Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Specialized Feminine Forces: A New Willow's Web Astrology Reading on the Four Major Asteroids, Eris, and Black Moon Lilith

Of the ten planets most often used in astrological analysis, only two - Venus and the Moon - are considered feminine. The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are considered masculine, and Mercury is considered gender neutral. Chiron, the "asteroid" (actually a comet nucleus) most often included in the astrology of the day, is also masculine.

There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids that can be used in astrological analysis, but the two largest (Ceres* and Vesta) along with Juno and Pallas Athene are often considered primary players. These bodies are located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and they are all considered feminine.

Black Moon Lilith is the point of lunar apogee, relating to a point of wild and raw, dark feminine energy.

Adding these feminine bodies to the analysis of your astrological birth chart adds a new layer of understanding, bringing feminine elements to the surface that have so far been hidden or vague.

The feminine forces on this planet are stepping it up (it's now or never), and adding an awareness of these bodies can arm you with knowledge of emerging themes in you, in your life, and in the culture around you, as the effort to emancipate the feminine on this planet intensifies and the balance of power between masculine and feminine and men and women continues to shift.

The Specialized Feminine Forces in Your Natal Chart

I'm offering a new reading in 30 and 60-minute formats on the four major asteroids - Ceres, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas Athene - along with Black Moon Lilith.

You can order a reading by clicking the Purchase a Reading button at the top of the screen.

* Ceres is now considered a dwarf planet, not an asteroid.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

A State of Ongoing Cardinal T-Square and Some Mars in Libra Foreshadowing

Riding the Cardinal T-Square Waves

The Sun in Cancer moves into exact t-square position with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 29, and we're in a state of ongoing cardinal t-square throughout the summer.

Mars pushed its way out of the retrograde shadow force field June 19, moving into new degrees of Virgo for the last bit of its almost eight-month transit in the sign of the virgin. It enters Libra, the sign of its detriment, July 3, forming yet another cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto July 17/18.

The Capricorn Full Moon also falls within cardinal t-square formation July 3, reaching fullness after a conjunction to Pluto and square to Uranus earlier that day.

Venus enters Cancer August 7 after more than four months in Gemini and also heads into cardinal t-square formation August 15/16.

Mercury in Libra forms an exact cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto September 20 just a day after Uranus and Pluto form their second exact square, and we don't get much relief as the Sun in Libra then moves into t-square position September 29, refreshing the themes. Venus in Libra gets in on the t-square action a bit later on November 3.

The cardinal t-squares forming this summer are fast-moving, involving personal planets with no retrograding, but the Uranus in Aries-Pluto in Capricorn square is fairly relentless into mid-October. Uranus and Pluto form the first of seven exact squares early tomorrow morning, and they stay within one degree of a square all the way into mid-October 2012.

Uranus goes retrograde July 13 at 8 degrees Aries, backing into the second exact Uranus-Pluto square September 18 at 6 degrees Aries/Capricorn with Pluto super potent and stationing direct. Uranus and Pluto will, again, be in cardinal t-square with Mercury and then the Sun in Libra at that time.

Big, structural shifts are happening quickly. New directions are being initiated (or forced) under highly pressurized, backs-against-the-wall conditions on Planet Earth - but what else is new?

We've been under a state of cardinal siege for a couple years now, and it isn't letting up any time soon. Every time a planet transits Cancer or Libra over the next 2.5 years, we'll experience a cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. It's uncertain, it's stressful, it's frustrating, it's constricting. But once you get used to the uncertainty, stress, frustration, and constriction, it's kind of old hat. Nothing much could surprise or shock at this point if you've been following the narratives and sub-narratives on this planet closely.

The waves of tense, clashing, potentially devastating energy won't be dissipating. Crises -  manufactured or natural - won't be disappearing, regardless of the levels of collective denial. We're at official breaking points all over this planet, with corresponding friction and fracturing to be expected politically, socially, environmentally, personally.

The current Pluto in Capricorn agendas, still rabidly supported and furthered (either directly or indirectly) by many on this planet, can't really be summed up by the word "insane."

What happens when we reach the points of no return, when the "we're so screwed" points start tipping each other off like dominoes with no agenda change in sight? Rather, when there is an acceleration of freight train over cliff?

We're about to find out, folks, and it's likely to be a wild, sometimes exhilarating, often gross ride.

(Oh, glory be. It's the end of the world. We're ascending to the magical fifth dimension. Jebus is on his way back for the chosen few. The aliens are going to save us. The Transcendant Spiritual Masters currently gracing us with their presence in material form shall guide us to the promised land.)

Whee.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Golden Apples and Discordant Social Shuffling with Saturn Direct in Libra

By the time you wake up on the morning of June 25, Saturn will be direct in Libra, officially on the last leg of its transit through the cardinal sign of the scales.

