Jupiter Square Neptune and How to Spot Controlled Opposition

 So beautiful. So picture-perfect. But don't be fooled. This photo captures a very ugly underlying phenomenon: a full winter of flat, grey cloud cover (previously unheard of on the sunny prairies) produced via chemtrails and weather modification... 

Cosmic Spotlight Jupiter in Sagittarius (truth) comes into range of an extended square to Neptune in Pisces (illusions, fog, deception) just as Neptune, extra-potent in the zodiac, stations direct on November 24. The Jupiter-Neptune square will first be exact on January 13, 2019, but it will be within orb and in effect from late November 2018 to mid-November 2019.

Both communication/intelligence planet Mercury (now retrograde) in Sagittarius and action/aggression planet Mars in Pisces are activating (aggravating?) this square as Jupiter comes into range. 

The Sun-Mercury Rx interior conjunction at 4 degrees Sagittarius on November 27 (also conjunct Jupiter and square Neptune) brings the themes of this Jupiter-Neptune square to the forefront even more.

A long-term Jupiter-Neptune square, with both planets strong in their own signs, indicates a primary theme of determining what's real and true from what's illusory and deceptive.

Under this square, a year-long veil of fog has been dropped. Illusions will be thick. And there will be an unfortunate tendency to be taken in by, as I put it in the November 5 patron article on Jupiter in Sagittarius, "pretty manipulators, confident deceivers, and charming liars." 

In light of this theme, if there's one thing - literally just one thing - I would like people to come to understand during the transit of Jupiter in Sagittarius, it is the manipulative stranglehold on the collective discourse and public mind held by controlled opposition. To this end, I offer:

How to Spot Controlled Opposition

1. The person or organization is famous, a household name (at least in certain circles), and/or is covered on mainstream media. This is a dead giveaway. People who have the real-deal information, who do the real-deal research and journalism, are suppressed, ostracized, mocked, isolated, and even murdered by the establishment. They do not rise to any sort of prominence within the public, especially with the assistance of mainstream media. They have to fight tooth-and-nail to get the truth out there amidst monstrous opposition. They are certainly not provided with large public platforms or mainstream media play, even if only as supposed "enemies of the state." Real whistleblowers are stepped on, intimidated, shut up, or killed. They don't hit CNN or CBC or BBC or Fox News. They don't hit VICE or Democracy Now or Dr. Oz. Within the pseudo-alternative media, controlled opposition agents will often have relative fame - a relatively large public platform in the hundreds of thousands or low millions. These individuals will often seem just a little too slick or a little too rehearsed to be real people.

2. Limited hangouts: a controlled opposition agent will release small amounts of insider information to the followers at various times to make them believe that "someone is doing something; someone is on top of this." This is a common technique by the power establishment of "throwing people a bone." Because the agent is releasing information that the powers-that-be would not generally want released to the public, information that makes the established order look bad, the controlled opposition agent gains legitimacy in the minds of the followers. The followers trust that this person is "one of them, on the good side, playing for the right team." However, the information being released is often partial, outdated, or of limited scope. It merely scratches the surface, never going to the real roots of the situation or calling out the real people and organizations responsible. Limited hangouts by controlled opposition agents have the effect of controlling dissenting discourse within the public. Followers hang on the controlled opposition agent's every word, waiting to be told what to think or what to do, never doing their own research or coming up with their own thoughts or ideas on the subject.

3. The controlled opposition agent will often have ties to mainstream organizations or government agencies. A controlled opposition agent is often a supposed dissenter who rejected some mainstream organization or industry in order to "tell people the truth." While true dissenters and whistleblowers do exist, they almost never gain large public platforms. The ultimate allegiance of a controlled opposition agent is with the establishment, and they may receive funding directly from related industries or organizations.

