New Moon in Leo Squaring the Nodes: Opening Into A New, Alchemically-Charged Creative Cycle

Photos: Willow

The New Moon at 14 degrees Leo on August 6 (4:51 p.m. CST) conjuncts asteroid Vesta and squares the Scorpio North Node and Taurus South Node.

This New Moon indicates a dynamic new creative cycle is opening with a mix of participants that starts to gel around fall equinox. The house where 14 degrees Leo falls in your birth chart is the area where this new creative cycle is getting underway.

The influence of "hearth and home" asteroid Vesta, exactly conjunct the New Moon at 14 degrees Leo, indicates that we're invested in our own creative output and in the power of our personalities. We've kept our creative flames stoked through trial and tribulation. We've put time, effort, and energy into expressing the love, style, and passion in our hearts - even when it was hard, even when it was devalued, even when it seemed pointless. An investment has been made in pure human creativity, joy, and play. We've banked on the power of our personal artistry and creativity. Now we start to see what that investment is going to reap.

With a transiting Scorpio North Node, we are challenged to address energy shortfalls now by coming together with others in creative/working partnership. We are seeking true win-win partnerships where we accomplish more together than we could alone.

But with the Sun and Moon coming together in Leo, the sign of the diva, the celebrity, the star, there is friction possible within these partnerships that must be addressed.

Big personalities, big egos, and big creative power are coming together, with a particular gel point this fall under the Saturn-North Node-Venus conjunction at 8 degrees Scorpio.

This requires a careful understanding and distribution of power. It also requires the careful, proactive honing of our personalities and egos. We have to drop a whole lot in order to achieve the things we need to achieve, in order to fit through the slim doorway to Aquarius. Coming out of this Leo New Moon, square the Scorpio North Node, we're determining the essentials of our personalities from the non-essentials, the benefits of a strong ego versus the pitfalls of an oversized one.

We're purging any potentially detrimental ego bloat coming out of this Leo New Moon with an eye toward long-term gains. The more honest we can be with ourselves, the better, though this will not necessarily be easy. We can expect some ego burns and bruising around this New Moon as we are stripped down, charged up, and positioned for the long term.

We may not get the attention we were expecting, but the attention we do get is meaningful.

Mars in Cancer Within Cardinal T-Square with the Moon in Aries: Entering New Territory

Getting the word out at the Gateway Music Festival this weekend.

Photo: Willow

 

Mars in Cancer moves into cardinal t-square this weekend with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, tying our personal actions to the broader, collective shifts we're experiencing under the Uranus-Pluto square series. Don't underestimate the power of your personal leadership and direction over the next week, as we move into a nine-month period of cardinal Grand Crosses (August 2013 to April 2014) that will require our initiative, leadership, and decisiveness amidst chaos. Personal actions produce wide-reaching ripple effects that we can't even see at the moment...

 

Chatty Cathy Mercury is still hanging around cardinal t-square territory, as well, just getting back up to full speed in Cancer coming out of its July 20 direct station. Our minds are on the protection of the people and things we hold dearest, but it's taking all our Uranian ingenuity to protect all that is coming under attack. The homey Cancer circle has to become wider - much wider - if we are to effectively address the real threats to our long-term security and well-being.

 

The Moon enters Aries at 4:29 p.m. CST tomorrow, stirring fire, excitement, action, and drive as the weekend gets underway. The Aries Moon enters the cardinal t-square fray on Saturday - a major activation of t-square themes.

 

Venus in Virgo is hitting all the marks - opposite Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, sextile Saturn in Scorpio and Jupiter in Cancer, and trine Pluto in Capricorn. These aspects involve practically applying our highest spiritual ideals down to the last, nitty gritty detail. Being helpful to those we love and taking care of the mundane details (dishes done, bills paid, hair washed) provide the grounding necessary for all the Grand Water Trine energy. Venus in Virgo likes to get things done, and finishing things is one way we're showing the love now until Venus enters home sweet home Libra August 16, moving into the first cardinal Grand Cross.

 

This is potentially a very dynamic weekend with foreshadowing of the energies and themes soon to come. We're all gunning for new and interesting territory within familiar Cancerian summer realms.

 

The Sun, Vesta, and Ceres are in Leo. The Moon is in Aries. So do your thing this weekend, whatever that may be. No one does "you" better than "you."

 

 

Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces - July 26 at 7:08 a.m. CST

Venus in Virgo sextile Saturn in Scorpio - July 26 at 1:36 p.m.

Moon enters Aries - July 26 at 4:29 p.m., entering cardinal t-square July 27

Mars in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn - July 27 at 5:51 p.m. CST

Sun in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio - July 27 at 8:05 p.m.

Venus in Virgo sextile Jupiter in Cancer - July 28 at 8:42 a.m.

Venus in Virgo trine Pluto in Capricorn - July 30 at 7:52 a.m.

Mars in Cancer square Uranus in Aries - July 31 at 10:08 p.m.

Battling Genetically Modified Alfalfa Under the Hay Moon

Photo: Willow

The Sun enters Leo Monday morning (10:56 a.m. CST), and we leave an emotional roller coaster of a Cancer season behind us.

Flooding, wind, hail, and other destructive weather have been almost constants this Cancer season under the Grand Water Trines and cardinal t-squares. But we've come to expect this wild and erratic weather - weather even the old folks haven't seen in their lifetimes - over the past few years, under the cardinal Grand Crosses and t-squares that have formed since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008. Most will continue to point to climate change. I would point to intentional weather modification and manipulation of the food supply as the real kickers...

Citizens in Cancer Sun nation the United States of America have come to understand this Cancer season just how deeply their Big Brother surveillance state has dug in. Purposefully-escalating global battles also continue to simmer, as we experience an energetic replay of the Dirty Thirties under the Uranus-Pluto square series.

