Pluto in Capricorn and the Epidemic of Physician-Caused Injuries and Deaths From New Wave Pharmaceuticals

Iatrogenic injuries and deaths: injuries and deaths caused by the physician, unrelated to the original health complaint.

Iatrogenic injuries and deaths are occurring in record numbers. A conservative estimate of the number of people killed in the United States by correctly prescribed pharmaceuticals every year is 100,000. This statistic does not include the hundreds of thousands of people who are injured or permanently disabled by dirty pharmaceuticals every year. This statistic also does not include people who commit suicide due to adverse reactions without "provable" links to the drug. Suicide is a common side effect of many of the new wave of pharmaceuticals on the market.

Natural News: Hospitals and Doctors are Killing Americans in Record Numbers

From the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC):

- Sixty-one people die every day in the United States from pharmaceuticals (adverse reactions or overdoses).

- Reported poisonings have gone up 90% between 1999 and 2008. The major reason is the exponential increase in the use of pharmaceuticals, including all the new pharmaceuticals that have been fast-tracked onto the market without due testing and the pharmaceuticals that have been kept on the market despite known deadly/damaging side effects.

Whenever I see a commercial for a new pharmaceutical and the majority of the commercial is a list of the deadly and horrific side effects it can have, I'm transported to my Plutonic surreal insanity place. How messed up a society are we living in when a deadly drug is being advertised to people as if it's a new flavour of Pop Rocks? It's a type of messed up that we could only fully experience under transiting Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto (poison) in Capricorn (big business). Pluto (hidden control) in Capricorn (institutional hierarchy). Pluto (extreme dominance) in Capricorn (corporate oligarchy).

With Uranus in Aries (radical survival and necessary breaks from the old guard) forming its third exact conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn (poisonous corporate shenanigans) on May 20, these issues are in our face, up front and centre, more visible than usual, more challenging than usual.

Corporations and their foot soldiers are poisoning us en masse, and they're making off like bandits doing so.

On May 7, there will be a march on Washington by a group of people who have had horrendous, long-term adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Major brands include Cipro and Avelox (manufactured and sold by Bayer) and Levaquin (manufactured and sold by Johnson & Johnson). The group is asking that physicians be educated on the dangers of prescribing these antibiotics. It is also asking that fluoroquinolones not be prescribed as a first-line antibiotic, as they are now.

Cipro is Poison is the website of a man named Jeff who has had one of the most severe adverse reactions possible to Cipro.

I hope none of us ever experiences the horror this man has been through. He's going through hell. It's truly unimaginable, and it's going on thousands of times over as these drugs continue to be handed out like Chiclets.

Scorpio Full Moon Eclipse Conjunct Saturn: Ooga Booga!

There's a Full Moon partial lunar eclipse in Scorpio tomorrow, starting a series of three eclipses, and I'm going to keep this one very simple.

There are people, dynamics, and situations trying to fuck with you right now. They're trying to get under your skin, trying to scare you into devaluing yourself and what you do in this world. They're trying to undermine your self-esteem and your sense of security, getting you to accept scraps rather than holding out for your true worth. It's easier for them that way. Less threatening. They're trying to jostle you out of position, and they're using your own energy in this attempt.

The Moon pushes to its most full and illuminated point today and tomorrow. It's shining some love and light, all right, but this is of the Scorpionic 'tough love' variety. 

With Venus, the Sun, Mars, and asteroid Pallas Athene in Taurus, the inclination is to accumulate - people, money, ease, comfort, pretty things. Taurus is a tradition-oriented and fairly simple sign that generally wants to maintain the status quo. It digs the status quo. The status quo most often works for Taurus. Stable, easy, rewards-rich.

The South Node of the Moon is also in Taurus, however, indicating major pitfalls possible with certain expressions of this sign.

We have to balance our Taurean needs for simple and basic, for accumulation, for stability and security with the hardcore eliminatory function of the North Node, Moon, and Saturn in Scorpio. Getting down to brass tacks as far as who and what needs to go - and making it happen.

With a North Node in Scorpio and a South Node in Taurus:

In order to achieve physical security in the material world (Taurus), channeling money, value, and earnings into your life, you first have to make the underlying energy dynamics right (Scorpio) - emotional, psychological, psychic. You have to address and get rid of all the shit sandwiches people are attempting to serve you. You have to fight for your full value without backing down.

