The Lunar Angles

We started this cardinal Grand Cross-flavoured month off with a bang with an Aries New Moon conjunct Uranus on March 30 that activated the first wave of the cardinal Grand Cross configurations. This was a cardinal New Moon in the first sign of the zodiac, which indicated a 28-day lunar cycle involving the forging ahead into new emotional territory. Conjunct Uranus in Aries, this involves the emergence into full individuality and self-sovereignty, and this process has its traumatic moments. Accepting who we really are in 2014 and what that really means moving forward is not a simple thing.

The Moon will re-activate the Grand Cross from the other three cardinal signs throughout the month, indicating ongoing emotional adjustments and inner progress required in relation to the dynamism, the pressures, and the rapid, out-of-nowhere movement of this month.

The Moon enters cardinal Cancer on April 5 (3:40 p.m. CST), activating the Grand Cross on April 6 and 7.

The Cancer Moon will also square the Aries Sun on April 7 (2:31 a.m.), marking the First Quarter Moon. This generally indicates a period of internal pressure which forces us to take action in some way to further the themes of the New Moon cycle. 

However, the Moon also squares Mars retrograde in Libra April 7 (6:34 a.m.) as we open into that First Quarter Moon. This Moon-Mars square is challenging and has the potential to frustrate on a fairly intense level. What we're feeling (Moon) and what we're doing (Mars) are somewhat at odds due to the broader circumstances in which we find ourselves. It's difficult to get emotional needs met under the stressed conditions, especially when they involve other people.

Recall that our fiery pal Mars is highly stressed at the moment. The action planet is in pretty much the opposite condition it prefers - retrograde, in the sign of its detriment, being pressured on all sides by the cardinal Grand Cross. Can you say "frustrated will?" Can you say "delayed action?" Can you say "under the universe's thumb?"

Emotional pressures may force us to act, but there is no guarantee that our actions will be effective or that they will take us directly to our goals. Movements made (or not made) - especially in relationship - are highly karmic this month and have ripple-effects we cannot fully predict.

The Moon enters Libra, another cardinal sign, on April 13 (2:33 a.m.), activating the Grand Cross on April 14. This does increase the possibility of us keeping our emotional cool, but the conjunction to Mars Rx in Libra (April 14 at 10:00 a.m.) makes for some antsy and irritated social energy, particularly when involving relationships with family or those who feel like family.

From there, the Libra Moon forms a super potent total Full Moon eclipse on April 14/15. Relationship themes and underlying emotions are pushed to a head here. One relational backdrop ends, and a new one is erected under pressurized circumstances. Identity, independence, and self-sovereignty - and how those things fit successfully into new-era relationship constructs - are strong themes. Under this Libra Full Moon eclipse, we are pushed to determine how we really feel about the relationships in our lives and to initiate any changes that must be made in order to support our full identities and the full identities of others.

The Moon enters the final cardinal sign of the zodiac, Capricorn, on April 19 (7:28 p.m.), joining the proceedings for the exact Grand Cross involving Uranus in Aries, Jupiter in Cancer, Mars Rx in Libra, and Pluto Rx in Capricorn on April 20 and 21. This marks Last Quarter Moon, indicating inner changes required in light of circumstances. The Moon is in its detriment - in a tough sign - in Capricorn, and the conjunction to Hades-dwelling Pluto (April 20 at 6:32 p.m.) is particularly harsh, indicating that we must maintain our responsibilities and get the job done even when the proceedings are not going exactly as we would like. This Last Quarter Moon could produce a "bitter emotional pill" or two to swallow, as well as some degree of emotional deprivation. Fun times!

The Moon will return to Aries on April 26 (4:01 a.m.) until entering Taurus April 28 (8:23 a.m.). This final cardinal Moon in Balsamic phase closes out the jam-packed lunar cycle begun March 30. We experience a New Moon solar eclipse in Taurus on April 29 (12:14 a.m.).

This month is a little hard on the emotions at times, it's true.

The pressure (emotional and otherwise) is spurring us to take action, but the action planet (Mars) is buried under some fairly adverse conditions at the moment.

The proceedings require some strong objectivity, as we are existing under conditions that are only partially in our control.

If actions or plans crap out this month, understand that further re-direction is required. If your desire for movement is thwarted, understand that your actions would not have taken you to your ultimate goal - or that the ultimate goal requires some honing.

We are being re-positioned this month within some very complex circumstances. Keeping the peace, keeping our balance, and keeping our cool are our challenges.

Dates that may require emotional re-orientation and action under pressure:

April 6/7
April 14/15
April 20/21

Venus in Exaltation to Soften the Edges

Venus enters Pisces, the sign of its exaltation, on April 5 (2:31 p.m. CST) where it will remain until May 2. This is the love, money, and relationship planet in a sign it thoroughly enjoys being in, and we love it when the love planet is enjoying itself!

Venus in Pisces taps us into the universe's love and guidance at a heart level, and it elevates our interpersonal relationships, placing them within the context of their ultimate spiritual purpose.

Venus in Pisces is soft, it's sensitive, it's sweet, it's kind, it's glowing with love and compassion for all the living creatures on this planet.

So the love is flowing this month - in interpersonal relationships, from psychic communication and connections, from dreams, from guides, and from loving spirit itself.

Venus transiting Pisces for the month of April works to soothe and smooth some of rough edges and tough angles of this cardinal Grand Cross-flavoured month - and yes, there are plenty of rough edges and tough angles to navigate.

With Venus transiting Pisces, we're more strongly aware of our personal relationship with spirit and with the loving guidance that seems to come to us when we need it most. We're tapped in to the broader spiritual meaning and purpose of some of the interpersonal connections in our lives - including the most challenging ones - and it is from this point of increased understanding that we relate.

