Ceres in Cancer Forms Cardinal T-Square with Uranus and Pluto: Putin Says Big Ag Could Trigger WWIII

Ceres Territory

Photos: Willow

Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn form their third exact square today, and the grand-scale structural morphing first triggered when Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 reaches another acute point within a series of acute points.

Things are on the move under highly stressed and pressurized circumstances. Backs are against walls all around the globe. Job security is a thing of the past for many people. Keeping a roof over heads and food on tables is in many cases, too. Many of us are out of options within the systems and structures as they currently exist. No direction within those structures seems like a good direction at this point. No option seems like the right option. Everywhere we turn, we run into difficulty, hellishness, corruption, things just not being right.

This is the stress we're under within crumbling Pluto in Capricorn structures and institutions, rotten to the core, with the corrupt profiting by staying one step ahead of wrecking balls they themselves have unleashed. Capitalizing on manufactured chaos and implanted fears.

Uranus is the planet of rebellion, revolution, upheaval, lightning-bolt genius insight, and sudden change. As Uranus transits the first sign of the zodiac - the sign of new life, new territory, new energy, new direction, and new fight - it is also a symbol for the entrance into the astrological Aquarian era.

Pluto is a planet that rules processes of deep corruption-correction, the change from one state to another, and the drawing up of underlying realities to surface consciousness in order to fuel metamorphosis and transformation.

The squares (tense, frictional, 90-degree aspects) between these two bodies are in effect from 2012 through 2015 and bring do-or-die clashes between those who desire a free, self-sovereign humanity (Uranus in Aries) and those continuing the top-down, fascist agendas forced by corporate business and corporate-ruled government (Pluto in Capricorn).

As Uranus and Pluto form their third of seven squares, dwarf planet Ceres is in Cancer forming a cardinal t-square with those two bodies, and issues related to food, agriculture, and the fertility of the Earth are piping hot.

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

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

Photo: Willow (with no Photoshopping)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Officially Becoming the Town Astrologer

I've been moving households over the past while, and in true Taurus stellium fashion, the process has taken a little longer than I expected - though it's unfolding with the right timing. The earliest date I could get for a telephone and internet hookup is this Friday.

So as of next week, I will officially be the town astrologer in a tiny Saskatchewan village, living in an apartment above the library in a semi-spooky, old, brick character building on Main Street. Who would have thought?

Mercury moves out of Taurus and enters home sweet home Gemini this afternoon, joining Venus and Jupiter in the sign of the communicator. The Sun moves into Gemini May 20 and Mars enters Gemini May 31.

If you've been finding the earthiness and slow pacing of the Taurus stellium a little arduous, never fear. The mutable winds of Gemini are blowing, and things are going to start moving as early as this evening with the Mercury ingress.

Incidentally, I'll be living on Main Street, along a provincial border, a state border, and a rail line. Very Gemini.

If anyone has been wondering about the lack of posts, this move and slow internet hook-up are the reasons. Everything should be on track again by next week. Thanks for your patience during Taurus season, and I hope it's been a productive one for all of you, too!

Taurus and the Behaviour of Bovines - Re-Post

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

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

Just chill out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos: Willow

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

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

Understanding The Sign of Taurus Through the Characteristics of Cows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pluto in Capricorn and the Epidemic of Physician-Caused Injuries and Deaths From New Wave Pharmaceuticals

Iatrogenic injuries and deaths: injuries and deaths caused by the physician, unrelated to the original health complaint.

Iatrogenic injuries and deaths are occurring in record numbers. A conservative estimate of the number of people killed in the United States by correctly prescribed pharmaceuticals every year is 100,000. This statistic does not include the hundreds of thousands of people who are injured or permanently disabled by dirty pharmaceuticals every year. This statistic also does not include people who commit suicide due to adverse reactions without "provable" links to the drug. Suicide is a common side effect of many of the new wave of pharmaceuticals on the market.

Natural News: Hospitals and Doctors are Killing Americans in Record Numbers

From the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC):

- Sixty-one people die every day in the United States from pharmaceuticals (adverse reactions or overdoses).

- Reported poisonings have gone up 90% between 1999 and 2008. The major reason is the exponential increase in the use of pharmaceuticals, including all the new pharmaceuticals that have been fast-tracked onto the market without due testing and the pharmaceuticals that have been kept on the market despite known deadly/damaging side effects.

