Sun in Gemini Heads to a Conjunction with the South Node: Lay Off the Mental Junk Food

The Sun is heading to a conjunction with Black Moon Lilith and the South Node of the Moon at 5 degrees Gemini (exact May 25 and strongly in effect into early June). This forms a square to Neptune in Pisces, and the combination of energies has a very odd and highly-charged effect on mental function, conversation, writing, and general communications.

It's hard to know what thoughts to express and what ones to let slip off into the ethers. Should I write it or shouldn't I write it? Should I say something or should I keep it zipped? There is a feeling of being mentally pulled in two or more directions, and this is taxing. Unwanted, invasive thoughts are a possibility with the Sun-Black Moon Lilith-South Node in Gemini square to Neptune in Pisces, and fending them off can be a drain.

All the mental stress can cause momentary blank-outs, so make the effort to keep yourself in the here and now, particulary while driving. As long as you're safe, you're free to ride the waves...

The Gemini Sun is also sextile Uranus in Aries (exact May 28), and this creates a sometimes overbearing manic charge with thoughts popping around in our brains like popcorn kernels, seeking an outlet.

Mercury is holding things somewhat steady at the tail-end of earthy Taurus, but the messenger planet moves into Gemini May 24, squaring Neptune, conjuncting the Sun, South Node, and Black Moon Lilith, and sextiling Uranus in Aries, and we're going to be fighting to maintain any sort of mental stability and calm. Keeping our thoughts from running us will be a challenge.

We've had a major influx of new Gemini energy - related to talking, thinking, writing, connecting, interacting, networking, zipping around in our local societies - with the New Moon eclipse on May 20, and that just gets more amped up with the Venus Transit June 5/6 and a second New Moon in the sign June 19.

With the influence of the South Node conjunct Black Moon Lilith, there are major pitfalls related to certain expressions of the sign of Gemini - in those very same arenas of talking, thinking, writing, connecting, interacting, bopping around in our neighbourhoods. We're impelled to make daily connections and to keep things mixing and moving with all the Gemini influence, but certain conversations are bound for unpleasant results, and certain connections should be skipped or discontinued altogether. Determining which is which will keep even the most Geminian soul busy these days.

Black Moon Lilith conjunct the South Node is almost overwhelmingly powerful into early June. People are itching for a tongue wag. There are conversations that need to be had and air that needs to be cleared, but words are highly charged, and letting slip momentarily with a pitch black piece of perspective or information - no matter how satisfying in the moment - can create huge, long-term ripple effects. We're no shrinking violets with all this BML, but it's wise to watch our tongues very carefully.

The internet, in particular, is a Gemini South Node quagmire. There are plenty of potential diversions and misdirections of mental/verbal energy that can come back on us in angsty, irritating, or draining ways.

The frenetic, constant communication, sound-bite versions of Gemini have been tamed to a certain extent by the North Node in Sagittarius/South Node in Gemini (March 3, 2011 - August 29, 2012). The huge glut of constantly updating information has been stemmed somewhat - or people have at least taken their leave of a lot of it. But there are still plenty of hot spot South Node draws in this arena. There are many places on the worldwide web we should just stay away from, many sources of information, entertainment, and perspective that are not good for us to be around - and for some, this blog may be one of them! But the South Node is like moth to flame, and it will be difficult to refuse old draws, old connections, old gossip, old society, old mental pathways.

A lot of the information out there is the equivalent of mental or verbal junk food, and with all the mental stress going on, we'll be tempted to gorge ourselves. There's nothing wrong with eating a bag of kettle chips once in a while - but this South Node is going to be tempting us to do it daily, and then add a Big Mac, fries, and milkshake to it.

This is the differentiation between information that nourishes and satisfies and the kind that leaves us empty, craving, looking for repeated fixes.

Being aware of mental addictions and information habits and managing them wisely keeps the balance with this nodal axis. Avoid conversations that go nowhere, and avoid the types of charged connections that lead to the magnetic quagmire zone.

Last Day of Taurus and the Behaviour of Bovines

Photo: Willow

Today is the last day of Taurus season with the Sun on the 29th (anaretic) degree, and we have a massive amount of Taurus energy in our zodiac. The Sun, Jupiter, Mercury, Ceres, Black Moon Lilith, Vesta, and the Moon are all currently in the fixed sign of the bull, though the emphasis starts breaking up a little tomorrow evening with the Gemini New Moon.

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

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

Photo: Willow

Understanding The Sign of Taurus Through the Characteristics of Cows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo: Willow

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

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

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

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

Jupiter transits Taurus from June 5, 2011 to June 11, 2012.

 

 

K-MOOOOOOOOO! I was chatting with Matt Savinar this past Thursday on his community radio show Ask the Astrologer on KOWS FM out of Occidental, California. You can check it out at Matt's site, North Bay Astrology. 

Two New Moons in Gemini and a Venus Transit Sandwiched Between: Entering a Whole New Context

The Sun and Moon form a conjunction in earliest Gemini on May 20, marking a zero degree Gemini New Moon. This is the first of two New Moons in the sign (the second falls at 28 degrees Gemini on June 19), putting a major focus on the sign of the twins over the next two months.

