude. We are learning so much in these strange days.

April 26
Sun conjunct Uranus
Pluto stationery retrograde
Fear and the rapidly changing world we are facing are riding like highwaymen, together through the strangely constructed days and the deep dives we take at night in sleep or wakefulness. Are we melting like candles or changing our notion of what matters? It seems our society is in a period of vivid, surprising, and most likely, enduring transformation: Call it quantum change. Uranus likes that. It is everywhere. It’s a revelation of sorts when we come to understand that being is always possible even when doing is not. To do this, to allow this we must be radically rooted, or rooted in the radical awareness of some kind of essential beingness. Pluto likes that.

April 27
Mercury enters Taurus
When the mind is anchored in the body we think with our common sense(s). In this way we are less likely to subvert reality with denial. 

April 28
Mercury square Saturn
A lot happens, often on an inner level, when obstacles appear. We can simply throw up our hands and stamp our feet in frustration or we can wrestle and wrangle with our problems which builds a kind of mental muscle.

April 30
Mercury conjunct Uranus
If you were hoping for an Aha! moment now’s your chance. It may come via a smell or a sense, when you least expect it. Perhaps we need to ‘rejoice in the things that are present; (as) all else is beyond …’.

May
Venus will be retrograde in May and June. Maybe you have seen her in the western sky after sunset. Maybe you have cast your wishes in her direction. Her journey reminds us we have a lot to lose. That every loss changes us. That life goes on and that loss and gain are inextricably connected. As the poet said: Loss is the great lesson even as she reminds us that happiness, when it’s done right is a kind of holiness…

May 3
Venus square Neptune
Many of the things we believe we must have are more about feeding addictions than true necessities. So be it. Humans have addictive tendencies. Opening to the awareness of this is the best way to change it.

May 4
Sun conjunct Mercury
Stand your ground. Be as fully present as possible. Observe your body, its posture and the myriad of felt senses within. There is much going on in and on this body of yours. Best to be with it than with out it.

May 5
North Node enters Gemini (South Node in Sagittarius)1:50 AM EDT
Our karmic task shifts from the issue of responsibility (although this is always important) to that of belief. The story we tell ourselves about what we are experiencing truly matters. We have witnessed firsthand the consequences of the ways in which governments all over the world have managed the handling of Covid19, for better and worse. Most of us have done what they asked in an attempt to protect as many as possible. Now and for about a year we must meet our challenges as we balance faith against opinion. We must try to avoid the pitfalls of dogmatic fundamentalisms, to listen with a good ear – as unbiased as possible. This is how we turn fear into wisdom. Don’t believe anything just because someone said so. Ask yourself a lot of questions.

May 7
Full Moon: 17 degrees Scorpio: 06:45 AM EDT
Mercury sextile Neptune
We’ve been through a lot. There is more to come. Everything is changing. Transforming. Becoming. Talk is cheap, yet birds sing in the morning, waking the sun and we are more aware of caring for and about each other than we used to be. The nature of time itself seems to be changing. Possibly we are spending less of it. It feels less like a commodity than it used to. Our metaphors are changing. We are spending less time in favor of inhabiting each moment. Presence at any time of day or night dispels fear.  

May 9 & 10
Mercury trine Pluto and Jupiter
What are you learning? What do you feel called to investigate? No matter what the subject matter you are learning about yourself and the sustainability of your life. Are you transforming your fears or are they transforming you?

May 10 (continued)
Sun sextile Neptune
Open your senses to the world around you. Imagine you are not a separate entity but a part of a great whole. An ingredient in the soup of the universe. Alive for now. Connected. Perhaps this does not require imagination but rather a willingness to stop imagining yourself as apart from the rest of life.

May 11
Saturn stationery retrograde
Mercury square Mars
Mercury enters Gemini
Things are what they are. We cannot ignore the conditions of our existence. Frustration is part of these conditions. Things are not exactly the way we want them to be. Some of our social distancing has been rich in solitude or even connection with those in our household, a gift. Other times, more akin to kind of privileged imprisonment. The situation itself did not change but our feelings did, from moment to moment. That’s why we call them e-motions. They are always in motion. Stamp your feet, butt your head and snort if you must (Taurus style) even as you know and will come to experience: Nothing lasts. Everything changes.