The Sun leaves this Cancerian battleground and dips into the leonine sign just in time for the Full Moon at 1:16 p.m. CST on July 22. This Full Moon falls at 0 degrees Aquarius - the freshest degree in the sign of the fresh, new astrological era.

This Aquarius Full Moon is the first of two Full Moons in the sign of the water-bearer. A book-end Aquarius Full Moon will occur August 20 at 28 degrees Aquarius.

Emotionally, we're finding our bearings in the new astrological era. These double Aquarius Full Moons indicate a sort of coolly atmospheric and detached quality amidst a sea of hot and pressurized change, shifts, and upheaval. We're getting comfortable with new-era circumstances that may not be all that comforting, all things considered. With these Full Moons, we're gaining the emotional bird's eye view, taking stock, getting a lay of the Aquarian-era land. We're detaching from areas of previous emotional attachment that could now drag us under and re-investing emotional energy into our own grand future visions, into our own interesting roles within unfolding Aquarian-era communities.

These Full Moons illuminate the progress we've made so far, as we slip off the last tendrils of the astrological Piscean era and allow Aquarius to permeate our emotional bodies. We have new emotional anchors within this new era, and these Aquarius Full Moons show us where those anchors are grabbing hold. The Aquarius house or houses of your astrological birth chart are the most fertile ground for those anchors, illuminated by the Full Moons.

This Full Moon is called the Hay Moon, for obvious reasons. This is haying season, when farmers and ranchers are cutting and baling hay to feed their livestock over the long, cold winter.

This Hay Moon falls in Aquarius, the sign of technology, and this includes biotechnology.

The dispositor of the Aquarius Full Moons is Uranus in Aries, which has just stationed retrograde at 12 degrees. Uranus is the planet leading the way into the new era, and in Aries, we are in territory we have never been in before. Nowhere is this more the case than with biotechnology and the current genetic modification of our food sources.

True to the 'Hay Moon in Aquarius' theme, there is a battle going on right now in Canada for our alfalfa crop. In addition to edible alfalfa products for humans, alfalfa is cut, baled, and used as feed for livestock. It is also used as fertilizer in organic farming, and it is planted as the transitional crop when a farm is moving from conventional to organic.

In other words, alfalfa is a bedrock crop for livestock and for organic farming.

Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics has a plan to sell Monsanto's genetically modified RoundUp Ready alfalfa commercially in Ontario and Quebec as early as this year.

This would be the first feral, perennial (grows back year-after-year), genetically modified crop unleashed in Canada, and cross-contamination of our natural, non-GM alfalfa crop would be inevitable.

Farmers and citizens from all provinces and territories are currently protesting the planned release of GM alfalfa in Canada but are receiving very limited mainstream media coverage. This has been pigeon-holed by media as a "farm issue," when in reality, it is an issue that affects anyone who eats.

I've written a basic primer on genetically modified alfalfa that can be found here: GM Alfalfa Primer. I've also written a very simple breakdown on How GM Alfalfa Affects You. Please distribute these as you see fit.

Starting next week, I will have "Stop GM Alfalfa in Canada: say "no" to Franken-hay" bumper stickers available for purchase. I'll have pictures available soon. Please contact me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com if you are interested in purchasing a bumper sticker.

If people from other countries would like to purchase the bumper stickers, I can have a "Stop GM Alfalfa: say "no" to Franken-hay" version printed, as well. I can also have a plain "Stop GM Alfalfa" version printed, as this certainly affects more than the hay crop.

Genetically modified alfalfa has been planted in the United States for the past three seasons. This is the very beginning for this feral, perennial, GM crop. Pressure from citizens can stop it from proliferating, but we have to be vocal, vigilant, and diligent. The future of the food supply is at stake.

Use these double Aquarius Full Moons to hone in on your own vision for the Aquarian-era future. Feel it out and get excited about what's ahead, despite the considerable challenges. We're living through mind-boggling times. Focus on the possibilities. Move yourself emotionally into Aquarius. Plant you feet on the water-bearer side. And join with those of like mind to accomplish more than you could accomplish on your own.

Mercury Direct Within Cardinal T-Square July 20: Watch the 'Hurtful Rebellion' Urges in Your Conversations

Photos: Willow

Mercury in Cancer goes direct at 1:22 p.m. CST on July 20, and just a little warning: this could be somewhat of a miserable station.

Mercury is tightly square Uranus, smoking hot coming out of its July 17 retrograde station in Aries, and this creates an erratic and manic effect on our minds. Ideas bop around in our brains relentlessly like exploding popcorn kernels. Our minds can race from one subject to another, to another, to another, seemingly with little continuity. We catch glimpses of lightning-flash insight (Uranus) that can be very challenging to translate into our everyday conversations (Mercury). The urges toward sweet tones and emotional closeness (Cancer) butt up against urges for freedom, independence, and shock value at all cost (Uranus). The desire for the familiar (Cancer) is coming into frictional contact with a body that basically likes to destroy familiarity (Uranus). This is a mental overload/emotional burnout combination.

Warning: people will be crying more easily than usual under this station.

Mercury is also opposing bad boy Pluto in Capricorn, kicking up the possibility of rage, paranoia, verbal triggers, mental pressure, detrimental thinking, and general anxiety. We can fixate on certain subjects now - especially subjects that make us feel bad. The general state of "hell in a handbasket" is preying on our minds - personally, collectively, or both.

"Mentally and emotionally difficult" sums up the positioning of our messenger planet Mercury right now, stationing within cardinal t-square. We've been thinking about how we really feel and what that means during the retrograde period (June 26 to July 20), and, as Mercury drags its heels to a stop in the zodiac and turns direct, uncomfortable conversations and challenging realizations related to that could be on the docket.

From a previous post, Mercury in Cancer Retrograde Within Cardinal T-Square: On Alert, Breaking Out of Mental Comfort Zones:

"People are more sensitive to conversations, tones, and opinions when Mercury is in a water sign, as it is now. We're very aware of our words and how our words can hurt the feelings of others, and this can keep us from having conversations we know we need to have. We may find we have to withdraw from interaction and discourse at times during the Mercury transit of Cancer, drawing our heads back into our crab shells to deal with the sensitivity and maintain emotional stability...

