Willow's Pluto in Capricorn Nightmare With Big Pharma

Well, your astrologer friend Willow definitely drew the short straw (again) in the Collective Karma Cook-Off! 

As Uranus gained speed in late Pisces near my South Node and at the exact time Mercury touched Pluto in Capricorn (December 7), I realized I had been poisoned by an antibiotic I had been prescribed for what I thought was a urinary tract infection. Cipro. Evil. Do not take this or any of the similar drugs. Levaquin is one of them. 

The doctor I saw told me it was a "mild antibiotic." I later found out it is a very strong antibiotic that was developed to ward off anthrax attacks (!!!) and that there are class action lawsuits in the United States due to its adverse side effects. 

Citizens groups have been trying to get a "black box warning" put on it since 2006, but that, of course, hasn't happened because it would affect the profits of the pharmaceuticals company that makes it. 

I was prescribed three pills of 1,000 mg each. By the evening after I took the third pill, I knew something wasn't right. Extreme anxiety, ringing in my ears, body felt as if it were under some sort of attack, trouble speaking, couldn't remember what day it was. 

I went to urgent care where the nurse I initially spoke to didn't believe me. "Cipro wouldn't do that. It's not the Cipro." 

I spoke to a doctor who did believe that I was having an adverse reaction but seemed to want to link it to a history of depression/anxiety. I told him I was also worried about tendonitis - a common adverse side effect. He told me I was worrying about nothing and that only 1 in 100,000 people rupture tendons after taking Cipro. Still far too high a risk for me and I definitely would not have taken it if I had known that beforehand. He gave me Benadryl to sleep and four hours later told me to go home and sleep for the next couple days. 

It's now been just over three weeks, and I'm still recovering. 

The day after I got home from urgent care, I developed tendonitis in both ankles to the point that I had to walk to the bathroom on my knees. That continued for 2.5 weeks. Within another day, both my wrists, hands and arms were affected. I could barely use them. Could only manage to wash and eat sporadically. I was nauseated. Had extreme fear and anxiety - constant bombardment by morbid and terrifying thoughts. Thought I was going to die, my parents were going to die, I was going to be in a wheelchair, would not recover, etc. etc. 

You can see the terror and fear surrounding this drug - developed when the anthrax attack scare was big in the news. And I took it, repurposed as an antibiotic for uti, just after the H1N1 fervour. The collecive panic attached to this stuff is overwhelming. 

I also experienced insomnia, headaches, pressure in my head, dizziness, blurred vision, extreme light sensitivity and terrifying visuals when I close my eyes. The fear was overwhelming. The symptoms are now lessening (I can actually type this post) but are still hanging on. 

I can walk very carefully around my apartment and can also use my hands and wrists sparingly. The fact that doctors are prescribing this stuff and that pharmacists are doling it out without any sort of warning about the possible side effects is morally criminal, if not legally so. 

But here we see just how far gone things really are as Pluto sits in early Capricorn. How the dollar bill and the egos at the top of the hierarchies have usurped actually giving a shit about people in much of the mainstream medical establishment. Like most corporate hierarchies, it's become (in many cases) rotten, damaging, illegitimate and unethical. 

I weep at how badly people are being treated. How human lives mean nothing in comparison to the little pieces of paper we call dollars. And how little care and attention supposed health professionals are taking with people's lives. It's just not safe for people, especially very sensitive people, in its current state. Too many people are asleep at the wheel using Big Business cruise control. 

Not coincidentally, just before this incident, my 93-year-old Grandmother was admitted to the hospital with kidney pain, and she was overdosed with 20 mg of morphine, causing hallucinations for a week and a half. 

A synchronistic interaction with the irresponsibility and out-of-control, haphazard nature of the mainstream medical establishment, run more by the pharmaceuticals industry than by ethical doctors and nurses. 

As Black Moon Lilith hangs out on 29 degrees Capricorn and we head to a Full Moon lunar eclipse tomorrow at 10 degrees Cancer opposite the Sun, Venus and Pluto in Capricorn, enough is officially enough. The feminine has had it with this shitshow! 

I'm not sure when regular posts will resume. I'm still in recovery mode. Hopefully by mid-January when Mercury stations direct at 5 degrees Capricorn, just out of reach of another exact square to Saturn in Libra and opposition to Pluto. Thank God for small mercies - or big ones in this case. 

The Sun and Venus come together with Mercury Rx in Capricorn January 4 and 5 and then conjunct each other January 11. Saturn goes retrograde at 4 degrees Libra January 13, Mercury goes direct January 15, and Jupiter enters Pisces January 17. 

The Sun and Venus will mercifully exit Capricorn January 18 and 19. 

This has been a brutal, devastating, hellish Plutonic experience and continues to be very frightening, but I know that it's part of healing the feminine. You have to go to some dark places to get to the deepest and most neglected wounds. And those are the ones that so desperately need our love and attention. 

I know what's good and loving in human beings and on this planet can never be defeated or destroyed, despite all efforts to do so. So let's fortify ourselves with what is good and right and caring and loving as we head into 2010. Let's remember that we're never alone and always loved. Thanks for the good, healing thoughts and prayers. 

 

Willow

No Posts

I have been very sick from an adverse reaction to an antibiotic - Cipro. Please send healing thoughts. 

 

Willow

Full Moon in Gemini Heading to a Cardinal T-Square

The Moon is full in Gemini, coming to a culmination point early this morning/late last night (12:39 a.m. MT).

Uranus also went direct in Pisces and Venus entered Sagittarius yesterday afternoon, so there is a lot of mutable antsiness in the astro atmosphere. We want to get moving, but we're sort of spinning our wheels.

The Gemini Moon interacts with the "Piscean-to-Aquarian" planets this evening, so things should feel a little more connected at that point.

The Moon will trine the Aquarius triple conjunction and square just-stationed-direct Uranus in Pisces, which is very potent and almost standing still from our vantage point on Earth.

Tomorrow morning, the Moon heads into Cancer and an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn and square to Saturn in Libra by early afternoon.

This triggers our emotions related to the themes of the Saturn-Pluto square series that is working on bringing about complete structural transformation between now and the end of 2010. We should all have a good gut feeling by now (triggered by the first Saturn-Pluto square) about any structural weaknesses in the constructs of our lives, especially relationship constructs, as well as any fatal flaws that will lead to the end of certain situations/relationships altogether.

The Saturn-Pluto square series and the effects it is going to have on our personal lives as well as on social structures are going to create some emotional rough spots. The Moon transitting Cancer allows for some related emotional processing - making ourselves comfortable with our new emotional anchors in light of the structural morphing that is and will be going on.

We started finding that new emotional anchor with last summer's longer than usual eclipse season.

We experienced two bookend New Moons in Cancer at that time - at the first and last degrees of the sign.

We're now heading into the next eclipse season with a Full Moon lunar eclipse in Cancer on New Year's Eve and a New Moon solar eclipse in Capricorn January 15, 2010.

The Full Moon lunar eclipse in Cancer on December 31st is a culmination/end point related to the themes triggered and intensified by last summer's eclipse season - the reconciliation of past (Cancer) with future (Aquarius), tradition with new paradigm, as well as emotional themes related to soul home within the burgeoning Aquarian paradigm. The eclipses triggered a process of finding a new emotional anchor in light of the changes we are bringing about that is still connected to and honours our pasts, our roots and a true sense of belonging.

We've been chewing on the necessary emotional adjustments to reconcile past, present and future since then. This past summer's eclipse season was a very emotional time period, and this New Year's Eve will more than likely also be very emotional and sentimental as we say goodbye to older emotional realities and head into a year that is going to be full of dynamic structural changes.

We're really shifting and transforming the bones of the situations now, and we needed to have our emotional bearings to do so successfully. Hopefully, we've done the emotional processing and maturing necessary at this point and have our sea legs under us as we head into uncharted waters.

This Cancer Moon as well as the NYE Cancer Full Moon lunar eclipse will cement our new emotional foundations just as Jupiter in Aquarius makes one final pass over Chiron (December 7) and Neptune (December 21 - Winter Solstice). The culmination of these past/future themes...

Jupiter will leave Aquarius and enter Pisces January 17, just after the New Moon lunar eclipse in Capricorn which initiates new Capricornian structural set-ups as well as public roles within them amidst the longer-term Plutonic transformational process.

Jupiter leaving Aquarius for Pisces, again, indicates the beginning of the end of the most intensely interwoven cross-over period between Piscean era and Aquarian.

Mars Retrograde in Leo: Reclaiming Our Primal Creative Force in the Face of Shifting Structures and Changing Paradigms

(December 20, 2009 - March 10, 2010)

Mars entered Leo October 16, 2009 and will be transiting the sign of passionate, creative self-expression for almost eight months, until June 7, 2010. This period includes a retrograde beginning at 19 degrees Leo on December 20, 2009 and ending all the way back at the 0 degree, stationing direct on March 10, 2010.

As we enter the month of December, Mars is slowing to station retrograde, and we start to get a flavour for what this retro is going to mean in our personal lives.

Mars in Leo relates, very basically, to a desire to create. The motivation to create something that didn't exist before, something only we personally could create, and something we love enough that we are willing to pour our hearts - our blood, sweat and tears - into bringing it into existence, often with no guarantee of the result.

The zodiac sign Leo relates, in part, to children - children being (arguably) the most wondrous use of Leonine creative potential. It's a sign related to personal artistry and self-expression, traditionally associated with the performing arts like acting, dance and music.

But those are just some forms the energy of the sign takes...

The force of Leo as a sign relates to something broader (and possibly sappier): the creative power of the love in our hearts.