Whenever I see a commercial for a new pharmaceutical and the majority of the commercial is a list of the deadly and horrific side effects it can have, I'm transported to my Plutonic surreal insanity place. How messed up a society are we living in when a deadly drug is being advertised to people as if it's a new flavour of Pop Rocks? It's a type of messed up that we could only fully experience under transiting Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto (poison) in Capricorn (big business). Pluto (hidden control) in Capricorn (institutional hierarchy). Pluto (extreme dominance) in Capricorn (corporate oligarchy).

With Uranus in Aries (radical survival and necessary breaks from the old guard) forming its third exact conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn (poisonous corporate shenanigans) on May 20, these issues are in our face, up front and centre, more visible than usual, more challenging than usual.

Corporations and their foot soldiers are poisoning us en masse, and they're making off like bandits doing so.

On May 7, there will be a march on Washington by a group of people who have had horrendous, long-term adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Major brands include Cipro and Avelox (manufactured and sold by Bayer) and Levaquin (manufactured and sold by Johnson & Johnson). The group is asking that physicians be educated on the dangers of prescribing these antibiotics. It is also asking that fluoroquinolones not be prescribed as a first-line antibiotic, as they are now.

Cipro is Poison is the website of a man named Jeff who has had one of the most severe adverse reactions possible to Cipro.

I hope none of us ever experiences the horror this man has been through. He's going through hell. It's truly unimaginable, and it's going on thousands of times over as these drugs continue to be handed out like Chiclets.

Scorpio Full Moon Eclipse Conjunct Saturn: Ooga Booga!

There's a Full Moon partial lunar eclipse in Scorpio tomorrow, starting a series of three eclipses, and I'm going to keep this one very simple.

There are people, dynamics, and situations trying to fuck with you right now. They're trying to get under your skin, trying to scare you into devaluing yourself and what you do in this world. They're trying to undermine your self-esteem and your sense of security, getting you to accept scraps rather than holding out for your true worth. It's easier for them that way. Less threatening. They're trying to jostle you out of position, and they're using your own energy in this attempt.

The Moon pushes to its most full and illuminated point today and tomorrow. It's shining some love and light, all right, but this is of the Scorpionic 'tough love' variety. 

With Venus, the Sun, Mars, and asteroid Pallas Athene in Taurus, the inclination is to accumulate - people, money, ease, comfort, pretty things. Taurus is a tradition-oriented and fairly simple sign that generally wants to maintain the status quo. It digs the status quo. The status quo most often works for Taurus. Stable, easy, rewards-rich.

The South Node of the Moon is also in Taurus, however, indicating major pitfalls possible with certain expressions of this sign.

We have to balance our Taurean needs for simple and basic, for accumulation, for stability and security with the hardcore eliminatory function of the North Node, Moon, and Saturn in Scorpio. Getting down to brass tacks as far as who and what needs to go - and making it happen.

With a North Node in Scorpio and a South Node in Taurus:

In order to achieve physical security in the material world (Taurus), channeling money, value, and earnings into your life, you first have to make the underlying energy dynamics right (Scorpio) - emotional, psychological, psychic. You have to address and get rid of all the shit sandwiches people are attempting to serve you. You have to fight for your full value without backing down.

In order to accumulate what's right for you, you first have to eliminate what isn't.

This Scorpio Full Moon is a culmination of themes that opened at the November 13, 2012 Alpha Snake New Moon total solar eclipse in Scorpio. Underlying allegiances that had been simmering beneath the skin of the situations started to be drawn to the surface at that Scorpio New Moon.

From the Alpha Snake New Moon post:

"Underlying loyalties start to shake out under this Moon, and we start to get a clearer picture of where people stand as we head deeper into Saturn in Scorpio. Incompatibilities glossed over during Saturn in Libra are pushed to the surface, like it or not. Crossed motivations send up sparks. Lips will curl, unconsciously, showing our fangs if we come too near those with whom we lack inherent common ground. The ties that bound friendly allies during Saturn in Libra snap like dry, autumn twigs under Saturn in Scorpio. Soul compatibility is something altogether different.