4. The controlled opposition agent creates and reinforces a strong Figurehead-Follower power dynamic. This is a hierarchical dynamic where the Figurehead sits at the top of a pyramid scheme of power with the followers gazing up in rapt devotion. This often takes the form of the "Wise Fatherly" archetype with the controlled opposition agent being looked to as the pinnacle of wisdom and the ultimate fount of information. The Figurehead is seen as the most intelligent and most important individual in the pyramid scheme and certainly receives the most attention. Any dissent or criticism is generally met with condescending head-patting or down-playing. There is no climate of intellectual equality (even though lip service may be paid to that). People often want to get closer to the Figurehead, moving up the rungs of the pyramid scheme to the inner circle. Once in the inner circle, people will defend and protect the lofty position of the Figurehead to maintain their own position.

5. The Figurehead controlled opposition agent has extreme influence on the thoughts, ideas, and speech of the followers to the point of mind control. This takes the form of hundreds of thousands or millions of followers parroting the Figurehead's exact ideas and catch phrases. (Hatefully referring to the public as “sheeple” is one that springs immediately to mind.) This phenomenon can be easily picked up on by those objectively viewing the dynamics, and it is another dead giveaway. Free thinkers do not parrot the same catch phrases and idioms at the same times as hundreds of thousands or millions of others. Independent researchers and thinkers do not obsessively focus on the pet subjects or ideas of the Figurehead to the exclusion of other, more important matters. The common denominator when seeing these types of dynamics will be exposure to one particular Figurehead.

6. The Figurehead controlled opposition agent often stirs anger, rage, or frustration in followers with no healthy outlets for those feelings. Anger and rage will often be directed toward certain groups of people as the cause of the ills. These groups may be gender-based or race-based but can also be the public at large (“the sheeple”). Massive amounts of time and energy are directed toward particularly divisive topics as well as to matters of secondary importance, skirting around the real, core issues of the times and the real individuals, organizations, and entities responsible for the harm being caused. The Hegelian dialectic is often employed to great effect. The Figurehead can also stir confusion and a sense of futility or helplessness in the followers, ensuring that followers do not take independent action (“there’s nothing we can do about it, anyway”) and that they will continue to look to the Figurehead for instruction on what to think or what to do.

These are some of the characteristics of people who act as controlled opposition. You can use these points to sniff them out. People can be used as controlled opposition consciously (with their knowledge), or they can be used unconsciously (without their knowledge). Whole movements or "scenes" can also be used as controlled opposition - maintaining establishment control over dissent and the exposing of truth by scratching the surface, appearing to allow a public platform for alternative views, but never going to the real roots of the situation or truly liberating people's minds or lives. 

Willow's Web Astrology articles on Controlled Opposition

 

A critique of controlled opposition/gatekeepers in the protest movement: This Mind is Otherwise Occupied.

Mercury and Venus Station in Tandem - the Subtle Points of Human Relations Come Up for Mental Processing and Discussion

We have two planetary stations about to occur on the very same day: on November 16, love and relationship planet Venus stations direct at 25 degrees Libra, and communication and intelligence planet Mercury stations retrograde at 13 degrees Sagittarius (exactly square Neptune in Pisces). 

Mercury will be retrograde from  November 16 to December 6, moving from 13 degrees Sagittarius to 27 degrees Scorpio.

Foggy and ethereal Neptune is also very powerful at this time, stationing direct November 24 at 13 degrees Pisces. Neptune provides a strong influence over the entire Mercury retrograde, a process that comes to its full conclusion on December 24, 2018 as Mercury leaves the retrograde shadow with an exact square to Neptune in Pisces.

An extended Mercury-Neptune square with Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius/Scorpio indicates a veil being dropped over our perceptions and communication that must be gradually worked with and penetrated. There's some mental pressure and challenge as we cut through the confusion and fog, finding just the right words from just the right perspectives as we verbally clear ourselves a path into 2019. 

Mercury square Neptune can indicate difficulty in getting our points across succinctly and effectively. There may be some difficulty being heard or understood. People may hear what they want to hear, or they may pick up on one small point, missing the full picture. These effects may be exacerbated with Mercury transiting the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius. It's hard to sum up what we know or what we perceive, but we have to do our best with these challenging mental conditions.

Stay focused and keep working to verbally cut through the Neptunian fog because effective communication - though trickier than usual to achieve - has a great deal of "permeation power" under these aspects. Getting your point(s) across under these aspects can have quite grand ripple effects, especially in the collective. Your words can reach much further than you might have imagined and could have more sway or influence.

