Long Void-of-Course Moon Periods Provide a Break in the Intensity

Photo: Willow

The Moon went void-of-course in late Libra at 10:22 a.m. Central this morning (July 25) after a conjunction to Saturn.

The Moon remains void-of-course all day until entering Scorpio at 9:29 p.m. tonight. We then have a scant 13 hours of lunar activity before the Moon goes void-of-course yet again after a square to Mercury in Leo at 10:38 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The Moon won't leave its void-of-course period at that point until just after midnight on Saturday, July 28, making for a 38-hour void-of-course Moon period in deep, dark Scorpio.

This means we're under a void-of-course Moon the majority of the time during July 25, 26, and 27, which provides a break in the summer of 2012 emotional intensity.

The Moon is considered to be void-of-course between the time it makes its last major aspect from one sign and the time of its ingress of (entry into) the next sign. At the point that it goes void-of-course, the Moon has cleared all major aspects, has completed all major contacts to other bodies, and is just sort of coasting. This creates a time period that is, well, void. It is an emotionally still period of time when things coast along but nothing much of note happens.

If you are hoping to make a big splash or to create a big effect, you wouldn't attempt it during a void-of-course Moon. This is traditionally not the best time to start something new, unless you really don't want much to happen with it.

In some cases, the lack of activity is actually a boon. The Moon in Scorpio, for example, with its potentially difficult and incendiary emotional states, is one placement where a void-of-course Moon can keep things mellow and less emotionally inflammatory than usual. A lack of events stirring things up in this sign can be very nice. Things will still be alchemically bubbling away beneath the surface, but we can expect fewer emotional upsets and eruptions, so enjoy this less feisty and intense lunar period in the sign. If you have something unpleasant to deal with, getting it done under the void-of-course Moon in Scorpio could mean a mellower reaction from all involved.

The trickiness of the void-of-course period - especially long ones like those we're experiencing - is that it can make people antsy. Trying to make things happen during this period is an exercise in frustration. There just isn't much action going on, and attempting to buck the trend can be draining. Those who feel they have to be constantly on the go can find this period very uncomfortable, indeed.

If you're having a hard time finding initiative as the week comes to a close, this Moon is part of the explanation.

The Moon enters Sagittarius just after midnight on July 28, and the void-of-course lull is broken in time for the weekend. In fact, this fiery Moon in Sagittarius has more than enough action going on, forming a grand fire trine with Uranus in Aries and the Sun conjunct Mercury Rx in Leo on Saturday. On Sunday, it will sextile both Mars and Saturn in Libra while opposing Venus in Gemini.

Venus Leaves its Retrograde Shadow at 23 Gemini

Photo: Willow

New Relationship Territory August 1

Love, money, and relationship planet Venus clears its retrograde shadow at 23 degrees Gemini on July 31, and as it does, it makes an exact trine to Saturn at 23 degrees Libra, in the final leg of its 2.5-year transit through the sign of the scales.

This has a very nice completion feel to it. Things are being capped off gently with this flowing air trine, and we're made aware of how far we've come in matters of love, relating, and partnership since Saturn first began its relationship overhaul and renovations in October 2009.

If we've done the work, we're in stronger relational position now than we've ever been.

Chapters end, cycles close, and we officially move out of the Venus retrograde period in Gemini which included the Venus Transit June 5, putting that momentous event behind us. Venus has been in Gemini for about four months. You can read more about the transit here: Venus Enters Gemini, A New Relationship Cycle Begins, and Mutable Madness Permeates the Skies.

As of August 1, Venus clears the last of the retrograde degrees, and we're officially in new territory on relationship fronts - just in time for the Full Moon in Aquarius that night. According to certain astrological indicators, we've officially entered the first relationship cycle of the astrological Aquarian era, making the new relationship cycle opening more far-reaching and all-encompassing than usual. New relational rules, standards, and responsibilities apply.

Saturn in Libra Check-List

Coming to the end of the Saturn in Libra transit:

"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...

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...

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...

[I]t'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.

[Saturn in Libra] is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). [It's] 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...

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."

Venus in Cardinal T-Square, Mars-Saturn Conjunct in Libra: Relationships Tested Under Intense Pressure

Let's hope we're quick on the uptake with the new relational rules, standards, and responsibilities worked out through Saturn in Libra because they're being put immediately to the test.