This is a powerful station for a number of reasons.

Saturn Opposite Eris

Saturn is stationing direct at 22 degrees Libra, exactly opposite Eris, dwarf planet of discord and strife, at 22 degrees Aries. The discordant Eris energy permeates the final leg of the transit, adding a wild, willful, potentially chaotic element to relationships and challenging our progress here during the final 3.5 months of Saturn in Libra. Even relationships that seem solid could be coming apart at the seams as Saturn completes its transit in Libra and enters Scorpio October 5, 2012.

From a previous post: "The influence of Eris in Aries attempts to upset the apple cart as far as the hard-won relationship progress and standard-setting achieved so far during Saturn's transit of Libra. Don't get too cozy or complacent. Eris knows things aren't solid until they're solid, the show isn't over until it's over, and we can't count on current relational positions holding if Eris can find an in and kick anything up. Keep a stiff upper lip, diligently maintaining relational boundaries and standards, throughout the potentially discordant Saturn direct station."

The most well-known story about Eris involves a big social snub. Eris was not invited to a prominent wedding that was going on, despite the fact that all of Olympus had been invited. The social roster was not complete. Eris had been shut out of the proceedings. As a result, the big smiles and boisterous glad-handing were too phony for her to bear, and she stirred up some drama at their little party to make things seem more fair.

Queen Shit Disturber, that one is.

Eris tossed a golden apple, referred to as the Apple of Discord, into the party. The apple was inscribed with "To the Fairest One," (ingenious!) and three goddesses there, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, immediately started quarreling and vying for the prize. They stripped naked for the judge, Paris, and offered him bribes.

Eris played on the vanity of the women involved to great effect, making them look like fools, and, unfortunately, a war was even started over it.

The discovery of dwarf planet Eris in 2005 created discord in our solar system classifications, as well, resulting in the 2006 re-classifications of Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake as dwarf planets by the International Astronomical Union. Here again, we have things being stirred up by Eris, but finding a new and more fair structure. That reclassification put feminine Ceres and masculine Pluto on an even playing field, rather than classifying Pluto as a planet and Ceres as an asteroid.

The influence of Eris in Aries during Saturn's direct station in Libra indicates there will be some "golden apples" tossed into previously structured and secure social scenes until the beginning of Saturn's next retrograde in February 2013, shaking things up considerably. We could be acting as Eris, as the golden apple, or as the keeper of the establishment social order - perhaps all three at different times.

There's a prominent theme here of a person initially being warmly welcomed into the social fold, but his or her presence creating unexpected disruption and discord to the point that the individual is then expelled. The inadvertent golden apple. Those with associated astrological aspects in the natal chart (like this astrologer) know the theme well, but it will come as a surprise to many over the next months.

Saturn opposite Eris indicates that discord in relationships and social scenes could have elements of:

-- big social snubs and the aftermath of those snubs
-- standard female competitiveness and jockeying for position, especially around looks, appeal, and social and career positioning
-- the benefits of belonging socially versus the difficulties of being left out
-- the difficulties of belonging versus the benefits of staying independent
-- justice, fairness, and balance in social settings
-- the results of shutting certain people or perspectives out of society - anger, upset, disruption, violence, imbalance, injustice, ineffectiveness, skewed ideas of reality
-- the reasons people are left out and whether they are warranted
-- doing your own thing, balancing it with inevitable social disruption
-- disruptive elements (golden apples) brought into carefully constructed social structures that change the game
-- acts of raw individuality and personal will altering how people are viewed or thought of socially
-- the weight of social more and custom stirring rebellion
-- social shuffling
-- social breakdowns
-- feisty or even violent changes in social status and position, including on the world stage

Venus Direct

Venus, the current dispositor of Saturn, turns direct June 27, just two days after the Saturn station. This completes its retrograde period in Gemini which included the last Venus Transit most of us will experience in our lifetimes June 5/6. Venus makes its way back to the degree of the Venus Transit July 18/19, making for a potent few days. It leaves its retrograde shadow July 31 and enters Cancer August 7.

With Saturn in Libra and Venus in Gemini stationing direct together, we're officially moving forward in matters of love, relationship, social connection, equality, justice, beauty, money, and values. The recaps have been recapped; the reviews have been completed; the relational stock-taking has been filed away. As of the end of June, our hearts are moving forward, not backward. But again, this doesn't necessarily mean smooth relationship sailing. We're going to be hitting some charged points, some feisty moments, and some trigger zones in the arena of relating, guaranteed.

The Eris-related discord kicked up during the final 3.5 months of Saturn's transit in Libra initiates new directions and new social structuring that then become a fixed, slow-burn transformation during the transit of Saturn in Scorpio (October 2012 - September 2015).

