Sun Conjunct Pluto in Capricorn: The Awareness of How Deep it Really Goes Is Lit Up This NYE

The Pluto in Cap hammer coming down...

The Sun is conjunct Lord of the Underworld Pluto on this fateful New Year's Eve, just past exact, as we unfold out of the December 24 Capricorn New Moon. The awareness of how monstrously complex, complicated, and embedded our Pluto in Capricorn situation really is confronts us in our conscious current moment.

The global conditions pretty much speak for themselves, so long as you have the ability to peel away propaganda and rhetoric (not many do). How it filters into our personal lives requires a little more sociological imagination - but not much.

I've been at the ranch for the past little while, attempting to regain some equilibrium with the help of the sun and moon. And really, it's no surprise that my small source of (relative) sanity would now be steamrolled, Pluto in Capricorn-style. It's a miracle it's held out this long, really. This is oil drilling country, after all, and the oil industry is one of the most damaging and deadly Pluto in Capricorn forces on the planet at this time.

I'm a little in shock right now, though. When Pluto would like you to know just how much of a fait accompli it really is, how little chance you have of resisting, it wastes no time. It shows its hand. It plays the high Joker, and that trumps it all. No argument.

The day I arrived, I was bringing my suitcase into the house and stopped for some fresh air in the yard. Instead of the usual quiet of the country, I heard: thump, thump, thump, thump. The sound was alarming and disorienting, as it was the first time in my life I'd heard anything like it from the house steps.

It turns out an oil well was recently drilled about two kilometres from the ranch house, and the sound was coming from a generator at the pumpjack.

As is generally the case with Pluto, it took a while for me to understand fully what this meant. There was a little confusion, a little disbelief, a little putting it out of my head.

But yesterday, the Plutonic situation was fully illuminated for me. I went to the pasture where my Dad was shredding hay for the cows and realized that sometime after Christmas, as the Sun moved from New Moon position to its exact conjunction to Pluto, they had also erected an oil flare. There it was, blazing away, burning off whatever it is they need to burn off and emitting it into the air.


When Pluto in Capricorn lays the smack down, it doesn't mess around.

Oil flares are associated with benzene poisoning, a major cause of leukemia. Living in close proximity to oil flares is also associated with an increased incidence of cancers of the thyroid, bone, pancreas, and connective tissue. Oil flaring has been connected to autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis (Saskatchewan has a higher than average incidence), rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid disease. They are also a cause of increased chemical sensitivity.

This isn't the only oil flare in the area. There are many. The most prominent one is a huge flare emitting a strong sulphur smell along the highway less than ten kilometres east.

All around that huge flare are farms and ranches and on those farms and ranches live people and animals - our neighbours.

All around that huge flare, in the sparsely-populated surrounding area, there has developed over the past years a cancer cluster as well as an increased incidence of autoimmune disorders.

As little girls, my sister and I played with another little girl who grew up on a neighbouring farm. We rode our bikes or walked down the gravel road to her place to play Barbies or to play with new kittens. She developed leukemia when she was 18 years old, received chemotherapy, and has been cancer-free for about ten years.

My Dad's childhood friend and his wife lived about ten kilometres from us. His friend's wife developed cancer and has battled it for more than a decade. His friend was diagnosed with cancer more recently, prior to them retiring and moving to town.

Another rancher and his wife live a few kilometres to the east, closer yet to the huge flare near the highway. His wife was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and has had bouts of chemotherapy since. He suffered from a disorder that involved vertigo and, at times, had a difficult time doing his work.

My mother was diagnosed with fibromyalgia twenty years ago, an autoimmune disorder causing pain, chronic fatigue, and equilibrium problems, among others, and has suffered with it since. She is one of a number of people in and around this area with fibromyalgia or autoimmune disorders like it.

The medical establishment, the oil industry, and anyone benefiting from those things would argue there's no connection. That it's all just a bit of bad luck.

I know better. Even without one word of "scientific" evidence, I would know better.

This is not to say that the oil flare was the only factor. Or that this new flare is the only factor. With the heavily industrialized agriculture going on in this area - chemical herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified crops - it's just the factor that pushes things over the edge, blanketing us in one too many toxic layers.

The speed with which the damage is done has increased exponentially during Pluto's transit of Capricorn. The mask is off, and there's not even an attempt to conceal it anymore. It's a race to see who can destroy more, faster.

It wasn't a tsunami, an earthquake, a flood, or a hurricane, but the place where I got my foundation in the natural world, where I learned the basic dynamics and the basic elements that made me an astrologer, the place that helped me maintain sanity, is effectively not here anymore.

My Dad casually remarked a few nights ago that he hasn't heard the coyotes howling lately. They used to serenade this house on an almost nightly basis, and I have to say, it was one of my favourite sounds. One of the last wild sounds. They're gone now. I doubt they'll return.

I can't really put into words how deep this goes. It goes to the root - but to a root that was never properly secured, to a root that always, inevitably, drew poison as it searched for stability.

This unsettled feeling won't be going away. The knowledge that we're in a real motherfucking mess is omnipresent. I'll know it every time I walk down that gravel road.

Photo: Willow

All this for $3,600 per year in surface rights paid to my Pluto in Cancer grandmother, eventually going to my Pluto in Leo father, and then, what? To my sister and me? How do the Pluto in Libras put this one right?

You see, it's the money. The almost worthless mass psychological delusion called money. It always is, right? Thirty-six hundred per year is the price put on the priceless. The Pluto in Cancer and Pluto in Leo involved think they got a hell of a deal.

Yeah, I'd say that's exactly what they got.

Really, all I can do is laugh. What else is there to do? Pluto in Capricorn satire playing out in real life. And it's been going on for decades now. "Absurdity is easy once accustomed to the horror." That's a line from a poem I wrote about 15 years ago. Still holds up. Our sense of pitch black humour is certainly being sharpened to a fine point as we enter this foul year of our Lord two thousand and twelve.

I held out some type of hope that I could one day try to reclaim the spirit of this land, reversing the depletion and degradation that has come about and making it a healing place. That probably won't be possible.

We're grieving as we go now. On the move. No time to stop. The last of fin de Pisces flakes off like layers of paint on an old wagon wheel fence.

And yet, another attempt to paint us into a corner, and all it does is renew my sense of freedom, somehow. My exhilarating sense that nothing that is done, no matter how wrong, poisonous, unjust, vile could really affect me, or us, as long as we don't turn away. The ones who know and who knew all along. The ones who see every dirty move and still can't be swayed. The ones they just can't get rid of, no matter how many of us are put to sickness or death.

Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries razes old dreams so that something more powerful, more relevant, can emerge. Every long-held dream that dies, every version of ourselves shed, every fall-back plan eliminated lightens the load and frees things up for something new. It positions us in the current, cutting edge moment and nowhere else.

Happy New Year 2012, my fair friends. This could be the most surreal 365 days we've experienced yet.

But honestly, I think we have this one in the bag.

Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees

Saturn transits the 28th and 29th degrees of Via Combusta Libra just minutes shy of an exact trine to Neptune in Aquarius from now until early February, 2012.

Due to the upcoming Saturn retrograde, the trine between Saturn and Neptune won't become exact until October 10, 2012, at which point both planets will have moved from air to water - Saturn into Scorpio and Neptune into Pisces.

Saturn stations retrograde on the anaretic (29th) degree of Libra February 7 and will station direct again at 22 Libra June 25 - the morning after the first of the seven squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, just to make that a little more over the top.

The last leg of Saturn's transit through Libra has been coloured strongly by a Venus trine to Uranus in Aries that occurred just as Saturn entered its final retrograde shadow in the sign of the scales. Here's the raw and radical, weird and wild, friendly and freaky Uranian shift into Aquarian era-flavoured relationships, giving us the impetus to bust out of old forms, old ideals, and old ways of relating that no longer get the job done. Venus in Aquarius until January 13 keeps the tone set to "new relationship rulebook," and we grind it out Saturn-style.

But now Saturn's retrograde period (February 7 - June 25, 2012) is set strongly to "Neptunian rose-coloured" as Saturn carries the energy and themes of its not-quite-exact trine to Neptune into the retrograde process. Things are, indeed, being stirred to a frothy fin de Piscean era pitch as we push into 2012.

This is compounded by Venus, Saturn's dispositor, transiting Pisces from January 13 to February 8. Venus will be on the anaretic degree of Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - at the time of Saturn's retrograde station on the anaretic degree of Libra, and you see the relational completion themes quite clearly.

This is Piscean-to-Aquarian relationship dynamics out the yin yang, and they're those final, anaretic degree issues, which can be tricky.

One of the major cautions with anaretic degrees is to stay where you are, working with the present, rather than projecting ahead into the new sign and new territory. Projecting ahead is not what we're asked to do on the anaretic degrees, and doing so is a recipe for failure - something Saturn doesn't like, especially in the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Venus is also in the sign of its exaltation (Pisces) at the time of Saturn's retrograde station, and this indicates that if we put forth our best effort over the 4.5-month retrograde, not jumping any guns, we can release the whole Piscean era relationship-related kit and caboodle.

