Mercury Retrograde in Gemini/Taurus: Carving Out the Right Mental and Verbal Boundaries in Highly-Divided Times

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury stationed retrograde this morning in its own sign of Gemini. Mercury will go retrograde from 4 degrees Gemini to 26 degrees Taurus from May 10 to June 3, 2022. 

Mercury will station direct at 26 degrees Taurus on June 3 in a conjunction to the North Node of the Moon at 22 degrees Taurus and in an opposition to the South Node of the Moon in Scorpio.

Mercury entered the retrograde shadow (the degrees to which it will return during the retrograde period) on April 26. This makes the period from April 26 to May 10 particularly juicy, as we will be going back over the conversations, communications, and connections we've experienced during that period of time. 

The movement of the winged messenger indicates a period when we are gathering bits and pieces of information to shore up, support, and fortify our perspectives. This is a transit and retrograde where we're strengthening ourselves in our ways of thinking and our worldviews, connecting with others of like mind. But it is also a time when we're putting the right boundaries in place so that we can maintain congenial social relations with those who hold mindsets and views that are very different from our own.

We're backtracking now, working to put new mental and verbal boundaries in place in our societies and social relations that align with the shifts, changes, and upheavals we've experienced in these areas over the past couple years. We're learning how to more successfully "play to our crowd." We're learning about which topics we can discuss with which people and also which topics are better to just leave off the social docket altogether. Mercury retrograde is a more contemplative time when we're more careful and moderate about the words we put out into the world.

Gemini is a sign related to duality or even to multiplicity. Because Gemini is a sign related to the gathering of information, opinions, angles, and perspectives, it is a sign that can accept and operate within two or more realities at the same time. 

The reality on Planet Earth at the moment is that we are very divided along lines of perspective, thought, and opinion, and these divisions (many being intentionally manufactured and inflamed) are having some nasty effects in our societies and societal interactions (Gemini).

There is an ongoing attempt to enforce certain top-down ideas, information, or ways of thinking on the whole of humanity, and of course, as Gemini knows, this will simply not work. We have never fully agreed on this planet - except maybe when we agree to disagree. Aside from the very basics, human beings have never come to a purely homogeneous way of thinking, and as long as we maintain biological human status, it's unlikely that we ever will come to this state.

This is part of what we must accept and successfully work with during this Mercury retrograde in Gemini/Taurus and beyond.

We're looking to create rock-solid boundaries that will withstand and contain the contentious and hyper-charged energies of the times. Maintaining respectful mental and verbal boundaries is our challenge, but we are being tested mightily on this front during the Mercury retrograde process. 

We are in the midst of a quite-unsettled eclipse season, which began with a New Moon at 10 degrees Taurus conjunct Uranus on April 30. We're now moving to the peak point of the lunar cycle - a Full Moon total lunar eclipse at 25 degrees Scorpio on May 15 that will occur conjunct the South Node of the Moon at 22 degrees Scorpio. (This lunar eclipse will be visible throughout most of Canada.)

The South Node of the Moon in Scorpio is an astrological indicator of the highly-charged emotional and psychological subtext of the times. It contains all the molten lava, the trigger points, the battle lines, the places where things can get very ugly if we aren't oh-so-careful and respectful of the "enough's enough" points. 

There is also a caution, however, about attempting to eliminate (Scorpio) certain information, perspectives, or awareness simply because it is uncomfortable. The Scorpio terrain exists, and it is important. Attempting to amputate, sever, bury, deny, or censor the underlying Scorpionic realities will simply not work. The strong influence of the Scorpio South Node indicates that these attempts will backfire. With the South Node of the Moon in Scorpio activated under a Full Moon total lunar eclipse, karma is an even bigger bitch than usual...

We're creating the right social boundaries with a full awareness of societal reality, including the differences and divisions. Pretending these differences and divisions do not exist will create a very weak and shoddy social foundation, indeed - one that will not support successful societal relations over time.

So we're looking to create the right boundaries while acknowledging and respecting the points of contention and division. With the Sun, North Node, and soon Mercury in Taurus, there is social value beyond the sticking points. People, relationships, and society are valuable, and this must stay at the forefront. We're looking to preserve and reinforce the social fabric that supports us all while respectfully acknowledging the points where we are very much on different sides of the fence.

Mercury stationed retrograde at 4 degrees Gemini this morning, and the Sabian Symbol for this degree is:

A Radical Magazine or Publication, Asking for Action, Displays a Sensational Front Page

This symbol speaks of a charged mental environment, along with the necessity for potent information that spurs action. Information is flying around fast and furious within this charged environment. The Mercury retrograde station activates this degree of Gemini for an extended period of time, and the energy and themes indicated by the Sabian Symbol are then drawn into the entire Mercury retrograde process. 

The Sun and Mercury Rx form a conjunction at zero degrees Gemini on May 21.

Mercury then re-enters earthy Taurus on May 22 where it will remain until June 13. The movement back into slow-and-steady, security-conscious Taurus indicates a requirement to properly ground the charged energy so that we can continue to re-build (Taurus) rather than destroy (Scorpio) our social contacts and social lives. 

Mercury will station direct at 26 degrees Taurus on June 3, and the Sabian Symbol for that degree is:

An Old Indian Woman Selling Beads and Trinkets

This is a much more mellow symbol, a more grounded symbol. It indicates the congenial relationships of local commerce and their importance in creating stability, regularity, and routine. It also indicates the ability to carve out our own terrain, our own niche, within the broader society and marketplace.

We don't all agree. This is plainly obvious. But we've never all agreed. Our divisions have been intensely inflamed over the past two years, but they are nothing new. 

We've found a way to get along in the past despite our wildly different ways of thinking, and this has most often involved respecting the rights of human beings to hold their own thoughts, perspectives, and opinions and to live by their own worldviews. You don't infringe on me. I don't infringe on you. 

Carving out and reinforcing this respect might be a more challenging process than usual under current conditions, but this is some of the work being laid before us during this very charged Mercury retrograde and eclipse season. 

You might disagree with the way I think. I might disagree with the way you think. This is OK. This is the way it's always been on this planet. The problem comes only when one group of people feels it can force its views and ways on another group of people. 

That's where the boundaries and respect come in, and these are things we must very carefully tend as we navigate highly-charged and highly-divided social scenarios. With the North Node in Taurus as our guiding North Star, we're attempting to find the points where people can be comfortable in each other's company, despite differing views. 

Again, finding the societal comfort zone within the current conditions is a challenge - a bigger challenge than usual - but it is also the most successful path through. 

If we cannot achieve the right boundaries, the right space, and the mutual respect for differing views, some of our social contacts could be coming to their natural conclusions at this time, but the primary goal is to build successful, mutually-supportive, and boundaries-conscious social frameworks if this is at all within our power. 