During the Mercury in Cancer transit, we'll be required to have conversations that unnerve us and to participate in interactions that make us or others uncomfortable. There is initiatory movement required here (cardinal energy), and we have to talk about it in order to keep things moving in the right direction...

Cancer involves emotional conditioning, especially from the early upbringing. With Mercury retrograding in Cancer within cardinal t-square, we are breaking out of communication patterns that involve manipulation, emotional blackmail, or guilt - all possible Cancer territory. We are intellectually coming to understand how our emotions can be used against us, how our fear can be used against us, how our desire for comfort can be used against us, and we're working to disengage from those sources of manipulation - personally and on a societal level."

Communicating honestly now without those layers of emotional manipulation - even the subtle ones - is our challenge.

Mercury will be slow in the zodiac for the remainder of this month, re-gaining full speed direct and leaving the retrograde shadow degrees by August 3. This keeps the squiggly-squirmy pressure on us for the rest of July. Any necessary conversations or connections previously avoided will be coming up now.

With powerhouse transpersonal planets Uranus and Pluto so strongly involved, we have the ability to hurt people quite deeply with our words and tones now. The mental and emotional territory in which we're being held can seem intolerable (Pluto), and there will be strong and immediate urges to rebel, to break away, to say anything that could move us in a different direction (Uranus).

 

Understand that these transpersonal planets don't care about hurt feelings. They don't care about the people you care about. The immense amount of energy coursing through our systems, our minds, and our conversations could do a lot of damage if we are not oh-so-careful with our tongues over the next couple weeks.

Don't allow these transpersonal planets to run you or your conversations. Control the energy and curb the urges to be shocking, rebellious, or hurtful. Mental comfort zones will certainly be disrupted by the Mercury contacts to Uranus and Pluto, but we don't have to make this any more difficult for people - or for ourselves - than it already is.

Mercury enters Leo August 8.

One Giant Step Backward for Humankind: Anti-Abortion Crusader Rick Perry Signs Sweeping Anti-Abortion Bill in Texas

Despite Wendy Davis' 11-hour filibuster on June 25 as Jupiter ingressed Cancer conjunct Black Moon Lilith, a sweeping anti-abortion bill has been passed in Texas.

Texas Governor and rabid anti-abortion crusader (yet also, rabid death penalty advocate) Rick Perry called a special session of the Texas Senate specifically to pass the bill.

Unless lawsuits stop it, this bill will close 37 of the 42 abortion clinics in the state, severely limiting access to abortions, especially for women outside major urban areas.

The bill requires that all abortion procedures be performed at a surgical centre. It also requires that all doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48km) of the clinic.

Only a handful of Texas abortion clinics fall within those parameters, and all are in urban centres.

Under the new bill, women will be required to travel hundreds of miles to receive an abortion. This brings up issues of transportation, time off work, and the cost of overnight stays, which will be a particular deterrent for women in lower income brackets. When you're low income, taking time off work often means losing your job.

This bill is a direct attack against the poor.

Logically, it will increase the number of low-income babies being born, and the Republicans just love those freeloaders, don't they?

They become cannon fodder or poisoned consumers at 18 years of age, but for some reason, those fetuses are just oh-so-precious to the anti-abortion Republican crowd.

Often, women must obtain abortions in secret. This bill makes it almost impossible for women to exercise their free will on this issue in a discreet and private manner.

Mars Enters Cancer for a Complex and Potentially Frustrating Transit Through the Sign of its Fall

Mars leaves Gemini for Cancer on July 13 at 8:22 a.m. CST, and it will transit the sign of the crab until August 27.

This is the planet Mars (war, aggression, action, will, direction, assertion, instinct, sexuality, desire, masculine/yang energy) taking a more roundabout tack through Cancer, the sign of its fall.

At first glance, Mars seems to be at odds with Cancer in almost every way. Mars is direct, identifying and moving toward goals in an immediate way. Cancer is indirect, taking a shuffling sideways stance as it sidles up to each new scenario. Mars is about desire and what we ultimately want. Cancer isn't always so sure what it wants, having to feel it out for some time before action can be taken. Mars is the warrior and (often) the taker of life. Cancer is the mother and the giver of life. Mars is masculine, hot, hard, demanding. Cancer is feminine, soft, sweet, and food and home-loving more than pure action-loving.

This illustrates the trickier expression of Mars through the sign of Cancer, and you can understand why Cancer is considered the sign of Mars' fall. By contrast, Mars is considered exalted in earth sign Capricorn, a more direct, concrete, and goal-driven sign.

There's one thing to keep in mind during the transit of Mars through Cancer, however: the crab has claws, and it's not afraid to use them. Rather, it might be afraid to use them, but it will use them if pushed to do so, if no option is available for retreat.

With Mars transiting Cancer, people can be more emotionally triggered than usual. They can be less rational and more easily drawn into conflicts that play on their emotions. People's actions will be rooted to how they feel in an immediate way during this transit. This creates emotionally-based behaviours that can be extremely ineffective, diffusing physical energy. And this can be capitalized on by the state to advance its agenda.

Security of home and of loved ones are generally of utmost importance to Cancer, and it will fight - hard and viciously - if it feels that security is threatened. True to its indirect nature, Cancer will also allow others to do the fighting for it so long as it can keep its head in its crabshell. You can see, for example, how Cancer Sun nation the U.S. of A. convinced citizens that Iraq was to blame for the attacks on the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001. Despite no links to the group that claimed responsibility and no proof of "weapons of mass destruction," many U.S. citizens still believe the abomination that was brought down on the cradle of civilization was just.