There's isolation (Neptune) here that, this far into the proceedings, reaches intolerable points as we responsibly, sometimes grudgingly wait out (Saturn) the closing of the era. It's playing with us, testing all points, testing the power of its influence to make us jump into something not in our best interests. Many of us are completing a Saturn in Libra endurance test involving loneliness, disappointment, and dull, dry depression in order to finally move beyond the sticky Piscean era tendrils attempting to draw us back.

We need to be smarter now, and an exact Sun-Mercury conjunction in Aquarius at the time of the Saturn retrograde station February 7 keeps our eyes on the Aquarian prize. If we're serious, if we're responsible, this is a major and potentially final cross-over in relationship.

Piscean era and Aquarian era are two ships passing in the night, and with this Saturn retrograde, we can make sure, once and for all, that we're on the S.S. Water-bearer.

Again, though, we're not there yet, and this retrograde through Saturn is really going to rub our noses in that fact if we neglect or avoid the issues it's bringing up. Expect vaguely familiar situations and people to pop up like ghosts during this retrograde. Lingering impressions find form. A song from the soundtrack of an old relationship plays on the radio, triggering the wisp of a memory. A dream reminds you of someone not yet quite gone. An old, free-floating dynamic plays out, yet again, with someone new. Can we never escape them? The old hauntings and longings, carried for so long.

These are our squirm-inducing Saturnine placement tests. We're officially under the thumb. All are meant to be passed through. They can't be held to. They can't sustain us in the land of the living. These ghostly Saturnine tests will be hitting the most open and loving places in our Piscean hearts. They'll be testing our weakest points, our most hopeful points, the sweetest, most longed-for Piscean dreams we held for so long, the points that can bring us to our knees. And we're tired. We're tired of these hauntings and these half-awake, half-dreaming relational situations. The only slightly new cast of characters playing out only slightly rewritten scenes. The loves lost, the loves regretted, the loves pined for, the loves that never quite were. With lives so full of ghosts and disappointments, there's scarcely room for another living, breathing, human being.

But it's weakening. As long as we're able to separate it from the reality before us, it loses its grip. We have to bear it, and we have to show it the door, firmly. We need the radical break.

This isn't about losing the love. That pure, full, ringing-through-every-cell Pisces love that tells us we're human. The love that makes it worth living. It's about love changing. How we give and receive love and what that means changing. Creating truer channels and purer, less distorted connections.

Pass the tests of the final Saturn retrograde in Libra for 30 years, and we move on. Fall for it - fall for the same old tricks and diversions, fall into the same old relational comforts instead of reaching further - and it's broken record time all over again.

Neptune re-entering its domicile of Pisces February 3 gives us a major upsurge in Pisces energy and themes, in effect all year. There will be many glowing articles about this ingress coming from astrologers, but I would advise caution with this energy. Due to the strength of this potentially diversionary upsurge, it's imperative that we carefully filter the sign of Pisces, removing the last habitual pull into hoped-for illusion over fortifying reality, particularly in relationships. With the influence of Mars in Virgo, we're carving out a "Pisces for the Aquarian era," and any Piscean era relational stuff carried forward from here creates an increasing amount of distortion, longing, delusion, dissatisfaction, pain.

We have to work (Saturn) for this. We have to put everything we have into leaving the wounding Piscean era romantic ideals and the associated "should have known betters" behind us. We have to nip them in the bud before they take hold, and these days, they can take hold quickly and with great force. It doesn't always make sense, but that's OK. All we need to do is: keep going.

And yet, in some ways, we're helpless. Pinned under the weight of collective love dynamics 2,000+ years deep, playing out cycles that do not have origin in us. We battle our way out of the cloying, heart-hollowing Piscean era relationship forms not only for ourselves but also for every lover who ever fell prey to their seductive, glowing archetypal dynamics. For every person who fell for potential over reality, who was scammed, used, burned, treated badly. The rage and grief of our mistreatment burns in our souls.

And ladies, it's we who have borne the brunt of it. The cads of the male gender have been traipsing through time and space, century and nation, getting away with the most obscene things. These fools have been doing damage with subtly and not-so-subtly misogynistic dynamics on cyclical repeat. They've skated away, from woman to woman, etheric criminals. Each new woman disconnected from what's come before, sure that he's different with her. Each woman proud to hold up her prize.

And here it stops. With us. Uranus in Aries blazes our trail.

We can only do so much as we twist and turn under this tail-end of the tail-end of the Piscean era, but Saturn tells us, both men and women, if we commit to it, if we keep noses to grindstones, if we do all we can, we progress. We move on. We gain new relational position. We set up relationship frameworks that have a much better chance of meeting the love and companionship needs of all involved as we move into a new astrological era.

With this Saturn retrograde through the last of Libra, we're doing the last of the work to shift the structural set-ups of our relationships out from under Piscean era phoniness, deceit, illusion, immaturity, and foolishness.

For the ladies (especially) who refuse to stand up and step out from the relationship structures and ideals that cause so much misery: Good luck to ya.

Saturn is digging in from the anaretic degree, and we're not going to be allowed to let anything slide here. We're also addressing the very last of the Neptunian shitbag stuff. It's very tricky and very subtle, woven into the fabric of our relations, especially between men and women. Even a breath of an impression of it has to be addressed.

We have to get very serious, very grounded, and very responsible about illusions, delusions, mirages, escapism, and outdated Piscean ideals in relationships of all kinds. Trying to form ourselves around someone else's ideal instead of being who we are. The coquettish damsel batting her eyelashes demurely, arranging long, flowing locks around her while waiting for her Valiant Knight Saviour. (These days, of course, it also goes the other way around.) All the fairy tales fall short once the fair maiden gets hitched to her Big Catch and sinks into the reality of patriarchal rule.

Over the next six months, we have to watch the tendency very carefully in ourselves and in others to throw our arms open to embrace what we wish were true (the fairy tale), rather than what is true.

If people aren't there by now, they aren't going to get there.

Neptune is very good at convincing us otherwise.

Tell Neptune to shut it.

Neptune finishes its 14-year transit of Aquarius February 3 when it re-enters Pisces for 14 years.

Neptune re-entering its domicile Pisces is the last in the series of outer planet shifts (following Pluto's ingress of Capricorn and Uranus' ingress of Aries) and officially wraps up the strongest Pisces-to-Aquarius transition period, indicated by the mutual reception between Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius.

As noted, Saturn in Libra will turn retrograde just shy of the exact trine to Neptune in Aquarius, and this aspect does not become exact until October 10, 2012 when Saturn on zero Scorpio trines Neptune on zero Pisces. The trine in those water signs, as you would imagine, has a whole different feel as we enter Saturn's transit of Scorpio in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune enters the "Pisces for the astrological Aquarian era" sign of the fishies.

The Sun in Capricorn Square Uranus on Zero Aries at Winter Solstice: New Targets and Stategic Moves Within Fourth Reich Power Structures

The Sun entered Capricorn very late on December 21, and today we experience winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Darkness breaks, and the daylight hours start to get longer from here on out. 

The points of equinox and solstice, sometimes referred to as the cardinal points, are very potent in tropical astrology. They mark quarterly points each year of new direction, new manoeuvres, new leadership emerging. Points of movement. 

This particular winter solstice marks an even more potent time frame than usual as the Sun at zero Capricorn squares Uranus at zero Aries (4:14 p.m. Central). As stated in a previous post (Uranus Direct on Zero Aries and More Astrologically-Timed Machinations of the Global War Machine), Uranus has just stationed direct on the highly potent and highly symbolic first degree of the zodiac, zero Aries. 

As we are now fully engaged within the astrological Aquarian era, the placement of Aquarius' ruling planet on the birth point of the zodiac is a prime time for unrolling "new" direction, especially militarily. Uranus moves off the zero Aries point January 7, 2012 and will not be back there again for about 83 years. The time is ripe, and those advancing global fascism/totalitarianism are well aware of that fact. 

The Sun in Capricorn squaring Uranus on zero Aries makes this a solstice of immense power and potentially long-lasting effect. Any time a planet in Capricorn squares Uranus in Aries over the next seven years, the energy and associated events of the Uranus-Pluto square series, unfolding exactly between 2012 and 2015, are brought into play. 

The action on the zero degrees of Aries and Capricorn at this winter solstice, in particular, indicates a three-month period of lightning-fast power plays and positioning with an eye toward longer-term goals: locked-down control of the people as well as another devastating and depopulating world war being a couple of them. 

Make no mistake. It might appear that things are spontaneously shifting within the global hierarchies of power, but the (bloody) manoeuvres bringing about the shifts are all well-choreographed. These are the same power structures that have existed all along, with the same types of figureheads (Sun in Capricorn). 

With the clashing square to Uranus in Aries indicating the energy and impetus of the new astrological era, however, all involved are aware that things have to shift in certain ways if the pyramid scheme power structures and Old Establishment are to survive. The cast of characters is being shuffled, and new blood is drawn into the mix. Again, those in positions of stolen power are attempting to replay, step-by-Capricornian-step, a very nasty historical cycle. It behooves the citizens of this planet to understand that, speak out about that, and refuse participation wherever possible. 

Under the National Defense Authorization Act, approved by U.S. Senate December 1, prolonged detention without charge, legislated by the Obama government previously to be used against "foreigners," is now being implemented at home. This means the rules that applied to the rest of the world now apply to U.S. citizens, as well, and citizens can be detained indefinitely without charge. 