Mercury square Neptune indicates people may be more impressionable than usual to the words, perspectives, or ideas of others - for good or ill. 

So this is a time when our words - if they are being used for good - can have "divine wings." Our words may be picked up and carried and carried and carried to just the right people who need them.

Under this square, there could be a sense of being blocked from communication or connection, being isolated in our perspectives. But people are listening. The loving higher intelligence is listening. Our words are hitting their marks. They have influence, even if it is invisible at times.

There's some weirdness related to communication under this Mercury-Neptune square and Mercury retrograde, extending through the end of 2018. Strange connections or coincidences that may be spiritual or psychic in origin. The invisible threads that connect us through time and space being plucked by a force or an intelligence beyond ourselves. A time of heightened connection and communication with the divine, the spiritual, the etheric, the dreamy realms in both waking and sleeping life.

Venus and Mercury shifting gears in tandem indicates that while our Venus retrograde relationship review period (October 5 - November 16) is now coming to a close, we still have some complex mental and verbal processing to do as far as what we've come to understand during that review. 

Winged messenger Mercury will retrograde back to 27 degrees Scorpio and station direct there December 6. This activates themes related to the Mercury-Jupiter conjunction at 27 degrees Scorpio on October 29, which occurred just as Mercury entered the retrograde shadow. Mercury will be within orb of a conjunction to Jupiter, newly in Sagittarius, throughout most of the retrograde process, forming another exact conjunction on December 21 at 9 degrees Sagittarius to mark solstice. 

This is an uncovering, penetrating Mercury retrograde process, drawing some hidden dynamics and some obscured emotional, psychological, and energetic subtext up to surface awareness so that this becomes part of the expressed truth. We're putting some things on the record.

The current astrological atmosphere indicates that some of the more subtle and slippery dynamics of human relationship and human society will be coming up for discussion and that we may find it challenging to get the associated issues into the social or public discourse in a meaningful way. 

Again, persistence is key, while also not wasting our breath in situations or conversations that are hopelessly convoluted or aggravating. The tail-chasing energy of Mercury square Neptune can certainly produce mental fatigue and "heads spinning," so we're looking to unleash our verbal (Mercury) arrows (Sagittarius) only when we have a clear shot at the target with a good chance of making contact.

War and aggression planet Mars will be entering Pisces shortly (November 15 - December 31), forming a square to Mercury Rx at 6 degrees Sagittarius on November 26 and a conjunction to Neptune at 13 degrees Pisces on December 7. This indicates the potential for the activation of etheric or psychic subtext in ire-stirring ways. Subtle attacks that poison, erode, or undermine may have to be verbally hauled out into the physical here-and-now.

The influence of Mars on the Mercury retrograde process indicates some potentially angering or inflammatory subjects popping up that will be drawing attention to broader issues and themes. There's a bit of an edge to this stuff, but that's OK. We can work with whatever is kicked up...

Mars transiting Pisces indicates the potential for increased physical sensitivities to mood-altering (and often delectable) substances like alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and processed foods, so watch your indulgences carefully this holiday season - even though Mercury-Jupiter in Sagittarius will most likely be encouraging you to go for the gusto!

Mars moves into its own sign and crosses the birth point of the zodiac - zero Aries - on January 1, 2019, indicating fresh starts and new momentum available to us as we enter the new year. 

Venus will be moving direct through the retrograde shadow from November 16 to December 17, and we're chewing on the experiences, interactions, and dynamics we experienced socially or in interpersonal relationships during the Venus retrograde process, beginning as Venus entered the retrograde shadow on September 2, 2018.

Mercury and Venus will continue their tandem action in early December: Mercury Rx re-enters one end of the sign of Scorpio at 29 degrees while Venus direct re-enters the other end of Scorpio at zero degrees (December 1/2). Mercury will stop at 27 degrees Scorpio and go direct again. Venus will travel through the full sign of Scorpio.