You can also see how people in that Cancer Sun nation continue to be triggered and manipulated to accept deadly force and war against anyone labeled "terrorist" by the state. (I would be considered a terrorist under the currently accepted definition, and possibly, you would, too.)

We can expect continued emotional manipulation this summer (mostly through media propaganda) as clashes between the people and the "Global Governance" state are ramped up. Watch the sociological dynamics closely and make sure you are not being drawn in emotionally (Cancer) against your ultimate will (Mars).

As Mars enters Cancer, it forms a conjunction to Jupiter, which is at lunar apogee, conjunct the astrological symbol Black Moon Lilith. Mars adds some juice to the Jupiter-Black Moon Lilith conjunction, requiring action and assertion in relation to the dark, denied feminine experience on this planet.

If you are already skilled in the navigation of Black Moon Lilith territory, you could advance quite effortlessly under this conjunction. If you are currently unaware of Black Moon Lilith issues or energy, you may find July and August - and the entire year-long transit of Jupiter through Cancer -  challenging.

The Mars-Jupiter-Black Moon Lilith conjunction in Cancer, strongly in effect into early August, indicates fights (Mars) related to beliefs (Jupiter), particularly those beliefs that have an underlying edge of misogyny and rage against women (Black Moon Lilith).

With Jupiter involved, there is a religious element to the proceedings. This particularly relates to the denied female experience (Black Moon Lilith) within religious/belief constructs. We have to keep an eye on the religious and cultural stories/beliefs coming up and playing out now with a particular emphasis on the downplaying, whitewashing, and suppression of women.

Jupiter relates to myth, story, truth, and wisdom. As the religious and cultural stories have been written mostly by men within patriarchal constructs, the portrayals of females within those stories and the archetypes we've been persuaded to swallow stemming from them are woefully inadequate.

From a previous post on the Sagittarius New Moon (ruled by Jupiter) last December:

"Unfortunately, the men who created and furthered the myths missed about 50% of the story. They missed the herstory of the history, as they say. This is the case with Greek and Roman mythology as well as with much of the standard religious and spiritual imagery of the day. We're working with partial archetypal truth at best and straight up patriarchy-approved fabrication at worst, and we have to understand how detrimental these power-imbalanced units of cultural transmission can be...

[I]t's time to re-write many of the stories one woman at a time, with the female/feminine voices - the real ones, not just the easily swallowed and non-threatening versions - equally strong, equally prevalent, equally important. It's time to bust out of the word-woven chrysalises of these old men and into our own stories. The real stories...

The feminine wisdom and knowledge that needs to be integrated is white hot and will shake things up considerably. It requires something of people. It makes people uncomfortable at times. It's not about being pretty or demure or seductive. It demands its rightful place - nothing more, nothing less."

With Mars lighting up a Grand Water Trine and a cardinal t-square this July, things are going to get hot, triggered, and feisty. These aspects are an indicator that we can expect continued attacks against women's reproductive rights by the Old Boys Club pseudo-religious version of reality trying desperately to cement itself during transiting Pluto in Capricorn. We can expect moves to be made by the patriarchal hierarchies to increase control on all fronts. The nuclear family unit, keeping people neatly tied up, occupied, and under control, will continue to be promoted as the only truly acceptable way to go...

All this requires that women in particular stand up, speak out, and exert themselves on the issues that really matter to them, rather than allowing others to fight in their stead.

As Mars, Jupiter, and Black Moon Lilith transit the first decan of Cancer, they form both a highly flowing and easy configuration - a Grand Water Trine - and a more challenging, clashing, frictional configuration - a cardinal t-square.

The Grand Water Trine involving Mars, Jupiter, and Black Moon Lilith in Cancer has the summer ease and good vibes flowing from July 17 to 22. Our actions pick up support, movement, and even a transcendent quality from beneficial contacts to Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. Progress toward our goals can fall almost magically into place. Things long-desired, especially related to family, those who feel like family, home, and emotional foundation, are now within reach in many cases. New directions dig in under these trines, as long as we've earned the advancement.

A new sense of family is emerging for the astrological Aquarian era, and this Grand Water Trine gives us an understanding of the ways in which family can expand beneficially to include non-blood and non-marriage ties.

Don't get too hooked on the ease of the Grand Water Trines, however. We're going to need all their good vibes, faith, and momentum in order to get through the more challenging cardinal t-square configurations immediately following - not to mention the series of cardinal Grand Crosses forming between August 2013 and April 2014.

Mars conjuncts Jupiter on July 22, bringing to an official close the spring/summer of 2013 Grand Water Trines. (The good times are fleeting, y'all.) Mars will then zip ahead of the Greater Benefic in the zodiac and move headlong into cardinal t-square territory.

Mars forms an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn July 27 and a square to Uranus in Aries July 31. If you had forgotten the hardcore, do-or-die undertone on this planet currently, this cardinal t-square will remind you.

The influence of Mars in Cancer indicates a protective desire. We are acting all over this globe to protect our families, our communities, our regions, and our countries from the stranglehold of fascism and from another planned World War. With Cancer, there is a particular focus on the fight for our food supply against chemically-treated and genetically-modified corporate food production.

Corruption within our institutions (Pluto in Capricorn) is reaching the surface, triggering rage, movement, and action (Mars) among the people. All over this planet, people are in revolt - externally, internally, or both.

The Mars-Uranus square July 31 indicates further hot spots and uprisings percolating throughout this month, but you have to remember that, despite the Uranian influence, this is pretty much expected - and planned - by the powers that be (Pluto in Capricorn). The ongoing battles, protests, and uprisings between the people and the state may seem spontaneous, but they aren't. We're being intentionally squeezed and squeezed and squeezed under transiting Pluto in Capricorn and the series of squares to Uranus in Aries. There is only so much people will tolerate, can tolerate, and this is clearly understood by the forces doing the squeezing.