We will defend the right to hold and to live by our own views if necessary, but in general, we're moving away from a state of constant battling (South Node in Scorpio) and into a state of easier social stability and comfort (North Node in Taurus). This is necessary for our mental and emotional health.

Mercury will re-enter its own sign of Gemini on June 13, leaving the retrograde shadow and moving into new mental territory and more grounded mindsets on June 18.

Conversations About Town During the Dark of the Moon in Gemini

I was running errands this afternoon and noted that we were in the Dark of the Moon in Gemini. The Sun and Moon will come together in a New Moon annular ("ring of fire") solar eclipse at 19 degrees Gemini on June 10 (3:52 a.m. Pacific). This eclipse forms a conjunction to Mercury Rx in Gemini and a square to Neptune in Pisces.

 

Dark of the Moon periods can be very potent as far as fated events. In the sign of Gemini, this could involve a fated crossing of paths, fated connections, and fated conversations or interactions, particularly involving "dark" subject matter or suppressed or hidden perspectives. In Gemini, these events could be relatively quick and light, occurring as we go about our daily business. The backdrop of the local neighbourhood or local businesses would be fitting. And since we're in the midst of eclipse season, this Dark of the Moon period in Gemini could produce more potent or meaningful contacts than usual. 

 

This is an illustration of the themes as I experienced them under the Balsamic Moon in Gemini: 

 

I was the only person in Safeway grocery store without a mask today. A woman (masked) who was in the checkout line ahead of me with her elderly mother (also masked) said, "Good for you!" and tugged at her mask to indicate what she was referring to as she walked out. I laughed and thanked her. (Then I mumbled that it was a medical exemption lest the  masked cashier disapprove of our exchange.) 

As I was sitting at the bus stop (more Gemini) with my groceries, an elderly woman walked up to the bus bench with her own bags. I asked if she minded me sitting beside her (unmasked). She didn't. She asked if I minded if she kept her mask off. I didn't. She said she had been vaccinated and asked if I was going to get it. I said no.

She asked me how it was to go into stores without a mask, whether I had to show documentation of my medical exemption. I told her people don't have to show documentation to prove a medical exemption but that I had some just in case. I said some stores accept the exemptions and others do not (this is actually discrimination). Her son doesn't wear a mask and hasn't been going anywhere because of the mask mandate. (How terrible.) I told her that if he has severe anxiety from wearing a mask, he has a legitimate medical exemption. She said he was not aware of that and that wearing a mask would definitely cause severe anxiety for him. She said she'd pass that information on to him.

After I dropped my groceries off at home, I went to the second hand bookstore. I asked if I could shop with my medical exemption, and the owner said I could. When I was paying for my books, she asked me if I was going to get the shot. I said no. She said she didn't want to get it either but that she'd been getting a lot of flak from her loved ones because of it. Her doctor also told her she should really get it "because she's aboriginal." (???)

She said she didn't realize there were a lot of people who weren't getting the shot. I said there were a lot of us and that only a little over 50% of Americans had gotten it so far. She said she thinks it's a personal choice. 

The Great North American Eclipse April 8, 2024 and the Use of Astrology and Numerology in Timed Attacks

There will be a total solar eclipse at 19 degrees Aries on April 8, 2024 that will be visible across North America. This New Moon eclipse, being called the Great North American Eclipse, will fall exactly conjunct wounded healer Chiron in Aries (to the minute!) within a large stellium of bodies in Aries. As I outline in the video posted below, orchestrated events or attacks can be expected surrounding that eclipse, particularly affecting people in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. 

In particular, we could see wounding attacks related to health, movement, independence, and body autonomy, in addition to more standard war attacks. This is a continuation of the "medical" martial law themes we have seen during the Chiron in Aries transit, which covers 2018 to 2027.  

March 2023 when Saturn leaves Aquarius and Pluto enters Aquarius is a bit of a hotspot time for power establishment shenanigans, and so is April 2024 around the New Moon total solar eclipse on April 8 within Aries stellium. We could see a series of events spanning from an initiation point around March equinox 2023 through much of 2024.

The Great North American Eclipse: total solar eclipse at 19 degrees Aries exactly conjunct Chiron on April 8, 2024

Click to enlarge

On this particular April 8 (April 8, 2021), the Sun is at 19 degrees Aries, within a stellium of bodies in Aries, on its way to a 22-degree Aries New Moon on April 11. In other words, the point of the Great American Eclipse is being activated right now by transiting Eris, Venus, Sun, Ceres, Chiron, and Mercury in Aries, as well as the New Moon in Aries. 

This video can be viewed at Bitchute and on YouTube. 

 

Dates discussed in this video:

September 11, 1973 - Democratically-elected Salvador Allende is assassinated in Chile in what has been called a CIA-backed coup; murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet is installed as leader

September 11, 1990 - President George Bush Sr. announces the New World Order in a televised speech to U.S. Congress

September 11, 2001 - the World Trade Centers and Building 7 come down in New York City; the Pentagon is damaged

 

April 20, 1889 - Adolph Hitler is born

April 20, 1993 - A fire starts during an FBI raid and 76 people from the Branch Davidian religious group are killed at their residence outside Waco, Texas

April 19, 1995 - Timothy McVeigh bombs the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and wounding more than 500. McVeigh says this act was to avenge the deaths at Waco.

April 20, 2010 - the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig explodes, contaminating the Gulf of Mexico with oil and the chemical dispersant Corexit

 

March 19/20 (equinox), 2003 - United States invades Iraq (air attacks begin March 19 and the ground invasion begins March 20)

March 11, 2011 - Fukushima nuclear disaster begins

March 19 (equinox), 2011 - bombing of Libya begins, leading to the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi

March 11, 2020 - the World Health Organization declares a global pandemic

March 23, 2020 - U.S. President Donald Trumps signs the Secure 5G and Beyond Act, securing and accelerating the 5G (and beyond) wireless rollout

August 24 - 29, 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits the Gulf Coast

August 25 - 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast

August 24 - 29, 2017 - Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit the Gulf Coast

August 24, 2020 - Tropical Storms Marco and Laura hit the Gulf Coast 

Resources referenced in this video: 

An Astrological Review of Two Chiron in Pisces Ocean Disasters at their 10th Anniversaries: the Gulf of Mexico Oil/Corexit Disaster and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 

VIDEO: An Astrological Review of Two Chiron in Pisces Ocean Disasters

The Use of Astrological Timing and Symbolism by the Power Establishment: Orchestrated Attacks around March Equinox

It's All Just a Little Bit of (Hurricane) History Repeating - August 24 St. Bartholomew's Day

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

Columbine Shootings, Deepwater Horizon, Hitler's Birth: April 20 has a notorious history by Teresa Penner 

 

A 1996 report presented to the U.S. Air Force: "Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025"

 

Eclipse Season Activates the Saturn-Pluto Conjunction

"Eclipse Season Activates the Saturn-Pluto Conjunction" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

A Re-post for the Upcoming Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse in Leo at Perigee: The Anti-Hype Full Moon Report

Just in case you're catching a whiff of the "SuperBloodWolfMoon" media hype around the January 20, 2019 Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee at zero degrees Leo, please remember: the media has an amazingly short memory, and it loves to create hype where hype is not warranted. 

