Mercury-Saturn-Pluto Yod, Mercury Square Neptune and Chiron: Conversational Maya Remover

Mercury square Neptune: Where am I? What dimension is this? Got any Cheetos?

Photo: Willow (with no Photoshopping)

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury in Gemini is currently squaring Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, and we're attempting mightily to gain perspective on our "new era" positioning. Wrapping our minds around exactly where we are right now and exactly what it means is easier said than done, however.

We've just come out of the long, hard, and disorienting winter of 2012/2013 with a seven-body stellium in Pisces symbolically indicating both the end of the astrological Piscean era and the beginning of a new expression for the sign of Pisces. We've shed (or are shedding) the last bits of Piscean-era cocoon, opening into new love, new union, and new communion for a new astrological era. We're holding a place for Piscean sweetness, innocence, love, and togetherness in an era that preaches individuality, self-sufficiency, independence, and detachment, and this leaves us emotional and vulnerable in the process.

How we show and experience ultimate spiritual love and communion have changed, are changing. 

With Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune (May 18) and Chiron (May 22), we're gaining perspective on where we are now and what it means one conversation, one exchange, one thought, one idea, one piece of information at a time. What we're learning may not be completely clear to us under this aspect, however. We can expect some confusion, some illusion, some mind fog, and some difficulty in expressing our points, continuing through next week. If you're experiencing conversations that circle around and seem to go nowhere, just make like a slippery fishy, and go with the flow.

Love, money, values, and relationship planet Venus is also in Gemini. It squared Neptune in Pisces May 13 and will square Chiron in Pisces May 20. This creates the possibility for some lingering disillusionment and disappointment in romance and relationship. The information we're receiving from others can deflate some of our hopes or dreams. Character weakness and inferior influences could rise to the surface in ourselves and others. Things are not exactly as we thought - a common Piscean/Neptunian theme - and we have to keep talking, keep interacting, keep gathering perspective, even when it's painful, to determine what's really going on.

The Venus and Mercury squares bring new dreams, fresh and potent, bubbling up into our conscious minds and mouths, along with new perspective on old ideals, particularly in love, relationship, and partnership. But this is also very confusing and potentially disheartening. We're wading through the old and the new at the same time, not completely sure which is which at times. We're trying to make up our minds about which long-cherished dreams and ideals have to be surrendered, morphed, re-jigged, and which ones move forward as guiding lights.

How much can we compromise, if at all? How fluid can we be? How can we move toward shared dreams when our dreams are in such a state of discombobulating morph?

The Uranus in Aries energy - forming its third of seven exact squares to Pluto in Capricorn May 20 - is driving us into extreme individualism. Survival. Independence. Self-sovereignty. Razing emotional attachments as we blaze new trails.

Pretty far from the Neptunian/Piscean ideal of loving union, communion, togetherness, compassion, unbreakable connection and inter-relation. One. Whole.

Uranus (uranium) and Pluto (plutonium) squaring off into 2015 are splitting Piscean-era atoms and Piscean-era communion. The way energy works is different now. What holds us together is different now. And it's a very steep learning curve as we put things together on the fly.

How much can we detach? How much detachment will kill us and other living things? How much will disconnect us from our souls? How much is pathological? These are questions we have to answer through Aquarian experimentation now, and this makes for some very unstable and unpredictable dynamics, especially in relationship.

With Mercury and Venus conjunct in Gemini and forming multiple aspects, love, money, values, beauty, and relationships are primary themes, as well as the talking and thinking (Mercury) about love, money, values, beauty, and relationship (Venus).

Both Venus and Mercury will conjunct the degree of last June's historic Venus Transit (15 Gemini) on May 21 and 22, increasing the "new era relationship" themes.

After the exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus in Aries on March 28, also conjunct Mars and Uranus, we are truly in new relational territory. There is no protocol, no blueprint, going forward from here. We're learning as we go.

Mercury in its domicile of Gemini is a facile information collector. It gathers perspectives, thoughts, ideas, information, and messages that help put things in context. The influence of the squares to nebulous and filmy Pisces/Neptune at this time, though, makes grasping the full perspective elusive or impossible.

The current astro climate tells us in no uncertain terms, however, that we really do need to figure this out. We really do need to keep the conversation flowing, regardless of difficulty, even in meandering fits and starts.

