Insights for Capricorn

Here are some insights for the month, which could become contemplations: Each one fashioned using the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology is a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own. Follow the links, where you find them for further musings on the subjects.

Mercury will station, retrograde on January 14, 2022: If it makes you edgy and you would like some alignment you might find it here. Alignment is always preferable to anxiety!

December 21
Winter Solstice: Sun enters Capricorn:  10:59 AM EST

One year dies, another begins – or begins to begin. It’s a process that takes us to January 1st when the calendar year turns. Life is a series of cycles and thresholds. Time moves through us even as we perceive ourselves moving through time.

Today is and has long been a profound and universal marker for our world. The fact that it is a clearly northern hemisphere centric perspective could be said to be short sighted or exclusive to half the planet (the northern half) yet there is no mistaking that what we might call north centric consciousness rules the world . As we grapple with climate change the unpredictability of winter, as with all seasons, becomes more and more dramatic. Yet, up in the sky we see the same thing we have always seen. The days get short and shorter. Then a time comes when the Sun appears to stand still for three days (yesterday, today and tomorrow) and, miracle of miracles, the days slowly, steadily, unwaveringly begin to grow longer. Silent night. Holy Night. Down here in under the sky we have choices: we can be amazed, wondrous, and awed by this predictable magic, or not. We can ‘quake at the sight’ like the shepherds in the song. We can celebrate with hushed reverence, give thanks for what we have as well as what we have to share. We can look around and see the needs of others as if they matter.

December 24
Saturn square Uranus                              

You may have noticed an unfamiliar feeling to this holiday season. Here in Canada, for example, there is a shortage of Christmas trees. The sense that we can’t do things the way we always have but we aren’t quite sure how to do them differently persists on many levels. Although this is the last exact square of these planets they continue to challenge or block each other through 2022. The kids know what has to happen. Perhaps a ‘child should lead us’.

December 25
Venus conjunct Pluto
Mars trine Chiron

Turning off the news doesn’t, alas, turn off what is happening in the world. Even so, we instinctively know that there must be a way to rejoice in the return of the light, to believe in something sacred, holy and beneficial to all that lives. It’s true that to live is to consume, for all living things. The thing is that nature built us to recycle our waste not to simply dump it where we can’t see it. It may be Christmas for some but/and even so, Venus continues to remind us to look back, to reflect on where we have come since, perhaps, Christmas of 2019. Who owns the land? Who controls the resources? Why, when there is enough for everyone do we live in such scarcity? What might help us heal the tragedy of the commons? 

December 26
Mercury sextile Neptune

Whatever rose up and grabbed at you yesterday from the recent or distant past, you might imagine as a fish you caught or maybe one that just landed in your boat. You know that little boat of your life that travels the Great Sea of Living? Like many folk tale fish inside this one is a magic ring, a wishing ring. Knowing what you know of the past, what might you wish for the future? And what small thing might bring it closer to real?

December 28
Jupiter enters Pisces

Maybe Jupiter loves Pisces like meat loves salt or like tofu loves tamari. Jupiter is at home here. Its most noble manifestation in this sign is compassion, particularly for the ignorance of humans and their (our) inability to see the beautiful world in which they (we) live. Its most ignoble manifestation is blind faith and gross assumption that they (we) have found the one true thing, the truth of truths. This world is made of paradox. It thrives on ambiguity. Truth is a process, a journey, an endless discovery and a constant revelation. Every day. Jupiter will be in Pisces, reminding us of these things, until May 10th and again from October 28, 2022 until December 20th. Word on the street is that this should be a good time for Pisces people.

December 29
Mercury conjunct Venus (retrograde)
Sun square Chiron
Mars sextile Saturn

As 2021 becomes 2022 we might wonder at a year of not enough of the right kind of change, a year of chaotic weather eruptions, strange protests, and growing apprehension. Why not look for a poem or a song, a kind of theme or thread to carry us across to 2022? This New Year seems to have room for cautious aspiration for a better world; better because humans are capable of so much. Whatever your age or stage of life at this time, the possibility to learn from our losses, to let go of what isn’t coming back and to take aim at a sustainable world is there in everything we do. If you see it you can believe it.

December 30
Mercury conjunct Pluto

Ponder deeply. Think about underlying structures. “Dig where you’re standing.” Mercury has entered the shadow of its next retrograde period (January 14 – February 3). We are digging out from 2021, finding our way to 2022. Capricorn at its best, considers the Good of All not just the one or even the some.

Happy New Year!  

January 1
Sun trine Uranus                  

Imagine we are coiled but not quite sprung just yet into a New Month (New Moon tomorrow) and a New Year (2022). Today we might marvel that anything can and will happen. We might simply be with how it is. It’s like the moment after inhaling – before exhaling. Suspended. Full of potential. Celebrate the Great Gap between what has been and what will be. Direction unknown. At least for now.  

January 2
New Moon: 12 degrees Capricorn: 01:33 PM EST
Mercury enters Aquarius
We are not here to simply keep on keeping on, to merely put one foot in front of the other. As it says in Chapter 97 of Ministry of the Future, “Whether life means anything or not, joy is real. Life lives, life is living.” We are stepping into a time which is the same but different than before. Take a walk outside. Consult with the natural world. You, too are made of fire, earth, air and water. Made, not to last but to sustain and express, for the time you are here, life itself.

January 5
Venus sextile Neptune

Each day of any week or month is like a bead on a string: A necklace which, when strung together, makes a life. To be human is to be overwhelmed. Much of the time it is a trick of the light which has us seeing things as awful or awesome.    

January 8
Venus (retrograde) conjunct the Sun

There comes a time at the midpoint of every Mercury or Venus retrograde period when they conjunct the Sun. It’s a call to the mysterious if you’re so inclined, a powerful metaphor of transformation. In the story of Inanna this is when she is hung on the meat hook; suspended between realities. The Sun is the heart of the solar system. The heart of the Sun is the heart of the heart itself. Venus is consumed, inflamed by a kind of love that incinerates that which is over and done as a necessary part of renewal for tackling what lies ahead. Love in flames. Being that we are talking archetypes here – goddesses and gods – we understand this to be a flame of transformation. She dies as the evening star but will be reborn on the other side as the morning star. Here is a heavenly reminder that even after great loss, life goes on, determined to live.

January 9
Mercury sextile Chiron                                

Take hold of your innate ability to direct your mind. Don’t let the algorithm tell you where to focus.

January 10
Sun sextile Neptune

The way to the door of your inner being is through body and breath. Your body, standing firmly between heaven and earth. Feet on the ground, head in the stars. Inhaling and exhaling.

January 11
Mars square Neptune                  

Some of us are busy being born, some dying, or so it seems. In truth all of us, all the time are busy doing both. It seems to us that the paradoxical qualities of life, the way it can be fierce, joyous, fragile and tragic all at the same time, is known only to humans. Possibly this existential confusion is at the root of our craziness. Be that as it may, today is not a time to figure this out. Today we want to stay out of harm’s way. Damp down our righteous indignation and remain silent as we pause before deciding if we will take action. Time, space and patience reveals all.

January 14
Mercury stationery retrograde

This Mercury retrograde grabs onto the coattails of Venus’ retrograde journey, even as she moves toward the end of her time of transformation. If ever there was a message from the planets to reflect on where we have been, what we have lost and what we have (or haven’t) learned, it’s now. Each of these planets is retracing our journey since January of 2020, which is to say, the movements of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter, as well as the retrograde period of Mars in 2020. It’s a lot harder to say where we are going if we can’t admit or if we remain ignorant of where we have been. There is benefit in taking this inventory for your own small life – if not for the entire planet.

The so called dwarf planet, Ceres is also stationary today. Ceres is associated with all manner of cereal as you might imagine, given her name. In ancient Greece she was known as Demeter. She represents an aspect of the nourishing mother. If you’re into considering the smaller planets you might also factor into today’s astrological comings and goings the notion of food, nourishment and security in light of where we have been over the last couple of years. Our journey is most likely more about climate change than Covid. Possibly they arise from the same root.

January 16
Sun conjunct Pluto

What do we really know about Dark Matter? Is it dark or invisible? Does it represent the flip side of reality? It’s certainly fascinating to consider, except when it comes charging at us via other people’s projections. Then it’s downright terrifying.

January 17
Full Moon: 27 degrees Cancer 06:48 PM EST       
(opposite Pluto – lest we forget)

This Full Moon could reminds us that Venus is beginning her reign as morning star, bringer of light also called poetically by the ancients, Lucifer and Phosphorous. As the Full Moon sets in the west Venus will be rising in the east. The bees are stirring. Perhaps they feel, not only the turning of the wheel of seasons at the solstice but also the fullness of the Moon in their sign of Cancer. They sense it’s time to look around and see what needs organizing. You can’t have a productive hive if you aren’t organized. This Full Moon is in close opposition to Pluto, asking and not for the first or last time, what we have learned from what we have lost, or are in the process of losing.

January 18
Mercury (retrograde) sextile Chiron
Uranus stationery direct

Climate change is real. At least we have come that far. So is the real trauma that comes with it for those who can’t go home again. Imagine the children who lose their small universes, children who will grow up conditioned by these losses, conditioned not to feel at home anywhere. Imagine a planet of refugees. How can a person not have a place to belong on their own planet? Uranus is the WTF! planet. It is way more than one person can cope with. Time to reach out as best you can as we all travel the highway to the Age of Aquarius.

Sagittarius

Here are some insights for the month, which could become contemplations: Each one fashioned using the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology can be thought of as a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own. Follow the links, where you find them for further musings on the subjects.

November 21
Sun enters Sagittarius:  09:33 PM EST

Sagittarius is the travelling sign. This year it arrives in conjunction with the south node. The past is calling to us in so many ways at this time. Tavel (a Sagittarian signature) has been curtailed over the last two years, more for some than others, but generally speaking. What did you do instead? As you look back over the last two years consider the issue of lies, more lies and misinformation: Silos of truth and the human inclination to believe what we choose. Who shares your beliefs? The issues of the pandemic have made some strange bedfellows. Soon the nodes will leave Gemini and Sagittarius and enter Taurus and Scorpio, signs of resource and scarcity. Time to be less theoretical and more substantial about how we actually live, on the ground, the Earth. If you’re convinced at this moment that you are ‘right’. That others are idiots consider this: Although the Sun rises and sets each and every day it is really the earth that is turning. It is the Earth which bows to the Sun but it looks as though the Sun encircles Earth. We are no longer privileged tourists, looking for experience. We have become pilgrims, like it or not. As we learn about things such as the Mother Trees, we may feel ourselves to be strangers in a very strange (possibly wonderful) land about which we know a lot less than we thought. It is as important to welcome the stranger as it is to be the stranger who is welcomed.

November 24
Mercury enters Sagittarius                        

Another visitor to the early degrees of Sagittarius which continues to focus our attention on outright misinformation, the bugaboo of the world for the last (at least) five years. There have always been snake oil sellers but the internet, our external brain/mind has made it much, much worse. Look back with as much honesty and as little self-judgment as you can muster and ask how the whirling, swirling winds of misinformation and outright lies has affected you. What is the difference between opinion and fact? Why is it suddenly so difficult to distinguish between them?

November 26
Saturn sextile Chiron    

It’s not just a biblical truism to say that if we don’t care for the least of us we don’t really care at all. It’s common sense at this point. We, who consume the most have a mandate to make reparation to the least. Every degree of global warming displaces more than we can imagine. Somewhere in all this is an opportunity.

November 28
Mercury conjunct the Sun

In the deep heart of your own mind, in the silent stillness, what is it you call truth?

November 29 
Mars trine Neptune
Mercury trine Chiron

We would be happy to see this astrological line up in a baby who was born on or near today. This child would be a wise soul who might know instinctively or have the good fortune to be taught that when we welcome all our feelings, even the ones we don’t like, amazing things happen. Which isn’t to say we should act them out, although we might turn them into songs and stories; sit with them and see what they want. This is where we find the roots of healing and true transformation. It’s a mystery. Perhaps it’s The Mystery.

November 30 
Mercury sextile Saturn
Sun sextile Saturn

Today would be a good day to count our blessings, to appreciate the kindnesses and connections that enable our lives. If this inspires you to pay some forward, all the better! Windows of opportunity are everywhere.

December 1     
Neptune stationery direct            

When Neptune stations direct we are offered an image of a wave rolling onto shore and delivering treasure. On a good day. On a not-so-good day it might seem more like a tsunami about to engulf the world, your world at least. It’s not simply a trick of individual perspective. Neptune represents the collective dream we are having. It has been gathering energy for at least a few weeks and will release it for the new few months as it interacts with other planets as well as the Sun and Moon and eventually goes retrograde once more. Time to entertain the paradox of our longing for oneness and how overwhelming it all is.

December 4
New Moon: 12 degrees of Sagittarius: 02:43 AM EST

We are approaching the end and the beginning of a new year as well as an eclipse season attached to the north and south nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius. These are signs that ask us to consider truth and lies, communications of all sorts. Human being have been awash in the toxic soup of misinformation and polarizations, systemic bias and downright lies for some time, Maybe forever but this period, since the  nodes entered these signs (May of 2020) brought us to awareness like never before. Apparently it’s not just some bad apples. Rather it’s a challenge for the whole human race to get our brain/mind working correctly. This might well be a prerequisite to entering the Age of Aquarius. Perhaps our intention for this New Moon should be ‘delusion prevention’: Less bias, more openness to the well-meaning exchange of ideas.

December 6
Mars sextiles Pluto

Truth to power. Wonderful words. An invitation to transformation. An opportunity to share the validity of your feelings in such a way that it can open doors rather than slam them shut with you on one side and someone you care about on the other.

December 7  
Mercury square Neptune

Lies and more lies littering the airwaves, confusing us all, just when it felt like some honest progress was being made. Today does not erase what was learned or experienced yesterday. In fact, staying connected to our feelings allows us to find a storyline that orients and allows us to follow cultivate some kind of generosity. Something as basic as donating warm clothes to new comers in your land would be a start.

December 08
Mars square Jupiter                                     

Planets at the late degrees of a sign remind us that we  stand at choice points and we will soon need to go one way or another. Beware of over-enthusiasm – to be filled with too much God. When enthusiasm crosses the line to self-righteous, dogmatic fanaticism someone always gets hurt. Surely there is another way.

December 11
Venus conjunct Pluto
Mercury sextile Jupiter

Temper enthusiasm with awareness of consequence. Such is the way of things. Sooner or later reality corrects itself. As Venus conjuncts Pluto for the first time of three we might attend to the issue of how we will manage what matters as Venus journeys on her retrograde path (December 19th – January 29th). Time, energy, love and money are the most obvious resources we have. Reasonable enthusiasms are modestly rewarded which supports the good of all. As Mary Poppins reminded us, back in the day, ‘enough is as good as a feast’.

December 12
Sun square Neptune                   

You might say, ‘Madly off in all directions’. You might simply dive, head first, into a sea of confusion, a melee, a storm of chaotic circumstances. You might not. You might, like a sage of old, sense the threshold, the shift, the change. And simply wait till tomorrow, taking your place at the center of the whirling wheel. Shift happens.

December 13
Mars enters Sagittarius
Mercury enters Capricorn

Two planets in one day changing sign, promising changes in perspective. Moving into a time when actions speak louder than words. We do best when we put our money where our mouth is. To be avoided is the delusion that we can rise above nature. There is no planet “B”, no other world, even for the very wealthy.

December 18
Full Moon: 27 degrees Gemini 11:35 PM EST       
Mercury square Chiron

Our obsession with information, with virtual reality must needs shift toward an obsession with the so-called ‘real’ world, the world in which we live, eat, build shelter and exist in embodied form. Full Moon’s shine the light on something we didn’t quite see before. This is an awesome one for a big idea, a lightbulb of understanding, especially if it includes the wellbeing of others.

Photo by Stephen Tafra on Unsplash

December 19

X-TRA! X-TRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT:

Venus stationery retrograde in Capricorn
Chiron stationery direct
Sun sextile Jupiter

The insights we may have had at the Full Moon will be tested over the next 6 weeks by how practical they are. Capricorn is a sign of the tangible, as in real world. Venus, the most beautiful, the most treasured, prepares for descent. As she is pulled closer and closer to the Sun (watch it in the western sky over the next weeks) she will grow fainter and fainter until she disappears sometime around the first week of January. Ancient people saw this as a roadmap for the journey of loss, grief and return. She is called to the underworld to witness these things. And so are we. Here, in the last days of a frustrating year (following a chaotic one), is a good time to evaluate all we have experienced since January of 2020: How it has changed our minds, our circumstances: What we have learned and what we have lost. Those who cling to the notion that we can go back to the way it was are like Orpheus trying to bring Eurydice back to life. Doomed to lose even more. The indisputable truth of how things are is the best measure of how to go forward. Which isn’t the same as curling up in a ball and waiting for the end. Not at all. The process of descent and letting go is a necessary part of clearing the way before going forward. A perfect end-of-the-year reflection. Watch a few sunsets, pay attention to the natural world both near and far, the beauty as well as the damage. This allows us to soften the ‘us-and-them’ mentality of these times and to acknowledge the pandemic of misused resources.

Christmas derives from Solstice, the universal celebration of the return of the light. As we birth the baby we might call 2022 be assured that awareness lessens fear and eases change.

December 20
Mercury trine Uranus                          

There is no doubt we are living inside borders. Some of us are determined to break out, to break open, others are exploring a sense of new limits which make some kind of sense for a small planet. In the best way possible we can use the terrain of our local world be it desert or mountain, windswept shore or densely populated city. We can make what we have as livable as possible. Tomorrow the year is born again, fragile, like all newborns, like a candle flame that will grow strong and hot in the months to come.

Insights for Scorpio

As the World Turns and Keeps Right On Turning

Here are some insights which, through time, might become contemplations: Each one fashioned using the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology is the most ancient kind of sky writing. It invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own.

October 23

Sun enters Scorpio:  12:51 AM EDT

It’s easy to blame Scorpio for just about anything. I mean we all know “what Scorpios are like”. Or do we? Maybe Scorpio doesn’t even know itself at least half the time. Scorpio can be mysterious and deep. It invites us to look beneath the surface. It can also be deceptive, manipulative and remorseless. Possibly the connecting factor is the inevitability of loss which Scorpio feels so intensely. We cannot know the true motivations of another but there is a way to cultivate awareness of who can and can’t be trusted. Which is, of course, to know how it is you really feel about another person. To do that requires a kind of honesty that can be uncomfortable. We often don’t want to know what we feel. Maybe the true Scorpio questions these days are things like, ‘How is it we have come so far from knowing our own truth?’ ‘How is it we cannot bear our own feelings?’ When did watching other people feel in made-up situations become preferable to the more real feelings of others: Our partner, our parents, the bus driver, the patient, a child, not to mention ourselves. In a week the Sun will square Saturn and Mars will enter Scorpio. Perhaps it’s time to work on Scorpio themes for a while. If you’re experiencing this year as the ‘rock and the hard place’ this could be a key for moving the energy: To explore the murky and mysterious realm of feelings.

October 26

Venus square Neptune                             

Sometimes we see potential and possibility in people or situations that will never come to be. If this bugs us and makes us critical or judgy we are perfectionists. But we might just allow for the fact that it is enough to see and appreciate possibilities even if they don’t come to pass. Our reach can and often does exceed our grasp.

October 28

Venus sextile Jupiter    

Perfectionist or not today is a time for love and freedom to join together. If there is a game, a quest, a challenge that has something to do with the human capacity for loving kindness, carpe diem!

Love is greatest when it is freely given. Freedom is most precious when it allows us to love fully.

October 30      

Sun square Saturn
Mars enters Scorpio

Maybe it’s innately human to want to understand what can only be felt. It can be compelling and lead some to deep investigation while it leaves others frustrated, angry and alienated. Consider that surrender is not the same as capitulation. To accept reality as it is does not mean that we do nothing to make it kinder, safer, wiser than it seems to be. Perhaps we need to dive deep into what seems unresolvable and see what might be learned. There is no definitive truth when it comes to feelings. Feelings are always true for the person who feels them.