Venus has also just gone retrograde in Gemini (May 15). The Sun will move out of this New Moon and into an interior conjunction with Venus Rx on June 5. Venus will be at perigee at the time of this conjunction - at the closest point to Earth in its orbit. If you've gotten into all that SuperMoon hoopla, this would be like SuperVenus. Not only that, but we also experience a major astronomical/astrological event at that time referred to as the Venus Transit. SuperDuperVenus.

The Venus Transit is, in basic terms, an eclipse of the Sun by Venus during which we on Earth will be able to see Venus moving across the face of the Sun.

Venus Transits happen in pairs - the last one occurred in June 2004 - but it will take more than 100 years for this alignment of the Sun, Venus, and Earth to form again.

Wherever Gemini falls in your natal chart is an area that is absolutely ripe for new experiences, connections, and opportunities. There is a major backdrop change going on there, and in this area of life, in particular, you will be opening into an entirely new intellectual framework.

Gemini relates to: talking! It is a sign that strives, above all, to connect. It is the sign of gathering and passing on information, networking, socializing, telephoning, instant messaging, gossiping, and generally keeping society buzzing and humming. Coming out of this May and June, we're looking for new avenues for all those things.

Communication skills are increasingly prominent, as is interacting with people with whom you share a mutual understanding and intellectual rapport.

Booty-shaking compatibility might have been enough during the Venus in Scorpio relationship cycle (now being discharged), but it's not going to cut it under Venus in Gemini.

The double dose of New Moon energy in Gemini combined with the Venus retrograde and Venus Transit in Gemini indicate the making of powerful new connections this spring and summer, connections from the soul. Gemini is a sign that enjoys intellectual stimulation and rapport, and forming new relationships, as well as enhancing existing relationships, along these lines will be increasingly important. The isolation that has been so prominent for so many during the past years starts to be alleviated with all the Gemini emphasis.

Gemini is a sign related to context and the understanding of one's own context. It can be very challenging to keep up on this considering the times of exponential change through which we are living. With these New Moons and the Venus Transit sandwiched between, we burst forward into a new understanding of our own daily context and relevance. The connections being made and the information and perspectives cross-pollinating help to enhance this understanding, particularly of how we fit within local societies and neighborhoods.

New networks will be actively formed as we enter a vast new relationship cycle infused with the potency of the Venus Transit. Conditions are right for new connections, new societies, and new associations to get off the ground, though there is a focus on the immediate, the informal, and the less structured. In addition, with the influence of Uranus in Aries, it is only while being true to ourselves and our own perspectives right down to the last, rough edge that the society we keep will feel right. There is a strong and continuing requirement to determine karass from false karass.

Coming out of these New Moons, new mental circuitry finds connection points and starts to hum, old communication patterns are shed, and there is some natural social regrouping and re-organization as we move into new intellectual and societal frequencies. New society forms according to these frequencies and what hits our ears as exactly correct for the times.

This Gemini New Moon also kicks into high gear the major influx of mutable energy in the zodiac. As of May 20, we have officially entered two months of Mutable Madness when many of the personal planets, as well as Chiron and Neptune, are in mutable signs.

From a previous post:

"“Mutable” basically means “transitional,” and stakes are being pulled up on a number of fronts as we move through major transition this spring and early summer.

A predominance of mutable energy can create chaos, ineffectiveness, and confusion, and Mars will have its work cut out for it keeping things in some semblance of practical Virgoan order. Everyone will have to keep a close eye on anxiety and stress levels within this state of flux.

With this much mutable energy at play, the goals are to stay loose, stay fluid, stay adaptable, and keep making practical progress wherever and whenever you can. Things might not go as planned, but acting and reacting keenly to subtle changes from moment-to-moment keeps us in the game."

Falling between the two Gemini New Moons (on May 20 and June 19) is an equally potent Full Moon partial lunar eclipse in Sagittarius that happens June 4, just one day prior to the beginning of the Venus Transit.

At the time of the June 4 Full Moon eclipse, the Sun will be conjunct Venus Rx in Gemini, and both bodies will oppose the Moon in Sagittarius. Mars in Virgo will form a tight t-square with these bodies. Mercury will be in Gemini. The North Node will be in Sagittarius, and the South Node will be in Gemini. Chiron and Neptune will be in Pisces. This Full Moon brings the mutable, anything-can-happen energy to a fevered pitch, as every personal planet (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) will be in mutable signs, along with Chiron and Neptune.

The second Gemini New Moon June 19 is also blisteringly potent, falling just before the summer solstice when the Sun entering Cancer will form a cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Coming out of this second Gemini New Moon, we experience the solstice June 20, the first of seven exact Uranus-Pluto squares June 24, Saturn direct at 22 degrees Libra June 25, and Venus direct at 7 degrees Gemini June 27.

I don't think we could have a dull and uninteresting time over the next two months if we tried.

