Simmering, Simmering Beneath the Summer Ease...

We're experiencing a very nice Grand Air Trine today with Mercury in Gemini, the Moon in Libra and Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius - in effect all day until the Moon enters Scorpio in the evening. 

Flowing energy related to the intellectual, social, communicative realms of life. 

Like the Earth trines last Monday, this gives us a nice boost after some difficult and intense aspects, especially the New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto. 

This Grand Air Trine takes some pressure off. For a while... heh heh 

Wednesday, July 1 (Canada Day) is a big day with a lot of aspects going on simultaneously. Multi-layered action with lots of shifts throughout the day. Uranus goes retrograde at 26 Pisces at 1:37 a.m. MDT. Mercury in Gemini then squares Uranus in Pisces while also trining Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius. A tense aspect (square) mixed with easier, flowing aspects (trines). We've also got Venus in Taurus squaring the Aquarius bodies (tense aspects) while sextiling Uranus in Pisces (easier aspect). 

We've already experienced the Sun and Mercury in Taurus squaring that Aquarius triple conjunction. (Mercury three times due to its retrograde.) 

This week, we experience the last two personal planets - Venus and Mars - in Taurus making that square. It's been quite the process. Again, this is the keeping it real, grounding, slow and steady progress of earth sign Taurus checking the expansive, idealistic, future-oriented energy of Chiron, Neptune and Jupiter in Aquarius. Making our plans for the future personally real and meaningful, according to our own values. The process of all the personal planets in Taurus, in turn, squaring the Aquarius triple conjunction is what this is all about. 

Being honest about the reality in which we find ourselves in the here and now on this planet and making progress that is real and personally meaningful toward future plans. Taking the right steps, feet on the ground, while our eyes are on where we wish to go, offsetting the possibility of getting too caught up in the promise and the idealism, to the detriment of earthy practicality. Yes, we live on Earth. Whatever we want to do, we have to make it a reality here despite people's claims to the contrary. 

With Venus, we have to be real in our relationships - especially the relationships we solidify and take further - in the face of the new chapter we're developing in our lives. Maintaining boundaries around our values and needs and making sure we don't get caught up in visions of others that don't feel right. We have to be comfortable with where we're heading. No fronting. With Mars in Taurus squaring the Aquarius bodies on July 6, we are challenged to go after what we want in a grounded way, valuing real, physical progress and solid foundations as a base. No skipped steps. Dealing successfully with physical limitations and timing as we make progress with our personal goals. 

I know this sounds like a broken record, but the patience required with Taurus is sometimes monumental. So I do think this has to be reinforced, especially in light of the leaps the Aquarius triple conjunction is prone to. Chiron, Neptune and Jupiter are all retrograde in Aquarius at this point, and I think these Venus/Mars squares should now be able to hold their own with this triad. The earthy, grounded influence should be able to dig in more substantially now that these three bodies are in retrograde motion. The emphasis is less on surrendering to the grand future vision and more on dealing in the here and now, staying in our bodies and using our sensual capacities as a guide. 

Mercury enters Cancer at 1:20 p.m. on Friday, July 3 and starts vibing with Pluto in Capricorn right away. 

Our communications are very loaded now, and prudent restraint can keep us from triggering emotional nuclear meltdowns with the wrong words. (I hope prudent restraint rules on the global stage, as well. No literal nuclear meltdowns, please!) Keeping in mind the heightened emotional state we and others are (possibly) in can do wonders here. Roots, home, family, country, emotional attachments...loaded areas with trigger fingers ready. Very fitting lead-in for the U.S. Independence Day. 

There is a lot simmering beneath the surface as the dirty dealings of the U.S. government come closer to the surface, to collective awareness. The depth of the corruption we are dealing with is immense. Worldwide with worldwide partners in crime. 

As usual, United States' Independence Day has some pretty hardcore subtext...and a ripple effect around the world. 

ABC News broke the story in 2007 that the Bush Administration/CIA had a master plan for Iran and methods to bring it about - black ops designed for destabilization and regime change. So you can see the possible role they are playing there now, stirring more uprising so that the U.S. is "forced" to intervene...bringing about the installation of the U.S.-friendly candidate. So many layers of propaganda to cut through. 

And I wonder why corporate-owned ABC broke the story? It doesn't seem to be the kind of information that is released unless it serves the agenda somehow. As a whole, we simply have to see through the constant parroting of "freedom and democracy, freedom and democracy." 

This brand of so-called freedom and democracy is vicious, murderous, bloody, corrupt, toxic to human life... 

"Let's not look back," Obama says, the good little Pluto in Virgo cleaning up after the PR disaster Pluto in Leo regime. 

Sweep it under the rug, and it never happened, right? 

Good thing Pluto says "hell no" on that front. And this is the thing. 

The Obama crew continues with the same agenda, but they will keep it contained, under wraps, within the system. No overblown egos demanding bragging rights and creating dangerous visibility here. It'll be kept clean under the Obama watch. Even more dangerous than those yahoo pseudo-cowboys. And it keeps tensions on the world stage ramped right up. Everyone ready to nuke each other. Murderous extremists are murderous extremists, regardless of race, sex, religion, country of origin or political views. 

Mercury opposes Pluto in Capricorn at 9:30 a.m. on July 4th. This aspect relates directly to the New Moon we experienced in Cancer on June 22 (same signs, same degrees). Again, uber powerful and loaded communication/intelligence/information with the possibility of triggering Plutonic meltdowns. Yikes. 

We can sit back and watch how the mainstream media is used as an ever-more blatant (and more precise) propaganda tool...and hopefully see beneath the surface regurgitation of the official line. 

Venus leaves Taurus for Gemini early morning July 5, just before Mars in Taurus starts the final squares of the personal planets to the Aquarius bodies and sextiles Uranus in Pisces the next day. July 7, we have the Full Moon lunar eclipse at 15 degrees Capricorn...the first of the three eclipses we are heading into. 

Again, we are also in the midst of two New Moons in Cancer, the second being a 29th degree total solar eclipse - the longest of the 21st Century. Big tie-ins with both Canada and the Unites States, as they are Sun in Cancer countries. So a big line-up this week. A lot of shifts. As always, there is a lot going on as people grin into their digital cameras during summer vacation...

Juno on 29 Pisces Conjunct Stationing Uranus

This is an interesting placement because you'll recall that Venus retrograded through Aries to 29 Pisces during the most recent Venus retro (March 5 - April 16). It stationed direct on that degree, spending 12 days there, and Mars conjuncted Venus there just as Venus was moving direct.

The 29th degree of Pisces is the last degree of the zodiac, corresponding with the last day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and this degree was a key to the themes of that Venus retrograde. Very much about clearing layer upon layer of relationship dynamics and holdover etheric impressions through spiritual/ancestral lines. Clearing out both the personal and the collective subconscious. Completing longstanding spiritual relationship contracts, wrapping up the loose ends there for a fresh start with Venus in Aries.

From a post when Venus was there:

"Now one last broom sweep of all the old cobwebs. Open the window for some fresh air and let the ghosts of relationships past swoosh right on out. Say goodbye to the etheric impressions that have been retrograde visiting. Shake the mat out at the front door and request that only new, satisfying dynamics be allowed to cross our doorsteps. Only those people who are befitting of who we are today. Those related to tired, old karmic patterns are no longer welcome!

And let's listen closely as Venus informs our hearts of who we are now and what we vitally need from our relationships from here on. What new ground we need to break in order to live our heart's desire lives...with people who fulfill our heart's desires. So we can inject new life into areas of Neptunian decay..."

Now Juno is on this degree as Uranus stations retrograde at 26 Pisces. (Uranus goes retro at 1:37 a.m. MDT on Wednesday morning, July 1)

Juno is the asteroid of soul mates, and this current placement relates to any last remnants from the Venus retrograde. Final release of relationship cycles past, especially any old self-sabotaging tendencies.

Understanding the concept of Juno soul mates as people who assist us to do soul work we could not do alone, there will be people in our lives/interactions we are having acting as the trigger for those completions, helping us to find our rightful places now by bringing up those last things we need to be aware of. Helping to guide us to greener pastures and ensuring we stay there. In Pisces, the relationships may not be strictly to people on the physical plane. The whispers and guidance of those who love us, past, present and future...

Any ways that we're still relating from old patterns should come to the forefront. Self-sabotaging relationship dynamics we are still in danger of falling into. Certain blinders we put on in our relations with others. Ways that we only see the good in people, missing huge red flags in the process. Self-sacrificial tendencies. Ways we numb ourselves in relationships.

Any relationships we are attempting to set up according to old rules, ideas or psychic space, especially with Neptunian themes, will probably have a "something isn't right" feel to them.

Again, we've done most of this work during the Venus retrograde, but this is a tricky degree. It's the culmination degree of the entire zodiac! So here, Juno is doing her duty for us, ensuring we have mastered the lessons here. Bringing people and interactions into our lives to show us both our progress and the areas where we need to tighten up a little. The 29th degree of every sign is like final exam time, and at 29 Pisces, the exam is a big one, all-encompassing. There is a lot at stake - for us and for those related to our spiritual lineage.