Ultimately, the people and relationships the universe brings our way have a broader meaning. We're doing something important here on this planet - though we can sometimes lose sight of that in the day-to-day struggle - and we're here doing it together. Our hands are clasped, we walk together, though our physical bodies may be miles (or lifetimes) apart.

With Venus transiting Pisces, it is easier to grasp and to experience the spiritual purpose of human lives and relationships. We can see and sense the etheric connections that link us, that weave us into the same web of love, beauty, meaning, and togetherness.

It's true that we are experiencing levels of suffering on this planet that need not exist. It's true that we are experiencing suffering that is being intentionally brought down upon us. Because of this, this suffering seems to have no real purpose, no necessity.

Venus in Pisces helps us to see the struggles, the pain, and the suffering as part of the same whole, alleviating us from our isolated sorrow about the state of it all. Anyone with a loving heart feels sorrow about the levels of suffering being experienced on this planet, and anyone with a loving heart desires to alleviate that suffering wherever possible. This is not sorrow that anyone bears alone. With Venus transiting Pisces, we are aware of how these struggles and challenges link us to every human being that has walked this Earth and to every human being who one day will.

Our hearts are wide open when Venus is transiting Pisces, and we have to take it all - the joy, the love, the beauty, the meaning, along with the struggles, the pain, the challenges, and the disappointments.

We are also challenged, at the change of the eras, to love smarter - without detrimental self-sacrifice, without foolishness, without denial, without delusion - and these challenges are with us throughout the month. As Venus moves to a conjunction to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces on April 20, we are becoming aware of the areas where we have been too open-hearted, too trusting, too giving, too go-with-the-flow, and part of our healing process now involves tightening those areas up while applying new boundaries.

Overall, however, Venus in Pisces brings some beautiful water magic and some delightful relational flow this month.

Venus will conjunct Neptune in Pisces April 11, and our hearts are full to the brim, overcome with the beauty of these odd little lives together on this odd little planet. (Though the Moon in Virgo opposing certainly works to keep our feet on the ground. Nothing like a few irritating details from mundane life to step on that Neptune buzz!)

Lesser Benefic Venus in Pisces then forms a gorgeous trine to Greater Benefic Jupiter in Cancer on April 17. This, too, has hearts and emotions singing, as we are so very sensitive to all that is going on around us.

At the same time, Venus will sextile Pluto in Capricorn (April 18), bringing a sense of shared struggle and loving collective effort to the battle for survival on this planet in the face of capital, finance, corporate business, and Global Government run amok.

Finally, on April 24, Venus in Pisces will form a trine to Saturn Rx in Scorpio, and we gratefully surrender some of the deep, dark realities we are uncovering to their place within the whole. Under this Venus-Saturn trine, we are better able to keep an open and loving heart in the face of the intense emotional, psychological, and financial struggles we are facing on the planet. We are able to bring even the darkest and bleakest of realities back to the loving whole, back to the spiritual intent under the ultimate responsibility of God, spirit, or our higher powers.

This is a trine that can lighten the load at a time, following the exact cardinal Grand Cross April 20 - 23, when we may feel as if we are breaking under the pressure. It brings us some much-needed love. If we've given it everything we had to give, if we have not shirked, we will likely receive a loving boost from the universe here, along with some rejuvenation at the heart level that increases our gratitude for these oh-so-brief lifetimes on this planet, no matter how difficult they may be.

The underlying spiritual framework of our relationships and of our human societies is peeking at us this month in delightful ways. We may come to understand more fully how we fit into the broader web of human relationships, and we may start to see new meaning and importance in some of the small, daily interactions we often erroneously shrug off as meaningless. Those who are most invisible and taken for granted in our societies are often some of the most important players, acting as glue that holds complex webs of relationships together.

The struggles of others are tugging at our hearts this month, and we are made aware that, despite the strong sense of isolation often present these days, we do not struggle alone. We all shoulder the burdens of the human condition at this time. 

Use this Venus in Pisces transit to connect with others on a spiritually loving level, even if invisibly.

When you're feeling stressed - and oh boy, are there some stressful points this month - take a moment to check back in with the force that loves you. Under these Venus-fueled water trines, I don't believe support or assistance will be too far away. 

Understand that we are here together for such a very short time. In light of this, love each other in spite of any foibles, in spite of the pain we must endure to love one another on this planet. Forgive everything you can, but don't accept even a lick of mistreatment. Don't keep your heart wide open in areas that have brought you devastation.

Love smarter, not harder. But love, just the same.

And one final note:

Contributing to the "Venus in Pisces easing trend," communication planet Mercury moves out of Pisces, the sign of its detriment, and into Aries on April 7 (9:35 a.m.). This gets sluggish connections firing again, decreases the possibility of miscommunication and misunderstanding, and allows information and conversation to start moving in a much snappier way. 

The Patrons of Willow's Web Astrology

The underlying idea for patronage of Willow's Web Astrology is: a currency exchange. Value given for value received.

If you regularly find valuable insight and information from Willow's Web Astrology, a patronage is a way of offering value in return for that insight and information. This keeps things balanced, it keeps things fair, and it ensures that this source of valuable astrology and analysis does not become depleted. It ensures that the astrology keeps flowing from a deep, deep source.

If you are a patron, the underlying idea is that you want Willow's Web Astrology to continue, and this includes as a business.

There is an old school Piscean-era idea (now less and less relevant) that "spiritual work" should be done for free. The idea is that if you charge for your work, you are something of a scheister, a charlatan, or a swindler.

I simply have to call bullshit on that one.

Many of us doing "spiritual" work (I just call it work, by the way) must pay the same rents, the same bills, and the same expenses as those doing "less spiritual" work. (Honestly, you can see how characterizing some work as "spiritual" and some as "less spiritual" is fairly ridiculous, can't you?)