I would say Full Moons are the most over-hyped astrological events, in general. And Full Moon total lunar eclipses at perigee! Well, those can whip things up into a real frenzy.

Please recall: we experienced pretty much this exact astrological event (a Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee in Leo) in January 2018. The main difference is that this upcoming lunar eclipse is the first Full Moon of the year, and the one we experienced in January 2018 was the second Full Moon in the calendar month, making it a "Blue Moon."

So you can pretty much just rinse and repeat for the upcoming eclipse with the following article.

I'm not saying this event is not notable. I'm just saying it's not hype-worthy.

From January 28, 2018, "The Anti-Hype Full Moon Report" from Willow's Web Astrology:

"The Taurus Full Moon at perigee November 14, 2016: the closest the Moon has been to Earth since 1948 (people were also peeing themselves over that one...)

Photos: Willow's Mama

The Anti-Hype Full Moon Report

The Taurus Full Moon at perigee November 14, 2016: the closest the Moon has been to Earth since 1948 (people were also peeing themselves over that one...)

Photos: Willow's Mama

 
Media, scientists, astronomers, and astrologers seem to be making a huge deal about the upcoming Full Moon at 11 degrees Leo on January 31, calling it a "SuperBlueBloodMoon" (Christ.) and creating all sorts of hyped-up woo-woo around it.

"Once-in-a-lifetime celestial event"

"First in 150 years"

A "super-duper-exciting-plus-sprinkles phenomenon"

The Full Moon at 11 degrees Leo (opposite Aquarius Sun) on January 31 falls at perigee, meaning the Moon will be at the closest point to Earth in its orbit. Because of this, the Moon will appear larger than usual in the night's sky. In astrological terms, this is a Full Moon opposite Black Moon Lilith, the symbol for the lunar apogee. This Leo Full Moon is also a total lunar eclipse, and it is the second Full Moon in the calendar month, referred to as a "Blue Moon."

In reality, though, this is not a super huge deal. In reality, this is pretty much just media diversion doing what media diversion does - focusing on a single, trumped-up (pardon the term) celestial event and manufacturing a bunch of artificially-heightened energy and buzz around it.

I try to neutralize this hyped-up energy because it's actually dangerous.

It's known that "the elite" have used astrology for millennia to plan their events, and this practise continues to this day. War manoeuvres are one area where it's quite obvious that astrology is being utilized.

Two major recent "wars" initiated by the United States/NATO - the unjustified invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the unjustified bombing of Libya in March 2011 - were timed to Uranus ingresses around March equinox. We have another Uranus ingress around March equinox in the near future - March 2019 when Uranus re-enters Taurus after a retrograde period. If the pattern continues, we can expect more warmongering hell to be unleashed at that time. Let's hope we can break the pattern. The symbolism of Uranus (rebellion, revolution, sudden changes, upheaval) indicates that we can.

The real deal is, war maneouvres have gone undercover in many cases. We are being attacked on multiple levels that are not even being recognized by the mass public. (Unexpected financial attacks or attacks to the financial systems/currencies are one possible theme for Uranus transiting Taurus.)

I would suggest that the timing and energy of the last hugely over-hyped eclipse in Leo - a New Moon total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 - was used to unleash extreme weather warfare in the form of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, followed by a destructive earthquake. 

From September 3, 2017: Hurricane Harvey, the Total Solar Eclipse, and This Era of Unnatural Disaster 

[Editor's Note: my eye is particularly on the total solar eclipse in Aries on April 8, 2024, being called the Great North American Eclipse because it will be visible across most of North America.]

Any time a subject achieves across-the-board mainstream media saturation (or even partial mainstream media saturation), it is being used in some way. It is shaping and manufacturing public opinion, directing people's gaze to a certain, narrow subject - and most likely away from other more pertinent subjects.

This way of reporting lacks context. Without understanding context, we are at the mercy of a media that creates Event Bubble after Event Bubble, never showing us the broader picture or filling in the blanks as far as how it all fits together. We see situations as existing in a vacuum, as randomly-occurring and isolated events.

So we have to look at the hype surrounding this Leo Full Moon eclipse at perigee (as well as all similar celestial events) for what it is: artificial, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous as we have a "look over there!" diversionary scenario unfolding in the general public - a prime opening for the powers-that-be to misuse celestial energy and slip some nastiness by.

It's also really exhausting to be this artificially jacked-up about anything, and I believe this is another reason certain subjects like this Full Moon are woo-wooed to death. Our minds and our energy are being hijacked, burning us out on it all.

Here's the reality-checking astrological context on this upcoming Full Moon total lunar eclipse in Leo: 

We regularly experience Full Moons at perigee. Again, "perigee" means that the Moon is at the closest distance it comes to Earth in its orbit. The term "SuperMoon" has unfortunately caught on for a Full Moon at perigee (which sounds as if they're trying to supersize the Moon a la McDonald's marketing), but I would suggest this is part of the hype machine. Three or four Full Moons each year can be classified as at perigee, falling in succession. The Cancer Full Moon on January 1, 2018 was also at perigee and so was the Gemini Full Moon on December 3, 2017. We experienced another uber-hyped Full Moon at perigee on November 14, 2016 at 22 degrees Taurus (pictured above), which was "the closest the Moon has been to Earth since 1948!!!!!" That Full Moon was flanked by two other Full Moons at perigee - on October 16 and December 14, 2016. We'll experience another set of Full Moons at perigee January 21, February 19, and March 21, 2019. The March 21, 2019 Full Moon at perigee at 0 degrees Libra (cardinal point) marks equinox and also Uranus re-entering Taurus. This indicates conditions that have that extra special occulty goodness the powers-that-be so often use to time war manoeuvres/attacks and other "random" events.

We experience eclipses every six months. Eclipses are just very precisely-aligned New and Full Moons. We experience a New Moon and a Full Moon every month. About every six months, the Sun, Moon, and Earth align more precisely than usual, and we experience New and Full Moon eclipses. A New Moon occurs when the Moon is passing between the Sun and Earth (Earth-Moon-Sun). During a New Moon solar eclipse, it appears, from our vantage point on Earth, that the Moon has blocked out the light of the Sun. A Full Moon occurs when the Moon is opposite the Sun in its orbit (Moon-Earth-Sun). During a Full Moon lunar eclipse, the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon, blocking its light. We experience a pair of eclipses - a New Moon solar eclipse and a Full Moon lunar eclipse - about every six months, two weeks apart from each other. Sometimes, we have a triple eclipse season with an extra solar or lunar eclipse. Most eclipses are partial. Total eclipses are more uncommon, but again, not rare. We often experience two total lunar eclipses in a calendar year.