Under Baby Bush, the CIA was given the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without charge, trial, or due process in "foreign countries." 

Now, under Obama, the power to assassinate its citizens is being extended to within the United States. All that is required is a certainty on the part of the President (and the President only) that the individual is a "terrorist" and a threat to the country. 

There should be outrage here, but where was the outrage when it was being implemented against "the foreigners?" 

In Cancer Sun U.S. of A., too often, as long as it doesn't affect me and mine, all is right in the world. People, en masse, still aren't able to grasp, or refuse to grasp, that what happens to one group of people, no matter how poor, how weak, how brown or black the skin, happens to everyone. It affects everyone. At the closing of the astrological Piscean era, the fact that this is not a working principle in every individual's life, values, and decision-making process is an absolute failure. 

North America is being put under lock and key. In Canada, our sovereignty as a country is being erased without the people's consent along with our borders. Global Governors extraordinaire Harper and Obama are going "Beyond the Border," working out the final details in a deal creating a tightly integrated U.S.-Canada border where things will be carried out under a new rule book. In effect, our country's borders will operate on a lock-down ordered by the United States under "globalized" rules where the U.S. military has as much power as (more than) Canada's own. 

In "cases of emergency," we can expect to be swarmed by the United States military as they put things "back to order." 

Information about citizens and visitors to Canada will be gathered at the border and freely shared with U.S. officials. 

The proposed integrated border comes through a deal titled: "Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Competitiveness." 

This is another step in the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" unrolled under Baby Bush, and the same "integrated" border, under U.S. control, is being moved toward with Mexico in a deal called "New Border Vision." 

In effect, the rights-stomping rules currently being slipped by the people of the United States can be applied, in cases of "emergency," in Canada and Mexico. 

The potency of this winter solstice is increased further by a New Moon in Capricorn conjunct Pluto December 24. Quite literally, this is an old layer of hierarchical establishment power going dark and a new one beginning to emerge. The manoeuvres making this a reality should become clearly visible as the Sun in Capricorn moves to an exact conjunction to Pluto December 28/29. 

This Capricorn New Moon conjunct Pluto indicates a new face of power, a new layer coming to the forefront. This is a new face for both illegitimate hierarchical power using force, fear, money, and coercion and natural and legitimate forms of leadership and power-sharing. Both forms carry forward into this new astrological era.

Uranus Direct on Zero Aries and More Astrologically-Timed Machinations of the Global War Machine

If all else fails, keep your eye on the punk rock cacti.

Photo: Willow

In the ten days since Uranus went direct on zero Aries - the highly symbolic first degree of the zodiac – we’ve had word of two highly-charged, “era-shifting” events: the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and the withdrawal of United States’ armed forces from Iraq.

Is the timing of these events coincidental? Not a chance.

And are they ushering in a new era? Not a chance. What they are doing is re-directing toward new targets and positioning a new cast of characters within the same old schemes.

From December 6, 2011: Uranus Direct on Zero Aries (Fukushima Degree) at the Gemini Full Moon Eclipse

“So we have a total lunar eclipse in Gemini, precursor to the Venus Transit in Gemini in June 2012, just as Uranus moves direct on the first degree of the zodiac. You see the "gateway" symbolism.

This Gemini eclipse is a dividing point, a separation into two, as we officially move forward (again) at the threshold of the new astrological era. It's a divergence point, the divergence point - a shaking to the core and rapid, eclipse-initiated backdrop change between ages that deepens dramatically this spring.

Can we expect the deadly "symbolic events" to start unfolding like clockwork via Global Governors following their orders? I'm sure it's on the docket.”

It was.

You’ll recall that the invasion of Iraq under Baby Bush was scheduled for March equinox 2003, just as Uranus ingressed Pisces. In the tropical zodiac, March equinox is marked by the Sun entering Aries. This is the point where Uranus, planetary ruler of the astrological Aquarian era, currently sits. March equinox is a highly potent time, a birth point for new directions, new actions, and new strategic moves, of particular use to those of the Arien/war persuasion. Uranus entering a new sign at the time of the 2003 equinox indicated to U.S. military strategists a prime time to unleash the “shock and awe” - Uranian key words - on the people of Iraq.

Again true to astrological timing, the attack against Libya was scheduled for March equinox 2011, just as Uranus ingressed Aries and positioned itself for a series of seven squares to Pluto in Capricorn. The last time Uranus was in Aries, it also formed a series of squares to Pluto, then in Cancer. That series of squares (1932-1934) coincided with the first years of the Great Depression as well as the advance of global fascism and the positioning of Hitler within the German Nazi Party.

From March 20, 2011: The Sun Conjunct Uranus at the Zodiac Birth Point Marking Astrological New Year and the “Odyssey Begins”

“The people of Libya are now being "kept safe" from yet another villainous bad guy as Cancer Sun nation U.S. of A. rains missiles down upon them in a military operation named Operation Odyssey Dawn. Yesterday, 120 Tomahawk missiles were fired at Libya by United States, British and French military. Italy and Spain are allowing the use of their air force bases for the launching of the attacks. This marks the largest military attack against an Arab country since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which gained public support through bogus claims that Sadaam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction after the bombing of the World Trade Centers in New York City September 11, 2001.

The invasion of Iraq happened exactly eight years ago (March 20, 2003) just after Uranus ingressed Pisces (March 10, 2003). Still don't think astrology is being used in these war agendas?

Venus in Aquarius For the Holidays Helps Us Make Friends With Evil In-Laws, Kooky Cousins, Oddball Uncles

The mutual reception between Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra is drawing to a close, capped off with a square between the two bodies December 18. If relations are a little stiff or difficult, expect things to ease coming out of this square. The Venus-Saturn square marks the culmination point in a process of sober-minded relationship reality check I wrote about here: 

From November 21, 2011: Venus-Saturn Mutual Reception November 26 - December 20: Ants Get More Play Than Grasshoppers 

As we close out 2011, we’re looking for the mature and responsible resolution of relationships past (with a little Uranus in Aries fire to drive us on) in order to put ourselves in strong position for concrete progress during the last jaunt of Saturn through the sign of its exaltation Libra. If we’ve learned and applied our Saturn lessons well, we’ll find ourselves in good position heading into the New Year – a big year for relationship with the Venus Transit and Venus retrograde in Gemini. 

Venus enters Aquarius around noon (Central) on December 20 just before winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the Sun’s ingress of tropical Capricorn late on December 21. This day is always a nice observance in the north as darkness breaks, and the daylight hours get longer from here. 

Venus, very influential over our man Saturn, remains in the sign of the water-bearer until January 13. Coming out of Capricorn, the mutual reception, and the square to Saturn, Venus is electric, eccentric, and looking to the possibilities. This is a breath of fresh and freaky Aquarian air in our relations with others. Expect a flavour of real friendship and comradery to emerge for the holidays with a new appreciation of each other as individuals beyond standard familial and social roles. Learning new and possibly startling things about the people we like and love as we all break out in new directions is part of the territory. Gatherings of family and friends could be very interesting this year, indeed. Luckily, Venus in Aquarius provides plenty of space and emotional detachment for all involved to be themselves, edges, angles, oddness and all. 

And speaking of luck, Jupiter goes direct at zero degrees Taurus on Christmas Day (December 25), adding a warm, jovial feel to the day. We’re able to experience the grounding benefit of our traditions here. And we might need all the jovial vibe we can get. The Sun in Capricorn squares Uranus in Aries December 22 and then moves to a New Moon in Capricorn conjunct Pluto December 24. The Sun in Capricorn conjuncts Pluto December 29. There will be conscious and not-so-conscious breaks going on, shifting us beyond traditional paternalistic structures into future-oriented egalitarian ones. This is not without its difficulty or even sadness. We’re aware that we’re pushing off into a whole new ballgame. 

The motions of the Capricorn Sun will add an edgy, unsettled underlayer to the holiday proceedings at times, but keeping an eye on where we’re going (Venus in Aquarius) as well as appreciating how far we’ve already come together (Jupiter in Taurus) soothes jangled nerves and touchy Plutonic trigger points. Enjoy time with those you love, enjoy your traditions, but definitely leave room for all involved to get a little of their Aquarian freak on!

Don't Believe Your Own Astrological Press. (Pluto in Scorpios, This Especially Relates To You Right Now.)

A little astrological prediction: I have a feeling the Pluto in Scorpio generation is going to start getting a disproportionate amount of play by astrologers in the near future. This will coincide with members of the Pluto in Scorpio generation (born roughly November 1983 to November 1995) reaching the ages where they will be taking a stronger interest in astrology and astrological information. It'll be one of those "creating your own mythology" types of things where the reality doesn't quite live up to the hype being outlined astrologically.

This echoes the disproportionate amount of play another Pluto generation has received - the Pluto in Leos. The Pluto placements of these two generations, not coincidentally, square each other, adding to the drama.

We've barely started the long, hard shift in power from Pluto in Leos to Pluto in Virgos, and instead of giving that shift some much needed attention and analysis, astrologers will be (and already are) turning their attention to the Pluto in Scorpio generation: its catalytic power, its transformative potential, how it's going to annihilate social taboos, how it'll absolutely shred every ounce of social facade or personality-level b.s., leaving bloody, raw, yet authentic! souls in its wake.