I don't live in a monastery. I don't live in a convent. I don't live in an ashram. I don't have a parsonage provided for me.

I don't have an organization to provide the basics of living to me. I provide those for myself.

It's come to my attention that some occasional readers are not aware of this fact, but astrology is my full-time business. Willow's Web Astrology is a business, and I work as a professional astrologer. I run this business according to metaphysical rules as much as by rules of the physical plane, but it is a business nonetheless.

I would never ask anyone to work for free. So why would people expect me to?

I would never expect people to charge less than their work is worth. But for some reason, my work, by its very nature, is often devalued.

A patronage is meant to cover the totality of what is provided by Willow's Web Astrology in a 365-day period. 

The idea of a patronage should not be how much extra you can get from Willow for your patronage amount.

The idea is that you are paying for the value you receive organically, without demanding anything more than what naturally comes to you.

I can only write what comes through me to write. I can't force the issue, or it could have dangerous results for me and for readers. With this blog, it has to be quality over quantity.

If you do not find that you are receiving the full value for your patronage amount, I'm sorry to hear that, but it's your responsibility to determine that and to cancel your patronage if this is the case. Astrological tastes can certainly shift over the years, and it is not uncommon for people to move on from an astrology blog, including from mine.

There are certain articles - particularly detailed, energy-intensive, and in-depth articles - for which I must charge an additional fee. This means, even if you are a much-appreciated patron of Willow's Web, you will not necessarily receive every article I write for that patronage amount. There may be the odd article that everyone has to pay for, patrons included.

I'm very highly tuned to what's fair. I'm a Libra Sun, after all. I will not charge for an article unless I know it's the right thing to do and unless I have to. If I know it's the right thing to do, however, it's fully sanctioned both on this Earth and off, and no one else has a say in it.

I thank all patrons of Willow's Web Astrology and all customers who purchase my articles. Without you, this site would not have continued - at least, not with most of the content being provided for "free."

But I also have to ensure that people are becoming patrons for the right reasons.

If you feel you aren't getting your money's worth, if you're angry that I charge for some of my work, if you're miffed that you have to pay to get full articles, or if you resent the fact that I must make a living running my business, I would kindly ask you to reconsider your patronage. There is no anger or hard feelings on my part. It's just that I only want the right energy coming in in the form of currency.

I'm doing nothing below board here. I do not feel guilty for charging what I charge. I feel that the amounts I charge for readings, for patronages, and for additional articles are fully reasonable. I have a niche audience, and please believe me when I say: I'm not getting rich doing this. Far from it. But I do need to make a basic living if I am to continue this work.

It doesn't matter to me what other astrologers are doing. I'm not other astrologers. And contrary to what some nasty pieces of work have suggested over the years, you will not find my particular brand of astrology or astrological analysis elsewhere. It's unique in the true sense of the word.

Knowing that, I will not abuse my position. I will never keep anyone on the hook or charge an excessive amount for my work.

I'm from good, old, working class prairie stock, and I understand the value of a (non-inflated) hard-earned dollar. I understand that many are going through tough financial times now. But I also understand that under the current systems people can't work for free, especially when that work is top quality and energy-intensive.

I run my business in a way that I feel is fair. I charge the smallest amount I feel is fair for the energy, time, and effort I've put out. Case closed.

I thank you for your support of Willow's Web Astrology, both financial and energetic.

I also thank those who have left wonderful comments on the site over the years, as these have provided necessary encouragement to continue through tough times.

I want Willow's Web Astrology to be a feel good enterprise with no underlying resentments or hard feelings involved.

Please know that I do my very best to provide astrological guidance and insight for these times. But I can only do my best. I can only do what is in my power to do.

The same is true for astrology readings. I do my absolute best with every reading that comes in to me. I give each one my full attention and focus, and I do the reading with the intention that it will help the individual, that it will provide the information and insight the person needs at that time (which is sometimes different from the information and insight he or she wants at that time!).

If Willow's Web Astrology is no longer doing it for you, there may be another astrologer out there who would.

No one is stuck in this Willow's Web. You are all free to come and go as your soul sees fit.

My love and gratitude to my comrades.

Peace out. 

The Cardinal Grand Cross Report

This is an excerpt from The Cardinal Grand Cross Report on the exact configuration forming April 20 - 23, 2014. It is 3,500+ words and can be purchased for $8.00.

"The Aries New Moon on March 30 (12:45 p.m.) occurs within cardinal t-square formation, conjunct revolutionary Uranus in Aries and square both Jupiter in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn. This New Moon in the warrior sign blazes new emotional trail, kicking off an extremely potent month for new initiatives, new direction, and new leadership on multiple fronts. Successfully navigating the month of April 2014 is going to take courage, vision, and the willingness to move on from old emotional quagmire subjects. This New Moon in Aries infuses us with all this and more. 

We’re all ready for a change as spring rolls in in the northern hemisphere, so why not make it a big one?

The workplace, the home life, personal and professional relationships, and even our sense of who we are are all between the cross-hairs this upcoming month. These things are being shaped and moulded and tempered on all fronts by the pressures of the exact Grand Cross configuration, made up of two oppositions (180-degree aspects) or four squares (90-degree aspects) by bodies at 13 degrees of the cardinal signs.

New directions are being chosen or forced. New partnerships are coming into being out of desire or necessity. New power structures are being catalyzed for good or ill..."


What readers are saying about the Cardinal Grand Cross Report: 

"Willow! Wow! You have thrown a spotlight/searchlight over a minefield covered with barbed wire that I will now have consciousness to pick my way through in the coming days and weeks. To me this is absolutely awesome reporting and interpreting for what we are headed into this spring."