Full Moons at perigee that are also total eclipses are uncommon but not extremely rare. The upcoming Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee occurs on January 31, 2018 at 11 degrees Leo. The last one experienced prior to that was September 28, 2015 at 4 degrees Aries. Future Full Moon total lunar eclipses at perigee will be experienced on January 20, 2019 at zero degrees Leo, on May 26, 2021 at 5 degrees Sagittarius, and on October 8, 2033 at 15 degrees Aries. Historically, these events also occurred in 1982, 1964, 1946, 1928, and 1910.

A Blue Moon is not really a big, hairy deal. The term "Blue Moon" refers to the second Full Moon in a calendar month. Depending on how much stock you put in the Gregorian calendar, this is not really all that significant. Blue Moons are not rare. We will experience other Blue Moons on: March 31, 2018; October 31, 2020; August 31, 2023; May 31, 2026; December 31, 2028; September 30, 2031; July 31, 2034; January 31, 2037; and so on. You can see - if a month has 31 days, it's not uncommon for two Full Moons to fall in that calendar month. We can also experience two New Moons in a calendar month (generally much less hyped), and the second New Moon is referred to as a Black Moon. The last Black Moon we experienced was October 30, 2016 at 7 degrees Scorpio, and the next Black Moon we will experience is August 30, 2019 at 6 degrees Virgo. (Disclaimer: some people use the terms Blue Moon and Black Moon to refer to the fourth Full or New Moon in a three-month season.)

So this Leo Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee, our second Full Moon in January 2018, is certainly significant and noteworthy. It is a particularly beautiful celestial event in our night's sky. The questions are whether it is hype-worthy (is anything ever really hype-worthy?) and why there is so much hype generated around single astrological/astronomical events such as these.

This Leo Full Moon conjunct the North Node of the Moon indicates a heart-directed culmination point - but one that requires that we unravel and deconstruct the machinations of the Kings and Queens (Leo) holding illegitimate positions of hierarchical power on our planet. The horrific events surrounding the Leo New Moon total solar eclipse in August 2017 would be a prime place to direct our gazes...

Eclipses indicate the potential for powerful backdrop changes with ripple effects extending for at least six months. As the Moon grows big and full in royal Leo, there are many illegitimate Kings and Queens of all stripes ready to be toppled from their thrones. 

Enjoy this beautiful and magical Full Moon eclipse in heart-centred Leo. Feel the love under these lunar rays. But do so with your feet planted on terra firma. It's better that 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.

Saturn Square Neptune Tension and Some Fortifying Context From the Vault

As mentioned in a recent post, the astrological aspects of the moment suggest a tough period of time for many as end-of-Piscean-era structural realities continue to dissolve, disappoint, and come up short all around us.

At the same time, we're forging ahead - experimentally, often in a state of muted shock - while gaining momentum in a new astrological era. Things work differently now. Energy works differently. As a result, in order to be successful, things must be set up differently, under rules aligned with the natural laws governing the astrological Aquarian Age.

In many ways, we are moving into a freer and more dynamic period. As things break down, we are forced to seek alternatives, to do things differently. Keeping the grand scale, macro shift in mind can help to inspire us and buoy our spirits when everything seems to be swirling down the fin-de-Piscean-era drain.

There can also be no doubt, however, that many/most are weighed down in some way by this "will it never end?" transitional period. We're moving through experiences of stagnation, inertia, confusion, isolation, listlessness, disappointment, and/or despair, time periods when nothing at all seems to work, and these periods can increase in potency as the era shift gathers momentum.

Keep in mind: we are working to achieve escape velocity from the sticky karmic loops, from the devastating dirty tricks, and from the unmet and unrealized ideals of the astrological Piscean era.

And we're going to get there, there's no doubt about it. If for no other reason than: there's nowhere else to go.

At the same time, no caring, feeling, intelligent being of any degree of sensitivity could deny the pain and suffering going on on this planet - much of it intentionally being brought down upon us by the nasty mix of nefarious nogoodniks inhabiting positions of power within the illegitimate structural hierarchies of this planet.

More than two thousand years of it is being layered upon us now, concentrated into this period of time, spread amongst the billions of us currently living and breathing on Planet Earth, shared even amongst the Earth-compassionate spirits on the other side.

No one can entirely separate his or her own emotional and psychological states from the intense misery and fear that has been generated, stirred, and intentionally manufactured around the globe for millenia. We can protect ourselves from it, insulate ourselves from it to a degree, love ourselves and others through it, but we cannot separate ourselves from it.

This impossibility of separation is a Chiron in Pisces lesson, and with the wounded healer now transiting late Pisces, this lesson is coming to a head.

Warning: Way Too Much Pisces Up Ahead

 Photos: Willow

We have a massive Pisces stellium forming in the skies at the moment, which will cluster around the karmic-as-hell Pisces South Node.

At its peak, this stellium will involve the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Chiron, and Neptune, along with the South Node of the Moon, all transiting the sign of the fishes.

Wounded healer Chiron is tightly conjunct the South Node at the moment, and this positioning continues through early May. 

We are also heading into eclipse season and will experience a New Moon at 18 degrees Pisces, closely conjunct Chiron and the South Node, on March 8. This New Moon is a total solar eclipse, and we can expect the associated events that are spun up to be particularly powerful.

We need a new chapter quite desperately as far as the sign of Pisces and its associated themes go, and this New Moon total solar eclipse provides a strong opportunity for that.

Unfortunately, with Chiron conjunct the South Node in Pisces so strongly involved, it also provides the opportunity for wrong turns, blind spots, weaknesses, naivete, and general confusion that we then have to work our way out of (Virgo North Node)... 

This Pisces New Moon total solar eclipse sets the tone and the trajectory for the 28-day lunar cycle that follows, and suffice it to say, this is one karmically-loaded lunar month on Planet Earth. Expect some chaos, some overwhelm, and some screwiness - but also expect the tools and the support you need to navigate it.

I know many astrologers will be waxing poetic about how spiritual and dreamy and transcendent all this Pisces is, but I'm here as the cautionary astrologer to tell you that this far into the end-of-Piscean-era, a large amount of Pisces energy like this can be dangerous. This far into the end-of-Piscean-era, a large amount of Pisces energy like this can be nasty as fuck, to be entirely honest.

You see, there's a version of reality that is in the process of going down the drain. The plug has been pulled. And as things start to swirl, we have to make sure that we (and the ones we love) don't go down the drain with it. 