Soul-deep incompatibilities go from cracks, to divisions, to chasms. There can be no doubt where we stand on the other side of this New Moon portal."

Now, as the Moon grows full in the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, hardcore soul drive, and X-Ray vision, we get a look at these underlying allegiances and alliances under the full moonlight, and we get a chance to address them head-on.

We knew where we stood at the Scorpio New Moon last November. Now, at the Scorpio Full Moon, we put that fully into practise - or suffer the consequences (Saturn).

The North Node in Scorpio, coming ever-closer to the conjunction to Saturn (and Venus) this September, is asking you to eliminate every single person, dynamic, and situation that isn't right. Do it authoritatively, and do it now, when the concrete opportunity to do so (Saturn) arises. The Scorpio North Node is asking you to carve out a path that goes to the bone, to the core, stripping down to only the right energy dynamics, to only what's vital, to only what has some fucking life left kicking in it.

With the Moon conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, opposing all that Taurus, you intuitively know the people, dynamics, and situations that need to go. You know which ones are draining you, forcing you into unnatural positions, keeping you stagnant, afraid, or in a subordinate position.

At this Full Moon eclipse in Scorpio, it's time to make the final snips. It's time to get rid of every last drop of poison. Your emotions guide this process - the deep down, dark and dirty ones. The ones you might be ashamed of. How you really feel. How your soul really feels.

It might be difficult to muster the self-confidence and the self-esteem to address the muck and sever ties under these transits (Moon-Saturn), but if you muster it, you will be rewarded.

These are some subtle, gut-feeling twinges we're following here. Following even the slightest surface disturbance down to its root. Getting clear on what's really going on down there. And making the cuts.

Some traditional dynamics need to be skipped altogether. Some overall trends need to be bucked.

With Saturn so influencing this Moon, we're working with patriarchal authority figures and patriarchal institutions and the fear those things are built on and powered through. Money fears come through this and through the Taurus South Node. We're working on confronting and diffusing the at-times paralyzing psychological hold these fears can have over us. We're working through some of our deepest security fears at this Moon, saying "no" to them, breaking their influence.

It takes courage to sever ties to elements of our own "security." But it's certainly a false security if we have to swallow shit sandwiches in order to maintain it.

This is the type of false security that must be destroyed at this Full Moon, freeing our energy for a metamorphosis into a truly solid foundation. The soul-deep kind that cannot be shattered or disturbed by any event or individual on this Earth.

Emotional, psychological, and psychic security are more highly valued now. Scorpio energy is more highly valued now, and it's worth more than (highly manipulated) dollar bills.

Divine down to the roots here, at this Full Moon. Don't be afraid to look at anything kicked up by this Moon, though it may be uncomfortable.

Remove detrimental influences that drain and hold you back. Remove the influence of people who try to unsettle you. Do it quickly, completely, unceremoniously, and guilt-free.

Building on the Sun-Venus Exterior Conjunction with Jupiter Conjunct the Venus Transit Degree

At the time of the Aries New Moon and Aries stellium earlier this month, Venus was in the sign of its detriment (Aries), and Mars was in the sign of its domicile (also Aries). The females and the feminine (Venus) were in a tough spot, while the males and the masculine (Mars) were living a little easier.

Now, just 10 days later, the tables have turned. Venus is now in the sign of its domicile, Taurus, and Mars entered the sign of its detiment, also Taurus, this morning.

The Sun and Venus are still within range of a conjunction, now in Taurus, and this blesses us with some much-needed ease and congeniality as spring starts to dig in in the northern hemisphere. These bodies were exactly conjunct on March 28 at 8 degrees Aries.

From the Aries New Moon post:

"The exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus on March 28 was the first conjuction between these two bodies since the interior conjunction on June 5, 2012. That interior conjuction, with Venus retrograde in Gemini, also marked the Venus Transit, an event that will not be experienced again for more than one hundred years.

From a previous post:

"The Venus Transit is an eclipse of the Sun by Venus during which we are able to observe Venus passing across the surface of the Sun as it orbits between the Sun and Earth. Astrologically, this event will be marked by a conjunction of the Sun and Venus retrograde at 15 degrees Gemini on June 5, 2012.