A Full Moon in Uber Karmic Territory Indicates a Necessary Tune-Up for Health, Diet, & Mental and Psychic Environments

Photo: Willow

We're currently moving to a Full Moon in late Virgo (26 degrees) on March 15/16 opposite the Sun in late Pisces. This area of late Virgo-Pisces is very glitchy, sensitive, and karmic territory at the best of times, and at this late hour of the astrological Piscean era, we need to be oh-so-careful with the themes stirred now.

Our systems are very sensitive at the moment, and even the smallest misstep or over-indulgence could create some undesired effects heading into this Full Moon and for the following two weeks. (Keep particular watch over the Dark of the Moon period in Pisces March 27 - 29 ahead of the Aries New Moon March 30.)

This Virgo Full Moon is the high water mark of the Pisces New Moon lunar cycle that began March 1. That Pisces New Moon occurred conjunct wounded healer Chiron, making holistic health and healing strong themes for the month of March.

With Chiron in Pisces so strongly involved in this lunar cycle, we are working with collective injury, collective dysfunction, and ripple-effect causes of ill health. We are working to sidestep the ways in which we have been collectively set up for ill health.

This Full Moon in Virgo highlights the things we are responsible for personally as far as health and wellness.

Despite what the New Age and all those "creating your own reality" types would have you believe, there is only so much we can do to overcome the layers of poison being heaped upon our systems via air, water, soil, food, toxic psychic environments, media, and energy weapons.

But at this Full Moon, we have to do whatever is in our power to do - and we have to do it right.

This Virgo Full Moon shines a light on any areas of weakness related to health, routine, and overall systemic function, and these areas of weakness are ours to tune up and ours alone.

Virgo is most often about refining things out of our systems rather than adding things in, trimming the fat in all areas. It is the final sign related purely to the self, and, in particular, to the mastery and refinement of the self and the biological system.

This Full Moon in Virgo can take on even a critically important tone, as we are currently completing the final stage of the two-year Mars in Virgo-flavoured goal cycle kicked off by the Mars retrograde in early 2012. This is our last opportunity to focus on perfecting our personal health and function before we are fully immersed in a new goal cycle being initiated by the current Mars retrograde in Libra.

We are about to be immersed more strongly in the lives and habits of other people, entering a two-year period where relating to others becomes a prime focus.

In short, we have to have our own individual systems humming, perfected, and in strong working order so that we can maintain our standards, our health, and our balance as we come more strongly into contact with others.

As the Moon grows full this week, we are looking to tighten up any areas where we have been letting things slide, where we have been a little too soft, and this can involve diet, exercise, organization, cleanliness, details, work/over-work, as well as mental and psychic environments. Bad habits and unhealthy coping techniques we have picked up through our family lines (Moon) are particularly highlighted.

Moving through this Chiron in Pisces-infused lunar cycle, we are looking at the methods we choose for escape, for self-medication, and for anesthetic purposes in an attempt to insulate ourselves from the painful issues facing us personally and as a species at this time.

We are looking to streamline and to eliminate any energy sucks that masquerade as "feel good" activities.

With Virgo, the smallest of changes produce big results.

We may be looking to eliminate television, shopping, alcohol, drugs, sugar, junk food, video games, certain web sites, fantasies, cigarettes, or the like.

Or we may be looking to apply those things only in the most proper and rightful medicinal doses.

Your body will tell you which is the case for you.

This Full Moon is a good time to analyze any emotional eating, addressing underlying feelings rather than covering them up, and applying new comforting techniques.

It is a good time to pinpoint, analyze, and re-jig any addictive behaviours we fall into when desiring escape from the pressures and pains of life on Planet Earth.

Information sources and what we put into our brains may also require tune-ups now. Just as we must limit junk food, we must also limit mental junk food. This is particularly important ahead of Mercury re-entering Pisces, the sign of its fall, on March 17 (4:24 p.m.) for a transit that lasts until April 7. Mercury in Pisces brings its own particular mental and psychic hazards, outlined in this February 3 post: Reeling it Back in Mentally, Verbally, and Psychically During an Era-Shifting Mercury Retrograde.

In light of the third anniversary of the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan and the accumulation of radioactive isotopes in North American water, food, milk, and soil, here is some advice.

How to Avoid Radiation or Reduce Risks Associated with Radiation:

- Stay out of the ocean.
- Avoid sitting or walking on beaches.
- Decrease your time outdoors. Don't run or exercise for prolonged periods outdoors.
- Do not eat Pacific Ocean seafood. Consider eliminating all foods from the sea, if possible, as the contamination is not contained to the Pacific.
- Eat more foods grown in greenhouses.
- Use a Geiger counter on food items before ingesting them. However, please understand that ingestion of radioactive particles can be dangerous to health even when the background radiation levels are relatively low. A Geiger counter will show you only background levels of radiation and only some of the radioactive isotopes present may register. Uranium and Plutonium produce relatively low levels of radioactivity, but they are highly toxic to the human body.
- Stay out of falling rain and snow.
- Do not take unnecessary airplane rides, as this exposes you to high levels of radioactivity. Airline pilots, flight attendants, and celebrities have all shown increases in radiation-related illnesses since March 2011, including passing out in-flight, heart attacks in-flight, seizures, hair loss, rashes, and thyroid problems.
- Boost your immune system with vitamins and minerals (particularly Vitamin C) and natural supplements like garlic, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, dandelion, and the like.
- Consider an iodine supplement to protect your thyroid like J.Crow's Lugol's solution, which is derived from mined crystals, not from seaweed. 
- Have "outside clothes" and "inside clothes." Don't bring shoes or clothing into your home that have been exposed to the outdoors.
- Take baths with baking soda in the water.
- Consider activated charcoal or bentonite clay to remove other toxins, taking stress off your body.
- Drink water filtered by reverse osmosis with added minerals.
- Use your intuition and follow your guidance about how to stay as safe as possible.  

