My Most Pilfered and Ripped-Off Article of All Time From 2009! The Vilification of Virgoan Analysis and Scorpionic Intuition Within the New Age Meme Complex

Copyright © 2008-2020 Willow's Web Astrology. 

What follows is a re-post of an article I wrote and published in June 2009 that has the dubious honour of being the most pilfered and ripped-off article I've ever written! It comes from a series of articles I did on deconstructing the New Age meme complex. These are a couple others from the same time period in 2009:

From April 21, 2009: Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret/Law of Attraction Phenomenon

From May 29, 2009: New Age Solipsism 

You can see all Willow's Web Astrology articles on Deconstructing the New Age Meme Complex here.

Also see Dark Moon Podcast #3 - Deconstructing the Cult Mind and Pyramid Scheme Power

I've seen the article I'm re-posting here regurgitated and passed off by unscrupulous individuals more than once now. Beware the New Agers who try to pass themselves off as New Age critics. (Their softball attempts at reforming a poisonous mind and spiritual control mechanism, all while regurgitating New Age 101 ideology, certainly give them away.) The most recent time I saw the article regurgitated was by a fan of Hitler. It's funny this person is against New Age, since Hitler was a big fan of it. Spiritual supremacy and racial supremacy are one and the same.

Because I don't have a smoking gun (unlike other times I've been plagiarized like this and this), I can't name these people, but lets just say they're shameless in ripping off other people's work and passing it off as their own. Even more repugnant to me is the fact that I do not support or agree with the ideas spewing from any of the sources that have used my work without permission or attribution.

There are a lot of snaky fucks out there. That might be the biggest understatement you've ever read. To help expose them, I follow this New Age deconstruction article with a more recent article on how to spot controlled opposition. That article will quite likely be co-opted by controlled opposition dipshits, as well, but I hope people with good character can use it to nullify the power and influence of these unethical individuals and groups, with which the current intellectual, spiritual, and political spheres are, unfortunately, rife. 

An original Willow's Web Astrology article from June 1, 2009, The Vilification of Virgoan Analysis and Scorpionic Intuition Within the New Age Meme Complex

"Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense."

- From 1984 by George Orwell

The last post on New Age solipsism got me thinking about how important both Virgoan analysis and Scorpionic intuition are, especially these days, in determining real from fake. It also got me thinking about how both those things are vilified in much of the New Age ideology of the day.

The manipulation of the people has very much gone to the embedded stage. The trick of the day is to mix a grain of truth with a little trend-a-licious language and imagery along with a whole lot of garbage designed to achieve certain hidden, control-based motives - and hope people swallow it whole.

Full Moon in Virgo: Hold Yourself to Your Own High Standards...But Don't Expect Perfection Under This Mutable Lunar Madness

We're moving to a highly-mutable (changeable) Full Moon at 22 degrees Virgo on March 11/12 opposite a whole whack of Pisces placements (Sun, Mercury, Chiron, Pallas Athene, and Neptune) and square Saturn in Sagittarius.

These bodies form a mutable t-square configuration under the Full Moon rays, indicating that a transitional period is now coming to a head.

We have to put our best foot forward now in order to secure a desirable place within the new order that will form coming out of this Virgo Full Moon. Show your work ethic, your organizational skills, and your attention to detail (Virgo)...but also your compassion, your humanity, and your willingness to go with the flow when necessary (Pisces) in order to fully rock this.

The Moon reaches its fullest point in the sign of the virgin on March 12 at 7:54 a.m. PDT.

(Note to self: remember the change to Daylight Savings Time on March 12, as well!)

Keep working, keep pushing, and keep perfecting despite fatigue. It's ultimately your own standards that must be met here.

Our daily efforts are being pushed to a high point, a peak moment, and as we coast over the Full Moon hump, we should start to see some concrete results from systematic hard work. The refining and improving and streamlining we've done starts to come together into a fully-operational whole system, and we're relieved of some of the most painstaking detail work as things start to gel a little.

Conversely, if people have already been coasting and letting details slide, now is a time when daily operations could get very glitchy, becoming severe pains in their asses. IE. chaos prevails

Virgo is a sign that knows the benefits of maintenance as well as the pitfalls of letting that maintenance slide. It also knows how very much the small details matter in the operation of the whole system. If there are long-term flaws in the system or areas of neglect, full-on breakdowns could occur under the pressures indicated by these aspects.

The dispositor of the Virgo Full Moon is messenger planet Mercury in Pisces. Mercury is currently in the sign of its fall and will be in exact square to Saturn in Sagittarius at the time of the Virgo Full Moon on March 12.

The Sun-Mercury-Pallas Athene-Chiron in Pisces will be opposite the Virgo Moon, and all those bodies will be in square aspect to Saturn in Sagittarius, forming a massive mutable t-square. Changeable, changeable, changeable. Things will be coming apart at the seams a little ahead of new order, so stay flexible under the lunar madness...

Damnnnnn, all the Pisces in the astro atmosphere at the moment can be draining.

This is especially the case with the communicator planet in the sign of its fall (not its preferred territory), and even more so the case with the communicator planet in the sign of its fall in tight square aspect to seeming slave-driver Saturn.