Venus Transits occur in pairs in the same sign, eight years apart (one Venus cycle), and they do not happen often. The last Venus Transit - the pair to this one - occurred June 8, 2004. The most recent Venus Transits prior to the 2004/2012 set occurred December 1874/1882 in Sagittarius. The next set will occur in December 2117 and 2125, also in Sagittarius.

Suffice it to say, it's a noteworthy event during our stay on planet Earth...

[T]his indicates a shift in relationship cycles - one closes, another begins. Because the June 5 Sun-Venus interior conjunction in Gemini is also a Venus Transit, this shift in relationship cycles is profound and far-reaching. The upcoming Venus Transit acts as an official relational backdrop change between astrological eras. As of this event, we're no longer one foot in, one foot out. We officially move beyond Piscean-era relationship ideals and constructs and are propelled into the early stages of a new relationship paradigm - relating within the astrological Aquarian era. New tracks emerge that were previously unavailable. Relationships and we within relationship are not the same coming out of this June."

The March 28 conjunction of the Sun and Venus in Aries indicated a new chapter in Aquarian-era relationship has been opened, fresh and new, stemming from the monumental Venus Transit."

This exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus in cardinal, initiating Aries injected new life and new direction into relationships, value systems, and money matters, indicating that potent new territory had been reached following the Venus Transit.

Now, with Venus, the Sun, and Mars in fixed and sensual Taurus, we take the new directions and dig in. Taurus is the sign of the bull and the sign of the farmer, and it's our understanding of natural timing that advances the initial sparks of Aries now, particularly in relationship. We're building a relational foundation that will support future progress.

When it's time to cultivate, you cultivate. When it's time to fertilize, you fertilize. When it's time to sow, you sow. When it isn't time for those things, you don't do those things. There's an order and a timing that comes around naturally every year. This is the simple and lovely wisdom of Taurus. Slow and steady wins the race. This slow and steady farmer wisdom and the natural timing associated are applied to both relationships and money matters now, and it's the females and the feminine force most strongly setting the timing and the tone.

Attention to boundaries and personal comfort are important whenever Taurus is strong, and this is the case now, as the Taurus bodies oppose Saturn Rx in Scorpio, which is digging up many uncomfortable creepy crawlies from beneath many rugs.

Sexual and emotional challenges, blocks, and intensity are being stirred now by Saturn in Scorpio, and it's the Taurus energy that helps keep things on the rails, ensuring we don't give up our sexual, emotional, metaphysical, or healing skills too soon, too intensively, in the wrong ways, or to the wrong people.

Saturn is requiring that we dig deeply to determine "what time it really is" in newly organizing Aquarian-era relationships of all kinds. This way, we know when it's time to cultivate, when it's time to fertilize, and when it's time to sow. Listening to and heeding the intuitive voice on this front might be a bit of a drag, but any sticking points or delays coming up now are purposeful. Any gut feelings or little twinges or doubts are purposeful and must be addressed concretely. In general with a Saturn transit, it's best to deal with each obstacle or challenge as it comes up. Anything avoided will simply circle back again at a later time, especially in the sign of Scorpio.

As the Sun and Venus continue to move through the zodiac in their exterior conjunction, in effect into early May, Jupiter in Gemini is conjunct the degree of the Venus Transit at 15 Gemini. The conjunction of this degree is exact April 18-23.

Our greater benefic planet on this degree is yet another nice marker of our new era progress. Jupiter has had a somewhat rough transit in the sign of its detriment, Gemini, taking part in two Yod formations and a long-term square to Chiron in Pisces. But at this point, not only has Jupiter moved out of range of those tricky aspects, it's also moving out of its retrograde shadow April 24, leaving this angsty territory behind.

More good (Jupiter) news (Gemini): Jupiter will make no further tense aspects during its final two months in Gemini.

In fact, the major aspect Jupiter will make is an "ice cream sundae with a cherry on top" sort of aspect - a conjunction to Venus at 23 degrees Gemini on May 28, just after conjuncting Mercury in Gemini. This is the lesser benefic (Venus) and the greater benefic (Jupiter) joining forces, and this one is lovely. Our communications, our words, our networks, and our interactions with local society and siblings (or with those who feel like siblings) are blessed around this time with many beautiful and even miraculous connections and re-connections possible. Misunderstandings - even long-standing - can be lifted under this aspect. Any effort on our part to those ends will be rewarded.