Mars in Virgo's Antiseptic Sting Opposite Chiron in Pisces

Mars in Virgo is opposite ouchy, ouchy Chiron in Pisces, and I'm re-posting excerpts of an article from February's Pisces New Moon, as the energetic themes apply.

Mars in Virgo is currently in the final Grand Earth Trine formation of its transit, along with Mercury in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn. This formation has been with us off and on since November 2011, and, though ultimately beneficial for accuracy, direction, positioning, and concrete progress, it has been quite heavy and arduous at times.

This formation completes and starts to loosen as of the final aspect - Mars trine Pluto - around mid-day on May 16.

If we use non-planet Chiron, its position in Pisces makes this Grand Earth Trine a kite, which means the wounded healer plays a pivotal role, and its often painful themes are stirred at this time.

We're at the end of the astrological Piscean era. The last puffs of old school Neptunian ether are tapering off, and we're being left with heavy doses of gravity and reality courtesy of Mercury, Mars, and Pluto in the earth signs. In many cases, this has meant a sharp, no-nonsense re-direction by Mars in Virgo coming out of its retrograde. The paring down to only the most necessary, effective, accurate, and concrete.

Old dreams are dissipating, though we may not notice until they're already gone.

Things longed for, hoped for, and secretly held dear have disappeared into the vapours.

We're left now with the solid, earth-based building materials on this planet. We're left with what's really going to happen. We're having to remake our dreams for an astrological Aquarian overlay without really knowing what that's going to mean.

Many of the things people had put their faith in have not come to pass. Many of the things people were led to believe have proven manipulative, diversionary, abusive, even criminal. Often, this has meant rapidly and painfully reformulating in whom and in what people have placed their faith.

The pain, the dangling carrots, and the wounding illusions of the entire astrological Piscean era are tied up in this Chiron placement, and Mars in Virgo is doing its utmost here to lead us out.

It's not comfortable, but it is effective, as long as we take our full dose of clarifying Mars in Virgo medicine.

We really are carving out a new expression for Pisces here, an expression of Pisces for the astrologicial Aquarian era. No one said it would be easy.

From February 18, 2012: New Moon in Pisces Conjunct Neptune, Pallas Athene, and Chiron: Carving Out Pisces for the Aquarian Era

"At the points where the burden of awareness has been too great, where we could not take another step under its paralyzing weight, we're released.

But we have to want it, and we have to be willing to go for it.

To survive emotionally and psychically now, knowing all we know, feeling all we feel, seeing all we see, we have to get out from under the most suffocating weight of it. The outpouring flow of the compassionate heart must be gently stemmed, moving into a place where to love and feel does not mean the sacrifice of personal health and safety.

Here, we step into a smart, new expression of Pisces, fully aware of the context of the times and of our context within them...

The transit and retrograde of Mars through Virgo...assist us in the process. We're picking through, analyzing, removing from the expression of the sign anything redundant, bloated, draining, past its prime. We apply the stinging Virgoan antiseptic, starting to create function in the sign of Pisces in areas where there has for too long been only dysfunction. We also apply the healing Piscean understanding of the way it all works together, of the ways it's shared, bringing new life to areas that have remained sorely isolated, neglected, outside the fold.

Wounded healer Chiron is here, and so is pain. A more in-depth treatment of this placement can be found here: Chiron, May We Pass? from February 18, 2011.

The intense levels of psychic pain held at this point in human history, collectively left denied and unvoiced, truly have the potential to do us in. The psychic backwash drops over us in waves, often without warning, threatening to drag us under. The homeless, the alcoholics, the addicts, the mentally ill, the depressed, the prostituted, the murdered, the missing are symbols of this unaddressed psychic pain and the resulting dysfunction, symptomatic of deeper roots. They've done all they can, said all they can, and still most don't see the connections.

It seeps into suburbia, into condo buildings, into schools and offices, and still people won't put their fingers on it.

Chiron transits Pisces until 2019. The first half of the Neptune transit through Pisces is coloured strongly by this body out in front in the sign.

"There is no easy answer, just as there was no easy answer for Chiron's wound. No magic pill makes it all better. We're past the point where concessions and tokenism soothe in any form. We don't want to be thrown another bone.

Until the underlying wounding dynamics are truly addressed, rectified, discontinued, no long-term healing is possible. We're just treating symptoms.

And the army of people bleating about victim consciousness and creating your own reality works very effectively, moving us further from the depth of understanding of power dynamics and structures on this planet that would get us to the true healing points. Every flippant use of those concepts is another pound of pressure pinning Sedna down, suffering in betrayal on the ocean floor."

Before forgiveness, we need to understand the underlying dynamics, give them name, give them voice, change them, ensure they don't continue.

Before healing, we need to get to the roots, working for complete systemic change rather than just anesthetizing, masking symptoms and calling it healing.

Before the victimization cycles can end, we need to understand why these damaging cycles have been held in place for so long and why they continue to be reinforced. Who benefits from them and who would prefer things go on just as they have? We don't get rid of "victims" until we alter the systems and dynamics that benefit from victimization, and that requires a shift from blaming people for their circumstances to a focus and analysis of the power dynamics on a socio-political level...