November 1 & 2

Mercury trine Jupiter and square Pluto

This kind of sums up the most recent Mercury retrograde period (September 27 – October 18). Remember? You might reflect upon journal entries you made or your date book. You could go back over the news of those weeks. What did you learn or witness that left an impression? How has it changed your perspective? What do you think is possible that you didn’t back then? What do you despair of in a world so heavy with seemingly intractable problems? Jupiter is UP, Pluto is DOWN. Mercury, in the middle reminds us that we need not get attached in either direction. It’s a constantly shape-shifting landscape.

November 4

New Moon: 12 degrees of Scorpio: 05:14 PM EDT
Sun opposite Uranus

Some say, ‘She changes everything She touches’. Others say, ‘This too shall pass’. And of course there are those that speak of impermanence and the great web of interdependence which is always being created and which connects us all. Each of these wisdoms may open to a different (religious) path yet there is no mistaking that these great wisdoms are grounded in the same notion. No point railing against it. You are better off making an intention for this New Moon that embraces the notion of change as the only constant: No despair, no expectations.

November 5 & 6

Venus enters Capricorn
Mercury enters Scorpio
Mercury sextiles Venus

We have a kind of long and agonizing way to go, collectively, till our overarching values are genuinely sustainable. Human impulses toward greed and domination, violence and revenge are difficult to reign in. Might as well start where we are, with ourselves: to observe these impulses from within. Consider how to subdue them by using them in other ways:

Greed becomes the ability to manage resources.
Domination morphs into the notion ‘for the good of all’.
Vengeance turns into truth and reconciliation.
Violence becomes assertive action.

This may not be easy but it’s quite possible, especially on an individual basis.

November 7  

Daylight Savings Time ends. We are restored to a time which is more in synch with celestial time.

November 10

Mercury conjunct Mars, square Saturn
Mars square Saturn

Here is a reminder of the rock and the hard place year we are in. You could say that during this time (last week, next week) Mercury and Mars are asking or showing us where that place between rock and hard exactly is: which is to say, the frustrations we have at the chaos (change) we see and don’t see happening.

November 12

Sun trine Neptune    

If you’re on this ride: using astrology as a navigational tool, let today be a time of deep diving for pearls of psychological or mystical wisdoms. Pull the plug on the usual hyper-mental pursuits. Think less, feel more.

November 13

Mercury opposite Uranus           

Shocks of awareness, thunderbolts of truth are sparking till the Full Moon on the 19th. Revelations can be sharp and disruptive as well as anchoring us to deeper levels of truth; the kind that isn’t exactly supported by facts but that doesn’t lead to violence. The shock of the obvious, an invitation to see the moment as it is. Stillness would help as it feeds our sense of presence.

November 15

Venus square Chiron
Sun square Jupiter

Real but not true. True but not real. We are easily unbalanced by assumptions, judgments, blaming. It’s best to assume that everyone is suffering in some way. This helps us slow our reactions, quiet our fears and act out of kindness rather than projection.

November 16

Sun sextile Pluto  

Enjoy the sensation of mastery, yours or someone whose mastery over powerful feelings makes you happy. Somewhere between suppression and acting out is real power. What the world needs now…

November 17

Mars opposite Uranus                     

The greatest barriers are the ones we build to keep out fear. Those of us living in the world where we take privilege for granted have what seems like a lot to lose. But only if we think of it as a limited resource. Actually these privileges we take for granted, things like health care and education, free elections and housing don’t belong to us. They are human rights that belongs to all. Privilege hoarded is fearful, shared it becomes something else: The better world we all long for.
Perhaps the challenge of Mars opposing Uranus is how it can be that this is not obvious to all. 

November 18

Mercury trine Neptune                        

Let your dreams of a better world carry you toward the Full Moon. This dream of shared resources, of connection to all that lives is more poignant as the season here in the north reminds us that every living thing will, someday, die.  

November 19

Full Moon: 27 degrees Taurus 03:57 AM EST Eclipse
Venus trine Uranus

Sharing is a two way street. We give something and we receive something for the giving. Otherwise it’s patronizing. Charity is hierarchal and by now we know that it is also a way for Winners to Take All. Donations to wildlife funds while your product is responsible for burning down forests or polluting the waters doesn’t help the planet or her sentient children. It matters what we give and also how we live.

November 20

Mercury square Jupiter

The basic rule is simple: If judgment devoid of kindness is useless, saying more about the judger then the judged.  To judge wisely we must also seek to understand the other person which naturally generates kindness as it requires patience and a calming of the instinct to point and blame. Slowing down the reaction time twixt thought and thunderbolt can only make for a better interaction even if it causes some discomfort in the moment.

November 21

Last day of Scorpio, first day of Sagittarius
Mercury sextile Pluto

At the cusp of the transition from one sign to another, we are reminded of the indisputable truth that change is, that it is more powerful than you and therefore requires alignment (not resistance). Scorpio leaves us with this awareness: Before we look ahead, which Sadge loves to do, might we consider where we have been, what we have learned, and what meaning we might make or take from the somewhat precarious journey from there to here.

Insights for Libra

Think of these insights as contemplations on the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology can be thought of as a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look.

A Mercury retrograde month: Alignment is preferable to anxiety.

September 22
Sun enters Libra:  03:21 PM EDT
Mercury Square Pluto
There is a kind of magic in the equinox. A day when the seesaw of light and dark is perfectly balanced. A moment in time when angels pause on the heads of their pins in perfect balance. A reminder of grace. But Libra has more than this under its hood of meanings.
Remember the feeling of being on the lighter end of the seesaw? At the mercy of a bigger kid, you might have trusted not to upend you. Maybe that never occurred to you or maybe you didn’t trust them at all. We live in a world where we have taken inequities for granted more or less. Many of us don’t get that we have been the bigger kid, in control of the see saw. It is a wonder and a marvel of our civilization that so many have not felt the brutality of systemic injustice. There is no doubt that the growing awareness of the sufferings of others as their land burns or they are deluged by storms, war, famine and homelessness as well as the undoing of civil rights is a good thing; an awakening. It’s always better when the guy on the heavy end of the see saw understands that the person on the other end is as real as they are, that their curcumstances matter.
Libra is the sign of civilization, culture and the elegant notion of justice for all. At its worst it is about war. But at its best it encourages human potential to live in balance with others.
As the Sun travels through Libra this year it is joined by Mars (conjunct the Sun, October 8). It will square Pluto (October 17) and oppose Chiron (October 3).
Mercury will turn retrograde in Libra on the 27th and on account of this it will spend more time in this sign than usual. For Canada ithis suggests a post-election reflection is in order. To go forward we need to look at how we got here.

September 23
Venus opposite Uranus 
Loss is part of life. Anyone can tell you that. But when it comes out of seemingly nowhere, when we thought we were minding our own business, it’s really not ok. Given the inevitability of this it is possible to marvel at how just being alive changes us forever. But what, exactly changes if change is guaranteed?

September 25
Mars trine Saturn 
Cooperative competence. What a concept: a sense that we understand, that we can do this together and that it might even benefit others. That’s the way to get things done.

September 27
Mercury stationery retrograde
Mercury retrograde periods always invite reflection, consideration, observation and active listening. If and when things get messed up it is usually because we didn’t do those things. This retrograde period specifically points toward the depths of loss and change that Planet Earth is experiencing. (Square Pluto). Don’t kid yourself. But there is also a grand trine (with Jupiter and the Moon) which suggests a thoughtful look ahead to what is possible through collaboration.
One of the great accomplishments of civilization is to live more or less peacefully among strangers. We follow the rules. We wait in line. We care that those around us have what they need as well as ourselves. These things that we have taken for granted seem threatened. Shadows hang over some of our most basic social realities: health care and education for example. The idea isn’t to scare yourself but to observe and learn. What story line arises in your mind when you become aware of shadows?

September 29
Venus trines Neptune
Sun trines Saturn
There is a lot of really good advice going around these days. How much of it resonates with what you know inside yourself? That’s the only advice you will take. Today’s trines encourage us to trust ourselves, not because we mistrust the world but because we do best what we are convinced is worth doing.

October 1
Mars opposite Chiron
Mercury Rx square Pluto
Imagine the fallen hero, the humbled warrior, (Mars in Libra) approaching the wise, wounded healer/teacher (Chiron). What irrefutable wisdom that comes from your difficulties wants your attention? Is it even possible for human animals to turn our aggression into non-hostile, assertive action? Is there such a thing as healthy competition? Think before you act. There will be consequences, possibly unto the 7th generation.

October 2
Venus sextile Pluto
Often our most difficult moments teach us what we could never learn otherwise. When you’re helping those you love, remember this: for them and for you too.

October 3
Sun opposite Chiron
Mercury (rx) trine Jupiter
What has been lost opens doors to what might be found. To know this is to relax enough to see possibilities. So close to a New Moon with Mercury retrograde, is a time for reflection, not action. Not yet.

October 6
New Moon: 13 degrees of Libra: 07:05 AM EDT
Pluto stationery direct
No matter what seesaw you are on there is always a third way, a third alternative. Even in the world beneath this one, the world of deep and complex feelings such as grief and despair, even there or maybe especially there, we find rich and fertile and soil in which to plant seeds for new growth.

October 7
Venus enters Sagittarius      
If you’ve been struggling with projections, yours or someone else’s, if it has been hard to tell if it was you or them making things worse, look for a shift. Sagittarius is meant for some kind of liberation: A new vision. As long as it doesn’t point and blame, as long as it frees everyone involved, it could be a time to find a better, freer way to make love grow or even art. Remember when people used to say, ‘Love isn’t love till you give it away’?                  

October 08
Sun conjunct Mars    
When planets conjunct the Sun they were said by astrologers of old to have been invited into the heart of the king. They have grown weak (close to the Sun they cannot be seen) and need to be revitalized. And so it is for Mars these days. Mars can be a bully, a bad actor, but Mars holds the key to our vitality, our energy and how we assert ourselves. We live in scary times and it’s hard to simply do what we have always done. Imagine you find yourself in a deep, dark wood. Are you lost? Or are you being asked to learn something? Is it the end of everything or the middle of an initiation that requires you to look for a new way to engage with others?

October 09
Mercury conjunct the Sun and Mars
Yesterday’s message continues with gusto. Understand that wherever you are pinned at the moment, like some unfortunate butterfly, is where you need to learn. Maybe what you need to learn is how it feels to be at the center of transformation; that moment when you’re too far in to turn back but not far enough along to see the light at the end. All manner of creative possibilities arise from such moments.
If it’s time to seal some kind of deal think twice, really listen to the other guy, calm your reactivity and use all your negotiating skills. How you approach may determine the outcome. It’s not time to force anything.

October 10
Saturn stationery direct            
We are not finished with this rock-and-the-hard-place year. There are more shocks and frustrations to come no doubt. Today could be a bit of a turning point, a glimmer of ways to shift toward plans that might actually work. Test runs are a good idea even as we know that we can’t anticipate all eventualities.

October 13
Venus sextile Saturn
If the plan is seaworthy or maybe earthquake proof, look for those who might fund and support it. People enjoy supporting things they believe in.

October 15
Sun trine Jupiter                        
When we dare to imagine together, to include as many people as possible, there is no telling what could happen. Since we seem to have figured that ‘God doesn’t play dice with the Universe’ it would be good if our possibilities were grounded in rational, reasonable concepts.

October 16
Venus trine Chiron, sextile Mercury retrograde
The greatest wisdom comes from experience. Experience can be difficult. Vision is always rooted in the depths. In the midst of a deep, dark wood if we suddenly know which path to follow we are found, even before we leave the woods. What if we always trusted that we are on the path, our path?

October 17
Sun square Pluto
Somehow modern religions have made a hell out of the notion of the underworld or Hades. Even astrologers, who should know better, fear Pluto. What might be more useful is respect. Resisting the power of the inevitable makes as little sense as trying to control it. In the honoring of endings we welcome beginnings. Happy and sad are not opposites.

October 18
Jupiter stationery direct
Mercury stationery direct
Mars trine Jupiter
Something about all these astrological events on the same day suggests either a bat out of hell or a great awakening. At the least it seems to be a ‘ready, set, go’ kind of picture, pulling us toward the Full Moon on the 20th. Look up! Take some kind of action, large or small, that confirms your goals. The more living beings that can benefit from your aspirations, the better. If you follow the Moon you might take the temperature with intentions made at the new Moon, two weeks ago.

October 20
Full Moon: 27 degrees Aries 10:55 AM EDT
Questions and challenges that appear to block your goals are meant to help you focus on the best ways forward. Life is a quest even if we don’t always know it. Perhaps we all have an inner questing beast.

October 22
Mars square Pluto
Let me contradict myself: All that looking up and taking on challenges may mean that we, you, me have stumbled over something unseen, unexpected on the path. There are moments when we struggle against odds to wrest what we refuse to let go from the jaws of loss. There’s no telling if this is a right or wrong thing. It’s powered by instinct and will only be understood or evaluated with hindsight.

A perfect invitation to the month of Scorpio!

Insights for Virgo

These insights are offered as contemplations on the astrological aspects of the moment. As we consider and contemplate what we might call sky writing we invite the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but each and all may be awakened by the same images.

August 22
Full Moon: 29 degree Aquarius 08:01 AM EDT
Sun enters Virgo:  05:34 PM EDT:

The Full Moon at the very last degree of Aquarius reminds us that our planet, our living, breathing planet which sustains all life equally, is on a precipice, a ledge, an edge, a point of radical shift. Some of us know this directly through our experience of the moment, others not so up close. We all feel it. Full Moons offer the possibility of seeing in the dark. What do you see from your particular vantage point? Are you willing to be an agent of change? And if not, then what? The will is a funny thing. It cannot stop the change, it can only align with or resist it.  

Later, this same day , the Sun enters Virgo. Astrology is a story, constantly, incessantly telling itself. Virgo is a mighty sign, much diminished in a world of hierarchy and dominance. Virgo is also a sign of high anxiety and timidity. Ten thousand years of suppression can do that to an archetype. It can twist it out of shape but it cannot eliminate it. As hierarchal systems continue to crumble Virgo will find its strength once again. The distress and the strength of this archetypal signature can be seen in how we have treated the people who serve, from the wait staff in a restaurant to the nurses and the people who stock the shelves, tend the gardens, process the food and heal the sick. Essentially the ones who keep the show on the road.
What is it about dominance mentality that insists on treating these folks as worth less than those they serve? And now, as we wend our way through various disasters is this changing? Because change it must. When Virgo can get down to the work it is meant to do without the humiliations everything changes.
The Sun as it travels through Virgo will trine Uranus, conjunct Mars, trine Pluto and oppose Neptune. You can follow along below.
Meanwhile consider this bit of Virgo wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen:
“Helping fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”        

August 23
Venus trine Saturn                         

We weigh and measure things to see if they have substance, to see if structures will hold. ‘Measure twice, cut once’ as the saying goes. Now is as good a time as any to do this, maybe better than good.

August 24
Mercury opposite Neptune

To putter around in service to your dreams: To let go of how important it is or you are and how you must achieve goals: To notice where you actually are, how you actually feel: To find the flow and trust it. Somehow these things make more sense than futilely attempting to beat dreams into submission.

August 26
Venus square Chiron
Mercury trine Pluto       

The inconvenience of other people’s problems is not to be ignored. Even so, we show up and help out when necessary. Human beings are inherently paradoxical. When we show up with awareness of this kind of complexity we won’t undermine the good we offer. There is no shame in paradox, in fact it fascinates and compels us to learn and be more - more fully human and therefore more fully alive.                

August 30
Mercury enters Libra

Does Mercury mind leaving their power place (Virgo) for one less suited to their nature? It’s hard to say what planets feel or think, so we imagine. We might imagine, in this case, that we have brilliantly figured something out while Mercury was in Virgo. Now, as Mercury changes perspective, it’s time to dialogue and debate as we weigh the myriad of options before us.

September 2
Mars opposite Neptune

Back-to-school didn’t used to include quite so much angst regarding contagion and fear of the future. We cannot hold back the tide – even for the ones we love the most. Neptune can feel like a wave about to break. Mars can shake a fist at such a wave, and make not a bit of difference or… We can turn Mars in Virgo away from anxiety and rage born of fear and toward the vital energy of adaptation. We can use the terrain upon which we stand to anchor ourselves as best we can, not because we accept some kind of ‘new normal’ but because in this particular time and place energy flows in one direction and makes things worse in another. Your barometer is your body. Listen to its messages as it is wise in the way of adaptation.

September 4
Mercury trine Saturn

What do I know? What do any of us really know? Whatever it is, there is no doubt that it’s a mere fragment of all that can be known. And yet, should we trust the machine, the algorithm to guide our knowing? Can we even tell the difference any more between our own thoughts and those we are being directed toward? Now would be an excellent time to cultivate the beginner’s mind; to open to the multi-dimensional world surrounding us that has much to teach. We all need to learn to fish.

September 5
Venus square Pluto

Here is a hint of winter at the end of summer. In December Venus will appear to turn retrograde as it conjuncts Pluto. This last square before the conjunction is a precursor activating themes which will intensify during the retrograde period. Much has been lost since January of 2020 and much has been revealed. Shedding the skin of old ways of evaluating and valuing our lives is not done lightly. As we look around we see that we are not the only one. Acknowledgment and discussion about loss offers some ease in times of such intense change.

September 6   
New Moon: 14 degrees of Virgo: 12:53 AM EDT
Mars trine Pluto
Venus trine Jupiter
Sun trine Uranus

If you are making an intention for this New Moon, inhale deeply, exhale fully and consider that the world is not broken and doesn’t need fixing. A better image is that this world of ours is in the throes of giving birth to a new age and what is needed are midwives: People who can witness and serve at a crucial moment in the process. Whatever our personal brand of privilege is has little to do with deserving it and lots to do with offering it to these times of Great Change. Maybe it’s always been chaotic for some of us all of the time but now it seems chaotic for all living things all of the time. “Change or bust” might be our bumper sticker.

September 8
Mercury opposite Chiron

Justice is best when it bows to wisdom. Wisdom is hard to define. The greatest wisdom seems to come from experience combined with reflection which leads to awareness. Our sufferings have a gift (which we don’t want, generally speaking, at least in the moment). The bridge that stretches between suffering and wisdom opens the way for compassionate justice. Otherwise its just vengence.

September 10
Venus enters Scorpio

Is Venus really in a detrimental  position in this sign or is she just too much for a patriarchal world? Detriment implies that she is unable to function properly, that she is wounded. We all know the history of what happens to women who don’t behave as prescribed – from witch burnings and systemic abuses of all kinds to glass ceilings. Maybe in Scorpio she’s just far from her home in Taurus where things are pleasurable. Maybe in Scorpio she understands the value of loss and difficulty and how these things make us fully human, how there is no avoiding it and that this is just true, not bad or good.

September 14
Sun opposite Neptune
Mars enters Libra

It is said that somewhere someone knows every grain of sand, every strand of hair and even every little sparrow. Whoever that is, it’s probably not you. If you’re annoyed by every little thing try a bit of reverence, even awe, for each and every tiny widget that holds the world together. As you go about your business, know that you’re a widget too.
As Mars slips into it’s astrological detriment in Libra we find Mars and Venus in mutual reception for a while. Which is to say they can, if prompted, receive each other in their home places. This only happens if we allow it. In the face of passive aggression (Mars), or intensity of attachment (Venus) you could step back into prescribed social behaviours (Venus in Libra) outwardly even as you deepen your willingness for radical self-awareness (Mars in Scorpio) on an inner level. It’s a dance and requires balance and strength. What does it take and is it worth the effort to choose to act competitively or co-opereratively? Without application which the mutual reception offers be prepared for desire to be more trouble than it’s worth when Mars or Venus activate in the coming weeks.

September 16
Sun trine Pluto                     

As you contemplate the ever changing sky that astrology shows us, you might marvel at the endless combinations of influences that we can interpret. As the saying goes, ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes’. One day, confusion, the next solid ground. It is more like the turning of a kaleidoscope than a straight line from some imagined start to finish. Today’s turn of the wheel encourages us to stand our ground. Seasons change and so do we. It’s always good advice to Be! Here! Now!