Venus and Mercury in Gemini are also triggering the double Yod formations we experienced around the time of the Jupiter direct station in January 2013. The Sun in Gemini re-activates these configurations May 27 - June 1, and Mars follows suit June 7 - 15. The Yods were strongly in effect December 2012 through mid-April 2013, bringing about new understanding through some awkward exchanges. They helped us acclimatize to the oddness of Aquarius and also to the necessity of being around people who see things very differently from the ways in which we do. Now, we put some of that into active and immediate practise.

Saturn and Pluto are currently digging up the dirt and the suppressed muck in retrograde motion. Mercury in Gemini pushes into quincunxes to Saturn Rx in Scorpio and Pluto Rx in Capricorn May 18-20, and our conversations become alchemical, catalytic, dangerously potent, as Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn form their third structure-busting square.

Things we hear or say this upcoming week could bust things wide open. Don't be shocked if your words trigger reactions you had not intended. There are underlying feelings, psychological realities, and suppressed energies that must come to the surface in a controlled way now, spread around through bits of daily convo, and you just might be an agent for that.

Mercury in Gemini likes to keep it light and conversational. But with quincunxes to those hardcore brutes Saturn and Pluto, we're going to hear subtext in people's words and tones that potentially confirms our fears. Even the lightest of comments can hit us in the gut with the deeper understanding of what it really means under the sociability.

With Venus and Mercury transiting Gemini, we're forced to gather more information, to have further conversations, but we're scared of what we're going to hear. There's a very good likelihood under these aspects that we will hear something that displeases us, upsets us, threatens our security.

With the North Node and Saturn coming together in conjunction in Scorpio (exact September 18), the successful soul-driven path involves confronting and working through some of our deepest fears. We're looking down some very dark corridors, contemplating some very disturbing possibilities, walking the gut-churning razor's edge. And we have to feel it. We can't cut ourselves off from it or avoid it. Our emotional and psychological depth work is the only thing that can keep things on track now. One extrication at a time. No more dirt hidden under any more rugs. It won't stand.

Mercury in Gemini in Yod formation and squaring Neptune and Chiron in Pisces is the Conversational Maya Remover. This upcoming week, we're being asked to dig through the superficial layers and comments to get to the real, stone-cold reality. We're asked to honour the often-uncomfortable process of truth and reality rising to the surface. And we're asked to divine down deep for the courage to be true to that process, carrying it through to completion.

The Sun enters Gemini May 20, shining light on the Neptune and Chiron squares May 26 and June 3 and re-activating the Yods May 27 - June 1. These solar aspects should assist us with clarity of perspective, though there is also the possibility of painful personality or self-expression issues. An eroding feeling that we are not special, alone in our pain. This is transient.

Mars enters Gemini May 31, activating the same aspects June 7 - 15. Proactively dealing with anything that comes up now can head off anger, frustration, and fights during that time.

Mercury and Venus move from angsty Yod territory into a gorgeous triple conjunction with Jupiter on May 27/28 at 23 degrees Gemini. This triple conjunction of Mercury with the two benefic planets in Gemini brings us a dual scenario. There is the possibility for "peak experiences," so to speak. Conversations and information coming to us that will renew our faith in almost miraculous ways, releasing long-standing doubt, unease, and fear.

But there is also the wading through of the end-of-Pisces disappointment, desolation, weakness, and pain.

The frictional (yet potentially productive) squares between the bodies in Gemini and Neptune and Chiron in Pisces hold the pain we carry from dreams deferred, dreams disappointed, dreams unrealized. The perspective we're gaining now, heading into the Mercury-Venus-Jupiter conjunction, will be inspirational and exciting but also potentially painful and disappointing. Two twins. Two realities existing at once. Juggling this is our challenge.

We're being asked to remove the layers of maya, to see clearly where we are at this time, and it's through verbal and written interactions, through thoughts and realizations, through gathering more information, that we release the illusions that could hold us back and keep us down.

There are painful points here and over the next month related to communication, interaction, and perspective. But removing the last of the maya that could keep us from realizing our dreams in the new astrological era is worth the effort and the struggle now.

The Aries Stellium Charges Up The Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus Yod for a Grand Finale

By tonight when Venus enters Aries, most of the personal planets will be in the sign of the ram, clustered around Uranus, and the Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus Yod is being charged up to the max.