For the past eight years, the focus has been intensely on the transition. What to leave behind with a soft, sweet kiss, what to battle our way out of tooth and nail, and what to carry ahead with us...

We've moved through the grief, the confusion, the catatonia, and we're coming out the other side - because we have to. We're needed. We go on from here...

We don't forget. We don't deny. We don't sever from us all that has come before and all that is happening now. This would only increase the psychic struggle. We take the wonder and the pain and the difficulty and the beauty with us. But we don't carry it anymore as a hopeless burden, as endless, roiling suffering.

What has gone on, what has been done, is known. We know and feel what humanity, what all living things on this planet have suffered, have endured. We know what we suffer and endure now. We move forward with it shared among us, no one isolated in its pain and difficulty. It's part of us.

But again now, we move this story forward."

Yes, now. We've had enough time with the Piscean dreams. We've held out for them right until the end, but now it's time to carve out a new path.

Mars in Virgo doesn't have any more time to wait.

This sometimes arduous earthy energy starts to shift rapidly by Sunday, May 20 when the Sun enters Gemini, and we experience a zero degree Gemini New Moon - the first of two New Moons in the sign - that is also an annular solar eclipse. This means, the eclipse would be total, but the Moon is too far away from the Earth for its body to entirely cover the Sun.

Jupiter Returns to the Point of the Last Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction

Jupiter is on its way to the 22^nd degree of Taurus (May 8 - 12), which marks not only a conjunction to Sedna but also a return to the position of the last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in May 2000.

Jupiter and Saturn interact in 20-year cycles. Jupiter makes one pass through the zodiac every 12 years. Saturn makes one pass through the zodiac every 29 years. Every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn meet in the zodiac and form a conjunction, opening a new cycle that takes 20 years to reach completion.

The Jupiter-Saturn cycle that opens is related to a broad expansion and vision, particularly in areas pertaining to the house in which the conjunction falls in the natal chart, but an expansion and vision that take 20 years to be fully realized. This cycle involves the interplay between expansion and restriction, risk-taking and caution, buoyant, forward-thinking and sometimes sobering realities.

Jupiter is the bringer of big ideas and grand plans while Saturn works with the difficulties of making those grand plans a concrete reality. Jupiter is the ideas man. Saturn sets the course to get there and then makes sure that course is committed to and followed with no skipped steps.

The exciting and inspirational broadening of horizons initiated with the opening of the cycle must be brought about gradually, responsibly, over the course of time. This always takes longer than Jupiter would like. The Saturnine nature of the expansion is so gradual, in fact, that we can often lose sight of the bigger picture. This week, we get a reminder of where we are, reinforced by the Sun in Taurus crossing this point and conjuncting Jupiter May 13.  

On May 28, 2000, Jupiter and Saturn formed a conjunction at 22 Taurus, an area of the zodiac related to the master builder. Whatever was initiated at that time - at the turn of the millenium - was a grand work, something that required the development of true craftsmanship to bring into reality. In part, this cycle involves the building of a solid link between the astrological Piscean and Aquarian eras. That link must be built correctly, from earliest foundation all the way to the finish line, and this cycle requires patience, endurance, and stubborn perseverance as we navigate the often difficult transition between eras.

Jupiter has now made one full pass through the zodiac since the conjunction – 12 years – and returns to 22 Taurus this week. This provides a boost for the big Jupiter-Saturn project going on in our lives, a further expansion and also a progress report related to the direction that was initiated in 2000. 

The movement of Jupiter across this degree comes with further benefit as the final Grand Earth Trine involving Mars in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn forms along with Mercury in Taurus May 13 - 16.

The remaining eight years of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle coincide with the new eight-year Venus in Gemini cycle, involving the Venus Transit June 5/6, that we are now entering. This indicates big movement, many new connections, and some often magical happenings over the next eight years. Venus goes retrograde at 23 Gemini May 15.

The current cycle comes to a point of completion with the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in December 2020 at 0 degrees Aquarius. At that point, if we've followed the course responsibly and to the end, we have cemented a solid foundation for the astrological Aquarian era and the shift into a full Aquarian energetic overlay.

Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions 1900-2100:

November 28, 1901 – 13 degrees Capricorn

September 10, 1921 – 26 degrees Virgo

August 7, 1940 – 14 degrees Taurus

February 18, 1961 – 25 degrees Capricorn

December 31, 1980 – 9 degrees Libra

May 28, 2000 – 22 degrees Taurus

December 21, 2020 - 0 degrees Aquarius

October 31, 2040 – 17 degrees Libra

April 7, 2060 - 0 degrees Gemini

March 14, 2080 - 11 degrees Aquarius

The Deep, Dark Feminine Makes its Presence Known at the Scorpio Full Moon

The Moon is full and at perigee at 16 degrees Scorpio this Saturday night (May 5), opposing both the Sun and Black Moon Lilith in exact conjunction in Taurus.