September 17
Venus square Saturn

There isn’t simply a right way and a wrong way. There is always a third alternative. The best held theories are subject to disruptions once they hit the forces of reality. The frustrations and messiness of the real world are worth accepting if we are to accomplish anything today.

September 20
Full Moon: 28 degrees Pisces 07:54 PM EDT
Mercury trine Jupiter                        

We have come to the last full day of summer here in the northern hemisphere. Seasons changing teaches us that everything changes. We cannot hold onto yesterday or even something that happened an hour ago. But we can celebrate the simple powerful truth that we are here, in this life at this moment with one another and that we know how to laugh. We are and we do!

Insights for Leo

As our world turns, and turns again…

These insights are offered as contemplations on the astrological aspects of the moment. As we consider and contemplate what we might call sky writing we invite the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but each and all may be awakened by the same images.

July 22

Sun enters Leo:  10:26 AM EDT
Venus opposite Jupiter 

Before the Sun officially enters Leo, Venus in the earliest degree of Virgo wants us to consider what really matters to you and for the seven generations we give lip service to. Trauma is not a buzzword, it is the ground of our being. It is the soil out of which we can grow a more compassionate inclusive way of living. To imagine such a thing starts the process of bringing it into being.
And then there is Leo: We seem to be living in a time of wounded kings; rulers who refuse to admit that they, as well as the systems which hold them in place are, in fact, wounded. This denial is the strongest indicator of how very wounded they are. As the damage becomes clearer we all wish for a hero to set it right. Leo is not heroic although it is courageous. It’s about love which emanates from the heart. The Sun is the beating, pulsing heart of our solar system. Each of us is a little solar system of our own, powered by a beating, pulsing heart. Hearts are courageous in that they risk loving. They are innately generous because there is no running out of love. This may sound trite but imagine a world in which wounded kings truly loved the people they serve, rather than the ones who pay for their favors. Leo will continue to be put to the test this month as it follows in the footsteps of Mars in this fiery sign; symbolizing the heat and the fires which have burned and continue to burn. The Sun will oppose Saturn and square Uranus before it catches up to the conjunction with Mars and an opposition to Jupiter.

July 23
Full Moon: 01 degree Aquarius 10:36 PM EDT
We often feel the effects of Full Moons earlier than their official time of exactitude. And these effects last longer. It’s a celebration and it starts as soon as you notice the big shiny ball in the night sky. All creatures under the Moon (and Sun) are welcome!
As this Full Moon lights the night and we approach the mid-point of summer (quite close to the New Moon in two weeks), look around. The pandemic has estranged us from one another in time and real space. And yet it is also true that we have come in contact with many people from far and away. How it is our heart makes room for others? Who do you favor, whose favor falls on you? How do we take joy in each other?

July 24 & 25
Mercury trine Neptune, opposite Pluto
As Mercury prepares to leave Cancer we might give thought to the painful and grievous revelations that occurred when Mars was there not so long ago. So much happens and our thoughts are carried away from one unspeakable tragedy to the next. The cruel violation of families and communities of this land is true. These things actually happened. The unmarked graves of so many children remind us that the mistreatment of children is a weapon of war.
Our inner children know this even if our adult selves turn toward other issues of the day. Allowing ourselves to grieve even if they weren’t ‘our’ children is a protection for future generations. As we step into the unknown future which is filled to the brim with innocent, trusting, vulnerable children, we do well to re-member the losses, to listen to their stories which are our stories. This helps move forward.

July 27 & 28
Mercury enters Leo
Jupiter rx enters Aquarius
Radical shift. One planet enters at the beginning of the sign (Mercury) , the other, retrograde (Jupiter) backs into the sign it is re-entering. A shift in perspective is called for. Time to shift perspectives. Both these planets are leaving the realm of water which connects us all for those of fire and air which encourage passion and ideals. Jupiter reminds us that we can make plans, we can envision where we want to go. Mercury will follow the Sun and Mars. It suggests we think creatively and take risks, at least in our minds.

July 29
Mars opposite Jupiter
Mars enters Virgo
With a burst of courage and will Mars challenges Jupiter just before leaving Leo. It’s a bit of an adventure story. If you’re out and about having adventures pay attention to thresholds, moments or locations where one thing changes into another. It is true that flying sparks can start fires and little bugs can be so much more than annoying. It is also true that we can turn a corner and be struck with the full force of Nature’s power and beauty. Mars in Leo loves a good adventure, Virgo is attention and fascination with detail.

August 1 & 2
Mercury conjunct the Sun and opposite Saturn
Sun opposite Saturn
We humans can be creative to a fault when our will to express ourselves is unchecked by actual skill and discipline. We learn best from masters, who have experience. In an age driven by likes (and dis-likes) we need, more than ever, to discern true expertise from persuasion and charisma. The heart has innate wisdom in these matters if we are courageous enough to listen. Circumstantial obstacles and resistance to self-expression are teachers of merit. And of course there is no point in arguing with a boulder blocking your path. 

August 3
Venus trine Uranus
Mercury square Uranus
From now until the 8th doors open and shut with alarming frequency. The doors themselves might be interesting. We want so much to be on the other side of change we can miss the invitation itself, which means we miss the power of making choices. Thresholds are not incidental. There is a gap in our understanding of how to get to ‘there’ from ‘here’. The solution might be hidden in the nature of the call rather than the imagined end result.

August 4   
Sun trine Chiron 
Who is the guardian at your gate? Why does the gate need guarding? What is the teaching? Even as you stand before your own gate, it may also be true that you are the guardian at someone else’s.  

August 6
Sun square Uranus
In the thick of change even the noblest of hearts must bend or bow to what they cannot control. Love itself is the strength that enables us to do this.

August 8
New Moon: 16 degrees of Leo: 09:51 AM EDT
Yesterday was the exact midpoint between solstice and equinox. Today is close enough, and a New Moon too. We are invited to affirm and intend something, starting right where we are. Is this magic? Science? Geometry? Power? Imagination? Is there a story to tell in the subtle waning of the light as the year bends toward winter? There is if you tell it. What reminds you of the dark in the midst of so much light? What intention do you have as you stand in the heat and light, sensing the fading of the light? What difference does it make? The New Moon is always a beginning.

August 09
Venus opposite Neptune
Devotion is most effective when it has practical application. This does not preclude beauty or dreaming. Our lives play out on many planes of existence.

August 10
Mercury opposite Jupiter
Think creatively as you reach beyond simple self-expression for the good of all.

August 11
Mercury enters Virgo
Venus trines Pluto
Problems have solutions. It’s the nature of things. Time often reveals these things, time and a deep appreciation for the cycles of life.

August 16
Venus enters Libra
 Art and culture. What’s it mean to you?

August 18
Mercury conjunct Mars
Energetic speech, precise and sharp in its ability to describe helpful innovations. It’s a tall order but preferable to supreme irritability and snide comments.

August 19
Sun opposite Jupiter
Uranus stationery retrograde
The easiest thing is to point, to blame, to judge. Righteous indignation protects us from our feelings about tragic and systemic injustice. In this way we shirk responsibility for the restoration of dignity to those who have suffered. Revolution is one of the 10,000 words we have for change. It beats the notion of evolution which is a rather hierarchical concept, suggesting a fundamental need for improvement and a relentless faith in progress. Perhaps we need to extract the notion that we revolve. We live in cycles. Turning and turning, ever returning to the same place with new eyes, new understandings. We have all been here before.

August 20
Mercury trine Uranus
Fix what you can. New worlds are always made from the materials left from old ones. If it’s really broken consider mosaics.

August 22
Full Moon: 29 degrees Aquarius 08:01 AM EDT
Before the Sun enters Virgo today there is a Full Moon in the very last degree of Aquarius. Full Moons are high energy. Some astrologers say 29 degrees is about living two lives in one. We are endlessly dancing on the head of a pin, waiting for the world to begin (again?) Imagine your precipice, a meeting (and parting) place of heart and mind.

Insights for Cancer

These insights are offered as contemplations on the astrological aspects of the moment. As we consider and contemplate what we might call writing in the sky, we invite the muse. No two astrologers see the same thing but each and all are awakened by the same images. That’s why astrology is art…

June 20

Sun enters Cancer (Summer Solstice in Northern Hemisphere):  11:32 PM EDT
Jupiter stationery retrograde

Astrology is about time. When we are aware of our relationship to the sky and its intersection with earth we are able to predict things, things we can count on, such as the rising of the Sun each morning, the phases of the Moon each month and the turning of the wheel of the seasons throughout the year. Knowing such things helps us to figure out other things such as when to plant and even when to travel or even how to get where we are going (using the stars to guide us). It is a natural progression for humans to think that the ability to predict fluctuations at one level extends to other levels: When to buy a house or sell a business, when to marry and even who to marry. Astrology also gives us insight into the ‘how’ of things such as how to navigate the waters of our emotions or health concerns, even our relationships. To some this seems ridiculous, to others it makes a kind of instinctive sense.

And so we come to the longest (or shortest, depending which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. A time of culmination or nadir of light. Our ancestors approached this day with reverence for the reliability of the rays of the Sun hitting the stone exactly where predicted. We might do the same.

Cancer is a time to gather people and resources together. To build a hive of activity that will produce nourishment for a later time, which is also predictable. There will be a later time. Winter will come bringing scarcity of light if nothing else. Cancer is a time of flow but ebb will certainly follow.

This year the Sun in Cancer will square Chiron, Sextile Uranus, trine Jupiter and Neptune, oppose Pluto as well as conjunct and oppose the Moon (which it always does of course).  Overall we might consider how it is this abundant planet has so much scarcity for so many people. Even if you think ‘It has always been thus’ times are changing. We could do it differently. The soul of nature is an ever-present reality in all things including the self. Start right where you are. See below as each of these aspects occurs.

Jupiter can point and blame. It can even demand that we question our right to live. It can also bless and bonify. Today would be a good one for counting blessings, making amends if you’ve hurt someone and for a bit of mirth and reverence in celebration of the turning of the wheel as we stand on the threshold of the new season.

June 21
Venus trine Neptune
What is your deepest, most intimate longing? You can tell yourself. Go ahead. Is there actually someone who could fulfill this for you? It is said we can’t really engage with life outside our perception or concepts about it. We must feel within ourselves that which we would have without. Love what matters most to you, with all your senses. Offer this love which is also longing, to the Universe. Then see what happens.
 

June 22
Mercury stationery direct
What happens now? Does Mercury Direct really make it easier to think freely, to be understood? Do we have some kind of celestial permission to sign the contract, to close the deal? Give a quick review to the last month. How clever were you? What did you learn? How do thoughts create reality? How does that work collectively as well as on and in an individual life? Mercury loves a good question.

June 23
Sun trine Jupiter
Venus opposite Pluto
Blessings everywhere, littering the streets, scattering like rainbows all over town. Each one attached to a warning, a consequence. Why should it be otherwise? How is it we could possibly be born and not expect there would be consequences? Are we, perhaps, simply, profoundly a consequence of other people’s actions?

June 24

Full Moon: 03 degrees Capricorn 02:39 PM EDT
Saturn sextile Chiron
Everything astrologers see and interpret in the sky looks a bit different depending where you stand on earth (our circumstances). This is why no two astrologers interpret exactly the same way. And why twins are the same, yet different. There really is no ‘last word’.
Full Moons suggest it’s time for seeing in the dark. This is quite different for city dwellers surrounded by light all night, every night and those who live where night is truly dark. Meaning can be found within ourselves as well as through an actual experience of seeing moonlight through the trees or on the water. Either way the heavenly prompt for this Full Moon suggests we think about winter, the inevitable turn of the wheel six months from now. What do you think can can’t and must be done to help us get through the winter? Practically speaking.  

June 25
Neptune stationery retrograde
Possibly the collective soul that we share with all living things is holding its breath; waiting for the drop of a shoe. If this was true for you what is it that you are waiting for at the pause between inhale and exhale? (Planetary stations can be felt at least a week before and after.)

June 27
Venus enters Leo       
Whatever the word ‘creative’ means to you, it matters.

July 1
Mars opposite Saturn  
You could say we have two choices: to act with selfish pride or courageous love. We make choices about our actions even if we can’t control circumstance. Kindness and courage live on unto the 7th generation more productively than selfish pride. Seems obvious. The best of a Leo/Aquarius opposition is seen when kindness and courage motivate behavior.

July 2
Mars trine Chiron
This particular emphases on love, courage, pride, kindness and consequence culminates on the 13th with a Venus Mars conjunction. We have time to awaken the courageous heart beating inside our chest, time and situations to practice doing what we do on behalf of the heart’s wisdom. Sometimes, of course, doing nothing is the right action.

July 3   
Mars square Uranus
It’s only human to want control, to try and live an ordered existence. Wisdom teaches us that change is the only constant. Change looks, feels and smells a lot like chaos when we aren’t in control of it. Be steadfast at the center even as you know the world will turn as it does. Chaos is change in manic mode. Or perhaps as Tom Waits suggested, “there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk”

July 4
Sun square Chiron
What to do with all the suffering of individuals that you can’t touch. There is no way to hold it, even just in your mind, without feeling it. Our feelings connect us to everything else that feels, all that lives. How we feel makes a difference. Every breath is an offering.

July 05
Sun sextile Uranus
Change is good and offers opportunity. Allow the sparks of potential to ignite your fondest dreams. It’s an up-and-down world, not just a down one.

July 06
Mercury square Neptune
Venus opposite Saturn
Doubt, disappointment and despair are most definitely forces to contend with. There is no point in astrological whitewashing. Making so-called lemonade isn’t necessarily an option for everyone. But where astrology is concerned, things are always open to what we call interpretation. We could look at these same aspects and say that making every effort to stay grounded and to accept reality as it presents itself without telling yourself an ‘always’ or ‘never’ story is a worthwhile endeavor on a day just like today.

July 07
Venus trine Chiron
Everybody matters. Every. Body.

July 08
Venus square Uranus
Reactive indignation springs eternal from the human ego. Call it pride (not the good kind, not self-esteem) ‘I’ matters but ‘I’ is also the matter, the problem. Watch out for pride as it collides with unalterable circumstance. It goeth before a fall when it’s an inflation of the ego, it engages the noble heart when it arises from self-esteem.

July 09
New Moon: 18 degrees of Cancer: 09:16 PM EDT
Six months from now (January 2022) there will be a full moon in Cancer. Cycles unfold within cycles. We plant seeds at the New Moon, we harvest them at the Full. A mighty seed for this NM might be the aspiration to feed everyone: To beat our swords into ploughshares. It’s not like we haven’t been aware that it’s the right thing to do for a really long time, at least since around 720 BCE.

July 11
Mercury enters Cancer
Time to think about feelings. How real are they? How do we create reality with them? What do we project from them?

July 12
Mercury trine Jupiter
Here is love. Transcendent and pure. In search of expression. A good time to ‘wear your love like heaven’ or at least make art.

July 13
Venus conjunct Mars
Passion: Pure and simple. (Is it ever really simple?) Only we can decide if it consumes us like a fire or glows with radiant light.

July 15
Chiron stationery retrograde
Sun trine Neptune
Reach not grasp. Flow, not flood. Feelings not emotions. There are great wisdoms to be had in these distinctions.

July 17
Sun opposite Pluto
It can be scary to take the measure of our own needs against the backdrop of a world so full of others who have needs that are even greater. It is also liberating to allow ourselves to fully acknowledge such a thing and then to see what shifts. Because, shift it will.

July 19 & 20
Mercury square Chiron and sextile Uranus
It takes compassion for ourselves as well as others to get any perspective on the difficulties we are faced with on Planet Earth. It takes curiosity and an open mind to learn from it. Some seem to delight in making things much worse than they have to be. At the same time, even on the same day, there are seemingly endless opportunities to offer help and support to those whose need comes into your awareness.

July 21
Venus enters Virgo (soon to oppose Jupiter)
The Science of Mind tells us that we construct the world by how we think and feel about it. Not the other way around. Cutting through delusion requires practice and more practice. I think of Venus in Virgo as an invitation to fierce compassion which might look like tough love. What matters is keeping the heart open even as we demand truth and reconciliation. It’s a long and arduous process possibly the pinnacle of human achievement.

Insights for Gemini

Mercury is retrograde May 29 – June 22.
Alignment is preferable to anxiety about such a thing. Find us here.

May 20
Sun enters Gemini 3:37 PM EDT:
As the Sun slips across the invisible border from Taurus to Gemini and Mercury prepares for its retrograde journey nine days later, we might acknowledge the stress and anxiety that has been generated over the last few years regarding information, misinformation and how we, the people, have been manipulated and robbed in many ways of our attention. We are told that the biggest game in town is won by those who can control our attention. We feel the difficulty of a world whose children too easily fall into the pit of attention deficit disorders. Have we created a monster with our collective external brain (the internet)? Are the synapses of our brains over connecting? Are we doomed to become extinct because we can’t focus our intention on things that matter such as climate change, equity, health care and the common good? Gemini doesn’t answer questions. It only asks. When you think of this sign, think of birds and butterflies, the flying things, the pollinators. Breathe. Gemini is the breath: The twins of inhalation and exhalation, equal and necessary in the most fundamental of ways. We inhale our first breath at birth, we exhale our last at the end. In between we don’t spend too much time on either. This is the gift. This is the biggest game in town: To focus now and again on the breath: To marvel at the blessing of such a strong and gentle thread that connects us to life itself. If you want to own your own attention, breathe and know that you are breathing. The more interesting you find this (even more interesting than the latest episode of your favorite TV drama) the more you own your attention.

May 21
Sun square Jupiter  
It’s all well and good to extol the virtues of the breath/mind connection but how do we deal with the thought arrows which pierce us from within? Some ancient wisdoms might help.

 May 22
Mercury square Neptune
Arrows of inattention, distraction and too much of a good thing, or maybe too much of everything, keep coming. All the good advice coming along with them begins to sound like just one more distraction, one more attempt to own your attention. So let the Great Wheel spin. Marvel at winged creatures, how they take flight and land in seemingly whimsical patterns. Mercury loves whimsy.

May 23
Saturn stationery, retrograde
Saturn’s job is to ground us. You might say they’ve been at it for a few weeks already, reminding us to focus on knowledge rather than random information. If there was an archive or library that held the greatest knowledge you could imagine where would it be? What would it look like? Most importantly, what would be inside it? As we grow toward the Full Moon in a few days a little active imagination might be a good thing. When it comes to Aquarius (Saturn is in Aquarius) it’s good to have a blueprint in the mind. It’s how we build the world. 

May 26
Full Moon: 05 degrees Sagittarius 07:13 EDT Eclipse
Total lunar eclipses are also sometimes called Blood Moons because of the reddish-orange glow the moon takes on during the eclipse. On the day of the eclipse the Moon will be closest to the earth, so it may look larger in the sky making it a Super Moon eclipse. This eclipse will be the first total lunar eclipse since January 2019. It will be totally visible in all of Australia and partially in other parts of the world.
Astrologers pay attention to where the totality of an eclipse falls as it would have the greatest impact in that part of the world.
Themes of this particular eclipse seem to underscore issues of breath, mind, information, distraction and attention. You might say that the Moon as it shines down from the night sky is revealing an enormous tangle of lies, gossip, truth and all the shape-shifting wisdom you could want. Imagine yourself at the center of a spinning wheel. Let it spin, you can’t stop it. It’s a hologram. You are always at the center.

May 27
Venus square Neptune
Particular cautions are advisable regarding the game of love and seduction. Consider the wisdom of the fable of the fox and the crow. Flattery might get someone everywhere but how will it feel in the morning?

May 29
Venus conjunct Mercury
Mercury stationery retrograde (6:34 PM EDT)
What if instead of running for cover when Mercury goes retrograde we chose to honor the Trickster, the Magician for their clever magic which opens us, time and again, to seeing things from a different perspective which doesn’t have to be fear based? What if we allowed ourselves to be guided by the ‘signal in the heavens’ ?What if we took Mercury’s retrograde period as a suggestion to turn inward, to be more contemplative, to review and consider, most importantly to practice the art of listening? There is music in everything if we have the ears to hear, even in the noise of traffic and the cries of the world, certainly in our dreams and from our poets. We can listen and be privy to the magic of hearing. We have three weeks to practice.