It's inspiring and wonderful to see people standing up to fascism and to deadly state control all over this planet. Human beings are proving their intelligence and genius despite horrifying and ongoing campaigns of mind control. Despite the erosion of their health and biological systems via radioactivity, GMO contamination, toxins in the water and air, electromagnetic pollution, chemtrails, and a variety of other methods. Just understand that, to a great extent, this is being managed and controlled on a macro level, so don't take your eyes off what you're doing and what you can do in the future on the micro level...

Jupiter in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn August 7 and squares Uranus in Aries August 21, creating a slow burn cardinal t-square in effect for most of August. This brings beliefs, religion, myths, stories, cultural knowledge, and wisdom - particularly with a dark feminine bent - strongly into the fray. Women's wisdom, feminine wisdom, wisdom from the soul - especially the kinds that threaten the current establishment - are our guiding lights.

The Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto cardinal t-square becomes a cardinal Grand Cross at the end of August, and this kicks off an eight-month period when the Grand Cross is the dominant configuration. Spicy, dicey, and potentially very challenging.

There will be waves of acute pressure and stress under these Grand Crosses during which we will be forced to make moves, to make decisions, and to take charge while things are coming apart at the seams all around us.

The lesser benefic and relationship planet Venus enters Libra on August 16, forming the first cardinal Grand Cross August 23 - 27. This is four 90-degree square aspects (frictional, clashing, dynamic) from bodies in all four cardinal signs (leadership, initiative, new direction).

Mercury in Libra forms the second cardinal Grand Cross September 13 - 19.

The Sun in Libra forms the third October 1 - 12.

Mars enters Libra December 7, 2013 until July 26, 2014 for an almost eight-month stay in the sign of the scales (its detriment), including a retrograde period from March 1 to May 19, 2014.

This transit activates the Uranus in Libra, Neptune in Libra, and Pluto in Libra generations in new ways for the astrological Aquarian era, as well as anyone with a strong contingent of personal planets in Libra.

Mars will form its first cardinal Grand Cross moving direct between December 23, 2013 and January 8, 2014.

The second cardinal Grand Cross will be an exact formation, blisteringly potent, forming April 21 - 24, 2014 with Mars Rx in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn all on 13 degrees of the signs.

So things are getting tight by the end of July on the cardinal square front, and this tension squeezes us and keeps on squeezing right through April of 2014.

Our personal circumstances are being shaken up and transformed via pressures from the macro level. Structures are morphing on every possible front over the next two years. We are in a state of change, shift, flux, and we're trying to position ourselves well within it. We will be required to make major, life-altering decisions within this state of flux, or those decisions will be made for us. Understand this and make whatever proactive moves you can to stay out of the cardinal Grand Cross chaos and crossfire.

These are epic transits, these are epic times, and we are being placed in epic roles within them. We will be required to stand up, to take the lead, and to make courageous decisions that affect many people under these Grand Crosses. With the strong influence of Black Moon Lilith, this will particularly be required of women and men with a marginalized perspective.

With Mars in the sign of its fall until the end of August, we can expect thwarted wills and frustrated desires to be a part of the scene. Things will not necessarily go according to plan, as our personal actions (Mars) are tied inextricably to broader sociological and political forces (Uranus/Pluto). What we want may not be what is wanted for us, from us, or through us by the universe. Or it may not be time to get what we want. This is going to make a lot of people very pissy and short-tempered, especially if they don't have the astrology as a navigational map.

Cancer has an innocence about it, but people can use this innocence (or pseudo-innocence) to fight or to avoid things that need to be dealt with during Mars in Cancer. Passive aggressiveness, denial, emotional manipulation, avoidance, and the use of family connections can all be fighting tactics during this transit, as can an aggressive desire to be seen as the most caring, the most loving, the most nurturing, the most motherly.

Mars in Cancer is a slippery placement at times and can be difficult to deal with. Understand the different pacing toward goals, accept the roundabout way, and know that the big picture is much bigger than we can even grasp at this point in time.

Douche of the Day at Willow's Web Astrology

That's a whole lot of assholes.

Photo: Willow

It's the last gasp of the Dark of the Moon in Gemini, heading to Monday morning's New Moon in Cancer. The Moon was conjunct female warrior Pallas Athene and male warrior Mars in Gemini early this morning, and there is a definite edge to communications now and through the weekend.

There is hate, aggression, and verbal violence surfacing during this Dark of the Moon in Gemini.

And rising from the dank recesses of the interwebs this morning was our pal, ravenise.

His comment on my Wendy Davis post pretty much said it all:

"Politicizing the defense of the murder of unborn children by whores too promiscuous and careless to prevent pregnancy... a new low... great work willow, your tribe would defend any outrage in the name of protecting your "rights" and "Freedom.""

This morning, I had yet another comment from this dude. (There have been many.) I didn't have the inclination to read it in full or to publish it on my site, so it has been rejected.

But what I'd like to illustrate now is just how fucking good Willow's Web Astrology is.

Apparently, the rage burns like a blazing inferno in this guy's soul that careless and promiscuous whores get to have abortions.

He's is also a feminism/gay rights hater who believes feminism and gay rights are a Zionist conspiracy to destroy the nuclear family unit. I have quite a few of those people surfacing and commenting on the blog of late. Makow groupies, I assume.

This guy is a really great combo of insane, hateful, misogynistic, and miguided views, in my opinion. And he's also an illustration of my point:

Even the people who oppose my views 100% can't stay away from Willow's Web Astrology blog!

Yes, folks. This site is just that fucking fabulous...

The Moon enters Cancer at 5:14 p.m. this afternoon, and it will conjunct Jupiter and the lunar apogee, Black Moon Lilith, tonight, keeping the dark feminine issues up front and centre.