In basic terms, Leo refers to the artistry in each and every one of us and the realization of personal creative potential, whatever form the expression should take.

Creative self-actualization. Creating a life that is a pleasing and satisfying extension of who we truly are, from the heart. Using our particular talents, our particular self-expression, our particular personalities and shining the big, bold light of who we are in the world. Being the stars that we are.

Mars is the action planet, related to physical energy, will, goals, direction, motivation and desire, as well as sexuality. It's basically what gets us going, what excites a passion and desire within us.

As Mars transits and retrogrades in Leo, we're setting a new cycle of creative goals for ourselves and releasing previous ones. We're determining how to direct our physical energy and what actions we need to take to achieve the sexy, new creative goals that have us excited at the moment.

But more importantly, I think, in the face of shifting structures and the burgeoning Aquarian paradigm, this Mars retrograde in Leo coincides with us reclaiming and harnessing our personal, primal creative force.

We're reconnecting with our deepest heart's desires for love, joy, fun, excitement and the freedom to express whatever is in our hearts to express. We're reclaiming the right to be self-directed in these ways, to use our creative power only as we see fit.

Mars goes retrograde at 19 degrees Leo - just shy of an opposition to the triple conjunction in Aquarius. (Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune will be at 22-24 degrees of the sign.)

And this is purposeful. Because we need this time with ourselves and with our creative pursuits to get clear on where we go from here. There has been so much focus on Aquarius, so much detachment that has been required of us as we speed through these changing times. We've had to keep our eyes on the prize, and it was so far off in the distance at times that the immediacy of Leo, the joy of creating and being ourselves in the present moment, took a back seat as we worked on bringing about our visions for the collective future.

And now we need this retrograde time to draw our creative energy back inside us, to reconnect with our deep, primal creative force and bring it back to our hearts, energizing and fortifying ourselves for what's to come.

This will ensure that what we do and what we involve ourselves in from here, as the paradigm continues to rapidly shift, is from our deepest heart's desire.

We're fighting to get our mojo back with this retrograde in the midst of what are proving to be often quite unsexy times.

And we thaw the cool, Aquarian detachment here with a Mars in Leo furnace of passion, creativity and desire. Stoking the fire. Slowly, though, all through the transit and retrograde.

And this could be the frustrating part. Both Mars and Leo are masculine, outer-oriented. Both are in their element with external action and expression. But with a retrograde, the energy is drawn in. It's a time of disengagement from what has run its course and a recalibration and readying for what is up ahead. Retrogrades require patience and an inner focus, and that could feel quite thwarting to the Mars in Leo energy.

Mars retrograde is a time of (often) lower physical energy when it is not as easy as usual to exert your will and get things done. There is a deliberate timing related to retrogrades that, again, could be frustrating with this combination of planet and sign.

Although, those who have a somewhat thwarted natal Mars (through retrograde, detriment or aspects) could find things are easier than usual in those respects since they are accustomed to these types of conditions and deal with them better than most.

The level of frustration experienced will coincide greatly with how readily an individual allows any necessary creative re-direction. Leo is a fixed sign, and changes in course are not so comfortable. (Think of a mother being told that her child needs a correction or change in behaviour, for example. Not so comfortable.) But any changes in direction initiated now are for the best and have the future situation in mind.

This Mars in Leo retrograde will also be a time of strengthening self-love because loving ourselves fully and truly, through it all, is so crucial as we navigate the bumps and obstacles of these sometimes intimidating and frightening times. We can reclaim love and self-love as our prime motivators here in a world that seems to cultivate self-loathing as a marketing technique. The revolutionary act of loving yourself no matter what!

This Mars in Leo retrograde will allow us to get clear on the specific talents we hold inside that we simply must share with the world and also on the most powerful creative avenues to take with those talents.

We'll make sure here that our creative force is not being co-opted or siphoned off in ways that are not true to us.

There is a voracious appetite with Aquarius for "the next new thing," "something different," "something unique." And there are many people still playing in the same old structures who are looking to latch onto real, independent creative expression and artistry and milk it for all its worth to reinforce the same old bullshit.

We can ensure here that the goals for our creative energy are purely our own, connected to our own visions for the future, and that we are not unwittingly fuelling nefarious people or agendas.

With this Mars in Leo retrograde, we can reclaim our creative forces completely and stake our claim for their independent expressions. We can ensure that our personal creative energy is working to bring about real, meaningful change, not a phony Hollywood-ized, Obama-fied, commodified version of "the future." Creative self-expression that is relevant both personally and for these times, a force for freedom, both personal and collective. Here, we make sure that what we are creating comes from our own hearts and that we are not just following a formula that has been set out for us. There is no pattern to follow here. Just the raw, powerful direction of our own creative desire.

I hope we can finally slough off hollow, Hollywood versions of art and pseudo-artists once and for all and embrace our own artistry and the artistry of others who have something real to offer.

After this retrograde, we will be ready to head in new creative directions where necessary.

There are ways we've been exerting ourselves, ways we've been using our personalities and forms of creative self-expression that need to be re-directed, and that is what this retrograde process will do. (*cough!* Pluto in Leos *cough!*)

Reconnecting with our primal creative force is a big part of finding our true places within the developing Aquarian communities. We're creating the networks and communities as we go. Instead of trying to fit into crumbling, outdated constructs, we're creating new situations that have not previously existed.

Moving to artisan-quality lives with the personal, human touches that don't exist with corporate cookie-cutter products or roles. Taking pride in who we are and in what we do, in what we produce.

It's been done before, many times, as a reaction to industrialization and depersonalized corporatization.

And here we're making another attempt at it because really, it's all we can do. At the point of Pluto transiting Capricorn, the corporate structures and the factory production lines have gotten so out of control, so insane, so inhumane that going back to direction from the heart and soul is the only way.

Another interesting point to this retrograde is that Mars retrogrades back to 0 degrees Leo and stations direct there - the first degree of the sign - but it doesn't dip back into Cancer.

This is good news for anyone who has found the last two years (since the previous Mars retrograde) quite difficult. Mars takes just a hair under two years to go through the zodiac, and the last retrograde was in Cancer from November 2007 to January 2008.

Because Mars in Leo does not re-enter Cancer during this retrograde, it tells us that the goals we set then for achieving emotional independence, strength and vitality have been completed. We fought hard to break out of detrimental emotional habits, especially related to co-dependence and old familial patterns, and our hard work has gotten results.

At the point of this Mars retrograde in Leo, we are on a new emotional foundation (also kicked into gear by last summer's eclipse season) and can use it now as an anchoring point as we paint a new reality for this little planet...

Uranus Stationing Direct in Pisces: Keep Your Heads About Ya

Uranus is potent right now in Pisces, stationing direct conjunct the soul mate asteroid Juno. (December 1 at 1:28 p.m. MT) The Moon is also in Pisces for the next two days, adding to the Piscean vibes.

Things are more spacey, time-warpy than usual right now and will be until the end of next week, so keep this in mind and do your best to keep your mind from wandering off into the etheric realms whilst doing anything potentially dangerous like driving, crossing the street, chopping veggies...

No time warping while you run the bath or broil some nachos!

When Pisces is strong, there is a tendency toward little slip-ups, accidents and injuries, so protect against that with grounded mindfulness and by not taking any unneccessary risks. The Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius could tempt us to push the limits, but that is not advisable as Uranus stations in Pisces.

Uranus conjunct Juno in Pisces means we're getting some strong communiques from our spiritual assistance (whatever form that takes) related to the way forward from here, so allow time for that connection and understanding to come through fully. Allow time for it to envelope you, but don't become distracted while doing anything that demands your full focus and attention.

If Saturn in Virgo and the opposition cycle to Uranus in Pisces has taught us anything, it's the importance of managing our time along these lines and successfully balancing the otherworldly/etheric with the material/physical. Both realms have different requirements that need to be co-managed.

The importance of soul mates in our daily lives also comes into focus here with the conjunction to Juno, whether they be people who are constants in our lives or just people we pass by on the bus or in the grocery store. The spiritual will be peeking through in the oddest and most unexpected of places.

At the same time, there's a strong tail-end Piscean Age necessity to filter out any Neptunian/Piscean communication or energy that isn't for you. The ability to screen that energy, turn it off and focus only on our own experiences is especially important during this direct station and will help us from becoming energetically overwhelmed or creeped out. There's another Saturn in Virgo lesson we can put into action - differentiating between what's for you and what isn't and reinforcing boundaries related to that.

Dreams are very potent, too. The division between waking and dreaming life is very thin now, becoming more of a single flow than usual. Dreams can be very literal, and it might help to write them down and analyze them related to what is going on in your day-to-day life.

Uranus in Pisces is in mutual reception with Neptune in Aquarius (indicating the transitional period between Piscean and Aquarian eras) and is the final body going direct related to that mutual reception with Neptune in its place in the long-term triple Aquarius conjunction. After Uranus moves direct, all the outer planets will be in direct motion. Full speed ahead.

Another post on that is here: Status Update on the Aquarius Triple Conjunction

Happy Sun in Sagittarius! Leaving the Energetic Hangover From the First Saturn-Pluto Square

The Sun is passing through the 29th degree of Scorpio today. By tonight, the Moon will be out of Capricorn and into Aquarius, and the Sun will enter Sagittarius.

Yippee ki-yay, cow patty!

This is good news because it means we are moving out of the energetic hangover of the first Saturn in Libra - Pluto in Capricorn square and the coinciding New Moon in Scorpio amidst that big old stellium in Scorp. The related pressure and the hold of any stirred-up fears should ease now...