Venus re-entering Scorpio, the sign of its detriment, indicates that we're going down for one last death roll, combing the murk of human relationships and human society one last time as we close out 2018. Venus in Scorpio can be highly-charged and highly-karmic, so be prepared for some social/relational grease fires or tension, some air to be cleared, some grievances to be released. 

Relationship planet Venus has been in a long-term opposition to status quo-challenger Uranus throughout its retrograde process and forms a final exact opposition to Uranus on the potent 29th degrees of Libra/Aries on November 30.

The changes we need in relationships and in society in general hinge on these points of social/relational tension. They're purposeful. So harness the energy of the charged social arenas as fuel for your own process during the transit of Venus through Scorpio (December 2, 2018 - January 7, 2019), and make your changes. This goes pretty deep. 

We're clearing out shoddy treatment, not-quite-right dynamics, and boring, old sticking points in our relationships, and we're changing things in ways that empower ourselves and others.

Venus leaves detrimental ole Scorpio on January 7, 2019, forming a "Conjunction of the Benefics" with Jupiter at 16 degrees Sagittarius on January 22 that will also be in tight square aspect to Neptune in Pisces.

Following with the themes, Yerevan and I had a conversation recently on the Dark Moon podcast where we talked about some of these hidden dynamics, in particular from our perspectives as professional female intuitive astrologers and readers. You can listen to our conversation here:

Dark Moon Episode #4 - Exposing Subtle Misogyny 

 

You can find previous episodes of Dark Moon podcast with Yerevan and Willow here:

Dark Moon Podcast YouTube Channel 

 

From Willow's Web Astrology blog, September 5, 2017: The Diminishing and Marginalization of "Those Types" of Astrologers Within the Astrology Establishment

Jupiter Enters Home-Sweet-Home Sagittarius: Dismantling Illusions, Deceptions, and the Stranglehold of Controlled Opposition With the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth

 Jupiter in Sagittarius (symbolized by the centaur)

Horsie wisdom!

Photos: Willow
Renegade Heifer Photography
Etsy Shop

Jupiter in Sagittarius November 8, 2018 - December 2, 2019

Jupiter retrograde April 10, 2019 to August 11, 2019 from 24 degrees to 14 degrees Sagittarius

"Jupiter Enters Home-Sweet-Home Sagittarius: Dismantling Illusions, Deceptions, and the Stranglehold of Controlled Opposition With the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth," is an article covering the year-long transit of Jupiter through its domicile of Sagittarius. This 5,600+-word article is available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

If you regularly find Willow's Web Astrology valuable, please consider becoming a patron. Patrons receive juicy, in-depth astrological articles to their email inboxes that are not available on the public blog.

For 2019, new patrons will also receive a bonus article, "North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn: the Responsibility of Living With Soul-Sovereignty in a Highly-Controlled and Micro-Managed World."

Willow's Web Astrology Activism and Public Education

I recently updated the WWA Activism page, and I thought it might be helpful to share this on the main page, as well. I've covered many different topics on the blog in the nearly eleven years I've been writing this site, but these are some of the primary subjects I cover as I continue reporting on my "metaphysical beat":

Click the hyperlink to read all Willow's Web Astrology articles on: 

- Fukushima and the Nuclear Industry

- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

- Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic and Pharmaceuticals Vigilance/Big Pharma

- Oil Flares and Big Oil

- Geo-Engineering and Manufactured Storms

- Controlled Opposition, Gatekeepers, and Media Deconstruction 

- New Age Deconstruction and Criticism 

Anti-War and Exposing the Global War Machine

- Affordable Housing

- Public Transit 

 - G20 Meetings 

- Protests

Happy Hallowe'en: Let Your Pagan Soul Run Freeeeeeee!

Merry Samhain and Happy Hallowe'en from your anarchist astro-reporter, Willow!

The Moon is in expressive and party-loving Leo this Hallowe'en, forming a square to the Scorpio Sun and marking Last Quarter Moon, so go bold with your costumes and revelry!

Venus Rx in Scorpio formed an exact opposition to Uranus Rx in Taurus at zero degrees of the signs in the wee hours this morning. Both Venus and Uranus are forming exact squares to the Nodes of the Moon, as well, and this creates a powerful but somewhat heavy and constricting fixed Grand Cross effect on the potent zero degrees of the fixed signs. 