Jupiter enters the sign of its exaltation, Cancer, on June 26 and heads into Grand Water Trine territory immediately after.

We've made it to a new, post-Venus Transit foundation for love, relationship, values, and money matters. Relax into it whenever you can under this Taurus stellium (Sun, Venus, Mars, and soon Mercury), and appreciate the hard work you (and they) have put in to get here.

Venus-Pallas Athene in Taurus Opposite Saturn Rx in Scorpio: "WWA Blog is Not Worth $2.50 Per Month"

Photo: Willow

The planet of value and money, Venus, is currently at home in Taurus, the sign of value and money, and will be until May 9. Venus is conjunct female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene in Taurus at this time, creating a powerhouse feminine influence in the sign of tradition, earnings, and security in the physical world.

Both Venus and Pallas Athene are opposing Saturn Rx in Scorpio, and this brings up themes of the valuing and undervaluing of astrological knowledge and infomation. The divinatory, digging, researching, uncovering, drawing-up-to-the-surface energy of astrological work.

I've been writing about the undervaluing of astrology for a while now, which is rampant in this "easy access" internet age, as well as the undervaluing of Scorpio energy, in general. This is emotional, psychological, sexual, metaphysical, healing, X-ray vision energy. Hidden processes that are easily put down, degraded, stepped on.

From October 13, 2011: The Bodies in Scorpio Oppose Jupiter Rx in Taurus: A Conscious Re-Valuing of Soul Energy and Scorpio's Mad Skillz in the Nether-Realms

"Scorpio works in the energetic realms - mostly hidden. Taurus works in the physical world - quite visible and what most consider "work." Taurus is a sign related to what is most commonly valued these days: money (and all the concrete things you can buy with money). Scorpio relates to complex energetic currencies.

From a previous post:

"Scorpio is a healing energy. It intuitively knows where the trouble is and gets right to work, divining and digging to trigger multi-layered release points. It isn't just treating symptoms, either. Scorpio knows it's either go deep or go home, and it puts forth immense stores of energy to go to the mat for people, driving right to the root of the problems that keep them locked up, inauthentic, programmed, and less effective than they could otherwise be.

Scorpio digs the poisoned thorns out - and if it's masterful enough, it gets them all.

But Scorpio's mastery is also it's downfall. Here's where the betrayal aspect of the sign comes into play. Scorpio is a liberating energy, an almost magical transformer of all things oppressive and stagnant and intolerable - and its emotional, psychological and psychic currency is woefully undervalued. Quite often, it's used and abused with little to nothing offered in return. It's left holding the bag with nowhere left to put the shit.

What Scorpio does is mostly in the energetic realms, and because so few people have developed the sight to see this type of energy work, people take it and run. Often, they take it and run right back into the same unhealthy patterns and dynamics Scorpio was expending so much energy to extricate them from in the first place."

This theme has been coming up strongly since last fall's Venus retrograde in Scorpio and has been triggered again now that Venus is back in the sign:

The currencies of sexual, emotional, psychological, and psychic energy as well as masterful Scorpionic healing abilities require a conscious re-valuing and re-working, eked out one interchange at a time."

Well, today, I'm not allowing myself or my site to be put down, degraded, or stepped on. Today, I'm doing some eking.

This morning, with the Sun (external presence and self-expression) conjunct Mars (attacks) in Aries, I got a lovely gem of a comment in the comments section telling me that this blog is not worth the price of a subscription. In other words, it's not worth the price of half a Starbucks per month to read. That's the price of the cheapest subscription option.

"I read your blog faithfully, but there's roughly similar information free all over the web. I agree with your GMO stuff, but it's not worth a full subscription. I wonder if others feel similarly. If you're feeling an energy drain, you could ask what's off with the tone of the blog. Why is it not inviting more traffic & more private clients or more community? This has a lot to do with the Pluto Saturn mutual reception at the moment--I personally feel we all have to watch our tendency to lose the wisdom potential here if we give in to being Aries Uranus firebrands, freakin' people out. In the end, it's always about building & deepening relationships while giving up need for absolute control -- this is the secret recipe for Cap-Scorp happiness." 