We're really being hammered on all those fine details at the moment, battling the slippery-slidey material reality that is prevalent under a strong Pisces contingent. But never fear: the job is done just as we hit our exhaustion point.

Hold yourself to your own high standards, but don't expect perfection under this glut of Pisces within mutable t-square. It's even more apparent than usual that the universe has a will of its own and is apt to throw a monkey wrench or two into the works for its own mysterious reasons. The concrete systems and processes and perfectionism of Virgo must also allow a crack or two to let in the magic and mystery and meandering workings of spirit.

So focus on making loving corrections when necessary rather than demanding perfection as we keep this train on track, and maintain a sense of humour and good will about the mysterious monkey wrenches that are beyond our control.

Most people are doing the best they can under aspects that indicate some level of struggle and challenge for everyone. Help people to do better if you are able. Let others suffer the inevitable consequences of their own shoddy work/efforts. But don't nitpick on every little detail, and don't demand utter perfection under the current astro conditions unless you are a big fan of disappointment!

Stay flexible, and make adjustments and corrections on your end whenever possible to flow through this mutable t-square Virgo Full Moon. 

Mercury enters Aries on March 13 (2:07 p.m. PDT), and that fiery placement starts to dry us out from some of the Piscean sog as we look actively toward spring in the northern hemisphere.  

Mercury and Venus in Mutual Reception Bring the "Partnership Tune-up" Zone

Don't kiss any frogs during Venus in Virgo! (Unless it's a cute one like this.)

Photos: Willow

OK, busy beavers! Virgo season is in full swing, the time of year when we work to put everything in order, preparing - in the northern hemisphere at least - for the fall and winter ahead.

Virgo is associated with maintenance, work, projects, jobs, planning, and taking care of practical details that have fallen by the wayside. When the Sun moves into Virgo each year, we technically have another month of summer to enjoy, but with school starting, vacations ending, and the hot weather starting to cool, Virgo season brings a new seriousness and a practical, no-nonsense focus along with the chill in the air.

There's a lot to do, a lot to tune up, a lot to make orderly and functional - and we know it. If we let things slide now, we could be caught unprepared for the long, cold winter ahead - literal or figurative.

Virgo's ruling planet, messenger Mercury, has just entered Libra, the sign of relationship, beauty, and balance, for a transit that will last until September 27. Relationships and social themes are on people's minds, and thinking is geared more strongly to "we" than to "me." 

On September 5 (11:07 a.m. CST), Venus, the planet associated with love, beauty, money, and relationships, moves into crisp, clean Virgo for a transit that will last until September 29.

This means Mercury and Venus are in mutual reception from September 5 until September 27 with each planet transiting the sign ruled by the other.

So what does that mean?

It means that September 5 through 27 is a great time for relationship tune-ups of all kinds! We're applying the analytical and critiquing skills of Virgo to our relationships, determining areas that could use a little work, and we're also going over our own qualifications as "relationship partner" with a Virgoan fine-toothed comb.

September is a great month to hone in on the specific qualities we require in potential partners, friends, and business associates. It's also a good time to determine the qualities, habits, and lifestyles we simply cannot accept in the people around us.

With a strong Virgo influence, especially Venus in Virgo, we can be negatively affected by the habits and character weakness of the people we bring into our lives. Only the tightest of standards apply for potential candidates when Venus is transiting Virgo.

This month is a good time to "clean up" our relationships, setting things straight and setting things right, while actively addressing any problem areas.

But it's also a good time to determine how we stack up on the partnership front.

There is a lot of focus these days on "getting the type of partner and relationship you want," but there must be an equal amount of focus on being the type of partner we truly wish to be, and this is especially the case when Venus is transiting Virgo. 

Virgo is a sign associated with the quest for perfection, particularly the perfection of self through plain, old hard work and service. 

Relationship planet Venus transiting Virgo, as it will be September 5 to 29, has an associated theme of hard work and personal development in order to be the best possible partner we can be within the best possible relationships.

So already-existing relationships get a tune-up September 5 - 29, but we are also looking at areas that we could strengthen and improve personally in order to be better partners or to attract better partnerships.

Virgo is quite a no-nonsense sign, and it is generally very active and hard-working. It wants to identify a problem and then work to fix that problem as soon as possible.

So you could spend this transit of Venus in Virgo whinging and moaning about your faulty relationship or your chronic lonely-hearted single status. (This will be a particular temptation as Venus opposes wounded healer Chiron Rx in Pisces September 16 - 18.) But a far better use of this time is to actively work toward any improvements that are within your power, as well as fuller health and function, in general, whether in a relationship or out.

Are you moping around, letting your interests and life languish, as you wait for someone to notice you? Are you slacking off on hygiene, nutrition, or exercise because you think there's no one around to impress? Are you indulging in bad habits (including self-pity parties) because you figure, what's the point anymore?

That ain't the move.

There are some simple and specific things we can do to improve our partnership potential this September. These involve cleanliness, organization, and improved maintenance of body, home, and vehicle, trimming all fat. They involve improvements to mental health and overall perspective and outlook (again, Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the planet associated with the mind). This also involves getting away from a detrimental focus on our own personal problems (including relationship problems or being single), and one of the best ways to do that is by helping others.