Progress is difficult under this configuration and energy is at a premium, but any movement we do manage can catalyze powerful and long-lasting change. Just dig in and slowly power your way through...

Venus will retrograde back into its home-sweet-home sign of Libra at 11:42 a.m. PDT today, indicating the possibility for some nice social (or at least energetic) relief as the Hallowe'en festivities get underway.

Venus will now travel through the latest degrees of Libra, turning direct again on November 16 at 25 degrees Libra and re-entering Scorpio on December 2. 

Venus back in Libra indicates a nice (albeit temporary) breather during the month of November to re-balance and re-gain our equilibrium after the intensity of the Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio. 

So let's celebrate the planet of love and socializing moving back into its own sign of Libra this Samhain. The spirits and pixies and fairie-sprites are ready to mingle!

An All Hallow's Eve Re-Post: The Most Terrifying Ghouls and Goblins on Planet Earth Wear Suits and Ties

 One of thousands of oil flares releasing poisonous gases in rural Saskatchewan

Photos: Willow

The Sun entered deep, dark Scorpio this morning, and we are now entering the dark half of the year for the final time with wounded healer Chiron transiting Pisces (oil and gas). This All Hallow's Eve will be the last one with Chiron in the sign of ghosts and spirits for 50 years, and this certainly adds some extra spook factor. 

With the wounded healer in the highly-karmic late Pisces zone, representing the end of the zodiac cycle, we must now understand in no uncertain terms how we are being haunted and psychically disturbed on this planet in ways that connect the personal with the collective situation.

We see the symptoms all around us: depression, anxiety, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependence, other addictions, isolation, emotional disturbance, relationship breakdown. These symptoms and dysfunction seem so disparate and disconnected, like many, many individual cases with no common threads.

But at the root of this pain and dysfunction are the same violent and inhumane systems, the same fascist, top-down structures of power, that are being forcefully superimposed over our natural lives all over this planet.

The emotional and psychic disturbances, these haunted existences, are common and natural reactions to a highly-artificial and detrimental way of living.

With Chiron transiting the extra-potent final degrees of Pisces until re-entering Aries on February 17, 2019, we are coming into contact with some big collective karma and big collective lessons - the Grand Finale of the entire Chiron in Pisces transit.

As ugly and scary and horrifying as it may be to look at, I don't think I can sum up the (often-invisible) connections between the personal and collective situations any better than I did in this article from October 27, 2017 (with updated photographs): 

- The Most Terrifying Ghouls and Goblins on Planet Earth Wear Suits and Ties -

 

 

 

No, this is not for Hallowe'en. These are actual signs posted by oil companies around open-air oil flares in rural Saskatchewan.

Scarier than a horror movie: rural, working class areas are being poisoned all over the planet for the profit of industry, including by one of the worst offenders, the oil industry.

"We are now nearing the end of the Chiron in Pisces transit. The wounded healer has been transiting the sign of spirituality and collective psychic space since February 2011. Chiron will enter Aries in April 2018, retrograding back into late Pisces September 2018 to February 2019, before entering Aries again for the duration of its transit, until April 2027. 

The truth we are being confronted with as [Chiron completes its transit of Pisces] is something we've been chewing on for a while now. It's those big issues, those big problems, that seem to have no answers - certainly no easy answers. It's the causes of difficulty or pain we can't quite put our fingers on. It's the bouts of despair or overwhelm or hopelessness that often can't be linked back to a single, specific source.

From a previous article:

"One of the biggest sources of fuel for depression these days is the degree of collective denial we are living with en masse. It's emotionally upsetting, to say the very least. This is the distance between the bottom line reality on this planet and the way most people - including our so-called leaders - are living. The decisions being made and the options being presented don't have much basis in that bottom line reality. Most are living in an artificial state of manufactured reality, and there isn't much that is more depressing to a natural, biological being than living in artifice. Take a look at the animals in the zoo.