We're beginning the astrological Aquarian era with the utter destruction of the Piscean era constructs. This destruction is intentional, diabolical, and has been intricately planned and executed by the powers-that-be for their own benefit and profit.

Mass unemployment, homelessness, money woes, poisonings, health problems, mental health problems, extreme stress - all these things and much more have been built right into the current systems.

And when we're identifying ourselves too closely with structures and systems that are in the process of disintegrating and going down the tubes, we can get taken down by it, too.

We may feel we have a handle on things, but this degree of collective psychic pain (Chiron-South Node in Pisces) can potentially take us under very quickly.

Pisces and its ruling planet Neptune are known for some fairly funky emotional and psychic states involving punctured illusions, feelings of extreme isolation, delusions, disappointment, depression, devastation, hopelessness, listlessness, inaction, despair.

The inertia and passivity and "just roll over until it goes away" characteristics of Pisces can take us into extremely low (and ultimately karmically dangerous) places, and this can happen almost without us being aware of it.

Sensitivity and vulnerability are heightened under these transits.  

Drugs, alcohol, junk food, shopping, gambling, romantic fantasizing, or any form of escapism may be used to numb the pain of a disappointing and dissatisfying reality, but this only increases the danger of getting too far out there, too far out into the abyss to return.

Rolling over and playing dead - no matter how tempting Pisces makes that seem - will simply not do the trick. Living in a world composed of dreams and ideals will also not do the trick. We have to be working actively and diligently (North Node in Virgo) right where we stand to build our preferred reality.

The last time we experienced something of this magnitude was in March 2013, as the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Neptune, and Chiron (along with the Moon) formed an extended stellium in Pisces. Mercury was also retrograde in Pisces (the sign of its detriment) at the time, which dragged the themes out even further.

That Pisces stellium took a dear friend of mine, and I don't want it happening again.

Pisces energy has a great way of convincing us to let things slide.

But March is not a month to let things slide.

With Jupiter conjunct the North Node of the Moon in Virgo, participation is not optional.

March is a month to reach out, to connect, to stay in touch, and to cheer people up, even when they seem to be closing you out or choosing isolation.

March is a month to stay active and to plan healthy activities that involve others.

March is a month to work hard and to work diligently - at even the smallest of tasks.  

March is a month when we have to actively bring people back into the loving fold, especially if they've forgotten they're loved at all. The Piscean/Neptunian fog will do that to a soul. It can make us forget who and what we really are. It can overwhelm us, swallowing us up in self-pity. It can make the void appear oh-so-tempting.

We can be fooled under these transits and fooled badly. Fooled in a way that takes a lot of time and work to correct.

Wishful thinking is at a high this month, especially during the transit of Mercury through Pisces (March 5 - 21), and especially as Mercury crosses Chiron and the South Node in Pisces March 17/18.

Again, with the influence of wounded healer Chiron conjunct the South Node, March is not a month to let things slide.

If you've been thinking about someone, let that person know. If you can lift the spirits of someone you come into contact with, do it. If you have a chance to be kind, any chance, take it. This is a month to appreciate the kindness of strangers and also to be that kind stranger when an organic opportunity for loving kindness presents itself.

Now, the currently forming stellium in Pisces does not appear to be quite as mean or as drawn out as the one in 2013. The current Pisces stellium is in effect now and will be at its peak March 12 - 21. At that point, the Sun and Mercury will move into Aries, marking spring equinox in the northern hemisphere and a return to the light. We also do not have a Mercury retrograde in Pisces this time around to extend the agony, and for that we can be grateful.

There is a powerful new expression of Pisces emerging during this lunar cycle - a successful expression of Pisces for the astrological Aquarian era.

But we have to make our way out of the muck and mire, beyond the siren songs and karmic loops and self-sacrificial tendencies, in order to get there. We have to puncture our own illusions and update our own energetic flow. We have to break the grip of it. And we have to help each other with all this, as well.

This March, we all have to do our part to hold the love and to hold people in that love when they've forgotten it's there at all. That's beautiful Pisces. We all have to do our part to make this a profoundly healing lunar cycle, rather than a devastating one.

And Jupiter and the North Node in Virgo will not tolerate any slacking on that front!

Uranus in Aries is here to lead the way, breaking the identification of precious human beings with dissolving structures that have been set up to fail.

Uranus in Aries tells those dissolving structures - the ones teaching people that they are redundant, unimportant, unnecessary - to just plain fuck off.

Listen to Uranus in Aries. It won't lead you astray.

Mercury transits sign-of-its-detriment Pisces from March 5 - 21, indicating some potential for brain fuzz and confused or deluded thinking. Plans may be difficult to nail down or solidify during this transit.

Venus transits Pisces, the sign of its exaltation, and spreads some of that pure, unconditional Pisces love, from March 12 - April 5. Because this Pisces stellium involves benefic planet Venus (rather that malefic planet Mars as in 2013), we can expect some softened edges with this one. The people who most need to catch some breaks may catch some under the influence of lovely Venus in exaltation.

As stated, the 18-degree Pisces New Moon total solar eclipse activates the Chiron-South Node conjunction in Pisces on March 8. The Sun in Pisces will conjunct Chiron and the South Node exactly March 10/11. Mercury will activate this karmic point March 17/18. And Venus will come behind, spreading some healing love balm on some old wounds, on March 29/30.

The Sun exits Pisces and enters Aries, marking equinox, on March 19.


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The Sun Enters Libra Marking Equinox With a Strong 'Lord of the Underworld' Infusion

Pluto stations direct at 11 degrees Capricorn tonight (6:36 p.m. CST), just as the Sun enters Libra, marking equinox.

The daytime hours and nighttime hours are in perfect balance now, but it's definitely going to require some effort on our part to see that sort of balance reflected in our own lives, selves, and relationships as we move into fall 2014 in the northern hemisphere.

If we expected a breather as the personal planets moved into lovely Libra, we may have to reconsider...

"Intense" is the word most often associated with Pluto and the sign it rules, Scorpio, but that may be a bit of an understatement for this fall.

Pluto is basically stopped in the zodiac at the moment as it completes its standard six-month retrograde period, which began in April. As Pluto stations, some of its inky, edgy, uncomfortable energy and themes permeate the scene and every interaction we have.

Let's just say: socially taut with multiple tripwires. 

Pluto is associated with all the darkest emotions on the human spectrum - including experiences of hell - and we can expect moments during this station (with effects felt into late November) when the conditions we face seem simply intolerable.

(This is exacerbated, of course, by ongoing attempts by the Global Governors to start World War III...) 

Rage, anxiety, fear, nausea, paranoia, obsession, emotional triggers, a feeling of energetic moulting - all these are Pluto terrain, and they are often intensified around stations.  