We have exactly one week to enjoy the new Venus in Gemini territory and the Venus-Saturn trine before Venus enters cardinal water sign Cancer August 7, moving straight away into tense cardinal t-square formation with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

That cardinal t-square is exact August 15 and occurs on the same day as Mars in Libra forms a difficult, constricting, even at times desperate conjunction to Saturn in Libra. The constriction of will, energy, and personal direction indicated by this conjunction of the malefics will be difficult to endure during the second week of August, particularly for males and for females who are used to unfettered energy and movement.

Venus in Cancer within cardinal t-square formation is the dispositor of both Mars and Saturn in Libra, and tense, challenging relations under a whole heap of pressure are the dominating theme August 7-17.

We're grinding out progress, but it's hard-won, to say the least.

Soft, comfortable places we're used to falling with Venus in Cancer can prove poisonous under opposition from Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Capricorn. The familiar can become suffocating quagmire, with the Venus square to Uranus in Aries forcing us to go beyond relational comfort zones, beyond usual faces and dynamics. This cardinal t-square forces us to shed prior safe havens in search of something more dynamic as people and relationships morph and change before our eyes.

Relationship structures new and old are being tested on all fronts this August. Every joint, every weld, every bolt and screw are being given the no-nonsense go-over. Anything that cannot withstand the pressure now will crumble ahead of Saturn's transit of Scorpio and the 2013-2014 cardinal Grand Crosses. Shoddy workmanship will not stand.

Weaknesses in our relationship foundations and structures being drawn to our attention now are blessings in disguise, however, as we will have some time to rework things and fortify ahead of Saturn's ingress of deeper, darker, more potentially ass-biting Scorpio October 5.

Structural relationship weaknesses or issues left unresolved will certainly start kicking up the angst once Saturn enters Scorpio, so dig in now wherever you find a fatal flaw. Long-standing issues, hurt, and resentments that have been buried or denied will surface, resurface, and then surface again under Saturn in Scorpio, so make sure your relational frameworks are as sound as they can be ahead of those challenges.

Make sure the people in your life will hold under pressure, that they are solid, and that they can be counted on. Make decisions about who you have in your life now, with Saturn in notoriously indecisive Libra, or the decisions will be made for you.

Giving the wrong person the wrong position in your life at this point creates very sticky and protracted problems later.

Saturn is currently conjunct highly fortunate fixed stars Spica and Arcturus, making relationship challenges a little easier to manage until August 17. You can read more about that here: Saturn Re-Enters a Fixed Star Safe Haven From the Heat of the Via Combusta

Because of Saturn's (relatively) beneficial position, the best time to address relational weaknesses is as soon as they come up this August.

Resolve all you can in relationships past and present. Move into and solidify new social position. Finalize decisions around relationships and social scenarios.

The North Node moves from Sagittarius into Scorpio August 30 just ahead of Saturn entering the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, x-ray vision, and hardcore soul drive this October. Clearing slates before then is very much in our best interests.

A Black Moon Makes For a Dark Night in Colorado

An individual believed to be 24-year-old James Holmes threw a tear gas cannister into a theatre in Aurora, Colorado just after midnight this morning. When the people started streaming out, the individual started shooting, killing 12 people and wounding at least 38 more.

The theatre was screening the new Batman movie titled The Dark Knight Rises, making for more of that creepy Hollywood symbolism to which we've become accustomed.

The Batman film franchise has a history of tragic events associated with it, as does that area of Colorado.

Heath Ledger, an actor in the previous Batman installment, The Dark Knight, died suddenly at the age of 28 a few months prior to the release of the film in 2008. An effects technician also died performing a stunt while filming. Morgan Freeman, another actor in The Dark Knight, flipped his car a month after the release of the film and had to be operated on, and "Batman" himself Christian Bale was arrested that same month for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister.

Aurora, Colorado - where the shootings occured at the Century 16 movie theatre early this morning -  is 30 kilometres from Littleton, Colorado where the Columbine school shootings happened in 1999.

According to the Huffington Post, James Holmes was a PhD student in neuroscience but was in the process of withdrawing from classes. His birthdate is listed as December 13, 1987.