May 12
Mercury trine Saturn
Having joined the airy planets (Saturn in Aquarius and Venus in Gemini), Mercury, the messenger encounters the rock and the hard places of reality. Be curious. There is always something to learn. It’s a good starting point for a more beautiful world

May 13
Venus stationery retrograde  conjunct Vesta
Mars enters Pisces
Ancient peoples looked to the heavens as a way to understand our situations and predicaments down here on Earth. They innately understood that everything in nature is a reflection of everything else; that the messages in the stars were largely about our ability to receive them. As humans have developed technologically we have all but obliterated the ‘above’ in the sense of actually reading what might be written there. Between light pollution and space travel our relationship to the cosmos has profoundly altered.
Still, Venus does her dance. Five time in eight years she appears to descend into the underworld which is to say she vanishes from the sky as she is pulled toward the fiery rays of the Sun. This journey is a prototype for grief and loss as well as the inevitable return to a life transformed on account of what has been lost and the determination to live into what remains.
Venus will be retrograde from today until June 25th. She is still the evening star but somewhere between late May and about June 6 she will conjunct the Sun and disappear. Then she will return as morning star, reminding us that we are still here, those of us that are still here. That life goes on and we must focus on the things that matter which may have changed since first She went retrograde.
So here, in the first leg of the journey, what do you need to let go of? What has been taken from you? How can you grieve your losses? Relinquish is a good word for this part of the retrograde. We are, many of us, grieving the loss of people we love, of a way of life and the expectations inherent in that way of life. Venus in the first half of the retrograde is permission to grieve. Permission to feel the losses. In Gemini she reminds us to avoid things that distract us from our feelings. She asks us to be curious about what we might learn in the realm of descent.
Mars, the troublemaker, will be more significant at the beginning of June. But there is a promise in his ingress to Pisces of an ocean of feeling wanting to crash on the shore.

May 14
Jupiter stationery retrograde
Jupiter’s station, so close to Venus’ must be interpreted in this light. True to the nature of its fall in the sign of Capricorn, Jupiter certainly slowed or maybe stopped travel as we know it, in its tracks. Now what? Some of us are disappointed because we can’t show the kids the Eiffel tower or visit the shamans in Peru. Others are terrified because they can’t cross the border to safety. Some of us are sad because we can’t visit our relatives in faraway places. Jupiter, the judge, is harsh when it’s not beneficial. In Capricorn it wants us to acknowledge the costs of travel. Not just the financial cost but the cost to the planet. In 2020 Capricorn is struggling to find its way back to its original mandate which is ‘The right use of resources’. So consider the notion of travel: Astrologically travel is part of a larger construct including culture, higher learning, religion and philosophy. It’s also about our ability to envision the farther shore. How has travel restriction changed your expectations? Most important, what do you see on your horizon?

May 15
Sun trine Pluto
Mercury sextile Chiron
Where do you feel empowered? Each of us has a place, small or large, where we feel this. It’s not something to be acquired, like stamps in a collection. It’s something to express and in that expression to find a sense of constant becoming and transformation as we allow (or block) the Great Spirit to express within and through us. This what Life does.

May 17
Sun trine Jupiter
Whether you’re home alone or spending lots of time with your near and, hopefully, dear the authentic expression of self continues to be the theme of the moment. From the ashes of our time inside will come many things. Some good, some bad. But you, and you alone are the One who lives your life in the here and now. I leave you, this month, with a reflection from a book titled: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

“I wondered whether the stars can see us and if they can, what might they think of us? Do they really        know our future? Do they feel sorry for us? For being stuck in the present time, with no chance to              move? But it also crossed my mind that in spite of all, in spite of our fragility and ignorance, we have        an incredible advantage over the stars – it is for us that time works, giving us a major opportunity to          transform the suffering, aching world into a happy and peaceful one. It’s the stars that are imprisoned        in their own power, and they cannot really help us they merely design the nets, and on cosmic looms        they weave the warp thread that we must complete with our own weft. P.404