In order to accumulate what's right for you, you first have to eliminate what isn't.

This Scorpio Full Moon is a culmination of themes that opened at the November 13, 2012 Alpha Snake New Moon total solar eclipse in Scorpio. Underlying allegiances that had been simmering beneath the skin of the situations started to be drawn to the surface at that Scorpio New Moon.

From the Alpha Snake New Moon post:

"Underlying loyalties start to shake out under this Moon, and we start to get a clearer picture of where people stand as we head deeper into Saturn in Scorpio. Incompatibilities glossed over during Saturn in Libra are pushed to the surface, like it or not. Crossed motivations send up sparks. Lips will curl, unconsciously, showing our fangs if we come too near those with whom we lack inherent common ground. The ties that bound friendly allies during Saturn in Libra snap like dry, autumn twigs under Saturn in Scorpio. Soul compatibility is something altogether different.

Soul-deep incompatibilities go from cracks, to divisions, to chasms. There can be no doubt where we stand on the other side of this New Moon portal."

Now, as the Moon grows full in the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, hardcore soul drive, and X-Ray vision, we get a look at these underlying allegiances and alliances under the full moonlight, and we get a chance to address them head-on.

We knew where we stood at the Scorpio New Moon last November. Now, at the Scorpio Full Moon, we put that fully into practise - or suffer the consequences (Saturn).

The North Node in Scorpio, coming ever-closer to the conjunction to Saturn (and Venus) this September, is asking you to eliminate every single person, dynamic, and situation that isn't right. Do it authoritatively, and do it now, when the concrete opportunity to do so (Saturn) arises. The Scorpio North Node is asking you to carve out a path that goes to the bone, to the core, stripping down to only the right energy dynamics, to only what's vital, to only what has some fucking life left kicking in it.

With the Moon conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, opposing all that Taurus, you intuitively know the people, dynamics, and situations that need to go. You know which ones are draining you, forcing you into unnatural positions, keeping you stagnant, afraid, or in a subordinate position.

At this Full Moon eclipse in Scorpio, it's time to make the final snips. It's time to get rid of every last drop of poison. Your emotions guide this process - the deep down, dark and dirty ones. The ones you might be ashamed of. How you really feel. How your soul really feels.

It might be difficult to muster the self-confidence and the self-esteem to address the muck and sever ties under these transits (Moon-Saturn), but if you muster it, you will be rewarded.

These are some subtle, gut-feeling twinges we're following here. Following even the slightest surface disturbance down to its root. Getting clear on what's really going on down there. And making the cuts.

Some traditional dynamics need to be skipped altogether. Some overall trends need to be bucked.

With Saturn so influencing this Moon, we're working with patriarchal authority figures and patriarchal institutions and the fear those things are built on and powered through. Money fears come through this and through the Taurus South Node. We're working on confronting and diffusing the at-times paralyzing psychological hold these fears can have over us. We're working through some of our deepest security fears at this Moon, saying "no" to them, breaking their influence.

It takes courage to sever ties to elements of our own "security." But it's certainly a false security if we have to swallow shit sandwiches in order to maintain it.

This is the type of false security that must be destroyed at this Full Moon, freeing our energy for a metamorphosis into a truly solid foundation. The soul-deep kind that cannot be shattered or disturbed by any event or individual on this Earth.

Emotional, psychological, and psychic security are more highly valued now. Scorpio energy is more highly valued now, and it's worth more than (highly manipulated) dollar bills.

Divine down to the roots here, at this Full Moon. Don't be afraid to look at anything kicked up by this Moon, though it may be uncomfortable.

Remove detrimental influences that drain and hold you back. Remove the influence of people who try to unsettle you. Do it quickly, completely, unceremoniously, and guilt-free.

Building on the Sun-Venus Exterior Conjunction with Jupiter Conjunct the Venus Transit Degree

At the time of the Aries New Moon and Aries stellium earlier this month, Venus was in the sign of its detriment (Aries), and Mars was in the sign of its domicile (also Aries). The females and the feminine (Venus) were in a tough spot, while the males and the masculine (Mars) were living a little easier.

Now, just 10 days later, the tables have turned. Venus is now in the sign of its domicile, Taurus, and Mars entered the sign of its detiment, also Taurus, this morning.