May 31
Mars trine Neptune
A bit of ease for those who are not afraid to feel the tender places, not just your own.

June 2
Sun sextile Chiron
Venus enters Cancer
The practice of allowing feelings without wallowing in them could develop and strengthen us in aid of encouraging greater wisdom. There is a saying that goes something like this: To gain knowledge, learn something new every day. To attain wisdom let go or remove something every day. We might imagine that the Sun in Gemini, aspecting Chiron encourages us to become knowledgeable regarding the nature of wounding and trauma. But Venus (and Mars) in Cancer pull us toward wisdom, asking us to forgive if not exactly to forget. There is room for both, of course. It benefits us as humans to live in a ‘both/and’ world rather than ‘an either/or’ one.

June 3
Sun trine Saturn
Venus trine Jupiter
The getting of wisdom is a gently held aspiration. You can’t grab it or fake it (although many try). Generally the greatest wisdom, the longest held and most useful kind is that which we learn from experience.  

June 5
Mercury (retrograde) square Neptune
Mars opposite Pluto
Sooner or later all journeys turn down a road or around a corner and the journeyer must face fear or/and confusion. We cannot and should not avoid these turns. Life is the teacher. What kind of student are you? Which is to say, how are you meeting the fears and confusions of the moment?
Mercury reminds us we don’t know enough (it’s not possible) and Mars suggests that the greatest enemy comes from the projections of our own mind.

June 10
Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde
New Moon: 19 degrees of Gemini: 06:52 AM EDT Eclipse
That which was a seed, a thought seed, wants to take root in your mind, in the mind of humans everywhere. Some of us cannot accept or imagine a better way to live than the way we have been living in the dominator paradigm. They want to get back to what seems ‘normal’. For them this seed has fallen on unfertile ground and may fail to take root. For others however, there is great curiosity in imagining how we might live together with all living things, what it might mean to learn from nature, to learn a new, old way. Today this thought is a whisper on the wind, if you have ears to hear.

June 11
Mars enters Leo
There won’t be much for Mars to do, all alone in a fire sign, save to remind us when the time comes (when it opposes Saturn and squares Uranus next month) that bold action has its place. Mars in Leo is constantly tasked with differentiating genuine courage from foolish acting out.

June 13
Venus sextile Uranus
Sun square Neptune
We are not really done with the seas, the tides, the floods of misinformation washing up on the beaches of our lives. Take every opportunity to use your common senses, to think horses not zebras, to honor thy mother Gaea, the Earth, even as you think outside the construct of colonizer mentality (no matter which side you’re on).

June 14
Uranus square Saturn
Saturn, moving slowly near its station (May 23) is squared by Uranus. Usually Saturn moves faster than Uranus and we would see it as the planet creating the square. We are half way through this aspect which frames 2021. This has indeed been a year of being caught between rocks and hard places. Given that Uranus is the acting planet this might be a moment of explosive realization that there is no turning back to the good (for some) bad (for many) old days of systemic dysfunction and relative stability for those who tell the story. No going back because, like they say, you can never step into the same river twice. Change is indeed the only constant. The real struggle within each of us is in how we meet the change. Awakening equanimity is the practice.

June 20
Jupiter stationery retrograde
Today is the last day of Gemini and the first day of Cancer. It is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Before the Sun enters Cancer Jupiter makes a station. Here is a call to check in, if we will, to our best wisdom. What are the beliefs that guide you to live as wisely as you can? Who are your teachers? Humans are driven by belief, the felt sense of meaning. From these knowings we go to war or make peace. We cultivate compassion or point and blame. What will you do with all that light?

Taurus 2021

April 19

Sun enters Taurus 4:33 PM EDT
Mercury enters Taurus

It’s no accident that Earth Day is a Taurus event. Taurus is the fixed, earth sign. Fixed means that it holds or stores the essence of the season (as do Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius) and earth is exactly as it says: all things of matter, all things that matter. Even so, Taurus is not inherently materialistic. Matter is substance, the stuff of the world which we behold and perceive through our common senses you might say. Our senses, these doors of perception, are gifts that allow us to discern wholesome from unwholesome. We are not simply meant to seek pleasure and avoid the unpleasant and the bitter. Bitter can indeed indicate poison but, for example, we need some bitter herbs in spring as tonic for the liver. Most importantly for Taurus is that we need beauty. The healthiest gardens are diversely planted and please the eye. A garden of only one thing is not nearly as beautiful. The earth is alive with all manner of creatures from the smallest microorganisms to animals as large as bison. Taurus welcomes them all with an instinctive acceptance of the equality and necessity of all living things to make a wholesome, healthy, robust world. Mercury moving ahead of the Sun at a faster pace heralds this Taurus message, reminding us that the Earth is our Mother and all living things, her children.

April 22

Venus conjunct Uranus

It takes a big mind to comprehend chaos. Possibly no mind can truly grasp such a thing because by definition it lives beyond understanding. So why not make art, foster beauty, inhabit the present so fully that you stand at the center of the spinning wheel and let it turn?

Happy Earth Day to All!

April 23
Mars enters Cancer

Caution seems like the right choice as Mars travels through Cancer, caution on behalf of the needs of others, to err if we must, on the side of caring for the least of us. Possibly a planet in its fall (as is Mars in Cancer) requires more care regarding its expression, a tender and necessary consideration as our planet Earth seems to be experiencing its own ‘fall’ at this time.

April 24
Mercury conjunct Uranus

Following right behind Venus, soon to catch up to her, Mercury may not understand the workings of chaos either. We might encourage our human propensity for curiosity regarding things we don’t understand. Together Mercury and Uranus intuit that things fall apart because they are meant to come together in a new way. We are in Wonderland and things get curiouser and curiouser as Alice said.  

April 25

Venus square Saturn
Mercury square Saturn
Mercury conjunct Venus

Wouldn’t you know? Mercury finally catches up to Venus. It’s a love story. Together at last they are ready to make love, art or maybe just dinner: better yet, dessert. And there in the doorway is Saturn, arms crossed and scowling as if she knows better, reminding them that there will be consequences. There will always be consequences.  

April 26

Full Moon: 07 degrees Scorpio: 23:31 EDT

Full Moons remind us that we can see in the dark. For many of us there is no real dark at night unless we put blackout curtains on our windows or cover our eyes. Even so, there is more dark matter in the universe than light. And each of us carries a large percentage of night substance in our psyche. So take a look at the big moon hanging over your street. Acknowledge that it isn’t just another, higher up street lamp. Then take a Scorpio look inside and reflect on the losses of the last year (since the last Full Moon in Scorpio). The Taurus part of this Full Moon (where the Sun is) asks us to look at what remains. That’s the thing about change. The shock of it undermines our trust in our ability to control things.

April 29

Mercury sextile Neptune

We all have a soul. Don’t we? Nature has a soul. Doesn’t it? But what is it? Why does it matter so much? And what part does beauty play in matters of the soul? Beauty that is, not glamour.

April 30

Sun conjunct Uranus                          

Think back to Earth Day. Think ahead if you can to what you see for this, our Earth. More importantly, how do you feel about it?

May 2

Mercury trine Pluto
Venus sextile Neptune

If life is a journey, today would be a good time to gather strength. To read something that matters, to reach out to someone who loves and nourishes your soul. It’s a time, as the poet said to “peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.”

May 3

Mercury square Jupiter
Sun square Saturn   

It’s not that life is hard, although it is for some of the people all of the time. It’s that it’s always changing, and nothing changes that. Given the immutable truth of this it’s ironic how we grab onto our little corners of reality and attach to them as if they are the One True Thing. We hammer and build these constructs of reality and fixate on others doing the same. Only to come to a time, a turn, a moment that changes everything. This is the Great Lesson, the one to teach the children. S/he changes everything S/he touches, everything S/he touches, changes.

May 6   

Venus trine Pluto  

Solid ground arises – right where you stand. Drink it in; the color, the texture, the smell. To be relaxed and present is to be awake and ready for anything. 

May 08

Venus square Jupiter 
Venus enters Gemini

There is a constant sense of push-me-pull-you between the ways which we live as a society and what we really think we want as individuals. It’s as though humans have come to some land which is far away from nature, particularly our own inherent nature as well as Nature Herself. Which is, of course, impossible. Possibly this is the issue of the moment. The solution if there is to be one is most likely not found in greater consumption - even of nature itself: rather to discover it right where you are, to dig where you stand, so to say.

May 10

Mercury sextile Chiron

Pause. Breathe in the vast waves of dysregulation breaking around you. As you breathe out send love, healing or whatever you have to sooth and calm such a world. The New Moon tomorrow might call us to action but today was made for reflection.

May 11

New Moon: 21 degrees of Taurus: 02:59 PM EDT
Mars square Chiron, sextile Uranus

The best, sweetest and most honest thing is to start this new lunar month right where you are. Do what you do as best as you can. Do what you must in alignment with the simple knowledge that it must be done. This is Taurus at its best: The present tense. Maybe we should think of it as the Presence Tense.
Meanwhile doors will open for those that have the courage to feel what they feel without collapsing into puddles of infantile need that render those around them unable to help. Unless and until we understand that we are not islands of suffering, that we can and must bear the suffering of the world as one, it will be hard to bring the world into a workable shape.

May 12

Mercury trine Saturn                

An excellent day for the intellect: A day to truly understand, learn and articulate the subject of your choice. No need to defend or react to the opinions of others. When information combines with knowledge humans become wiser, saner and maybe even happier.

May 17

Sun trine Pluto           

The heart of nature beats strong and steady this day. This drumbeat keeps time for us if we let it. Flowers bloom, plants grow, the cycles of heaven wax and wane. These things are our teachers and can teach us all we need to know.

May 18

Venus sextile Chiron   

If you were the one who opened Pandora’s Box, how would you feel? Would you recognize your kinship with Eve who ate the apple? Would you shake your fist at the singular god and say something like, ‘Your days are numbered, old man. Just like the hairs on your head’. Or would you cower in shame and guilt, believing that all suffering is your fault? Take every opportunity to rise up. It’s quite likely you are not The Problem.

May 19

Venus trine Saturn   

Creation may indeed start with a big bang, perhaps a wild, orgasmic collision. Out of this creation proceeds to make worlds, one stitch, one cell, at a time. It’s art, this making of a universe. And it’s always changing, never finished. Just like you and me.

Aries 2021

As the World Turns

March 20 Spring Equinox
Sun enters Aries 5:37 AM EDT

Aries is the sign of the hero, the individual. If this last year has taught us anything it might be that the best results are achievable through collaboration and collective action. There are many examples, of course, of the great feats of individuals but it is somehow clearer to us now that all of their successes were possible because of their interconnectedness with others. The good they accomplished is measured against the benefits to others. Most important might be that the so-called, “strong man”, the dictator-in-the-making was defeated (for now). Gun slingers are actually out of favor save in their own minds. We are not just slouching toward Bethlehem waiting for the rough beasts to be born, we are working hard to see the world with new eyes. To tell ourselves a different story.

“Embedded in the stories are the values and priorities we live by, and what we believe about women and men, power and war, sex and love”.  

For eons it seems, humans have subscribed to the story of the hero’s journey, the assumption that we are born and die alone and that it’s up to us as individuals to take the journey, to make it work. Recently we have seen the effects of dying alone and abandoned in nursing homes. When we die alone we die sadder and sooner. As we awaken from this dream of singularity and witness the lonely deaths of our elders we have come to understand that to die alone is a travesty: unnatural, unkind and horrific. Perhaps the one truly singular and powerful action of a life occurs at the boldness of birth. Truly we are each and every one of us unique beings, not simply data points but this does not mean that we are ‘only’. It is true that we will always need fire fighters and first responders, that each of us is tasked with having to make choices for ourselves alone. We live as individuals, a lot like and yet completely different from one another. We have come to the leg of our journey which requires us to stop the relentless, exhausting striving for ‘best’, ‘first’ and ‘most’ and find a different game than King of the Mountain.  Instead we might welcome each other, with our unique gifts, to the dance. Aries can do that.  

March 21

Venus enters Aries
Mercury sextile Uranus
Mars trine Saturn

There is a lot (too much) to learn about all the changes coming at us. One thing for certain however is that no matter what stage of life we are at; be it eldering, mid-life, childhood or infancy, even and possibly especially adolescence, this period of our development will be forever marked by a collective sense of social restriction and personal responsibility as well as social chaos and, of course, the threat of disease. Even so, we can only live one day at a time. Let today be: A day of action based on understanding (Mars trine Saturn); A day of fluidity and adaptability in communication as we listen attentively so as to actually hear (Mercury sextile Uranus) and a commitment to evaluate what matters most over the next 3 weeks while Venus travels through Aries, especially where it goes against the grain.

 March 23
Mercury square Mars      

Good listening goes for naught if we over-react and drown out the exchange of ideas. Be still and touch into your feelings before releasing them. Hesitate before hitting ‘send’ until you know what you’re sending.

March 26  
Mars conjunct the North Node (on its way to square Neptune!)
Venus conjunct Sun

Conjunctions are fusions of energies.  Conjunctions with the Sun are sort of nuclear in nature although not necessarily portents of events so much as a sense of internal pressure regarding the fundamental principle which the planet represents. It is literally a turning point when a planet, in this case Venus, shifts from morning to evening star. You might say it isn’t really done until the day you see Her in the evening sky after sunset. And that day will vary depending on where you live and what your horizon is like as well as how observant you are of the sky above. Today it’s an inner thing. We are pressured to consider the questions bubbling in the cauldron of our hearts; something like, ‘How have your values changed since Venus was retrograde in May-June of 2020?’ The big event at that time was the murder of George Floyd. How has that changed what you value? Mars seems to be piping up reminding us that we are all part of the so-called arrow of history. Actions aren’t exactly louder than words, these days. It seems the two have become one. Words are actions.  

March 28
Full Moon: 08 degrees Libra: 02:48 PM EST
Venus conjunct Chiron

The theme is trauma. It’s a bit of a buzz word these days, for good reason. To be human is, sooner or later, one way or another, to be wounded. And we are coming to understand that we can’t just ‘suck it up’ and that it takes a village to heal. Of course the story of our healing is as unique and specific to each individual as the trauma was to begin with. Truly the wisdom that comes with our healing is a great gift of grace and a powerful aspect of life’s mysteries. Today’s accomplishments arise when we acknowledge this equally for ourselves as well as for others.

March 29
Sun conjunct Chiron
Mercury conjunct Neptune           

Tell yourself and anyone who might be listening, a big story, one that comes from a big dream of a constantly healing world. A world of wisdom and beauty and above all, compassion.

March 30
Venus sextile Saturn

Make room for the strong women and girls, the challenging ones, the edgy ones too. “Once again, the world was on the brink of disaster, and only a woman could save the world.”

March 31
Sun sextile Saturn                          

Offering resistance to monolithic industries that would turn us into data, we make a difference individually as well as collectively. Take all opportunities to shop locally, to actualize your part as an individual engaged in a collective endeavor.

April 2
Mercury sextile Pluto       

Memory cannot be extracted from time. Our memories apparently morph along with us as we change through the ages and stages of our lives from infancy to and through old age. Memory is more like art than science, real to the feelings but not always precisely factual; profoundly creative. Today’s opportunity is to dig deep into memory and offer it with wisdom and compassion to the world. No need to infuse it with regret.

April 3
Mercury enters Aries    

Sharpen your wits. Wake up from the dream of the past. The future awaits. The future we long for starts here and now. If this isn’t metaphysical, what is?

April 6
Venus sextile Mars

The desire for a new world, one that works for all living beings, not just the fortunate few, is stirring. Like a demiurge it demands our attention and creates dissention in that we don’t necessarily agree with one another regarding what that new world should be. If a door to this room opens for you step over the threshold and see what’s there.

April 09
Mercury conjunct Chiron
Mars square Neptune

Awash in information, misinformation and false as well as true facts we might marvel at how the human mind is like a playful, tricky monkey, jumping from one thing to the next so fast we cannot sort through the noise. Some try to capitalize on chaos, others avoid it and still others take a stand, defending their information of choice. Pundits share perspectives adding to the collective mind salad, shoring up our opinions. This fray can wound the mind when it fosters anxiety and attacks (like a virus) a sense of healthy self-esteem especially in the young. The best approach for today is to practice the wisdom of W.A.I.T. Ask yourself, ‘Why Am I Talking?’

April 10
Venus sextile Jupiter
Mercury sextile Saturn

Learning requires unlearning and the questioning of assumptions. We manufacture our ignorance to protect our identity. As we lean into the possibility of returning to a freer life it might be time to re-define the notion of freedom. What does it means to be free if my freedom is as important as some other guy’s? How does ‘liberty and justice for all’ actually work around here? There is no going back.

April 11
New Moon: 22 degrees of Aries: 10:30 PM EDT
Venus square Pluto

New Moons incline us toward a kind of anticipatory stillness: Anticipatory in that we do well to make intentions and so we think about the world to come. Stillness because our intentions are empowered when we align them with the Universe, the Great Spirit or the Soul of Nature (however you see it). For that alignment to happen we must be still.
Much has been lost. No doubt about it. Grief and outrage also show up today. Letting go is easier said than done and cannot be accomplished by will alone.

April 13
Sun sextile Mars                    

There are way more possibilities than we can anticipate, scattered like drops of dew, tucked inside the folds of flowers as they open to the morning sun.

April 14
Venus enters Taurus      

Unlike Venus in Aries, Venus is at home in Taurus. In her own sign she shows us beauty through our senses. She supports the arts and reminds us to be real. Of course it’s up to us to channel and use this energy especially when she engages with another planet.

April 15
Sun sextile Jupiter  

More possibilities today. More to heaven and earth if we listen and learn from the world within and around us. It’s not just humans living on this planet, not simply the ‘family of man’.

April 16
Sun square Pluto

Stop! Just stop right where you are. Look. Listen. What rumbles beneath your feet? How present can you be to what’s real in this moment (even if that is washing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom) without fear of losing agency or missing out? When do we stop seeing life as a pyramid with everyone scrabbling to the top and start seeing it as a garden rich in diversity and nourished by fire, water, air and earth?

April 17
Mars trine Jupiter
Mercury sextile Jupiter and Mars
Mercury square Pluto

Today is a wrap for everything that has happened since the New Moon on the 11th. Six short days and a world of possible futures have paraded past against the backdrop of our best intentions. As we grow toward fullness at the Full Moon consider what remains to be done and how to do it with a sense of possibility that can strengthen our aspirations for the greatest good? All is never lost.

April 18
Mercury conjunct the Sun

It seems sort of natural to see Venus as ‘she’ and Mars as ‘he’ even though there is actually no way to ‘sex’ a planet. The Moon is most definitely Mom, a ‘she’ because only she can give birth. Mercury is the exception. A true ‘they’, the one and only and has been since astrology began. If seen at all it is always close to the horizon flickering in and out of sight. It tricks us into seeing things one way and then another. On the distinct six days a year when it conjuncts the Sun (three times when direct and three when retrograde) we can, only if we choose, tune into this quality, this they-ness that exists in each and every one of us. Today is a ‘they’ day. Not one thing or another. A day for magicians, story tellers and shapeshifters of all sorts, to reflect on the ever-changing dance of energy we call life. One and many; no difference.

Pisces 2021

As the World Turns

February 18
Sun enters Pisces 5:43 AM EST:
If ever it meant anything to be ‘spiritual’ now, as we leave the Age of Pisces, would be a good time to investigate the meaning of this much bandied about word. We seem to agree that spiritual is not religious. Although most religions have a place for their most spiritual practitioners, call them saints or mystics. Spiritual may be more aligned with the notion of mystical, another word fraught with all sorts of nuance. Once we journey in this direction we find poets and visionaries. We might stumble upon the notion of faith, both blind and otherwise. This puts us in the realm of fanatics who seem able to believe almost anything with a kind of devotion that can lead to bad behavior. Devotion is definitely a word that belongs in the Pisces box of keywords. Humans long for someone or something to which we can devote ourselves. If nature could speak and She can and does, we might find a useful, yet profoundly spiritual way to use these Pisces inclinations as we journey toward the Age of Aquarius. And it harm none.