What could be more attractive than someone who is helpful to others? Not much when Venus is transiting Virgo.

Now is the time to spruce things up and to make sure you are proud of yourself in every way as a potential partner. Pick up some new skills or hone existing skills that would make you even better.

The search for love and the search for improved relationships of all kinds is active this September. Limit your moping, and hold off on the self-pity parties, especially under the Chiron in Pisces influence.

Work hard and kick butt under this Mercury-Venus mutual reception, and all you practical, no-nonsense lovers out there will find yourselves in better position as the month comes to a close.

Mars Retrograde in Virgo and the Active Re-Organizing Principle Comes Out in Full Force January 23 - April 13, 2012

Mars' forward motion in Virgo grinds to a halt today at 23 degrees of the sign (6:54 p.m. Central) as we unfold into the Aquarius New Moon. The planet of action, will, aggression, and goals will be retrograde until April 13, when it turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo. 

With this almost three-month retrograde, an active re-organizing principle comes into full force in our lives, re-directing us and making necessary adjustments down to the very last detail as we start to exist under the astrological Aquarian era classification system. This transit addresses dysfunction, and it indicates a breaking point, an official "had enough" point, for workers (Virgo), particularly healthcare and service workers. 

Mars in Virgo is inflaming all the issues and dysfunction that should have been addressed but were not addressed during Saturn's transit of Virgo (2007-2010). This Mars transit is a breaking point and a precise re-direction of the efforts of workers within (or out of) criminally corrupt and unresponsive Pluto in Capricorn structures. This includes workers both un- and under-employed (numbering in the hundreds of millions in North America alone) as well as those fully employed within systems intentionally designed to fail. 

There are not many workers unaware of the problems at this point. Those attempting to reinforce and gloss over the dysfunction rather than working to change it are the owners, the CEOs, the upper management. Those are not the people slogging it out, doing the real work. 

The real workers know the score, and, coming out of the momentum-building Occupy Movement, they hold a huge amount of collective power at this time in human history. 

With this Mars transit, if we're lucky, the workers of the world are infused with the guts, the courage, the grit, and the will to stand up and say enough is enough. With this transit, the workers of the world can be infused with enough bad ass Martian energy and rock-solid organization (with the Virgoan intelligence to use them) that they'll never back down again. They'll refuse to bow to the fears instilled by the hierarchies, refuse to allow themselves to drop, silent and passive, under collective Neptunian amnesia and anesthesia. My hand on my heart, I pray this is the scene. 

This Mars transit through Virgo activates the Pluto in Virgo generation in a big way, and the momentum starts to catch for a grand-scale generational power shift. 

Very fundamentally, this Mars in Virgo transit relates to how we apply (or refuse to apply) our physical energy and what we serve or support with that application of energy. This takes on particular importance within the context of rampant structural criminality, moral if not legal. 

From a previous post during Saturn in Virgo: 

"Don’t participate in things that are not acceptable to you. Don’t put your personal energy into things that lack integrity to you. Make your service to the planet a sacred thing and answer to a higher power than the business/money hierarchy. Answer to yourself." 

Virgo is most often about skimming off the unnecessary in order to increase function, and this transit will have us applying ourselves only in the most vital of directions. All the Virgoan territory comes under a state of intense analysis, scrutiny, and precise re-direction, particularly in the areas associated with the house in which Virgo resides in your astrological birth chart. 

As Mars Rx in Virgo forms an opposition to the Pisces Sun at 13 degrees on March 3, the previous two-year cycle of goals, will, and personal direction under the Mars in Leo overlay officially draws to a close. 

New, more practical, effective, and precise goals as well as the uses of will to achieve them start to unfold as Mars goes direct this April. 

As long as we accept and apply the re-direction, these new goals and directions are infused with great and grounding staying power from an exact Grand Earth Trine March 12-15 involving Venus-Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn, all at 9 degrees of the earth signs. This is big, collective gears shifting and wheels turning. 

Mars has been transiting Virgo since November 10, 2011 and will not ingress Libra until July 3, 2012, after the Venus Transit and the first exact square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn June 24. This means we have almost eight months to go over things with a Virgoan fine-toothed comb, precisely re-directing ourselves through this three-month retrograde us as we enter the new and active duty indicated by this transit. 

From November 13, 2011: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines  

November 10, 2011 - Mars enters Virgo 

November 18, 2011 - Mars enters the retrograde shadow 

January 23, 2012 - Mars goes retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo 

April 13, 2012 - Mars turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo 

June 19, 2012 - Mars leaves the retrograde shadow 

July 3, 2012 - Mars enters Libra 

The Mars transit and retrograde through Virgo involves an eight-month period of mutable, transitional energy that requires our precise and active participation to direct, re-direct, adjust, and re-adjust our courses. Throughout this time, we'll be directed down only the most pertinent and effective channels in our lives, honing and refining our courses and withdrawing personal energy from anything that is not necessary, valuable, or vital moving forward. This process is happening, specifically, in the house or houses where Virgo falls in your natal chart. That's the area where things need to be tightened. 