There's a potentially nasty emotional-alchemical mix churning about this weekend with Mercury retrograde in Cancer and the Moon in Balsamic phase, and this mix isn't really going anywhere. The conjunction between Jupiter and Black Moon Lilith at the time of Jupiter's ingress of Cancer colours the entire year-long transit, keeping dark issues related to women and femininity in our faces. You can read more about that here: Jupiter Enters Cancer at Lunar Apogee: The Wisdom of Our Pitch Blackest Emotional Experiences

Saturn stations direct just after midnight on July 8. The New Moon in Cancer follows close behind at 2:14 a.m. Monday morning, kicking off the workweek.

Let's use this New Moon in Cancer to open into new authority (Saturn) for women (Moon/Cancer) over their own sexuality issues (Scorpio). Let's take power away from the mostly rich, white males who feel they are crusading for the unborn chillins - within positions of elected power or not.

Keep abortion safe, legal, and accessible.

Let's not backslide into a society where women are forced to carry and give birth to babies against their wills. Let's not go back to the days of coat hangers, back alleys, infections, and hemorrhages.

That sounds a lot like hell on Earth to me.

Wendy Davis: Black Moon Lilith in Cancer in Action, Protecting Abortion Rights

Wendy Davis on the Texas Senate floor June 25.

Photo: Eric Gay/AP

Last night, as Jupiter ingressed Cancer and conjuncted Black Moon Lilith, Texas Democrat senator Wendy Davis was Black Moon Lilith in action.

Davis successfully talked for 11 straight hours on the floor of the U.S. Senate June 25 to stop an anti-abortion bill from reaching Republican Governor Rick Perry's desk. This is a move called filibustering.

As Davis spoke and the midnight deadline of the Senate special session passed, the bill was officially dead - for now.

Through her actions, Davis is drawing attention to the ongoing attack on women's reproductive rights in the United States. Abortion is an issue that often has difficult emotions associated - shame, guilt, sadness, fear, anger. Perfect Black Moon Lilith territory. Abortion is often kept in murky, unspoken territory in our patriarchal societies. Davis standing up on this issue in such a dramatic way - supported by men and women around the world - helps move abortion out of the shadows and into place as a basic, human health issue - where it belongs.

The anti-abortion bill Davis filibustered would have banned abortion past 20 weeks of gestation, limited abortion-inducing drugs, and required that abortions be provided at ambulatory surgical centres by physicians who had admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles. This requirement would have closed 37 of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas, severely limiting access to abortions, especially for rural women who do not live near a hospital.

You may recall that Rick Perry is the Texas Governor who passed the forced sonogram laws in 2012, which required women to have a transvaginal sonogram before they could have an abortion. The laws, which were passed in four states - Texas, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina - required doctors to basically attempt to talk women out of having abortions right at the abortion clinic itself.

Jupiter Enters Cancer at Lunar Apogee: The Wisdom of Our Pitch Blackest Emotional Experiences

Tonight at 8:40 p.m. CST, Jupiter moves from the sign of its detriment (Gemini) to the sign of its exaltation (Cancer) for a one-year stay. As Jupiter makes the ingress, it is at lunar apogee, conjunct the astrological symbol Black Moon Lilith, and this energy colours the entire year-long Jupiter transit.

The wisdom gleaned from our pitch blackest emotional experiences fills our bones like marrow. This becomes our lantern in the darkness, a year-long guiding light through the often horrifying themes and circumstances of the Pluto in Capricorn era.

We draw on the simple, nourishing wisdom of our mothers, our grandmothers, our roots, our families, our clans, our homes, our emotions, and our souls to get through this one. We draw on the wisdom of our early upbringings, particularly the difficult experiences. But we use it to advance, not to fall back. We're hurtling into Aquarius, and there's no going home again, no matter what the Cancerian nostalgia is telling you...

Black Moon Lilith is a symbol of the dark, denied feminine experience. In the cultural stories, Lilith was Adam's first wife. She refused to be his wifely subordinate and was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, exiled, because of it. Adam hooked up with Eve, who was content to be just a rib, just an offshoot of her man. And Lilith discovered that comfy, cosy society would prefer her 'out of sight, out of mind.' Truth be told, it would prefer her dead so that it didn't have to look at what she reflected, represented.

There has been a whole lot of post-post-modern mythologizing about Black Moon Lilith. To the point that it has been swaddled and stifled by the psychological takes.

You have to remember that the myths in astrology exist primarily so that we can get a handle on the energy of the points or bodies. It's about putting them into context so we can properly apply them in our lives and in our selves.

So stripping down all the myth and the layered language: Black Moon Lilith is raw, raging, volatile, marginalized, vilified. It's a caged animal screaming "fuck you" to whoever put it there. It's a trigger point with a deep reach into longstanding issues, grudges, resentments. It touches the historical mistreatment of women and the historical downplaying of feminine knowledge on this planet, in general.

It's also a point of our deepest power, creativity, and hard-won feminine know-how. It's a point where we're willing to stand alone, in our power, in our righteousness, in our marginalized understanding of things. If we tap this point correctly, harnessing the raw and wild energy surging up from its depths, it is source. It is Kali destroying maya, ripping down blinders, yanking heads out of sand, tearing phony constructs asunder. It is Kali forcing us to see, to understand, to know how it really is on this planet and how it really has been.

The state of women on this planet is abysmal. The state of the soulful on this planet is abysmal. Emotional health is in the tank in many, many respects. Our institutions and power hierarchies reinforce this, and Black Moon Lilith transiting Cancer isn't going to let us forget it.

This Black Moon Lilith point, with all its discomfort, alienation, and disturbance, is a primary source of guiding wisdom over the next year. It's our lucky horseshoe. Acknowledging its dark and often disturbing wisdom, accepting it, validating it, drawing it into the whole - this is how we fully capitalize on the blessings Jupiter would now like to bestow.

The cultural wisdom and the cultural myths have mostly been written by men, from the male point-of-view. During the transit of Jupiter in Cancer, women's wisdom and stories are in the spotlight.