The opposition to Black Moon Lilith (the lunar apogee) takes the emotional depth of the already depths-divining Scorpio Full Moon to its furthest, pitch black extremes in order to get to the fullness, the richness, the outer boundaries. In order to get to what’s real.

This isn't a light moon. It's an alchemical soup mixing and boiling moon.

This one is bloody, dripping, birth and death and everything in between. It's the wise woman metaphysical midwife telling us it's time, drawing the etheric into the physical, weaving in and out of the curtain that divides. This is a roots moon, a pagan moon, a running on pure, ancestral intuition and rhythm moon. It buzzes with magic and symbol and meaning, bursts at the seams with the awe-inducing wonder of this life on this planet.

Buddha reached enlightenment under this Full Moon.

But Black Moon Lilith already knew the score. She’s here to represent.

This is a deeply feminine moon. A deep and dark feminine moon. A wise women's moon at the end of the astrological Piscean era - an era in which male-dominated religion, figureheads, ideology, and spiritual constructs have ruled.

Yes, this moon is one that certainly knows the score.

Jupiter in Taurus is on its way to a conjunction to Sedna (May 8 – 12) and will be joined there by the Taurus Sun next weekend. Sedna is the Inuit goddess pinned under the weight of deepest betrayal and suppression at the bottom of the ocean. She’s sending up her reports from this furthest vantage point to those who have the internal sonar to hear her. The Gulf of Mexico is still full of oil and Corexit. Parts of the Pacific are still radioactive. Sedna’s sea creatures are poisoned, full of lesions and mutations. Jupiter and the Sun join forces to shine a spotlight on some things most would prefer to overlook: things have not improved.

When you dust off the history, it’s the same story over and over again. The story of power misused and abused. The story of a boot in the face and of life, energy, and magic debased, manipulated, taken advantage of.

The Scorpio Full Moon is a strange one in that emotional comfort can only be found in the full acceptance of our emotional discomfort - ground zero, brass tacks reality, the uncovering of the tortured and hidden, the sharp edges, the fear, the dark corners. 

This Moon at its fullest point in Scorpio comforts us with the presence of the unvoiced, too ground down to fully put into words what has happened here.

But that’s the beauty of Scorpio: you don’t have to explain it; we can feel it. We know it without the superlatives. The layered mix of intuitive understanding coming from every corner of the globe, coming from within our own bodies, becomes our Full Moon lullaby. Drawing on the strength of that which remains suppressed, of that which remains betrayed, of that which remains unaddressed - the continued liberation of this is our emotional sustenance.

This moon is salt from the earth, from emotional quick. A deeply meditative moon requiring our very best Zen to honour, work with, and move through the roiling, raw energy of life betrayed and suppressed on this planet. It's the lead in our guts that tells us all is not, in actuality, well on the Western front. Or the Eastern front. Or on any front at all, really.

And it’s knowing the whole of it, keeping it safe and undenied within us, that keeps us free, powerful, at our most potent, catalytic point.

This Full Moon’s a beauty. If you have clear skies, enjoy it.

Saturn in Libra and Beauty at Every Age - AKA Society (Libra) Makes Me Tired (Saturn)

The transit of Saturn (aging) through Libra (beauty) has drawn my attention again and again to how revolting and screwed up mainstream versions of beauty are. This is a subject that is certainly not new, but the particular Saturnine issue here that has my rancour up is the assigning of beauty strictly to the young.

As Mercury in Aries - the most youth-oriented sign in the zodiac - moves into opposition to Saturn in Libra (May 5), the theme is strong, particularly in media.

I find this, along with all the attempts to maintain youth - surgically, hormonally, or otherwise - horrifying, not to mention enraging. I can't get over how eroding it is. How false it is. And I also can't get over the acceptance of this as "the way things are" by people who, I feel, should be rebelling against it.

I'm tired (Saturn) of hearing people, especially women, talk about the "aging = losing your beauty" paradigm as if it's a real thing. "Betty, you just turned 50? Well, I guess it's time to hand over the hot." Looks shift and change with age. Health problems crop up that can make people feel less attractive. There's no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean people automatically lose their beauty and appeal as they move through the seasons of their physical lives. Quite the opposite in many cases.

This is a version of youth-obsessed physical beauty created, programmed, and reinforced almost entirely by monied mainstream media in order to keep people grasping and buying.

Real beauty doesn't make you feel jealous or 'less than' when you behold it - that's socially-engineered glamour and the energy of beauty as some sort of false hierarchy. It's "who's the fairest of them all" stuff, created mostly by males for the male gaze, and it keeps women insecure, competing, and divided - in this case, along younger versus older lines.

It's a false version of beauty I do my best to steer clear of, but I can't help but see it seeping into the psyches of some wonderful people I know, and I can't help but want to bust that shit up in a major way.

I've never been enamoured of youth. Even when I was in my teens and twenties, I wasn't that into it. I don't look back on my younger years as the good old days or as the point where I hit my peak in any way, shape, or form. I've also always found people of all ages attractive - both men and women - and still do, so I just don't buy this idea of the aging woman or man as some sort of fading flower, past its prime.