Insights for the Month of Aries

March / April 2020

March 19
Sun enters Aries:  11:50 PM EDT: Equinox
Sun sextile Saturn
As always, Aries is a sign to be reckoned with. We are generally born head first into this world. There is a little Aries in each and every one of us. This year Aries brings more than the usual impulse to get on with it. Whatever ‘it’ is we are called to break new ground and dive fully into the new season (be it spring in the north or fall in the south) as well as a new world that is laboring to give birth to itself. Birth is scary at the best of times. This one is no exception.
As it leave Pisces today, the last aspect the Sun will make is a sextile to Saturn as if to remind us that there are opportunities in a world undergoing rapid, accelerated change: opportunities to nourish the soul as it prepares for birth rather than to line pockets. We can all benefit from the time out which has imposed itself on us. Eventually we will heed the call of self actualization which Aries suggest.
As the Sun travels through Aries it will square Pluto and Jupiter before it’s done. This suggests that breaking through will require great effort. Later in the second half of 2020 Mars will spend a long time in Aries, making the same aspects. We are getting s sneak preview of the issues that will be activated then.
During the time that the Sun is in this sign it will play host to Saturn as she takes her first step in the sign of Aquarius, as well as Mars shortly after. Change may be good, may be bad but there is no stopping it. Never was.

March 20 
Mars conjunct Jupiter
War is the fundamental myth of dominator culture: The war against this or the war to save that, the war against the ego, the war to secure our future. War fills us with enthusiasm which is to say we become possessed as if by (a) god. We rally round the flag. We suddenly realize the nobility of the ‘ultimate sacrifice’. Really? Is there no other way to combine the raw, fierce energy of Mars with the visionary passion of Jupiter? Now is the time. Capricorn (where they meet) shows us the perspective of their meeting. This suggests that our enthusiasm is best aimed at the task at hand however mundane it is. What is required is the better management of whatever situation we stumble upon (at the moment it seems to be the virus).  Could there be another way to see things besides as a battle? Possibly war is the one great trick of homo sapiens. If this is so we might as well become extinct.
If you weren’t at war with yourself, for example how would you engage the energy of the task of being human at this moment?

March 21
Saturn enters Aquarius
EXTRA! EXTRA! Saturn on the Move!
Saturn, the wise elder, who reminds us that we learn best what we learn through experience, who expects us to toe the line, is putting her own toe into Aquarian country. Saturn is as strong in Aquarius as she is in Capricorn. These two signs are her home places. In Capricorn for the last two years we have become aware of the enormity of the mess we humans have made and the corresponding enormous effort required to address it. It is the nature of Aquarius to see possibilities, to make blueprints. Saturn will only be here until early July at which time it retrogrades back to Capricorn. But it will step in and stay for two years in December, leaving Capricorn behind for another 28 years. Saturn suggests we need a better plan, and that we should get down to work figuring out what that is, despite the clowns and the disrupters. 

March 22
Mercury sextile Uranus
Venus sextile Neptune
Reach into the emptiness, the gaps, the forces that take you beyond your individual self. Reach for poetry, for simple raw truths that affirm that this is life, not a product to be bought and sold, not even a  mountain to climb or conquer. Simply, powerfully, undoubtedly expressing and fulfilling its mission through you but not simply to satisfy you alone. 

March 23
Mars conjunct Pluto
Conjunctions are the most powerful aspects. They are a fusion of energies. The will is a mighty force for ‘yes’ and for ‘no’. Intention matters. Delve into whatever it is that powers your intentions and be at the ready tomorrow when the Moon is new.

March 24
New Moon: 4 degrees of Aries: 05:28 AM EDT
The first New Moon of the new season encourages us to aim at the breakthrough point. To take a bold step over the next two weeks as the moon becomes round . Knowing the difference between arrogance and intention, many of us have figured out that human beings are not necessarily the crown of creation. What then? 