Using that birth date, Holmes would have a tight Mars-Pluto conjunction in Scorpio (within one degree) in his natal chart. He would have Uranus, Saturn, and the Sun conjunct in late Sagittarius with Mercury in mid-Sagittarius. Venus would be at 19/20 degrees Capricorn square Jupiter at 19 degrees Aries. Holmes' North Node would be in Pisces with a Moon in Virgo conjunct his Virgo South Node (unless born later than 10:40 p.m., in which case his Moon would be in Libra, also conjunct the South Node). Neptune would be in Capricorn.

Natal Black Moon Lilith Square Mars-Pluto in Scorpio Heavily Activated by Transiting Moon-Mercury

Holmes has Vesta-Black Moon Lilith in Leo square Mars-Pluto in Scorpio in his natal chart. This square was highly activated at the time of the shooting, and one can certainly see the involvement of this combination of energies.

Astronomically, Black Moon Lilith is the point of lunar apogee - the point where the Moon is furthest away from Earth in its orbit. Astrologically, it relates to a point of deep, dark feminine awareness and life experience, as well as marginalization from the mainstream.

This point involves a theme of being put out of society, being put out in the cold, being isolated, alone, forced to fight for bare survival. It relates to a society that would prefer an individual dead rather than accept what he or she represents into its folds. As part of that, Black Moon Lilith can be a raw, potentially volatile point, with sudden, extreme, and even violent trigger points.

Pluto is the dwarf planet named for the Lord of the Underworld and involves a state of living beneath the surface, seeing in the dark, being aware of what others who live above ground are not. Pluto involves a process of bringing up to the surface issues which remain detrimentally denied and suppressed in the collective. It is related to Hades (hell), death, and destruction and can also be volatile, highly-triggered, and violent.

July 17/18 Mars-Uranus-Pluto Cardinal T-Square Officially Loosening

Summertime and the living's easy. Ha.
Photo: Willow

Mars in Libra completed the exact aspects in the cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto yesterday, and that tense, frictional configuration is now officially loosening. If you were ready to blow over the past couple days during that Dark of the Moon in Cancer square Saturn, here's a bit of a reprieve.

The Moon entered Leo early this morning, Mars has shifted just beyond the exact cardinal t-square, and tensions have reached a peak - for now.

They're still simmering, however. The points of acute cardinal square tension are happening in waves. One wave has just reached a peak and broken, but we are building toward another by mid-August.

Remember that Mars is now heading to a conjunction with Saturn August 15, at which point Venus in Cancer will be forming yet another exact cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Carpicorn. The Moon will be back in Cancer at that time, as well, squaring Mars and Saturn in Libra.

That one is very tight, very tense, with very little room to manoeuvre. There is a strong emphasis on relationships at that time. We're going to be boxed in and held in some difficult positions in relation to others, and we're going to have to draw on every last one of our Saturn in Libra lessons to get through.

The Mars-Saturn conjunction coming up is a major placement test, and you'd better believe the challenges it throws our way are epic.

We also have the second Uranus-Pluto square forming, with Uranus and Pluto both retrograde and within one degree of each other. The second square of the seven-square series will be exact September 19.

Mercury in Libra will be forming an exact cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto at that time (September 20), and we don't get much relief as the Sun in Libra then moves into t-square position September 29, intensifying the themes. Venus in Libra gets in on the t-square action a bit later on November 3.

We're all operating under pressure and will be for a while. Get used to the tension and uncertainty, shoulder and balance what you can, but don't focus too far ahead.

We still have a good chunk of Saturn in Libra to complete, and it's a challenging course, to say the least.

Ceres in Gemini, the Heat Wave, and Media Manipulation of Grain Futures

Ceres, the dwarf planet associated with grains, cereals, and the fertility of the Earth, is transiting Gemini (media), and news stories about food and agriculture need to be on our radar screens.

With Ceres currently conjunct Jupiter and the South Node of the Moon in Gemini, understanding the ways in which these news stories are shaping, directing, and manipulating public opinion is important throughout the transit. Ceres entered Gemini June 24 where it will remain until September 26. It will retrograde back into Gemini December 4 until April 25, 2013.

With the current nodal axis, manipulated news stories (Gemini South Node) can too easily become truth (Sagittarius North Node).