The Sun and Venus are still within range of a conjunction, now in Taurus, and this blesses us with some much-needed ease and congeniality as spring starts to dig in in the northern hemisphere. These bodies were exactly conjunct on March 28 at 8 degrees Aries.

From the Aries New Moon post:

"The exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus on March 28 was the first conjuction between these two bodies since the interior conjunction on June 5, 2012. That interior conjuction, with Venus retrograde in Gemini, also marked the Venus Transit, an event that will not be experienced again for more than one hundred years.

From a previous post:

"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...

[T]his indicates a shift in relationship cycles - one closes, another begins. Because the June 5 Sun-Venus interior conjunction in Gemini is also a Venus Transit, this shift in relationship cycles is profound and far-reaching. The upcoming Venus Transit acts as an official relational backdrop change between astrological eras. As of this event, we're no longer one foot in, one foot out. We officially move beyond Piscean-era relationship ideals and constructs and are propelled into the early stages of a new relationship paradigm - relating within the astrological Aquarian era. New tracks emerge that were previously unavailable. Relationships and we within relationship are not the same coming out of this June."

The March 28 conjunction of the Sun and Venus in Aries indicated a new chapter in Aquarian-era relationship has been opened, fresh and new, stemming from the monumental Venus Transit."

This exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus in cardinal, initiating Aries injected new life and new direction into relationships, value systems, and money matters, indicating that potent new territory had been reached following the Venus Transit.

Now, with Venus, the Sun, and Mars in fixed and sensual Taurus, we take the new directions and dig in. Taurus is the sign of the bull and the sign of the farmer, and it's our understanding of natural timing that advances the initial sparks of Aries now, particularly in relationship. We're building a relational foundation that will support future progress.

When it's time to cultivate, you cultivate. When it's time to fertilize, you fertilize. When it's time to sow, you sow. When it isn't time for those things, you don't do those things. There's an order and a timing that comes around naturally every year. This is the simple and lovely wisdom of Taurus. Slow and steady wins the race. This slow and steady farmer wisdom and the natural timing associated are applied to both relationships and money matters now, and it's the females and the feminine force most strongly setting the timing and the tone.

Attention to boundaries and personal comfort are important whenever Taurus is strong, and this is the case now, as the Taurus bodies oppose Saturn Rx in Scorpio, which is digging up many uncomfortable creepy crawlies from beneath many rugs.

Sexual and emotional challenges, blocks, and intensity are being stirred now by Saturn in Scorpio, and it's the Taurus energy that helps keep things on the rails, ensuring we don't give up our sexual, emotional, metaphysical, or healing skills too soon, too intensively, in the wrong ways, or to the wrong people.

Saturn is requiring that we dig deeply to determine "what time it really is" in newly organizing Aquarian-era relationships of all kinds. This way, we know when it's time to cultivate, when it's time to fertilize, and when it's time to sow. Listening to and heeding the intuitive voice on this front might be a bit of a drag, but any sticking points or delays coming up now are purposeful. Any gut feelings or little twinges or doubts are purposeful and must be addressed concretely. In general with a Saturn transit, it's best to deal with each obstacle or challenge as it comes up. Anything avoided will simply circle back again at a later time, especially in the sign of Scorpio.

As the Sun and Venus continue to move through the zodiac in their exterior conjunction, in effect into early May, Jupiter in Gemini is conjunct the degree of the Venus Transit at 15 Gemini. The conjunction of this degree is exact April 18-23.

Our greater benefic planet on this degree is yet another nice marker of our new era progress. Jupiter has had a somewhat rough transit in the sign of its detriment, Gemini, taking part in two Yod formations and a long-term square to Chiron in Pisces. But at this point, not only has Jupiter moved out of range of those tricky aspects, it's also moving out of its retrograde shadow April 24, leaving this angsty territory behind.

More good (Jupiter) news (Gemini): Jupiter will make no further tense aspects during its final two months in Gemini.