Scorpio and Capricorn, along with Saturn and Pluto, are heavy hitters. They don't mess around. We dug in deep over the past week, and some long-embedded detritus was spun off as Saturn squared Pluto and the cardinal structural shifts started to get their legs under them. The Capricornian/Saturnine structures started to move according to new agendas, often under as much obscurity from the public as possible.

There are still plenty of dark and dirty allegiances, hidden motivations and obscured manoevres going on behind the scenes, beneath the surface-level handshakes and photo-ops. We still have work to do to bring what's REALLY going on to the surface and to conscious mainstream awareness.

I can feel it - the corruption. And how deeply it really goes. How complex it is and how many twisted corridors it really involves. It's overwhelming at times, as most people continue to swallow the official line or bury their heads in Aquarian/New Age rhetoric. Even the supposed alternatives to the official line have been co-opted and filled with disinformation on many fronts.

Yes, we've only just begun with this aspect, and we've got a Saturn retrograde to go over it all - January 13 to May 30, 2010. There are two more exact squares of Saturn and Pluto to get it all straight, and we're in range of the square for the next 11-ish months. Unrelenting, baby!

One situation that is so very fitting for these energies is the shift to the "new world order" through the usurping of the G8 group of nations by the G20. The G20 nations took the reins in September in Pittsburgh, becoming a self-imposed world government body in charge of economic issues. And this was done, of course, behind closed doors, guarded by fences and thousands of riot cops and amidst almost complete public ignorance. Never has any of this been up for debate by the public in any country. Do most people even know that the World Bank or International Monetary Fund exist? I think no.

It's yet another blatant example of the disconnect between pseudo-elected governments and real, informed public will. These governments, merged with corporate interests to such an extent that they are almost indistinguishable from each other, have an agenda of their own that (to them) supercedes the best interests and will of the public. There is no informed consent here...just consent manufactured through media manipulation, the police state and the drone of their supposed "experts," lulling the public to sleep with tales of economic growth through global harmonization and "co-ordination."

Well, I, for one, don't want to be co-ordinated into your grand plans, you twisted bastards!

They're the worst kind of middle management imaginable. With corresponding delusions of grandeur, of course.

The most recent G20 Summit happened as the Sun in Libra squared Pluto in Capricorn. And now, as Saturn in Libra moves back and forth over that square to Pluto, the figureheads work to solidify this arrangement and get moving with their One World Goverment agenda. They've got less than a year to make their big manoevres, consolidate power at the top of their man-made hierarchies and fuse agendas - as the public is still reeling from the orchestrated economic collapse.

And they're not wasting any time.

The next G20 meeting is scheduled for June 25-27, 2010 in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada, just as Saturn is back up to full speed in Virgo after its retrograde. (Although, there is apparently some debate about moving the meeting to Toronto?)

The G8 meeting will be held simultaneously, and this is being called a symbolic hand-off of power - although the public has been told the G8 will continue as a decision-making body regarding security issues and such. Isn't it funny how this brand of power follows the money? How those supposedly "in charge" of the economic issues suddenly rise to the very top of the hierarchy.

Seoul, Korea, led by President Lee Myung-bak, will then hold yet another G20 Summit in November, 2010.

Implementing the new agendas and imposing the new power players/structures with blistering speed - layering meeting after meeting, crowding the media and allowing for much less public attention on each individual event.

There is no way the public can really dig in to what is going on here on this timeframe and with so little transparency and education on the issues. As I wrote in September's G20 post, the lack of transparency, accountability and public awareness is all very Pluto in Capricorn purposeful. Plutonically merging the activities of bodies of power, consolidating the power and creating as much murkiness and obscurity as possible about the decisions being made behind closed doors.

Using the same strategy, the United Nations General Assembly in New York City went on at the same time as the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Anyway, the Saturn-Pluto series of squares is definitely the backdrop for the next year. You can understand the weight of these times and how important it is to remain aware of what is going on as these new structures and power agendas work to draw everyone into their world-wide pyramid schemes.

But going back to the good news of the day - the Sun is entering Sagittarius tonight, and we start to experience the warmth, faith and optimism that sign has to offer. A very welcome shift at the end of Scorp season! Sagittarius puts a lit candle in the window to guide us, and we start to come in out of the dark...

The Sun's transit through Sagittarius is interesting, also, because Jupiter in Aquarius becomes its dispositor - a strong layer of influence on our day-to-day conscious awareness. Jupiter is in formation in the Aquarius triple conjunction and will conjunct and pass in the zodiac Chiron (December 7) and then Neptune (December 21 - Winter Solstice) before entering Pisces mid-January, 2010. A more extensive post on that is here: Status Update on the Aquarius Triple Conjunction

These Jupiter conjunctions have a nice healing, spiritually-connected feel. A time when our faith can be renewed related to the times we're living through and the change we're working on for humanity. (Well, the change some of us are working on, anyway.) There is reassurance here that the sometimes hellish struggle is worth it and that we're making headway, even when we can't see it in front of us. We're in this together, connected always to those who share our struggle, and these aspects can renew our strength and our faith in what we're doing here. We can feel, even in our darkest moments, that we are not alone, that we are loved and assisted, that there is a candle burning in the window for us...

There is a theme of truth with Sagittarius. Doesn't it seem that getting to the truth about the issues of the day is a full-time job these days? More than full-time. Propaganda after propoganda to wade through.

But Sagittarius also affirms within us the fact that real truth, laid bare, is inalterable. That no matter what wrongs are committed, what injustices are covered up, what corruption is seemingly gotten away with...the truth of what is good and right and high-minded always rises above. It sustains through time. Nothing can ever truly whitewash it or rub it out, no matter how dedicated an effort to do so, because it's one of those things that we carry with us in our hearts and souls.

So soak up all you can and fortify yourselves with the Sagittarius energy (Mercury is also in the sign until December 5) because we're heading to a Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn (December 26 - January 15) that will retro right back to within two degrees of Pluto in Capricorn and the square to Libra! haha

This New Year is going to have a serious undertone, but as always, it's better to know this stuff than to be swept up unaware...

Right? RIGHT??! heehee Just kidding. Of COURSE it is.

It's Been a Long Time Coming...And It STILL Ain't Here!

The Moon in its dark phase came together with Venus this morning. A conjunction of the feminine planets, merging forces in the deep, dark sign of ancient soul knowledge, Scorpio. Feminine strength and its raw, powerful beauty - wounds, scars and all - holding its position as Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn square off in the first of three closing squares. Holding its position as the Old School Masculine believes it's divvying up the world and serving it on a silver platter to its cohorts at the top of their man-made pyramid-scheme hierarchies. Dividing it into dollars and cents, euros and yuans, rupees and dinars.

All the raw, soul-deep Scorpio is squaring the triple conjunction in Aquarius and trining Uranus Rx in Pisces. Eyes on the future, eyes on the future is the constant refrain.

But what about now? And what led up to now?

It's been a hurtful trip to this Earth for many of us. A long succession of hurtful trips through the lineages.

And we're supposed to believe a change is coming. That it's almost here. After lifetimes of dirt in our eyes and salt in our wounds, after being ground down and ground down until we barely had the strength to go on. After having the faith diminished to the tiniest pinprick of candlelight. After having what's right and good punished and abused and mocked for so long.

Scorpio is intuition. The soul knowledge we kept inside and carried with us through generations like the most valuable of family heirlooms. Like the best china or lace or silver or pearls. Because it is the most valuable family heirloom.

And we agreed. No, we'll never forget. We'll never give up. We'll continue despite derision and opposition and every dirty trick in the book. We'll use that derision and opposition and all those dirty tricks to get better and wiser and stronger and more effective. Until the change is here. Until we can see it with our own eyes and hear it with our own ears and taste it with our own tongues.

And everyone who kept that promise, who kept his or her soul close, who protected the connection and the knowledge above all else and fought for that right in others, knows the struggle. We know it's the only battle worth fighting here on this beautiful little planet.

Here's Beth Hart, an Aquarius Sun, singing about the real change - not the co-opted Obama-fied version:

Beth Hart's A Change is Gonna Come

It's an old song written by Sam Cooke that has been covered many times, but her version really captures the feeling of this Scorpio square to Aquarius and trine to Pisces to me.

She's singing about all the times our hearts have been broken because the change didn't come. The sweet, child-like hope we had for it that was crushed so many times. And the times we went out on a limb for what was right and good and were left hanging because what was supposed to be there to support us wasn't.

And she's singing about the never-say-die resolve. The sheer strength of will of what is right and good. The power of soul truth. And the love that is so strong it keeps us getting back on our feet to try again...and again.

We can be thankful for the particular brand of Venus in Scorpio love here because with it, the heart has been broken and betrayed so many times that it won't be fooled again. Venus here is not an easy sell. Glossy words and social charms will never impress. Only the real change will suffice.

The Deep, Dark Balsamic Scorpio Moon

Photo: Willow

The Moon enters Scorpio this afternoon at 3:24 p.m. MST and we start into a series of big lunar aspects surrounding tomorrow's Saturn-Pluto square and preceding Monday's Scorpio New Moon. The detailed post on that is here. We're bringing a lot into the alchemical mix over the next 48 hours. Processing, processing.

There's nothing left to do as the Moon goes dark but to get still and listen carefully, intuitively, as we allow for emotional completion of this cycle. As we do that, there could be some intense emotions rising to the surface. Traumas and betrayals from the past that we need to emotionally revisit one last time before passing the related emotion through us and releasing it once and for all.

We're in a much different place now than we were then.

This is a very powerful Dark of the Moon in Scorpio, as well as New Moon, and we can let go of a lot here. The emotional rebirth at the New Moon can be complete. We're finally able to release some knots we've been working on untying for so long now related to complex, long-embedded issues.