At the same time, we will be coming into contact with people or having interactions with a flavour related very much to our futures...especially with the Uranian connection dispositing Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius. Very exciting.

We are finding a new spiritual space for ourselves and finding corresponding relationships within that space.

Black Moon Lilith is conjunct Pluto right now, also, so we have to dig deep here to find that right space for ourselves. Listen carefully to the quiet, inner voice.

Two New Moons in Cancer and Eclipse Season, All Wrapped Up in a Plutonic Bow

Photo: Willow

So we've got some spicy Plutonic action going down with the New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto, kicking off two lunar eclipses and one total solar eclipse over the next month and a half.

New Moon in Cancer (1 degree) - Monday, June 22 at 1:35 p.m. MDT
Full Moon in Capricorn (15 degrees) *lunar eclipse* - Tuesday, July 7 at 3:21 a.m. MDT
New Moon in Cancer (29 degrees) *total solar eclipse* - Tuesday, July 21 at 8:35 p.m. MDT
Full Moon in Aquarius (13 degrees) *lunar eclipse* - Wednesday, August 5 at 6:55 p.m. MDT

A New Moon happens once every 28(ish) days when the Sun and Moon come together at the same degree of the zodiac. At this time, the Moon is located between the Sun and the Earth (Earth-Moon-Sun), and the illuminated half of the Moon is positioned toward the Sun, away from the Earth. From our vantage point on Earth, the Moon appears to go dark in the sky. The period just before a New Moon, as the Moon's reflected light is disappearing, is called the Dark of the Moon or Balsamic phase. So the point of Sun-Moon conjunction in the zodiac marks the end of the previous lunar cycle and the beginning of a new one - the New Moon.

A Full Moon also happens once every 28(ish) days but occurs when the Sun and Moon are in opposition to each other in the zodiac. This is the time when the Moon appears at its brightest as a full, round circle. The Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth now, away from the Sun. So the line-up is Moon-Earth-Sun.

Eclipses happen when there is an extra precise alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth. "The stars align!" We don't have eclipses all the time because the Moon's orbit around the Earth is a bit off in alignment with the Earth's orbit around the Sun. So only when those bodies line up very precisely do we have eclipses - every five or six months.

Solar eclipses always happen at a New Moon when the Moon (between the Sun and Earth) blocks or partially blocks the light of the Sun. Lunar eclipses always happen at a Full Moon (Sun-Earth-Moon) when the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon. Most eclipses are partial. Total eclipses are more rare.

Every once in a while, we also have two successive New (or Full) Moons in the same sign, and this is what is happening now.

We start with the New Moon at 1 degree Cancer tomorrow, June 22. We have a second New Moon July 21 at 29 degrees Cancer - the final degree, called the anaretic degree. This second New Moon at 29 degrees is also a total solar eclipse. Powerful stuff. The total eclipse of the Sun will be visible in southeast Asia and the western Pacific for up to six minutes, 39 seconds. This is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132!

Book-end New Moons in Cancer at the first and last degrees with a total solar eclipse on the anaretic degree.

There is a deep need for new energy and new expression with this sign. The sign of mothering, nurturing, family, home, emotion, past, roots, soul. A new integration of the emotional, soulful, feminine aspects of life and release from the past misuses and abuses of those things. New emotional territory. Especially in light of what we now know about the lack of integrity within our structures (especially economic/business/government), as they continue to break down and crumble around us. A new emotional reality is necessary.

And in light of the backdrop of the Aquarius triple conjunction, I think this indicates new soul families coming together, brought together through necessity, beginning to form new, like-minded communities. Connected not by blood but by soul-purpose. These indicators have been coming up for a while now. It's been a long process of weeding through false karasses to get to the real, vital connections...

Sandwiched between these two New Moons in Cancer, we have a Full Moon lunar eclipse on July 7 at 15 degrees Capricorn conjunct Black Moon Lilith at 19 degrees.

With Pluto in Capricorn involved so strongly in kicking off this eclipse period, you can see how much work there is to do along that Cancer-Capricorn polarity. The penetration and breaking down of old, outdated structures and the emotional ties that bind us to them and, therefore, to certain soul death. The transformation into something more sustaining continues its slow crawl...

Collectively, we have a lot to do.

This polarity loves tradition and convention. The North American Dream. Big single-family home. Husband and wife. Two SUVs in the driveway. A boat. A camper. Dirtbikes. A four-wheeler. Two or three kids. A dog. A cat. Dad works in an office Monday to Friday. Brings work home on the weekends. Maybe Mum does, too.

But with Pluto involved, we see that the conventional standards that have been set are starting to crack around the edges. They have become more image than reality in many cases. People mortgaged and debted up to their eyeballs to keep the image afloat. Dragging themselves through soul-crushing work to support it. Stuffing down their feelings and soul-urges to maintain "the way things are." Setting their lives up in the ways they think they should, in the standard ways, and still finding themselves unhappy, unfulfilled, unsatisfied. The feeling that something is off. Many things.

People can putty the cracks, paint them, hang a picture over them. But with Pluto underway in its 16-year transit of Capricorn, sooner or later, anything that is not right within these structural set-ups will have to be dealt with. No more putty. No more smiling into the camera as the house falls down around us. No more faking it. Pluto knows the areas that lack integrity. And here it is working on some sacred cows - our homes and our businesses. Our families and our careers. Our feelings and our public images. Our definitions of success. Image versus reality. How we believe we are "supposed" to live. According to which standards. To whose benefit.

Pluto demands that we prioritize integrity and gut-level honesty over image, no matter how deep the changes we have to make to get there.

The "standard lives" we have set up for people have become detrimental to the future of humanity on this planet. Life in the bubble. A series of single-serving consumptions. Nothing else exists. Nothing else matters but that we can enjoy living the North American Dream. It supports a tyranny.

What of the people who don't fit into that North American Dream? What of the people left outside those nice, neat, boxed structures and roles? What of the backs that North American Dream is being lived on?

The Aquarian winds are blowing, and those safe, secure boxes people are living in (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) have to morph. At the very least, to allow space for those who don't fit into those boxes. To let go of the strangle-hold there.

The family structure, the business structure, the structures of government - being run in too many cases like corporations, the standard structured roles leaving emotional and soul needs unmet, leaving soul-driven purposes for being on this planet unfulfilled...

The structures we have set up for people to live within have become a version of hell in a lot of cases. They result in hell in a lot of cases. Things have to change.

Black Moon Lilith is also involved here. She is conjunct the Moon in Capricorn at the Full Moon lunar eclipse. And here it is imperative that we start to listen to the deep feminine wisdom - all of it, not just the soft and cuddly parts. Not just the glamourous and sexy parts. The dark, dirty, ugly, denied parts are pounding on the door. Some Kill Bill shit. And this time, we can't leave BML and all those who live her consciousness out in the cold. It's just not going to work this time. The paradigm has to shift. We're past due for this integration. We have to start addressing this stuff. The dark feminine will not remain a hostage, along for the ride in this immature, imbalanced shitshow any longer.

There are different astrological interpretations of eclipses. I'm not an expert on them by any means. But I do think they amp up the energies and themes of the New or Full Moons. They make the emotional processes involved there a bit stronger and deeper. More all-encompassing. Eclipses also seem to me to signal a dropping away of one backdrop and the overlay of a new one. A sort of mini paradigm shift. One layer discharged and another put in place. It could be subtle or it could be obvious.

I remember watching the total lunar eclipse in Virgo in February of 2008 from a park near my apartment. It was a very emotional day. I drank too much red wine. I was crying. I kept saying, I can't do this anymore related to Virgoan work/service and how impossible it was becoming to continue with the level of dysfunction there was in my work situation. But not only about work. It was about how I just couldn't do ANY of it anymore. The underlying psychic and emotional pain related to "how things were" was too much to wade through anymore. Too many people getting away with too much bad behaviour. So things very much came to an emotional head around the Virgo themes for me. The eclipse was beautiful, though. I had a perfect view. The sky was completely clear and it was just stunning. It made me feel better out there in that park, crying to the moon.

So expect some emotional times with these eclipses.

I read that solar eclipses usually relate to external events while lunar eclipses relate to more subtle, unseen aspects. Makes sense.

But with a solar eclipse in Cancer and a lunar eclipse in Capricorn, you can see the combination, the interplay of this polarity. External shifts triggered by internal, emotional changes. Changes in the family structure, especially in the role of the mother/feminine/nurturing energy, resulting from changes in the business structures. And vice versa.

With Pluto so involved in kicking off this eclipse season, I think these eclipses do relate to deep, structural and emotional shifts. Sloughing off the layers of past-related emotion that cling and constrict, collected through generation after generation who struggled to live their lives according to the pre-set standards...or who were considered failures if they could not do so.

Coming to terms with the loss of innocence in some ways related to those North American Dream structural set-ups. Processing feelings of guilt and disappointed expectations.