In fact, the major aspect Jupiter will make is an "ice cream sundae with a cherry on top" sort of aspect - a conjunction to Venus at 23 degrees Gemini on May 28, just after conjuncting Mercury in Gemini. This is the lesser benefic (Venus) and the greater benefic (Jupiter) joining forces, and this one is lovely. Our communications, our words, our networks, and our interactions with local society and siblings (or with those who feel like siblings) are blessed around this time with many beautiful and even miraculous connections and re-connections possible. Misunderstandings - even long-standing - can be lifted under this aspect. Any effort on our part to those ends will be rewarded.

Jupiter enters the sign of its exaltation, Cancer, on June 26 and heads into Grand Water Trine territory immediately after.

We've made it to a new, post-Venus Transit foundation for love, relationship, values, and money matters. Relax into it whenever you can under this Taurus stellium (Sun, Venus, Mars, and soon Mercury), and appreciate the hard work you (and they) have put in to get here.

Venus-Pallas Athene in Taurus Opposite Saturn Rx in Scorpio: "WWA Blog is Not Worth $2.50 Per Month"

Photo: Willow

The planet of value and money, Venus, is currently at home in Taurus, the sign of value and money, and will be until May 9. Venus is conjunct female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene in Taurus at this time, creating a powerhouse feminine influence in the sign of tradition, earnings, and security in the physical world.

Both Venus and Pallas Athene are opposing Saturn Rx in Scorpio, and this brings up themes of the valuing and undervaluing of astrological knowledge and infomation. The divinatory, digging, researching, uncovering, drawing-up-to-the-surface energy of astrological work.

I've been writing about the undervaluing of astrology for a while now, which is rampant in this "easy access" internet age, as well as the undervaluing of Scorpio energy, in general. This is emotional, psychological, sexual, metaphysical, healing, X-ray vision energy. Hidden processes that are easily put down, degraded, stepped on.

From October 13, 2011: The Bodies in Scorpio Oppose Jupiter Rx in Taurus: A Conscious Re-Valuing of Soul Energy and Scorpio's Mad Skillz in the Nether-Realms

"Scorpio works in the energetic realms - mostly hidden. Taurus works in the physical world - quite visible and what most consider "work." Taurus is a sign related to what is most commonly valued these days: money (and all the concrete things you can buy with money). Scorpio relates to complex energetic currencies.

From a previous post:

"Scorpio is a healing energy. It intuitively knows where the trouble is and gets right to work, divining and digging to trigger multi-layered release points. It isn't just treating symptoms, either. Scorpio knows it's either go deep or go home, and it puts forth immense stores of energy to go to the mat for people, driving right to the root of the problems that keep them locked up, inauthentic, programmed, and less effective than they could otherwise be.

Scorpio digs the poisoned thorns out - and if it's masterful enough, it gets them all.

But Scorpio's mastery is also it's downfall. Here's where the betrayal aspect of the sign comes into play. Scorpio is a liberating energy, an almost magical transformer of all things oppressive and stagnant and intolerable - and its emotional, psychological and psychic currency is woefully undervalued. Quite often, it's used and abused with little to nothing offered in return. It's left holding the bag with nowhere left to put the shit.

What Scorpio does is mostly in the energetic realms, and because so few people have developed the sight to see this type of energy work, people take it and run. Often, they take it and run right back into the same unhealthy patterns and dynamics Scorpio was expending so much energy to extricate them from in the first place."

This theme has been coming up strongly since last fall's Venus retrograde in Scorpio and has been triggered again now that Venus is back in the sign:

The currencies of sexual, emotional, psychological, and psychic energy as well as masterful Scorpionic healing abilities require a conscious re-valuing and re-working, eked out one interchange at a time."

Well, today, I'm not allowing myself or my site to be put down, degraded, or stepped on. Today, I'm doing some eking.

This morning, with the Sun (external presence and self-expression) conjunct Mars (attacks) in Aries, I got a lovely gem of a comment in the comments section telling me that this blog is not worth the price of a subscription. In other words, it's not worth the price of half a Starbucks per month to read. That's the price of the cheapest subscription option.

"I read your blog faithfully, but there's roughly similar information free all over the web. I agree with your GMO stuff, but it's not worth a full subscription. I wonder if others feel similarly. If you're feeling an energy drain, you could ask what's off with the tone of the blog. Why is it not inviting more traffic & more private clients or more community? This has a lot to do with the Pluto Saturn mutual reception at the moment--I personally feel we all have to watch our tendency to lose the wisdom potential here if we give in to being Aries Uranus firebrands, freakin' people out. In the end, it's always about building & deepening relationships while giving up need for absolute control -- this is the secret recipe for Cap-Scorp happiness." 