The Aries planets are sextile Jupiter in Gemini, forming a brash and chatty base for this Yod. This is a whole lot of young, yang energy looking for expression in a big and bold way. The Aries planets stimulating Jupiter in Gemini so intensely creates an instinctive urge to take action, to take charge of our directions, and to speak up from personal perspectives in a fairly aggressive manner.

Spring fever in the northern hemisphere is pretty much off the hook at this point after the massive Pisces stellium and harsh winter transits.

However, the finger of God or apex of this Yod is Saturn Rx in Scorpio. This becomes the navigation point of the potentially loud, over-the-top, and inflammatory energies of this formation. This indicates it's restraint, restraint, restraint that gets the job done over the next couple weeks, as well as careful withdrawal, sober second thought, strategy, grounding, conservatism, and seriousness. Saturn Rx in yin/feminine sign Scorpio plays its cards very close to its chest, avoiding immature drama and tempting diversions. Saturn is the wise and responsible filter for all this immediate and in-your-face Aries and Gemini. Aries and Gemini are not known as the most patient signs of the zodiac, so applying some of the grumpy old man Saturn in Scorpio energy keeps these bratty astro kids under control.

The Aries and Gemini Yod base is basically going to take care of itself. Air and fire are interacting in a big way. Connections are going to be made, and new directions are going to be initiated. It's the Saturn in Scorpio energy that will need to be more consciously applied. A good dousing of the party atmosphere by Saturn in water sign Scorpio will be required at times. And don't you secretly love doing that when it's necessary? Saturn sure does.

You can read more about the two Yod formations we're currently experiencing in this extensive post on the subject: Yods, Oddness, and Awkward Social Angles Create Breakthroughs in Understanding Through April 2013

As stated, we're currently under the influence of two Yod formations. As we entered March, Jupiter in Gemini was the apex or finger of God navigation point. You can read more about that here: Jupiter in Gemini and Our Alchemical Tongues.

Now, at the end of March, things have switched, and Saturn in Scorpio is the finger of God navigation point.

Did I mention we've been under some very challenging transits this winter?

The Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus Yod formation is fully in effect now. Jupiter in Gemini is quincunx Saturn in Scorpio exactly on March 23, and it's quincunx Pluto in Capricorn exactly on March 29.

We're also experiencing the final Jupiter in Gemini square to Chiron in Pisces at this time (exact March 27 at the Libra Full Moon), and this increases the possibility of a mentally and psychically challenging last week of March.

However, the good (Jupiter) news (Gemini) is that this is the last big stress point created by these Yod configurations. One last hurrah, and the Yods have done their thing. Mysteries will be revealed. Intricate and hidden communications networks will be unravelled. And the excessively loose lips of others can be worked to our own strategic advantage (just keep that on the up and up).

Jupiter in Gemini and Our Alchemical Tongues

Planet of luck, expansion, blessings, and all things big, Jupiter, has just pulled out of its January 30 direct station in early Gemini.

As Jupiter gets cranked up to full speed ahead in early March, it starts to more fully activate the two Yod formations in which it is taking part. We feel the stress on our minds, on our communications, and on our interactions, and we sense their taut importance at this time. You can read more about those Yods here: A Potentially Inflammatory Jupiter Direct Station: Awkward Yods, a Detrimental Sign, and Squares to Chiron and Neptune

The Yod involving Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn as the base with Jupiter in Gemini as the apex or "finger of God" is particularly highlighted at this time, tightening as Jupiter pushes to 10/11 degrees Gemini by the end of March. Jupiter is quincunx Saturn exactly on March 23. Jupiter is quincunx Pluto exactly on March 29. This gives a great deal of weight to even the seemingly smallest of exchanges this month. The lightest of connections or interactions can have very big and lasting effect. The people with whom you come into contact and the conversations you are having are more meaningful than you might imagine. Tone also says a lot, and it can be triggering.

In short, with Jupiter transiting this area of Gemini, our communications are charged.

At the same time, with Jupiter squaring Chiron in Pisces and dispositor Mercury moving retrograde in Pisces, our communication is meandering, floating, befuddling, disconnected, and often out of our conscious control. Words, information, and opinions have the potential to heal but also to wound and irritate - probably at the same time. Knowing when to apply our potent perspectives and when to keep it zipped is an ongoing effort.

The Saturn-Jupiter-Pluto Yod will be close to exact by the end of March, tightening all through the month, just as Jupiter in Gemini makes its final square to Chiron in Pisces March 27.