Oh, the disappointment of mothers! It's a huge one. Pluto has its work cut out for it. But it's really the sadness and disappointment of all family members when the structural set-ups don't meet their needs. When the trip to Disneyland doesn't bring the family any closer together - instead, making everyone even more aware of how far apart they are. I remember taking weekend trips with my family. Staying in a hotel! With a pool! Eating fast food! Ice cream! Whatever we wanted! But still having an empty, lonely feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something very fundamental was not right with the whole set-up. There were unseen, unspoken pressures keeping us apart.

Think of every mother who ever stood at a sink full of dirty dishes with a sadness in her heart about her life with her family. Every sigh. Every disappointment. Every moment of loneliness she had to bear alone.

There's not much that can make a heart heavier than the weight of the disappointments of a family, is there?

With Pluto involved, there is also the processing of rage of people who have been speaking about the damaging effects of these rigid constructs all along. We felt how wrong "the way things are" were all along, and the ability to say "I told you so" now is just not cutting it. The waste. The damage. The pain caused. It's sometimes overwhelming.

And that's why we have to do better, instead of going on pretending the current set-ups meet our needs. We need the soul back as a guiding priority.

But then, at the same time, Pluto has only just scratched the surface, hasn't it? Most people continue living in these same standard set-ups. Most don't see much change at all. They hear about economic problems on the news and read about the numbers of unemployed, but it doesn't affect them personally, beyond a little belt-tightening. They see more police in the streets, hear the police helicopter circling. Doesn't mean much to them.

But the pressure is building...

Thinking about all those people going about their lives, continuing with their version of the North American Dream, I sometimes think I must be seeing things! haha That everything is going on and will go on just as it has...

But no. I think not. Because I know that Pluto is retrograding back to zero and will begin it's unearthing full force again September 11. Pluto peels away our layers of denial bit by bit, unrelenting. It forces awareness on us if we do not take it willingly. Pluto in Capricorn has a long-term goal here.

I think these New Moons in Cancer (with Pluto/Capricorn involved) also have to do with releasing the family structures (and expectations) of the Pluto in Cancer generation. You can see that that generation had to deal with some messed up Plutonic shit related to family and clan. Things got busted up there and transformed into some sort of hybrid of past and present. There are some very messed up dynamics going on between that gen and their children, the Pluto in Leos/Baby Boomers, that need to be dealt with.

Possibly, these eclipses will force a deeper examination and collective understanding of the obsessive security fears (including expansion of the police state), patriotism, killing for the North American Dream stuff. They could stir events which bring on increased awareness of these control mechanisms and of the power structures being held in place.

Events could happen which pseudo-justify further crackdowns on the people or other countries leading to more people putting on the Plutonic X-Ray glasses and seeing through it. Seeing the roots of it, which go, in a large part, to the Pluto in Cancers and their successor children.

This mentality has leaked into Canada, also, unfortunately, with our army fighting U.S. wars for oil and power with talk of the horrific North American Union and "Security and Prosperity Partnership."

Both Canada and the United States have Suns in Cancer, incidentally, so both countries should be profoundly affected by these New Moons, especially the 29 Cancer New Moon/total solar eclipse on July 21. Their very expressions on the world stage as "protectors" are on the transformational offering stand. The dirty aspects of these countries' agendas are coming more fully into the collective consciousness...as is their collusion. More and more, Canada is acting as an arm of the United States government, no longer an autonomous country. I think the Canadian public is past due for a wake up call on this front.

Oh, so much work to do, and Pluto has only just begun!

I'm tired already. I think I was born tired already. :)

C'est Interessant

The Coming Insurrection written by a group of French anarchists called the Tarnac 9.

"It goes like this: they hired our parents to destroy this world, now they’d like to put us to work rebuilding it, and – to top it all off – at a profit."

This is very much what I see going on with the power shift from the Pluto in Leos to the Pluto in Virgos. Or rather, the current hybrid power structure where the Pluto in Leo agenda is still the major motivator...

The Pluto in Leos in power ran this materialist, consumer capitalist shitshow into the ground. It was "play now, plan later," ride-the-bubble, instant gratification. Ego games ruled over all else. They took it to extremes, as Pluto does. And en masse, they couldn't get beyond their own personal desires for the good life and the spotlight. This was their dangling carrot...

And now the Pluto in Virgos come along and are expected to clean up after all this. No.

But a lot of them will. There's no doubt.

This mess can't just be swept under the rug. But this is what we are being set up for. Clean it up and it never happened. Everything goes on as before, only "new and improved!" Squeaky clean. The Pluto in Leos can just retire (the ones who can, at least), relax and enjoy their material spoils with no concern for the rest of the planet whatsoever.

Baby Bush can go live in his green-powered Texas ranch and forget about the million Iraquis he and his Daddy slaughtered, the prisoners tortured under his watch, the 3,500 dead American soldiers, the trillions of dollars stolen from the people, the misery his regime's policies have inflicted. They can go off and pat themselves on the backs about all they've personally accomplished.

And the Pluto in Virgos get to work fixing everything that has gone so off the rails...while continuing the same power structures.

I say no.

The powers-that-be, the decision-makers, are now implementing their "green regime," to be implemented by their army of "green revolution" soldiers.

But there has been no revolution here. No regime change here. They've just switched the widgets the factory is producing from plastic to biodegradable plant-based fibres. The underlying motivations for power are still there. The hierarchies are still reinforced. We're still stuck in the same systems, the same stratified structures, while being placated with reforms around the edges. "Greening" the same old power structures is the new dangling carrot...

Not good enough.

You can see how Pluto is used to manipulate, dominate and control here. Playing the generational obsessions like a fiddle.

With the Pluto in Leos it was materialism, the good life, living like kings and queens, personal accolades, fun, the power of personality and glamour...

And with the Pluto in Virgos, it is the promise of a green planet. Green business. Systems that function. Health. "Holism." That martyred service thing. (But who/what are they serving?)

The bone that will be thrown the Pluto in Libras is justice. This is how the same old structures will be kept in place. With an attempt to placate through a concern for justice, fairness, balance, calm, keeping the peace, diplomatic relationships. And beauty. Let's not forget the manipulative power of beauty.

With the Pluto in Scorpios, it would probably have to do with allowing certain taboos to be brought into the mix. Sexuality becoming less hidden. Allowing gay marriage. Poly. Allowing "alternative" dress in the workplace. Piercings and tattoos. Maybe the use of divination tools will be out in the open, more acceptable. Playing on the deep emotions and creating emotional connections, feelings of acceptance and attachments within the power structures as they exist.

This is the thing - we have to see through the whole power structure, the entire hierarchies (Pluto in Capricorn), instead of allowing ourselves to be manipulated in these superficial ways. Adding new layers to the current power structures to placate Pluto generation after Pluto generation does not solve the inherent problems.

The scary thing is that I know how much Virgo loves order and systemic functioning. Above all else. And I can see very clearly how this generation could go to extremes enforcing a certain order. Their green policies (or whatever particular policy at the forefront) could become an obsession by which they can't see the forest for the trees.

The other end of the polarity (Pisces) has the tendency to allow chaos to overwhelm, putting faith in whatever promises to lead them to better times. (*cough* Obama *cough*) Chaos is definitely something the powers-that-be use to manipulate the people and advance their agendas. As is blind faith - in a person, system, ideology, structure or combination of those things. The follow-the-leader, Master-Student thing has never had the potential to be more dangerous. This is also connected to the Pluto in Virgo gen, as the polarity point for Pluto becomes a major factor. Again, this generation must guard against setting up redundant, tail-end, old paradigm Pisces as the polarity, instead, defining it for themselves, detail by detail.

Each Pluto generation is succeptible to being played like this...so best to be aware.

Sun in Cancer late tonight MDT

The Sun enters Cancer just before midnight tonight and is in opposition to Pluto in Capricorn (exact at 1:42 a.m. on Tuesday).

Summer Solstice. Already! It is always shocking to me to think that the daylight hours start getting shorter (where I am) from here on in...

We now shift from having Mercury as dispositor (while the Sun was in Gemini) to having the Moon as the main body influencing the Sun. This is a relief in one respect as there was so much Mercury pressure going on recently. I've found the aftermath of the Mercury retrograde (squaring the Aquarius bodies) to be quite pressured and painful, actually. No real let-up there.

We're also working on a Mercury in Gemini square to Saturn in Virgo, exact 2:32 a.m. on Friday, June 26. So the stiff necks, headaches and mental stress and pressure are a continuing theme.

We have to take it easy and choose carefully what information we take in and what conversations we take part in. Limit to only what is necessary.

Thursday and Friday could be irritated, snappy work days. A lot of vice-tightening pressure and a strong chance for mental overload.

So the Moon becoming the dispositor of the Sun in Cancer takes some pressure off the overworked Mercury functions, but we are currently in the Dark of the Moon heading to a potent New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto.

This New Moon kicks off eclipse season which will involve a lunar eclipse in Capricorn conjunct Black Moon Lilith, a second New Moon in Cancer at the anaretic degree (29th) that is also a total solar eclipse, and another lunar eclipse in Aquarius. More on the New Moon and eclipses soon...

So still some intense cosmic action going on, especially what is going on with the Moon...our new dispositor of the Sun!