All the astrological and sociological information I put out here, in this reader's humble opinion, can be found for free elsewhere on the internet. Therefore, it's not worth a single dime to this person to read this blog.

What a worthless, worthless site I put out here.

I wonder why these people even keep reading it?

Incidentally, this comment comes from an individual who claims to read this blog "faithfully."

I don't need that variety of faithful reader.

So here's a Metaphysics 101 lesson for this reader and for readers like this person:

When you take from a site like this "faithfully" without giving anything back but your bullshitty and eroding comments, you are creating an energy drain. When you read a site like mine while holding an attitude like yours, you create an energy drain. When frenemies and haters read this site and use the information as if it is free for them to use, they create an energy drain. And when you further devalue this site with your passive aggressive (and semi-nonsensical) commentary, you are exacerbating that drain exponentially.

This reader wonders if anyone else feels the same about the relative worthlessness of this site.

I wonder that, as well. I wonder that because people who feel that way are not welcome to read this site and have no business being here. From this point on, if you hold that attitude, you are reading here against my will.

Don't take that lightly. I certainly don't.

It's also interesting to note that it's usually people who think they have astrological prowess of their own who make eroding comments on my blog. Either that, or they are coming in from another astrology camp.

I have to say, though, that what this person has to say makes little sense to me. "Losing the wisdom potential"? "Aries Uranus firebrands"?

Keep studying from the masters, honey. You might get there yet.

Venus in Taurus is opposite Saturn in Scorpio April 22 at 8 degrees of the signs.

Make damn sure your energy is not being devalued under these aspects, as well.

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Pluto Rx and the Requirement To Go Deeper

Pluto goes retrograde today at 11 degrees Capricorn (2:35 p.m. CST), requiring that we go deeper and stealthier in our Plutonic unearthing processes.

Pluto is direct for about six months of the year and retrograde for about six months of the year. It will go back over territory it's already covered in the sign of business, government, structure, and hierarchy until September 20, 2013. Until then, the process of structural metamorphosis goes further underground, with a stronger focus on inner landscapes. (I generally prefer Pluto Rx to Pluto direct, as it seems to be a more natural movement for Pluto.)

In order to be truly effective now, we have to be working with roots, and we have to be making the potent connections.

People aren't interested unless it affects them. All this affects them, but the meaningful connections are being kept purposefully obscured and buried. The full Plutonic context, and their full Plutonic context, are being kept from people.

Our job, as Pluto backs into its third of seven squares to Uranus in Aries May 20, is to keep uncovering, unearthing, and examining the full reality of the situation, warts and all. To keep exposing it to the light of day, as uncomfortable as that process may be.

Relentless.

Ceres, the dwarf planet related to agriculture, grains, and the fertility of the Earth, is back in Cancer, forming a cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto. This t-square will be exact May 5 - 7, 2013 and will still be strongly in effect during the third Uranus-Pluto square.

Food and agriculture issues are crucially important at this time - though most are completely unaware of the epic battles playing out.

Cancer Sun nations Canada and the United States are the potent, primary battlegrounds on issues related to the genetic modification of our food. These are the litmus test nations now, with Ceres conjunct their Cancer Suns.

Genetically modified alfalfa, scheduled to be unleashed in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, as early as this spring, has the ability to genetically contaminate most of our food supply. GM alfalfa has been grown in the United States for the past two growing seasons and already makes up to 70% of the crop in some states.

Anti-GM alfalfa rallies were held across Canada on April 9, spearheaded by the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

These rallies got the issue of GM alfalfa on the public map to a certain extent, but only for a split second. Only for a minute-long news story or via a weak, poorly-researched newspaper article.

The cross-Canada rallies were a failure as far as making GM alfalfa an issue for all citizens, rather than strictly a "farm issue." They were a failure as far as catalyzing new leadership and providing a platform for new voices and new information within the anti-GMO movement.

The issue of genetic modification of our food is being funneled, in Canada, through an establishment-template communications framework called CBAN or the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

Under this framework, information is carefully controlled to include only the least incendiary and most widely-palatable bits. Instead of a diverse group of well-educated people speaking out on this issue across the country, media are directed to a single communications person or a small handful of carefully-vetted farmers whose livelihoods are directly affected.

