Applying the Venus-Mars in Virgo "Relational Editor" Energy and a Reminder of Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots

As mentioned in a previous article, relationship planets Venus and Mars are currently traveling through the zodiac in a conjunction in Virgo (exact October 5 at 19 degrees). This indicates that a little editing, fine-tuning, or tightening up may be required in our relations with others. 

The application of heightened discernment, stronger filters, and higher standards (Virgo) in relationships of all kinds (Venus-Mars) is a theme.

Transiting Venus and Mars in Virgo are currently forming oppositions to Neptune in Pisces, and both bodies form oppositions to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces next month (exact October 10 -  15).

This brings up the possibility for some direct contact with "Neptunian shitbag" behaviours with a requirement to filter these out, making them fully unacceptable in our lives and in our relationships. 

As we are now hurtling headlong into the astrological era of Aquarius, these behaviours may be less prevalent or at least, a little harder to pinpoint than when we were in full-on tail-end Piscean era. 

At the same time, the slippery flakiness, charm, and shitbaggery that can be associated with Neptune/Pisces do rear their ugly heads, and Venus-Mars in Virgo is a great time to out this stuff, outsmart it, and quietly demand better.

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

(Again, this involves relationships of all kinds, not just romantic ones.)

As a little humourous yet reality-based reminder of the Neptunian shitbaggery to be on the lookout for, I will re-post an excerpt from an article from December 1, 2011, titled "Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots." This article was written just prior to the last Mars retrograde in Virgo (January to April 2012):

"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...

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...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...

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...

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."

Venus will be in Virgo until October 14, 2017 and Mars will be in Virgo until October 22. The Venus-Mars conjunction occurs at 19 degrees Virgo on October 5. So if you recognize yourself on the NOT HOT list, you have some time to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations on being a hot commodity!

Jupiter in Tail-End Libra and a Final Propulsion into New-Era Dynamics of Relating

We've just passed through fall equinox in the northern hemisphere as the Sun entered Libra (September 22), the sign of the scales, indicating equal hours of day and night. 

There is a momentary pause in the action and busyness for us to take a breath and see where we stand, particularly in relation to others and to the world around us. 

Greater Benefic Jupiter is completing its transit of relationship and justice-oriented Libra at this time and forms a final exact opposition to Uranus in Aries on September 27 (9:25 p.m. PDT), just as Pluto stations direct at 16 degrees Capricorn September 28 (12:36 p.m.) and Venus in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces September 29 (5:11 p.m.). (Mars in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces September 25 at 12:49 p.m.)

This astrological context indicates a final propulsion into new-era dynamics and rules for relationships and social scenes, one final surge past the sticky, tricky tendrils of karmically-loaded Piscean-era relating that will not bring us desired results as we move forward.

The current astrological context indicates that there is some stuff to clear in our relationships and in our dynamics of relating now - some old Piscean-era stuff that, if continued, will not create the healthy and loving relations and connections we desire. 

As Pluto stations direct, we're doing the big purge, shedding skins, moving through a process of energetic moulting and streamlining. As we move to the dark half of the year, we're dropping the non-essentials. We're dropping the drama. We're dropping the excess charge. (Ain't nobody got time for that!) We're dropping the weight of things that we do not have the strength or energy to continue carrying or dealing with or putting up with.  

We may have to reality check ourselves a little on this front, being brutally honest about any areas of emotional or energetic over-extension. With Pluto so strong in the zodiac, we may be tempted by "moth-to-flame" scenarios that have burned us in the past, and we're battling our own inner fascinations, compulsions, and desires at this time as much as anything.

With the combination of the Jupiter-Uranus and Venus-Neptune oppositions occurring at the time of the Pluto direct station, we're dropping the dead carcasses of Piscean-era ideals, fantasies, and dreams, as well as old rules around what other people "should" do in relation to us and how love and relationships "should" be.

From a previous article:

"Pisces is known for the heroic lengths it will go to in order to long and pine and sigh and hurt and torture itself over ideas and ideals of love and over the projected object of its affection.

Old school Pisces wants complete immersion in love and in a loved one. Always. And forever. It wants to be wrapped up in a cocoon of unending love, adoration, and support from the universe and from other people. It wants to do a continual backstroke in the auric field of the one it desires. Blissful communion and spiritual ecstasy with nothing reality-based that might burst its bubble.