We also experience the Sun in Scorpio trine to Uranus Rx in Pisces at 22 degrees of the signs around suppertime tonight (6:41 p.m.). In relation to the Saturn-Pluto square:

"There's a strong body intuition available here connected to broader spiritual guidance, and we can use that as a guide and a safe haven as the structures shift (or reinforce yet more of the same) and attempt to draw us into roles within them."

We've got a stellium in Scorpio at the moment - the Moon, Venus, Ceres, the Sun and Mercury.

For a backgrounder on Scorpio/Pluto energy, check this post: "The Slow March Out of Scorpio Has Begun..." It's from almost exactly this time last year - November 17, 2008.

Although, the current Scorpio energy has more of a "completing" feel to it to me...still striking us where it hurts at times, but not as incendiary as last year.

Last Quarter Moon in Leo and Yet More Fixed T-Square Action

We experience the Last Quarter Moon today as the Moon in Leo squared the Sun in Scorpio and opposed Jupiter in Aquarius this morning. As the day progresses, the Moon will also square Mercury in Scorpio and oppose Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius.

More fixed T-Square action...

We enter the last quarter of the lunar cycle here and slide toward the main events - the Saturn-Pluto square and the Scorpio New Moon on November 15 and 16 respectively.

Things are feeling a bit tight, but it might help to remember:

"Any progress made now will be gritty and very hard-won, yet long-lasting and meaningful. Fixed sign issues are issues that stay with us and stick to us. The themes can be almost constants in our lives, and gaining movement with them takes a tremendous amount of effort for seemingly little progress. However, the progress that is made is also fixed - as in, it's not going anywhere."

We're setting our stances now, digging in where we know we have to and letting go in other areas, prepping for the cardinal structural movement of Saturn in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn - the first of a six-year series of cardinal squares involving Saturn in Libra, Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries.

Saturn in Libra Square Pluto in Capricorn Amidst An Uber-Potent Scorpio New Moon

Dates/times in Mountain Standard Time

Moon enters Scorpio - November 14 at 3:24 p.m.
Moon sextile Pluto - November 14 at 6:26 p.m.
Sun trine Uranus - November 14 at 6:41 p.m.
SATURN SQUARE PLUTO - November 15 at 8:20 a.m.
Moon conjunct Venus - November 15 at 8:41 a.m.
Moon square Mars - November 15 at 3:03 p.m.
Sun square Neptune - November 15 at 4:11 p.m.
Moon square Jupiter - November 16 at 2:02 a.m.
Moon square Chiron - November 16 at 6:18 a.m.
Moon trine Uranus - November 16 at 8:57 a.m.
Moon square Neptune - November 16 at 10:40 a.m.
NEW MOON in SCORPIO (Sun conjunct Moon) - November 16 at 12:14 p.m.

(!!!)

Since Saturn entered cardinal sign Libra (October 29), we've felt things start to move. Simultaneously, there has been a building tension as Saturn slowly moves closer to its first square to Pluto in Capricorn at 1 degree of both signs.

The structural shifts have been initiated. Creak, creak, creak. I can feel it in my bones.

Any structural set-up (especially relationship set-up) that can't withstand the increasing Plutonic pressure will break rather than bend.

Unresolved drama and detritus will increasingly be spun off and thrown up in our faces as the square tightens and Pluto penetrates further to the core of the situations.

This week (November 8 - 11), Mercury in Scorpio - just out in front of the Sun - leads the way with squares to Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius and a trine to Uranus Rx in Pisces.

We're being brought mentally into the game and prepared for the multi-layered aspects we're heading into that will propel us into new structural situations.

I've written about the Saturn-Pluto series of squares previously, and I've basically been writing about the themes since the G20 Summit in September. There is quite a lot of background available on the blog, so I'm not going to do a really broad article here, but I do want to focus on one particular aspect involved in this initial square.

One thing that stands out to me in the chart for the moment when Saturn in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn (8:20 a.m. MST on November 15) is a massive conjunction of points and bodies in Scorpio (the Moon, Venus, Part of Fortune, Ceres, the Sun and Mercury).

Of particular interest is the Moon in the Balsamic phase (also called the Dark of the Moon) in Scorpio exactly conjunct Venus in Scorpio.

Background on Balsamic Moon/Dark of the Moon: this means that that Moon is closing in on a conjunction to the Sun, moving in orbit between the Earth and Sun. Because of this alignment, it appears as if the Moon is going dark. This is the end of one 28-day lunar cycle, and we'll be completing anything that needs to be completed as we release the previous cycle and ready ourselves emotionally for a new one.

The New Moon at 24 degrees Scorpio on November 16 occurs as the Saturn-Pluto square is still in full effect.

And the Dark of the Moon phase surrounding the Saturn-Pluto square and preceding the New Moon is extremely active and potent:

The Sun in Scorpio trines Uranus Rx in Pisces and squares Neptune in Aquarius November 14/15, preceding Monday's New Moon.

The Moon enters Scorpio in the afternoon of November 14, and as it goes dark in that sign, it will sextile Pluto in Capricorn, conjunct Venus in Scorpio, square Mars in Leo, square the three bodies in the Aquarius triple conjunction AND trine Uranus in Pisces! All that will be merged into the alchemical mix in less than 48 hours.

We'll be using our whip-smart Scorpionic intuition here to scrape off any last dishonest garbage related to Aquarian Age rhetoric, pulling off any remaining blinders related to our paths forward from this point. There's a strong impetus here to keep it real Scorp-style and to integrate the more difficult, neglected aspects of consciousness and reality that it represents.

The soul-deep Scorpionic feel for things is squaring off with the bird's-eye-view, emotionally-detached Aquarian intellectualism.

But it's also trining Uranus Rx in Pisces - so the understanding and experience of the spiritual/intuitive/unseen realms held by Scorpio and Pisces are flowing around those fixed squares.

There's a strong body intuition available here connected to broader spiritual guidance, and we can use that as a guide and a safe haven as the structures shift (or reinforce yet more of the same) and attempt to draw us into roles within them.

Within the context of the strategic relationships being formed and solidified with Saturn in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, the super potent Dark of the Moon in Scorpio means: we've got some bullshit to burn off first, and we'll initiate that process surrounding this first Saturn square to Pluto.

Makes sense, right? The planet of structure and the planet of soul-necessary transformation in a series of closing squares. There are bound to be outdated dynamics and structural components that need to be addressed. Aspects we've outgrown that need to be sloughed off and other areas that need to be strengthened and structurally reinforced for the long haul.

With this much Scorpio energy, there will be an almost overpowering energy related to coming together and merging resources. However, with Saturn and Capricorn involved, things must move forward step-by-step, concretely, toward shared goals and structural integrity. We can't seal the deal until we know it's absolutely right, right down to the nitty gritty details.

We're taking the lead here and choosing more adult relationships and relationship dynamics. Committing to true soul affinity and compatibility, nothing less.

We're getting serious and getting real about the types of relationships that are going to be successful vehicles for us to reach our full potentials long-term - both on a personal level and relating to the Plutonic impetus for collective potential and progress.

Our Saturnine goals take on a much broader context with Pluto in Capricorn involved, especially within the context of the times in which we're living. There are bigger goals for us here than we can even see at the moment, but as long as we know that and trust our intuition to guide us in reaching those goals, we can make the right decisions step-by-step.

With the influence of the Dark of the Moon in Scorpio during the Saturn-Pluto square, we can understand that there are dynamics we've been accepting that we can no longer accept moving forward. There are ways we've been put down and made less powerful that we can no longer live by. Subjugation and domination power and control dynamics we've been conditioned to continue that have to go. Subtle abuses, mostly energetic and beneath the surface, that have to be brought up and faced. These themes will be especially visible in our business/commerce structural set-ups and in the ways we relate within those set-ups.

With the Moon, the process at hand relates to early conditioning, so old wounds that have their roots in childhood or the teen years will be coming up. Conditioned responses we learned then from our interactions with other people that we have continued into adulthood can be examined here.

The learned ways of interacting that will be successful for us moving forward can be built into our relationship dynamics now, and the ones holding us back from our heart's desire relationships can be let go of - with some emotional digging.

Things that have been simmering for a long time will be forced to the surface by this series of Saturn in Libra - Pluto in Capricorn squares - in effect between now and September 2010.

There are a lot of dirty tricks and outdated dynamics embedded in our relationships - especially related to the interaction of masculine and feminine. There are ties we need to sever - maybe to people, maybe just to certain dynamics, probably to both - because we can't achieve our full potential with the way things are, with the way we are relating.

The Moon relates, in part, to conditioned emotional responses and the past. So again, here is the Scorpionic process of examination, elimination and regeneration related to these emotional themes.

There is a strong theme here (as there is with Pluto/North Node in Capricorn, in general) of the feminine (in both men and women) empowering itself, taking control and getting out from under dynamics and situations that have oppressed it for generations. And that's not always going to be pretty or easy. The feminine has been conditioned not to rock the boat, not to hurt anyone's feelings, to keep the appearance that all is well, even when that's far from the case. And it has been accepted, often, only on those terms.

The feminine has also been conditioned to accept co-dependence and to fear for its survival without the structure of a relationship, even an inadequate or abusive one.

There are forms of emotional abuse people have been so conditioned to accept (especially prevalent in work structures/hierarchies and along the home/work continuum) that people are not even consciously aware of them anymore.

That's about to change in a big way. We've hit the do-or-die breaking point.

To be brutally honest about these things, to bring them to conscious awareness and to sever energetic ties to the abusive/draining aspects once and for all is the potential of this Saturn-Pluto square within the Balsamic Scorpio Moon phase. Snip!