Personally, I'm not so sure about all that, and I have some issues with any Pluto generation being set up as the all-conquering, mythical generation.

This is how faddish astrology works. It's also how astrology is hijacked so that its energetic force and influence are wasted on things that really don't matter a whole hell of a lot.

Certain events, certain placements, and certain people with those placements are amped up and glamourized, drawing a disproportionate amount of astrological attention, and other events, placements, and people are skipped altogether, creating distortion, imbalance, and a seriously skewed version of reality.

Sorry, Pluto in Scorps. It's nothing personal, but you're not special on this front. As soon as you've been sucked dry as subject matter, as soon as you're not trendy anymore, it'll be onto the Pluto in Sagittarius kids. Or the Pluto in Caps. Or...oh, just WAIT until the Pluto in Aquarius generation comes of age! Then we're really going to see some big things happening on this planet.

Sigh.

It's actually a small minority of people within any generation that takes on the Plutonic work in any truly effective and sustained way. Digging in as deeply and as tenaciously as is required is heavy, frustrating, difficult, enervating, intricate. Often, the energetic commitment is all-consuming. There is no work other than that work. There is no life other than that life.

Committing to the process of letting your soul drive, come what may, committing to really seeing and intuiting the state we're in on this planet and then finding the most meaningful and effective track to address and move through it is a full body, full mind, full spirit endeavour.

Doing the condensed, hard-slog Pluto work - working to change long-ingrained collective dynamics through the personal life - is not all that glamourous. Doing what really needs to be done, what's been neglected by most others, is probably not going to make you famous. It might even get you killed. It doesn't make for a cool digital pic to show off the edgy angles of your post-post-postmodern awareness of it all. There are no guarantees that you'll receive all that much of an earthly reward for it at all, other than the reward of a satisfied soul.

A lot of people go part way. Not many push farther than that. This has been the case with every generation, and I don't see it changing with the Pluto in Scorpios.

So will there be a group of fine and talented individuals within the Pluto in Scorpio generation that really gets it and can really get the job done? Sure. Absolutely. There will be those who see through the pathology of the collective, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter and extricating themselves from it. There will be those who confront head-on the disconnect from and denial of death that run rampant, creating all types of idiocy, superficiality, and distortion. There will be those who see through any form of manipulation, exploitation, or abuse, who can feel out a dirty motive in seconds flat, who confront and head off the unexamined patterns of the collective, refusing to repeat them themselves. But I do think those people will be few.

The glut will fall into the same traps and the same patterns, using the same power plays and the same old Scorpio tricks to maintain the dominant paradigm or some variation therein, however "edgy" it may be.

They've gotten hold of all the "edgy" these days, you see.

Our Pluto placements relate to the ways in which our generation as a whole is manipulated by the powers that be. And the dark, the taboo, the sexy, the forbidden, the occultish and pseudo-occultish, the hidden, the twisted - these are all ways in which the Pluto in Scorpio generation will be manipulated into doing things, swallowing things, and furthering things that are not in its best interests.

Totalitarianism that lets you keep a job even though you have tattoos, pink hair, and are polyamourous is still totalitarianism.

The Pluto in Scorpios have plenty of poison to dig out and many false layers to shed.

Certain members of this generation are going to understand the ways things are oh-so-wrong on this planet because they'll experience the corruption and exploitation first-hand. But so have members of all generations before them. So do members of all generations living now.

The dogma around Pluto generations is ripe for abuse and manipulation - two Plutonic key words. The amping up of this or any other astrological generation is another attempt to create some "super special, super-human" generation of young people, as the "spiritualism" circles of the day love to do. At the tail-end astrological Piscean era, they're begging for an entire saviour generation. This follows in the line of the "indigo" kids, the "crystal" kids, the rainbows, the blue stars, the seventh rays, the Whodads, the Whatzits. (Sorry, got my wires crossed with a little Dr. Seuss there for a minute.)

It's a fairly small and concentrated group of individuals that sees the whole machine and how we're being manipulated within it, that strikes at the roots, rather than becoming consumed by whatever manipulated Agenda of the Day has risen to popularity at that moment.

The members of the Pluto in Scorpio generation have a lot of power to expose the corruption and the to-the-brink-of-human-annihilation situation we have on our hands. But they also have an almost overpowering tendency to get caught up, coerced, distracted, overwhelmed, consumed.

Their power can be misused and abused - or siphoned - quite easily.

Destructive obsessions and misanthropic tendencies can be stoked. Energy can be wasted in the nihilistic narcissism that Pluto and Scorpio do so well.

This generation has a big tendency to be enamoured of its own complexity. There's a tendency to self-absorption that has gone to an extreme I don't think another generation has experienced, facilitated to a great extent by internet, social media, and affordable digital cameras. Distracted by the gratuitous documentation of the absolute minutiae of their personal lives.

With the early Pluto in Scorpios came a sub-generation that was used as a gateway. This sub-generation involved the members who had Chiron in Gemini (1983-1988). The test group. Through this sub-generation's flooded synapses came the initial implementation of constant connection, constant stimulation, constant diversion, constant attention through cellular phones, cheap, accessible internet, iPods, social media, Blackberries, digital cameras, and computer programs designed to manipulate image. Through wounded Gemini circuits came a take-over of minds, bodies, and electrical impulses that has shown no sign of letting up since. And a new, encrypted language has developed within the Pluto in Scorpio generation, reinforcing its insulation.

There are a lot of layers to peel here.

Plutonic/Scorpionic issues of power, corruption, dishonesty, lack of integrity, betrayal, abuse, murder, manipulation, exploitation, oppression, suppression, and social taboo have been here all along. And there have been people working on this stuff all along, committing their lives, risking their lives, losing their lives.

There's a thread of people throughout time, space, and astrological Pluto generation that has taken on the work of deep, core-level change on the planet and has taken it on body, mind, and soul. They've done dangerous work, and for most, it was not a choice. This is about more than paying lip service to it or throwing some money at it. It's about living it, staying true to the course, even when no one is watching, when no cameras are flashing.

To set one group of people up as the most powerful, the most magical, the most catalytic is - to use Scorpio terminology - complete b.s.

To be at the most relevant point for the astrological Aquarian era, we have to shift out of the incessant desire to find and then exploit the next It Generation. This has become a dominant drive within a mainstream paradigm - fueled by the Pluto in Leos - that is enamoured of and obsessed with youth. It's absolute silliness. Anyone who is truly "hip to the now" will not be chasing tween, teen, or twenty-something trends. Aquarius goes beyond age and generation to the common threads that unite us in the struggle toward freedom and improved conditions.

Generation doesn't matter among comrades. It's a team effort. It always has been, and it always will be. The responsibilities, the pain, and the glories are shared.

Scorpio relates to soul lineage, and any member of the Pluto in Scorpios with the benefit of wisdom will understand his or her context within the long line of people working this stuff out. To understand yourself or your generation as something superseding that is to fall for a line that has been used countless times before.

Generational hype is a layer of detritus that inevitably slows the Pluto in Scorpios down, keeping them from their most effective points during this burgeoning astrological Aquarian era as part of the cross-generational, cross-cultural effort, fully aware of their context within that.

We're in a dicey little time on this planet. Those in positions of stolen power are attempting to purposefully replay an extremely nasty historical cycle.

To have any chance of righting this ship, we need all hands on deck. This means all Plutonic types from every Pluto generation, baby to senior citizen.

Through the Pluto in Leo generation, en masse, we had the proliferation of Sun sign and personality-based (Leo) astrology. This was fun enough, but it led, to a certain extent, to an excessive (Pluto) need to celebrate (Leo) certain placements, certain signs, certain personality traits, and certain people as special or important above the others, rather than focusing on how it all works together.

A new, more thoughtful and nuanced astrology has to emerge here, one that works with the real diversity of the astrological system as a symbolic framework of life itself, not just the most sexy or dramatic bits that will get the most web hits or sell the most books.

The astrological idols have to fall.

So Pluto in Scorpios, since you're a group that relates to the death of everything that must die, we might as well start the process with you before it even starts.

Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free

Today is the two-year anniversary of me being poisoned by the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. It's also my Sagittarius Sun mother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Ma!). For those who have only recently started reading this blog, you can catch up on the evil that are Cipro, fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and Nazi (literally) pharmaceuticals companies by clicking here: Cipro is evil. 

My system was devastated by this drug, erroneously prescribed for a very mild urinary tract infection that I'm not even sure at this point I really had. I took three little pills, and I've been working through a recovery process from complete systemic and neurological poisoning ever since. 

Cipro was originally developed by Big Pharma corporation and agribusiness GMO-pusher Bayer to ward off anthrax attacks. Bayer has a long history with the military industrial complex and was once part of IG Farben in Nazi Germany. Cipro was given to many Gulf War soldiers and is considered by some to be one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome. 