February 19
Venus square Mars
Maybe you worry about the earth, changes to our climate as well as the relentless appetite we have for consuming and misusing our precious resources. Fear can stop us in our tracks. Lack of knowledge is also a danger. Here is something we all need to know.

February 20
Mercury stationery direct
Maybe you have been waiting for this day, to sign the contract, make the deal and move forward at last. Or maybe you spent the days since January 30th listening and learning rather than simply waiting. Now you might have a greater sense of what you heard. Given the airy, Aquarian flavor of this transit, hopefully we have been listening, not just waiting. In any case it is indeed a better time to sign the contract, make the deal and get on with things.

February 24
Mars trine Pluto
Having educated yourself in spite or because of your fears, now would be a good time to take a step, make a stand, commit yourself to the task at hand. Starting where you are or, as activists and poets say, digging where you’re standing can have awesome outcomes. 

February 25
Venus enters Pisces
Sun sextile Uranus
Beauty and truth really are one in the same. How does that matter to you? It’s not enough to be spiritual on your own any more. Where we offer our spirituality to the radical shifting of these times, however small, creates ripples of opportunity even if we don’t see it just yet.

February 26
Jupiter trine the North Node (sextile the South Node)
Reach for a good idea. Don’t grasp. Better to open it slowly or watch it open on as you might watch a flower open on an early spring morning.

February 27
Full Moon: 08 degrees Virgo: 03:17 AM EST
This Full Moon trines Uranus reminding us to look for even a glimpse of how those seemingly small applications of spirituality in service to radical change, which we considered on the 25th make a difference, ease our sense of meaningless chaos and anxiety and offer real help along the way.

March 2
Mercury trine North Node (sextile South Node)
The Nodes of the Moon are points in space: portals. The North node call us toward our growing edge. The South indicates our most deeply ingrained habits. A planet aspecting the NN also aspects the SN. In 2020 Neptune squared these points. The exact finish of that was January 26th. A perfect symbolic rendition of the confusion, deceptions and supremely misguided realities of the world. Some people really do their best and even that hasn’t been good enough to dispel the distress and confusion of the times. Here we are in a New Year when everything and nothing seems possible. Between February 26 when Jupiter got involved and March 10 when the Sun conjuncts Neptune would be a good time for some deep reflection on where all this confusion has delivered us. Was anything learned? Most important might be to take the temperature of our longings, our sense of devotion and our addictions. The challenging relationship between our habitual behaviors and our longing to awaken might be as old as time itself. 

March 3
Venus sextile Uranus
Mars enter Gemini
These times are more easily navigated when we see the world as if it is as alive and in a process of becoming, the way we would see a lover, a mystery. Over the next six weeks while Mars sojourns in Gemini we will need sharp eyes, wit and the nimble steps of a juggler not to get caught by the unreliable tricksters who will, no doubt, show up.

March 4
Mercury conjunct Jupiter
Good ideas are seeds. They do best when they fall on fertile ground. Some cultivation helps. At the moment they are falling and flying like pollen. Which ones will you nourish?

March 10
Sun conjunct Neptune
Today could be considered a kind of birthday for Neptune, if planets have such things. Here’s hoping it is the end of much too much confusion and the beginning of clarity. We might acknowledge our longings, all of them, in honor of Neptune, knowing that each and every one is a longing for oneness and therefore only human. For some, longing is the road to bliss which opens us to a fully lived life. The Full Catastrophe  as it has been referred to. For others, longing can be an unbearable feeling which takes us down the road of addiction, craving and despair: A long and winding road that one day, in this life or another will connect to that other road, enabling us to understand simple and profound truths such as that nowhere in this world is there someone more or less deserving of love and compassion than you, or me for that matter.

March 11
New Moon: 23 degrees of Pisces: 5:21 AM EST
Venus conjunct Neptune
Every New Moon is a new beginning, a promise for a reset, a possibility for the kind of forgiveness that bows to the difficulties of simply being human and moves on. And so we make intention to do our best with what we’ve got. This one in Pisces calls for stillness and contemplation.

March 15
Mercury enters Pisces
The more we pause and ask ourselves what we just heard and how it makes us feel, the smarter we become. To allow our mind to connect with our feelings is like breathing under water.

March 16 - 18
Sun sextile Pluto
Venus sextile Pluto
As Venus catches up to the Sun they become one for a while. This lasts till the end of the month. The Sun catches planets in its fiery brilliance and they cannot be seen by those of us here in the realm of the ‘below’. By this process Venus is energized but not quite able to act on her own. She is fused or infused with the Sun’s agenda. As they aspect Pluto we might ask ourselves if we are ready, already to take responsibility for the radical transformation of values we are experiencing as reality tilts. Which isn’t to suggest that you wear the hair shirt.

See you Next Month!

Insights for the Month of Aquarius

A Mercury Retrograde month: Get aligned!

January / February 2021

January 19
Sun enters Aquarius: 3:39 PM EST:
Aquarius puts us at the middle of the season, be it winter or summer (in the southern hemisphere). Middles are times when energy is at its greatest concentration. Snows are deepest here in the north. Winds blow cold. It may be the dead of winter but if you pay attention to the sky you will notice from the start of Aquarius to the finish that the days are lengthening. The Sun, born anew at the solstice, is growing as it appears to climb higher in the sky each and every day. This is why Aquarius is the sign of our ideals, our hopes and dreams for a better world.
Of course there is always a flip side to consider, a shadow.
Aquarius has an ancient ruler, Saturn, and a modern ruler, Uranus. The most major aspect of 2021 is the square (tension) between these two planets. Saturn wants us to get the system working, to have a plan, but Uranus reminds us again and again that the old mechanisms for that are broken or breaking. It demands, from the sign of Taurus, that we pay attention to the natural world as we organize our thinking. Forget the ‘top-down’ theories of existence. And ‘doing things the way we always have’ isn’t really working either. The realities of the actual circumstances including climate change (which includes pandemic) and a world economy in radical transition must be acknowledged and respected rather than dominated and controlled. Sounds easier than it seems to be.
Maybe at the beginning of the Aquarius season we might ask ourselves what exactly we do and don’t expect from the Age of Aquarius. We have stepped into an alternate reality, to be sure. There is no going back which is also certain. To inspect our hopes and fears is a good idea on this first day of Aquarius and throughout the month. There are those who comfort themselves with the thought that more or less, it’s always been like this on planet earth. Astrologically we know that any particular pattern only repeats itself every 24 – 26,000 years. I cannot remember what it was like back then. 

January 23
Mars square Jupiter
Venus sextile Neptune
It’s hard to know exactly what to be afraid of in the midst of so much change and so little leadership. Distrust of who and what is ‘out there’ erodes our sense of security. We are overrun with expert opinions but rarely do we hear a clear voice speaking in a way that seems trustworthy. Although a sense of confusion continues underlie the crises and chaos swirling around the world, fear seems to be random and not that useful. Maybe we need to look at ‘fear itself’. In a world so full of fear and doubt it is still possible to find a thread with which to navigate the labyrinth. In stillness and with focus on what matters here and now we wend our way. Even when the path is not clear or well-marked we are on it, simply by virtue of the fact that we are alive. 

January 25
Sun sextile Chiron
Every chance you get to step back into awareness and away from reactivity, to widen your view, benefits someone.

January 26
Sun square Uranus
North node square Neptune
If you want to point (and blame) the sky for what’s going on beneath it, today is your day! Although I don’t imagine the sky is listening. It’s certain the planets cannot change their courses. Neptune and the Nodes have been all about confusion over the last year: much doubt and wrong-headed conviction. Today is their last exact square for years to come (their effects will continue to be felt for a while however). We might be tempted to quote the bard: “What fools these mortals be” seems appropriate or maybe “Methinks I was enamored of an ass”. We all know who that ass was and although you may not have been personally enamored of him we are and will continue to deal with the fallout of those who were and are still under his thrall.
Amidst outrageous change we naturally look for something in which to believe or have faith in. However, during times like these our gods, so to say, shapeshift. Our metaphors adjust. There is much benefit in witnessing change at this moment. Beware the temptation to hold on to worn-out ways of thinking or to believe you know exactly how to forge ahead as if you know it all. You don’t.

January 28
Full Moon: 09 degrees Leo: 02:16 PM EST
Venus conjunct Pluto
Sun conjunct Jupiter
We cannot help but see possibilities arising from shards of broken dreams. It’s what humans do. Although we can choose not to look. A sorry choice, driven by fear rather than acceptance, awareness and creativity. Although this is not easy, somehow it is real.

January 30
Mercury stationery retrograde in Aquarius
This is the first of three Mercury retrograde periods in 2021, all in air signs. Air reminds us to think, to communicate and to step back and gather perspective and, as much as possible to do it together. Listen to the wind blowing through the collective. You are more than a data point. 

February 1
Sun square Mars
Venus enters Aquarius
If you’re feeling caught between a rock and a hard place or maybe between maintaining your lifestyle and the possibility of extinction or just plain old this and/or that, take a breath, let it go. Do it again. Drop your shoulders. In fact, drop down into your body as you continue to breathe in and out. The more present we are in the here and now the better our understanding and therefore our ability to create the future. Presence softens and strengthens everything. Here is some inspiration. 

February 6
Venus conjunct Saturn, sextile Chiron, Square Uranus
The Goddess of all that matters, of beauty and the kind of truth that beauty reveals, is hard at work. The mission of the moment requires us to facilitate changes we barely comprehend.  As we evaluate and begin to construct new systems of life support it would be good to include beauty as a necessary ingredient: soul food. Right where you’re standing. Best that you can.  

February 8
Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun
A subtle but significant message is on the wind (if you have the ears to hear).
“The mind is understood to be the space between the stars.”

February 9
Saturn sextile Chiron
You could miss this one if you weren’t paying attention. The kindness of strangers is no small thing to those who experience its blessings. It feels as good in the giving as it does in the receiving.

February 10
Mercury retrograde square Mars
Anger, when focused and applied can clarify thought and intention. Use it for the benefit of all. Store it up to be used later. Don’t let it use you.

February 11
New Moon: 23 degrees of Aquarius: 2:05 PM EST
Venus conjunct Jupiter
Today is filled with blessings. Given that both Venus and Jupiter are close enough to the Sun so as to be invisible we might say that their blessings are hidden deep in our hearts: Deep in the heart of humanity. To live with ease in uneasy times requires a kind of acceptance that does not succumb to despair. We are blessed when we align this acceptance with our powerful intention to live in a world that works. An excellent tool for this is ‘beginner’s mind’. In willing acceptance of not-knowing we open to learning new things. It’s like they say: 

February 13
Venus conjunct Mercury retrograde
Mars sextile Neptune
Make art not war. Beauty and truth live most authentically ‘in the eye of the beholder’.

The beauty of truth is that
it need not be proclaimed or believed.
It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches,
but it is what it is, …”

― Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale

February 14
Mercury retrograde conjunct Jupiter
Knowledge is a factor of wisdom but not when people spout it by rote. Know-it-alls are the enemy of reason, bandits who turn wisdom into a static, dead thing, a bulwark for dogma. Beware the pundits and pontificators but do not dismiss the truly knowledgeable. When Jupiter is in the news the factor of discernment or discrimination is always important.
Today is a day to celebrate love. It is no mere accident that this day of hearts falls in the sign of Aquarius which is the sign of friendship. Perhaps loving kindness is better than chocolate? Who can say?

February 15
Venus trine the North Node
Learn something new just because you can, maybe just for the fun of it. Curiosity did not just kill the cat!

February 17
Saturn square Uranus
The big astrological news for 2021 is this square. It is the first of three between these two heavyweights. In 2020 you might say things fell apart, many of which were overdue. ’21 asks us to pick up some pieces and at least imagine where we go from here. Of course ‘here’ is a constantly moving target. Saturn in Aquarius suggests the use of reason. There is a real possibility that we could rise collectively to our most intelligent use of information. Saturn can be stuck in the past however and rigid in its thinking. Uranus continues to show the wreckage in the natural world. Some might call it the ‘real’ world. Uranus is the agent of revelation. Climate change and the economy are two very Taurus-y realms. Uranus in Taurus doesn’t suggest stability. Nor does it promise a return to the way it was. We simply cannot resolve our global crises with the mindsets that created it. We all know this. To think collectively sounds easier than it is. Sitting in circle and listening to one another takes time. We don’t feel we have time. This is how Aquarius and Taurus challenge each other: One says, ‘theory’ the other says ‘reality’. The first hit is often the most defining. Resistance is futile. Resilience however is not. Continue to explore possibilities, remembering to ask, ‘What if?’

Insights for the Month of Capricorn

December 2020 / January 2021

December 21
Sun enters Capricorn: 5:02 AM EST:
Jupiter conjunct Saturn
(Venus inconjunct Chiron)
The Sun has made its journey into darkness and will now begin slowly to wax in light. (North of the equator of course. Down under is quite the opposite.) It’s a predictable but nonetheless magical moment for those who pay attention. As the story used to be told, at the midnight hour animals are able to speak in words we can understand. For a brief and holy moment we can all feel the stillness which permeates the world. Then music unlike anything we are used to hearing, raises us to heights of sound until, at last and for an eternity which lasts only a moment, all is quiet.
To see the sacredness of this season as well as this period in our history allows us to calm ourselves rather than lament the lack of the familiar but stressful hustle and bustle that we are conditioned and trained to expect. To offer gifts of beauty and meaning, for sure as we keep our awareness on the holy  and subtle magic of light returning. A magic which, like a lot of magic, only exists for those who turn their attention toward it. Ritual matters and many of us find ourselves face to face with only ourselves in the void of Covid isolation. What if? What if we stand at the threshold of the spacious void of Solstice and acknowledge as well as celebrate our willingness to step through into a great and challenging unknown? True, we have no choice. Rejoice! Rejoice!
(For more on the specifics of the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn you can partake of either of the following offerings: Threshold of a New Age or The Moons (and More) of 2021)

December 23
Mars square Pluto
Mercury square Chiron
Consider, if you will, the evils of unmitigated progress. How it creates a throw-away world and puts profit above people. We can, must and will do better going forward because we will learn how to focus and restrain our relentless obsessions for ‘more’ and ‘better’. If sustainability sounds like a good idea, today is a time to practice restraint or pay the high price. For those of you who have been following the Mars journey over the last 6 months today is Mars’ last aspect to the Capricorn gang.

December 25
Mercury trine Uranus
The holy day, the holiday has come. Inspired at the solstice we now, if we know how to look, can see that the days are in fact getting longer in tiny increments. (Astrology can be so north-centric). Be inspired and feel good if you made the world less of an object on your way to Christmas. She’s alive! Innovation wins the day. It’s a revolution to scale down and invite Earth Herself to your celebration. The kids get it.

December 26
Sun square Chiron
Everyone in this world, on this planet is as much of a person as you are. Each of us requires the same quality of light, heat, water, air, food and shelter as well as love if we are to flourish as we all long to do. We do not need to be martyrs to this cause. Simply honoring the enormous truth of this changes everything. It’s the starting place.

December 27
Sun trine Uranus
Innovate. Think outside the box of the traditions you are used to. We will need new traditions where we are going, more inclusive ones. Traditions that include all life. We are the ancestors of those to come.

December 29
Full Moon: 08 degrees Cancer: 10:28 PM EST

Take the long view of 2020, now that it’s ending. Where has it taken you? How have you changed? What remains the same? Full moons invite us to see, to bear witness. This one asks us to see change even if it appears as chaos. How it looks from your perch matters.

December 30
Venus square Neptune
Don’t kid yourself and don’t let anyone else kid you either. “Truth is beautiful, without doubt, but so are lies.”We want to believe, we want to believe in each other. Today we benefit from taking it slow before clicking on what seems like the best deal or the offer you can’t refuse. Too good to be true, generally is. 

January 1, 2021
Mercury sextile Neptune
A lovely aspect to begin a new year and to look at what kinds of opportunities we imagine could aid and abet our desire to step into a better world. If you are making a vision board for the New Year, dream big. Not because you will get (or not get) what you want but because our dreams nourish our actions.

January 4
Mercury conjunct Pluto
Mars leaves the shadow of its retrograde journey.
Take a look at that vision board, whether you made it from images or even just a list in point form. What kind of transformation is required? What would it take for you to dig deep into your very own circumstances in aid of change? Consider your actual dreams as metaphors or symbols of something even more real, more possible. Instead of ‘If only…” you might try ‘What if?” It’s the question of the year, maybe for the next 20.

January 6
Mars enters Taurus
Having left behind even the shadow of the retrograde period (end of July – January 4th) Mars has a new expression for us through January. It will square Jupiter and Saturn in their new home of Aquarius and conjunct Uranus. This creates a bit of a wild, even explosive picture for us. There is always a volcano that might erupt and a bomb that could detonate. Not much we can do about those things. Mars challenges us to deal with our own personal inner volcanoes, our frustrations and anger. The promise of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius is that we can be reasonable and rational. Mars shakes his fist and says something like, ‘Yeah but what about THIS?’ Reason that doesn’t take circumstance and actual conditions into account is mere disconnection. Do your best not to kick the cat or harm yourself or another with rage and frustration. It’s an excellent time to build strength and get real about cleaning up. Mars will leave Taurus but Jupiter and Saturn will remain in Aquarius. Reason will prevail, later if not sooner… You could see this period as a test or maybe a teething period for the New Year. It was not an easy birth if you think of 2020 and all it showed us as labor.

January 8
Mercury enters Aquarius
Venus enters Capricorn
Sun sextile Neptune
Mercury square Mars
A busy astrological day on the zodiacal highway. Two planets changing sign suggests a time of shifting perspectives. Reason and circumstance must each be considered. The aspects between the planets and the Sun are more about our actions and behaviors. On one hand it’s time to remember our dreams from only a week ago, on the other a maddening frustration that no one is really listening which underscores the frustration of thinking reasonably in the face of chaos. Would it be simpler just to join the fray? Probably only for one blind and reckless instant. 

January 9
Venus trine Mars
Mercury conjunct Saturn
Much good is accomplished today if or with yesterday’s shift in perspective. Having rolled up our sleeves for the tasks at hand we may if we try, see clearly into what can, can’t and must be done. That is the promise.

January 11
Mercury conjunct Jupiter
Mercury sextile Chiron
Jupiter sextile Chiron
Here is a day or even a few days to learn something about your art, whatever it is. Anything goes and all the better if you consult with a master or offer your own carefully honed wisdoms. You might call on the big question of 2021, ‘What if…?’

January 12
Mercury square Uranus
Venus square Chiron
Road blocks and challenges are to be expected as we continue to discover the extent of the mess we are in. It might seem there are too many pieces to fit together. Like Humpty Dumpty we cannot be put back together again. We will have to fashion something new from the broken bits. It’s like making a mosaic from broken dishes. 

January 13
New Moon: 23 degrees of Cancer 12:00 AM EST
Mars square Saturn
Venus trine Uranus
Today’s challenges are quite circumstantial and unnervingly real. Rising above them will not make them go away. Even so, each circumstance seems lit with possibilities for creating something entirely new from the wreckage, a worthy challenge for all. Make your intention for the New Moon month with an eye toward concrete manifestation. Trust that the possibilities are greater than you can imagine. These days require us to align with and allow for the mysterious workings of transformation. In this way we create a world of becoming where aspirations become realities. Less force, more co-creation. 

January 14
Uranus stationery direct
Sun conjunct Pluto
Keep working with the notion of transformation. Consider where it might be valuable to let go, to relax or surrender. This is not to be confused with capitulation. We cannot wave the white flag at the circumstantial realities of our world. Nothing stays the same. Even the Pyramids wear away in wind and weather. We see change most clearly in hindsight but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening in the here and now.