How to Avoid Genetically Modified Organisms in Food: 

 

The major genetically modified food crops currently being grown are corn, soybeans, canola, and beets for beet sugar.

If you'd like to avoid genetically modified organisms as best you can, avoid all corn, soybean, canola, and sucrose products. This includes things like maltodextrin and lecithin, which are derivatives used in processed foods. Unfortunately, even organic varieties of corn, soybean/soy, canola, or sucrose (beet sugar) cannot be guaranteed 100% GMO-free at this point. Unlabelled GM sweet corn (corn on the cob) is also being sold at supermarkets currently.

Soy and corn are often used as livestock feed, so avoidance of conventional meat, eggs, and dairy is required, as well. Certified organic meat/dairy/eggs or the purchase of products directly from a farmer who you know does not feed GM feed are options for eating as GMO-free as possible.

Other GMO crops include papayas and cotton. There are currently plans to release GM salmon - the first genetically modified animal for human consumption - as well as a GM non-browning apple. 

Another issue involves the commercial planting and growth of GM alfalfa, which began in the United States in 2011, with plans to grow it commercially in Ontario and Quebec in Canada as early as this year. GM alfalfa is the first ever genetically modified, feral, perennial plant released in North American history. Its spread and contamination of the natural alfalfa crop have already begun. Alfalfa is used as livestock feed (hay), so this affects meat, eggs, and dairy directly. Alfalfa is also used as fertilizer in organic agriculture and as the field transition crop from conventional-to-organic. We must ultimately end the sale and growth of GM alfalfa if we are to maintain any semblance of GMO-free agriculture or any certified organic soil.

The Moon enters Virgo on Friday, March 14 at 8:17 a.m. CST. It opposes Neptune in Pisces at 7:41 p.m. that evening. It then moves into an opposition to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces at 12:02 p.m. on March 15. The Virgo Full Moon at 26 degrees will be exact at 11:08 a.m. on March 16.

H.A.A.R.P. Homeopathy and the 3rd Anniversary of the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster March 11

Riding the waves 

Photos: Willow

From the beginning, I felt that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan was a planned and orchestrated event. I wrote about it on the blog on March 16, 2011. I believed this then, and I believe it now.

Of course, none of the citizens knows exactly what occurred there in March 2011, and none of us knows exactly what has occurred since. There is a global media blackout underway, and any truthful information being released is old news - things we should have heard two or more years ago.

We're scrapping things together, bit-by-bit. We're having to do our own testing, research, and analysis. And we're our own media on the subject, as well, as the "authority figures" have chosen to either stay silent or to straight-out lie about the radioactive contamination and associated risks.

But my feeling was that the H.A.A.R.P. (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) or a similar energy weapon was used to initiate the massive 9.0 earthquake, which created a tsunami that brought down the Daiichi nuclear reactors. That reported earthquake was the biggest Japan had ever experienced, the biggest most of Earth had ever experienced. A blanket of wavy "H.A.A.R.P clouds" was visible in the sky above Fukushima after the event. More than 19,000 Japanese people were murdered by that event alone.

(There is other evidence suggesting that, rather than the H.A.A.R.P. or a similar device, an underwater nuclear bomb was detonated that day...)

The Fukushima disaster occurred on March 11, 2011, on the very same day that Uranus moved from the last degree of the zodiac (29 Pisces) to the first degree of the zodiac (0 Aries).

Uranus (sudden events, shocks, uranium) + Pisces (ocean, energetic connection of life, end of era/cycle) + Aries (attacks, war, new cycle).

As Uranus entered Aries March 11, 2011, it moved into position for a seven-square series to Pluto in Capricorn (running June 2012 to March 2015) - a square series we last saw during the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War II when Uranus was transiting Aries and Pluto was transiting Cancer (1932 - 1934).

History was about to repeat, Aquarian era depopulation-style.

As soon as I saw the astrology, I knew.

See, naturally-occurring events don't happen that pat. They don't happen that precisely. They rarely follow the astrological symbology to a tee like that - at least, not on that large a scale.

 

The Metaphysical Beat at Willow's Web Astrology

 Venus and the Moon in Capricorn on the WWA blog 6th birthday

Photos: Willow

Willow's Web Astrology blog is six years old today. (Has it really only been six years?)

I feel as tired as any mother of a very demanding six-year-old.

Except, I think this blog was quadruplets.

I'd like to take this opportunity to make an important point for readers in light of the tumultuous times through which we are living:

Please do not rely on Willow's Web Astrology blog to keep you up on all unfolding world events.

Willow's Web Astrology is not a constantly updating news outlet. I am not paid to be a constantly updating news outlet.

It's true that I'm a trained journalist, but after engaging in that line of work, I chose to leave the media - both mainstream and alternative - because I do not like the effect it has on people's minds. I've been censored multiple times while working in the media - yes, in both mainstream and alternative. I see public opinion being shaped in erroneous ways by the media. I see important stories being intentionally kept out of the media.

I've seen how reporters start to self-censor after being shot down by editors time and time again on the stories that matter to them. I see how they start to go along to get along. So I've seen the top-down power structure of the media at work, and it's nothing I wish to be a part of.

Since I do not like the energy of the media, I'm not going to emulate its rhythms or style in any way with my own writing, if I can help it. At this stage in the game, I feel the media is, ultimately, a propaganda tool for the powers-that-be, shaping half-truths and weak arguments into stories for mass consumption. I believe the media diverts attention, in many cases, from what's really going on on this planet. I took my leave, and I won't be re-entering that scene.

You'll see a great number of sexy and sensational images splashed across your newspapers, television screens, and computer monitors this cardinal Grand Cross spring and over the following few years. But you won't see them repeated here.