But we've also got those nice Earth trines to ease the passage here. Venus and Mars come together in Taurus tomorrow and then both trine Saturn in Virgo on Monday, just before the New Moon.

As always, ya got some difficulties and ya got some assistance. :)

Earth Trines To Ease Our Minds...

Photo: Willow

The Moon in Taurus conjuncts both Venus and Mars tomorrow morning (Friday) and then trines Saturn in Virgo. All this happens between 7:00 and 11:33 a.m. MDT.

The next morning, Saturday, the Moon moves to 26 Taurus and squares the Aquarius triple conjunction while sextiling Uranus in Pisces (also at 26 degrees).

These Moon aspects connect us emotionally to astro events just up ahead. We can feel them and start to get an emotional handle on them before they happen...

In Taurus, the Moon has an emotionally grounding and stabilizing influence. Thank goodness.

The astro events the Moon is preparing us for are the Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus, the subsequent trines of Venus and Mars to Saturn in Virgo, and the squares of Venus and Mars in Taurus to the Aquarius bodies (Chiron, Neptune and Jupiter - all moving retrograde) while also sextiling Uranus in Pisces.

First off...the Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus.

You'll recall that we have recently experienced a Venus retrograde period in Aries, which started a new 18-month Venus cycle. At the same time, we started a new 8-year cycle.

During its retrograde, Venus moved back to 29 Pisces, the final degree of the zodiac, for some relationship closet-cleaning. We turfed out old, dusty relationship dynamics and ghosts of relationships past that were taking up subconscious space.

As Venus was just moving direct again on that 29th degree of Pisces, Mars came along on April 21 and conjuncted it. 29th degree Pisces conjunction of Venus and Mars. Hmm...clearing out layers and layers of relationship dynamics and etheric impressions through spiritual/ancestral lines. Looking for a clean slate in the biggest, most all-encompassing way.

Combine that with almost immediate squares of both Mars and Venus in Aries to Pluto Rx in Capricorn, and we had a potent force designed to cut the crap in our relationships and in how we went about having our needs and wants met within those relationships. Nuclear meltdown time for any relationship detritus holding us back from our most vital, sustaining relations. Including entire relationships that we had outgrown.

As I said in a previous post, relationships that could no longer handle who we really were (or that were never quite right to begin with, all things considered) had to be left in the dust.

So throughout the second half of April, May and the first three weeks of June, Venus has trailed just behind Mars in the zodiac. They moved from the 29th degree of Pisces through Aries and half of Taurus in this formation.

And now Venus finally passes Mars in Taurus. They come together at the 15th degree on Sunday, June 21 at 7:09 a.m.

This has been a long-awaited union. It is with relief that Venus finally meets Mars here, and it should take some of the edge off. We've had a lot of battling, willful energy of late, and now Venus should soften the edges a bit. Here's the love, with Venus in its own sign. Earthy, practical, real, loving. Relaxing into the relationship changes we've made (including with the relationship to ourselves) and seeing that yes, they were all for the better. Getting a handle on where we are now, post-Arien battles and Plutonic meltdowns, and appreciating the new foundations we're building.

Big emphasis on maintaining boundaries. We've just learned a lot about ourselves and our relationships, and now we have to put what we've learned into practise. No falling back into old, habitual patterns.

Just after this conjunction, Venus and then Mars will trine Saturn in Virgo. A nice support for those Saturn in Virgo things we've been struggling with - health, daily work and service, habits, analysis, details, personal discernment, preferences, stripping away the unnecessary, making things right, staying on the right track, creating healthy, functioning systems, etc. If the weight and pressure have become almost unbearable on this front, these trines should offer assistance.

Things have been an immense struggle on the material/physical front for a lot of people. Money, employment, security, stability, trying to get things going in a concrete way...lots of stuck feelings, frustration and dead ends.

But the Sabian Symbol for the degree where Venus and Mars come together is encouraging:

An Old Man is Attempting, With a Degree of Success Unsuspected By Him, To Reveal The Mysteries To a Motley Group.

To me, this, combined with trines to Saturn in Virgo and in light of the Aquarian vibes, suggests that our efforts have not been fruitless. We are making more progress that we can see toward a better future for all.

Venus trines Saturn just after midnight, and Mars trines Saturn at 8:44 a.m. on Monday, June 22.

And all THIS goes down during the Dark of the Moon in Gemini, on its way to the New Moon at 1 degree Cancer at 1:35 p.m., June 22. Some nice, earthy, supportive aspects as we finish the lunar month and begin a new one...

But it just wouldn't be these times we're living in if it were too nice, would it? :)

Immediately after the New Moon in Cancer, the Moon opposes Pluto (2:22 p.m.). And during the wee hours the next morning (1:42 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23), the Sun in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn at 2 degrees of the signs. Yet more Plutonic shedding related to emotion/decision-making, inner wisdom/external progress, home/business. Old school Capricornian structures and old school emotional habits getting the Plutonic meltdown treatment. Breaking down what will no longer sustain along those lines. Letting go of the structures of the past and the emotional ties that bind us to them.

The Moon's movement in Taurus over the next two days is also preparing us for the squares of Venus and Mars in Taurus to Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter in Aquarius.

Venus and Mars are moving toward these squares now, and we should experience some pressure building toward the end of June. Venus squares these bodies July 1, and Mars does July 6 - the day before the lunar eclipse at 15 degrees Capricorn (trining Saturn in Virgo). A lot of earth energy involved here, which makes me think there will be more concrete progress involved. (Fingers crossed!)

We've already experienced the Sun in Taurus and Mercury in Taurus (three times due to the retrograde) squaring the bodies in Aquarius. This Taurus energy is the grounding, "keeping it real" influence on that triple conjunction - which hasn't been an easy function to play. That triple conjunction has an intense agenda of its own, and staying in the here and now, feet on the ground, has been a challenge, to say the least.

But now, all three bodies in Aquarius - Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter - are moving retrograde. We go back over the territory we've covered since these bodies first came together. This is a good thing because I'm not quite sure just what ground we have covered. haha! So much of it was related to the unseen, energetic realms. A lot of dreamy, dreamy future-oriented stuff, but also with a wounded dystopic vision mixed in there at times. The dangers of not keeping it real were very apparent with this one.

Anyway, I think the Venus-Mars squares will now be able to hold their own with this triad. The earthy, grounded influence should be able to dig in more substantially now that these three bodies are in retrograde motion.

Not only that, but Uranus in Pisces (semi-sextile the Aquarius bodies at 26 degrees) goes retrograde, as well, on June 30. Uranus in Pisces disposits the Aquarius bodies, and Venus and Mars in Taurus will sextile it around the same time they square the Aquarius triple conjunction.

Making the promise of these times a reality. Keeping a realistic, practical outlook and taking concrete steps instead of being swept away/off course by the possibilities and the dreams.

So yes, this means that all three outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), as well as Chiron and Jupiter will be moving retrograde by July 1. We've got a lot of processing and recalibrating to do related to what we've just experienced. (What WAS that all about? hahaha) There are a lot of pieces we missed the first time over these zodiac degrees (especially with Neptune and Chiron involved), and we need these retros so that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves. Don't think of retrogrades as a negative thing. It's very important that we stay on track, and we now take a sober second look at things while all these bodies are in retrograde motion.

Willow's World - Or Why Bouts of Unemployment Are Blessings in Disguise

Receptionist: "Good morning, you've reached Imbalanced Corporate Hierarchy, how may I help you?"

Willow: "Hello, yes. I'm afraid I won't be able to come in to work today. You see, Uranus in Pisces is stationing retrograde directly on my South Node and in combination with all those Mercury squares to Aquarius we've been dealing with, well, I have a massive headache, a stiff neck, and I'm completely exhausted."

Receptionist: "I see. So you're calling in..."

Willow: "I have to call in Uranus stationing on South Node today. I'm ever-so sorry."

Receptionist: "All right. I'll pass the message along to the boss."

Willow: "Yes, and as Uranus will be pretty much stuck there for the next three weeks, combined with the resulting feeling of near paralysis, I feel I'll be out for a while."

Receptionist: "I...see."

Willow: "Yes, I'm of the understanding that I'm meant to hunker down and process whatever is going on. I really have no choice in the matter. Again, so sorry about this."

Receptionist: "Hmmm...OK. So you have no idea when you'll be back?"

Willow: "Well, I could hazard a guess, but since I have all sorts of transformational yuckery going on, I really couldn't pin it down at this exact moment."

Receptionist: "All right, then. I'll pass on the message."

Mercury Re-enters Gemini Tonight...

At 8:47 p.m. MDT.

So today, Mercury is on the 29th degree of Taurus, and I have a headache. :) I've had one off and on since the final squares to the Aquarius triple conjunction.

The Moon at 29 Aquarius squared Mercury at 29 Taurus at 3 p.m. before it entered Pisces. A nice dissolution vibe.