January 17
Jupiter square Uranus
The Titans are clashing. Which should come as no surprise although it still might be shocking. The Sore Loser must indeed vacate his position. The world is on edge. This square is not about personality however. It’s about the need and the difficulty of making rational, reasonable decisions in the midst of chaos. The global climate crises (which includes the dread disease) and a precarious economy combined and exacerbated by rampant injustice might sum it up. Both Jupiter and Uranus are revolutionaries, each a radical proponent for their cause in their own way. Jupiter can indicate a blind passion that leads to what seems to be a holy war. (Perhaps all war seems ‘holy’ in this way. Otherwise who would fight?) Uranus likes to wreck things because it is the fastest way to create change.
But each has a more noble manifestation. Jupiter, to follow the path of wisdom, to honor the teachers and the teachings of the past and to use their wisdoms to navigate the present which may seem wholly unlike the past. Uranus brings change. Creation didn’t stop with the Big Bang. It is necessary to keep creating the world anew not to simply destroy the old one. Each of us, in our own small way participates in this journey. We struggle to be wise and to live into the changes. This aspect suggests the major astrological theme of 2021. In for a penny… 

The End which is, of course, the beginning!

Insights for the Month of Sagittarius

November / December 2020

November 21
Sun enters Sagittarius: 3:40 PM EST:
Venus enters Scorpio
When we think of adventure we probably don’t imagine being cooped up at home without visitors and going out as little as possible in a world where it’s ‘always winter but never Christmas’. This seems to be the adventure of the moment for many of us. Sagittarius was not made for such enforced detention. Even so, even Sagittarius can see that for 2020 the adventure has been inside. A good question for the Sagittarius part of this year might be What have you learned so far? The south node in this sign has been an interesting reflection of the weird, wild and ever intensifying beliefs that people subscribe to, shaking the fundamental ground of perception. It’s a human thing to wrestle with the question of what is really real. How much of our reality do we create with our minds alone?
The Sun will make two main aspects this month (close together), a square to Neptune and a conjunction with the south node. These aspect underscore the questions of ‘What have we learned?’ and ‘What is (and isn’t) real?’. The word ‘education’ derives from the notion of ‘leading out’. To educate ourselves is what Sadge likes best. To hold tightly onto our opinions with dogmatic zeal is the least positive expression of this sign. Wild and difficult as this year has been, could it be that it is an education? That we are being led out of a structure, a world, an Age that no longer fits?
Venus in Scorpio is discomforting. Possibly she is reminding us how the word ‘scared’ can be rearranged to spell ‘sacred’. To make something sacred requires a sacrifice. Not in some gory, bloody Hollywood kind of way (although there is plenty of that going on in this world) but a letting go of our attachments to thinking we have all the answers, to allow for our interaction, our co-creativity with Creation or Nature or Whatever You Call It . If we want a different kind of world we must give up something to get it. Venus knows this when she transits Scorpio. 

November 22
(Mercury inconjunct Mars)
(I’m putting these aspect of the inconjunct, in parenthesis it is not a primary aspect. You cannot divide a 360 degree circle into neat packages to figure out this aspect. It’s more like a hiccup than a straightforward interaction between planets.)
When engaging a mystery, a seemingly unsolvable dilemma, it is best to cultivate patience as you sit in the seat of awareness. Change will, can and must come. Anytime, all the time. It is the only constant. 

November 23
Mercury trine Neptune
Share your most profound, deeply felt, unprovable thoughts with someone who is interested, someone who gets you. It’s quite possible that this particular ‘someone’ lives deep inside you in which case journaling would be a good idea. We are connected by so many invisible threads.

November 25
(Venus inconjunct Chiron)
What if each and every one of our lives is an initiation? What if this is also true of our collective life as a species or even just as a life form? What if we are always becoming, never meant to arrive? What  if the requirement is to offer ourselves to the processes that are unfolding in time? What if…? 

November 26
Sun trine Chiron
And what if our willingness to surrender ourselves fully to that initiatory journey which never stops, shows us everything? We may be melting like candles but we are shedding light as we go. Especially as we travel the dark road to the New Year to come.

November 27
Mercury sextile Pluto
Venus opposite Uranus
“History, mystery, legacy, destiny” : something to ponder, a mantra, a prayer of layers of human experience. As you ponder this see if you can move back and forth between the personal as well as the collective experience of these things. They say that we, each of us, carries the last five generations of our ancestors into every moment of our lives. Inevitably we come to the issue of healing and the need for radical shift regarding our priorities. What is real and worthy of our attention, our intention and our commitment? 

November 28
Neptune stationery direct
Mercury sextile Jupiter
The waves continue to break, pounding the shore. Much, what seems like too much, washes up. In the light of our reflections what do you think can be done to make a beginning out of so much ending?

November 29
(Sun inconjunct Uranus)
Today is not necessarily one for reconciliation. Today is time to register the shocking awareness of how far apart we humans have grown from each other as well as nature: To recognize the challenge, to begin to believe that reconciliation can, will and must happen. 

November 30
Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse: 08 degrees Gemini: 4:30 AM EST
Mercury sextile Saturn
‘Mystery, destiny’. What can you do with these big ideas? How can you wrestle them into a shape you might understand? Write a poem about a door. How it looks, where it leads and why you want to open it. Then, walk through.

Astrologers fear eclipses but like everything else in astrology, eclipses don’t create events, they don’t make things happen. They simply, profoundly, powerfully reflect what is happening. We are awash in lies and T.M.I. (too much information) about everything along with too little knowledge or understanding. It is what it is. The eclipse asks us to grapple with the problem. Asking the question is a kind of poem in and of itself. 

December 1
Mercury enters Sagittarius
Time for visioning, for looking toward the horizon and considering the farther shore. Mercury is at a disadvantage in Sagittarius as it opposes it’s home place in Gemini. But only if you insist on pinning its wings. To think freely, to play without agenda in the world of big ideas leads to all sorts of breakthroughs. It is also an invitation for scoundrels to spin us into thinking things are not what they seem. We’ve all probably had enough of that by now but most horrifying is our understandable discomfort with the idea that one man’s scoundrel is another’s hero. It’s not that simple, of course but it is very difficult when there is no point of reference. Mercury in Sagittarius won’t make that easier.

December 4
Mercury trine Chiron
None of us get wiser for or by ourselves. We need all of us and some of us to stir the embers of our sense of possibility so they become flames of change. “What if?”  is still the question. 

December 5
Venus trine Neptune
The greatest moments are when we let go of separateness and trust that we are all one in the Great Soul of Nature that infuses the entire Universe. Allowing ourselves to feel that we belong here, along with everyone else is the fulfillment of our most poignant longings, even if our ability to feel this is fleeting and momentary.

December 6
(Venus inconjunct Mars
Mercury inconjunct Uranus)
Make necessary adjustments. If one way doesn’t work, try another. Sometimes, all you can do is fiddle with the dials.

December 9
Sun square Neptune
It’s a bad day when we confuse unrequited hunger with the soul’s true longing. Those are the days we drink too much or clobber our awareness with distractions until we are in a stupor. The line of least resistance leads straight to a hangover.

December 10
Venus sextile Pluto
The waning of the year, like the waning of the moon, is a time when mystery permeates everything, if you allow yourself to watch and listen for it. Having collectively lost our belief in life’s mysteries we are in the habit of creating excessive activity (not just for the children) which actually creates a false sense of mystery based on our expectations that getting what we think we want will make us happy. This distracts us from our fear of the dark. This year, unlike other years, we are collectively called to a  more contemplative holiday season. Magic is afoot when mystery blankets the land.

(I apologize to those who live in the southern hemisphere. Although your natural surrounding reality is quite different in that you are celebrating maximum light at this time it is still true that you celebrate the end of the year and the coming of the new one at this time. The traditions of the northern hemisphere have come with your ancestors as they colonized the lands on which you live. If I lived down there I would most definitely factor that into my reading of the symbols of astrology which is a very northern hemisphere construct!) 

December 11
Sun trine Mars and conjunct the Moon’s South Node
There is much to say about the ‘eclipse season’ (between a lunar eclipse and a solar one) we are in which is related to the Moon’s nodes. Add a bit of Mars and fire is the thing:
Fire burns even as it illuminates. Fire dances even as it consumes. Fire is the gift that allows us to cook, to purify, to see in the dark. Use what fire you have and use it with care. A good time to respectfully offer things to the fire that feed creativity. 

December 13
Mercury square Neptune
Whatever confuses you (and hopefully you know when the fog of confusion descends upon your perception), just wait and the fog will lift. Maybe there is a purpose to misunderstanding or even our propensity for deception. Maybe it’s just something we pass through, a fact of nature. Today is a poem. It will need to be seriously edited later this week. Today is a dream, possibly someone else’s memory drifting through your consciousness.

     Imagine you are walking along, maybe by the lake or the ocean. Maybe it’s raining. Lightly. Misting.           Suddenly or gradually you realize you are lost. Nothing looks familiar. Possibly you are dreaming but         you can’t seem to wake up. Maybe you have wandered into some else’s dream or memory but you           cannot be sure. Don’t panic. Be interested. Be curious. Be still. But don’t judge what is real or true.           Not today.

December 14
Solar Eclipse, New Moon: 23 degrees of Gemini 11:17 AM EST
Venus sextile Jupiter
Mercury trine Mars
The chaos is deafening at times. Our ability to trust what we are told is seriously eroded. Even our own thoughts, if we are honest, are not necessarily to be believed in this age of mind manipulation. How could we set an intention (for the New Moon) amidst such a froth? All is not lost. We are ever so close to a real shift (although most likely not a blinding flash of illumination). This is how it feels to be on the cusp of change.
Venus says: Look for every opportunity to love, to find beauty in this world. Nature is alive, intelligent and everywhere. She responds to our will, which is to say, our intention.
Mercury says: Let your vision for the future inspire an action. One small or not so small action, one that anchors your intention for a better, more beautiful world.

December 15
Venus sextile Saturn
Venus enters Sagittarius
Chiron stationery direct
It’s like dominoes. First Venus, then Saturn, then Jupiter, Mercury and even the Sun are all changing signs over the next week. Changing signs is akin to shifting perspective, reading from a new script, a kind of initiation. And it’s all the more meaningful as it is happening around the winter solstice which is a time to celebrate the birth of the Sun and the slow and subtle increase of light here in the Northern Hemisphere. What is your threshold? What calls you from the other side of the gate? Can you even let yourself acknowledge that you are here? Initiation requires that we let go and leave something on this side of the door so we can move through what looks like a tight spot to enter a new place. First you must see the door.

This initiation is collective, not simply a matter of your own rebirth or even that of your near and dear. This feels bigger than usual, beyond our inclination to gift those we love with things. This is a time when Earth and all her manifest life forms are dying into rebirth. Possibly a New Age. But it’s not a movie. It takes longer and it cannot be turned off. Don’t expect rainbows (although there will be some, somewhere). Don’t expect anything. Just show up for the change. 

December 17
Saturn enters Aquarius
The last time Saturn was in Aquarius was between 1991 and 1993. Aquarius is all about knowledge. The keywords for this sign are ‘I know’. But Aquarius is also about will. It is a ‘fixed’ sign (occurs in the middle of the season) and signifies a time when we are meant to reach beyond our grasp, use our knowledge which is to say our ideals and aim for the possibilities.
You might say that everything was different the last time Saturn was there. In truth it was just after the biggest oil spill in  history  which happened when Saturn was in Capricorn. It was a significant ‘no turning back’ event for environmental crisis. Here we are again. More important than looking back at this moment (although it is fascinating) is to look ahead. In a couple of days Jupiter will also enter Aquarius to exactly conjunct Saturn on the 21st..This is considered to be a ‘Great Conjunction’ and the beginning of a new series that hasn’t been seen for over 800 years. Things were definitely different 800 years ago. It was the time of the Black Plague which rings a bell for our current pandemic. For now, for us what’s important is to lean into our shifting, rattling, unpredictable, troubled world and con(with) sider(star) where you would like most to turn your attention. Choosing where to focus our attention is one of the few choices we can make. Over these next two year as Saturn journeys through Aquarius we will learn over and over again how much our attention creates our intention and therefore the world.

December 19
Jupiter enters Aquarius
Venus trine Chiron
Sun conjunct Mercury
As we step even further away from the ‘Century of the Self’ (the 20th century) we take and yet another step into the age of Aquarius which is to say the age of collectivity. One thing for sure is that the issue of trauma is not an individual thing. ‘My’ trauma is not really separate from anyone else’s. To be alive is to suffer, sooner or later, but to bear it collectively is an awesome way to lighten the load and move forward. As we learn to do that things will become easier for the ones who follow and not just for the fortunate few who can afford therapy.
Jupiter is here to remind us over the next year that these kinds of things must somehow become part of our ideology, our laws, our systems of government and of civilization, assuming that we intend to continue the course of civilizing our instincts so we don’t completely wreck the joint.
And even, just for today we might find some way to honor this process. It’s not easy for individuals to shift from me to we. But ‘this the season and it is an idea whose time is coming.

December 20
Mercury enters Capricorn
Here, on the last full day of Sagittarius the Sun rises and sets low in the sky, offering us the least of its light (here in the North). We should pause. Even if you live near the equator or down under you could take a moment in honor of the cosmic shift that is happening in the ‘above’. Christmas is coming, so are many other things. This is a time of traditions. Consider yourself an ancestor, one of many creators of a new set of traditions for your descendants: Traditions based not on charity but on commonality. This world is not so much broken although it seems so at the moment, as it is transforming. Changing. We need to sail into that wind not turn our backs.
Mercury is the winged messenger. the god of words and thoughts. Words are windows to other worlds and thoughts have wings. Capricorn is astrology’s reminder that we all reap what we sow. 

Insights for the Month of Scorpio

October / November 2020

October 22
Sun enters Scorpio: 7:00 PM EDT
Mercury inconjunct Chiron

Before us lies eternity; our souls
Are love, and a continual farewell.

Ephemera by W.B. Yeats 

Scorpio, the sign of mystery and shadow, reminding us always that what is, will change. All will be eventually lost and out of this inevitable loss will come new things or old things, transformed. Scorpio reminds us that all we hate and fear is inside us as well as outside in what we perceive of as the world. In Libra we fight injustice, in Scorpio we cook, we wait, we feel. We harness the powers of nature in the hopes of using them (eventually) to build a better world. Or not. When Scorpio serves the self alone it twists and turns itself into its own shadow. It aligns with the kind of evil that arises when we project our negative feelings on to others rather than feeling them for ourselves. This inclination toward projection lies at the root of all systemic imbalances: racism, sexism, classism to name a few. Scorpio is at its best when we surrender ourselves to the forces of change (and to our feelings about them); when we accept the path of initiation which is not at all the same as blind faith. Scorpio is not about faith, it’s about process. The process of transformation.
This particular year, as the Sun travels through Scorpio it will meet up with Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune and of course Mercury retrograde. It will even tangle with Mars, accentuating the tension with Pluto which is to say, activating fear and the possibilities of greater violence. There is much that needs to change in our world. How and into what is the Great Mystery as well as the struggle which we need to respect and investigate.
Mercury and Chiron remind us that things don’t have to add up to be worth contemplation.

October 24
Venus trine Saturn
If it matters to you, it is worth the effort; especially if it contributes to sustainable solutions for our small and ever shrinking planet.  Think of your small contribution as practice. A drop in the ocean of workable change.

October 25
Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde: 2:39 PM EDT
Mercury conjuncts the Sun six times a year: three when it’s retrograde and three when it’s direct. The message is simple: For those who have the ears to hear: Listen, really listen to the messages from the deep (because the conjunction is in the sign of Scorpio). Which is to say, listen to your feelings; the good, the bad and the ugly. Listen deeply with your ear to the ground. Hear the swish and splash of feelings and undercurrents. They are clues to our individual and collective transformation.
After this conjunction Mercury finds itself on the morning side of the Sun where it is said to be less melancholic, more sanguine.

October 27
Mercury (retrograde) re-enters Libra
Venus enters Libra
Two planets enter the same sign on the same day from opposite ends: Mercury returns to Libra from the Scorpio side and Venus is just beginning from the Virgo side. We are asking Libra questions: What has happened to the notion of justice for all? Why is the playing field so uneven? It’s not enough to offer help – real justice only comes when we also stop causing harm. It’s Libra’s job to safeguard the rules of engagement.

October 28
Sun inconjunct Chiron
Inconjuncts are minor aspects, not evenly divisible through a circle. Easily dismissed. There are quite a few this month. This one between Scorpio and Aries is interesting because these signs share an affinity when it comes to aggression which we are all too aware of at the moment. Scorpio  manipulates, Mars attacks. The bullies are attempting to train the rest of us to be so fearful we cannot act. Of course one person’s bullies are another person’s champions. Here we have a possibility to inspect the value, the wisdom, the potential that arises even when fear is the motivator.

“Stand still” the poet advises.
Learn from the things that are already in the place where you wish you were not.
Hello to the fear of fear. Hello to here.

From ‘In the shelter’ by Padraig O Tuama

October 31
Full Moon: 08 degrees Taurus: 10:49 AM EDT
Sun opposite Uranus
Some say that Halloween is the most powerful day of the year as it marks the threshold between days of light and dark. It reminds us we are headed into the dark time.
Of course the world has opened up since the days when these rituals originated. We are aware that quite the opposite situation is unfolding in the southern hemisphere. In our times we must needs live with paradox and ambiguity. And so we dress up and we dress the children up in celebration of the dead; in acknowledgment of the other world to which, sooner or later, we all must come. Even worse is the reality that all those we love and cherish will also find their way there. We can be miserable about such things or we can celebrate and honor the inevitable turn of the wheel and all those who have gone before us. This year our celebrations are meant to awaken all sorts of revelations: with our masks ON!

Although the wind

blows terribly here,

the moonlight also leaks

between the roof planks

of this ruined house.

Izumi Shikibu a Japanese Buddhist poetess from the 11th century. (Women in Praise of the Sacred edited and translated by Jane Hirschfield and Martha Aratani)

November 1
Mercury square Saturn
Venus opposite Chiron
No matter what the outcome is of the farce going on as the empire crumbles, no matter if it causes us to be anxious and steals our sleep, it still remains that true justice requires a more level playing field for all. It’s not about caring for the needy as much as it’s about rectifying the imbalances which create that neediness.  There is benefit in making effort to understand the circumstance before charging ahead to fix it. A little research goes a long way.

November 2
Mercury stationery direct
Venus inconjunct Uranus
We all want to know who won, who wins but, really? Was it even an election? Did it abide by the rules of a free and fair one? Of course the question is and will continue to be, Now what? In the chaos leading to this day we the people (of the world) have had to lower our expectations. As Mercury goes direct in Libra, think back, if you can, to October 25th and whatever deep knowing you might have had around that time. Measure it against today’s expectations. Whether they seem too high or too low for such chaotic times, today we do well to adjust them to fit a world that is falling fast and hard into change that must and will come. 

November 6
Mercury square Saturn (again)
This theme of measured expectation that started on the 1st continues. Say what you must but before speaking, pause. Consider the effects your words may cause. There is nothing gained by attempting to bend ideas to make sense of things that don’t make sense. You could say that Mercury looks to Saturn for the kind of restraint that allows reason to overcome fear. Think twice before you hit ‘send’.

November 7
Sun inconjunct Mars
We can’t swallow it and we can’t spit it out. There is no agreement on who has the last word. Possibly this goes back to the opposition on October 13th. The issue remains. Actions arising from gut level instinct can be destructive and hurtful. We recognize this even as we watch reasonable people be manipulated to take drastically unreasonable action. Things unfold. If we can bring reason to bear we might release the impasse.

November 9
Venus opposite Mars
Along comes reason. We have been waiting for her. She knows how to find balance but she must deal with aggression and the ever-present precedent of bullying which has become the norm. Where in your own life do you sit in this clash of desires between the ‘yes/and’ of Venus and the ‘no way’ of Mars?

November 10
Sun trine Neptune
Mercury enter Scorpio
Great Mysteries never really change through time, only how we speak of them. The different stories we tell about them reflect culture, not truth. At the root or core of all these great mysteries is the inarticulate knowledge that joy and sorrow, happiness and suffering are present in all lives.