We are connected to the living beings who are suffering on this planet, and they're connected to us and to our suffering. And when that suffering is denied, avoided, glossed over, brushed aside, it adds a heaping helping of psychic disturbance to our psyches. Did you really think you were just going to go about your happy, happy life while the majority of this planet suffers under systems and structures that create and reinforce that pain?

We live in a world that wants to separate people into the happy and the unhappy, the joyful and the depressed, the fortunate and the unfortunate, the normal and the abnormal, the positive and the negative.

But those distinctions are not real.

If the scenarios on Planet Earth during transiting Chiron in Pisces (2011 - 2019) teach us anything, it's that what affects one will eventually affect all. There is no real line between the fortunates and the unfortunates. We cannot separate ourselves from the corruption, the murder, the erosion, the destruction, the poisonings that are going on - no matter what dimension you mistakenly believe you are ascending to, no matter how much fake currency you have in your bank account.

The fascists didn't really lose the war.

And now they've gotten into our food, into our water, into our air, into our minds, into our psychic environments, into our relationships, and into the social fabric that holds us together.

They have people chasing money and luxury items and tropical vacations and 200 "likes" on their seductive, social media selfies. They have people chasing a highly skewed idea of "success," all so very poisonous and destructive during the Pluto in Capricorn years.

They have people regimented in inhumane 8 to 5 office schedules that do not take into account the natural ebb and flow of energy in a biological organism.

And they have people convinced that if they can't sustain this grueling Monday to Friday march, they are worthless, damaged, less than whole. In short, if you can't keep up with that relentless, robotic, fluorescently-lit pace, there's something very, very wrong with you.

If you have to work two or three jobs just to keep a roof over your head and food on your table, there's something wrong with you.

If you are a man who can't work 14, 16, 18-hour days, there is something wrong with you.

If you are woman who can't cheerfully whip up culinary delights for her family every night of the week after working a full day, there is something wrong with you.

They have people snowed, that's for sure.

They have people blaming themselves for situations that have been planned and orchestrated to be just this bad...and worse.

There is a natural ebb and flow to the energy of a human being. The Moon cycles are a big indicator of this. But we are in the Pluto in Capricorn years: caffeine and drug-fueled to keep us going and going and going. We are in a series of years when it's considered a sickness if you need to rest, if you need to slow down, if you need to just stop for a little while.

We're convinced by a toxic pharmaceutical-pushing medical establishment that we need to be medicated. We need to be more "up" or more "down" or more something in order to be normal, sane, healthy.

Not once does that medical establishment look at the insanity of the constant merry-go-round. Not once does it look at the intentional disruption of the biological systems on this planet. Not once does it look at our food, our water, our air, our mental, psychic, and physical environments.

And so it misses the point."

I live in a country where people often go on about how lucky we are to be free. As we move to Remembrance Day on November 11, this will be a common sentiment, as it is every year.

The truth is, though (and I know I will stir ire for saying this): we aren't free.

We have more freedoms in Canada relative to those in countries under more overtly oppressive regimes, but we are not free to live our lives as we would truly wish to. 

We in Canada live under the same coercive systems, the same hierarchical pyramid schemes, the same oppressive, police state-enforced laws, the same corrupt money systems that control and manipulate human life all over this planet. 

We're living by the same engineered rhythms, on the same artificial schedules, within the same manufactured constructs.

People are doing work they would not naturally do (at least, not in the same ways), living and working on schedules they would not naturally keep. 

They are moving and constricting their bodies in ways that are not natural to them. They are following daily paths that would not be followed (at least not so rigidly) if left up to their own volition.

They're making choices from prepackaged, socially-engineered options that have been set out for them.

They're living a forced life they would not naturally live - if they weren't being coerced by violence or threat of violence, by deprivation or threat of deprivation, by homelessness or threat of homelessness, by death or threat of death. 

We're living under a coercive control structure that has now spread its vile tentacles into every nation on the planet.

I say this in the gentlest and most compassionate and most loving of ways:

We are not free. Not in the material realm.

This is not the way human beings were meant to be living.

This is not the way human societies were meant to be functioning.

People's time is being stolen. The best of their energy, their ideas, their talents, their ingenuity is being stolen. 