It has been a difficult Mercury retrograde in a lot of respects. A lot of quite demanding mental processing with three sets of Mercury squares to the bodies in Aquarius. It's been hard to keep a handle on "where we are," even with the earthy Taurus influence. I've struggled with maintaining mental boundaries during this time and keeping unwelcome influences away. Unwelcome, invading thoughts had to be brought under control.

Mercury is still passing through the retrograde shadow, but it will enter new territory on Monday, June 15, at 1 degree Gemini.

Today is a day to just relax, cease any worrying or analyzing, and let Mercury finish doing its thing in Taurus.

I've had some neck and shoulder pain and stiffness in the last week (since the squares), and this has also been reported to me by other people. Pain and stiffness in these areas are to be expected with Mercury-Uranus contacts - Mercury in Taurus sextiled Uranus in Pisces and then squared Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter in Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus.

Mercury-Uranus contacts relate to the difficulty of processing the sometimes blinding, lightning-strike insights of Uranus through our minds (and in Taurus, our bodies, as well) and integrating them in our day-to-day mindset, communications, ideas, interactions. Uranus uses our spines like lightning rods, and this seems to sometimes cause pain and stiffness as we attempt to process the energy and insight we're being infused with through the tops of our heads on down. Some sort of sticking point between the crown and throat chakras that we have to work out...

So with Mercury on the 29th (anaretic) degree of Taurus, we're challenged to really ground ourselves and mentally place ourselves on the Earth. Allow the understanding of where we are now to take its place in our tired, overloaded brains. :)

And Screw You, Too, Moon Inconjunct Saturn!

The only aspect - a testy one - on this, another long and arduous day in a string of long and arduous days...

Until about midnight (MT) when the Moon in Aquarius trines the Sun in Gemini.

Screw You, Mars Conjunct Chiron on the MC!

Well, I found out today that the store is not re-opening. I had a feeling that was what was going on, but the owner assured me no, that he would be re-opening.

So I waited and scouted out locations, called real estate agents, pounded the pavement. All for nothing.

And honestly, the owner could not have been a bigger piece of shit over the whole thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I found an available location on 17th Avenue (pretty much the only area the owner wanted to look), called the landlord about it to get the details and then told the owner. He was supposed to call me after he talked to the landlord. A week later, after hearing nothing, I finally called him to find out that not only had he decided against that location, he had decided against 17th Avenue altogether (the only street he would consider previously). So all the scouting I had done was for nothing.

He had also decided he wouldn't pay above a certain number per square foot. Again, information that would have been good for me to know two freaking months ago! Which I told him...

He said he would call the next day and we could discuss what was going on...

Didn't bother calling. Didn't answer his cell phone. Didn't answer my e-mail.

And this is how passive aggressives fuck people over. Instead of making a decision one way or another, they try working both angles, keeping people on the hook so that they are in control. They avoid whatever they don't want to deal with. They say they will do things and then don't do them, with no accountability whatsoever.

But should I really be surprised? I don't think people like this dude change...not at age 56. So I guess I just have to be happy that I will no longer be having my time and energy wasted by the likes of him. Fucking asshole.

Plutonic Consciousness Comrades

So many people stop at Neptune. We don't. We're right out there on the edge of the solar system. Pushing the boundaries. Pushing past even Pluto at the same time as we live it here on Earth.

The vast aloneness of this consciousness is actually mighty and comforting when you think about it. But trickling Plutonic consciousness down to the day-to-day, it becomes compacted somehow, heavy on the heart. Like a thick coating of irritating, energetic tar that we have to break down and shed again and again. Constantly doing whatever we can to make ourselves okay, so we're not consumed.

On a day-to-day level set in contrast to the busy, busy societal lives, the vast aloneness can start to eat away at you. The powerful, protective solitude can devolve into isolation, loneliness, alienation. Rage at those people who will never (could never?) understand what we understand. The blank, hollow realization of just how many of those people there really are. A feeling that there is something wrong...with them, with all of it.

Not having a friend in the world and knowing that this is true.

And that very fact giving us entry into the only group we could ever really feel akin to. Plutonic comrades joined by successfully meeting the demands of this consciousness. Alone, and joined through the aloneness.

Yup. Here We Go. The Mainstream U.S. Media Has Started Referring to Obama as God...

The editor of Newsweek, Evan Thomas, referred to Obama as "sort of" God on MSNBC's Hardball on Friday. Most people probably wouldn't pick up on this. Yet another of those seemingly innocuous comments that slides right on by... 

In actuality, I think it's an indicator of the attempted merger of the political and spiritual - buttering people up for the New World Order agenda. 

Thomas and Hardball host Chris Matthews also threw down the idea of a world election later in the interview and discussed how Obama would "bring all sides together." Again, seemingly innocuous comment until you look at the forces behind this "President of the World." One World Government, One World Religion. Let's all hold hands and sing! 

Disclaimer: The website referencing this is a site about liberal media bias in the U.S. I'm not behind that cause (as I don't think it matters at the concentrated top of the hierarchy whether one is liberal or conservative - they're playing for the same team). It was just the link I came across...

Tales from the Retail Frontlines Episode #2 - the Value of a Dollar

Mid-twenties customer holding designer purse: "I don't know. Two hundred dollars for a piece of art? I could buy a pair of jeans for that, you know?"

Me: [blank look]



All Art of My Heart articles.

Tales from the Retail Frontlines Episode #1 - Fun With Mature Souls

I'm searching for something of importance in what she's saying to me like a tuner searching for a channel, but it's all static. A wall of irritating, buzzing, ego bass trying to force its way into my system.

A crack has developed in the teak frame of a mirror she purchased. Unfortunately, it happens. It's tropical wood trying to adjust to Calgary dryness. The owner can repair it. I've let her know. She knows.

There's some back story. Apparently the owner said he would get her a different mirror on his next trip to Bali. I explain. The owner had a stroke and now the store is closing. He won't be going overseas again any time soon. I try to nudge into her consciousness that things have changed. She's pissed that he didn't let her know. I guess because she should be top of the list of post-stroke priorities.

Her indignance over this mirror shows no sign of letting up. She doesn't want a store credit. She wants this mirror. The items from this store are knock-em-dead beautiful. Even if she found something similar elsewhere, it would be three times the price.

“I'm sorry, but as I said, you'll have to talk to the owner about repairing it. I have your name and number, and you have his, so that's all that can really be done right now.”

That should be that. I've given her the next step to having her problem solved. I can't fix it myself. The owner is not in. Arrangements will have to be made with him. She's not going to get answers this minute, and I guess that's the problem. Frustrated demands for instant gratification. She's a person who is used to people jumping when she says jump, whenever she slaps the Visa Gold card down.

So she buzzes on, past the point where I've done what I can do about it. I guess she didn't get the memo that I'm too old and bored for this shit.

Because my calm, matter-of-fact demeanor sets her off. She's gunning for a reaction. Wants to goad me into “crossing the line” with her. Ha. Please.

“Well, thanks for all your help! It's great that you're so nonchalant about it!”

She's using her hands to make her point, and I can't help but notice the biggest fucking blood diamond I've ever seen on her left finger. Blood on your hands? Yessum.

She's expecting the usual corporate, “customer is always right” ass-kissing. In this store, you get realism. At least from me. And I see it's not going down too well.

She's an eyeroll-inducing cliche. Over-privileged mature soul with all the entitlement issues that capitalism has taught her to have. And so am I. Tired old soul who can't be bothered with this ridiculousness anymore.

(War criminals running our nations. Media propaganda. Depleted uranium poisoning. Deformed babies. Tortured prisoners. A million dead Iraquis. 3,500 dead American soldiers. 1,800 dead Katrina victims who were supposed to “just drive out of there.” 119 dead Canadians and counting. Working class dying for the rich man's stock portfolio. The Amazon is almost gone. Appalachians are being clearcut. Alberta oilsands poisoning our water and land. Natives with bizarre cancers. The biggest white collar crime in history committed against the people. Teen girls with Chanel purses. Wage slavery. Domestic violence. People are hungry. Misery. The trail of homeless pushing their shopping carts through the snow outside my apartment window. Drive-by shootings on the next block. The store is closing. Kicked out of our location due to Toronto-prescribed gentrification plans. My inflated rent is due. The dentist wants $400 for a cleaning and check-up. They hate you if you don't have those big, bleached Chiclet teeth. Only yuppies can afford to buy real food anymore. The rest of us are being slowly starved.)

I'm being berated because I can't rouse the last of my righteous indignation for her. Because there's a crack in her teak mirror frame and she can't have it fixed as soon as she snaps her perfectly manicured fingers.

What injustice. How can I go on in such a world?

When she finally understands she will get nowhere with the likes of me, that there's no use picking at the corpse, she leaves in a perfumed huff.

I take a breath and still my Scorpio guts.

Another customer, a man, who has been quietly perusing the art the whole time this scene was going on, turns to me and says quietly, “Patience is a virtue.”


All Art of My Heart articles.

Final Mercury Squares to Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius

Mercury in Taurus squared Chiron Rx in Aquarius early this morning (around 7 a.m. MT). It sextiles Uranus in Pisces (3:46 p.m. MT) and squares Neptune Rx in Aquarius (3:53 p.m. MT) within minutes today, as we experience Mercury's final pass of squares from Taurus to the triple conjunction of Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius.