All the astrological and sociological information I put out here, in this reader's humble opinion, can be found for free elsewhere on the internet. Therefore, it's not worth a single dime to this person to read this blog.

What a worthless, worthless site I put out here.

I wonder why these people even keep reading it?

Incidentally, this comment comes from an individual who claims to read this blog "faithfully."

I don't need that variety of faithful reader.

So here's a Metaphysics 101 lesson for this reader and for readers like this person:

When you take from a site like this "faithfully" without giving anything back but your bullshitty and eroding comments, you are creating an energy drain. When you read a site like mine while holding an attitude like yours, you create an energy drain. When frenemies and haters read this site and use the information as if it is free for them to use, they create an energy drain. And when you further devalue this site with your passive aggressive (and semi-nonsensical) commentary, you are exacerbating that drain exponentially.

This reader wonders if anyone else feels the same about the relative worthlessness of this site.

I wonder that, as well. I wonder that because people who feel that way are not welcome to read this site and have no business being here. From this point on, if you hold that attitude, you are reading here against my will.

Don't take that lightly. I certainly don't.

It's also interesting to note that it's usually people who think they have astrological prowess of their own who make eroding comments on my blog. Either that, or they are coming in from another astrology camp.

I have to say, though, that what this person has to say makes little sense to me. "Losing the wisdom potential"? "Aries Uranus firebrands"?

Keep studying from the masters, honey. You might get there yet.

Venus in Taurus is opposite Saturn in Scorpio April 22 at 8 degrees of the signs.

Make damn sure your energy is not being devalued under these aspects, as well.

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Pluto Rx and the Requirement To Go Deeper

Pluto goes retrograde today at 11 degrees Capricorn (2:35 p.m. CST), requiring that we go deeper and stealthier in our Plutonic unearthing processes.

Pluto is direct for about six months of the year and retrograde for about six months of the year. It will go back over territory it's already covered in the sign of business, government, structure, and hierarchy until September 20, 2013. Until then, the process of structural metamorphosis goes further underground, with a stronger focus on inner landscapes. (I generally prefer Pluto Rx to Pluto direct, as it seems to be a more natural movement for Pluto.)

In order to be truly effective now, we have to be working with roots, and we have to be making the potent connections.

People aren't interested unless it affects them. All this affects them, but the meaningful connections are being kept purposefully obscured and buried. The full Plutonic context, and their full Plutonic context, are being kept from people.

Our job, as Pluto backs into its third of seven squares to Uranus in Aries May 20, is to keep uncovering, unearthing, and examining the full reality of the situation, warts and all. To keep exposing it to the light of day, as uncomfortable as that process may be.

Relentless.

Ceres, the dwarf planet related to agriculture, grains, and the fertility of the Earth, is back in Cancer, forming a cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto. This t-square will be exact May 5 - 7, 2013 and will still be strongly in effect during the third Uranus-Pluto square.

Food and agriculture issues are crucially important at this time - though most are completely unaware of the epic battles playing out.

Cancer Sun nations Canada and the United States are the potent, primary battlegrounds on issues related to the genetic modification of our food. These are the litmus test nations now, with Ceres conjunct their Cancer Suns.

Genetically modified alfalfa, scheduled to be unleashed in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, as early as this spring, has the ability to genetically contaminate most of our food supply. GM alfalfa has been grown in the United States for the past two growing seasons and already makes up to 70% of the crop in some states.

Anti-GM alfalfa rallies were held across Canada on April 9, spearheaded by the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

These rallies got the issue of GM alfalfa on the public map to a certain extent, but only for a split second. Only for a minute-long news story or via a weak, poorly-researched newspaper article.

The cross-Canada rallies were a failure as far as making GM alfalfa an issue for all citizens, rather than strictly a "farm issue." They were a failure as far as catalyzing new leadership and providing a platform for new voices and new information within the anti-GMO movement.

The issue of genetic modification of our food is being funneled, in Canada, through an establishment-template communications framework called CBAN or the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.

Under this framework, information is carefully controlled to include only the least incendiary and most widely-palatable bits. Instead of a diverse group of well-educated people speaking out on this issue across the country, media are directed to a single communications person or a small handful of carefully-vetted farmers whose livelihoods are directly affected.