Virgo is one of the quieter placements for Mars. Mars is active here but only in the ways that count. No excess of motion, exertion, words, mental function, or use of will. Small movements, adjustments, and re-direction have big effect, and temperance rules, as too much effort in one direction results only in energy expended for self-correction. 

The energy on the planet will be getting very bizarre and out of control at times over the next years, and things can really go haywire if we allow them to. This is why we need the Virgoan qualities applied through the iron will of Mars to set our courses now, doing battle on the fine points. 

If we're oh-so-careful and diligent, smoothing every screwy detail, critiquing every glowing illusion, attending to every nagging issue, we set a tone with this retrograde that can keep us grounded and out of the worst of the hyped baloney and utter bullshit being amped up on this planet. 

Clean, crisp, clear. 

In Virgo, every detail matters. 

Virgo is a sign that needs things to be just right, and with Mars here, we're going to have to take it personally when they aren't. If it hits our ears as incorrect, it's rejected, no matter how many people are saying it, doing it, or believing it. Anyone trying to fill our minds, bodies, societies, or environments with useless crap is viewed as an enemy of our health. 

Enemies of our health. There are many. 

Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition. 

Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing. 

Mars is a hard-ass in Virgo, and with good reason. Even things touted as healthful should be gone over with a fine-toothed comb. With Virgo, less is more. Be careful what you add to your life and to your system. In most cases, Virgo is about what needs to be taken away. 

There is a sexual element (Mars) to health (Virgo) here. A more precise application of sexual energy is required. A new understanding of the effects of sexual activity on health and on the surrounding energetic environment as a whole comes about here. 

The "too much, too fast, too soon" sexual ethic constantly shoved down our throats is rejected by those who use this transit well, and the application of sexuality is streamlined with a new awareness and focus on the health of the individual, the partner, the relationship, the immediate social groups and society, and the spirit, in general. 

There's a re-wiring of attractions and sexual habits here, a clarification, and a removal of toxic sexual connections. Holistic sexual health. 

Our work is infused with a necessary level of fight during this transit. We fight to overcome the redundancy, uselessness, and listlessness forced upon so many through mass institutionalized unemployment, underemployment, and lack of meaningful paid employment. 

Charting the course for the next two years correctly requires our absolute focus over the next eight months. Mars entering Virgo sets off a grand earth trine with Jupiter Rx in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn that will be in effect most strongly November 16-23. Mars retrogrades back into this grand earth trine in March when the configuration will be exact. 

Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn will be exactly trine each other at 9 degrees of the earth signs from March 12-15, 2012. 

Mars in Virgo will trine Pluto in Capricorn one last time May 15-17, 2012 with Mars moving direct. At that time, Jupiter in Taurus will be out of range. 

Needless to say, within these grand earth trines, the application of specific choices and actions - including what we choose not to do or say - has big ripple effects, creating real, concrete, structural changes. 

Additional articles on the Mars in Virgo Rx transit:  

Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

An explanation of two-year Mars cycles and the Mars in Leo cycle officially drawing to a close: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free

Today is the two-year anniversary of me being poisoned by the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. It's also my Sagittarius Sun mother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Ma!). For those who have only recently started reading this blog, you can catch up on the evil that are Cipro, fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and Nazi (literally) pharmaceuticals companies by clicking here: Cipro is evil. 

My system was devastated by this drug, erroneously prescribed for a very mild urinary tract infection that I'm not even sure at this point I really had. I took three little pills, and I've been working through a recovery process from complete systemic and neurological poisoning ever since. 

Cipro was originally developed by Big Pharma corporation and agribusiness GMO-pusher Bayer to ward off anthrax attacks. Bayer has a long history with the military industrial complex and was once part of IG Farben in Nazi Germany. Cipro was given to many Gulf War soldiers and is considered by some to be one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome. 

Once the anthrax scare was over, Cipro was re-purposed as a cure-all for a variety of fairly minor infections, including urinary tract and prostatitis. Cipro is a drug with such severe potential adverse reactions (including death) that it should only be prescribed when death by infection is the other option. All less dangerous antibiotics, outside the fluoroquinolone family, should be tried first. Instead, fluoroquinolones like Cipro are being handed out like Chicklets as first-line antibiotics by doctors ignorant of the potential side effects. Most doctors do not believe the types of adverse reactions involved are even possible. None of the doctors I saw believed me when I recounted the severity of what I was experiencing. 

They should take a look at some of the stories here: FQvictims.org. 

Or on a number of other internet sites devoted to the subject. 

Unfortunately, expecting most mainstream medical doctors to do any independent research is sort of like expecting the audience of Jersey Shore to do so. 

Though I'm night-and-day better now, two years in, I'm still in a recovery process, managing residual effects, and probably will be for a while longer. 

My situation is, of course, only the tip of the tip of the Plutonic iceberg. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of people have experienced and are experiencing horrific reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics - many much worse than my own. 

But even that doesn't tell the tale. 

In the United States alone, more than 2 million people have adverse drug reactions every year. Of those, 1.5 million cases require hospitalization. A low-end estimate is that 100,000 people die every year from adverse drug reactions in the U. S., making adverse drug reactions one of the leading causes of death. These statistics are old, and the numbers have surely increased as the manufacturing of drugs, their prescription, and sales have increased. 