The understanding of what (and who!) needs to go (and how to go about getting rid of it) can be accessed internally now if we allow the quiet, still part of ourselves to take the lead post-Saturn-Pluto square, as the Moon goes dark and then renews itself with the Scorpio New Moon. If we do it right, what needs to go will slough right off like a snake shedding its skin.

Another round of tightening boundaries and stopping energy leaks.

Making better, more mature decisions about how we interact and with whom we interact. Choosing not to enter into relationships or dynamics that are beneath us. (This is often a Scorpionic attraction.) Not falling into old, conditioned karmic dynamics - examining and understanding what it is emotionally that drew us into those types of dynamics in the first place, including family patterns. Committing to the understanding that what is abusive to the soul cannot possibly sustain us. Restructuring our relationship dynamics so that we are fully cemented in a better, more mature way of interacting.

Saturn in Libra demands that we enter into relationships and partnerships of true equals, and this square to Pluto is where we take responsibility for that. If we bypass that responsibility, the rest of the Saturn-Pluto squares could get nasty!

This will also be a time when long-term goals and motivations become more visible and apparent based on the alliances and relationships that are entered into or solidified at this time. So watch the manoevres of business heads and members of government to get an understanding of the long-term directions they are trying to implement (or rather, impose).

This will also be visible in our personal lives with the people in our social circles, as there will be restructuring there, as well. A transformation of social hierarchy and breaking down of old social pecking orders...with new ones emerging.

The rules for our relationships and social dynamics can be rewritten here to reflect the more mature, fair and equal relations possible with these aspects.

We can choose to continue the domination/subjugation hierarchies or we can commit to building real egalitarian relations, accepting all the bumps in the road that that will bring...

Status Update on the Triple Conjunction in Aquarius

Neptune is officially direct at 23 degrees Aquarius, so the three bodies hanging out in conjunction in that sign have completed their retrogrades and are now moving direct.

Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius entered into retrograde motion almost simultaneously (May/June 2009) and have gone direct almost simultaneously, as well (October/November 2009).

Jupiter is the fastest moving body of the three and will conjunct and pass both Chiron (December 7) and Neptune (December 21 - Winter Solstice) before entering Pisces mid-January, 2010.

This is the last pass of Jupiter through detached, intellectual, future-vision-oriented Aquarius before it enters much-less-detached Pisces and we have a spotlight put on the spiritual understanding and knowledge we need to fully attain before a better future (and reality) for humanity is possible.

Jupiter transitting Pisces will continue the shift to a spirituality attuned to the Aquarian times (and no, that doesn't mean One World Religion). We will continue to see people preaching irresponsible exponential growth, over-expansion and zero restrictions - over-reaching and then, eventually, falling on their faces. (Jupiter is good for those experiences.)

The misuses and abuses of Aquarian Age rhetoric will reach a fevered pitch as we near 2012 (an often-used official date for the beginning of the Aquarian Age). New Age charlatans with Neptunian tricks galore will be feeding the spiritual materialism addictions, taking it all the way to the bank.

And Aquarian Age corpo-governmental figureheads will be riding the "freedom, change and progress" train while continuing to reinforce hierarchical servitude as usual.

(No coincidence, Sarah Palin has just fired up her U.S.-wide speaking tour to promote her new book. Get in line, people! Her words of wisdom are right up there with Baby Bush's as far as value to humankind.)

All the spiritual excess and unneccessary garbage we'll see during Jupiter in Pisces will be a last-ditch attempt to get individuals to fully take responsibility for their own spirituality, rather than relying on spoon-fed spiritual hierarchy, which really has little place in a true Aquarian situation. That transit will relate to an attempt to get to real spiritual truth, which is a far cry from the commodified, speaking-tour-ized version being sold to the masses today.

But more on that when Jupiter enters Pisces...

Uranus in Pisces goes direct December 1. We can't forget this body in the whole scheme of things because Uranus and Neptune in mutual reception refers, of course, to the transitional times we are experiencing between the astrological Piscean Age and Aquarian.

At the point that Uranus goes direct, the outer planets will be "all systems go."

There are still many things that need to be attended to before we fully enter our "Aquarian state of mind," but the mutual reception being at the ends of the signs involved indicates that we are nearing the end of the most intensely interwoven cross-over period, at the very least.

Things will more than likely get very bizarre as we head to 2012 with a lot of buzz and electicity, but if we've got our feet planted firmly on the ground, there's little chance we will be swept up in any distracting and damaging fervour.

Mmm-mmm!

Oh my goodness, that Taurus Full Moon is delicious! We've got a perfectly clear evening here in Calgary, Alberta, and the huge orb is visible all over downtown. And of course, I'm the only person standing on the sidewalk staring up at it and grinning! Yes, I guess you'd say I'm a luna-tic.

Definitely a feel good night and some much-deserved relaxation amidst some fairly intense fixed square tension.

Ahhh! Love those grounded lunar Taurean vibes.

Fixed T-Square and a Taurus Full Moon - Things Are Getting Real With Some Samhain Online Activism

We're experiencing a squaring-off of planets in the fixed signs right now, continuing into the Taurus Full Moon, exact at 12:14 p.m. MST tomorrow.

This isn't a long-lasting t-square, as it involves the faster-moving planets, but it is a potent one.

We have Mars in early Leo (fully into its retrograde shadow) squaring Mercury in early Scorpio at 5:50 p.m. today, just five minutes after the Moon enters Taurus.

Also involved in that Mars-Mercury square is Ceres and the Sun in Scorpio. So in effect, we have a triple conjunction (if you include the asteroid Ceres) in Scorpio being squared by Mars in Leo and opposed by the Moon in Taurus, which is forming an ever-tightening fixed t-square as it moves to fullness. There are some definite fixed sign issues coming to culmination here.

This is a clash of the fixed titans. People will be digging their heels in. Any progress made now will be gritty and very hard-won, yet long-lasting and meaningful. Fixed sign issues are issues that stay with us and stick to us. The themes can be almost constants in our lives, and gaining movement with them takes a tremendous amount of effort for seemingly little progress. However, the progress that is made is also fixed - as in, it's not going anywhere.

Mars in Leo square Mercury in Scorpio can bring some passionate verbal sparring and a general feistiness to communications. Our words trigger deeper, multi-layered and complex issues now, often related to what has remained unsaid, unintegrated, taboo through generational lines.

Our Scorpionic realizations now can also fuel the huge new directions we're undertaking related to our personal creative processes, in focus over the next seven months as Mars retrogrades in Leo (December 19, 2009 to March 9, 2010).

Part of the tension here will be between us raring to go with our new creative goals (Mars in Leo) versus the slow, grounded timing related to bringing those creative directions into physical reality (Moon in Taurus). The impatience of Mars in Leo being tempered by the demands for patience and the wait for emotional readiness of the Moon in Taurus.

Mars square Mercury relates to the application of our will through our words. With Mars and Scorpio involved, things can get incendiary, and there can be a real attraction to getting down and dirty. Throwing some verbal punches. But there is a necessity with the square formation to stay in check - using the Taurean groundedness and boundaries and the Leonine playfulness and fun to temper the concentration in super-driven Scorpio.

We have to be careful not to cross those lines because there are things that must be accomplished with this square tension. As always with Scorpio energy, there are some very neglected truths that need to come to the surface. And in order to bring them to the surface, we have to stay in touch with our intuitive understanding of how to go about doing that while not letting the Scorpionic tendency to extremes push us to the point of meltdown, ruining our chances for that fixed sign movement.

Scorpionic insights are not comfortable for status-quo, steady-as-you-go Taurus or for expressive, fun-loving Leo. Scorpio has a "let's get it all out there in the open" drive that threatens to blow things wide open, shaking the Taurean foundations and the Leonine joie-de-vivre.

It's not all tension and harshness, though.

Luckily, we have a nice Venus in Libra trine to Neptune, stationing direct in Aquarius, in the late afternoon tomorrow (4:21 p.m. MST) to soften the T-Square edges. This Venus-Neptune trine will support us in keeping the peace by providing us with a broader, birds-eye understanding of these very important times we're living through. Our spiritual faith and guidance will be very accessible here to get us through any rough spots.

Appreciating what we find beautiful on this planet (with Venus in its own sign Libra and the Moon in Taurus) can also provide some uplifting and buoyance as we grind out the fixed squares/oppositions.

I experienced one of the square-induced rough spots online last night (Hallowe'en night) with a woman in an online forum I just joined (and subsequently left) who was claiming that Hallowe'en is an evil, Satan-worshipping occult ritual and that anyone who takes part in it is an unknowing pawn. She also grouped pagans and astrology into that category.

I was actually shocked to hear this type of thinking (I'm not exposed to it often).

The woman had no knowledge of the traditional roots of Hallowe'en/All Hallow's Eve/Samhain and was making blanket statements about it based solely on the commercialized form of Hallowe'en we experience today, as well as extreme examples of immoral and criminal behaviour committed on this day. IE. the Satan-worshipping stuff

While I respect the right of people to make their own judgements about things like Hallowe'en, I begged to differ with her blanket statements and attempted to explain the traditional roots of the day, pointing out that certain aspects of modern-day Hallowe'en being corrupted and misused by a small segment of the population did not mean that all people who participate in the day are unknowing pawns in that corrupted version.

For anyone who doesn't know, modern-day Hallowe'en stems from a thousands-of-years-old pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which was a day to celebrate the transition between the end of summer/harvest and the beginning of colder temperatures/the darker days of winter.

Outside the religious connotations (which don't relate to my use of the term), pagan means, very simply, country-dweller. So it refers to people who live connected to the land and the seasonal cycles, the harvests, etc.