Once the anthrax scare was over, Cipro was re-purposed as a cure-all for a variety of fairly minor infections, including urinary tract and prostatitis. Cipro is a drug with such severe potential adverse reactions (including death) that it should only be prescribed when death by infection is the other option. All less dangerous antibiotics, outside the fluoroquinolone family, should be tried first. Instead, fluoroquinolones like Cipro are being handed out like Chicklets as first-line antibiotics by doctors ignorant of the potential side effects. Most doctors do not believe the types of adverse reactions involved are even possible. None of the doctors I saw believed me when I recounted the severity of what I was experiencing. 

They should take a look at some of the stories here: FQvictims.org. 

Or on a number of other internet sites devoted to the subject. 

Unfortunately, expecting most mainstream medical doctors to do any independent research is sort of like expecting the audience of Jersey Shore to do so. 

Though I'm night-and-day better now, two years in, I'm still in a recovery process, managing residual effects, and probably will be for a while longer. 

My situation is, of course, only the tip of the tip of the Plutonic iceberg. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of people have experienced and are experiencing horrific reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics - many much worse than my own. 

But even that doesn't tell the tale. 

In the United States alone, more than 2 million people have adverse drug reactions every year. Of those, 1.5 million cases require hospitalization. A low-end estimate is that 100,000 people die every year from adverse drug reactions in the U. S., making adverse drug reactions one of the leading causes of death. These statistics are old, and the numbers have surely increased as the manufacturing of drugs, their prescription, and sales have increased. 

There's an idea that adverse drug reactions are quite rare (false) and that the effects of them are fairly short-lived (often also false). People can struggle with the damage from these reactions for years, decades, their entire lives. 

There is a culture of denial, cover-up, irresponsibility, and greed in the big pharmaceuticals industry that, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, must be addressed layer by layer. 

I was careful about what I put in or near my system before Cipro, but after Cipro, it went to whole new level. A level to which only Pluto can take you. 

As Mars transits Virgo for the next eight months, the removal of anything taxing our systems unnecessarily is in our best interests. 

From November 13, 2011: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines 

"Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. 

There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition. Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. 

This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing." 

Part of this battle is the limiting of exposure to household chemicals and toxins. These are things we're around daily or weekly, including perfumes, dyes, air fresheners, and household cleaners, and they often go unrecognized. 

 Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free 

These are some products I use personally that have helped. I found some of them on Amazon where you can buy bulk amounts for discounted prices and set up a group of them here:  

Alberta Natural Products Simply Soap:

This is a natural, unscented bar soap made in Calgary, Alberta that is affordable enough to use every day. I love it. You can purchase packs of six bars ($11.95 plus shipping) from a company called Global A.P.E. in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada. Telephone number: (403) 948-6928 - 

Puraderm: 

This company produces an unscented, hypo-allergenic laundry detergent I use. 

Dr. Bronner's Unscented Castille Soap: 

This stuff is magically great. It can be used to wash dry and sensitive scalps, and it doesn't leave an oily residue on your hair, as I've found most natural shampoos do. It can be used as soap for your body, as household cleaner, as laundry detergent - pretty much anything you need to clean can be cleaned with this. Just don't get it in your eyes or swallow it. It's really potent! 

Tom's of Maine unscented deodorant: 

As long as your pH is fairly balanced, and you're drinking enough water, this stuff works great. I sometimes layer the lemongrass scent over top if I'm going to have a strenuous day, but the lemongrass variety is too harsh for me to use alone - just a tip for people with really sensitive skin.

Natracare feminine hygiene products: 

Did you know that conventional feminine hygiene products are full of oil derivatives? Yep. Crude oil plastics as well as petrochemical coatings. Conventional products also contain chlorine from the bleaching process, synthetic materials, as well as unnecessary chemical additives and often perfumes. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of putting petrochemicals, chlorine, synthetic materials, or perfume down there. Natracare pads and tampons are non-chlorine bleached, perfume-free, plastic-free, and biodegradable. They also use organic cotton, reducing exposure to chemicals used on conventional cotton crops.  

Lunapads: These pads are cloth with liners that are washed and reused. They can also be used for light incontinence. This company comes from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I can recommend it because I use the products. Other companies out there with similar products include GladRags and WillowPads.  

Green Beaver fluoride-free toothpaste: 

Fluoride is a toxic chemical, a derivative of aluminum processing. It should not be in our water, our medicine, or our toothpaste. Frosty Mint is the one I'd recommend. It doesn't get sudsy the way the major fluoride toothpastes do, but that's because there are no chemical sudsing agents involved. A good thing. 

Natural Urinary Tract Infection Remedies - Uva Ursi: 

This herb acts a diuretic and helps to bring things back to a state of health.  

Traditional Medicinals Cran-Aid tea: 

contains cranberry concentrate, uva ursi leaf, cleavers herb, and marshmallow root. This acts as a diuretic to flush bacteria out of the system and is best taken as soon as you start to experience the first symptoms.  

Cranberry pills: 

Cranberry pills have been found to help ward off urinary tract infections before they start. Preventative.

Uranus Direct on Zero Aries (The Fukushima Degree) at the Gemini Full Moon Eclipse

See these punk rock cacti? With Uranus direct in Aries, this is your power symbol. Let your spikes show.

Photo: Willow

Gemini Full Moon total lunar eclipse (18 degrees) - December 10 at 8:36 a.m. Central.

The Gemini Full Moon on December 9/10 is a total lunar eclipse that falls less than three degrees from the point of this upcoming spring's Venus Transit. This eclipse, conjunct the nodal axis, triggers a sort of cosmic shakedown landslide, even if only internally. Things start to come unhinged here, leading into an ongoing reorganization process that carries us into late summer 2012.

The Venus Transit is an eclipse of the Sun by Venus during which we are able to observe Venus passing across the surface of the Sun as it orbits between the Sun and Earth. Astrologically, this event will be marked by a conjunction of the Sun and Venus retrograde at 15 degrees Gemini on June 5, 2012.

Venus Transits occur in pairs in the same sign, eight years apart (one Venus cycle), and they do not happen often. The last Venus Transit - the pair to this one - occurred June 8, 2004. The most recent Venus Transits prior to the 2004/2012 set occurred December 1874/1882 in Sagittarius. The next set will occur in December 2117 and 2125, also in Sagittarius.

Suffice it to say, it's a noteworthy event during our stay on planet Earth.

Uranus stations direct on zero Aries - the birth point of the zodiac - in the early morning of December 10 (1:04 a.m. Central) just as the Moon, visible to us, is reaching peak fullness in Gemini.

Uranus in Aries now moves direct into the first of seven exact squares to Pluto in Capricorn June 24, 2012.

Gemini and Mercury as Symbols That Things Are Not Exactly As They Appear

Gemini is the mutable air sign symbolized by the twins. It's a sign of dual meaning and dual, or even multiple, realities. Ruled by winged messenger planet Mercury, Gemini gathers and deposits information - the messages - in an almost constant stream of words, ideas, and non-verbal communication traveling in and out. Gemini has to keep the flow going, passing received information along and making new connections, or risk getting bogged down, something it can't stand for long. Gemini is characterized as light, changeable, social, communicative, ever-networking, ever-connecting, ever-adapting, ever-juggling, ever-moving.

Gemini's glyph is the Roman numeral II, which also represents two pillars. Back in the day, statues of twins were used to guard gates, doorways, and entrances. They still are.

Gates, doorways, and entrances, you say.

A version of Mercury called The Golden Boy stands atop the legislative building in the city where I currently live. This reflects the dual purpose of the building and of the activities that go on within it. The legislative building is full of masonic symbolism. They even do guided tours pointing it out, declaring that the purpose of it all is to elevate humankind. (Where have I heard that before?) On the outside of the building is a statue of the "Indolent Man," with a half-kneeling woman, the spirit of progress, beckoning him into the new land of promise. A common theme. All those opposed to their version of progress fall into the indolent (unenlightened, unaware, asleep, dense, lower, 3D) category, including all those ever-so-indolent native Canadians forced off their land for the sake of this "new land of promise." These indolents just don't know what's good for them, do they?

The legislative building is considered the masonic headquarters for the province and was built using the their own special brand of numerological measurement. It contains a Grand Staircase room measuring 66.6 feet on every side (666). That's one staircase I don't believe I'll be ascending (descending?). Gemini is associated with the number 3, but I won't give you the "33rd degree" if you didn't know that.

The Hoover Dam is another place chock full of masonic symbolism, particularly of the Geminian/Mercurial variety. This includes twin 30-foot bronze statues of winged figures named the Winged Figures of the Republic as well as two sets of twin obelisks/pillars . There's also a star map of the sky on the day the dam was dedicated (so the extraterrestrials will know when it was completed), as well as representations of the 12 signs of the zodiac and the Pleiades, particularly the fixed star Alcyone, the central star of the Pleiades cluster. The Pleiades and Alcyone are considered unfortunate influences. At the time the dam was built (1931 - 1936), the Pleiades was located on the anaretic degree of Taurus, which represents the master builder. As of 2011, the Pleiades, including Alcyone, is at zero Gemini.

The dam is located between the U.S. states Arizona and Nevada and was built to generate power. It was also built as a massive symbol. The very existence of the dam acts as a messenger, a symbol of man's (supposed) building genius and elevation of himself above nature - another common masonic theme. (All expanses of nature in the city where I'm living have been wiped out or overdeveloped - the stamp of the egocentric male mason, I'm thinking.)