Some long-denied issues are coming to the forefront this year, particularly related to mothers, mothering, nurturing, supporting, food, cooking, the nuclear family unit, home life, femininity, emotion, and soul. If we work to bring these issues into the mainstream whole, we can experience both emotional resolution and rapid expansion during Jupiter's transit of Cancer.

Saturn Turns Direct in Scorpio: Watch the Offloading of Dreaded Responsibilities

Saturn is currently stationing in Scorpio and will go direct just after midnight on July 8. As it drags its heels to a stop in the zodiac, it permeates the overall astro scene with its themes - its dreaded, depressing, arduous, isn't-that-a-bummer themes.

Saturn is the planet that (eventually) leads us to position, advancement, success, prestige, and recognition in the public realm. It spurs us to reach our grandest potential in these human forms. But it rides our asses like a rented mule in the process.

Since entering Scorpio in October 2012, Saturn has been doing a slow dredge within the structural set-ups of our lives and of our societies, at large. It has drawn out into our concrete realities certain emotional and psychological truths that have up until now been submerged or semi-submerged. We are now aware of the deep, dark, disturbing subtext in ways we weren't before. Our awareness of underlying energy dynamics has increased. We've honed and utilized our X-Ray vision. Whip-smart, razor-sharp.

And for those who already skillfully traipsed around in the Scorpionic nether-realms, new position, advancement, stability, and validation have come with this transit.

We've had a period of waiting, restructuring, and sober second thought as Saturn went retrograde over the first leg of Scorpio February 18 to July 8, 2013, particularly related to career. This period now draws to a close.

Saturn is now stationing direct, about to move full speed ahead into the ongoing process of structural metamorphosis underway on this planet and in our lives.

Career progress that has been stalled but still percolating beneath the surface can now unfold in earnest. Steps people have been mulling over to cement advancement and position can now start to be taken.

There is a more overt jockeying for position and power underway as of July 8. A new pecking order formulating. Be aware of this.

At the same time, Saturn in Scorpio in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn indicates that the structures as they exist (Saturn/Capricorn) have become hell (Scorpio/Pluto). People's responsibilities within those structures have become hell - though this is often kept hidden, contained. Obligations within these past-their-prime Pluto in Capricorn-era structures have become enervating traps to the point that people will gnaw their own legs off to get out of them. The more people deny the underlying situations, the more desperate and disturbed they become, until they'll do pretty much anything to hand it off to someone else.

This direct station increases the pressure and makes it difficult for people to pretend. If inherent problems are being ignored, keeping up the shiny, happy public face will be challenging, to say the least. Some will crumble under the pressure. At its extreme, this station will have people wishing for sweet, sweet death rather than face the lack of passion, interest, or integrity in their careers and in the structures in which they participate. Keep an eye on mental and emotional health, and take the pressure off others (if deserving) when you can.

One of the things to watch out for during the entire transit of Saturn through Scorpio (October 2012 to September 2015) is the offloading of responsibilities as the structures continue their slow collapse.

People will be trying with all their stealthy, wily, and crafty might to get out from under energetic obligations that are draining them.

From now into mid-July particularly, as Saturn stations and the drudgery and bullshit become intolerable, people will be attempting to offload their dreaded responsibilities onto you, and they'll be willing to pull some pretty underhanded moves to get you to bite.

These aren't just concrete responsibilities. They're also heavy loads of the emotional, psychological, or psychic variety. A weight people can no longer sustain. Secrets people can no longer contain.

People are going to be pulling some pretty desperate and funky manoeuvres to pass the buck. However, the passing of the buck is the last thing we need. The passing of the buck has gotten us into the mess we're in on this planet today.

There's the lazy way to deal with the Saturn in Scorpio restructuring themes, and there's the right way.

The right way involves confronting the dynamics head-on, treating them as if they are real (they are), addressing them but also getting yourself out of their reach whenever possible.

Responsibly transforming the current structures and power hierarchies into something different, into something that works better for all involved, takes time and effort. Rather than committing that time and effort, people will simply try to plop the whole kit and caboodle onto you. They'll try to slide out from under the weight of their obligations, dropping them on your lap.

Again, these are responsibilities and obligations (Saturn) that have become enervating hell (Scorpio). Unless you want to start a stack of new responsibilities from a point of "enervating hell," it is not advisable to put yourself under this weight. Pluto in Scorpios, this is particularly directed to you right now.

Don't allow people to offload on you, and if you are trying to offload on others, stop. It isn't going to work.

The full psychological, emotional, and energetic weight of the responsibilities being offloaded are unbearable. They cannot by borne. By anyone.

Saturn in Scorpio indicates a time of restricted energy - especially emotional or psychological support energy. The hidden glue that holds everything together. There is not enough energy to continue to prop up and sustain the current structures or the way things are being done. These things are corrupt to the point of inherent dysfunction and toxicity. We've been pushed to a point of multi-level crisis, to the end of the road for the current way of things, and offloading the current situations onto other people will only create breakdowns.

No one can step into the current structures and responsibilities and maintain them. We are living during the Pluto in Capricorn years, and the structures themselves need to change - dramatically and from the inside out.

There is a leveling of hierarchy required here, a sharing of rewards and profits, a redistribution of responsibility, recognition, prestige, power. There are changes required here that must be triggered by people getting down to brass tacks. We have to get down to how we really feel about things, how we've really felt, perhaps, for years or decades now, and we have to allow the accessing of these suppressed feelings to fuel the ongoing process of structural metamorphosis experienced during the Saturn-Pluto mutual reception.

The Pluto in Leos are looking to retire or at the very least, to be unburdened of their heavy loads.

But their structural reality does not translate to other generations.

We don't simply step into the shoes of the Pluto in Leos. We morph the structures, the responsibilities, the power, and the rules so that they're alive, adaptable, and responsive to us and to our needs.

This is one of the primary failures of the structures as they currently exist: the needs of the human beings within those structures have not been taken fully into account.