I'm really not sure where this all-pervasive attitude that pagan is synonymous with "evil" comes from, but I must say that this ignorance (the same ignorance that would have led to my ancestors being burned at the stake) is certainly alive and well in 2009 North America.

Corresponding to the division between the lighter half of the year and the darker half, people traditionally thought Samhain/Hallowe'en was a day when the veil between the living and the dead was particularly thin. It has an association with ancestors and the sign Scorpio, corresponding to the modern-day focus on ghosts and haunted houses and such. Because this day and celebration relate to heading to the darker half of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway), there is a corresponding focus on the darker, more taboo elements of human existence. As well, it gives people a few delicious frights as we dress up and let loose from the constraints of daily workaday life - which forces most people to live according to the homogenous corporate time clock, not natural timing.

To me, the day has a sacred feel to it. Hallowe'en means "holy evening," and it's a day when you can feel close to your ancestors and honour all they went through to get you where you are today, including the dark, brutal aspects of human life.

Now, here lies a major distinction:

There is also an idea associated with this day that, because of the thinner veil and the potency of the day, you could draw on darker spirits, as well, if you so chose.

So of course, this means that a small segment of people will choose to use the energy of the day for irresponsible ends. Misuses of energy go on all the time. (The Secret, anyone?) But taking it to the dark, ritualistic extreme is done only by certain types of people. It's not a pre-requisite by any means, and celebrating Hallowe'en doesn't mean condoning murder, Satanism or immorality. To apply that corrupted version to everyone celebrating the day is just false.

But try explaining that to a person who thinks that the words pagan and astrology are synonyms for "evil."

This woman was using perversions of those terms, making them something sinister, and applying these perversions in a blanket sort of way to everyone involved. Sorry, but that's horseshit.

People who are connected to the seasonal cycles/nature have celebrated this day for thousands of years, alongside all the corruption and BS. To claim that we're all unknowing pawns in some sort of Satan-worshipping plot is just ridiculous to me.

Anyway, this was quite an interesting Hallowe'en, if irritating and neck-stiffening. But I'm sure my ancestors were gathered round as we did our little part.

Again, Happy Hallowe'en and let's never forget the real, strong, true roots of the day and what it really means to those of us who stay connected to beautiful Earth.

Happy Hallowe'en from Willow!!

I hope everyone is having a delightful All Hallow's Eve! Not too much contacting of ancestral spirits on this day when the veil between the living and the dead is so thin, or you'll wake up with a nasty hangover! And maybe some nasty spirits you have to boot back into the otherworld...

(Just being facetious.)

Happy Hallowe'en/Samhain to all!

In Defense of Astrology as a Catalytic Tool for Understanding

I keep running into people (online or in daily life) who challenge me on my use of astrology. These people are sometimes straight-up skeptics or sometimes they are people who are curious about astrology but can't reconcile their interest in it with all they've been taught about how it's a bunch of wishy-washy garbage. 

People often want to engage me in debates about the validity of astrology. I always decline. 

I'm not interested in debating. It's a waste of my time and energy to talk in circles with people who are already convinced there is nothing of value in astrology. I'm not even interested in talking to the curious yet skeptical. I mean, it's really none of my concern whether they get into astrology. Astrology is the sort of thing that either speaks to you, or it doesn't. It makes sense to you, or it doesn't. And I'm fine with that. It's not my responsibility to try to convince skeptics that the thing I've devoted the last six years of my life to learning and developing has any inherent worth or meaning. 

Sometimes, I must admit, I consider whether I should drop the astrological analysis aspect of what I write. I realize by writing astrological analysis, especially combining it with political topics or current events, that I'm writing to a very small segment of the population - especially considering so many people seek out astrology that is strictly about their personalities and personal relationships. (There's much more to the process of self-understanding through astrology than just those two aspects of life and self.) 

But I keep coming back to the same answer on that one - no. I shouldn't drop it. 

I keep coming back to the value of astrology and the way it can provide such an in-depth, detailed understanding of ourselves and the world around us. For me, nothing else I've come across really compares. It's such a powerful tool for seeing beneath the surface, to energetic realities that would be missed otherwise. It connects us to something broader than our personal lives and gives us expanded context of our existences. It helps us understand ourselves and our lives within that context, again, in a way I have not found with other disciplines. 

So honestly, I'm irritated by the way I'm written off and often not taken seriously by people when I say I'm an astrologer. I'm especially pissed off when people group astrology in with New Age or refer to it as a belief system. 

As an astrologer I knew online, Antero Alli, says: "I don't believe in astrology. I use it because it works." 

I feel similarly. I'll continue to use astrology as a tool (and write about it) as long as it keeps giving me the perspective I need. The day it stops "working" will be the day I stop practising. 

But try explaining that concept to someone who has already made up his or her mind that astrology is a bunch of superstitious crap. A waste of time. Something no truly intelligent person would put any stock in. I had an online conversation about astrology recently. I wouldn't enter into a debate about it with a dude who was a skeptic. He referred to it as "pseudo-science." I told him I didn't consider astrology a science. To which he replied that science just means "knowledge." (ha!) But isn't it funny how the scientific community thinks it is the absolute judge of what is knowledge and what isn't? Generally, their version of knowledge is strictly the quantifiable, what can be proven by them. 

To me, that is nothing but arrogance and an example of the imbalance of masculine and feminine within the scientific community. 

I tried to explain to this guy that a lot of what I know, including the effectiveness and value of astrology, could not be proven to him. Nor could things like intuition or spiritual guidance, for example. 

And I realized that that dude and I were looking at each other across the divide between Piscean Age and Aquarian. The Aquarians are quick to write anything off that is unproveable by their scientific methods. 

But I still feel as if I know something they don't know.

About Those Strategic Relationships...

It's not yet All Hallow's Eve, but things sure are getting scary!

Tomorrow as Saturn enters Libra, Black Moon Lilith exactly conjuncts the North Node in Capricorn. The Sun, Mercury and the asteroid Ceres are in early Scorpio giving us further bullshit-detecting X-ray vision into the true heart of the matter.

The astrological flavour kicking off the Saturn ingress into Libra will strongly influence the entire transit as Saturn moves through a series of squares to Pluto in Capricorn.

The dark underbelly of the strategic partnerships within the hierarchical structures will be there for all to see...all who choose to see it, anyway. The root motivations of the alliances will be covered in a surface layer of Libra charm and sociability and smiling into the camera - where most people prefer to stay.

But the real, core-level truth is there for those who will not be turned away by such tricks. The unspoken, the taboo, the criminally twisted...it's all there, especially visible in our highest ranking public offices/officials and in the agendas they are forcing through at the moment.

Black Moon Lilith consciousness will be there every step of the way, speaking the words most fear to speak. The words most fear to hear. Speaking the truth of the people who have been hurt, abused, ostracized and pushed down throughout history by the "progress" of these hierarchical agendas, continuing to this day. The pain of the people who "didn't matter" as the powers that be forced their will and their way. The people and lives considered "collateral damage."

The BML conjunction to the North Node in Capricorn as Saturn enters Libra tomorrow indicates the ongoing process of bringing the dark feminine to the table as a power player, into roles that can influence the mainstream structures so as to address the abusive, coercive, damaging aspects of "the way things are." BML consciousness is there to be held by those who wish to change things, ensuring that the "progress" we make collectively takes that knowledge, wisdom and understanding into account.

More on Black Moon Lilith conjunct the North Node in Capricorn here.

And a post on the entry points for Black Moon Lilith within the structures.

The entry points for integration of the feminine are at those points where change can no longer be resisted.

It's a tricky process, as BML energy has been conditioned to be on the outside looking in...and people have been conditioned to keep it there. Coming in from the cold into contact with structures that have mistreated and abused you is not easy. There is a lot of hurt and warranted mistrust, and it has to be done right, or more damage is done.

Taking all this into consideration, those connected to this consciousness are taking responsibility for coming out of the shadows, little by little, as difficult as the process is emotionally. Interacting within mainstream structures while holding the energy of BML consciousness and making decisions based on that understanding is a very powerful thing.

There are tenuous relationships being forged here. Underlying connections and shared understandings that must be slowly nurtured and nourished (Ceres in Scorpio).

Black Moon Lilith's got our back if we've got her's.

But there's the rub. So many are willing to just leave her hanging on the vine. Stabbing the dark feminine in the back (after using her energy) is a culturally-ingrained practise, and it's going to take a great deal of awareness and will to overcome those tendencies.

I don't trust humanity as a whole to choose better than the same old betrayals and abuses, but I do have faith in individuals.

Saturn Enters Libra and Starts a Series of Squares to Pluto in Capricorn

Well, folks. It's a point in time many of us have been waiting for. Saturn enters Libra at 11:09 a.m. MDT Thursday morning.

The Saturn transit through Virgo has been painstaking, and combined with a series of oppositions to Uranus in Pisces, it was at times overwhelming, exhausting, depressing and frightening.

Saturn in Virgo has a strong "reality check" function, as well as showing us where the structural set-ups are improperly constructed, eroded or unsustainably functioning. The transit of Saturn in Virgo coincided with the orchestrated Pluto in Capricorn collapse of the world economic system. There was a focus on workers (Virgo territory) who were thrown out of work, as well as anxiety, stress and overload of the system, in general, related to the breakdown of our business and economic structures. There was a struggle to maintain mental health for many people (myself included).