The world is at a boiling point, it's true. Forced into action by conditions too dire to tolerate. But from my perspective, we've always been here. It's always been this bad - it's just that more people are directly affected now and fewer can deny it. Fewer are able to go along with it. They would if they could.

Have revolt and resistance not always burned in the hearts and souls of people oppressed under corrupt and unjust systems? Things are being pushed to points of criticality on this planet, and will be during the exact Grand Cross this April, but the situation is really not much different than it ever was.

The conditions on Earth were never OK. The levels of needless suffering here were never OK.

We are under an umbrella of the same deadly and corrupt Global Governance around the world. Whether the burning rage against injustice and oppression are internalized or externalized and spilling into the streets, the conditions are pretty much the same.

The protests and revolts that get the big media play this spring (and in the following years) will be the protests that are most useful to the agenda of the powers-that-be. As with the Arab Spring, the rage and passion and resistance of the people will be used to lock a vicious new world order called "democracy" and "freedom" and "choice" into place. The only thing is, the good guys aren't really good guys. The European Union is no saviour from Russia. The United States and "Western democracy" are no saviour from the bloody dictators, who are simply more transparent about their ways of doing things.

I write about a great many subjects on the blog, only some of which are news events. The major focus here is and always will be producing helpful astrological articles for soulful guidance and successful navigation of the times.

No journalist covers all subjects. Journalists generally have beats - specific areas they focus on and cover where they develop particular expertise over time. In a usual newspaper, these beats include city news, the courts, arts and lifestyle, sports, crime, etc.

I've been put on my own metaphysical beat here at Willow's Web Astrology, and I receive my assignments. These assignments are more than enough for me to cover, and I don't have energy to go beyond those boundaries.

I feel that many stories being covered by both mainstream and alternative media are overblown, over-hyped, and manipulative, and I will not put any more energy into those subjects except through media criticism.

That said, if you do not see a topic covered on this blog, it's not necessarily because I don't think it's valuable to cover.

It's just not my assignment, see?

One subject I think needs more public attention is fracking (hydraulic fracturing). Again, just because I don't cover it here doesn't mean I think it unimportant.

It's just that, the only way I can avoid "issues fatigue" and burnout is to focus only on my own assignments.

So please continue doing your own research. Find your own sources. Speak out about the subjects that matter to you. And try to appreciate this site for what it is (fabulous, in-depth astrology with a sociopolitical bent), rather than focusing on what it isn't (a daily news outlet).

Happiest of Birthdays, Willow's Web Astrology blog. You're a guiding beacon of light for me, and my life would be much less rich without you. 

Keeping Our Balance as We Navigate Multi-Planet Gear Shifts

Photo: Willow

The North Node of the Moon entered Libra on February 18 where it will stay until November 11, 2015. As we close out February and begin March, the North Node is on the anaretic (29th) degree of Libra. The master balancer. The seasoned diplomat. The skilled harmonizer.

This is a very good thing, too, as we have four planets changing directions over the course of one week (February 28 to March 6), including both malefic planets, Mars and Saturn. Frustration! Depletion! Thwarted will! Stalled progress! General angst and irritation! Time may seem as if it's crawling. People could be getting under our skin. It may seem as if every direction we attempt to go in is blocked. And these potentially frustrating conditions are in full effect from now through mid-March.  

Four planets shifting gears all at once can create a chaotic, energetic traffic jam scenario, so we're being tossed right into the Libra master lessons here, challenged to keep our balance and our social decorum under some pressurized and potentially irritating energies. Perfect anaretic Libra territory.


This is an excerpt from the article "Keeping Our Balance as We Navigate Multi-Planet Gear Shifts." The full article is available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.  

"Another tremendously helpful article, the kind I know I won't find anywhere else. Good thing I have excellent taste in astrologers!" - WWA patron Donna F.

Keeping Our Heads Above Water During Another End-of-Era Pisces Season

Photo: Willow

The Sun enters Pisces on February 18 (11:59 a.m. CST), where it will remain until equinox on March 20, marking spring, sweet spring, in the northern hemisphere.

We're at the point of the year where only faith in the coming spring and in the new life up ahead can get us through the drag-ass dregs of winter. Symbolic as always, no? Pisces season.

At the tail-end of the astrological Piscean era, it hasn't proven easy to get through each successive Pisces season. With wounded healer Chiron transiting Pisces until 2019, we are dealing with some of the most painful aspects of this sign and of life on Planet Earth, in general. We're overwhelmed by the dysfunction, by the pain, by the exhaustion, by the psychic malaise, by the problems that face us as a whole on this planet, by the too-easily-swallowed deceptions, and by the understanding that no one can escape what is being unleashed now against life on this planet.

One shining light of this particular Pisces season, Pisces season 2014, is that we do not have a seven-body stellium in the sign as we did last year! Pisces season 2013 involved the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Chiron and Neptune in the sign of the fishies, along with the Moon for a couple days. That Pisces stellium swallowed us whole for a time. We were drowning in Pisces. It was over-the-top and often not in a good way, tipping many of us into the psychic bleak. I lost a friend due to drug use, and my tiny, rural village lost a young man to suicide. I'm sure most people have a similar story from that time period. It was in the ethers - that point of overwhelm where you can't see your way out. I wish I could have explained the astrology and the dangers of that time period to both of them, to everyone who needed to know. You can read more about the stellium and that time frame here: The Pisces Circus Starts Pulling Up Stakes or here: Major Stelliums in Perspective.

This year, we experience a relatively lighter Pisces season, but we do have a potentially difficult New Moon at 10 degrees Pisces conjunct wounded healer Chiron on March 1, 2014. And as we move through that New Moon portal, we head straight to the three-year anniversary of the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan on March 11.

Three years ago, we heard that an earthquake triggered a tsunami, which washed over the Daiichi nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan.