But this system, this indoctrination, this coercion has been so internalized, so assimilated, that people - in their highly regimented and harassed lives - really do believe they are free.

And those who cannot fit into the systems as they exist are free to languish - in poverty, discomfort, lack, addiction, anxiety, deprivation, illness, isolation, mental and psychic disturbance. 

There are now more people using prescription opioid painkillers in the U.S. of A. than are smoking cigarettes (27 million). Deaths due to opioid painkillers now surpass car crash deaths (49,700 per year). And all as the United States of America continues to lock down those poppy fields via the longest war/violent occupation in American history in Afghanistan...

Those who cannot fit in to this system are written off as lazy, layabouts, lost causes, deserving of their suffering and struggle. 

There's a line of manufactured resentment and hatred created between those who trudge along within the systems and those who simply don't have the ability (or the will) to do so.

We don't have to be living this way. Always keep this at the forefront. This inhumane system has been manufactured for us. It's artificial. And the solutions that could solve humanity's problems have been intentionally kept suppressed, undeveloped, inaccessible.

In order to resolve a problematic element of our circumstances, we have to understand and accept exactly where we are. This is a Saturn lesson. Denying where we are, glossing over it, blocking it out (travel! shopping! sex! food! alcohol! drugs! sugar! cellphones! selfies! media!) - none of that really works as a long-term solution.

[With Chiron making its final pass through late Pisces], we have to understand the ways in which we, and our fellow inhabitants of Planet Earth, are not free on a physical/material level in order to maintain and protect our spiritual freedom and health.

Because if we aren't aware of the ways in which we are not free, we can more easily slip into accepting their manufactured versions of The Free Life (TM) as the real thing, and this is hugely detrimental to psychic, spiritual, mental, and physical health.

Reality on Planet Earth is scarier than anything we could conjure up for All Hallow's Eve! The power-holders in suits and ties are far more terrifying than any monstrous costume we could create. 

But we have to see this, understand it, and accept it as an element of our current realities in order to move into something better, something more fitting, something more dignified.

We have help. From every soul who has been done dirty on this planet. From every soul that was duped into believing something that wasn't true. From every soul that had its precious time stolen on this planet. From every soul manipulated into living a life that was not naturally its to live.

As the veil grows thin, we feel these spirits around us. We feel their support, their desire to assist us in the material realm as we live in this potent current moment. We gather to honour this shared struggle, to heal these wounds, and to draw strength from this spiritual lineage for the battles left ahead."

***********************************************************************************

And yes, there are many battles left ahead. More active battles. More honest battles. More in-your-face battles as we bring the wounding dynamics (Chiron) in the psychic/etheric space (Pisces) out into the rawness of daily physical reality (Aries).

With Chiron in latest Pisces as we step into the dark half of this year, we draw strength from the long, rich, wonderful and terrible spiritual lineages of Planet Earth in order to prepare ourselves for the active healing (Chiron) battles (Aries) ahead when Chiron re-enters Aries February 17, 2019 for a transit that lasts into 2027.

As we honour the spirit world and those who came before us this All Hallow's Eve, our last with the veil between worlds so thin under Chiron in ethereal Pisces, we must keep this at the forefront of our minds:

We are the living. We are the survivors. We're here now. And we must continue to battle however we can for survival, for life, and for our natural human rights every day on this planet-driven-mad.

This is our fight now. We were born for it. Our ancestors carried us this far and continue to assist us from the other side. We thank them and honour them this Samhain from the bottom of our hearts for the battles they valiantly fought in order to get us here. 

But it's up to us now. So take a deep breath and step across the threshold into the dark half...

With Venus Rx conjunct the Scorpio Sun and Jupiter finishing its transit of Scorpio, know your power. Own that power. And use it well. 

Happy Hallowe'en and Merry Samhain from your anarchist astro-reporter, Willow!