With Saturn in Virgo, we went over (and over) all the systems in our lives, including our personal physiological systems, working out every last detail and smoothing every last rough edge that could throw us off track over the long-term. We brought things into Virgoan moderation, cutting the extraneous and getting very, very clear on the areas that were lagging and keeping us from optimum health in our lives - hopefully doing what we had to to correct things.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that what has been done is enough and that there aren't any nasty forgotten details waiting in the wings. If there are, they will certainly come out of hiding during the Saturn retrograde back into Virgo in the spring of 2010.

There was a lot of "keep on keeping on," just doing what you're doing during Saturn in Virgo. Keeping ourselves going with mundane daily tasks in an effort to stay grounded in the midst of some very intense energetic dynamics.

With Saturn heaviness keeping us in check, at times the smallest of daily tasks felt like a Herculean effort to complete.

At this point, we've very precisely defined our Virgoan personal standards and made sure that we, personally, meet them. Phew.

And now, Saturn moves from a transitioning, adjusting, adapting mutable sign to an initiating, leading, let's-get-this-show-on-the-road cardinal sign. We move forward into relationships and relationship dynamics that reflect the precise personal standards we further developed while Saturn was in Virgo.

Virgo is the last of the zodiac signs that focusses on the development of the self. Aries through Virgo relates to that development process, and by the time we make it to the end of Virgo, we had better have a firm understanding and mastery of ourselves. Maturing into this understanding and mastery of ourselves was a big part of Saturn in Virgo. Analyzing our triggers, our self-sabotaging behaviours, our weak points, our blind spots and the areas where we just needed to improve was not all that comfortable, but it was very necessary. Virgo doesn't mess with anything that isn't necessary.

Now Saturn ingresses into Libra, and we turn from a focus on the self to a focus on the self interacting with other people. We open ourselves up to the other here. Relationships. And maaaaan, do they need a lot of work. ;-) Saturn has entered Libra just in time.

Relationships are always a spicy topic, a crowd favourite. So Saturn in Libra should at the very least hold people's interest. Whether they're willing to do the Saturnine work associated within their relationship set-ups (and the remaining work within themselves) will be another story. A lot of nagging, squirm-worthy relationship issues, both personal and collective/archetypal, will come under the cosmic thumb during Saturn in Libra.

Saturn in Libra immediately begins a series of squares to Pluto in Capricorn, part of a six-year series of cardinal squares. The first Saturn in Libra - Pluto in Capricorn square is exact November 15 with the third and final square exact on August 20, 2010.

The relationships and partnerships we enter into and commit to now (especially potent around November 15) are strategic, both personally and on a broader level. There's a sort of "keeping your eye on the prize" vibe. Relationships we enter into or solidify now are designed with long-term goals in mind, especially related to career ambitions, public advancement and reaching our potentials as human beings.

The key will be to form relationships and partnerships with people whose long-term goals are compatible with your own. Partnerships that can help both parties cover ground they could not cover alone. Fully understanding what both you and the other person bring to the table and offer is very important. No selling ourselves short or buying into image over substance. It has to be a fair deal.

With a long-term square between Saturn and Pluto involved, I expect many ugly splits and broken alliances as the true ambitions and characters of both people and groups/institutions continue to come to visibility.

And here is the Libra-Capricorn square tension. Libra doesn't want to sully the experience of love, relationship harmony and the pleasure of another's company with the requirements of the hardcore Pluto in Capricorn agenda. And Pluto in Capricorn doesn't want to have to temper ambitions and adjust agendas to accomodate things like...other people! Or what's fair, just or harmonious.

The people at the top of the power hierarchies these days commit crimes against humanity to further their agendas...they don't bother with such concepts as human rights and dignity.

So these dynamics are inevitably going to cause discomfort because we certainly must keep in mind the Plutonic morphing of our structures and the various competing motivations and goals for long-term collective progress. The power plays, the strategic partnerships, the surface-level diplomacy hiding bared teeth. And as we restructure, the Libra demands for justice, peace and fairness are going to be fighting for inclusion as primary considerations in the long-range agendas. Saturn in Libra is now the dispositor (major layer of influence) of Pluto in Capricorn...

Allegiances and alliances that were once hidden will be pushed to the surface by Pluto's relentless rooting around and penetration to core reality, especially within structural hierarchies and power dynamics.

All that is going to place some strain on our Libra energy as it seeks to maintain balance and equilibrium - another great Saturn in Libra challenge. Keeping the peace, as well as a state of inner peace, as the structural set-ups and institutions are in a state of Plutonic turmoil and uncertainty.

Keeping our calm little centres in the midst of a beyond-our-control Plutonic shitshow is a major theme of Pluto, in general. With Saturn in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn, our challenge will be to keep things from upending completely, struggling at times to keep the scales balanced - or at least in the process of balancing. Maintaining our relationships. Being aware of what is going on beneath the surface but maintaining the hard-won Libra truce whenever possible.

We'll have our Libra sense of injustice triggered many times during this transit as people strive to dominate and control and come out on top in the Capricornian hierarchies. We'll be challenged to get serious, get real and become more effective with our efforts to expose tyranny.

The possibility of bitter Plutonic betrayals and dramatic meltdown splits (especially career-related) will be lessened if we did the work related to the most recent Venus retrograde in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn. If we learned our lessons then about staying true to who we really are in our relations with others and if we battled for that when necessary as Venus opposed Pluto from Cancer and then squared it again in the closing square from Libra, this should ensure that we enter into only suitable relationships at this point.

Other Saturn in Libra themes include: maturing our relationship dynamics, restructuring into relationships of true equals, using the structures of our relationships as a vehicle for personal maturation, growth and success, growing up related to culturally-reinforced expectations of relationships and the people within them. Fulfilling our responsibilities to the people with whom we are in relationship. Maintaining a state of inner equilibrium no matter what is going on around us. The struggle for justice, particularly social justice. Human rights. Peace, fairness and equality - and making those at the very least equally important as power, money and image within our structures. Art as a catalyst for social and structural change.

Saturn in Libra will also involve facing and maturing the slippery Libra qualities like social artifice, telling people what they want to hear - not what you really think or feel, passive aggressiveness, inability to ask for what one wants, codependency and basic underhanded social tricks.

With Saturn in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, the Pluto in Libras have their first real initiation into leadership roles within the public power structures. (God, help us.) This continues throughout the next 15 years of the Pluto in Capricorn transit as it squares their natal Pluto in Libras.

As the Pluto in Libras take on positions of more responsibility and power within the crumbling structural set-ups, they will be challenged to use their "cutting the crap in relationship dynamics" skills while maintaining as much harmony as possible. I'm sure the horrific ways many people interact with each other these days, especially in the business world, will bring many a Pluto in Libra to meltdown-level frustration. (They already do.)

The growing lack of common decency and erosion of human dignity will be big issues for the Pluto in Libras. Transforming out of the hideous state of human relations and levels of injustice into right relations is going to be a long, often difficult process. But there's hope that taking on this Plutonic process can head off World War III, no matter how hell-bent world governments are to instigate it.

As Saturn moves through Libra, strong leadership in the breaking down of outdated, crystallized relationship dynamics that stifle the human soul and the ability to love ourselves and others is a responsibility that rests on the shoulders of the Pluto in Libras. We're between 25 and 38 years old now, so I guess it's time. We've been doing this generational Plutonic soul work behind the scenes, mostly undetected, and now as Saturn transits, we make it more publicly visible.

The Pluto in Libras will have their work cut out for them attempting to bring the the whole of the structural set-ups to a state of equilibrium in the midst of continuing collapse, as well as creating new social systems and ways of doing things with equality, fairness and justice at the forefront.

With Pluto, there is the possibility of using its power to further dominate in already-existing power dynamics or to break down the domination/subjugation constructs so that something better can regenerate. We should be aware that both these dynamics will be going on, depending on the root motivation of the person.

There is the ability to choose the egalitarian track and sever ties with as much of illegitimate hierarchy as possible, but there is also the choice to fit into the hierarchical structures as they exist and use the social wizardry of Pluto in Libra to pull the wool over people's eyes.

From a previous post related to the Libra-Capricorn square:

"Restructuring within hierarchical power structures, new balance of power, new relationships, new allegiances, all with big, old "brotherly love" grins on their faces. Showing a surface level of Libra peace and cooperation while the root motivations and strategic actions remain hidden to the people. Look beneath the surface, when the cameras are off, to see what's really going on behind our backs, in our names."

The rebalancing of masculine and feminine is also a big challenge, especially within the career/home continuum. The feminine is coming to the table as a full partner, nothing less.

On a global scale, we've seen an initial restructuring of power relations at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh during the last weekend in September. We saw the G20 nations take the reins from the G8 on world economic issues, a process of which most citizens were (and still are) ignorant. New power players coming to the table, fusing agendas.

At that time, the Sun was in Libra (diplomatic relations) squaring Pluto in Capricorn (hidden strategic manoevres within power hierarchies) on the first degrees of those cardinal signs. The Saturn-Pluto square on November 15 will structurally cement the new allegiances and power relationships begun then, as the world leader personalities met behind closed doors guarded by 4,000 riot police.

So to recap: the Saturn in Libra - Pluto in Capricorn square we're heading to on November 15 is the first of the big cardinal squares we will experience over the next six years. Grand-scale leadership shifts, advancement of agendas and jockeying for position on a global scale. And corresponding new directions, partnerships, relationship dynamics and allegiances on a personal level with an eye toward reaching our full potentials, especially in the public/career realm.

I must say, this post is very dry! But it's Saturn. What can you do?

Regardless, the shift of Saturn into cardinal energy and solid movement out of such a transitional time feels like welcome news...

Self-Taught Astrologers Vs. Standardized Astrological Education

So I'm a self-taught astrologer. It's been a relatively short but (sometimes brutally) intensive course of study/practise.