There's an idea that adverse drug reactions are quite rare (false) and that the effects of them are fairly short-lived (often also false). People can struggle with the damage from these reactions for years, decades, their entire lives. 

There is a culture of denial, cover-up, irresponsibility, and greed in the big pharmaceuticals industry that, with Pluto transiting Capricorn, must be addressed layer by layer. 

I was careful about what I put in or near my system before Cipro, but after Cipro, it went to whole new level. A level to which only Pluto can take you. 

As Mars transits Virgo for the next eight months, the removal of anything taxing our systems unnecessarily is in our best interests. 

From November 13, 2011: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines 

"Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. 

There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition. Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. 

This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing." 

Part of this battle is the limiting of exposure to household chemicals and toxins. These are things we're around daily or weekly, including perfumes, dyes, air fresheners, and household cleaners, and they often go unrecognized. 

 Mars in Virgo and Going Scent-Free 

These are some products I use personally that have helped. I found some of them on Amazon where you can buy bulk amounts for discounted prices and set up a group of them here:  

Alberta Natural Products Simply Soap:

This is a natural, unscented bar soap made in Calgary, Alberta that is affordable enough to use every day. I love it. You can purchase packs of six bars ($11.95 plus shipping) from a company called Global A.P.E. in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada. Telephone number: (403) 948-6928 - 

Puraderm: 

This company produces an unscented, hypo-allergenic laundry detergent I use. 

Dr. Bronner's Unscented Castille Soap: 

This stuff is magically great. It can be used to wash dry and sensitive scalps, and it doesn't leave an oily residue on your hair, as I've found most natural shampoos do. It can be used as soap for your body, as household cleaner, as laundry detergent - pretty much anything you need to clean can be cleaned with this. Just don't get it in your eyes or swallow it. It's really potent! 

Tom's of Maine unscented deodorant: 

As long as your pH is fairly balanced, and you're drinking enough water, this stuff works great. I sometimes layer the lemongrass scent over top if I'm going to have a strenuous day, but the lemongrass variety is too harsh for me to use alone - just a tip for people with really sensitive skin.

Natracare feminine hygiene products: 

Did you know that conventional feminine hygiene products are full of oil derivatives? Yep. Crude oil plastics as well as petrochemical coatings. Conventional products also contain chlorine from the bleaching process, synthetic materials, as well as unnecessary chemical additives and often perfumes. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of putting petrochemicals, chlorine, synthetic materials, or perfume down there. Natracare pads and tampons are non-chlorine bleached, perfume-free, plastic-free, and biodegradable. They also use organic cotton, reducing exposure to chemicals used on conventional cotton crops.  

Lunapads: These pads are cloth with liners that are washed and reused. They can also be used for light incontinence. This company comes from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and I can recommend it because I use the products. Other companies out there with similar products include GladRags and WillowPads.  

Green Beaver fluoride-free toothpaste: 

Fluoride is a toxic chemical, a derivative of aluminum processing. It should not be in our water, our medicine, or our toothpaste. Frosty Mint is the one I'd recommend. It doesn't get sudsy the way the major fluoride toothpastes do, but that's because there are no chemical sudsing agents involved. A good thing. 

Natural Urinary Tract Infection Remedies - Uva Ursi: 

This herb acts a diuretic and helps to bring things back to a state of health.  

Traditional Medicinals Cran-Aid tea: 

contains cranberry concentrate, uva ursi leaf, cleavers herb, and marshmallow root. This acts as a diuretic to flush bacteria out of the system and is best taken as soon as you start to experience the first symptoms.  

Cranberry pills: 

Cranberry pills have been found to help ward off urinary tract infections before they start. Preventative.

Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots

Warning: This article contains an extraordinary number of occurrences of the word "shit" as well as derivatives of the word "shit." Proceed only if scatological references in relation to human behaviour do not offend.

Venus is conjunct Pluto today, and the eliminatory function (Pluto) in matters of relating (Venus) is strong. The Moon is also in Pisces opposing Mars in Virgo, so let's roll with it, shall we?

From the Venus-Saturn mutual reception post:

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

In the sign opposite Pisces, this especially relates to having your Neptunian/Piscean/12th house shit together, and at the end of the astrological Piscean era, this is a tall order for a lot of people.

Mars began its transit of Virgo opposite Neptune and Chiron, and the successful use of this transit means, in particular, identifying, analyzing, and removing the influence of wounded and wounding Piscean/Neptunian shitbag behaviours. This is of particular emphasis for anyone experiencing a Chiron return in Pisces.

I saw the 2008 film The Wrestler a few weeks ago, and the main character in the film illustrated the Piscean/Neptunian shitbag quite well. You know the kind.

It's a person who, on one hand, is deeply wonderful, gentle, compassionate, loving, sensitive, human, spiritually-aware - a person who can feel oh-so-good to be around, who has so much potential! This is a person who seems to know you on a special level, who can touch your heart in profound ways.

And then, on the other hand, the person's a shitbag.

The guy in the movie was an aging professional wrestler who was in many respects a lovely man. He was funny, giving, compassionate, a real mentor for up-and-coming wrestlers. He was exciting, sexy, interesting, and he could waltz.