Pluto has been dredging the bottom for six months. Now, it turns direct, bringing some emotionally dicey issues, some hidden subtext, and some potentially poisonous power dynamics to the surface.

New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio Conjunct Saturn: Final Resolution of Via Combusta Themes

The New Moon eclipse falls at 11 degrees Scorpio on November 3 (6:50 a.m. CST), sandwiched in conjunction between Saturn at 13 degrees Scorpio and the North Node and Mercury, conjunct at 7 degrees Scorpio.

This is an important New Moon for a number of reasons.

As stated previously on the blog, Saturn is currently travelling through an area of Scorpio (11 to 16 degrees) to which it will not return in retrograde motion. Saturn is making only one pass through these degrees of the zodiac. This is it. So we have one kick at the cat with the themes of these degrees and one kick at the cat only.

As Saturn shoots through this zone (October 14 to November 26), we have to focus quite intently on keeping the energy in our lives just right. We are cementing a foundation now, halfway through the Saturn in Scorpio transit, that will either support our emotional and psychological health and development for the next 29 years or create hassles, issues, and karmic setbacks at various times over the next 29 years.

As usual with Saturn, we have to be quite serious about things. And in Scorpio, we have to fully understand our lessons - each and every angle - and integrate them into our selves and into our lives. No half-assing it.

If we have doubts, concerns, or intuitive misgivings about anyone or anything in our lives now, we're required to wait before making any further commitments.

From a previous post:

"If all our energetic ducks are in a row and if all the power dynamics have been worked out satisfactorily, this time period (Oct. 14 - Nov. 26) can result in some fairly easy progress with natural next steps occurring with projects and in career.

People will be moving into more structured and solid positions of authority this fall quarter, and this particularly includes positions involving shared power, money, and resources.

Under the ongoing stressors, people who have not fully earned their authority or positions, who have not set the right energetic foundations, will soon be in over their heads, however.

With Saturn conjunct the North Node this fall, be careful not to take on too much, too fast - no matter how promising things seem. The commitments we make or deepen this fall could be life changing and deeply altering for us over the long term. We must be very careful to follow our intuition down to the last twinge regarding decision and commitments made at this time, particularly involving legal contracts or money."

Not only is Saturn crossing the halfway point in the sign of Scorpio in this "single pass zone," but it is also completing its transit of the Via Combusta.

From a previous post:

"The Via Combusta is an area of the zodiac between 15 degrees Libra and 15 degrees Scorpio (except for 23 and 24 degrees Libra) known as the burning path or combustible way. Traditionally, it is associated with "unfortunate and ineffectual events."

My interpretation of the Via Combusta is humanized and comes from the point-of-view of a person experiencing life with key natal placements in this area.

When the Via Combusta is strongly highlighted, there is a feeling of running the gauntlet through sometimes seemingly insurmountable odds, collective karma, booby traps and friction, very often related to relationship dynamics, which are Libra and Scorpio territory.

There's a fire in the Via Combusta and within people with a strong Via Combusta signature that keeps them burning, burning, burning a path through life as you would imagine a shooting star burning an accelerated path through the night's sky. There's a feeling here that one has to keep going, no matter what, through the wreckage of old, crystallized layers that would keep us stultified, constricted, and unsatisfied with old wounds perpetually reopened by a revolving cast of characters.

The basic goal of the Via Combusta is to reach escape velocity. In space travel, this is the point a space shuttle reaches when its speed and momentum allow it to escape the effects of gravity pulling it back down to Earth. In the case of the Via Combusta, it's about reaching the points of awareness and pure momentum where we escape the gravity of the sticky, tricky wreckage trying to draw us back into old territory, especially involving old constructs and dynamics of relating.

The Blood Moon Eclipse Pushes Relationship Issues to a Peak

The village theatre lit up on show night.

Photos: Willow

On Friday, October 18, we experience the yearly Hunter's Moon, also referred to as the Blood Moon.

The Hunter's Moon or Blood Moon follows the Harvest Moon and precedes the Beaver Moon - the three Full Moons of the year that provide the most moonlit hours. During this time of the year - fall in the northern hemisphere, spring in the southern - the Moon rises earlier in the evening and sets later in the early morning, providing lengthier periods of moon magic than at any other time of the year.

Traditionally in the northern hemisphere, blood ran at this Moon, hence the name. Hunters were and still are able to track and kill their prey more easily under the light of this Moon, filling their stores with meat for the long, cold winter ahead.

There is a brutality to this Moon, as well as a survival necessity. Understand this.

This Aries Full Moon, falling at 25 degrees opposite the Libra Sun, is also an eclipse, which makes the scenes it is rising over just that much more dramatic, unpredictable, emotionally on-edge.

Remember that crap-cutting Libra New Moon within cardinal Grand Cross we experienced October 4? This Full Moon eclipse in Aries pushes to a peak all the relationship issues and sometimes dark realizations that were stirred at that time.

At this Aries Full Moon, we stand alone in our relationship choices, in the decisions we came to around the time of that New Moon.

 We hold our standards, even when that means ruffling feathers or saying goodbye altogether to a relationship.

At this Aries Full Moon, at this Blood Moon, with relationship planet Venus in truth-telling Sagittarius trine Uranus, we have to stand in the truth of who we really are and what we really want. We stand in this truth even when it does not match the expectations others have of us, even when it does not jibe with the relationship constructs we are working within.

This Aries Full Moon is emotionally energized, edgy, raw, even angry. We courageously and defiantly stand as who we are here, come what may. We stand in our own truth, even when it doesn't fit the story others have for us. Especially then.

Mercury is currently stationing retrograde at 18 degrees Scorpio (October 21), about to go back over the information, the messages, the insights, and the intuitive hits we've received since the Libra New Moon, particularly as they involve relationships and relationship dynamics.

These are challenging times for relationships of all kinds. The Piscean era constructs continue to promise, to disappoint, to dissolve. The Aquarian era constructs have not yet fully emerged. There is isolation here and emotional erosion through that isolation. There is frustration. There is anger. 

But there's also us. There are sexy, beautiful emotional warriors here, under this Aries Moon, unwilling to compromise ourselves, our full selves, to fit within standardized relationship constructs. Unwilling to take less than what we desire at a soul level, than what will truly make our hearts sing.

We're at the very beginning here. At the beginning of a new era and at the beginning of a whole new ballgame for relationships. It can be stark, terrifying. But also exhilarating. As the Moon conjuncts Uranus in Aries October 17 (2:01 p.m. CST), drawing the new-era energy into this Full Moon, we can feel it. We're the pioneers. We're cutting the trail.

And it's bloody hard, at times. It's lonely. It feels foreign, frustrating, confusing, desolate. We wonder if we might have taken a wrong turn, but there's really nowhere to go but onward. There's no one to rely on but ourselves, nothing to guide but our instincts.