In the case of the Hoover Dam, it is the harnessing and controlling of water - the Colorado River - for man's own purposes, earning entrance for the elevated ones into the Age of the Water-bearer. (There. We did it. Now we get to "level up!")

The construction of the dam took place between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression (providing cheap, desperate labour), which was also, as you might recall, the time frame of the last Uranus-Pluto square series in Aries and Cancer respectively.

Oh, what a glorious wonder of the Earth! Built on the blood of 112 men and the shortened lives of hundreds more due to horrific working conditions. But what's a little collateral human damage when the elevation of the chosen ones is the end result?

There are those who glory about the majesty and wonder of the pyramids, and there are those who would not fall for a sham built on slave labour and human lives.

So we have a total lunar eclipse in Gemini, precursor to the Venus Transit in Gemini in June 2012, just as Uranus moves direct on the first degree of the zodiac. You see the "gateway" symbolism.

This Gemini eclipse is a dividing point, a separation into two, as we officially move forward (again) at the threshold of the new astrological era. It's a divergence point, the divergence point - a shaking to the core and rapid, eclipse-initiated backdrop change between ages that deepens dramatically this spring.

Can we expect the deadly "symbolic events" to start unfolding like clockwork via Global Governors following their orders? I'm sure it's on the docket.

Uranus Direct at Zero Aries - the Degree of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

The last time Uranus was on this exact point was March 22, 2011. That was 11 days after a HAARP-induced earthquake directed at Japan created mass death, destruction, and ongoing nuclear disaster. As Uranus last moved over this place in the zodiac, we were 11 days into the nightmare unfolding (still unfolding) at Fukushima, just starting to wrap our minds around the magnitude of it. Due to almost complete media black-out - and superficial coverage when there is any - we are not all that much closer to understanding the full extent of what we're dealing with this time around.

The real messenger has been muzzled. Proxies have been put in place to fill minds with information devoid of meaning, immediacy, or context. We have a nuclear disaster on our hands the scope of which has never been seen on this planet. Cellular structures are being altered without our permission.

Nuclear fuel has melted through the containments at three nuclear reactors, creating an ongoing release of radioactive materials into the air, soil, and water. Into the bodies of the Japanese people and into bodies of people throughout the northern hemisphere.

A Japanese television host who ate fish and produce from the Fukushima area on air to prove it was safe has now been diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia. A media figure getting sick gets some press. The others didn't and won't.

And all this perfectly timed for some bizarre, Global Governor-implemented shift into their version of green energy...

As videos of sick, irradiated, disfigured children from the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster are brought to the viewing public, we're reminded that Fukushima is far from the only nuclear disaster we're living through on this planet. Mothers in Fallujah, Iraq have now been told by doctors to stop having babies due to the overwhelming number of birth defects and deformities related to radioactivity from U.S. depleted uranium munitions.

And people really think it matters a good Goddamn if their kid gets into that oh-so-prestigious pre-school? If their birthday parties have the best bouncy castles in the neighbourhood? If they get that ever-coveted seventh trip to Disney World?

People are living their personal lives almost entirely without context.

The media supports and reinforces this.

My local newspaper just ran an editorial stating that nuclear energy is still our best option. No update of the ongoing situation in Japan. This can be expected in the country that is the second-largest producer of uranium on the planet. Anti-nuke sentiments are bad for business.

Photo: Willow

This Gemini eclipse marks the beginning of a huge split. It's not even a split. It's a shattering of the Piscean "oneness" trying everything in its power to keep us one easily controllable 99% mass into billions of sharp-edged, never-say-die, middle-finger-raising pieces.

And don't let anyone tell you at whom or at what to direct that middle finger. That's to be determined by you and you alone.

This eclipse-initiated divergence relates to broad, big picture stuff - the direction we take on this planet from here on out - but our smart, precise, crystal clear self-direction leads the way. This Full Moon eclipse (Gemini Moon opposite Sagittarius Sun) forms a mutable t-square with Mars in Virgo, well into its retrograde shadow. The mutable t-square is repeated June 4, 2012 with a Sagittarius Full Moon (Sagittarius Moon opposite Gemini Sun) partial lunar eclipse opposing the Sun-Venus in Gemini and squaring post-retrograde Mars in Virgo one day prior to the Venus Transit. The Venus Transit conjunction in Gemini June 5, 2012 also, of course, falls within tight square to Mars in Virgo.

Any intellectual laziness that has kept people drifting along in a Piscean era sea of memes, idioms, mantras, and soft-lit, wishful-thinking partial truths needs to be sharpened quickly, or it will come back to haunt as only Pisces can.

As Uranus pulls out of its direct station on the freshest degree there is, don't mince words. If ever there were a time frame on this planet when how you really feel, what you really think, and what you really believe needed to be the impelling force, this is that time frame. Anything done to diminish one's effect, to quiet one's voice, to fit in with the crowd is now pretty close to meaningless. Understanding this ahead of the pack puts you at the leading and most relevant edge. Uranus in Aries doesn't care about being socially acceptable or "normal." It doesn't care about polite dinner party conversation. Uranus is looking to push us way out there into our most real, raw, radical, and instinctual selves. It demands freedom, independence, and individuation at almost any cost, and at this point, crystallized, outdated social mores and concepts of normality are just begging for Uranian lightning strikes.

We're about to experience a complete reorganization under the Aquarian classification system.

Things are being busted up into full-on Aquarian diversity, and that isn't as warm and fuzzy, love and lighty as it perhaps sounds. Things are about to get a little raw and a little weird - or rather, more so.

Don't be surprised if who people are under the Aquarian umbrella is not who they were under the Piscean. Don't be surprised if people you've known forever suddenly seem like strangers. From a previous post: "As we move forward from here, people we thought we knew are going to surprise us - in pleasant ways and in not so pleasant - and radical relationship breaks can come almost out of nowhere, especially if people have been putting things off."

Like the flick of a switch, our meaning and context, the particular layers of ourselves at the forefront, shift.

For those who have been clinging to old forms and ideals, attempting to re-create the same old scenes with a slightly different colour palate, things could take the harsher Uranian track - shocking, stunning, jarring, emotionally traumatizing.

For those who have been moving with the show from the get-go, this transition will probably be refreshing. We're about to get some movement. If you're ready, here we go.

Previous posts: Fukushima nuclear crisis

Mercury Rx-North Node Conjunction Square Mars in Virgo

Mercury, moving retrograde in the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius, is busy this weekend. A retrograde through already uncomfortable territory for Mercury means communication is tricky, sluggish, even painful, but what does slide through comes at us on a magic carpet ride of sparkling Sagittarian pixie dust - crinkling, crackling, potent with meaning, and with just the right amount of telling-it-like-it-is sass. 

Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius is a transit related to how people really feel coming through loud and clear in their communications and tone - whether they like it or not. It will be difficult to hide it. If someone is speaking your language, piping up in ways you can get behind, this retrograde can seem victorious and pitch perfect. And if someone is coming at you from a philosophical angle or belief system that annoys or disgusts you, it will be almost intolerable to withstand another word. Dogma, cliche, and rhetoric are fingernails on chalkboard, and since so many will be clamouring to have their voices heard, we're at full saturation point.  

A symbol: The defriending of an acquaintance on Facebook because her "Be the change you wish to see in the world"-esque status updates provided just one inspirational nugget too many. 

Today marks Mercury's second conjunction to the North Node in Sagittarius, and if we aren't letting our own full-on blazing truth be the tour guide, this transit will irritate us with enough loudmouths and blowhards spouting off about what they believe that we soon get there. 

The third pass over the North Node, as Mercury is moving direct, happens December 27. 

The Sun in Sagittarius also squares Mars in Virgo today, and this is the challenge to put personal beliefs (Sagittarius) into practical action (Mars in Virgo). With Mars in Virgo, spouting off about high-minded ethical issues (Sagittarius) without applying them practically down to the very last detail in our personal lives is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy with Mars transiting Virgo is NOT HOT. 

Mercury backs into its retrograde conjunction with the Sun December 4 as both bodies square Mars in Virgo. We're carefully picking our way through mottoes and cliches, dogmas and creeds, carving and refining our own hot little track out of belief-based trajectories that don't speak our language. We pare away the rhetoric here and very precisely apply, put in motion, what we know. 

This is about getting in and getting out, cleanly, in verbal and written word and in action, removing ourselves from heated philosophical battles and bloated top-heavy causes that don't get us anywhere. 

We apply ourselves only where we are most directly (Sagittarius) effective (Virgo). With the Sun-Mercury in Sagittarius square Mars in Virgo, what we don't say and what we don't participate in are as important as what we do, though we're also required to speak up when we get a clear (Virgo) chance, providing a different perspective from the accepted ideologies of the day, including accepted alternative ideologies. 

Mercury is retrograde November 24 to December 13 (20 degrees Sagittarius to 3 degrees Sagittarius). 

Mercury in Sagittarius squares Mars in Virgo again January 1, 2012, and this aspect carries us into the New Year.

Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots

Warning: This article contains an extraordinary number of occurrences of the word "shit" as well as derivatives of the word "shit." Proceed only if scatological references in relation to human behaviour do not offend.