The media campaign pushing for public acceptance of genetically modified alfalfa is currently underway, as is a series of heat wave-related crop failure/food price increase stories.

A record heat wave swept across most of the United States and Canada from the end of June through the first week of July, continuing in Canada to mid-July. This has resulted in widespread speculation on crop failures in the U.S. Midwest, particularly of corn and soybean crops.

The United States is the world's primary producer of corn, and it's big business, used in many different food products, for livestock feed, and for ethanol production for which there are mandatory quotas that must be filled. 

It is estimated that one-third of the corn crop has been damaged or destroyed in 18 U.S. states by the June/July heat wave and a lack of precipitation at pollination time, a crucial point in the corn's development.

This Saskatchewan corn survived the heat.

Photos: Willow

News stories across mainstream and alternative media are declaring that these crop failures will result in already-inflated food prices rising even higher.

The truth is, the media is manufacturing cause and effect.

Crop failures of this magnitude will not create an immediate rise in the price of food and groceries. The world has grain and food stores in reserve. No matter how devastating the current corn crop loss in the U.S., no matter how the reserves may potentially take a hit, the early failure of a crop - long before it is time to harvest and sell - will not cause an immediate rise in food prices. As far as the physical supply is concerned, it would require a longer-term trickle-down effect.

What a major crop failure will create, with the media's help, is an immediate psychological state among the public and among those playing the stock market that will create higher prices. This is a psychological bubble, an expectation that prices will rise, which creates that very effect.

The primary driver in stock markets around the world these days is not the supply and demand of physical commodities. It is mass psychology and the manipulation of that mass psychology, often through media. If people believe the price of something is going to go up - due, in this case, to media reports of heat and drought causing crop failures in the U.S. Midwest - they will be primed for price increases. They will act as if the price is going to go up, buying and selling accordingly, and this activity will then drive the prices up, no matter if the physical supply is in imminent danger of being decreased substantially or not.

Trines and Sextiles Galore: Potentially Too Much of a Good Thing

We have two trines dominating the astro atmosphere currently, an air trine and a fire trine, along with multiple sextiles. This is a combination of creative/inspirational and social/communicative.

Almost every planet and body is connecting to another planet or body at the moment, and with this many contacts going on in the zodiac, we have an equally complex number of contacts going on in our lives and societies.

Things are busy, particularly on the mental, communicative fronts, and this can be challenging, even when easy, flowing aspects like sextiles and trines are involved.

Fire Trine: Mercury in Leo and Uranus in Aries

The fire trine we're experiencing involves Mercury in Leo and Uranus in Aries. These two formed their first exact trine July 4 and are currently stationing retrograde together, still in trine formation.

Uranus stations in the early morning of July 13 and will be retrograde until December 12, 2012. Mercury stations on the night of July 14 and will be retrograde until August 8. Mercury will remain within range of the trine to Uranus into late August with a second exact trine July 25, and the final one August 18.

This is great, right? An easy, flowing trine between the planet of brilliant, lightning-fast insight and vision (Uranus) and the planet that rules the conscious human mind, intellect, and communication (Mercury). The genius is going to be flowing!

There's such thing as too much brilliance, too much insight, and too many ideas popping around in our brains like popcorn kernels, however, and an almost six-week Mercury-Uranus contact, colouring the entire Mercury retrograde process, could prove too much unless we're careful.

Mercury-Uranus contacts can be a challenge, even with genial aspects.

The dual retrograde stations add to that challenge, creating an intense concentration of focus and insight that can leave our mental circuitry overwhelmed.

Uranus adds an excitable, edgy, electric, and even manic charge to anything it touches. In this case, it is our mental function, thought processes, and communication patterns that are being so touched.

Uranus has a tendency to run us - even to overrun us - with its electric, hypercharged current, and we will need to periodically wrestle ourselves away from whatever holds our mental focus in order to cool things off.

With both planets in fire signs, this is a hot brain, a hot mind. Sizzling circuitry. Blinding flashes of insight that leave you frazzled and on edge. Racing minds and erratic thought processes leading to mental fatigue, headaches, stiff necks, and burnout.

Mental exhaustion is a definite possibility with this long-term contact, and awareness during the tight and concentrated points can help to avoid any electrical fires over the next month.