There is next-to-no emotional or psychological support for people within the current structures, even as those people are eroded terribly by structural dysfunction, corruption, and illegitimacy. There is no allowance for emotional, mental, psychic, or soul health within these rigid, top-down business and governmental set-ups.

And this is where things are breaking down - at the hidden emotional, psychological, psychic, and soul levels. At the energetic level. People can no longer suppress and carry on, as they've been trained to do. We're hitting the brick wall on multiple fronts, on most fronts, and it is going on all over this planet.

It's crucially important during Saturn in Scorpio that you take on only the responsibilities that feel right in your soul to take on. Don't fall for the little tricks of Scorpionic persuasion, attempting to lure you into taking on too much. Don't allow people to unburden themselves on you, unless you know it's the right thing to do.

Take on the burden for another person against your ultimate will, and watch yourself falter and crumble under its weight. Watch yourself fail, as you've been set up to fail.

Alternatively, there are many people scrambling for footing and position during Saturn's transit of Scorpio. Often, these are people who have not been fully responsible with Scorpio energy in the past.

From a previous post:

"Under Saturn's thumb over the next years, misuses and abuses of power will be put in check. The results of underlying dynamics we've been (even unknowingly) furthering will start to surface. Issues falsely believed long-resolved will be stirred, like hot spots after a brush fire re-igniting. We'll be confronted with our misunderstandings of the way energy really works. We'll come into contact with the consequences of the way we've been living our lives - for good or ill."

People are trying to advance themselves using your energy, your talent, your hard work, and your position. Understand this. Keep a wary eye on this. And withdraw your energy and support from these misguided souls wherever possible.

All in all, the Saturn direct station July 8 looks fairly blessed, occurring as it does within Grand Water Trine with Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Pisces. All three bodies are in early water, and there is a freshness, an innocence, and an exuberance to this configuration that is lovely, indeed. We are being lovingly assisted by the universe with the very complex challenges with which we are currently faced.

If we keep an eye on the thorny Saturn in Scorpio issues, as well as on an emotionally manipulative/vicious tendency with Black Moon Lilith conjunct Jupiter in early Cancer, this one should be fairly smooth.


All Saturn in Scorpio-related articles: Saturn in Scorpio

A pay-for article from Willow's Web: Saturn in Scorpio

Ceres Enters Leo After Kicking Butt on GMO Food Issues Around the World

Ceres enters Leo June 22 after an extended transit of Cancer, and the things that nourish us most deeply shift from Cancerian things (home, family, roots, familiarity, food, comfort) to Leonine things (fun, play, style, art, drama, kids).

How much do we need this shift? A whole lot, I'd say.

Ceres is the dwarf planet related to agriculture, grains, and the fertility of the Earth, and during its transit of Cancer, Ceres took part in an extremely hardcore cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, just as Uranus and Pluto formed their third exact square May 20.

I'm not a predictive astrologer, but I did correctly predict, with the strong Ceres influence, that food and agriculture issues - particularly GMO issues - would be huge, at the make-or-break point, by planting time this spring.

From a November 8, 2012 article:

"Agriculture-related dwarf planet Ceres stationed retrograde at 3 degrees Cancer on October 31 within a cardinal Grand Cross with Venus in Libra, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn.

This configuration brings food and agriculture issues to prominence, particularly as they relate to increased corporate globalization (Pluto in Capricorn) and the direction into biotechnology (Uranus in Aries).

Ceres maintains its strong influence into mid-2013, forming a cardinal t-square May 5-7 that will still be within orb during the third Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square May 20, 2013.

These are high stakes times for the future of food and, correspondingly, for life on this planet.

And nowhere are those high stakes more visible than in the realm of natural versus genetically modified seeds and foods."

These are some of the extremely high stakes GMO-related events that took place with Ceres in Cancer within cardinal t-square this spring:

- It was recently announced by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network that, despite widespread public opposition, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved a variety of Monsanto's RoundUp Ready GM alfalfa for commercial sale and growth in Canada.

Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa was first released in January 2011 in the United States by a pro-Monsanto FDA and Department of Agriculture. It was scheduled to be commercially sold in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, by Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics as early as spring of 2013, under the Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square. All that was required was a rubber stamp approval of the GM seeds by the Canadian government - which it has now reportedly received.

This means it is now legal to sell and grow untested, unproven genetically modified alfalfa seed commercially in Canada. Forage Genetics and others have the green light.

It is also impossible to know if other varieties of GM alfalfa have been or will be approved, as the approval process is kept secret from the public.

Currently, Canada's alfalfa crop is GMO-free and mostly unsprayed. Since alfalfa is a feral perennial, cross-pollination by GM alfalfa would be impossible to contain, and contamination of the natural crop would be absolutely devastating. Because alfalfa is used primarily as animal feed, the spread of GM alfalfa could potentially contaminate all meat and animal products. But because alfalfa is used as a fertilizer and foundational building block of the entire organic agricultural system, contamination by GM alfalfa could mean the literal end of any certified organic food at all.

Juno Stations Retrograde in Aquarius, Black Moon Lilith Enters Cancer

Soul mate asteroid Juno turns retrograde on June 14 at 19 degrees Aquarius, in the sign of the new astrological era. This begins a three-month retrograde period that will have our lady Juno squaring off with heavy hitter Saturn in Scorpio.

The mean calculation for Black Moon Lilith, the lunar apogee, shifts into Cancer June 9 where it will stay until March 13, 2014. The dark side of mothers, mothering, caring, emotional support, femininity, apple pie Americana, and the family unit become prominent themes. As BML in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn, we see the false security people are grasping to, maintained by the military and police forces of the state, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Cancer Sun nations Canada and the United States.

I've written about both these transits, as well as the Venus retrograde in Capricorn at the end of this year, in a 2013 paid article you can find here:

Venus, Juno, and Pluto: the Reconfiguring and Renegotiation of Marriage and Commitment in 2013

The article is just over 5,300 words and costs $20.

Please note: This article was released in January, 2013.