So Jupiter in Gemini is the star of our show this March, but it's a star under some level of duress. This is, shall we say, a bit of a toxic Hollywood star. Stressed by quincunxes to bad boys Saturn and Pluto and the square to Chiron, we're channelling an intense and at times immense amount of energy through our minds, our hands, our communications, our interactions, and our daily neighbourhood goings on. It's going to take a hero to keep going through all this. So you'd better get your hero pants on...

Speaking, listening, writing, walking, driving, telephoning, texting, messaging - these are all activities that keep the potentially constricting energy of the Saturn-Pluto sextile and mutual reception moving, flowing, functioning, and alchemizing. Doing its thing.

The Saturn-Pluto sextile and mutual reception indicate the potential for potent change in the structural set-ups of our lives and societies over the next two years.

The truth as we see it, from our own perspectives, is our guiding force now, spreading the concentrated Saturn-Pluto energy around with even the lightest of conversations. A piece of potent information here, a piece there. Keep it moving so it doesn't weigh you down and drag you under.

Words are energy, and they have a particularly concentrated energy now and into mid-April.

Even the most seemingly superficial and innocuous of comments can dig in over the next month, embedding in the structures as they exist and catalyzing ripple effect change.

With Ceres, Black Moon Lilith, and Vesta joining Jupiter in Gemini, the missing perspectives - particularly the deep and dark feminine truth-oriented perspectives - are finding their places now. It's getting a little easier to be a purveyor of these perspectives.

This is a Plutonically-charged tongue we're speaking with here, and surgical precision can be required. The right words at the right time - offered lightly and conversationally - can bust things open in a very beneficial way, exposing long-hidden aspects to the light of day. Speaking up with our own particular perspective or angle on the situation cuts like a laser through dense and oppressive Pluto in Capricorn-era set-ups. Telling the truth as you see it is one of the most powerful things you can do now - though it must be done carefully and in a socially palatable manner.

This is a stressed, irritating, and potentially volatile Jupiter placement, in the sign of its detriment, Gemini. Jupiter in Gemini can be a real loudmouth with an opinion on everything, so we must apply Saturnine restraint very skillfully over minds and mouths. Going verbally overboard or insisting on making that one last point could have some fairly major consequences now.

We're dropping verbal bombs without even knowing it over the next month. Let's just make sure we're only blowing up what needs to be blown up, shall we?

We start to become aware of people's deeper allegiances based on the perspectives they're sharing as truth. If these deeper allegiances are not in line with our own, this can be upsetting, disturbing, angering, or royally off-putting. The severing of communicative ties in certain arenas can also be expected under these Yods.

There's thick subtext here, and being aware of it is the first step toward working it to our advantage.

Potentially awkward conversations we've been holding off on having will be coming up over the next month. In particular, these conversations involve: sex, death, energy exchange, power, abuse, trauma, and underlying emotional and psychological realities. The trickiness of these conversations is compounded by Mercury retrograding in the sign of its detriment, Pisces. This is a bit of cottonmouth. Words that dribble away into a puddle, instead of having the big and immediate effect we would hope. Thoughts, impressions, and understandings that are almost impossible to put into words. Conveying our full meaning to another is not easy under this transit.

But with Mercury retrograding back to Chiron and Neptune and stationing direct there March 17, we can't afford to pass this opportunity up for healing of the spirit. Conversations had now can make us whole again. Let go of the upper hand. Let go of verbal control. Allow the universe, the great spirit, to guide your words now.

At the same time, our words are setting off tripwires, activating previously unseen connections, and this brings us right into the thick of things. Right into the heart of the Plutonic beast, so to speak.

Though it's your tendency, there's no need to exaggerate the situation on Planet Earth, Jupiter in Gemini. The stone cold Plutonic reality speaks for itself.

The power of knowing what's up on this planet - knowing what's really up - and speaking about it is a miraculous, inspirational, and blessed thing.

(Don't you just feel blessed, all you Plutonic truth tellers out there? Heh.)

Jupiter clears the orbs of the Yods and the square to Chiron in Pisces by mid-April, just in time for the Pluto retrograde station. Jupiter will then be into some less stressed - and quite exciting - territory. It will conjunct the degree of the May 2012 Venus Transit during the second half of April, and this should be a lovely boost. Miraculous things can unfold...