He was also a shitbag. He abandoned his daughter when she was little, preferring to immerse himself in the cheering crowds and artificial (highly Neptunian) world of professional wrestling. He spent his money on alcohol, drugs, and lap dances, screwing random women still hot for his fading star. He lived in past glory, trying to outrun the requirements of the present. He made promises he didn't keep. He let people down. When the going got tough, he cut and ran, taking the easy way out and slipping out of his responsibilities.

The reality didn't live up to the hype - a big Neptune theme.

We've all seen or experienced Neptune at work in relationship. ("But I loooove him!") Neptune glosses over all the shitbag behaviours, leaving only the wonderful. If Neptune is strong enough, it's as if the shitbag behaviours don't even exist. They're invisible, dimmed dramatically by the shining, glowing, rosy light of the wonderful qualities Neptune insists are the whole story.

The shitbag behaviours are skimmed over and forgiven almost immediately, without holding the individual accountable, and nothing changes. It's the same cycle over and over again: shitbag behaviour, disappointment and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with Neptunian love; shitbag behaviour, disappointment and hurt, forgiveness, being awash with Neptunian love...

The damage keeps being done, keeps accumulating, and Neptune keeps covering it all over, focusing only on the lovey dovey goodness.

Until the point comes where enough is enough, and the cycle absolutely has to be broken. It takes a while to get there, but this is where we are now.

There are many deeply-ingrained Piscean era cycles to be, once and for all, broken, cleaned up, and transitioned out of as Mars moves through the eight-month transit in Virgo, and they're holding on with a great deal of subtlety and tenacity.

This isn't just straight-up, easily identifiable Neptunian shitbag we're dealing with here, as in The Wrestler. This is immersed into the scene, woven into the energetic fabric. This is a multitude of subtle variations. This is even just the energetic impression of shitbag with little to no identifiable behaviour.

The Neptunian gloss is potent stuff, crystallized and unquestioned in many cases. People have been getting away with this stuff for a good long while.

Mars in Virgo has its work cut out for it, but it's on the case like a dog on a bone until the beginning of July 2012, carrying us right through the Venus Transit.

If we assist it, Mars in Virgo will cut through the gloss in a valiant attempt to address fatal character flaws and make things right through and through. Virgo relates to personal development, and Mars does battle on the fine points here.

Those who don't have it together at this point are going to have to get on it right quick if they would like to be, in any way, considered a hot commodity over the next eight months - and to a great extent, over the next two years.

For a little helpful guidance on this front, here are some Mars in Virgo HOT or NOTS:

HOT: A person who will defer sex until the right time and the right conditions out of respect for the health and well-being of both parties.

NOT HOT: Someone slobbering in your ear and getting all hot and bothered when you're basically still at handshake stage.

HOT: A person who puts effort into learning the details about you, what you like and don't like, and then applies it precisely.

NOT HOT: Discovering someone you've been dating for weeks can't pronounce your last name correctly.

HOT: People who run their lives like well-oiled machines who would be scandalized if they bounced a cheque.

NOT HOT: Flaky, floaty, space cadets who routinely bounce cheques (if they even have a bank account) and live in a state of constant chaos that spills over into the lives of other people.

HOT: Finding a new boyfriend or girlfriend with carefully cultivated associations and influences who has no problem weeding out detrimental ones. This person has been anticipating you and has created a place that is just right for you in his/her life.

NOT HOT: Discovering your new boyfriend comes with a string of: old exes who call regularly in some variety of life crisis, hard-up buddies looking for a place to crash, down-and-out family members asking for money, slightly obsessive old flames who still have a thing for him, and various shady types always involved in some type of not-quite-above-board situation, bringing you into contact with people you would choose not to be around otherwise. Discovering the place he has created for you is a dirty mattress on the unwashed floor that you have to share with the sleeping-it-off ex-girlfriend of his high school best friend.

HOT: Someone who shows his desire for you by keeping bills up to date, dishes washed, floors vacuumed, and laundry folded, thereby removing stressors so energy can be directed into more *ahem* extracurricular-type activities.

NOT HOT: Someone who forgets his wallet at home, leaves dirty dishes strewn around, and thinks the hamper is wherever his clothes happen to fall. I know a few slobs, and I love them, but I'm here to advise that slobbing is NOT HOT under Mars in Virgo.

HOT: Moderation, temperance, practicality, humility, modesty, earthiness, focused drive and self-direction, attention to detail, awareness of the fine points.

NOT HOT: Escapism, substance abuse, chaos, pie-in-the-sky ideas, ineffectiveness, weak will, scattered energies, being excessively impressionable and easily led astray, allowing oneself to be tossed around by the circumstances of the day.

HOT: Living simply and within one's means.

NOT HOT: Financial over-extension, frivolity, living on (bad) credit.

HOT: A person who has developed a level of self-control and self-mastery.

NOT HOT: Someone looking to be taken care of.

HOT: Taking full responsibility for half-assed behaviour, rectifying it immediately.

NOT HOT: Making vague, weaselly excuses for half-assed behaviour and then continuing it.

HOT: Saying you're going to do something and doing it, on time.