We're the ones blazing this trail. We're the ones breaking down barriers for the generations who follow. And we're doing it our way.

How much more inspiring a time can there possibly be?

Know that if you are standing strong and true in your full self, in your full truth, you are exactly where you need to be under this Blood Moon - whether inside a love relationship or out.

Honour your rock-and-roll soul under this Aries Full Moon. Honour the fight in you, the never-say-die in you, under this Moon. Honour the survivor that is you, and honour the fresh relationship territory you have fought, tooth-and-nail, to come into.

To paraphrase one fine anarchist band, we get knocked down, but we get up again. No one's ever going to keep us down.

And that's the plain, honest truth, motherfuckers.

Kick up your heels under this Moon and celebrate the fact.

The Aries Full Moon is exact at 6:38 p.m. CST on October 18.

Taurus and the Behaviour of Bovines - Re-Post

We currently have a stellium of planets in slow and steady Taurus (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, along with the South Node and Pallas Athene) and are heading to a Taurus New Moon eclipse on May 9 that a lot of people seem to be working themselves into a lather over.

In light of all this hyped-up eclipse fervour, I'd like to offer some very Taurean advice:

Just chill out.

If something shakes out in your life at the time of this eclipse, something needed to shake out in your life at the time of this eclipse. It's as simple as that.  

We experience two or three eclipses every six months, like clockwork. These eclipses are not an anomaly.

In times of yore, people were understandably freaked out about eclipses. It was more than a little unnerving to see the Sun or Moon "go out" without really understanding why. People would stay out of the light of the eclipsed Sun or Moon for fear that it would bring them bad fortune.

So there is a traditional store of fear related to eclipses, not completely unfounded, but (in this astrologer's opinion), over-emphasized and hyped to the nines in post-post-modern day astrology.

It's true that this New Moon eclipse at 19 degrees Taurus falls exactly conjunct female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene and closely conjunct male warrior planet Mars, as well as the karmic, karmic South Node. This can certainly ramp up fighting and aggression around the time of the eclipse, but this isn't all au naturel. War manoeuvres are often purposefully timed according to astrological/astronomical events like eclipses.

Israel timed a major attack against Palestine for the last Scorpio New Moon eclipse November 13/14, 2012. That eclipse was conjunct unfortunate fixed star Unukalhai (Alpha Serpentis). You can read about that here: Israel Opens the Gates of Hell at the Alpha Snake New Moon

Today, as the Moon moves between the Scorpio Full Moon eclipse April 25 (the culmination point of that Scorpio New Moon eclipse) and the Taurus New Moon May 9, the news is telling us that Israel has just launched an air strike attack against Syria, targeting a shipment of missiles said to be intended for Lebanon. (Because, as you may have noticed, only the "good guys" like Israel and the U.S. of A. are allowed to have missiles, nukes, and weapons of mass destruction.)  

All this taken into consideration - if you haven't noticed, this planet has been under a state of financier-backed siege for decades (centuries? millenia?). This is nothing new. It's not right, but it's the state of things. Eclipses are not to blame. Greedy, murderous sociopaths masquerading as our leaders are, as well as those who do their bidding.

To lighten this hyped and charged state of affairs, I'm re-posting an article I wrote last year about Taurus and the behaviour of bovines. From May 19, 2012:

Photos: Willow

I've been a ranch helper for the past few weeks, and you can't really get much more Taurean than that type of work. It's life on the land, on prairie grassland. It's physical work. It's animals and plants and dirt, wind and rain, sweat and sun. The work unfolds according to natural timing, according to the seasons, and it follows a similar course every year. Farmers and ranchers are time keepers in this way. They work according to old, nature-based rhythms and keep those fundamental energetic patterns anchored, just as the animals themselves do. When the Sun goes up, it's time to work. When it goes down, the work day's done. Simple.

It's coming to the end of calving season now, and the babes are running around all over the place. Watching cattle always reminds me of how much you can understand about the sign and energy of Taurus through the behaviour of bovines.

Understanding The Sign of Taurus Through the Characteristics of Cows

1) Taurus is a fixed sign, and cows have a fixed nature. They really don't like to move all that much, especially if they've just had a calf. Cows don't enjoy transition. They like their basic routines, and they're not fans of any upheaval or changes in those routines.

2) Cows are comfort seekers, just like Taurus. Once they're content, they like to stay put, enjoying the sunshine, grazing, and chewing their cuds. The only time they can be convinced to favour a change is if an option opens that brings them even more comfort. This generally involves more or better food - another Taurus favourite.

This is the transition going on right now. Every year, most of the cow-calf pairs along with steers and heifers are rounded up and trucked to a Native-run community pasture for the spring and summer. Once there, they have all the space and grass they could ever desire, but in order to get there, they have to endure the transition. They have to be moved from pasture to pasture at home and then up to the corrals to be worked before being trucked to the new pasture, and this definitely ruffles them a bit. Again, though, if the reward is there, they'll endure - just like Taurus.

To move the cow-calf pairs, my Dad rides horseback, and my mother and I (never horsewomen) each drive a vehicle through the bumpy-ass pastures in a mini round-up. My sweet ride is the 1986 Chevy farm truck. Just as if we were on horseback, we spread out and herd the cattle. Trying to determine how best to get cattle moving in the right direction gives us helpful hints for interacting with people with a lot of Taurus!

3) Cows, like Taurus, don't like to be rushed. They like to do things slowly, gradually, on their own timing. When they do move, they like it to be related to securing basic resources - food, water, shade, shelter from wind, or a comfortable place to lie down.

4) You can't pressure them too much. Cows will take some gentle guidance, but press too much, at the wrong place, or too quickly, and they won't do what you want them to do. If they feel excessively pressured, they'll rebel or freak out. They can be remarkably stubborn once they've been riled and will even jump a fence to get away. If an entire herd has been spooked in this way, they'll run through a barbed-wire fence. Suffice it to say, it's best to take it nice and easy on both bovines and Taureans, givng them lots of time and adequate space to make their moves.

5) Cows, like Taurus, enjoy working with a boundary. The easiest way to move cattle is by gently pushing them along a fence line to an open gate. Taking them through the middle of the open prairie is more likely to create confusion and panic. Boundaries and limitations can help them feel safe.

6) It takes them a while to get going, but once they have some momentum gathered, they follow a steady course. And once they have a steady course, they move along fairly quickly - no fuss, no muss.

7) Cows pretty much do what the rest of the pack is doing. This is the traditional aspect of Taurus. Once in a while, there will be a renegade cow who busts out on her own, but usually, they like to do what the other cows are doing, as long as it makes good, practical cow sense.

8) They seem very docile and gentle, and generally are, but cows can become very pissed off - and dangerous - if they feel threatened in any way. Like most animals, cows are very protective of their babies.