November 11
Venus inconjunct Neptune
There is art and there is beauty. Sometimes they combine in ways that make us feel intensely, that open us to other worlds, inner and outer. Other times the soul jangles and can only wait for integration.

November 12
Jupiter conjunct Pluto
You might need to put on your astrological thinking cap for this one.
Looking back: Jupiter conjunct Pluto has happened twice already (April 4th and June 30th). This last conjunction is, interestingly at the exact degree of the Saturn Pluto conjunction in January that you might think of as the astrological beginning of the current global mess, the signature of 2020.
Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and has consistently ever since been showing us (whether we want to see it or not) that the scaffolding, the root, the infrastructure of our civilization, is not holding. Reach back and see if you can remember your early introduction to the Covid crisis. Consider how your awareness has grown and how that has changed your world; how you are grappling with things you can and can’t change. Jupiter in Capricorn is about what’s worth keeping maybe what’s worth salvaging from the changes. You may wish for the serenity that would allow you to accept what you cannot change and the courage to change what you can change.
Then again, you may feel more inclined to no longer accept the things you cannot change but to change the things you cannot accept.
Either one will take you to the essence of Jupiter/Pluto. Throughout this year Mars and Jupiter have been taunting each other as they station (appear to stand still) squaring the sensitive points of the other planet. Anything involving Jupiter at this point carries Mars with it. And of course there is one more square from Mars to Pluto and Jupiter to come. Sometimes people let me know that ‘nothing happened’ on the day that an astrological configuration was exact. We don’t actually need explosions and specific events to understand that this is the picture of what is happening all around us quite consistently, these days. 

November 13
Mars stationery direct
If you’ve noticed Mars in the night sky you can see that it’s red, like blood. That’s how the ancients saw it: A blob of blood in the night sky. Blood belongs inside the body where it can’t be seen so Mars became the portend of war and wounds. But they were also aware that blood is present at birth which is how each and every one of us arrives on this planet. Mothers, women bleed regularly and this is connected to life: A different kind of blood, shed in the birthing of babies. We love babies, we want to protect them. We instinctively believe in goodness of life.  As Mars moves on, retracing the steps of its retrograde journey, we are called more into action. Which blood inspires you? If you’re aligned with the blood of birth now is a time to aim yourself at the goodness of life and the potential to birth a new way of living. If you’re aligned with the other kind of blood, the kind we shed when wounded you are either a healer or a killer. See what you can do. We all need to move forward from here with the best we have to offer and integrate it amidst the chaos and crises. Keep the kids on track, object to the abuses of power. 

November 14
Sun sextile Pluto and Jupiter
In the belly of the beast what might the main character in your story do? It’s dark in there, mysterious. Nothing is happening outwardly but so much, so very much is going on in the depths.

November 15
New Moon: 23 degrees of Taurus  12:07 AM EST
Mercury inconjunct Chiron (again)
Venus square Pluto
Here in the midst of the season, as we watch the struggle for a regime change, for a peaceful transfer of power we can’t help but see how far we have fallen from the ideal we thought we were living. At a time when fear and mistrust is at a peak, there must be something else to focus on. Always there is the present moment. The taste and texture of presence allows us to still the riot of sensory input as well as the spinning mind. Out of presence we make intention, the kind that speaks true.

November 16
Venus square Jupiter
Too much of nothing is still nothing. Don’t be fooled by empty promises or even empty calories for that matter. These kinds of nothing can be harmful.

November 17
Mercury opposite Uranus
Once before Mercury went retrograde (October 7), once during the retrograde (October 19) and, once after the retrograde (today) as Mercury completes the shadow of its recent retrograde journey. To quote myself: (from the other two times)

“our deepest secrets often reveal our shared humanity with those we would prefer not to have things          in common with. The greatest danger by far is  not knowing this. … as we dredge thoughts from our          collective and individual past we are meant to test them against how things are, not how they were.          Denial is not a great option. … and: There is much in the chaos of these days we don’t yet see or              understand. To feel deeply into our reactions before we turn them into actions could be the most                useful strategy.

As I write this, US election day has not yet happened. What I know is that I am observing the collective problem of dealing with a bully, a would-be dictator. I’m horrified and fascinated that people give over their power to such a one. Predicting mayhem only stirs fear and adds to the sense of powerlessness. Scorpio always works best by first turning inward. In opposition the issue is always: What really matters? Matter is the stuff out of which we make our lives. Yes I fear loss, I fear change but I also see the value in challenging my sense of what truly matters. 

November 19
Sun sextile Saturn
Venus square Saturn
As Saturn moves toward the end of its considerably defining time in Capricorn* it has some reckonings to contend with. Today is a particularly good day to consider all that has been lost against the backdrop of the boundless opportunities for transformation that lie ahead. Once a struggle ends, especially the struggle of denial of things real, it is difficult to tell who was on which side. In this way the old style of justice is undermined. Truth and reconciliation seems to offer a better way to achieve justice. Given that you, most likely, don’t rule ‘the’ world, how might your small corner of the world benefit from your willingness to accept things as they are, not as they were or as you wish them to be?

*It entered Capricorn in December of 2017, but didn’t catch up to Pluto until January of 2020. So much has happened since then…

THE END for now… 

Insights for the Month of Libra

September / October 2020

 A Mercury retrograde month: Alignment is possible.

September 22
Sun enters Libra: 9:31 AM EDT:
Libra has a lot of work to do this year. As the month unfolds the Sun in this sign will aggravate and challenge Saturn, Jupiter Pluto and Mars. Libra is where we define the rules of engagement. Libra invented them! Here we consider things such as what is fair and just. It has a lot to do with politics in the wider social sense as well as the up-close and personal sense. How do we talk to each other? Fight with each other? Do we engage as adversaries or advocates? Are we competitive or cooperative? These are big questions for the month of Libra. I think we’ll get a good look at how civilized we actually are as we watch the veneer of our social structures continue to crack and break in so many places. Pay attention on the days that the Sun makes aspects. We are in the process of leaving old and broken systems but we haven’t quite stepped into the new ones just yet. Consider the possibility that listening is a container for empathy. Libra is the sign of active listening.

September 23
Mercury square Saturn
Don’t bother rehearsing the brilliant conversation you’re going to have with whoever is taking up time in your mind at the moment. Real life will not conform to your imaginings. The more present we are to our actual circumstance the more valuable the discussion about them can be.  

September 24
Mercury opposite Mars
The plot thickens and the dialogue heats up. It’s still true that the imagined or anticipated conversation going on in your mind will not resolve the issues. Heated debate does not become violent if we remember and act as though the other person is as human as we are.

September 27
Mercury enters Scorpio
While Mercury is here we do well to allow our feeling to communicate with and through us. Feelings are always true but they are often not real in the sense that they arise more out of the past than the present. Where Scorpio is concerned it is always beneficial to scrutinize our feelings before acting on them.

September 28
Venus trine Mars
A passionate moment amidst a sea of contention. If we could change the world most of us surely would. Possibly, the least we can do is to choose our actions which may seem like a small thing but does effect change. A good day to guide our passions with a love, big as the sky, including all beings under that sky. No exceptions.

September 29
Saturn stationery direct
Sun opposite Chiron
Mars square Saturn (last time was first day of Republican national convention. Aug. 23 – pronouncements… )  
If there are culminating moments that one can see from observing the heavens, this might surely be one of them. In a year when so many cracks in so many of our social systems are letting the light of awareness of how much trouble we’re actually in come through, we feel the enormous task that lies ahead. It may seem impossible and daunting. The myth of freedom, even for the young ones, cannot be disconnected from the damage done and the responsibility which humans have for dealing with it, here and now. Overwhelming and discouraging as this may be at the moment, it is just a moment, a particular turn in the road. Necessary to be sure. The mother, giving birth cannot walk away from the process in the midst of the worst pain. The frustrations and fears of the moment remind us to make the good choice, not just for me but for the good of all.

October 1
Full Moon: 09 degrees Aries: 05:05 PM EDT
The ‘art’ of social distancing has changed our social realty. How we spend time and who we spend it with is not what it was a year ago. Look around, test the threads of connection. Open the door to healthy debate and discussion. Diplomacy begins at home.  

October 2
Venus enters Virgo
The Goddess of Fierce Compassion appears on our stage of life. How does she appear to you? She is called by many names. However you perceive her, do not turn your back on her. She is us. Those of us who allow her power to flow through can make change where only recently it seemed impossible.

October 4
Pluto stationery, direct
Today Pluto, literally, appears to make a stand. Another reckoning with the cracks and the sense that we are falling apart. Or is this what coming together looks like? Mars will aspect Pluto on the 9th. These aspects are more an indication that we are in a season of deep transformation and the chaos that accompanies it, rather than a day here or there. The world is fraught with protest. Some are willing to die and some to kill. Some are caught in the struggle by chance, others by design. Some try to calm, others to inflame. All of us are effected, affected, involved, touched. Don’t kid yourself. There is no vantage point from which to observe. Pluto renovates from the ground up and from the inside out.

October 7
Mercury opposite Uranus
What we think of as our deepest secrets often reveal our shared humanity with those we would prefer not to have things in common with. The greatest danger by far is  not knowing this. Mercury in Scorpio dredges up thoughts from the deep past and Uranus is meant to test them against how things are, not how they were. Denial is not a great option.

October 9
Mars square Pluto
What’s festering around your life these days? What needs cleaning up, cleaning out? Be it your basement or the remnants of past trauma or karma, tackling it by the light of day can help shape it into something you can handle. At night and from the shadows things often become distorted. Such is the stuff of our dreams (and nightmares). 

October 10
Venus trine Uranus
The fierce and focused desire for change is not without its disruptions – but worthy nevertheless. It can be revolutionary to tackle what matters.

October 11
Sun square Jupiter
The overwhelming desire to point, blame and punish is best corralled when tempered with reason. The impulse for confrontation is strong and pervasive this week. There is always a third alternative.

October 12
Jupiter sextile Neptune
Venus sextile Mercury
If you’re looking for the Pearl of Great Price or even the ruby, the gem in the rubble, so to say, today is just that. Think of this day as a priceless gem, adrift in a shamble of broken dreams and aggressive behaviors. What will you do with it?

October 13
Sun opposite Mars
Mercury stationery retrograde 
Yesterday’s gem does not eliminate today’s challenges. If we don’t question the way things are, we live in a dream of how things were or how they could be. Look what you can in the eye then take the measure of how you feel about it. It’s the dialogue, even the debate between passion and reason that keeps us on our toes.

October 15
Sun square Pluto

Fear is the mind killer
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. 

Depending on our circumstances we seem to fear different things but when fear is the lowest common denominator we are in a kind of danger that affects us all in similar ways. We are susceptible and vulnerable to projection and aggression, against others as well as ourselves. 

October 16
New Moon: 23 degrees of Aries  03:31 PM EDT
Knowing what you know about fear and projection, what kind of intention will allow you to engage with others to bring a more just and equitable world into being? Should you donate or protest? Should you volunteer or run for office? Should you pray? Could you write letters or maybe just listen more fully to those you encounter in the course of your day? 

October 18
Sun square Saturn
Venus opposite Neptune
Frustrations and disappointments are a dime a dozen as individuals cope with harsh circumstance as well as inadequate leadership. For some that means turning our backs and withholding our energies. For others it’s a call to action, a time to get involved. Today is a good day to consider options from all available perspectives. Sooner or later, clouds part and the sun shines through.

October 19
Mars square Jupiter
Venus trine Jupiter
Mercury retrograde opposite Uranus
The planets of desire (Mars and Venus) are at it (again). Their struggle falls on the notion of righteousness. Mars wants to destroy the entire mess (the last time it squared Jupiter was the explosion in Beirut (remember that?) ) Venus wants to preserve the good, the essentials, and strengthen what remains. Nothing adds up. There is much in the chaos of these days we don’t yet see or understand. To feel deeply into our reactions before we turn them into actions could be the most useful strategy. If you don’t mind me repeating myself. (October 7th)

October 21
Venus trine Pluto
Wherever you are, whatever your conditions, these next few days may be time to build and strengthen the structures that hold you up. And so we prepare for Scorpio, the month when we are reminded that all things pass.

Julie

Insights for the Month of Virgo

August / September 2020

August 22
Sun enters Virgo: 11:44 AM EDT:
Virgo is sharp. Virgo is all the people who are tired of feeling like the children of lesser gods. Virgo is where the change must come. This may or may not be a specific Virgo although when they speak up and speak out they have something to say. Virgo is about the way we treat the ones who care for us be they our relatives or complete strangers. Virgo instinctively understands the necessity for diversity. That change comes from the margins and is only real if it permeates the very fabric of how we live. The small stuff. Virgo is where we understand that one thing changes and everything changes. Virgo is the enemy of hierarchy therefore has been relegated to the margins of culture over thousands of years. Virgo is a fierce sign. Not fierce in the way of that troublesome character of Mars but rather in the way of a goddess or a Great Mother who has had quite enough.
This year as the Sun moves through Virgo it will make favorable aspects to the planets in other earth signs (Capricorn and Taurus) reminding us that how we actually live on a day-to-day basis matters even if it seems overwhelming in these times of pandemic and cultural collapse. Virgo, unlike most mortals, loves all her children equally. It’s about time. 

August 24
Mars square Saturn
Maybe it’s a rock and a hard place. Maybe a circumstance that will not go away for some time. However it shows itself it requires effort and strategy. Build muscle wisely.  But build it. Don’t turn your back on responsibility or waste your time lamenting that it should not be the way it is.  

August 25
Mercury trine Uranus
Venus opposite Jupiter
Light bulbs are going on all over the world as we wake up to how things are rather than how we think they are. Justice cries out to be served and so it should even as we learn how to combine it with compassion. Forgiveness is a process, not an island in the setting sun.

August 27
Venus trine Neptune
It’s a wonderful night for a moon dance or whatever feels most romantic, mystical and deeply connects you to the All Mother.

August 29
Mercury trine Jupiter
What does optimism look like? All those good ideas that have been showing themselves about how this chaos can, will and must take us to a new kind of world. Could it be that the actual purpose of the ‘being humans’ is to make this happen, here and now? Ask yourself how you fit into these amazing times: How you can walk your talk. Starting Here! and Now!

August 30
Venus opposite Pluto
Mercury opposite Neptune 
Fear of loss is often worse than loss itself. It causes us to do terrible things. Allowing fear to infiltrate our minds leads to mistrust. Write a love poem today – to the infinite ways that loss can find you and the power of love to ultimately overcome grief and lead us to wisdom each and every time.September 1
Mercury trine Pluto
At every turn there are circumstances. Think of them, not as puzzles to be completed and put away, but as processes: The processes of lives lived. We engage circumstance from first breath to last.  

September 2
Full Moon: 10 degrees Pisces: 01:22 AM EDT
Venus opposite Saturn
Sun trine Uranus
Where do you feel the ache for those less fortunate than you? How is that changing you? As we reach into the heart of the human condition (and who could possibly be more human than you?) what is revealed? Never what we expect. 

September 3
Mercury trine Saturn
Back-to-school is nothing like it used to be. But/and there are lots of opportunities for implementing some good, solid supports today. We cannot be prepared for all eventualities but we can imagine a rhythm that resonates in our bodies that can support us as we navigate uncharted waters.

September 4
Venus square Mars
Mercury sextile Venus
In a way we all know that desire is futile. As soon as we get what we want it changes or it can’t last. Getting what we don’t want is an insult and an annoyance. But we do not stop. Desire is good for art, for discovery, for the relentless belief that we could make a better more beautiful world. So long-live desire even when it frustrates and disappoints. We love to love and will most likely not stop loving even as we long to love without attachment.

September 5
Mercury enters Libra
Leaving it’s home territory in Virgo, Mercury sets out to debate and question as it moves through Libra between now and September 27th. Every de-escalation of an argument, every vigorous discussion between different perspectives is an accomplishment.

September 6
Venus enters Leo
Planets changing signs are indications that we are changing as well. In Leo Venus burns with the fire of creative expression. Anything you love that needs expression qualifies. If you aren’t sure what your creative expression might be pay attention to the days (before, during and after) when Venus interacts with other planets, such as on the 15th when she squares Uranus. That should reveal something.

September 9
Sun trine Jupiter
Mars stationery retrograde
We all have ways of making things work. Some are more effective than others. Be honest with yourself and investigate if the way you are going about getting where you think you want to go will actually do the job. Our visions for the future are only as good as their ability to function in the present.
Mars is ready for us to face our fears so as not to terrorize each other. Over the next month or so the challenge is to figure out which of our fears are the projections of our own minds and which are warnings that we need to take action. There are other ways to imagine Mars that aren’t about war. Now would be a good time for that. 

September 10
Mercury opposite Chiron
Everyone you meet, anyone you talk with is your teacher. Avoid pontificators if possible. They will be especially annoying, distracting and aggressive at this time.  

September 11
Sun opposite Neptune
Devotion. How does it take shape for you? There is a human inclination toward it which often shows up as addiction, fanaticism or martyrdom. At best it might be a kind of rapture which increases as we give it away for the benefit of all sentient beings. Ephemeral, hard to hold on to, a great connector.  

September 12
Jupiter stationery direct
This year of ‘crumbling infrastructure’ and systemic breakdown has demanded that we look at the bare bones of how we live. What have you learned? What kind of life will you live as you step, day by day, into a future you weren’t expecting? Imagination is still a rich gift of the mind. Imagine…

September 13
Venus trine Chiron
Do not underestimate the power of beauty and creativity to heal the world.  

September 14
Sun trine Pluto
The power that leads to large scale transformation (Pluto) starts with the small stuff (Virgo) such as  the people who take care of that seemingly small stuff, the ones who clean and cook, the ones who serve. This has become painfully clear. Trans-form-ation means changing the form. We can do this because we must.

September 15
Venus square Uranus
It’s one of those days. A day when our habitual ways of expression meet the unrelenting need for real change.  There is always friction when the ‘big idea’ meets what once seemed like solid ground and now seems to be heaving beneath our feet. Resistance makes it harder. Embrace the essential creativity of chaos!

September 17
New Moon: 25 degrees of Virgo  07:00 AM EDT
Mercury square Jupiter
Sun trine Saturn
As we come to the end of Virgo we could evaluate and then align ourselves with possibilities that might actually work rather than cling stubbornly to that which we were hoping might work. Get real!

September 21
Mercury square Pluto
Here we are on the last day of a summer unlike any other. If you find yourself exhausted because you can’t filter truth from lies it’s a good day for a reckoning. Don’t believe everything you read or hear. Be willing to debate with those who don’t see it your way and as you do see if you can activate your ability to be a good listener over and above driving your point home. 

Insights for the Month of Leo

July / August 2020

July 22
Sun enters Leo: 4:36 AM EDT
Mercury sextile Uranus
I am in the habit of watching the Sun rise. Lately I see the Earth bowing, head bent, skirts collected, soft knees, less like a curtsy, more like at the end of qigong when we honor the teachers and the teachings. Her arms outstretched as She, the Earth, offers her life to Life. Maybe this is the human problem. We don’t bow to the Sun. We lack the humility that should be innate in us as a life form born of a body into a body. As the Earth makes her offerings to the Sun for the next month we do well to consider the difference between self-important, narcissistic engagement with the world (all the rage at the moment it seems) and self-confident engagement which arises out of self-esteem. What is required of a true king? Nobility, and a deep devotion in service to the people. Possibly the time of kings is coming to an end, but there will always be the Sun.
This month the Sun will encounter Chiron, Mars, Uranus Mercury and of course, as always the Moon at New and Full.
Today in particular is also a day for clever solutions. A good day to allow yourself to learn something practical. Maybe you are the 100th monkey. 

July 27
Jupiter sextile Neptune
Venus square Neptune
Mercury square Mars
Grace isn’t something you can count on. It springs up or showers down in ways and at times when we expect nothing. Often we are oblivious to it, which is why it’s so useful to cultivate a habit of gratitude. Human beings can be unaccountably mean to one another as well as kind and concerned. We are collectively riveted to horrible events, less so to the good. If we were aliens, studying these things from afar they might be fascinating. As it stands, however, we are each and every one of us challenged to awaken from the delusion that allows us to believe that life is not precious as well as to be kind, even when we are scared.