March 28
Venus trine Jupiter and Pluto
There cannot be a better day than this one to lean into what matters and make it so.

March 30-31
Mars enters Aquarius and conjuncts Saturn
We all have a sense that the real terrorists, the dangerous ones, can be the policy makers. What do you think these days of the invisible hands that are guiding our social and political lives? Are they level headed and acting for the greatest good? The impulse is there. It’s quite possible that terrible things bring out the best in people, even in our leaders. Mars wants to kick Saturn into gear. Who’s in charge (of your life)? The algorithms which corral us into boxes, rendering us powerless to see or knowledge of the authentic self which is a reliable guide to our ideals?

April 3
Venus enters Gemini
Mercury conjunct Neptune
Venus will be powerful in Gemini as she will spend more time than usual in this sign (April 3 – August 8) due to retrograde motion. Gemini is about language, its uses and misuses. Among the many crises besieging our planet at the moment is the one about fake news, false facts and the takeover of our minds. Choose your news wisely.
Mercury is the ruler of Gemini. As it wends its way through Pisces and conjuncts Neptune we are reminded that some of the greatest truth is found in our dreams, the ones we dream alone at night as well as our collective dreams which often reveal themselves in poetry, fiction and the stories we tell through the arts.

April 4
Venus trine Saturn
Jupiter conjunct Pluto
The intellect is a powerful tool, especially in service to what matters. Cut through the manipulations and wrest the essential goodness from your circumstances. No panic. Venus is at her best as Saturn reminds her to stay real. Jupiter may be hampered in Capricorn but it’s still Jupiter. It still aims to make the most out of what and where it finds itself. Down here, in the ‘below’ we get to decide and enact what, exactly that is.

April 7
Full Moon: 18 degrees Libra: 10:35 PM EDT
Mars square Uranus
Mercury sextile Pluto and Jupiter.
If the earth buckles beneath you, all you can do is run for solid ground. You can’t waste time on blame. But once you’re grounded, justice and fairness matter for everyone. Engage the challenges surrounding you with a good ear for listening. The ultimate end of justice is to restore love to the heart.

April 8
Mars sextile Chiron
All manner of suffering, great and small, confer wisdom if we can allow it. What have you learned about taking or not taking action since the end of March when Mars was conjunct Saturn?  

April 10
Venus sextile Chiron
Part of healing is understanding, which allows us to step back and have some perspective. It helps us slip the surly bonds of thinking that we are the only one: the only one who ‘gets it’, the only one who truly understands. Our supreme allegiance to the cult of individuality has become quite lonely.  

April 11
Mercury enters Aries
Some are good at thinking on their feet, others feel anxious at having to do so. It’s a good idea to look sharp and give the mind something to do that makes it stronger, not weaker. We all need time to zone out. We also  need to think critically, to know what we think and to speak with as much clarity as possible. A sharp mind can actually make things easier.

April 14
Sun square Pluto
It’s true, just because we are paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t after us which makes sorting through our projections and fears even more challenging. It’s the opposite of tilting at windmills. More like staring down demons many of whom are figments of the mind. Some of whom are real.

April 15
Sun square Jupiter
Mercury conjunct Chiron
Understanding our fears makes us wiser. Understanding the fears of others does too. Ignoring fear goes against the survival instinct. Sometimes we need heroes, first responders. Sometimes we need people who can distinguish what is worth keeping and what needs to be let go. Life, here on Planet Earth seems to have as its goal the getting of wisdom although you wouldn’t always know it from the powers that be. Maybe that is the wisdom we need most.

April 18
Mercury sextile Venus and Mars
Everywhere there are people to talk with about your experience. Some will help, others will be helped by what you say. In an attempt not to throw any babies out with the bath waters we may need to entertain more conversations than we think necessary. Words are transmissions of energy. Like seeds they carry blueprints for what may grow into being. Imagine them as dandelion fluff or milkweed, food for butterflies and all sorts of beings. We are beings too.