Photo: Willow

But man, that is one insidious idea to purge once it has gotten hold. It's amazing how many people believe this on one level or another and how it's continually reinforced culturally. And once this idea has gotten hold, it really does start to suck the radiance and vitality out of people as they internalize it. In my mind, this is what's chipping away at people's attractiveness - this poisonous and faulty idea of age, not the actual aging process.

Now, you have to understand, this is coming from a person with Venus in Scorpio in the natal chart. This might sound eyeroll-worthy, but Venus in Scorpio really is about the beauty of the soul, primarily, radiating through the physicality. It's like an old leather jacket perfectly worn in. A pair of cowboy boots that have walked a couple hundred miles. The beauty of wisdom through experience, of an authentic life honestly lived, scars and all. That wary, weary, wise look in the eyes that says, "I've seen your kind before. Don't even start with your bullshit."

The lit and make-upped, fake boobs, fake teeth, fake lips, fake hair, fake tan, Photoshopped version of beauty does nothing for Venus in Scorpio. It isn't interested in pretty, empty vessels. What it's looking for won't be found on the pages of Maxim or Vogue or People magazines, and it won't be found in the Hollywood blockbuster. It wants the battle of life worn through flesh and bone. It's one placement that finds the changes and processes people go through throughout life - including the difficult stuff - fascinating and attractive. The beauty (Venus) of metamorphosis (Scorpio).

One of the reasons I bring Venus in Scorpio up is that the energetic flavour is similar to what we are about to experience with Saturn's movement from late Libra into early Scorpio. As Saturn completes its transit of Libra, the issues around age and beauty are up front and centre. And as Saturn begins its transit of Scorpio in October of this year, the issues deepen.

One of the truly beneficial aspects of Pluto's transit through Capricorn is the opportunity (should we take it) to completely change the ways in which we view aging and older people. This is going to require a breaking down and re-structuring of programmed ideas about aging, as well as the institutional ways of relating to older people, and it's going to require people resisting, rejecting, and proving wrong the current ideas and ideals.

Things hit extreme catalytic/metamorphic potency on this front with Pluto in Capricorn in mutual reception with Saturn in Scorpio (October 2012 into September 2015) when we have two heavy-hitter planets double-teaming issues around aging - Pluto over the longer term and Saturn over the shorter term.

This will bring the opportunity to face deep, collectively-ingrained fears related to aging and death, shifting the orietation to those things dramatically and sloughing off current ideas about what those things even are.

Throughout the Saturn in Scorpio transit, we'll have the opportunity, personally and collectively, to shrug off once and for all the phoniness and fakery we're told is beauty and to appreciate the depth and gorgeousness of our own souls and the depth and gorgeousness of those around us - at every age.

A strong alternative to the current paradigm can be solidified and strengthened during this transit - one that appreciates the mystery and magic of life on this planet, the deep beauty of its continual metamorphosis, and the processes of aging and time passage as the modus operandi of that metamorphosis.

This is one of the best case scenarios for the Saturn in Scorpio transit: people honouring their beauty and attractiveness, simply refusing to accept a version of reality where a person loses appeal past a certain age marker. People of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, working it, confident that they're hot tamales, no matter what the current paradigms are telling them.

Pluto in Leos, you lead the way.

Sun Conjunct Ceres in Taurus Within the Grand Earth Trine Formation

The Sun and Ceres are currently conjunct at 6 degrees Taurus, forming the Grand Earth Trine with Mars in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn that has been at play at various times over the past six months. The Sun-Ceres conjunction separates starting today, but these bodies are within range of the Grand Earth Trine into early May when Mercury enters Taurus, continuing the practical ease and beneficial effects with an almost-exact formation May 13-14.

The Sun-Ceres conjunction in Taurus happens at my midheaven, so I thought I would post some of the Ceres work I've been doing over the past year:


From March 20, 2012: Happy Astrological New Year and Willow on Ask the Astrologer with Matt Savinar (forced sonogram laws being passed in the United States)

From March 12, 2012: Ceres in Aries and the Fight for Women's Reproductive Rights

From February 12, 2012: February 14: Venus-Ceres in Aries Make a Tense Juno Day Connection To Pluto. Unfinished Business? Baby, You Ain't Kiddin'

From July 24, 2011: Ceres Stationing Retrograde in Aries and Why the Armies Aren't Fighting the Famine

From September 4, 2011: Ceres Rx Slips Back Into Pisces And Why the Armies Aren't Fighting the Famine...Part Two

From July 10, 2011: Ceres Stations Retrograde at Zero Aries Conjunct Uranus and Buying Organic Is a Revolutionary Act (genetically modified alfalfa, the organics industry, cross-pollination of GMOs)

From April 27, 2011: the shorter news article on the same subject that ran in a small town weekly paper, Juno in Virgo Stationing Direct Opposite Ceres in Pisces: Getting the Word Out Bit by Virgoan Bit

From May 29, 2011: Ripple Effect Ceres-Pluto in Capricorn Themes and Radioactivity in Food


You can find all Ceres-related posts under the Ceres tag.