Venus is conjunct Pluto today, and the eliminatory function (Pluto) in matters of relating (Venus) is strong. The Moon is also in Pisces opposing Mars in Virgo, so let's roll with it, shall we?

From the Venus-Saturn mutual reception post:

"Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply."

In the sign opposite Pisces, this especially relates to having your Neptunian/Piscean/12th house shit together, and at the end of the astrological Piscean era, this is a tall order for a lot of people.

Mars began its transit of Virgo opposite Neptune and Chiron, and the successful use of this transit means, in particular, identifying, analyzing, and removing the influence of wounded and wounding Piscean/Neptunian shitbag behaviours. This is of particular emphasis for anyone experiencing a Chiron return in Pisces.

I saw the 2008 film The Wrestler a few weeks ago, and the main character in the film illustrated the Piscean/Neptunian shitbag quite well. You know the kind.

It's a person who, on one hand, is deeply wonderful, gentle, compassionate, loving, sensitive, human, spiritually-aware - a person who can feel oh-so-good to be around, who has so much potential! This is a person who seems to know you on a special level, who can touch your heart in profound ways.

And then, on the other hand, the person's a shitbag.

The guy in the movie was an aging professional wrestler who was in many respects a lovely man. He was funny, giving, compassionate, a real mentor for up-and-coming wrestlers. He was exciting, sexy, interesting, and he could waltz.

He was also a shitbag. He abandoned his daughter when she was little, preferring to immerse himself in the cheering crowds and artificial (highly Neptunian) world of professional wrestling. He spent his money on alcohol, drugs, and lap dances, screwing random women still hot for his fading star. He lived in past glory, trying to outrun the requirements of the present. He made promises he didn't keep. He let people down. When the going got tough, he cut and ran, taking the easy way out and slipping out of his responsibilities.

The reality didn't live up to the hype - a big Neptune theme.

We've all seen or experienced Neptune at work in relationship. ("But I loooove him!") Neptune glosses over all the shitbag behaviours, leaving only the wonderful. If Neptune is strong enough, it's as if the shitbag behaviours don't even exist. They're invisible, dimmed dramatically by the shining, glowing, rosy light of the wonderful qualities Neptune insists are the whole story.

The shitbag behaviours are skimmed over and forgiven almost immediately, without holding the individual accountable, and nothing changes. It's the same cycle over and over again: shitbag behaviour, disappointment and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with Neptunian love; shitbag behaviour, disappointment and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with Neptunian love...

The damage keeps being done, keeps accumulating, and Neptune keeps covering it all over, focusing only on the lovey dovey goodness.

Until the point comes where enough is enough, and the cycle absolutely has to be broken. It takes a while to get there, but this is where we are now.

There are many deeply-ingrained Piscean era cycles to be, once and for all, broken, cleaned up, and transitioned out of as Mars moves through the eight-month transit in Virgo, and they're holding on with a great deal of subtlety and tenacity.

This isn't just straight-up, easily identifiable Neptunian shitbag we're dealing with here, as in The Wrestler. This is immersed into the scene, woven into the energetic fabric. This is a multitude of subtle variations. This is even just the energetic impression of shitbag with little to no identifiable behaviour.

The Neptunian gloss is potent stuff, crystallized and unquestioned in many cases. People have been getting away with this stuff for a good long while.

Mars in Virgo has its work cut out for it, but it's on the case like a dog on a bone until the beginning of July 2012, carrying us right through the Venus Transit.

If we assist it, Mars in Virgo will cut through the gloss in a valiant attempt to address fatal character flaws and make things right through and through. Virgo relates to personal development, and Mars does battle on the fine points here.

Those who don't have it together at this point are going to have to get on it right quick if they would like to be, in any way, considered a hot commodity over the next eight months - and to a great extent, over the next two years.

For a little helpful guidance on this front, here are some Mars in Virgo HOT or NOTS:

HOT: A person who will defer sex until the right time and the right conditions out of respect for the health and well-being of both parties.

NOT HOT: Someone slobbering in your ear and getting all hot and bothered when you're basically still at handshake stage.

HOT: A person who puts effort into learning the details about you, what you like and don't like, and then applies it precisely.

NOT HOT: Discovering someone you've been dating for weeks can't pronounce your last name correctly.

HOT: People who run their lives like well-oiled machines who would be scandalized if they bounced a cheque.

NOT HOT: Flaky, floaty, space cadets who routinely bounce cheques (if they even have a bank account) and live in a state of constant chaos that spills over into the lives of other people.

HOT: Finding a new boyfriend or girlfriend with carefully cultivated associations and influences who has no problem weeding out detrimental ones. This person has been anticipating you and has created a place that is just right for you in his/her life.

NOT HOT: Discovering your new boyfriend comes with a string of: old exes who call regularly in some variety of life crisis, hard-up buddies looking for a place to crash, down-and-out family members asking for money, slightly obsessive old flames who still have a thing for him, and various shady types always involved in some type of not-quite-above-board situation, bringing you into contact with people you would choose not to be around otherwise. Discovering the place he has created for you is a dirty mattress on the unwashed floor that you have to share with the sleeping-it-off ex-girlfriend of his high school best friend.

HOT: Someone who shows his desire for you by keeping bills up to date, dishes washed, floors vacuumed, and laundry folded, thereby removing stressors so energy can be directed into more *ahem* extracurricular-type activities.

NOT HOT: Someone who forgets his wallet at home, leaves dirty dishes strewn around, and thinks the hamper is wherever his clothes happen to fall. I know a few slobs, and I love them, but I'm here to advise that slobbing is NOT HOT under Mars in Virgo.

HOT: Moderation, temperance, practicality, humility, modesty, earthiness, focused drive and self-direction, attention to detail, awareness of the fine points.

NOT HOT: Escapism, substance abuse, chaos, pie-in-the-sky ideas, ineffectiveness, weak will, scattered energies, being excessively impressionable and easily led astray, allowing oneself to be tossed around by the circumstances of the day.

HOT: Living simply and within one's means.

NOT HOT: Financial over-extension, frivolity, living on (bad) credit.

HOT: A person who has developed a level of self-control and self-mastery.

NOT HOT: Someone looking to be taken care of.

HOT: Taking full responsibility for half-assed behaviour, rectifying it immediately.

NOT HOT: Making vague, weaselly excuses for half-assed behaviour and then continuing it.

HOT: Saying you're going to do something and doing it, on time.

NOT HOT: Saying you're going to do something but then consulting your psychic who tells you not to do it unless six particular signs as well as a white eagle's feather show up within fourteen days. Staying in a state of "tortured" limbo for months, hashing it over ad nauseum with every person you know to the point that people start avoiding your ass.

If you recognize yourself on the NOT HOT list, never fear. You have eight full months to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations. Get ready to be a hot commodity.

This post is fun and games (sort of), but if we don't get on top of the Neptunian/Piscean/12th house stuff over the next eight months, it really won't be all fun and games.

Chiron transits Pisces until February 2019, and Neptune transits Pisces until January 2026. Chiron in Pisces indicates that every missed leak, every clouded blind spot, every unconsious or semi-conscious acceptance of what is unacceptable in our lives has the possibility of doing us in in a big way over the next seven years. These are major possibilities for self-sabotage as well as for sabotage by others who turn out to be not who they seem.

If you don't want the next seven years to be one of those blanked-out, do-over stretches of life where you're overrun and turned into that sillier, dopier, more naive version of yourself (the Neptunian "What Was I Thinking?" Syndrome), focus on clearing everything you can up now.

Mercury Retrograde in the Sign of its Detriment: D'oh. (Yes, That's As Articulate As I Can Be Right Now.)

Mercury goes retrograde in the sign of its detriment November 24 at 20 degrees Sagittarius, stationing direct again December 13 at 3 degrees. This retrograde has us mentally taxed - more so than a regular Mercury retro - and there is a great impetus to get away from communication - anything that isn't necessary, meaningful, or enjoyable - whenever possible to give our poor, stressed synapses a rest. 

Don't push your exhausted self into going into that one last store to find that one last gift, and don't put any more pressure on already pressurized service staff unless you'd like a candy cane stuck somewhere funky. If you're employed in retail sales, this holiday shopping season will require even more meditative survival tactics than usual, though this eases gradually beginning December 14. 

The influence of pressurized Mercury in Sagittarius means people are going to be itching for a chance to shoot their mouths off so as to release a bit of the mental stress. Those who don't have the knowledge of a holiday season Mercury retrograde in their back pockets are going to be a bit snipey. You can just sit back and watch or, if they're really asking for it, snipe back. If you do snipe back, though, make sure you damn well mean it and that you damn well have a point that can't be refuted. Don't exaggerate (Sagittarius) the issue, as words can come back to haunt us here. Verbally, things could get feisty. 

Luckily, Sagittarius, in general, is a "don't sweat the small stuff" sign, and this is the kind of Mercury placement that will only deal with so much frustration until saying, "Screw it. Let's go get an eggnog." 

We're given the freedom to let it go and to let the big picture deal with it to a certain extent until January 8 when Mercury moves into Capricorn, and we get down to business once again. 