The personal planets entering Gemini in May and June also creates a flow of good vibes and meaningful exchanges with contacts to Jupiter. This Gemini season has a horseshoe up its butt that it will not have again for 12 years. Communication, transportation, networking, and relationships with siblings are lucky and blessed now.

On June 26, Jupiter will leave the sign of its detriment, Gemini, for the sign of its exaltation, Cancer, for a highly eventful one-year stay. Jupiter in Cancer will be in Grand Water Trine formation with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces this summer.

So we're definitely heading to softer and less verbally/mentally abrasive ground with Jupiter in Cancer.

But to capitalize fully on the jovial blessings available to us now in Gemini, we have to work those awkward, annoying, aggravating, alchemical Yods like nobody's business.

So speak up! Get out there. Make a splash. Keep talking, keep circulating, keep interacting, despite the stress and difficulty. Just be responsible with the power and the potency of your perspective over this next month on Planet Earth. Be responsible with your power to annoy people. Draw back from convos that get you hot under the collar, as well - unless it's required that you go in for the kill. With a Scorpio and Pluto-influenced voice, that will often be a possibility...

Jupiter Direct!

Jupiter is in a multi-aspected direct station right now at 6 degrees Gemini. It goes direct in the early morning of January 30.

Our major benefic planet is ready to turn and unload its cache of blessings on those who have been successfully and responsibly working two Yods and a square to Neptune and Chiron in Pisces over the past couple months.

There's a longer article on the station here:

From January 5, 2013: A Potentially Inflammatory Jupiter Direct Station: Awkward Yods, a Detrimental Sign, and Squares to Chiron and Neptune

The Jupiter in Gemini square to Chiron and Neptune has some major Piscean-era wishful (or deluded) thinking being kicked up, however.

This is a time when telemarketing scams can be potent, greased as they are by all the wounding Neptunian gloss and goo and pixie dust and blind spots. Scammers of all sorts can potentially slip by our bullshit detectors under these influences, particularly the entertaining big talkers (Jupiter in Gemini) and the people with Neptunian mind control techniques at their disposal. Be careful with the phone and internet. And the credit card.

Jupiter stationing in Gemini within these aspects has brought an increase (Jupiter) in mental and psychic energy (Gemini/Pisces). Telepathy. Brains that won't turn off. Ideas, thoughts, and conversations that keep spin, spin, spinning in our heads. These themes continue for the next couple months, but the direct station should bring a break in the intensity. Some relief for any mental and psychic overload.

With the Chiron-Neptune conjunction in Pisces in tense aspect, feelings of end-of-era futility have been bubbling to the surface over the past month, as well (including during that semi-nasty Capricorn stellium clustered around Pluto). We have to keep moving through these feelings and keep interacting, despite the weirdness and awkwardness we're experiencing now with the two Yods.

The tense Chiron-Neptune influence also indicates a time period when health can be glitchy. Our systems are quite sensitive now. Old injuries and weird pains can pop up. This can be quite unrelenting or even gruelling, in fact, with the current influence of Pluto in Capricorn and Saturn in Scorpio. This is a time to be careful with food, drink, drug, media consumption, who you're around, and general psychic environment.

Understand that Neptune in tough aspect is fucking with us a bit and has been for about a month now.

With Chiron in Pisces involved, we have the opportunity for great psychic and spiritual healing around this Jupiter station but also for "should have known better" wounding. We have to be smart (Gemini) about things in order to sidestep potential pitfalls and move beyond the entrapping Piscean-era karmic loops.

This Jupiter in Gemini station has blessings to bestow, fruitful connections to make, and awesome news to share, as long as we can navigate and avoid the pitfalls of its tricky positioning.

A Potentially Inflammatory Jupiter Direct Station: Awkward Yods, a Detrimental Sign, and Squares to Chiron and Neptune

Jupiter, the planet of luck, expansion, blessings, and all things "big," stations direct at 6 degrees Gemini on January 30, 2013. It starts slowing for this direct station next week.

The station at 6 Gemini occurs on the degree of the most recent Full Moon eclipse (November 28). The eclipse occurred at lunar apogee, or conjunct Black Moon Lilith, and this definitely adds some sass to the Jupiter station.

Jupiter is heavily aspected and under pressure at the moment, quincunxed by Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, sextiled by Uranus in Aries, and squared by Chiron and Neptune in Pisces.