A Handy Guide To Plutonic Punk DIY Freestyle Gardening Under the Uranus-Pluto Square

The Garden Patch

Photos: Willow



Organic vegetable gardens are ideally planted in idyllic natural settings surrounded by trees, flowers, and perhaps a babbling brook.

But if you haven’t noticed, we’re working with far from the ideal here, people.

Tip #1: If the only available spot for your organic vegetable garden is, in actuality, down a prairie trail within sight of a pump jack and open oil flare, amuse yourself with the irony of the situation. Keep your fingers crossed that you and your veggies are out of range of the toxic byproducts. If you are not out of range of said byproducts, revel in the intense survival drives of both the Plutonic punk garden and Plutonic punk gardener.

Pumpjack and oil flare

Tip #2: The concern may cross your mind that chemical spray drift from neighbouring fields could find its way onto your organic produce, but again, a make-do situation on Planet Earth is a make-do situation on Planet Earth. Try to suck it up. Under the intensity of the Uranus in Aries – Pluto in Capricorn squares, there’s really no pretending. We're doing the best we can, and the planting of an organic vegetable garden under such conditions is a true attempt at survival between the cracks.

Tip #3: Most gardeners will use a motorized garden tiller specially designed to work the soil of their garden spot in preparation for planting. If you don’t have access to such a machine, a disker hooked to a full-size tractor will work in a pinch. If you know or are related to a farmer or rancher who can assist on this front, you're in business.

Tip #4: If you find you don’t have a hoe because you left it at an aborted strawberry picking job years ago, just dig your row with the edge of a spade.

Tip #5: Usually, gardeners will use a string tied to two stakes stuck in the ground to ensure their rows are made in straight lines. If you are a DIY freestyle variety of gardener, though, and don’t have string or stakes or really even the inclination to use them, you can dispose of this step as a finicky aesthetic quibble.

Tip #6: If you find you have a surplus of seeds after you’ve planted your row, just add a bit of length to the end with the trusty spade. This will obviously create rows of differing lengths, but diversity makes the world go round, right?

Tip #7: If your garden stubbornly refuses to come up, resulting in a (premature) declaration of its failure by those who observe it, comfort yourself with the Plutonic principle that spontaneous, against-all-odds growth is not only possible but probable. This is a Plutonic punk DIY freestyle garden, after all. There’s no counting it out early. The phoenix shall rise.

Cucumber plant

Tip #8: Due to multiple factors, you may find that not all your garden comes up. In fact, only two of your ten potato plants may come up due to the use of regular, rather than seed potatoes. Again, as a DIY freestyle gardener, accept that improvisation sometimes comes with drawbacks. As a true Plutonic punk gardener, however, immediately shed concern about or attachment to the dead zones, focusing only on what has survived. Applaud the survival of the plants that have showed themselves, growing under these inhospitable Uranus square Pluto conditions. Love and tend to the plants that have courageously burst forth, and think of the meals you will enjoy.

Tip #9: People will generally maintain a weed-free garden patch, but when your garden has been disked with a full-size disker and tractor, you are going to end up with a lot more ground than you need. Keeping weeds at bay will mean removing them from your rows and from the surrounding area, but leaving a perimeter of weeds to do their thing. The weed patch will, of course, be much more green, full, and lush than anything you planted, but just ignore this taunting from the natural world.

Raggedy-ass DIY freestyle garden

It’s true that these crooked, raggedy-ass rows of arbitrary length and spotty growth would scandalize the old folks. They would continue to scandalize anyone with more usual ideas about gardening. Luckily, this garden spot is out in the country, down a prairie trail no one uses, hidden by a jungle-like patch of weeds around its perimeter and will escape most notice and critique. 

Hidden down a prairie trail

Under the attempted corporate, agribusiness monopoly by genetically modified and chemically-treated seeds and food, growing and eating organic or non-GMO is a revolutionary act.

If you do not have the space, the time, or the inclination to do your own DIY freestyle gardening, please visit your local farmers market or contact your local Hutterite colony and load up for the year.

Many vegetables can be quickly blanched and frozen and will keep all year round. Having local garden produce at your disposal through the winter months is a wonderful thing.