Insights for the month of Pisces

February / March 2020

Capricorn, the sign which Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto (even Mars at the moment)  is an earth sign. It is about how we manage the earth, our home. It can be about the uses of resources for personal or corporate gain and it can be about the sustainability of life, for the Good of All. Here is a quote from an article that speaks most intelligently about the global crisis we are so painfully aware of. To my mind it speaks directly to the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius (where all the above mentioned planets will come soon). It’s long, readable and worth your attention:

   A life initiation begins with a crisis that dissolves what you knew and what you were. From the rubble         of the ensuing collapse, a new self is born into a new world.
     Societies can also undergo initiation. That is what climate change poses to the present global           civilization. It is not a mere “problem” that we can solve from the currently dominant worldview and its solution set, but asks us to inhabit a new Story of the People and a new (and ancient) relationship to the rest of life. – Charles Eisenstein, Extinction and the revolution of Love.

February 18
Sun enters Pisces: 11:56 PM EST
We are one, we are many. So says Pisces in its obscure way. “I am you and you are me and we are all together. It’s complicated.  Sometimes this interconnectedness feels cosmic and mystical. When it comes to the spread of viruses, however, it seems frightening and overwhelming. Both are true. You can’t really have one without the other. That’s why ultimately, Pisces is about compassion. As the wheel of 2020 turns we are each and every one meant to hear the cries of the world. Then what?
As the Sun journeys through Pisces it will sextile Uranus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. It will conjunct Mercury and then Neptune. (See below for specific dates.)  Sextiles encourage us to make the effort that is worth making. So many in one month say it loud and clear. Do what you do and think about the ripples that will spread out from your efforts, across the waters. Conjunctions are times of transition, endings and beginnings, in this case for the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.  It’s time for an infusion of soul` We sure could use that.

February 20
Jupiter sextile Neptune
Jupiter is the old ruler of Pisces, Neptune is the more modern one. Together they show us the two sides of faith – Jupiter the religious side, Neptune the mystical. Working together as they are today could be seen as an opportunity to lift our assumptions up by infusing them with the simple and profound realization that all sentient beings want to be happy. Avoid the temptation to treat your opinions as if they are commandments from God on High. Truth is a slippery fish. We trust the kind that comes from the heart or the gut. What’s true, may be true for all but the expression of it is always unique.

February 21
Mars trine Uranus, square Chiron
There’s an astrological ‘thing’ going on between innovation (Uranus) and wisdom (Chiron): change for the sake of change and change that acknowledges the rights of all living things. We see this everywhere. Maybe we applaud and support the ones on the front lines. Each of us is trying to navigate the connection between chaos and compassion. Makes your head spin. It scares us unless, until we understand that we, each and every one of us, has the mandate to innovate in these times of great change and that each of us is also deserving of compassion, not more or less than anyone else.

February 22
Sun sextile Uranus
Given that we are in fact the change we want to see, today is an excellent day to reach into your compassionate heart and do something for the earth, the planet, your body or someone else. Given the backdrop of a waning moon and Mercury retrograde it doesn’t have to be big but it just might feed the soul. Maybe, if we could really know, we would see that it isn’t my soul, or yours. There is just one soul and we each have a connection to it, both unique and collective.

February 23
New Moon: 4 degrees of Pisces: 10:32 AM EST
Venus square Jupiter
New Moons encourage us to make intentions. Intentions are not like wishes. They do not grow into realities on account of good luck or fairy godmothers. Intentions are more akin to commitments. We all know the futility of New Year’s resolutions. There is a sweet spot at the new Moon. A sense that we can plant the seed and it may grow. There are so many factors we can’t control. But the one factor we can is our intention. Two weeks hence, at the Full Moon we can see if it takes or not.
Whatever you’re up to it’s not a day to ‘shoot the moon’. Manic enthusiasm is about as misguided as it gets.  