NOT HOT: Saying you're going to do something but then consulting your psychic who tells you not to do it unless six particular signs as well as a white eagle's feather show up within fourteen days. Staying in a state of "tortured" limbo for months, hashing it over ad nauseum with every person you know to the point that people start avoiding your ass.

If you recognize yourself on the NOT HOT list, never fear. You have eight full months to move yourself onto the HOT list. And if you recognize yourself on the HOT list, congratulations. Get ready to be a hot commodity.

This post is fun and games (sort of), but if we don't get on top of the Neptunian/Piscean/12th house stuff over the next eight months, it really won't be all fun and games.

Chiron transits Pisces until February 2019, and Neptune transits Pisces until January 2026. Chiron in Pisces indicates that every missed leak, every clouded blind spot, every unconsious or semi-conscious acceptance of what is unacceptable in our lives has the possibility of doing us in in a big way over the next seven years. These are major possibilities for self-sabotage as well as for sabotage by others who turn out to be not who they seem.

If you don't want the next seven years to be one of those blanked-out, do-over stretches of life where you're overrun and turned into that sillier, dopier, more naive version of yourself (the Neptunian "What Was I Thinking?" Syndrome), focus on clearing everything you can up now.

Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines

November 10, 2011 - Mars enters Virgo
November 18, 2011 - Mars enters the retrograde shadow
January 23, 2012 - Mars goes retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo
April 13, 2012 - Mars turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo
June 19, 2012 - Mars leaves the retrograde shadow
July 3, 2012 - Mars enters Libra

The Mars transit and retrograde through Virgo involves an eight-month period of mutable, transitional energy that requires our precise and active participation to direct, re-direct, adjust, and re-adjust our courses. Throughout this time, we'll be directed down only the most pertinent and effective channels in our lives, honing and refining our courses and withdrawing personal energy from anything that is not necessary, valuable, or vital moving forward. This process is happening, specifically, in the house or houses where Virgo falls in your natal chart. That's the area where things need to be tightened.

Virgo is one of the quieter placements for Mars. Mars is active here but only in the ways that count. No excess of motion, exertion, words, mental function, or use of will. Small movements, adjustments, and re-direction have big effect, and temperance rules, as too much effort in one direction results only in energy expended for self-correction.

The energy on the planet will be getting very bizarre and out of control at times over the next years, and things can really go haywire if we allow them to. This is why we need the Virgoan qualities applied through the iron will of Mars to set our courses now, doing battle on the fine points.

If we're oh-so-careful and diligent, smoothing every screwy detail, critiquing every glowing illusion, attending to every nagging issue, we set a tone with this retrograde that can keep us grounded and out of the worst of the hyped baloney and utter bullshit being amped up on this planet.

Clean, crisp, clear. In Virgo, every detail matters. Virgo is a sign that needs things to be just right, and with Mars here, we're going to have to take it personally when they aren't.

If it hits our ears as incorrect, it's rejected, no matter how many people are saying it, doing it, or believing it. Anyone trying to fill our minds, bodies, societies, or environments with useless crap is viewed as an enemy of our health.

Enemies of our health. There are many. Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition.

Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing.

Mars is a hard-ass in Virgo, and with good reason.

Even things touted as healthful should be gone over with a fine-toothed comb. With Virgo, less is more. Be careful what you add to your life and to your system. In most cases, Virgo is about what needs to be taken away.

There is a sexual element (Mars) to health (Virgo) here. A more precise application of sexual energy is required. A new understanding of the effects of sexual activity on health and on the surrounding energetic environment as a whole comes about here. The "too much, too fast, too soon" sexual ethic constantly shoved down our throats is rejected by those who use this transit well, and the application of sexuality is streamlined with a new awareness and focus on the health of the individual, the partner, the relationship, the immediate social groups and society, and the spirit, in general. There's a re-wiring of attractions and sexual habits here, a clarification, and a removal of toxic sexual connections. Holistic sexual health.

Our work is infused with a necessary level of fight during this transit. We fight to overcome the redundancy, uselessness, and listlessness forced upon so many through mass institutionalized unemployment, underemployment, and lack of meaningful paid employment.

Charting the course for the next two years correctly requires our absolute focus over the next eight months.

Mars entering Virgo sets off a grand earth trine with Jupiter Rx in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn that will be in effect most strongly November 16-23.

Mars retrogrades back into this grand earth trine in March when the configuration will be exact. Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn will be exactly trine each other at 9 degrees of the earth signs from March 12-15, 2012.

Mars in Virgo will trine Pluto in Capricorn one last time May 15-17, 2012 with Mars moving direct. At that time, Jupiter in Taurus will be out of range.

Needless to say, within these grand earth trines, the application of specific choices and actions - including what we choose not to do or say - has big ripple effects, creating real, concrete, structural changes.

Previous post on Mars in Virgo retrograde from August 29, 2011: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

We unfold into the New Moon in Virgo today and specific new work/service assignments begin to be defined ahead of the Mars retrograde in Virgo. You know the kind. This is "my purpose and role on the planet at this time" type stuff, with work (hopefully) acting as a vehicle for that. 