9) Just like Taurus, after a transition or upheaval, they need time on their own to settle down and get back to a state of calm contentment. Once the pressure is removed, it doesn't take them long to get back to a settled state.

Use these helpful insights into the ways of the bovine to keep the Taureans in your life (and the Taurus in your own chart) sweet, calm, contented, and moving in the right direction!

Shedding Skins at the Alpha Snake New Moon

Photo: Willow

The New Moon on November 13 is a total solar eclipse at 21 degrees Scorpio, and it packs a punch.

Eclipses can be very dramatic (and sometimes traumatic). They're super-charged New and Full Moons that can kick up major events - both natural and occult-planned. Eclipses can be seen as unstable, backdrop change indicators. With a New Moon solar eclipse like this one, one very potent layer of things is ending, burning itself out, and another is beginning.

This New Moon could potentially bring some drama, as it conjuncts both the unfortunate fixed star Alpha Serpentis (Unukalhai) and the Scorpio North Node. Spicy.

Alpha Serpentis is the Alpha Snake. The Head Reptilian Honcho. In sidereal astrology, this fixed star has been associated with suicide, insanity, accidents, love problems, loss, and earthquakes. All the fun stuff. Snakes have a complex and powerful symbolism. They're associated with regeneration and healing and also with poisons/medicines that can heal or kill. Homeopathy. Coming from another layer of the symbolism, they're associated with all things shifty, shady, and darkly cunning.

Snakes are naturally associated with the sign of Scorpio, which makes this New Moon that much more powerful. Doubling up on the snakey Scorpy. We have to be careful here.

Scorpio is precious medicine, but it can kill you if you aren't careful.

From a previous post:

"Scorpio is venomous - you'd better believe it. But it also has the poison that heals those last resort cases, and at this point on Planet Earth, we're all pretty much enmeshed in one of those."

With the sign of Scorpio, something has to die so that something else can live. Extreme, tragic, dramatic. Also just real life on Planet Earth.

We're shedding multiple skins here at this New Moon eclipse - as many as we can skim off - in an attempt to proactively drop deadweight that could slow us down or trip us up as Saturn moves further into Scorpio. 

Saturn enters its retrograde shadow at 4 degrees Scorpio on November 14 in an awkward and uncomfortable 150-degree quincunx aspect to Uranus in Aries. Uranus in Aries has nothing but our future direction in mind. Saturn in Scorpio lets us know in no uncertain terms that we have much to address and resolve before we move on. We've gone in the wrong directions entirely in the past, unaware of some crucial layer of context, and we can't afford that now. We have to be directed from the root, from the core, from the soul with no false illusions about the scenarios we find ourselves in on this planet.

Things start to get more dense and complicated once Saturn enters the retrograde shadow, and this Scorpio New Moon is one last chance to drop what we need to drop and reconfigure where we need to reconfigure. The weight of collective karmic charge will be arduous enough over the next three years without dragging along with us layers of the situation we could easily have sloughed off.

Expect and capitalize on opportunities for resolution and completion.

The deadweight we're wriggling out of here could involve situations and relationships that are no longer earning their keep (maybe they never were). It could involve enervating emotional and psychological patterns we're straight-up sick of. It could involve versions of ourselves that have become brittle, lifeless, cardboard cut-outs. Or it could involve unrealized, obsessed-upon desires that have kept us tied up, constricted, hamstrung.

We're letting go of energy drains and recommiting in more vital directions.

With so much Scorpio in the zodiac (Sun, Moon, North Node, Saturn, and soon-to-be Mercury Rx), this New Moon is a full, emotional-body cleansing, which could be exhausting depending how much there is to purge. Full Moons are generally high energy points, while New Moons are low energy points. Give yourself and others lots of down time for the reconstitution back into full physical form following this one.

Traditionally, eclipses were in effect only in the areas where they were visible. Only those areas could expect the dramatic (and sometimes traumatic) events and super-charged backdrop changes. This makes sense. Before telephones, internet, or mass media, if you couldn't see an eclipse with your own two eyes, you wouldn't know it was happening. The current rules would have a little more grey area, in my opinion. With mass media, we can be aware that an eclipse is occurring somewhere else in the world, and with internet, we can even "see" it online.

This eclipse will be visible in parts of Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South America, and Antarctica.

The following 28 days should be particularly dramatic and renewal-oriented for those with strong Scorpio in the natal chart.

As a New Moon involves the slow emergence out of a dark period into a new cycle, related events are not always immediately apparent. Scorpio is one of the signs that is particularly process-oriented, so the process gets a big kick start here, but the full results may only be apparent later.

Whatever it is in a state of alchemical morph (related to the house in your natal chart where the eclipse falls), things start to move coming out of this New Moon.

So we're standing on the Dark of the Moon side of this Alpha Snake portal from 3:22 p.m. CST today until 4:08 p.m. on November 13, stripping down to our most vital essentials. But we're also determining what makes it through with us to the other side.

Ensuring we're leaving detrimental influences on the other side of this portal is going to take some steel-willed concentration and focus. Mercury Rx is backing into its second square to Neptune in Pisces, clouding our vision, and some fairly unpleasant things could be slipped by us if we're not vigilant.

We all, ultimately, have to be responsible for what we bring through this New Moon portal. For what we mix into our own Scorpionic alchemical soup. There are certain dynamics, people, and situations we should just not be playing with now.

From a previous post:

"Underlying loyalties 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."

The Moon will be very active within the Dark of the Moon/Balsamic phase heading into Tuesday's New Moon. From Libra, it will square Pluto, trine Jupiter, and Juno, conjunct Venus, and sextile Mars. From Scorpio, it will trine Neptune, Chiron, and Ceres, conjunct Saturn, quincunx Uranus, and sextile Pluto. This brings a lot of elements into the mix.

With the conjunctions to Venus and Saturn, determining the right alchemy for relationships - both personal and professional - as well as correct boundaries are a big part of the process.

Understand your own bottom line. Watch for slippery-tongued plays on your compassion, your pity, your guilt, your sense of the spiritual, and your idea of what a "good person" should be and do. Filter the Neptunian-heightened impressions coming to you now in both waking and dreaming worlds. These are all ways we can be fooled now.

The combination of strong Scorpio with a Mercury-Neptune square makes things ripe for "you're not who I thought you were" experiences where we realize our interplay with another person is not what we were hoping. Scorpio loves laying waste to an illusion.

The focus now is on resolution, completion, finishing, letting it burn out, dropping it, spinning it off, getting lighter.

If in doubt, let it go, and this includes ties to people. Close out old, unsatisfying dynamics without fear: anything that is meant to go on from here will regenerate into something better, clearer, stronger, and more vital later on.

Set the tone how you would like it, no compromises, and don't let anything slip through your own New Moon portal for which you are not willing to be personally responsible.