As it stations, Jupiter is a focal point in the zodiac, playing a primary role in two Yod formations strongly in effect into late April. From December 3, 2012: Yods, Oddness, and Awkward Social Angles Create Breakthroughs in Understanding Through April 2013

We're working with the requirements and themes of two Yods involving two very different focal/release points as we move through the first third of 2013.

"[W]e have one finger of God pointing to Jupiter in Gemini and one finger of God pointing to Saturn in Scorpio.

One finger points to expansion, broadening of horizons, interaction, movement, inspiration, enthusiasm, and activity. The other points to restriction, withdrawal, sober second thought, grounding, conservatism, and seriousness.

Jupiter wants to make a big splash with a boisterous expenditure of energy while Saturn wants to stay firmly on the downlow, conserving every last iota. Each placement horrifies the other, to a certain extent.

We're working with two different layers of energy dynamics here.

In Yod A, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Saturn and Pluto - could create a real Debbie Downer effect. Though this is a supportive aspect, things can become too concentrated here, too serious, too severe, too dark. Things could get downright miserly. We could become too much of a closed circuit, finding ourselves in a state of deep, dark, 'cabin fever' stale. If we're too strongly confined by this Saturn-Pluto vortex, the relieving point becomes Jupiter in Gemini: Get some fresh air flowing. Get out there in the world. Talk to people. Enjoy yourself. Move around in your neighbourhood. Search for some new stimulation, some new ideas, some new conversations. Talk about mundane daily affairs. Keep things light. Find out what people are talking about. Discover a new interest.

On the other hand, in Yod B, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini - could create way too much stimulation. This one can put our brains on overdrive. New ideas could be bouncing around and popping in our heads like popcorn kernels heated by a lightning strike. Over-the-top excitement about the future and an overwhelming drive to move forward could be coursing through our systems, making wheels spin. If we're being charged up with too much Jupiter-Uranus energy, the relieving point then becomes Saturn in Scorpio: Slow down. Wait. Get your feet back on the ground. Get serious about everything that has to be resolved before you go bounding forward. Understand that your big ideas are going to take time to develop and that a lot of them will burn out before they even get off the ground. Adopt more of a "show me the money" stance before you go off half-cocked."

The Yod involving Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini as the base with Saturn in Scorpio as the apex or "finger of God" is the more prominent configuration as we move through the Jupiter direct station. This means, we're challenged to temper the excessive mental stimulation and excitement kicked up by a stationing Jupiter sextile to Uranus with good, old-fashioned Saturnine restraint. Holding our hot little tongues and waiting to see how things settle out first.

With Saturn in Scorpio as the release point/finger of God, we're looking for a better position from which to share our perspectives. If we make interjections out of fear or compulsion now, we risk damaging reputations, public standing, and hard-won positions.

Saturn is holding the fort.

And it's holding the fort against a massive psychic and mental tide that threatens to overwhelm us.

Yods, Oddness, and Awkward Social Angles Create Breakthroughs in Understanding Through April 2013

The astrological configuration dominating the skies for the first third of 2013 is the Yod. Two very prominent Yod configurations are forming now and will be in effect into late April 2013.

These configurations are very strong at both the December 2012 solstice and the March 2013 equinox, with exact aspects forming at those times and transiting personal planets further activating the configurations.

Yods are configurations made up of three bodies forming two difficult quincunx aspects (150 degrees) and one supportive sextile (60 degrees). The aspect lines form a skinny triangle.

The first Yod forming now, Yod A, involves Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn as the base of the triangle with both bodies quincunx Jupiter in Gemini, which is the apex of the triangle.

Yod A, December 22, 2012 - click to enlarge



The second Yod, Yod B, involves Uranus in Aries sextile Jupiter in Gemini as the base of the triangle with both bodies quincunx Saturn in Scorpio, which is the apex of the triangle. Yod B is somewhat loose currently but tightens around March equinox.

Yod B, December 22, 2012 - click to enlarge



Complicated doesn't begin to describe the subtext these days.

The apex of a Yod - where it is pointing - is often referred to as the "finger of God." The body at the apex is generally considered the key to the successful navigation of the configuration.

In this case, though, we have one finger of God pointing to Jupiter in Gemini and one finger of God pointing to Saturn in Scorpio.

One finger points to expansion, broadening of horizons, interaction, movement, inspiration, enthusiasm, and activity. The other points to restriction, withdrawal, sober second thought, grounding, conservatism, and seriousness.