 

Willow's Web Astrology Video:  

"Stop the Oil Industry From Open-Air Oil Flaring! A Toxic and Dangerous Practise"

 

North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn: the Responsibility of Living With Soul-Sovereignty in a Highly-Controlled and Micro-Managed World

 Some lovely fall colours
Photo: Willow

 North Node of the Moon in Cancer/South Node of the Moon in Capricorn: November 6, 2018 to May 5, 2020

"North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn: the Responsibility of Living With Soul-Sovereignty in a Highly-Controlled and Micro-Managed World" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons that covers themes and aspects related to the 18-month North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn transit.

If you regularly find Willow's Web Astrology valuable, please consider becoming a patron. Patrons receive juicy, in-depth astrology articles to their email inboxes that are not available on the blog. Patronage also supports the continued "free" work on the public blog, as well as ongoing public education and activist work.

Venus Stations Retrograde in Via Combusta Scorpio October 5: Hematite Shields Up!

Relationship planet Venus is slowing down on the 10 degree of Scorpio, preparing for a retrograde station October 5 (12:05 p.m. PDT).

Venus will be spending an extended amount of time traipsing through Via Combusta (particularly combustible) Scorpio, and Scorpio is considered the sign of Venus' detriment. Scorpio is opposite Taurus, a sign Venus naturally rules and operates within comfortably, so this means we are experiencing an extended dose of relationship themes and dynamics that might not be so comfortable.  

Venus in Scorpio particularly relates to the hidden dynamics of relationships, the emotional and psychological subtext, and that emotional and psychological subtext is not always pretty or easy to navigate.

Co-ruled by war planet Mars and Lord of the Underworld Pluto, the relational themes of Scorpio can be a bit feisty, to say the least. At their worst, they can be downright poisonous, attacking, abusive, or emotionally/psychologically detrimental. 

Crystals and stones can be very helpful in dealing with all kinds of scenarios and dynamics. Some of the stones that are particularly helpful for Scorpio are black, grey, or red in colour.

A particularly helpful substance to use for Scorpio themes is hematite, which is an ore rather than a stone.

From November 1, 2012:

"[With strong Scorpio in the astro atmosphere], people (and energy dynamics, in general) are looking for weak spots, and it's best that we protect ourselves on metaphysical as well as physical levels.

I've found that hematite is a great material for deflecting nasty emotional and psychic energy. I have a pendant and ring I wear a lot, and hematite beads can be made into other jewellery.

Hematite is the mineral form of iron oxide. Some of it is red, and its name was derived from the Greek word for blood. Some varieties are even referred to as "blood ore." I have a hunk of that stuff, and it's pretty primordial feeling.

Did I mention it's good for dealing with 'blood feud' energy?

The hematite that is processed for beads and jewellery becomes a shiny, gun metal grey. It's extremely hard but not brittle. In other words, it can withstand and deflect some major abuse.

Hematite beads

Hematite was discovered on Mars, astrology's war planet, which gives it a sort of hardcore fighting connection.

To me, it's a very Plutonic material. It has an industrial feel and would possibly be too heavy for a strongly lunar or Neptunian person, but I find it protective and shielding in difficult circumstances. It both deflects energy and absorbs and draws it away. It also seems to have a clearing effect on electromagnetic excess.

If you're going into a situation that instantly makes you think "yuck," or if you're going to be in contact with people you will possibly be frictional with, this stuff can help you through it.

Plutonic/Scorpionic types often unintentionally trigger nasty reactions in other people. Hematite can keep us safe from those reactions, which are often directed toward us.

As far as metaphysical protection, one can conjure up in the mind's eye a shiny, gun metal grey hematite shield covering the entire body. Any slings and arrows tossed our way are easily deflected, and nothing can penetrate through it to injure us. As far as I know, it's pretty much indestructible. Just make sure it's covering every inch of exposed self, and pay special attention to buffering your known weak spots.

Whenever your Scorpionic spidey sense starts going off in a bad way and things start looking a little dicey, you can call "Hematite Shield!" and place it around you."


For more of the Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio/Libra, consider becoming a Willow's Web Astrology patron. Patrons received a juicy and in-depth article on the Venus retrograde in August, and this article is available to all new patrons, as well. 

A Via Combusta Venus Retrograde: Reaching Escape Velocity From Old Hurts, Heartbreaks, and Relational Trauma-Prints