Mercury squares Jupiter in Aquarius tomorrow at 9:34 a.m., and Jupiter goes retrograde June 15...the same day Mercury leaves the retrograde shadow.

Even though Mercury is now direct, communication is still slow. There's not a lot of chit-chat for the sake of chit-chat. I noticed a major decrease in people's Facebook activity all during Mercury in Taurus. Our minds are focussed on creating momentum and dealing with the practical, here and now necessities so as to not overwhelm ourselves with the big, grand vision of what we're hoping is to come.

And Mercury in Taurus has its work cut out for it these days keep all pairs of feet firmly on the ground...

A sextile to Uranus in Pisces followed immediately by a square to Neptune in Aquarius has the entire Pisces-Aquarius shift involved. Digging in, grounding, being realisic about the conditions we're working with on Earth...these are all things the Taurus energy of the day must continue to bring to the table, with the utmost patience and diligence.

These should be the "getting the show on the road" squares as far as Mercury is concerned, post-retrograde. (Pretty please!) The pressure here should get something going for real, getting our brains on a solid, concrete track. At the very least we can start talking about things to come and making the connections we need to make to get the ball rolling.

Mercury has squared the Aquarius bodies from Taurus three times now. Once when it was direct but in its retrograde shadow (end of April). Once during its retrograde period (May 20). And now (June 9 - 10) as it moves direct passing through its retrograde shadow.

These Taurus-Aquarius squares are important, remember, because the Sun in Taurus was squaring the Aquarius triple conjunction as Saturn in Virgo turned direct (May 16), showing us the themes and challenges of Saturn's movement direct.

We continue with the themes of those squares all through May and June, through the first part of July, as Mercury, Mars and Venus all follow the steps of the Sun and, in turn, square the Aquarius triple conjunction. Venus in Taurus squares the Aquarius bodies July 1 and Mars does July 6.

I think a lot of people are tired of how slowly and arduously things seem to be moving. I know I am. Beyond tired. The strong Taurus influence, especially in square formation, is an indicator of the vibes we're dealing with.

Although, I'm not sure how much of this arduous, pressured feeling is personal and how much is collective - since I have some harsh stuff going down natally.

But I do know a lot of people are experiencing similar conditions...possibly a case of birds of a feather. :)

I always think of the square as a Saturnine aspect. To me, there are similar themes - pressure and a sort of make-or-break feel, taking responsibility for the successful interaction of the energies. It's an adult-feeling aspect where we're dealing with combinations of things that are sometimes difficult and uncomfortable to deal with. Where we have to accept certain conditions and do the best we can to make progress with them. It's not in our best interests to shirk the responsibility of the square aspect - similar to Saturn. (Though many try!)

People with a lot of squares in their charts often have a Saturnine vibe to me. They deal on a daily basis with the weight and difficulty of those squares. All the while, people around them are often none the wiser! I think squares do make you a much better person for it in the long run. The pressure matures and refines and hones us into the best we can be, potential realized - or that is the intention.

On the other hand, there are masses of people who try to shirk the responsibilities of their squares! There is little I dislike more than people who live their entire lives running from the responsibilities inherent in their birth charts. It causes so much chaos...

Mercury re-enters Gemini this Saturday, June 13, one of the two signs of its rulership, and that should grease the wheels a little. Mercury is very comfortable and freely-functioning in Gemini. It knows what to do. There is no resistance. So communication should be flowing freer. By next Monday, June 15, Mercury is out of its retrograde shadow. New mental territory.

I still don't have the information I need to know what the hell is going on in my work life, and that could not be more frustrating...so come on, Mercury! Let me in on what the heck is going down in my own life, will ya?

Venus Leaves Aries After Four Months! A New Venus Cycle is Well Underway...

Venus will enter Taurus, the sign of its rulership, at 3:07 a.m. MT tomorrow - Saturday, June 6. So this should take the edge off a little for the weekend.

Taurus is a much more comfortable placement for Venus and this ingress is some relieving news, especially in the midst of all the squares we're dealing with.

(Although, both Mars and Venus in Taurus are heading to...you guessed it! Squares to the Aquarius triple conjunction.)

Venus is the sign of what we love, need and value and how we express these things, especially in relationships. It is not very comfortable in aggressive, me-first Aries. Venus rules Libra (along with Taurus), the sign opposite Aries. So four months in Aries and a very intense retrograde period squaring Pluto in Capricorn has put the Venusian energy through the ringer!

All for good reason, though. Venus needed a good stint of Arien training...building up those Aries muscles of instinct, action, survival and self-preservation. As well as the stripping of relationship detritus from the Pluto connections, related to doing what we have to do to make concrete progress in our lives.

During the retrograde period in Aries, Venus had to deal with all the things it would prefer not to: anger, rage, and corresponding passive aggressiveness coming to a head related to all the crap she puts up with from people, the ways she dulls her flame in order to keep the peace with those around her, the way her personal will and desires are put on the back burner in favour of others,' the ways her identity is subjugated...

We've worked through that stuff over the past four months, and hopefully now we are a lean, mean, well-integrated machine related to these themes. :)

We've become aware, during this retrograde and the squares to Pluto, of relationships and ways of interacting in relationships that have run their course. Relationships that can no longer contain who we really are have been dusted off to make room for more vital ones...or have been gutted and transformed.

There is a new set of rules we started following during this Venus retrograde period. We have to be ourselves 100% and speak up when people project onto us who they (wrongly) think we are. We're expressing a Venus that is no longer willing to put up with any crap. And I like this version much better!

The conjunction of the Sun and retrograde Venus at 6 degrees Aries on March 27, 2009 officially started a new 18-month Venus cycle (the period of time until Venus goes retrograde again).

Venus' next retrograde is in Scorpio in October 2010. (This one is interesting to me because I have Venus just turned Rx in Scorpio in my natal chart, and it is something I will deal with (natally and progressed) my whole life.)

In effect, the recent Venus in Aries retrograde also started a new 8-year Venus cycle and discharged the previous 8-year Venus cycle, as Venus retrogrades in a cycle of the same five signs every eight years. The last time it retrograded in Aries was March 2001 - so we discharged the energy and themes of that cycle during this retrograde. The next time Venus goes retrograde in Aries is March 2017, which will then discharge the 8-year cycle we began in March 2009.

Oh, all these cycles! haha

Venus Cycles

Unless it is retrograde, Venus spends a little under a month in each of the 12 zodiac signs - about 24 - 27 days. It takes 225 days to orbit the Sun/complete one cycle through the zodiac.

Venus has a very regular cycle related to the Sun and Earth, also, and retrogrades every 18 months through the same cycle of five signs (with slight variations/overlap). Aries, Scorpio, Gemini, Capricorn (which shifted over time from Aquarius) and Leo. Meaning - Venus retrogrades only happen in one of those five signs, in the same order, and repeat the cycle of signs every eight years.

The points of conjunction of Venus and the Sun during those retrogrades form a pentagram (five-pointed star) pattern in the sky.

During the 18-month period from Venus retrograde to Venus retrograde, Venus conjuncts the Sun twice, once in retrograde motion, once direct.

The conjunction during the retrograde is called the interior conjunction. It is the point of Venus perigee - when Venus is closest to the Earth in its orbit.

Another conjunction of the Sun and Venus happens about 10 months after the interior conjunction as Venus is moving direct, and this is called the exterior conjunction. This conjunction is the point of apogee - when Venus is furthest from the Earth in its orbit.

We just experienced the interior conjunction during the Aries retrograde.

To illustrate the 8-year Venus cycles, here are the patterns of retrograde:

March 1993 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 1994 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 1996 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 1997 - Venus Rx in Aquarius/Capricorn
July 1999 - Venus Rx in Virgo/Leo

March 2001 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 2002 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2004 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2005 - Venus Rx in Capricorn (from 1 degree Aquarius)
July 2007 - Venus Rx in Leo

March 2009 - Venus Rx in Aries ** current cycle March 2009 - October 2010**
October 2010 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2012 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2013 - Venus Rx in Capricorn
July 2015 - Venus Rx in Leo (from 0 degrees Virgo)

March 2017 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 2018 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2020 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2021 - Venus Rx in Capricorn
July 2023 - Venus Rx in Leo

So you can see how Venus retrogrades kick off a new short-term cycle while discharging the previous one (18 months from retrograde to retrograde), as well as a new longer-term cycle (eight years as it cycles through the five signs).

Squares, Squares, Everywhere Squares

I forgot to mention in the last post that the Moon is creating a fixed T-square tonight just before it takes part in the mutable one on Sunday.

The Sun in Gemini and Saturn in Virgo exactly square each other in an hour. And when the Moon slips into Sagittarius early tomorrow morning, it will start moving to the mutable T-square at the Full Moon (June 7). (Sun Gemini, Moon Sagittarius, Saturn Virgo)

But today, the Moon in late Scorpio opposes Mercury in Taurus, trines Uranus in Pisces and then squares Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter in Aquarius, creating a fixed T-square. (Mercury Taurus, Moon Scorpio, Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter Aquarius)

It's interesting how we're getting the one-two punch with the movement of the Moon being the connector. Fixed T-square, mutable T-square within about 36 hours.