February 24
Sun sextile Mars
Strength is something we all can muster even if it looks quite different in each of us. Some of us can lift 300 lb. Others manage 3 and it’s still about strength. It’s relative. Respect strengths in yourself as well as others, cultivate their uniqueness and use each and every one the best you can. We’re here in this life for a short time as individuals but our contributions live on through each other.

February 25
Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun 20:44 (6*of Pisces)
At the midpoint of Mercury’s retrograde journey some of us have the capacity to be still and listen for the messenger’s message. We fear the spread of contagion to be sure, but there are other feelings, besides fear that are longing to spread among humans; gentler feelings but nonetheless powerful if we allow them voice. Let the still, small voice which Pisces offers, whisper in your year or your heart as Mercury shifts from the setting side of the Sun to the rising.

February 26 – 28
Mercury retrograde sextile Mars and Uranus
Mercury continues to reach out and touch other planets; today Mars, Friday Uranus. If you felt the messenger yesterday you might consider combining that with any intentions you made at the New Moon. As the Moon waxes she calls us to participate in the dance of life.

February 28
Venus square Pluto
Avoid jumping the queue. You might be better off at the back of the line till you’re sure what’s happening at the front.

February 29
Leap Year
There are many rituals and superstitions about this day. None of them are astrological. It’s a convention, mathematical in nature, that allows the calendar to work, year after year. Even so it may be a day to leap into something completely new and upside down from what you’re used to.

March 3
Venus square Saturn
Respect every obstacle, if only for today. There are limits to matter. And there is also some truth to the notion: ‘If it’s in the way, it is the way’.

March 4
Mercury Rx enters Aquarius
Venus sextile Mercury
Venus enters Taurus
There is a cuspy feeling today. We are on (the) edge as Mercury and Venus meet, bow to one another and go their different ways. Astrological cusps are thresholds. We stand in the doorway and decide if we will enter. What might you see from a different perspective? How might you evaluate things in a new way? Shift happens.

March 8
Sun conjunct Neptune
Venus conjunct Uranus
Transmissions or infusions of soul into the world happen on many fronts, within and without us. What new thing would make a difference? What ancient, familiar longing puts you in touch with all longing, increasing the capacity for compassion? Avoid the longing for perfection which tends to cloud rather than illuminate.

March 9
Full Moon: 19 degrees Virgo: 1:47 PM EDT
Mercury stationery direct
In business world they do a thing called a 360 review. I believe it’s some kind of evaluation of a person’s performance by others. Any circle has 360 degrees. A horoscope is, of course a circle, a mandala, a constant 360 but not of performance. That’s only one aspect of the circle. If you were to sit at the mysterious center of the wheel of your life what might you see spinning around the periphery? To see and witness your life as if from the center of the circle is to see it from the perspective of the unknowable magic that powers all life. Today’s full moon (a time to be aware and celebrate what is, not what could be) combined with Mercury stationery direct (time to get on with your projects) reminds us that we are alive, pure and profoundly alive and that what we see, know, feel about our lives is and isn’t real.

March 11  
Sun sextile Jupiter
The poet in her wisdom asks, ‘… what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’  She’s not asking what we will accomplish ultimately. The question is just the way it sounds, what will we do, what are we doing, why do we bother? No matter what you are doing, this is your one precious life, the here and  now of it.

March 14
Mars sextile Neptune
Sun sextile Pluto
Life may be precious but it’s not meant to be kept in a jar. It’s meant to be used, to be lived. Where are the places you can make joyful effort no matter what your circumstances? Reach into the cauldron of possibility, like a grab bag at a birthday party. What will you do with your gift?

March 16
Mercury enters Pisces
When thinking meets feeling we really can know something but when thinking gets hijacked by our worst fears we should run for cover. Better yet we might remind ourselves to breathe in and breathe out, which we are doing anyway.

March 19
Sun sextile Saturn
Today is the first day of the new season but not until the last day of the old one is finished. As it leaves Pisces the Sun will sextile Saturn which is in the last degree of Capricorn. These are liminal degrees; threshold degrees. Magical places which exist after the end and before the beginning. Places akin to the gap between inhaling and exhaling. Sweet spots for any and all transitions.