Books, internet, astrology message boards, practising on people (sorry people!) and daily observation of transiting planets were the main avenues I took.

The ideas and techniques of other astrologers have certainly influenced the development of my own astrological take (as I've influenced others), but there is no one who can take credit for my personal astrological analysis or perspective. I worked hard for it, and it's mine.

I haven't learned from any one astrologer or any one course of study and didn't take formal courses or classes from other astrologers -  not necessarily because I didn't want to (at least in the beginning). I was open to the idea. It was more so that it just wasn't in my stars, so to speak, to learn that way. Initially, I didn't have the money to take classes or courses, so I learned on my own. Then I realized this was the way for me to go - choosing my own course of study, bit-by-bit, and letting my particular practise of astrology come into existence on its own terms.

I think for people who are meant to access it, astrology is inherent in a lot of ways. One day you start to read it or hear about it and it just means something to you. From there, a process is triggered by which it is drawn to the surface, into conscious, day-to-day life. But it feels as if you've always had the knowledge inside. It just takes a while to fully develop the language used to access and express it.

I think a do-it-yourself (DIY) style is fairly common among astrologers. At the same time, it's also fairly common to take a specific course of study under specific astrologers as teachers.

My view is that it depends entirely upon the individual which way of learning is preferable. To each his/her own. I wouldn't suggest one way of learning astrology is better than another or makes a person more of an astrologer. A mix of formal classes and self-study would be a potent way to learn, but again, it depends on the case and the means available. It depends what's in the stars. It depends what you have access to and whether you have the expendable fiat currency to throw down for it. (The demand for standardized education for astrologers has a really strong classist reek to it, and I would bet money it's coming from middle and upper-middle class astrologers...)

There is a push in some astrology circles these days (including in Calgary) for standardized astrological education. I'm, of course, opposed to this because I feel this is not necessary across the board, and I think it would be quite stifling to the creative side of astrology - the spiritual art aspect - to have this imposed.

I understand that people who want standardized education want to weed out the fakes. They wish to make astrology more accepted in the mainstream by making it necessary for astrologers to have a certain standardized education before practising professionally.

I just don't think this is the way to go, for aforementioned reasons, but also, I've never been a mainstream-accepted kind of gal, and I don't think mainstream acceptance is something we should demand all astrologers strive for.

Mainstream acceptance, if it comes about, should be based on the stellar work of astrologers impressing people to such an extent that they say, "Hmm...there might be something to this." Acceptance and respect in the mainstream could naturally come about as a byproduct of excellent astrological work, but just as I found out that it wasn't in my best interests to try to get in with the popular kids in high school, I think making mainstream acceptance an across-the-board goal is not a good idea.

I think this push is biased to the scientific/psychological side of things. I don't consider astrology a hard science and I don't consider myself a psychologist, so again, this is not something I can personally get behind.

And let's be honest - this also has to do with money and the desire for a broader clientele. There's nothing wrong with that. I just don't think imposing standardized astrological education is the way to go to achieve that. (A little control freak-y, no?)

Yes, there is a basic system of astrology, and to call yourself an astrologer, you need to know and use that system.

But even what that basic system is depends on whom you ask.

I was shocked when I first found out that some astrologers don't use signs or houses! They use only aspects between/among the planets in their analysis. Other astrologers don't use the outer planets at all - meaning no Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. Then there is the choice between tropical and sidereal (the two major branches), the choice of house system (there are many - and again, some astrologers don't use any!), what planets/bodies you consider important enough to include in your analysis, and then the variations in interpretation among astrologers.

There are so many choices to make over the course of developing one's practise of astrology. I really feel that there are as many ways of practising astrology as there are astrologers.

And yeah, that leaves astrology open to watered-down versions practised by people who have not really put the time and effort into it. People who practise "soft" astrology and deal in textbook generalities or who water astrology down with a lot of other concepts to the point where it's more of a token kind of thing. This bugs the hell out of me, too, at times. I totally get that.

That New Agey wellness centre owner I wrote about in "Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret..." is a prime example of this. She had very little understanding of astrology when I worked there. I introduced her to some astrological concepts and did a reading for her. Within months of ousting me from her business, she had declared herself an astrologer and was charging for readings. Now, knowing how much time, effort and practise it takes to gain a mastery of astrology (especially enough to do paid readings), I know it was impossible for her to be practising anything other than "soft" astrology mixed with other concepts.

(I've actually experienced this type of "Insta-Astrologer" thing more than once.)

So yeah, I get it. It's irritating as fuck when you've personally put the time and effort into something, really committed to it, lived it, and then people latch onto the label of "astrology" or "astrologer" in a very watered-down sense to sell a few more readings.

This definitely could be damaging to the credibility of astrology in the mainstream. But I can't personally stop people from selling watered-down astro-babble, as long as they're keeping it legal. All I can hope is that the proof will be in the pudding and these shortcut-takers will eventually reap what they sow.

The other side of the coin is enforced standardized astrological education, which bugs me just as much. Because who determines what the "standardized" astrological education is? Who determines what we all "have to know," how we must come to know it and how much we must pay to learn it? Who determines what is important to teach and what isn't? Which astrologers have their work included and which don't? Which versions of astrology are the accepted ones? And which ones aren't? From whose perspective is it taught?

Outside the very, very basics, it's up for debate.

I couldn't promote a standardized way of learning astrology. What I can get behind is - do what's right for you. Follow your passion and what interests you at the time. Certain areas will draw you in and just make sense, and there's your personal track. This is how people get to the astrology that pours out of their souls. This is how they get to the astrology only they can practise, from the perspective only they can bring.

Early on, as I moved away from relying on other people's interpretations and started doing my own interpretation of the zodiac, I erroneously believed that I used an "evolutionary" perspective of the chart. Now, I can't say where I first saw these words or in what context, but this was the way I felt I personally looked at the birth chart.

It was also the way I looked at my own life, pre-astrology. It related to an idea that there were larger reasons for my personal life, that there were broader goals and dynamics going on that I couldn't necessarily see. And there was a force behind this personal life of mine ensuring that the seeds of potential inside me were brought to fruition.

In basic terms, this way looking at the birth chart meant holding as a working hypothesis that we're born at the time that we are under the conditions that we are for evolutionary reasons both personal and collective. That our personal lives are connected to broader collective forces related to what has come before, to what exists presently and to what is yet to come. Our astrological themes are purposeful with this outlook of the birth chart, and the signs of the zodiac are multi-layered, relating to unfolding processes, rather than fixed traits that we "are" according to our astrology.

So through my course of learning and practising as a fledgling astrologer, I read books, articles and analysis by a lot of astrologers. I participated on internet message boards with professional astrologers. I contributed my work, integrated what was meaningful to me from the work of others and didn't much bother with the rest.

I honestly had no idea that Evolutionary Astrology (TM) was a specific course of study stemming from astrologers Jeffrey Wolf Green, Steven Forrest and Jan Spiller.

I had no idea there were entire Evolutionary Astrology schools turning out a particular brand of Evolutionary Astrologers.

So you can see how this would be a bit of a dilemma with me (early on) referring to myself as an "evolutionary" astrologer. I knew my perspective of the chart was evolutionary rather than fixed (as I explained previously), but I didn't practise astrology in the particular way taught by those astrologers.

For example, that specific method of Evolutionary Astrology uses the concept of past lives and has quite a strong psychological tone.

I don't use the concept of past lives. I don't believe or disbelieve in them, necessarily. It's just that the concept of past lives isn't essential to my perspective of the birth chart. I explain energetic dynamics in other ways. While I can see past lives as potentially useful for illustration's sake, I find that using that paradigm sometimes leads to dynamics I don't particularly like - including the misapplication of concepts like "bad karma," etc.

I also don't use psychology as the driving force behind my analysis.

I have read books by Jeffrey Wolf Green, Steven Forrest and Jan Spiller and enjoyed aspects of technique and interpretation from all three. (I also diverge from their analysis in a number of fundamental ways.)

At the same time, I found the work of many other astrologers (and astrology hobbyists) equally compelling.

There is a strong element of critical thinking necessary for anyone to learn any subject and then do their own thing with it. And as I've said, looking at the chart with an evolutionary eye doesn't require using the specific techniques of any one astrologer or group of astrologers.

So I was quite surprised when I was at work about two years ago and a woman came into the store. It came up that I was an evolutionary astrologer, and she said, "Oh, so you've studied at Rose Marcus' school!"

I had no idea who Rose Marcus was at the time. (It turns out she's an astrologer in Vancouver, B.C., who teaches the Jeffrey Wolf Green et al. school of Evolutionary Astrology).

So odd.

So here I have to make the distinction between Evolutionary Astrology (as taught by Jeffrey Wolf Green, Steven Forrest, Jan Spiller and their students) and astrology with an "evolutionary" perspective.

Those astrologers can take credit for the preceding form...not the latter.

(I don't refer to myself as an evolutionary astrologer anymore.)

What I've come to understand through my interactions in astrology circles is that for every astrologer who gains some level of mass appeal and name recognition, there are probably 30 more, working away in comparative obscurity, who do work of similar quality. Their work is equally important in contributing to the energetic body of astrology as a whole, to the progression of the collective astrological databank as it grows and does its thing in the world.

I think the singling out of certain big name astrology stars (haha...as much as there is such a thing!) is a bit of a Pluto in Leo throwback. The doling out of personal acclaim/stardom is a little on the excessive side these days. This isn't taking away from the work these astrology stars have done, but I always have to look at the people who are NOT being as recognized and applauded, at the very important contributions they make to much less fanfare, to balance the story out...

You can't believe your own press, people - especially when you're the ones writing it!