So many squares squeezing. Yeesh.

A combination of internal and external pressure for us to enjoy. teehee

Well, Yuck.

The Sun in Gemini is forming its closing square with Saturn in Virgo right now. The square will be exact at 1:10 p.m. tomorrow - June 5. The vice is tightening.

This square leads into the Full Moon in Sagittarius around noon (MT) on Sunday, June 7. The Moon at 17 degrees Sagittarius opposes the Sun at 17 Gemini, and with Saturn at 15 Virgo forms a mutable T-Square.

Uranus in Pisces at 26 degrees is another mutable influence, creating an energetic mutable Grand Cross.

Mutable energy is all about change and transition and adaptation. And all I can hope is that this Full Moon shakes something loose because the pressure of my circumstances is pretty overwhelming right now. I feel as if every way I turn is a dead end, so my instinct is to just wait out the chaos until a new direction becomes clear. But so far it hasn't. I keep making attempts in different directions, but nothing seems to be sticking. Waiting is starting to be the wrong thing to do and at the same time, I don't see a solid path forward. Yuck. I must say, I hate this phase. I've been here quite a few times in life, and it's always uncomfortable and nerve-wracking.

For me, the time leading up to a square is always the most antsy and pressure-filled. Put that in combination with an upcoming Full Moon (building emotional energy), and you've got an antsy-feeling few days.

With two Mercury-ruled signs involved in a square (Gemini and Virgo), there is bound to be mental pressure and some level of worry and anxiety. Mercury is just getting back up to speed after turning direct in Taurus (dispositing the Sun in Gemini and Saturn in Virgo), and that has created some pressure, as well. Mercury in earthy Taurus moves slower than it would like at the best of times...focussing mental energy in a very grounded way. So this retrograde in Taurus has slowed things even more and required a great deal of patience.

We're heading to the final of three squares between Mercury in Taurus and the Aquarius triple conjunction - Neptune Rx, Chiron Rx and Jupiter in Aquarius. (June 9 - 10) This should be the "getting the show on the road" square as far as concrete plans go. Mercury has retrograded, and now we're moving full-speed direct.

I wrote about the Taurus-Aquarius square themes extensively in the Saturn Direct post, and that post is still very relevant.

We're making all this "future vision" and "revolution" stuff personally meaningful, in a concrete way. Deciding what is valuable to us and making sure we're following our own vision, not getting swept up in marketing and style over substance.

Mars and Venus in Taurus will also square the Aquarius bodies (at the beginning of July), so again, the themes of the Taurus-Aquarius square continue through this month.

I'm actually really angry right now, though. I feel as if I've been patient as patient can be, and still nothing concrete. I feel as if I've done everything I could and no results. I feel short-changed, I guess. Chiron in Taurus on the MC. haha Fuck.

Anyway, no New Agey platitudes about how it's "all part of the divine plan," please. If a person can't be honest about her situation and feelings on her blog, where can she be honest about them?

Things are tough, and it just makes it worse to pretend that isn't the case.

Hey, How 'Bout This? Let's Keep Canada a Sovereign Nation

Here's a film related to the attempted consolidation of Canada, the United States and Mexico under what is being called the North American Union. Also involves a merging of "security" under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which proposes a dissolution of internal borders and reformation into a single North American border.

This is the next step toward the complete merger of nations that began with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

A lot of this documentary (which is somewhat amateurish but still interesting) centres around the closed-door meeting in Montebello, Quebec in 2007 of Baby Bush, Stephen Harper and Mexico's prez Felipe Calderón.

But don't think this machine stops with North America! I protested at the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Quebec City in 2001. That closed-door meeting (held behind a massive, police-guarded fence) was about extending the existing trade agreements to Central and South America. Just as corporations have to gobble up more and more territory to stay on top, these corporate interests have to merge more and more countries.

What the protesters experienced at Montebello in 2007 was very minor in comparison to the FTAA protests in Quebec City where tens of thousands of protesters showed up.

We were CS gassed on a massive scale, pepper sprayed and shot with rubber bullets continually for the entire week-end just for standing at the fence. Police also used a water cannon and sprayed a liquid at us from behind the fence that burned the skin on contact.

I was sick for weeks after the FTAA, and the creepy thing was that all the females got their periods immediately after the protest. Something about the organo-compounds in the CS gas and the reaction of our hormones to it.

The interesting thing about the Montebello protests is that protesters' cameras caught three undercover police officers dressed as protesters who were picking up rocks and attempting to throw them - provocateurs planted to justify the use of police force against peaceful protesters.

Protesters called the three out and told them to drop the rocks. They then started suggesting that the men were police officers, and the three "protesters" dove into the police line! The riot cops faked arresting them, and when the phony protesters were on the ground being "arrested," the cameras caught the fact that the men were wearing police boots! The very same ones the riot police were wearing.

The Quebec police first denied these men were planted, but once the video started circulating, they admitted it.

There was a call for a public inquiry, but of course...nothing. It was handed to Stockwell Day (major stooge), and he called the planting of police in protests "standard procedure." Nothing said about the rocks or the purpose for these men being planted.

The Vilification of Virgoan Analysis and Scorpionic Intuition Within the New Age Meme Complex

"Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense."

- From 1984 by George Orwell

The last post on New Age solipsism got me thinking about how important both Virgoan analysis and Scorpionic intuition are, especially these days, in determining real from fake. It also got me thinking about how both those things are vilified in much of the New Age ideology of the day.

The manipulation of the people has very much gone to the embedded stage. The trick of the day is to mix a grain of truth with a little trend-a-licious language and imagery along with a whole lot of garbage designed to achieve certain hidden, control-based motives - and hope people swallow it whole.

Current world governments are setting up embedded police/military forces. Just think about that for a moment. People embedded in daily society who appear to be regular citizens who are actually members of the police or military. Imagine the effect of this on our communities.

In the same way, I feel that the people are being coerced with embedded pseudo-spiritual ideologies.

I know this starts to sound a little kooky for some people, but it's not really.

It's the idea of certain ideologies, catch phrases, and ways of thinking catching on like wildfire in a population. We must examine the root reasons certain ideologies spread so rampantly in this way (virally), as well as the effects those ideologies have on the individual and the collective society. .

Although I'm not a Richard Dawkins fan (strong non-fan, actually), he coined the term 'meme' for this phenomenon.

Meme: a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes, especially with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them, much as viruses do.

The term 'meme complex' denotes a group of mutually-supporting memes that form an organized belief system.

I see the New Age movement as a meme complex.

To me, this concept explains very well how the ideas of the New Age are spread. Think of the rampant spread of the ideology of The Secret, for example, and how people felt a compulsion to aggressively (and/or passive aggressively) proselytize and spread those ideas to the people around them. They did so and continue to do so to a nauseating extent.

The constant promotion of certain New Age ideas by its proponents - all while often denying doing so - is an example of how these memes are spread in the population. Examples: "creating abundance," "creating your own reality," "all part of the divine plan," "love and light," "oneness," "moving to a new dimension," "density," "enlightenment," "transcendence," the concept of spiritual hierarchy leading to ascended master consciousness, etc.

People are often parasitized by these ideas/memes without even knowing it. Their speech is peppered with this stuff, or sometimes just a few words sneak in, but the energy of it is the same. The fact that people promote it often without recognizing they're doing it - or at the very least denying they are doing it - shows the level to which it has been embedded.

A lot of New Age people I've come across use very sneaky and subtle proselytizing techniques. They start off with seemingly benign chit-chat and then subtly start pushing their beliefs, throwing in a few key concepts. Because they're not doing it out in the open, it's easier for the meme to spread. People feel its all very innocuous.

But I believe the effects of these New Age memes on the individual and, therefore, on our societies, are far from innocuous.

The words often say one thing, seemingly benign on the surface, but ultimately mean another. Elements and applications of New Age ideology are being used manipulatively, in damaging ways, and are taking hold along with the seemingly more light-hearted aspects.

The end result of people adopting these ideas is a largely complacent, docile, navel-gazing population ignorant of much of anything that hasn't been prescribed on their journey up the (false) enlightenment ladder.

It's bizarre to me that people speak as if they are reading straight out of a New Age 101 textbook, but they claim they are not New Age. They repeat the same beliefs, the same idioms, quote the same gurus, use the same tactics but claim no connection.

If there really is no connection, how can I tell within seconds that someone is coming from this ideology, no matter how sneaky the person is? Once you can energetically pick up on the influence of these New Age ideologies, there is no doubt.

So perhaps "New Age" is an old term, one easily denied by those who sense critique? Maybe we need a new term for this meme complex.

Either the proponents of these ideas are denying the roots or they really don't know what they're promoting. In either case, most haven't examined the sociological effect of what they're promoting, and this is unnerving.