With Jupiter transiting Gemini, we need many voices, many perspectives being heard publicly through media. Making the issue broader, hitting people at the fridge and at the fork, is a necessity.

But what we have is a single lobbyist and a handful of farmers sending the same messages over and over again through media. These messages do not make the leap. They don't make the necessary connections among alfalfa, hay, animals, fertilizer, soil, farmers, food, supermarkets, and citizens cooking and eating their daily meals. They do not facilitate the cross-over we need as far as catalyzing the entire eating public on this issue.

And so we see the friction in this cardinal t-square. We need leadership and bold, immediate, new direction in the fight against genetic contamination of our food supply, but much of this is coming from the same templates and structures we are attempting to change. Much of it plays by the rules of establishment structures.

The old protest techniques and the standard channels for protest aren't going to get the job done now. We need to go beyond them, to complement them, as well as revamp and reinvigorate them.

The vast majority of people on this planet opposes the insidious genetic modification that is going on with our food, but those voices are not gaining the traction they need. We're butting up against politically-charged and often tongue-tied communications structures - outdated, corporate, and hierarchical.

This will not do, and it will not get the job done.

We need every voice raised on this issue in an immediate, undeniable, irrefutable global cacophony, and we need to keep these voices raised. We don't need public relations flaks controlling the flow of information or watering down the messages sent to the public. We don't need figureheads - farmer or otherwise - to legitimize this issue.

We need raw, messy, real, potent, effective, and undeniable.

We need to dig and dig and dig some more, repeatedly offering our findings on a silver platter to the consuming public.

And that's not what we get from a cleansed communications network following the template of establishment communications.

We get communications figureheads controlling who can say what and when. We get "official spokespeople" who keep the issue far too narrow to be truly effective. We get people jockeying for position politically within the protest movement, with paid lobbyists motivated, above all else, to keep their jobs.

You can see the complexity of these times and the challenges with which we're faced.

All hierarchical structures are failing us, and this includes hierarchical structures within protest movements. All established structures have poisonous power dynamics inherent within them that can keep us from reaching mutual goals. Most of our established structures are about control, and this includes established communications structures.

We need to bust out of this follow-the-leader Pluto in Capricorn template, but we have to understand how far and how deep the icy fingers of the control structures really go in order to do that.

No one controls my voice. No one controls your voice. And anyone who tries is working from a pitifully outdated set of rules...

Mercury enters Aries tomorrow evening, conjunct Uranus April 20 and square Pluto April 21, and the "new voices/old structures" themes are right in our faces.

Pluto goes direct September 20 at 8 degrees Capricorn within a smoking-potent sextile to Saturn, Venus, and the North Node at 8 degrees Scorpio.

Mercury Enters Aries, and We're Giddy With Relief

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury concludes its extended stay in the sign of its fall, Pisces, in the late evening of April 13 (CST). Mercury entering Aries marks the conclusion of one very long and often taxing Mercury transit and retrograde through the sign of the fishies. Mercury has been in Pisces since February 5 with a retrograde period between February 23 and March 17. It will now transit Aries until May 1.

As Monday rolls around and the work week begins, Mercury is firmly in Aries, and we have a much-needed fresh outlook, along with new perspective thanks to the retrograde. The last lingering ghosts and points of end-of-era desolation are released from our over-stressed minds, and we start to get charged up by what's ahead. Mentally, we're in new territory, and after the soggy, foggy, confusing, meandering, and often painful Mercury transit through Pisces, this could not be more welcome news. (Maybe we can get rid of our snow now?)

From a previous post:

"We started 2013 with a heavy, pressurized, and sometimes beastly Pluto-infused stellium in Capricorn. Then we had the highly-stressed Jupiter in Gemini station within two challenging Yod formations and a square to Chiron in Pisces. That morphed into a massive stellium in Pisces, coloured strongly by the pain and dysfunction of Chiron in Pisces. And as if that weren't arduous enough, we also had the three-week Mercury retrograde in the sign of its fall, Pisces.

The Mercury retrograde period has brought us through the mental and verbal dregs with Mercury moving backward in a sign in which it is not the most effective, touching wounded healer Chiron and stirring many ouchy issues.