This caused explosions at Units 1 and 3. The explosion at Unit 3, complete with mushroom cloud, likely aerosolized a large amount of Plutonium, which was released as miniscule particles into the atmosphere, along with Cesium, Uranium, Strontium, Tritium, Neptunium and many other radioactive isotopes. That initial release of radioactivity came down in precipitation all along the West Coast of Canada and the United States. It has continued to come down in precipitation all over the northern hemisphere ever since.

Contrary to media reports that the "radioactive plumes" are just now reaching the coastline, radioactive contamination from Fukushima has been found all along the West Coast of Canada and the United States since early spring 2011. It has been here, showing up via ocean currents and air currents, since early spring 2011, and it has not stopped coming in the three years hence. It will not stop coming until the reactions have been contained and until contaminated water is no longer being released into the Pacific.

For three years now, night-and-day with no cessation, nuclear reactor Units 1 through 3 have been in meltdown, releasing radioactivity into the atmosphere, into the ground, and into the Pacific Ocean. You can literally see the reactions underway on the footage streamed from cameras trained on the reactors. They are glowing, flashing, reacting. Things are not under control. Not even close.

Juno in Pisces For Juno Day

This Friday is Valentine's Day, also known as Juno Day, a day traditionally set aside to celebrate love, lovers, romance, relationships, and soul mates.

Fittingly, we have a big, fat Full Moon in late Leo that night (exact at 5:53 p.m. CST) to get us all in the heart-centred mood.

The Moon opposes both the Sun and Mercury retrograde, which form their interior conjunction at 27 Aquarius on Saturday, February 15 (2:22 p.m.). The Sun-Mercury conjunction provides some much-needed perspective as we complete the first leg of the Mercury retrograde, which ends February 28. I hope you're receiving some messages and insight now that make your heart sing with excitement for the future.

If not, well, there's always the chocolate. 

It does seem funny that this day, falling in Aquarius season as it does, a sign related more to universal or humanitarian love, has such a strong focus on romantic, interpersonal love with all the hopes, illusions, ideals, and disappointments that have gone along with it. Seems more like a day for Pisces season, no?

The truth is, though, this day is a day for soul mates of all kinds, not just the romantic, interpersonal ones, and this becomes even more the case the further into the new astrological era we go. The love and bonds between friends also become more important as we head further into Aquarius, with friendship no longer relegated to "second best" behind the much-preferred ooey gooey love relationship. 

With soul mate asteroid Juno transiting the last degrees of Pisces on this Juno Day, some big romantic illusions are falling. These are some of the wounding Piscean-era romantic illusions that have held on with great tenacity, dragging those clinging to them down some nasty and devastating roads. Roads they've perhaps been down again, and again, and again...

From a previous post:

"Juno is showing us what we can count on, what we can draw on, and what we can accept into our hearts as the unchanging and unalterable love from the universe. But it's also showing us the ways in which we have been too naïve, too soft, too trusting, too open, too impressionable, too pie-in-sky, too denial-ridden, too giving, or too forgiving."

Venus is still re-gaining full speed direct, coming out of its direct station at 13 degrees Capricorn January 31. Venus is just about to move out of orb of the conjunction to Pluto, breaking the magnetic Plutonic forcefield and pushing onward on the other side of this Juno Day weekend. The current positioning of love and relationship planet Venus indicates a more down-to-earth and realistic tone for this Valentine's Day - if people even have the energy or money to celebrate it.

We're opening into a whole new rulebook for interpersonal relationships now, a whole new way of structuring our relationships, and this won't always fit the dewy and glistening Neptunian ideals.

So how will this change Valentine's Day?

Hell, I don't know. I'm not a woman who has had the traditional Valentine's experience, to say the least. I find the culture around this day to be over-the-top, a little eyeroll-worthy, and a little bullshitty, to be honest. I have Venus retrograde in Scorpio in the birth chart, and let's just say, I've always seen what lies beneath the candy and flowers and candles and expensive dinners.

To me, it's always been sort of an irritating day - another day when single people are made into the pitiable "other."

(Believe me, there are more people in relationships deserving of your pity these days than people out of relationships...)

This day has never materialized for me the way the broader society says it should, and that's A-OK.

For me, it's about recognizing and celebrating love in all its forms, and particularly - in light of being one of those pitiable "other" singles for much of my life - self-love.

In honour of Goddess Juno, AKA Hera, Zeus' much-beleaguered wife, this is also a day to celebrate the marriages that have stood the test of time, rather than the hyped-up honeymoon phase. Anyone can get through the honeymoon phase. Try the next 30 or 40 years...

On a personal level, this day has been about celebrating the tenacity of my parents and their marriage. They were married on February 12 and, unbeknownst to them, would have an amazingly tough relationship row to hoe. It's all there in the synastry. But they're still at it. And they brought wicked Willow to the world (along with her fabulous sister), so I guess there is some method to the universe's meanness, after all, isn't there?

Juno finishes its transit of Pisces, moving into fresh territory in Aries on March 3.

From there, the soul mate asteroid moves to a rollicking conjunction to Uranus in Aries on March 25, getting Aries season and spring in the northern hemisphere underway with a sizzle.

With Juno transiting Aries until April 26, the soul mates in our lives are showing us the way forward. They're spurring new directions. They're getting us primed and excited and interested in what lies ahead. They're showing us how we need to break new relational trail now, following our own instincts as we take the virgin steps into weird and wild Aquarius. Things aren't going as you had expected? Are interactions making you a little hot under the collar? Is the trajectory of your relationships completely different from what you'd imagined?

That's the vibe to ride this March and April, pretty babies. We're at the end of the Piscean-era rainbow here, and what comes next just might blow your mind a little - in a good way.

Happy Juno Day to all you lovers and fighters out there!