But we're moving on from that as the dominant ideal for love. Those things exist in love, certainly, but they are no longer the singular ideal for which we are holding out.

Jupiter in Scorpio: Wisdom Drawn from the Still Depths of the Soul

Jupiter in Scorpio: October 10, 2017 to November 8, 2018 

This 5,000+-word article delineates and interprets the year-long Jupiter in Scorpio transit. It is available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons, or it can be purchased for $10.50 by PayPal or email money transfer.

Until the end of 2017, all new patrons will receive the Saturn in Capricorn article as a bonus ($11.25 value).

The Diminishing and Marginalization of "Those Types" of Astrologers Within the Astrology Establishment

A couple days ago, I was urged to share a link to my recent article, "Hurricane Harvey, the Total Solar Eclipse, and This Era of Unnatural Disaster," on a Reddit.com astrology board. Reddit, as most people know, is a public message board site. 

This is not something I normally do. I've actually never posted a link to my articles on Reddit, and I don't frequent the site. Another astrologer kindly posted some of my articles there a few years ago, and I believe I made two comments in total at the site before now.

The link to my article stayed up at the Reddit astrology page for a couple hours. I could see on my StatCounter that people were navigating to my site from the link.

But soon after, the link I posted disappeared from the page.

So I posted it again.

Again, it was deleted.

I thought maybe it was stationing Mercury that was messing with me and asked a friend to check the site for my link. She couldn't find it, either. 

I wanted to know if this was censorship based on the subject matter of the article (which was certainly astrological in nature, involving a fair amount of transit and astrological research) or whether this was a general blackballing of me as an astrologer.

So I tested the waters, posting a link to this other recent article, "The Push for Standardized Astrological Education As a Pluto in Capricorn-Era Control Mechanism." 

In it, I outlined a level of discrimination I've experienced and felt against self-taught intuitive astrology (the type of astrology I practise) coming from the astrological establishment. 

The experience I had after posting this link amusingly (and aggravatingly) illustrates exactly what I'm talking about, which I will share here.

Posting the second article had an immediate large and backlash-y reaction with a few people shit-swarming me in the comments section. This included a couple of the more establishment-friendly astrologers trying to dominate my perspective out of existence.

"Your experience is not your experience because I say it's not and because I haven't experienced that myself, so that means it's not happening." 

(Is this what they call gaslighting?)

I was called "hostile," "skewed," "dogmatic," "objectively incorrect," and was said to be promoting a "narrative that is garbage," among other pleasantries. 

All this because I refused to be brainwashed out of my own 15+ years of experience, and I refused to be bullied into accepting their more establishment-friendly reality in place of my own.

One commenter seemed to be particularly incensed by my article and perspective, launching into paragraphs-long commentary trying to dominate my viewpoint out of existence. In his mind, his experience as a more establishment-accepted astrologer negated my (very different) experience. The classic, "I haven't experienced that, so it doesn't exist" thing. 

It's common for the dominant paradigm to insist that it is the only paradigm - or the only paradigm that really matters. 

This commenter said full-on that he believed it was correct that astrologers whose work involves conspiracy research should be censored from that message board. That was fairly mind-boggling to me. Then in the second breath, he demanded to know what made me think he was more establishment-friendly than I am. (You can't make this stuff up, folks.)

Another commenter turned his nose up at sociopolitical astrology ("exhausting!") and stated his preference that astrology be just a "fun personal interest." (This view, depressingly, probably represents 90% of all astrology enthusiasts these days...)

Excessively-long comment section shitstorm short, it turns out that the guy who was so obsessively trying to force his establishment-friendly views down my throat was the moderator who censored my article in the first place! Ah, it all makes sense now.

Except, he claims it's not censorship and that, again, I am pretty well a wingnut if I think that is the case.

The stated reason for my article being deleted (twice) from the Reddit astrology board:

"Resources that discuss conspiracy theories are discouraged in much the same way we discourage palmistry, numerology, and general occult things like that."

So in a fit of absolute and utter cosmic perfection and beauty, we see a clear example of the type of marginalization of "certain astrologers" within the astrology establishment that I wrote about in the article and that I then reiterated in the comments section of that article. 

As this guy is so vehemently insisting that I'm making all this up and this discrimination/experience/perspective does not exist, he is illustrating the very dynamics about which I'm writing.

The reason the article had such a huge and backlash-y response from these people is that it hit the nail squarely on the head. 