"Ceres is in the league of Lord of the Underworld Pluto and we know that dude means business. So does Ceres. Fuck with Ceres too much, and she has the ability to snuff life out on this planet entirely. This is what they're playing with right now. Still think this is an inconsequential, secondary-at-best influence in the astrological zodiac?"

Blogger Cluster$#%!

Blogger, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to completely change the editing page, and I've found my posts are loading with no spacing. It seems that you also cannot contact Blogger directly to get an answer on any of these issues. I'll keep trying to solve this. I was hoping to post an article today, but it will be postponed now.

Saturn Retrograde in Libra Opposite Sun in Aries and A Watched Pot Never Boils

From a previous post:

"The Sun in Aries opposes Saturn Rx in Libra April 15, and the relationship re-structuring going on has to accommodate our whole blazing selves, or it might as well be scrapped."

This is the case, pretty babies, and there's no getting around it.

As the Sun in Aries pushes into an opposition to Saturn Rx at 26 degrees Libra April 15, the asteroid Vesta and true Black Moon Lilith placement form a conjunction at 23 degrees Aries, also opposing Saturn. The soul-level investment here is in being ourselves and being true to ourselves within relationship right down to the last, rough edge. Honouring individuality beyond what the constructs of the relationships say. Honouring our fight and our scrappiness and our will to survive, even when those things are seemingly down to their last embers at this, the end of the astrological Piscean era. This is the flame we won't let die. This is what we bank on. 

In Aries, our money's on us. 

The investment here is in going deep into ourselves, loving every last secret corner where the shame, hatred, rage, grief, and deviation from the norm live. This is our fuel, what keeps us sharp, what edges the competition. Fighting for ourselves down to last breaths. Fighting to be true. 

It's an investment in only those people and those relationships that can contain this version of you, the whole version - no fibs, no lies, no cheating around the edges. This is the exertion of whole self, all chambers firing, and we stretch right out into it with these oppositions. Standing up when we have to. Letting fly when we have to. 

Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are here to make sure we don't compromise ourselves detrimentally one iota, that we don't try to squeeze ourselves into a relationship two sizes too small, that we don't attempt to dull any of our feisty edge or whitewash any of our colour as Saturn tries to convince us that we're running out of time, past our prime. 

There is no moment but this moment, and every day, in every way, we're getting better, truer, stronger. This is what Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are whispering, together, in our ears as we bloom into weird and wild Aquarius. 

Invest in yourself, in this moment. This is the most important relationship you'll ever have. 

The Aquarius Moon sextiles the Aries bodies/points and trines Saturn retrograde in Libra on April 15, the day of the Sun-Saturn opposition. We're willing to set ourselves apart, to risk it. It's the refusal to be anything but ourselves, the refusal to be dimmed or dulled that re-builds the world. 

The Moon continues on its way, meeting Vesta in exact conjunction in late Aries April 20 with both bodies in exact opposition to Saturn Rx in Libra. The themes continue. 

Saturn retrograde in Libra reminds us that, when it comes to relationships, a watched pot never boils. The worry and heaviness and sense of arduous delay brought to the topic of relationship by Saturn dissipates only when we're too busy doing our own thing to concern ourselves with it. 

And all this Aries opposing gives us the perfect opportunity to stop watching. Stop waiting. Just go.

We're Pissed Off or Fine With Things, Irritated or Content, Aggravated or Accepting. Probably All at the Same Time.

The combination of the now-loosening Venus-Mars-Neptune mutable t-square, Pluto in Capricorn stationing retrograde (April 10), Mars in Virgo stationing direct (April 14), and Mercury traipsing through the last degrees of Pisces (until April 16) is making for some highly-strung, highly-changeable, and highly-odd astro conditions. 

We can go from irritation to rage to despair to all-is-right-with-the-world to a chirpy, chatty phone conversation about monumental future plans in minutes flat. 

Mars stationing direct opposite Neptune in Pisces has us dreaming, kicking up all kinds of oddness, and we can wake up enraged, floating, or paralyzed under the intensity of it all. Possibly all three or more. 

This combination of stations and aspects is all over the place, and though we're certainly working with tension, friction, and frustration at this point, there's a lot of give here with all the mutable energy. This provides much-appreciated grease for the wheels as Lord of the Underworld Pluto permeates the skies with its inky influence and war/aggression planet Mars stops any progress in any direction, either forward or backward. 

At this point, we just have to go with the weird while sort of continuing as if things are functional. (Though I have to admit, all the internet problems I've been having over the past month have pushed me right to the brink.) 

Pluto going retrograde in Capricorn provides a change in direction that brings us ever-closer to the first of the seven Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares, and, as of April 10, we start to feel the squeeze in earnest. 

Pluto is moving backward and Uranus is moving forward, on an inevitable course toward that initial square June 24. 