We've been experiencing an often uninspiring mental and verbal backwash during this retrograde in Pisces, but that now comes to an end."

Continuing the alleviation of mental and psychic stress, Jupiter in Gemini has now pushed its way out of the double Yod formations, as well as the square to Chiron in Pisces, though there are lingering effects into late April. Those aspects were all harsh angles and awkward exchanges and headaches and mind fog this winter, but they also did some very big things and got some very important points across.

The Yods and the Jupiter-Chiron square were prominent during the seven-body Pisces stellium of February/March 2013, and they were epic, to say the least. Extremely stressful at times, but also catalyzing huge progress and movement, especially via communication, information, and local neighbourhood goings-on. If we navigated the harshness successfully, conversations were had and connections were made that will have long-term beneficial effects. We busted some things loose that needed to be busted loose. We got things moving in ways they needed to get moving. Things were said and understood that needed to be said and understood.

Jupiter leaves its retrograde shadow and enters fresh degrees of Gemini on April 25. It will blast through the second half of the sign, entering Cancer June 26. Jupiter has some fresh blessings to bestow via communication, networking, writing, speaking, messages, information, transportation, local society, siblings and people who feel like siblings. Be on the lookout for new opportunities and inspiration along these lines, with an especially potent good luck/good vibes time around May 28 as Venus and Jupiter, both benefic planets, form a conjuction at 23 degrees Gemini, along with Mercury and Black Moon Lilith. Conversations and communcations are blessed.

Mercury is the last personal planet to leave Pisces after the seven-body stellium. Now, only Chiron and Neptune remain. As Mercury enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, the sign of new life, we officially put the winter of 2013 behind us. We shake off the last of the mental hauntings from the very tough opening to this post-End Times year, and we look ahead. This is a big ingress, but we'll likely be too busy and too in-the-moment to notice. Just how Aries likes it.

Mercury conjuncts Uranus in Aries April 20, triggering bold and radical new ideas and the dissemination of information that leads in new directions. Mercury squares Pluto in Capricorn on April 21, giving us new perspective on the inky, corporate-governmental machine we're working with - challenges and cautions, as well as the best ways to get our messages and information across moving forward.

A Uranus-Infused New Moon in Aries Conjunct Mars and Venus: The Rebel Yell

Derby, baby!

Venus and Mars are currently travelling through the zodiac in a conjunction in late Aries, which is exact April 6 at 19 degrees of the sign. This conjunction involves Mars in its domicile - in one of the signs it rules - and Venus in its detriment - in a sign opposite one it rules. Mars is in a strong position here, and Venus is in a more difficult position.

The masculine energy is quick, easy, direct, and confident.

The feminine energy is trickier, on edge, uncertain, hot and cold, wearing a hat that doesn't feel completely comfortable.

The difference in these positions and conditions is to be kept carefully in mind as we open into a new expression of Aries at the New Moon April 10. The Aries New Moon at 20 degrees falls closely conjunct the Venus-Mars conjunction, and this indicates a new mix of competition and cooperation, self-interest and relationship focus opening here. This new mix is intricately tied to the new rules for relationships developing under a stronger Aquarian-era umbrella, and this is immediate, right now, going on as we speak.

New relationships and new directions within existing relationships are the theme for Aries season
2013, but there's some definite bite to the relational paradigm shift.

Venus formed an exterior conjunction to the Sun on March 28 at 7 degrees Aries, just after the Libra Full Moon opposite Aries stellium and square Pluto in Capricorn on March 26/27. The Libra Full Moon and exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus in Aries infused our directions in relationship with the impetus to break old and stagnant moulds, to sidestep old patterns and bad habits, and to move into a more fluid, workable, and egalitarian model for love, romance, relating, and partnership. We're living through epic and complicated times. Our relationships reflect this. Love is not all that simple now. Partnership is not all that simple. But this is nothing to be discouraged about. In fact, it's a big part of why we're here - especially if you are a member of the Pluto in Libra or Pluto in Scorpio generations.

The exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus on March 28 was the first conjuction between these two bodies since the interior conjunction on June 5, 2012. That interior conjuction, with Venus retrograde in Gemini, also marked the Venus Transit, an event that will not be experienced again for more than one hundred years.