July 30
Mercury opposite Jupiter
Mercury square Neptune
Refrain if possible from harsh judgments and assumptions but don’t lose the ability to discriminate. For example it isn’t necessary to be contemptuous of people who eat KFC although you might not eat it yourself. It’s so easy to spread contempt across the things you disdain, more difficult to allow for all sorts of differences.  

July 31
Sun trine Chiron
Yesterday’s observation was based on feelings (water). Today the message might be the same bit it’s coming from the heart of wisdom – fire. 

August 1
Mercury opposite Pluto
Investigate. Take nothing and no one at face value. Which isn’t the same as not trusting. You are simply choosing to put your trust in your own ability to know what you feel. Feelings aren’t always the best guide to action but they are always true in that they are how we feel.  

August 2
Sun square Uranus
Let go of all attachments (ha!) if only for a split second. Like a blinding flash of light or a child returning home after a day of vigorous play.

August 3
Full Moon: 11 degrees Aquarius: 11:59 AM EDTMercury opposite Saturn
The sometimes full Moon rises as the always full Sun sets. Drama in the heavens: Spectacle in fact: A dance humans have been contemplating for eons. Does the Sun choose to make room for the Moon so she can illuminate the night? Has the Moon vanquished the Sun and claimed dominion over the night sky (if only for a few days)? Have they simply come to the part of the dance where one rises as the other sets? Do they miss each other but understand? The world is constantly changing. Nothing lasts forever. You tell yourself the story of what you see, based on your conditioning which becomes your perspective. As you look around and see a whole planet telling itself a story, it might be a good time to consider which story you would like to use to guide your way through the changes.

August 4
Mars square Jupiter
Mercury enters Leo
This manic struggle for progress as well as dominance exhausts us all. Where you notice an over-the-top kind of energy, see if it’s possible to turn reactions to responses and be more strategic than impulsive. Such is the challenge for the next 4 months. Think creatively, act with forethought.

August 7
Venus enters Cancer
Venus is done with Gemini and all that happened during the retrograde period (May 13 – June 25). It’s up to us to see if we can even remember what we learned about the way grief can turn to rage and how acknowledgment of that becomes determination. Consider the murder of George Floyd and all that erupted from it. There are so many ways to offer nourishment to the world: something of value. Your own way, of course.

August 9
Mercury trine Chiron
Could it be that we are meant to learn that the overt or covert violence we do to others we also do to ourselves? And conversely every act of kindness is a healing for all?

August 10
Mercury square Uranus
If you learned something yesterday, apply it today by staying connected to your heart even as the world tilts and careens down roads of chaotic change. Chaos is (just) change moving too fast.

August 13
Mars square Pluto
Today or thereabouts could be the second most tense day of August (The first being August 4th when Mars squared Jupiter). Awakening to outrage against or at those who have so mismanaged our world is painful and activates response or reaction in each one of us. Step away from the pressure cooker but not before you turn down the heat.  

August 15
Uranus stationery retrograde
We know – we all know – that change is inevitable. People grow up, grow old, die. So does everything else. Seasons change. Some call it impermanence. To have real presence, to exist in the Here! and the Now! is like standing in the middle of a flowing river, a place where movement and stillness are one. Meanwhile, humans don’t seem to like change, especially the kind they don’t think they chose. What Uranus does is turn on the lights. Some get the still point at the center of the wheel, others spin out on the rim. Same wheel.

August 16
Sun trine Mars
Venus square Chiron
“Courage is not about changing anything or grasping for some better state. It’s the valor of being truly present.” Jospeh Goldstein

August 17
Mercury trine Mars
Mercury conjunct Sun
If you were born today you would most likely have an innate ability to listen to your heart’s truest desire and have it propel your actions. For the rest of us the day offers the very same possibility, to let love itself propel our actions, if only for a fleeting moment.  

August 18
New Moon: 26 degrees of Leo  10:41 PM EDT
Venus sextile Uranus
Everywhere there is this thing called suffering which we must bear – for ourselves as well as others. On our way, back to that garden we imagine and long for we encounter endless, innumerable opportunities to alleviate this suffering in small and bigger ways. Might as well… If you’re awake after 10:41 PM even if you awaken in the night – make an affirmation to use your heart to turn your will toward love, every chance you get.

August 19
Mercury enters Virgo
Mercury is well placed in Virgo and will encourage us as it travels through Virgo to see horses not zebras Which is to say that we will understand best that which we see as it presents itself, rather than how it makes us feel or what we think it should or could be. The more practical and grounded our understanding, the better the outcome.

Insights for the Month of Cancer

A Mercury retrograde month:
Alignment is preferable to anxiety.

June / July 2020

June 20
Sun enters Cancer: 05:44 PM EDT
Mars sextile Jupiter             

https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/the-conspiracy-myth/?_page=2 Conspiracy myth: Eisenstein.

Use pictures: ladysmantle and peony, doggie flowers.

We made it to the half way mark of one of the strangest years ever. Summer begins with the longest day, here in the north, as we tilt toward the Sun. Half way through this difficult year we might explore Cancer themes from our newly acquired pandemic perspective. Cancer means one thing to those who feel secure and something quite different to those who don’t. It can indicate a creative productivity leading to nourishment for many. We are happy to give when we feel secure. When security is lacking, when productivity is impossible, when there is no hive, we feel needy. Consider the intensity of a new mother’s full breasts and her baby’s empty stomach. (Cancer is the ruler of these parts of the body.) A wailing baby is hard to ignore. The desire to feed the baby is powerful, natural. These two sides of nourishment create a lasting bond and becomes the prototype for bonding throughout a life. Dominator culture has done everything in its misguided power to sever this bond. The result being that some eat and some starve and we can’t always feel the bond between. It seems that this is a really good time to do what we can to repair this broken bond.
Don’t be afraid of the moments when you feel good. Our willingness to slow down enough to listen to all states of being opens the doors to change.

June 21
New Moon: 00 degrees of Cancer: 02:41 AM EDT
It’s kind of auspicious to have a New Moon so very close to the summer solstice. A New Moon in the first hours of summer promises a new start, possibly aimed at feeding the hungry. It’s a time worthy of real consideration regarding how you want to spend the second half of this strange year. Let your intention be about need: Paying attention to your own genuine needs (not wants) and being aware of  your ability to meet your own needs as well as others. From this kind of intention radiates good things.

June 23
Neptune stationery retrograde
So much has been lost, washed away in a flood of confusion and insecurity. If you’re willing to live with uncertainty it might at least be interesting. If you need control, go bake some bread.

June 25
Venus stationery direct
The Great Goddess of Love and beauty, having gone through her ordeal (which down here in the ‘below’ seems to have been the murder of George Floyd and the rage and grief it has let loose on our planet). She is well into her return. Look  In fact she has been returning since early June, to a changed world. As the story goes she is now ready to claim back her throne and take her rightful place. We laud her determination, her commitment. And you? What have you to claim as your rightful place, given what we have witnessed during this time of descent and return? How have your values been transformed? What’s left to want?

June 27
Mars enters Aries
Mars will be in Aries for many months as it retrogrades back and forth in its own sign. Mars is the planet of aggression, assertiveness and pure vitality: The singular self-starter. In Aries these qualities are amplified. I guess we’ll have to see how this expresses itself in the lives of humans but it’s a sure thing that we are embroiled in a moment of righteous rage about systemic brutalities in our civilization. Plain as the color of your skin, the gender of your body, the resources you do and don’t have at your fingertips. It’s a wild mess, one that must be cleaned up if we are to move along into that vague, promised land of the Age of Aquarius.

June 28
Mars sextile Saturn
Off to what could be considered a good start, Mars reminds us to consider the benefits of discipline, commitment, excellence. This aspect will only happen once in the journey of Mars through Aries. A good day to think/act strategically about how you might accomplish your goals over the next 6 months.

June 30
Jupiter conjunct Pluto
Sun square Chiron
Mercury sextile Uranus
Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde
A busy day in the ‘above’. Pay attention to possible benefits that could come from the spin cycle we have been dealing with. What have you had to let go of that you might be well rid of? If there’s change to be made, make it, but not before pausing and reflecting deeply on how the past loves to repeat itself. Consider how these changes you’re hot to make might not be changes at all if they simply repeat patterns. Then what? What really can and should be changed? Given the theme of ‘crumbling infrastructure’ that we all can see you might think less about the appearance of change and more about the fundamentals. Changes of heart or perspective matter. Change at the core changes everything.

July 1
Sun sextile Uranus
Mercury retrograde square Chiron
Saturn, retrograde, re-enters Capricorn
Everyone should have a notebook for their best ideas. Over time you could check back and see which of them were actually useful. Uranus in Taurus wants us to go forward, to make changes, to get on with it even if there is breakage in the process. Revolution is its stock and trade. Taurus is about the economy, the earth and the real world. We don’t need to look in shadowy corners to see this principle at work in our world. Saturn wants us to be cautious and change as little as possible. Saturn wants change from within the systems already in place. The tension between them will be a major factor in 2021. For now we might take and make notes for later use.

July 5
Lunar Eclipse: 13 degrees Capricorn: 12:44 AM EDT
As we survey the landscape of the first half of 2020 there is definitely some wreckage. For some it is irreparable for others it may seem more like a shift than outright change. The Full Moon encourages us to see at night, to use a different kind of vision. It shows us, if we pay attention, how to avoid tripping over tree roots or falling into the well. Take a look at (your) life. What do you see in the dark that you might not see in the harsh light of day?

July 8
Mars square Mercury retrograde
A moment of calm reflective peace will end as predictably as anything else if that state of being is based on external conditions to hold it together. Mars disturbs the peace. It’s his nature. He shows us, sometimes ruthlessly, that which refuses to get swept under the rug. 

July 10
Venus sextile Chiron
What are the happiest, healthiest possible consequences to following your bliss? If there are enough of them then you must be on a good track. 

 July 11
Chiron stationery retrograde
Chiron is not a planet. It’s not even an asteroid. I’ve heard it called a planetoid as well as a comet. Back before November of 1977 it didn’t exist for astrologers because it wasn’t visible to astronomers. When a celestial orb pops into view it also pops into consciousness. So say the astrologers. Suddenly the awareness of the wounded healer, the mentor, the shaman standing on the threshold, revealed itself. Indeed the late 1970s was a time of great innovations in healing; some better, wiser and more useful than others, to be sure. And so we take note of where Chiron is and what it’s up to in the skies. In Aries the message is to pay attention to how the wounds and traumas of individuals affect us all. Our inability to see and use our wounds as doors to wisdom and compassion makes the world a dangerous place.

July 12
Mercury stationery direct
Sun trine Neptune
We breathe a sigh of relief when Mercury goes direct, but why? What do we think is happening? Time to move on? To get going? Ideally we might have spent this retrograde period reflecting on what we have and what we have to give as well as what we do and don’t need to get. Now is a great moment to give with all you’ve got because it does indeed take a village.

July 14
Sun opposite Jupiter
Mars square Chiron
If someone judges you but they aren’t kind it generally says more about them than you. If you’re the one hurling thunderbolts, beware. Everything we do that’s hurtful we do from the wounded places. It’s fairly ineffective to think we can make the world a better place by creating more wounds in a misguided attempt to settle the score. Which isn’t to say we should not name what we see and act to change it. To acquiesce to injustice feeds the festering mess of denial. It’s just true what the grade one teacher said, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’.

July 15
Sun opposite Pluto
There is a powerful energy alive in the world: The power of the witness. S/he who sees what is, has the power to change everything. Denial has led us to terrible injustices which ultimately must erupt like lava and spew ash across the sky which seriously dims the light of the Sun. Inasmuch as we have choices this is one we could make: To see or not to see.  

July 20
New Moon: 28 degrees of Cancer
Sun opposite Saturn
Some are tired, some are chomping at the bit. All are ready to move along. It matters when the moon is new that we give real consideration to our intention regarding the path we think we’re on. What conditions do you anticipate going forward? How do you plan to deal with them? What responsibilities can, can’t and must you take on? What does it actually mean to care?

July 21
Mercury square Chiron
People say we are not all in ‘it’ together if we aren’t all affected by ‘it’ in the same way. Although it is true that some have easier, safer lives than others it is possible to acknowledge this and show awareness by easing the suffering of others. Or not. Ever since humans began to live in a hierarchical, dominator based world where some have more than others, we have had to deal with the absurd lie that we are not all here together and equally deserving of food, shelter and care as well as freedom to express ourselves. It’s a mighty struggle to pretend otherwise.  Charity is like putting a band aid on a gushing wound. As things fall apart around the world we get a chance to build a better system. It may not look possible today but 2021 puts us squarely to that test. Are you ready?

Insights for the Month of Gemini

May / June 2020

May 20
Sun enters Gemini: 09:49 AM EDT:
Venus retrograde, square Neptune
As we make our way through the long and perilous (more for some than others) journey of pandemic reality, including self-isolation, hand washing and wondering how we will ever meet again and what we will meet on the other side, Gemini pops into view, bringing, as always, the last astrological sign of spring. Gemini is the sign of the breath and the lungs, the respiratory tract. During the Sun’s journey through Gemini we will be contending with Venus retrograde in this sign: Goddess of matter, values and all that we love journeying through the realm of the trickster. Together we are called, if we are listening, to descend into the dark and foreboding underworld and see to what kinds of transformations are necessary and even possible. Gemini is a funny sign, both clever, eccentric and at times, a bit ‘peculiar’. Other signs might think of themselves as eccentric and one-of-a-kind but Gemini takes that cake. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the mind, that trickster we all know and love who takes us down roads and along tracks seemingly on its own. Unless we practice some kind of mindfulness we are often at the mercy of what goes on in there. Gemini is fake news and skewed statistics as well as the genius of turning a phrase and opening doors to understanding. As Venus descends we are called in her underworld to acknowledge the lies we tell ourselves in aid of believing the lies of others.
A hallmark of descent and return is that we do it alone. No one but me knows the workings of my mind. We can share our thoughts as best we can. We can even try to help those in mental distress but it’s up to the individual to wrestle that unruly fellow – the mind – into position to do the bidding of the heart. To do this we need to sit with it and pay attention to what it’s on about without being led down the garden path. This is our task for Gemini 2020. Even as we zoom here and there on all sorts of mind-ways and by-ways can we pull back and reflect? Is it possible to sort through reams of information and find some truth? Do we actually know what really matters? Can humans ever master the mighty gift of our brains, and the minds that work through them? There is much to process here. Be still, especially on June 3 when Venus conjuncts the Sun. Listen, breathe, and of course, laugh at the absurdity of it all. It’s a wild dance and we are all here, doing it, twirling and spinning to the music of life.
The square to Neptune from Venus today underscores the need to be mindful or else get swept away in the delusions of collective entrancement. We must protect ourselves against the hoodwinkers, the greatest one being our own mind. We are in fact the masters of our own oblivion.  So slow down, be reflective, don’t push away your griefs and fears, real or imagined. Simply acknowledge them and see what happens. The only way is through. 

May 22 
Mercury conjunct Venus and square Neptune
Sun trine Saturn
New Moon: 2 degrees of Gemini: 01:39 PM EDT
Mercury tells us to think about everything even if we can’t think clearly: To float in the vagaries, not because we seek clarity but rather because we are curious and would explore the cave of dreams even if it means encountering a nightmare or two.
The Sun and the Moon, alone in the dark, encourage us to begin again: To open the door to the next lunar month with an intention to learn, not because we should but because we can. Here at the start of the lunar month is a good time to play; with ideas or art supplies, maybe found objects or musical instruments, including your voice. We might find ourselves playing with words or the quality of light at different times of day. As you play in the realm of the ten thousand things, allow your intention for this next lunar month to reveal itself to you the way, once upon a time, a photographer would conjure an image with film and solution in a dark room.

May 24
Mars sextile Uranus
Mercury inconjunct Pluto
Our world seems to be changing in a collective way: All of us, forever. Irrevocable, lasting change has always happened to individuals. Someone dies, we lose our job and change careers, we marry this person not that one, we have children or we don’t. Like it or not we are forever changed by events. Call it fate or destiny it is simply how it goes, not just for individuals, sometimes for all of us together in the One World. Some days are better for making lemonade than others. Today is one of those.

May 26
Mercury inconjunct Jupiter
Consider the need to have to fiddle with the dials a part of the task rather than an intrusion on it. 

May 28
Mercury enters Cancer
If one person eats and another does not have enough is hunger a problem? How is productivity different from ambition and greed? What gifts or skills do I bring to my particular circle of life? These are things Mercury in Cancer considers.

May 29
Sun sextile Chiron
Mercury inconjunct Saturn
Sometimes we need to re-calibrate, bring disparate issues together and see if we can integrate them. Every awkward moment is an opportunity to find a third option. Let the notion of ‘and this too’ guide us today.

June 2 & 3
Mars square Venus retrograde
Sun conjunct Venus retrograde
Venus has come to the precise midpoint of her journey toward and then away from the Sun. Ancient people saw in this a moment of great transformation. A magical threshold where something becomes something else, or perhaps when nothing becomes something. It’s a tense time, to be honest. Consumed in the fire of the Sun something we value is becoming something else. Words such as transformation and renewal come to mind as do words like loss and grief. On the other side of whatever is in the cooker, life will go on. Determination will arise as naturally as our next breath. So be it.

June 5
Mercury sextile Uranus, square Chiron
Lunar Eclipse: Full Moon: 15 degrees Sagittarius 03:12 PM EDT
For change to be worth the effort it must take into consideration that which benefits the greatest good which isn’t to say we should let individuals fall through the cracks. This is challenging to manage. We aren’t quite there yet. There is more needs to come to light, to be understood as we travel these times.
See the light, shining in the night? See the things that are illuminated? Take a look at dead ends and distractions, deliberate and not so deliberate distortions as we struggle to return from ‘unprecedented’ to what might be turning into the new normal.

June 6
Sun square Mars
One minute you’re anxious because the wrong kind of bug has made it into your kitchen. This may be followed by random but distressing thoughts of catastrophe, accompanied by dramatic images of earthquakes and floods. That’s how the nervous system works. The worst part is when you fly off the handle and hit some innocent bystander who was just bopping along, even if that was you, doing the dishes. To be mindful is to know that a bug is a bug and not let it turn into a catastrophe.

June 11
Sun square Neptune
Venus retrograde, sextile Chiron
Some say the world is a delusion we create with our mind, our skewed human perception, fraught with stories we tell ourselves about what we are experiencing. But who doesn’t love a story? This would be a really good time to become aware of story itself. Its allure and how it takes you down the garden path. The way the story we tell ourselves creates the reality we are experiencing, not to mention the stories we seek out in books and movies. It’s not something to fix. The mind is not broken. That’s just how it works. Awareness changes everything.

June 13
Mars conjunct Neptune
When we say things such as, ‘Violence against women’ we leave out the most important part. We make it a woman’s problem, something she should change. One of the first rules of magic is that if you can’t name something you can’t change it. The word has power. Naming the perpetrator focuses our intention on the real problem and the causes of violence against women. As we begin to name behavior we open the gates of healing and restoration. The soul relaxes a bit.

June 14
Sun inconjunct Pluto
It’s a minor aspect but the world is tender to the touch at the moment and minor things can feel intense. Adjustment is possible. Make small ones. Change, like new habits, must be integrated over time.

June 16
Sun inconjunct Jupiter
More adjustments, no blame. 

June 18
Mercury stationery retrograde
Mars sextile Pluto (and Jupiter on the 20th)
Enough of the retrogrades you say! But are they so bad? Don’t we need time out? Wasn’t it good to give Earth a time out from our relentless human activities? Mercury asks us to reflect on security. Not so much the kind that keeps the robbers out but the kind that invites others to share in our bounty. The kind that nurtures and supports the children, their parents. You know: the whole village. In the last days of the Sun’s journey through Gemini Mars lets us know that all the rot, all the crumbling infrastructure and the unprecedented change it has shown us is possible needs to happen, is some kind of opportunity. One world, ours.