Venus in Gemini is crossing the South Node currently, and excessive conversation - particularly certain topics of conversation with certain people - are to be avoided. At the same time, Venus is sextile Uranus in Aries (exact April 9), and we split yet another set of relationship paradigm atoms on our way to the Venus Transit June 5. We shift from one relationship track to another repeatedly between now and then, but we have to continually choose something new. 

The Sun in Aries opposes Saturn Rx in Libra April 15, and the relationship re-structuring going on has to accommodate our whole blazing selves, or it might as well be scrapped. 

Keep paddling, little duckies.

How to Get (And Keep) a Man, Zodiac-Style

Ladies, if you want to get yourselves a man, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: it’s as easy as the subtle manipulation of his Venus sign! 

Venus is what he loves, see, and if you want him to love you forever and ever, just keep hitting the old Venus spot. We all know that once you’ve gotten yourself a man, the next trick is holding onto him. The beautiful thing about Venus is: it’s also a key to keeping him! Just use these simple tricks of the astrological trade, and the days of crying your lonely, single ass to sleep every night will be OVER! 

Venus in Aries: Go out and shoot yourself a buck. Anything over a four-point should do. Strap it to the roof of your car. If you can borrow a Jeep, Bronco, or Hummer, even better. Grab a couple six packs of his favourite brew, and drive over to his place with your rifle in the back seat to show off your kill. 

Venus in Taurus: Talk about money a lot. Make it clear how important it is to you. Leave copies of your credit card statements lying around to show him how high your credit limit is. Get involved in the newest hedge funds, and brag about the returns. Talk about how you dumped currency and bought metals.

Venus in Gemini: To keep him interested, never answer his calls or texts right away. Leave them for a few days if you really want to get him hot and bothered. Talk about all the other messages you’re fielding to prove how uber connected and in demand you are. “Accidentally” send him an ambiguous text meant for some other guy just to keep him guessing. 

Venus in Cancer: The key to this man’s heart is all about emulating his Mama! Look at old pictures of his Ma when she was your age, and subtly copy her style. Dress like she did. Do your hair and make-up like she did. Meet him every day after work with lipstick on, an adoring smile, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven. 

Venus in Leo: Buy paintings from local artists and prominently hang them to show what a big supporter you are of the local art scene. Take him to performance art pieces and poetry night at the local pub, even if you don't like it, to show him how artsy you are. Try out for a local theatre troupe, even if calling your acting skills “wooden” would be charitable. Show off your star power. Of course, it goes without saying that a lady should never outshine her man. He’s the real star here, and the more you keep that in mind, the more in love he’ll be! 

Venus in Virgo: Hire a housecleaner to come in and covertly clean your apartment to an immaculate shine before each of his visits. Strip your bed (in front of him) and wash the sheets in hot water after every time you do the deed. Casually mention that you floss three times a day. Buy a top-of-the-line juicer. Hide junk food, and fill your refrigerator with leafy greens. 

Venus in Libra: Make it known how in-demand socially you are by constantly talking about all the fascinating, cultured, and hip people who want to hang with you. Make it difficult for him to schedule a date into your almost-frantic social calendar. Call and re-schedule a few times to drive home the point. Leave a subtle impression that he wasn’t your first choice for a Saturday night. 

Venus in Scorpio: The key here is continually proving what a hardcore freak you are in the sack. Leave whips, handcuffs, chains, and ball gags lying around your apartment – not just in the bedroom! Maybe put a cage up. Mirrors on the ceiling, a video camera set up near the bed, and a stripper pole are de rigeur. 

Venus in Sagittarius: What’s really going to do it for this guy is making it known how much freedom you need in relationships. Don’t worry if it isn’t true – by the time he figures out the real story, he’ll be hooked on you! Talk about your plans to study philosophy in Paris, and make it known that he shouldn’t wait around. Do some speed research on wine, and talk about how you’ve always wanted to take a trip to wine country to experience the great whites and reds. 

Venus in Capricorn: The key to this guy’s heart is in showing him how impressive and upwardly-mobile you are. Talk about how you’re crushing your competition at work. Brag about how much your boss loves you. Repeat the basic points of your Five Year Plan like a mantra every morning, and make sure he can hear you. 

Venus in Aquarius: Here, it's all about making it clear to him how outside the box you are. Throw a vegan, soy-free potluck and invite all the freakiest people you know. Talk about alternative working models and the suppression of Tesla technology. Ride a community-owned bicycle to get around, even if you have been a staunch car driver up until then. Dye your hair pink or purple. Get a septum ring. 

Venus in Pisces: The key here is in proving your superiour spiritual development. Talk about your dreams a lot, and make them seem really symbolic and profound. Talk about the multi-dimensional experiences you’ve had, and make it clear that you can’t really be bothered with the concerns of the material world. Name drop a couple gurus, and work the popular spiritual catch phrases of the day into casual conversation. Work these Venus tips, ladies, and you will go from sad and lonely single to ecstatic and loved-up couple in no time!  

April Fools from Willow’s Web Astrology! April Fools post 2011