These newly defined assignments coming into play could be completely new gigs or they could be the refining and clarification of roles within old work arenas. In light of the current circumstances on Planet Earth, Mars, the planet of personal will, goals, direction, and physical energy, will be re-directing us down only the most crisply effective channels during its almost eight-month transit of the sign of virginal purity. 

And in light of the monstrous levels of unemployment and underemployment that have been purposefully and systemically created, this retrograde is about the fight (Mars) to remain engaged in one's life's work or any work at all (Virgo) at a time when people (at least the people who are not on the top rungs of the socio-economic pyramid scheme) are being treated as if redundant. 

We're not redundant. We're the most potent, influential, rock-and-roll force there is. And this retrograde asks us to stand up and prove it by being the most effective, the most useful, the most thorough, the most practical, the most down-to-earth, the most organized we can be. 

The splashy, fiery, everyone's-an-artisan Mars in Leo overlay, kicked off almost two years ago during the Mars in Leo retrograde in winter of 2010, quiets and draws to a close. 

In order to achieve our goals now, we have to practically and effectively apply the creative fire we've spent two years blazing in ways that hit just the right spots to fix, straighten out, heal, clean, clear whatever fucked up mess we find before us. It's hardcore, warrior holism, and at this time on Planet Earth, we have lots to work with. 

This is the fight (Mars) to heal (Virgo) and to stay healthy, to maintain health as Fukushima spews, as our environments are poisoned physically, emotionally, psychically, electromagnetically all around us, as we are manipulated by those who profit from us being unintegrated, toxic, unbalanced, disconnected, dysfunctional. 

During this Mars transit of Virgo, we address all that, right down to the teeny tiniest detail. 

Mars will transit Virgo for almost eight months - from November 10, 2011 until July 3, 2012. It will be retrograde from January 24 to April 14, 2012 - prime re-direction processing time. 

Just before, as Mars transits Leo (September 18 to November 10), the creative fire in our hearts becomes concentrated. The big, blazing, dancing flames die down, and we start to work with the distilled, with the quietly glowing embers that, despite appearance, are the smoking hottest, the most alchemical, the most transforming. The most pure. This is what Virgo can work with. The pure. And if it's not, it'll carve it down until it is pure. 

This is what Mars in Virgo is after: right action. Only the right action. Just the right touch, the right word, the right angle, the right analysis, the right effort, the right medicine. Smooth, flowing functionality. Work that is a natural extension of self. Work that is self. Nothing more, nothing less. 

There's a re-direction and a restraint in application of our physical energy with this retrograde that stills the over-the-top showiness, the grandiosity, the tendencies to self-promotion of Mars in Leo. 

You know what, Mars in Virgo asks? Who gives a shit? Who gives a shit about your fashion statements or who your influences are or how much of an ego-pampered pretty, pretty peacock you are? 

Virgo is the sign that gets things done utilitarian-style, no frills, no hoopla, no ego stroking. It separates the coddled artistes from the people who can really play ball. And when war planet Mars comes to town amidst initiations of World War III, it doesn't give a shit about your artist's statement or how many magazine interviews you've done or who you had dinner with last night or your greatest fucking hits. 

If you can't break out of the self-flagellating ego bubble and hit the most pertinent marks just because 1) they're there and need to be hit and 2) you just might have the means to do so, you're excess, and Virgo has very little tolerance for excess. 

Be of use in the most practical, immediately necessary ways and flow with that shit like it's a second skin or you're really not hitting the heights you think you are. 

Pretty hardcore, that Mars in Virgo. Demanding standards. But there's the gauntlet as it is about to be thrown... 

Mars in Virgo touches this New Moon point at 5 degrees Virgo November 20-22, and we officially begin. 

Mars enters its retrograde shadow November 18 at 3 degrees, and we start to get an understanding of what will be sanded down, honed, sharpened for efficacy in our lives and selves during the retrograde process. 

Mars stations retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo January 23, and it stations direct at 3 degrees Virgo April 13, 2012. 

It leaves the retrograde shadow at 23 degrees Virgo on June 19, 2012 and enters Libra July 3, finally conjuncting Saturn in Libra August 14/15, 2012.

Entering 48 Hours of Wayyyy Too Much Virgo

...in light of the fact that we have just spent the past 2.5 arduous years with Saturn in Virgo, that is.

Despite now being locked into pressurizing, constricting and stressing cardinal t-square energy, Saturn trudging its way out of Virgo and into Libra last Wednesday was still very welcome news for most.

But now we've got the personal planets and an asteroid travelling through Saturn's wake - Mars, Venus, Vesta and, starting tomorrow, Mercury are all in the sign of the virgin. Merc will retrograde in this sign, also - August 20 - September 12. We're in the degrees of its retrograde shadow by August 1. Try to complete as much as you can between now and then or you'll be going back over it.

This is way too much Virgo at this point. Seriously.

A quick aligning check to make sure we're personally working all those Virgo themes we've been hammered on.

Luckily, the way too much Virgo vibe lightens considerably when Mars enters Libra July 29 (5:46 p.m. MT).

If you can call an immediate Mars-Saturn conjunction and Mars-Uranus opposition lightening.

You know what? After my Saturn in Virgo experience, I can. I really can.