To me, the prevailing New Age meme complex is an overriding mindset that promotes complacency (misusing the terms "acceptance," "tolerance," "surrender," "all part of the divine plan"), along with socio-political ignorance, lack of personal responsibility/action, and solipsism (nothing exists outside yourself), where every social ill is linked back to the individual's own negative thinking, personal impurities, or belief system. Every social ill, people are told, can be solved with internal self-examination, meditation, and "spiritual" practises prescribed to them.

Everything is considered subjective and beyond personal judgement, even the idea of right and wrong.

Everything can be explained away with this mindset - murder, theft, rape, destruction of people's homes and businesses. People are taught that they do not have the right to judge these things. They are taught to give up their own personal discernment and values in favour of the "divine order."

People are taught that nothing exists outside themselves, and that, therefore, there is no external accountability for actions, even from public officials. Everything is in the hands of the "higher power," which they already are or can become by submitting to the hierarchical process of "enlightenment."

The ideology goes that there is a spiritual hierarchy that each individual is striving to climb on his or her way to achieving "ascended master" consciousness. (IE. Buddha, Jesus, etc.) Immense amounts of time and energy are put into climbing this supposed enlightenment ladder, all focused on the individual achieving "enlightenment," which is determined by those who are already considered at the top of that hierarchy.

There are endless books, lectures, workshops, retreats, sessions, fasts, cleanses, purification rituals, diets, programs, all intended to keep the individual focusing strictly on him or herself. There is also a strong element of playing people off each other, activating the spiritual ego about who is more or less "enlightened." It's a race to the finish line.

"Guru" human beings who have supposedly reached the highest levels of this enlightenment ladder are set up as models by which those on a lower rung should pattern their lives.

And again, the language of it seems innocuous at first to the untrained ear. (As does, for example, world leaders calling for a new world order.)

Tolerance, acceptance, love and light? Who could be against these things?

But here is the subtext, the double-speak. Here is where the combination of Virgo and Scorpio are necessary to weed out the real from the fake, to pick up on the underlying message and energy, and to identify and eliminate the embedded poison before it is swallowed.

There is the message and then there is the effect and application of that message. Here is where the ideological thrust of the New Age movement gets less innocuous.

When you strip away the fuzzy language, the effect is this:

People are taught to adhere to moral relativism - that reality is completely subjective, all in how you look at things. People are taught that acceptance of all things is the way to go, including those things generally considered personally or socially unacceptable, because the individual has no right to declare what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. They are told they do not understand the divine order of things (only those "higher up" do) but can calm themselves with the understanding that it is "all part of the divine plan." This goes to the extent that mass murder committed by the state is considered to be all part of the divine plan.

Nothing exists "outside" the individual, so all events are linked back to the individual. If "darkness" is experienced, it is because the individual is a negative thinker or holds a negative belief system and is attracting this "negativity." This often creates a huge amount of guilt and an eroding belief that there is something wrong with the individual, that he/she is energetically dirty, etc. Because of this all-encompassing link to the individual, all ills, people are taught, can be solved with internal focus. There is a lack of holding anyone external accountable for his or her actions because, they are taught, there is no "external." This also relates to the state and relieves the individual of any requirement of political or sociological awareness or action. There is a lack of any personal responsibility or concern for collective circumstances.

There is constant, unbalanced positivity-pushing, an "if you don't look at it, it doesn't exist" ethic.

All questions are answered with the same meaningless, solipsistic idioms.

An endless focus on spiritual materialism, philosophical tail-chasing, and internalized navel-gazing related to the goals of climbing the personal enlightenment ladder is encouraged, fueling already off-the-charts levels of narcissism within this group of people. (Wank, wank, wank.)

People are encouraged to drop/"purify" their egos and personal wills, as well as any personal values that are not aligned with New Age values. Those values, they are told, are from a "lower consciousness." Also sometimes referred to as a "lower dimension," "lower vibration" or "density."

Anything that doesn't fit the meme complex, people are told, is from that "lower consciousness" and is looked upon distastefully.

There is overriding pressure to conform to the ideas of the group - misusing Piscean "oneness" to mean homogenity. New Age adherents are taught that it is inevitable that, with enough exposure to their "universal truths," everyone on Earth will come to the same understanding of things that they have, which, they are taught, is simply "increased consciousness," not a belief system or ideology. There is pressure to envelop the traditional religions into the New Age "oneness consciousness," also sometimes referred to as One World Religion. This New Age "oneness consciousness" is, again, believed by adherents to be the inevitable progression of human consciousness on Planet Earth.

Reinforced separation from non-adherents is built right into the system. This goes along with the playing on the hierarchical spiritual ego: the idea that New Agers are special and of a higher consciousness level than the rest of the people on Earth. New Agers are taught that the people who refuse to "see the truth" are in a different dimension of consciousness from the one(s) they inhabit, and that the dimensional divide is so strong that eventually they will not even be able to physically perceive these people. This reinforces the "enlightened/unenlightened" divide and fuels more bubble-dwelling solipsism and lack of care for fellow human beings. It's also a big boon for murderous world governments when people divide themselves along "consciousness" lines and stop believing they even inhabit the same "dimension" as people who are less privileged. Because it is only the so-called enlightened who know how to "manifest abundance" (wealth), the poor are blamed for their poverty and difficult circumstances with no understanding or consideration of the class-related power dynamics - intentionally reinforced to benefit the few over the many - on this planet. More of the "if I don't look at it, it doesn't exist" ideology.

There is a great deal of reinforced socio-political ignorance within this ideology, as New Agers are often taught that they are in a "different dimension" from war, suffering, injustice, politics, etc. Because they have "transcended" these distasteful aspects of life on Earth, they have no personal responsibility for social or political awareness or action.

The constantly reinforced ideas of "transcendence" further the ungrounded separation from the requirements of physical life on Earth. Those requirements (including those of inhabiting a human body) are often looked upon as "unenlightened throwbacks," simply as things that need to be pushed beyond, rather than heeded.

Virgoan skills such as critical analysis, personal discernment, personal preference, judgement and rejection of what is not meaningful, necessary, or acceptable for the individual are all looked at suspiciously and are quite often given a negative spin. Here, within the context of the tail-end astrological Piscean Age, there is an imbalanced glorification of and push for Piscean qualities (tolerance, acceptance, surrender to a higher power, going with the flow, love and light, etc).

So much easier to pull the wool over your eyes, my dear!

In reality, Virgo energy has never been more necessary to balance the excesses of tail-end Pisces.

Scorpionic intuition is also vilified quite often by those in the New Age but is very necessary to skillfully determine what is really going on. Scorpio is aware of extremes, both ends of the spectrum - light and dark, yin and yang, negative and positive, and of the trickery and ruthlessness that is used along that spectrum. The consciousness represented by Scorpio relates to things most people would prefer not to look at and/or deny altogther (which the New Age consistently does). Scorpio can't pretend or look the other way. When it feels that something isn't right, something isn't right. It has to penetrate to the core of what is going on and remove detrimental influences.

Scorpio intuitively feels things like dishonesty, lack of integrity, motivations, abusiveness, attempts at subjugation/domination and coercion.

This intuitive understanding is, again, generally written off within New Age circles as "negative" under the imbalanced Piscean umbrella of, "Everything is acceptable. Be open to everything."

Scorpio is aware of both the surface appearance and what is going on underneath (hidden influence and motivations), and the proper use of its intuition is crucial.

But any form of critique or exploration of motivations is written off by the New Age movement as the "negative perceptions" of the individual. Or the (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) perceptions of a less enlightened individual who just "isn't there yet." The individual's intuitive skills/personal perceptions are often vilified by those in the New Age. "You need to check/align your perceptions," they are told by the New Age proponent. All in an attempt to get them "on board."

Both Scorpio and Virgo, when they haven't allowed themselves to be talked out of their knowledge, can smell bullshit a mile away. These energies, well-developed, can determine real from fake. They can identify the drop of embedded poison before it is swallowed.

Skillfully used Virgo and Scorpio energies are both dangerous tools to have in the hands of people you are trying to put one over on. If your motive is dirty, Virgo and Scorpio will more than likely know it and, in combination, can generally prove it. These signs can pick up on the most subtle of vibrations. Very refined "spidey sense." Built-in bullshit detectors.

Both these energies are valuable in scenarios of embedded motives.

And again, these signs are dangerous to people with coercive, manipulative motivations. They would prefer the populace give these powers over to them, and with New Age ideology, they usually do.

This is why people using these faculties are so often attacked or written off as negative, dense, unenlightened, etc. within the New Age movement.

It's all kind of silly because both Virgo and Scorpio ARE negative. They're yin/feminine/negative signs. It's just that the current New Age paradigm equates negative with bad.

It's the perfect embedded religion to go along with that embedded police force. It's a belief system that claims no centralization. People promote the beliefs without even knowing what they are doing or of the effect these beliefs have. It's the advancement of One World Religion, and most people don't recognize it.

"Good afternoon, believers," Obama says.

Gag.

Nothing is out in the open. The influence and allegiances are hidden, which is why it's crucial that we develop these very refined bullshit detecting skills and trust our own perceptions, especially when the pseudo-spiritual ideology of the day is trying to talk us out of them.