Willow on Cipro Poisoning on the North Bay Astrology Show

Some of the long-term readers here may know that I was poisoned by an antibiotic produced by Bayer called Ciprofloxacin in 2009. I took three little pills, prescribed to me without warning for a very minor health issue, and I have been recovering from complete systemic devastation ever since.

Cipro is from a variety of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics have been infused with a known toxin, fluoride, supposedly to increase efficacy. These antibiotics have devastating, debilitating, and even deadly potential side effects. They attack tendons, connective tissues, neurology, vision, the central nervous system, and the digestive system.

Name brands include Ciprofloxacin, Avelox, Levaquin, Floxin, Noroxin, Penetrex, and Maxaquin. These antibiotics are prescribed as eye drops under the names Vigamox, Zymar, Besivance, Ciloxan, Iquix, Quixin, Ocuflox, and Ofloxacin. They are prescribed as ear drops under the names Cetraxal, Ciprodex, Ofloxacin, and as Baytril in veterinary medicine. These drugs are also being erroneously prescribed to babies and children as ear and eye drops. 

Recovery from fluoroquinolone antibiotic poisoning can take many, many years, and permanent effects are also possible.

These antibiotics are so potentially dangerous that they should never be prescribed as first line antibiotics for minor infections. All safer alternatives should be tried first. Unfortunately, the Big Pharma marketing machine has created a climate where physicians are erroneously prescribing these drugs as first line antibiotics. This is a widespread practise.

Neither doctors nor pharmacists are warning people adequately before dispensing these drugs, and physicians are contravening the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to patients:

"I will apply diatetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect."

Iatrogenic illnesses and deaths are illnesses and deaths caused by the treatment of a physician. There is currently an epidemic of iatrogenic illnesses and deaths due to the irresponsible prescription of new generation pharmaceuticals like fluoroquinolones.

I recently talked about iatrogenic illnesses, my Cipro experience and recovery, as well as dangerous and fast-tracked pharmaceuticals and the trail of death and destruction they have left behind them. You can listen to the show here: 

Willow Talking about Cipro Poisoning on the North Bay Astrology Show with Matt Savinar


For more: Cipro is Evil

Reeling it Back in Mentally, Verbally, and Psychically During an Era-Shifting Mercury Retrograde

 

Feeling stuck in the snow like this guy?

That's just Mercury stationing retrograde in its fall conjunct Neptune. 

Photo: Willow

Mercury stations retrograde in the sign of its fall (Pisces) conjunct cloudy Neptune on February 6 (3:43 p.m. CST), and this is one overwhelmed little communication/intelligence planet.

This retrograde station indicates a period of time when we can find ourselves mentally and psychically over-active and over-stimulated, particularly from the conversations we have, the words we read, and the media we consume.

It can be difficult to shut our churning, turning brains off now, and quieting the mental and psychic noise is going to require some concerted effort over the next 10 days or so.

This is a time when arguments and debates can go round and round and round, getting nowhere. In fact, it may seem that we are not having the same conversation at all - on completely different wavelengths. Limiting our oratory and social interaction to what's necessary over the next 10 days would be advisable. Use your psychic blocking powers.

Mercury has a tough time in Pisces as it is. The mind is often stuck on "fly wide open" in this sign, and there can be trouble with mental and verbal boundaries. Every word Mercury hears in Pisces leaves a psychic impression, and with all the needless verbiage we are exposed to these days, that can leave a lot of mental chaos to navigate our way through.

Again, practise your mental limits, your psychic boundaries, and your lip-zipping whenever it seems appropriate. Keep your own psychic energy locked down when necessary and within proper limits. This is a time when we could be goaded into over-stepping our boundaries, saying or psychically projecting too much, and this can lead to metaphysical entanglements and drains that are not in our best interests.

Reel that mind back in and clamp down on what's going in and what's coming out of the crown chakra whenever necessary.

As stated, Mercury is in its fall in Pisces and has a hard time verbally encapsulating everything it sees and picks up on in the sign of the fishies. Communication will take some extra effort now. Slow down, and speak clearly. We have to follow our words, directing them right to the intended target, or they may go astray. Misunderstandings and miscommunication are likely, particularly in the days surrounding the Mercury retrograde station February 6. It pays to be extra precise now with information, communication, emails, telephone calls, maps and travel plans, and the like.

The Mercury station in Pisces conjunct Neptune can be a time when we are receiving many "winks from the universe" with dreams, odd little interactions, or snippets of conversations overheard bringing us needed information and insight. Flow with it, even if things are confusing. They more than likely will be.

Mercury will not be in its fall for long, however. Mercury Rx moves back into easier territory in rational, objective, clear-headed Aquarius on February 12 (9:30 p.m. CST), where it will spend the majority of the retrograde period. Mercury stations direct again at 18 degrees Aquarius on February 28 (8:00 a.m. CST).

This Mercury retrograde from Pisces to Aquarius is also related to the shift in astrological eras - from Pisces to Aquarius. We are wrapping our minds around the era shift and what it means for us, gaining insight on how we need to change our thinking in order to align ourselves successfully with the times. Throughout February, we're gaining some much-needed perspective as far as where we are now and how we can best navigate our way out of the confusing, draining dregs of tail-end-Pisces and into more vital and dynamic territory. The house or houses where Mercury is transiting in your natal chart indicates a particular area of focus as far as the era shift underway.

Post-retrograde Mercury will re-enter Pisces on March 17 (4:24 p.m.), and we take a spin with "Pisces for the Aquarian era" until April 7, when the winged messenger ingresses Aries. At that point, we are mentally raring to go into spring 2014 and the exact cardinal Grand Cross forming in late April.


Mercury Rx: February 6 - 28, 2014, from 3 degrees Pisces to 18 degrees Aquarius

Willow's Web Astrology on "What is Mercury Retrograde?"