Now, none of the astrologers I know are opposed to palmistry, numerology, tarot, psychic abilities, conspiracy research, etc. It would actually seem insane to us, as astrologers, to be opposed to these things. If we aren't into them ourselves, we're certainly not going to make it our mission to discredit them and stamp them out - so long as they're being legitimately practised by ethical people. And opposing "general occult things?" Astrology itself is considered an occult subject!  

If this is the policy of that Reddit astrology page, they need to make that bias known up front by stating it as a rule on the front of the page. 

As I said in the article on forced standardized education/certification, I don't mind being treated like a second class citizen. What I mind is not knowing why I'm being treated that way. What I mind is everyone pretending it's not going on, pretending everything is so inclusive and evolved, when the reality of how things function is far from that.

This Reddit moderator is taking his cues from the astrology establishment, which believes that it has to distance itself from "those types" of astrologers in order to gain mainstream acceptance (and salaries). 

This type of discrimination against and marginalization of intuitive astrology and astrologers (which, yes, could also involve things like palmistry, numerology, psychic abilities, divination tools, conspiracy research, etc.) is unfortunately far from uncommon within the astrological establishment. 

Well, I'm one of "those types" of astrologers. The astrologers I roll with are "those types" of astrologers. The astrologers I respect are "those types" of astrologers. And we're one potent motherfucking crew. We exist. We practise astrology; we do readings; we write; we teach; we speak; all from that potent motherfucking perspective that only we can bring.

And the astrology establishment is just going to have to get over it. Pretending we don't exist or pretending that we're just "secondary astrologers," marginalizing and shutting out our practise of astrology while pretending this is not going on - it's all so very, very last era.

And it's all very clearly a Pluto in Capricorn-era control mechanism, a power move designed to create prestige and financial reward (Capricorn) for those who play the game while diminishing and shutting out those who do not.

Let's bring it all out into the open, friends. Jupiter in Scorpio is on its way. 

Hurricane Harvey, the Total Solar Eclipse, and This Era of Unnatural Disaster

Considering what we know about weather warfare and geoengineering, we have to seriously question whether Hurricane Harvey was an intentionally-created or -enhanced storm. Harvey devastated Houston, Texas and many other areas of the state as Saturn stationed direct at 21 degrees Sagittarius on August 25, following the total solar eclipse at 28 degrees Leo on August 21. 

[The next total solar eclipse that will be fully visible in North America occurs on April 8, 2024 at 19 degrees Aries. This is being referred to as the Great North American Eclipse, visible in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and we can expect more orchestrated events around this time.] 

The related flooding is something that has never been seen before in U.S. history. It is being called a 1,000-year flood, with an estimated 100,000 homes and 1 million vehicles destroyed. People's lives have been detrimentally disrupted for years and potentially decades to come.

Houston is the home of former U.S. President and known member of ruling elite secret societies, George Bush, and this fact sticks out to me like a sore thumb.

We're in an era when the powers-that-be are creating "biblical" unnatural catastrophes that are then blamed purely on climate change or other factors. ("Revelations is coming true!")

Unprecedented rainfall and flooding, as well as extremely violent storms, have been experienced around the world with increasing intensity over the past decade. Even before Harvey, the United States had been hard hit with recent massive floods. 

This all plays into the distorted symbolism being intentionally manifested and played out as we shift astrological eras. 

The deluge myths that are being played upon now with these man-made events are cross-cultural, not limited to Noah's Ark in the Christian Bible. From a January 16, 2011 article, "Jupiter at Tail-End Pisces, the Deluge Myths and the Implanting of the Serpent":

"Fragments of cross-cultural deluge myths are suddenly becoming (sur)reality as we traipse through fin-de-Pisces - set off as part of the long-term plan by a version of "God" that is strictly man-made and a version of life on Earth that is strictly symbolic...

If we hone in on North America and the Lenni-Lanapi or Delaware River Indians' version, after the deluge, a period of snake-worship is secretly brought to Earth. Under worship of the God of the snakes, Wakon, this period brings evil, crime, unhappiness, bad weather, death. Just what the doctor ordered for those looking to rid the Earth of 'excess' humanity while controlling the remainder."

If you think weather modification, control of the weather, and weather warfare are strictly wack job conspiracy theory, think again: John F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke about the ability to control the weather to the United Nations General Assembly in 1961. You can't get much more official than that.