Jupiter wants to make a big splash with a boisterous expenditure of energy while Saturn wants to stay firmly on the downlow, conserving every last iota. Each placement horrifies the other, to a certain extent.

We're working with two different layers of energy dynamics here.

In Yod A, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Saturn and Pluto - could create a real Debbie Downer effect. Though this is a supportive aspect, things can become too concentrated here, too serious, too severe, too dark. Things could get downright miserly. We could become too much of a closed circuit, finding ourselves in a state of deep, dark, 'cabin fever' stale. If we're too strongly confined by this Saturn-Pluto vortex, the relieving point becomes Jupiter in Gemini: Get some fresh air flowing. Get out there in the world. Talk to people. Enjoy yourself. Move around in your neighbourhood. Search for some new stimulation, some new ideas, some new conversations. Talk about mundane daily affairs. Keep things light. Find out what people are talking about. Discover a new interest.

On the other hand, in Yod B, the base of the Yod - the sextile between Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini - could create way too much stimulation. This one can put our brains on overdrive. New ideas could be bouncing around and popping in our heads like popcorn kernels heated by a lightning strike. Over-the-top excitement about the future and an overwhelming drive to move forward could be coursing through our systems, making wheels spin. If we're being charged up with too much Jupiter-Uranus energy, the relieving point then becomes Saturn in Scorpio: Slow down. Wait. Get your feet back on the ground. Get serious about everything that has to be resolved before you go bounding forward. Understand that your big ideas are going to take time to develop and that a lot of them will burn out before they even get off the ground. Adopt more of a "show me the money" stance before you go off half-cocked.

Yods aren't comfortable configurations, as they involve two quincunxes, which are probably the most awkward aspect in astrology.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This Saskatchewan corn survived the heat.

Photos: Willow

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

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

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

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

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

Jupiter Enters Gemini Conjunct the South Node and Things Are About to Get (More) Complicated

Jupiter in Gemini - June 11, 2012 to June 25, 2013

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, entered Gemini yesterday for its one-year stay in the sign. Jupiter spends one year in each of the 12 signs, making one full pass through the zodiac every 12 years.

Because of its size, Jupiter is the planet associated with all things big. It is a planet considered to have an enlarging influence on everything it touches and relates to expansion, luck, benefits, cosmic grace, and the broadening of horizons. The activities and themes related to the house where Gemini falls in your natal chart will be ripe for expansion this year - this is where the Jupiterian spotlight falls for the next 12 months.

Jupiter is considered to have a philosophical bent, relating to things such as meaning, truth, and wisdom gathered through direct experiences in the big, wide world. Through its association with Sagittarius, the sign it rules, and the 9th house, the house naturally ruled by Sagittarius, Jupiter can have some connection to travel, happy-go-lucky adventures, culture, higher education, gypsy life, fortune telling, foreign lands, wilderness, randy centaurs, and wild, Dionysian parties in the middle of ancient forests.

Jupiter also relates to hedonism and detrimental overindulgence in sex, food, drink or any other arena, recklessness, gambling, financial overextension, overstepping boundaries, "too much, too fast," relying on luck over hard work and planning, dogma, pedantry, and being a bit of a fly-by-night candy-ass.

It's the Las Vegas of planets.

Though it is overarchingly associated by astrologers with luck, beneficial events, and good will flowing freely to us from the universe, when we say Jupiter enlarges everything it touches, this can also mean the enlarging and expansion of unpleasant characteristics and events and their consequences.

As Jupiter in Taurus crossed back and forth over the natal South Node of New Age huckster James Arthur Ray in 2011, for example, his excessive focus on related South Node exploits (money, material wealth, "manifesting abundance") and the resulting abuses of his Scorpio North Node - leading to the deaths of at least three people and the injury of dozens - coincided with his trial for three counts of negligent homicide and a resulting guilty verdict.

The lucky part of Jupiter in Taurus' influence in James Ray's life meant he was sentenced to only two years in prison, rather than the nine years for which prosecutors were hoping.

Jupiter can certainly kick up what appear to be lucky breaks, but it can also put a spotlight on areas of weakness, excess, or past recklessness that are then blown up into major issues.

As part of this, Jupiter conjunct the South Node could be referred to as the James Ray Effect, and the James Ray Effect is a distinct possibility from now through the end of July as transiting Jupiter crosses the South Node in Gemini.