With Jupiter transiting Gemini, we need many voices, many perspectives being heard publicly through media. Making the issue broader, hitting people at the fridge and at the fork, is a necessity.

But what we have is a single lobbyist and a handful of farmers sending the same messages over and over again through media. These messages do not make the leap. They don't make the necessary connections among alfalfa, hay, animals, fertilizer, soil, farmers, food, supermarkets, and citizens cooking and eating their daily meals. They do not facilitate the cross-over we need as far as catalyzing the entire eating public on this issue.

And so we see the friction in this cardinal t-square. We need leadership and bold, immediate, new direction in the fight against genetic contamination of our food supply, but much of this is coming from the same templates and structures we are attempting to change. Much of it plays by the rules of establishment structures.

The old protest techniques and the standard channels for protest aren't going to get the job done now. We need to go beyond them, to complement them, as well as revamp and reinvigorate them.

The vast majority of people on this planet opposes the insidious genetic modification that is going on with our food, but those voices are not gaining the traction they need. We're butting up against politically-charged and often tongue-tied communications structures - outdated, corporate, and hierarchical.

This will not do, and it will not get the job done.

We need every voice raised on this issue in an immediate, undeniable, irrefutable global cacophony, and we need to keep these voices raised. We don't need public relations flaks controlling the flow of information or watering down the messages sent to the public. We don't need figureheads - farmer or otherwise - to legitimize this issue.

We need raw, messy, real, potent, effective, and undeniable.

We need to dig and dig and dig some more, repeatedly offering our findings on a silver platter to the consuming public.

And that's not what we get from a cleansed communications network following the template of establishment communications.

We get communications figureheads controlling who can say what and when. We get "official spokespeople" who keep the issue far too narrow to be truly effective. We get people jockeying for position politically within the protest movement, with paid lobbyists motivated, above all else, to keep their jobs.

You can see the complexity of these times and the challenges with which we're faced.

All hierarchical structures are failing us, and this includes hierarchical structures within protest movements. All established structures have poisonous power dynamics inherent within them that can keep us from reaching mutual goals. Most of our established structures are about control, and this includes established communications structures.

We need to bust out of this follow-the-leader Pluto in Capricorn template, but we have to understand how far and how deep the icy fingers of the control structures really go in order to do that.

No one controls my voice. No one controls your voice. And anyone who tries is working from a pitifully outdated set of rules...

Mercury enters Aries tomorrow evening, conjunct Uranus April 20 and square Pluto April 21, and the "new voices/old structures" themes are right in our faces.

Pluto goes direct September 20 at 8 degrees Capricorn within a smoking-potent sextile to Saturn, Venus, and the North Node at 8 degrees Scorpio.

Mercury Enters Aries, and We're Giddy With Relief

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury concludes its extended stay in the sign of its fall, Pisces, in the late evening of April 13 (CST). Mercury entering Aries marks the conclusion of one very long and often taxing Mercury transit and retrograde through the sign of the fishies. Mercury has been in Pisces since February 5 with a retrograde period between February 23 and March 17. It will now transit Aries until May 1.

As Monday rolls around and the work week begins, Mercury is firmly in Aries, and we have a much-needed fresh outlook, along with new perspective thanks to the retrograde. The last lingering ghosts and points of end-of-era desolation are released from our over-stressed minds, and we start to get charged up by what's ahead. Mentally, we're in new territory, and after the soggy, foggy, confusing, meandering, and often painful Mercury transit through Pisces, this could not be more welcome news. (Maybe we can get rid of our snow now?)

From a previous post:

"We started 2013 with a heavy, pressurized, and sometimes beastly Pluto-infused stellium in Capricorn. Then we had the highly-stressed Jupiter in Gemini station within two challenging Yod formations and a square to Chiron in Pisces. That morphed into a massive stellium in Pisces, coloured strongly by the pain and dysfunction of Chiron in Pisces. And as if that weren't arduous enough, we also had the three-week Mercury retrograde in the sign of its fall, Pisces.

The Mercury retrograde period has brought us through the mental and verbal dregs with Mercury moving backward in a sign in which it is not the most effective, touching wounded healer Chiron and stirring many ouchy issues.