All in all, this winter holiday season is a great time to get away from cell phones, Blackberries, Facebook, Twitter, and the like to enjoy some face-to-face revelry, relaxation, and merriment. In fact, with the North Node in Sagittarius until the end of August 2012, curtailing the use of these things a lot more in general is a good idea. Electronic over-stimulation increasingly leads to exhaustion, and this Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, moving back and forth over the North Node, is a mental re-wiring on this front. 

Venus and Mercury came together in a conjunction with the North Node November 13/14 before Mercury started to slow for the retrograde station and Venus pulled out ahead. 

 Now, with the Mercury retrograde, we get a second (and third) chance to figure out what that conjunction was all about. There's some insight we need in order to successfully navigate our way forward from here related to that Venus-Mercury-North Node conjunction, and Mercury deposits some more of it December 2 in its second pass over the North Node. 

The final conjunction to the North Node is December 27 with Mercury moving direct. This is all good as long as we can decipher what it is Mercury is trying to tell us through the filter of one of its more difficult placements (Sagittarius). The big picture Sagittarian truths are not all that easy to break down into easily digestible Mercurial words, concepts, and phrases, though this is our challenge. Sagittarius is often more of a "vibing on the silent inner wisdom" kind of sign - although it will certainly shoot an arrow of truth or two when it thinks it has a clear shot. Let's hope it does here. 

The Mercury retro in Sagittarius also has us thinking about those who aren't having such a relaxing, revelry-rich time on this planet, and we honour all angles of this, aware of the facts, holding a loving space in our hearts and minds for anyone in this category. 

Many won't have gifts to unwrap or a holiday feast to eat, and finding new ways to share the wealth is a fine use of this retrograde energy, creating a holiday season that fits personal ethics. 

In my mind, the ultimate goal is to make "charity" unnecessary, ensuring that every living thing on this planet has full access to the necessities of life. But in the meantime, local food banks and charities need help. 

My Sagittarius Sun Mum always finds new and interesting ways to share the holiday spirit. One way she does it is by purchasing gift donations for Unicef that buy Survival Gifts: things that have practical aims like funding new school supplies, water treatment, or vitamin-rich snacks to help prevent disease. This can obviously be applied in local societies, also. Anything that has a direct result is good with Sadge. Sagittarius likes direct. 

By winter solstice December 21, Mercury is back up to full speed direct.

Venus-Saturn Mutual Reception November 26 - December 20: Ants Get More Play Than Grasshoppers

Venus enters Capricorn from much more ebullient Sagittarius November 26 (6:36 a.m. Central) and immediately squares Uranus stationing direct at zero Aries - the birth point of the zodiac. This is a tense, jarring, electric reminder of the Uranus-Pluto square series just up ahead (2012-2015) that forces us on our way immediately by initiating necessary and radical new directions, truer to individual courses, within established relationship structures. 

The monthly Moon-Venus conjunction at 10:27 p.m. that night provides grounding and soothes the emotional edge, though it does not relieve us of our responsibilities or alleviate the serious tone. Saturn is just clearing its beneficial conjunctions to fixed stars Spica and Arcturus and moves back into full-on Via Combusta zone until next May. 

With its dispositor ingressing Capricorn, the uplifting Sagittarian wind beneath Saturn's wings also peters out, and we settle in for a landing. Whether that landing is harsh and depressing or validating and sustaining depends to a certain extent on how well we've been learning and applying our Saturn lessons in the sign of the scales. That's not to say Saturn only lays its particular brand of reality-based smack-down on irresponsible n'er-do-wells. Everyone goes under its thumb at one point or another. But people who have been actively attempting to wriggle their way out of Saturn's squirm-inducing, step-by-step relationship and relating lessons will certainly be getting a reality check here as well as one last chance to get it together. 

We're running out of time, see? 

We have less than one year remaining with Saturn in the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Saturn can get things done in the sign of its exaltation. It can make progress that sustains over the course of time, as long as we don't waste time. Wasting time is a distinct possibility with Saturn in Libra as the Saturnine proceedings in this sign often have a less arduous weight about them and a more social, less serious tone. Wasting time while Saturn is in Libra is a big mistake, though. Saturn in Scorpio is coming, and that one isn't going to let up. 

Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra will be in mutual reception - that is, inhabiting a sign the other rules - until winter solstice, creating a close and interwoven energetic relationship, and this has a sobering effect on relations of all kinds. Love is serious business here. Love is business. We're going to be made aware of how important it is to get on top of every action item Saturn has flagged. 

Issues that have been pushed aside will come to the forefront again to be dealt with by amicable (as amicable as possible, anyway) adults before things take a distinct turn for the not-so-amicable October 5, 2012 to November 23, 2015 as Saturn moves through sticky, tricky, potentially ass-biting Scorpio. Anything left on our plates during Saturn in Libra is stirred then in ways that can be truly nasty, so it's in our best interests to keep noses to grindstones. 

Luckily, Venus in Capricorn comes out of its square to Uranus in Aries and catches the tail-end of the grand earth trine formed in the zodiac by Jupiter Rx in Taurus, Mars in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn. Venus in Capricorn trines Mars in Virgo exactly December 5. 

We're assisted to get things done on all fronts, especially in and through relationship. Venus conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn December 1, giving us a further energetic reminder of just how nose-to-the-relationship-grindstone we need to be, kicking up distortion in any relational areas that require more laser-sharp awareness and honing from us. 

As we close out 2011, we're looking for relationship resolution and are doing our best to make peace with relationships past and present. Progress needs to be made in and through current relationships to put us in good position for what's up ahead, and as clean a slate as possible is needed for Saturn in Scorpio. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception keeps us sober, serious, grown-up, and pragmatic as we make big strides toward that and is especially good for the progress of women (and the feminine influence, in general) in business. There's a solid groundwork that should have been built by now - new relational rules and standards, a heightened command of social responsibility, the ability to maintain equilibrium under pressure, as well as a new maturity in the tone of our relationships, especially between the sexes. At this point, people either have it or they don't, and this mutual reception serves as a status report. 

This far into Saturn's transit of Libra, we start to see the social and professional results of having put this groundwork in. We also see the results of not having put it in, as well as the areas that contain hazardous holes and breaks in structure. This is especially apparent when we relate with those who have shirked the full effort. 

Under Saturn in Libra, we've determined who makes for a favourable partner and who doesn't, and now these standards must be applied across the board. The free-wheeling, boozy, philosopher king who spends his free time at the track might have been attractive under Venus in Sagittarius, but his debts are being called as Venus enters Capricorn. We're looking for long-term pay-off in relationship here and nothing less than that is worth the time or energy. Those who prove they cannot be responsible toward us, in relation to us, are not worth the time or energy. 

Only take on the responsibility toward others that feels absolutely right to take on, and don't give anyone a level of responsibility in relation to you that he or she is not meant (or equipped) to take on. 

With the influence of Venus here, there is definitely such thing as too sober, serious, pragmatic, number-crunching, and dry. Love, beauty, and romance need to be worked into the mix. However, it's a person with solid integrity, with some financial savvy, with a nose for legitimate advancement, with expertly handled personal responsibilities, and with the ability to dig in and get the job done even if it means deferring personal pleasures who is most attractive under these astro energies. 

Venus in Capricorn is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). Venus is seeking a partner who understands the full realities of life, including the difficult, sombre, or "unfun" aspects, who understood them early on, and who worked with them pretty much from the get-go rather than sloughing them off. 

All this reflects, in mutual reception, what Saturn has been requiring of relationships and potential mates throughout its transit of Libra. People who are obviously playing catch-up on this front are not going to hold as much appeal. We're looking for the results of long-term efforts - what a person has built and what progress has been made over the course of the lifetime. 

Charm is a quality with a decreasing amount of value the closer Saturn gets to Scorpio if it is not also attached to absolute integrity and authenticity. Those are the qualities that make bank under Saturn in Scorpio. People who have skated by on looks, charm, charisma, or social prowess and facade are going to find these qualities don't get them nearly as far as they used to. Playboys (or girls), those who refuse to grow up, the skittish, the cheaters, the fibbers, the non-committal, those who can't manage limitations, restrictions, or adult responsibilities - these people become less and less attractive. Flaky artist types also fall out of favour with Mars now entering a two-year Virgo-flavoured cycle. People who have been let out of many practical, adult responsibilities because they're so talented or so interesting or so tortured are going to have many fewer people hot for them. 

Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply. 

This is all part of the shift out of Piscean era relationship and partner ideals - a shift that gets a super charge this spring with the Venus Transit and Venus retrograde through Gemini. Relationship changes dramatically over the next while, and we can either move with the show or cling wailing and pining to old forms and old ideals that no longer get the job done and never really did. 

That said, there are a lot of people who are being kept out of relationship at this time so as to sidestep the harshest of the tail-end Piscean era relationship detritus. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception can be emotionally difficult for those who are not in a relationship and would like to be as it indicates the beginning of yet another cold winter with no one to keep their toes warm in bed. 

Again, though, this is Saturn we're talking about, and we have to be aware of the positioning of ourselves (going on right now) for long-term relationship success rather than for short-term toe-warming gratification. (If you can get both, more power to you!) It doesn't necessarily make it easier, but there are times when it's actually in our best interests to not be in relationship, and in many cases, this is one of those times.