Potato plant

Ceres in Gemini: Information and Disinformation about Genetically Modified Seeds

Dwarf planet Ceres (grains, cereals, and the fertility of the Earth) entered Gemini (media) June 24 where it will stay until September 26. It will retrograde back into Gemini December 4 until April 25, 2013.

Issues related to food and agriculture are going to be talked about, thought about, and covered in the media during this time, and there will be ongoing releases of information designed to sway public perspective.

Soon after the ingress, I heard a “news story” on a local radio station involving an interview with a shill for the genetically modified seed industry. This individual was talking up the benefits of genetically modified alfalfa, using the standard argument that we need to move to GM seeds in order to produce more food for a growing  global population.

In actuality, genetically modified seeds have not proven to produce much higher yields at all. This is just one of the common faulty arguments used to promote insanely dangerous, untested, and unproven genetically modified seeds.

The push for the widespread introduction of genetically modified alfalfa is on, with multiple GM corporations trying to get in on the game, but the introduction of GM alfalfa would be devastating for the organics industry and for all non-GMO crops and livestock.

In Canada, a proposed moratorium on the sale and planting of genetically modified alfalfa was blocked in March, 2011 by the Harper Conservatives. The pro-GMO Conservatives now have a majority in Canadian Parliament, and allowing the widespread sale and growth of genetically modified seeds in this country is on the agenda.

With Ceres in Gemini for the next while, the organized and monied media push for the widespread use and acceptance of genetically modified seeds/foods will be heating up. Pro-GMO propaganda will be flying fast and furious, and the opposition to GM seeds and foods needs to match it step-by-step.

Please vocally oppose genetically modified alfalfa and all genetically modified seeds and crops, and support a moratorium on their sale and planting. Talk about the issues, and keep them on the public radar screen when you can. Support and buy food from local, non-GMO farmers whenever possible. 

 

For more Willow's Web background on GM alfalfa:

- All WWA articles on GM alfalfa

-- Short mainstream news story  

-- Longer astrology journalism article

This Full Moon Kind of Sucks

Sorry to be the bearer of angsty astro news, but the upcoming Capricorn Full Moon conjunct Pluto (July 3) is a bit of an asshole.

We start with the lead-up to it today with a long, bitchy square all day from the Moon in late Sagittarius to Mars on the final degree of Virgo (exact 5:21 p.m. Central).

This Sagittarius Moon square Mars at anaretic Virgo is not exactly jovial.

Mars has been in Virgo almost eight months. Virgo is an exhaustive, picky, perfectionist, digging into the dirty work no one else wants to do sign, but we're officially at the "I've had enough" point as Mars grinds out the 29th degree. One more detail we've overlooked or nook we've neglected to make spotless is going to push us over the edge, but doing things half-assed at this point has the potential to enrage those who have to fix or clean up after.

The Moon enters Capricorn, the sign of its detriment, at 5:51 p.m. this afternoon. The news doesn't get much better as it moves into cardinal t-square position conjunct Pluto and square Uranus in Aries by early tomorrow morning.

Moon-Pluto contacts have the potential to take us to some very dark, praying-for-sweet-sweet-death places emotionally. Add to that the square to Uranus, and people are on the edge. It will take very little to push people to their emotional eruption points.

This is a lot of pressure with people being backed into corners emotionally.

The Full Moon is exact tomorrow afternoon at 1:52 p.m., with the Moon appearing at its fullest points both tonight and tomorrow night.

This isn't exactly a Full Moon to bask in. It's sombre, on edge, grumpy, at its limit, and not willing to put up with any bullshit.

By July 4, the Capricorn Moon has peaked, alleviating a bit of the over-the-top Plutonic lunacy, but it will square both Eris in Aries and Saturn in Libra before going void of course at 7:25 a.m.

The squares to Eris and Saturn infuse the 4th of July holiday in the United States with a pervading sense of emotional heaviness, constriction, friction, and pressure, along with an unpredictable and upsetting shit disturber element coming from Eris.

The Full Moon edginess is not really going anywhere. It's just shifting flavours.

There is some listlessness under the heavy, all-day void-of-course Moon on July 4 until the Moon enters Aquarius at 7:26 p.m. 

The Moon entering Aquarius should bring some much-needed detachment and emotional distance from this 'too incendiary to handle' Full Moon phase.