We've been experiencing an often uninspiring mental and verbal backwash during this retrograde in Pisces, but that now comes to an end."

Continuing the alleviation of mental and psychic stress, Jupiter in Gemini has now pushed its way out of the double Yod formations, as well as the square to Chiron in Pisces, though there are lingering effects into late April. Those aspects were all harsh angles and awkward exchanges and headaches and mind fog this winter, but they also did some very big things and got some very important points across.

The Yods and the Jupiter-Chiron square were prominent during the seven-body Pisces stellium of February/March 2013, and they were epic, to say the least. Extremely stressful at times, but also catalyzing huge progress and movement, especially via communication, information, and local neighbourhood goings-on. If we navigated the harshness successfully, conversations were had and connections were made that will have long-term beneficial effects. We busted some things loose that needed to be busted loose. We got things moving in ways they needed to get moving. Things were said and understood that needed to be said and understood.

Jupiter leaves its retrograde shadow and enters fresh degrees of Gemini on April 25. It will blast through the second half of the sign, entering Cancer June 26. Jupiter has some fresh blessings to bestow via communication, networking, writing, speaking, messages, information, transportation, local society, siblings and people who feel like siblings. Be on the lookout for new opportunities and inspiration along these lines, with an especially potent good luck/good vibes time around May 28 as Venus and Jupiter, both benefic planets, form a conjuction at 23 degrees Gemini, along with Mercury and Black Moon Lilith. Conversations and communcations are blessed.

Mercury is the last personal planet to leave Pisces after the seven-body stellium. Now, only Chiron and Neptune remain. As Mercury enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, the sign of new life, we officially put the winter of 2013 behind us. We shake off the last of the mental hauntings from the very tough opening to this post-End Times year, and we look ahead. This is a big ingress, but we'll likely be too busy and too in-the-moment to notice. Just how Aries likes it.

Mercury conjuncts Uranus in Aries April 20, triggering bold and radical new ideas and the dissemination of information that leads in new directions. Mercury squares Pluto in Capricorn on April 21, giving us new perspective on the inky, corporate-governmental machine we're working with - challenges and cautions, as well as the best ways to get our messages and information across moving forward.

A Uranus-Infused New Moon in Aries Conjunct Mars and Venus: The Rebel Yell

Derby, baby!

Venus and Mars are currently travelling through the zodiac in a conjunction in late Aries, which is exact April 6 at 19 degrees of the sign. This conjunction involves Mars in its domicile - in one of the signs it rules - and Venus in its detriment - in a sign opposite one it rules. Mars is in a strong position here, and Venus is in a more difficult position.

The masculine energy is quick, easy, direct, and confident.

The feminine energy is trickier, on edge, uncertain, hot and cold, wearing a hat that doesn't feel completely comfortable.

The difference in these positions and conditions is to be kept carefully in mind as we open into a new expression of Aries at the New Moon April 10. The Aries New Moon at 20 degrees falls closely conjunct the Venus-Mars conjunction, and this indicates a new mix of competition and cooperation, self-interest and relationship focus opening here. This new mix is intricately tied to the new rules for relationships developing under a stronger Aquarian-era umbrella, and this is immediate, right now, going on as we speak.

New relationships and new directions within existing relationships are the theme for Aries season
2013, but there's some definite bite to the relational paradigm shift.

Venus formed an exterior conjunction to the Sun on March 28 at 7 degrees Aries, just after the Libra Full Moon opposite Aries stellium and square Pluto in Capricorn on March 26/27. The Libra Full Moon and exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus in Aries infused our directions in relationship with the impetus to break old and stagnant moulds, to sidestep old patterns and bad habits, and to move into a more fluid, workable, and egalitarian model for love, romance, relating, and partnership. We're living through epic and complicated times. Our relationships reflect this. Love is not all that simple now. Partnership is not all that simple. But this is nothing to be discouraged about. In fact, it's a big part of why we're here - especially if you are a member of the Pluto in Libra or Pluto in Scorpio generations.

The exterior conjunction of the Sun and Venus on March 28 was the first conjuction between these two bodies since the interior conjunction on June 5, 2012. That interior conjuction, with Venus retrograde in Gemini, also marked the Venus Transit, an event that will not be experienced again for more than one hundred years.