Summer Solstice and Uranus Square Pluto

Saturn stations direct in Libra just as Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn form their first exact square (June 24), making for a very intense period immediately following the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere (June 20). Summer solstice is the point when daylight hours are the longest and hours of darkness the shortest in the northern hemisphere.

We're struggling to maintain equilibrium at the breaking points.

The Uranus-Pluto square dominates the astro atmosphere into mid-October, and the final leg of relationship structuring, positioning, and progress is underway under very serious, very charged, and very pressurized circumstances. Many of the partnerships - working, romantic, or otherwise - coming together at the end of Saturn's transit in Libra are real players, game changers. The responsibilities and battles involved are great as we attempt to create a real, workable balance of power between men and women and the masculine and feminine on this planet.

The relationship work we're doing now is epic, and when something is epic, the course does not generally run smoothly. Just ask Eris. But this also makes it kind of fun and amusing (black humour).

I mean, looking at the fucking mess we have going on on this planet, you kind of have to laugh, don't you?

Pallas Athene Conjunct Uranus, Square Pluto

Pallas Athene, the asteroid related to the female warrior who did it better than the boys, is currently in ready-for-the-fight Aries, traveling tightly conjunct Uranus and square Pluto in Capricorn. Pallas Athene will be exactly conjunct Uranus and square Pluto at the time of the first Uranus-Pluto square. The feminine warrior spirit is stirred to blazing via the strong presence of this asteroid at that time, and the emancipation of women and of the feminine on this planet are primary battles.

We're at a push-coming-to-shove point when it is imperative that the feminine stand up and be counted all over this planet. Letting things slide and refusing to stand up now - even in seemingly small issues - means the Pluto in Capricorn regressive force makes big gains.

The Uranus-Pallas Athene fight is about human beings as free and sovereign individuals, able to determine their own courses through life, with structures set up and available to support them in that. The areas most in need of improvement on this front relate to the treatment and condition of women.

The situation of women on this planet is dismal in many arenas. This is most visible in blatantly patriarchal, repressive countries and societies, but it is also prevalent in countries and societies that pay lip service to the equality between men and women. Injustice and oppression are there, whether out in the open or hidden.

In Aries, Pallas Athene is fighting for the rights of women as self-sovereign individuals, outside roles and identities as wives, sexual partners, mothers, daughters, sisters, workers, or domestic labour.

We're not free until we're all free, and women who have secured a basic level of rights are responsible for taking up the fight in whatever form, maintaining awareness of broader issues for women who are not in such a position.

Pallas Athene is also fighting for the feminine, in general, which has been whitewashed out of most of the proceedings and power structures on this planet. This fight is taken up by women and men who refuse to deny the inner/yin/soulful/emotional aspects of themselves and who see the current male/female and masculine/feminine imbalances as untenable and unacceptable moving forward.

Pallas Athene-Uranus in Aries (the fight for women's rights and freedoms as individuals) are sextile Venus, stationing direct in Gemini (women in the media), and issues relating to the treatment of women around the world are currently in focus. One issue coming to the forefront at the moment is sex-selective abortions in order to terminate female fetuses. This is a common practise in China, India, Pakistan, and Taiwan (along with cases of female infanticide), where males are valued over females, but it is being practised in countries around the world, including in the United States and Canada.

In Canada, there is currently no law limiting when people can learn the sex of their babies, so ultrasounds can be and are being used to terminate female fetuses.

The practises of infanticide and sex-selective abortions have created a major decline in female populations in those countries. In India, the repression of women has been increased further by an emerging trend of "wife-sharing" where one woman is forced to sexually accept her husband and any brothers who happen to be unmarried due to a lack of marriageable women. The decline in females has also led to increased incidents of rape and human trafficking. ("Wife-Sharing Haunts Indian Villages" by Nita Bhalla, Reuters)

It is estimated that since the 1970s, 163 million female fetuses have been aborted because of their sex. Think about that for a moment. Think about the huge and detrimental imbalance that has been created over the past 40 years. On a planet that generally keeps the feminine stifled, snuffed out, oppressed, and out of positions of power, the loss of millions of women creates a massive deficit of feminine energy, resulting in an even more out-of-whack and dangerous situation.

Is it any wonder we're seeing the insanity and violence that we're seeing at these breaking points on the planet?

Saturn Re-Enters a Safe Haven

By July 12, Saturn re-enters an area of the zodiac considered safe, if not exactly fortunate, conjuncting the fixed stars Spica (23 Libra) and Arcturus (24 Libra) until August 17. We're assisted in our relationship work and can hunker down through any social pissing matches during this period of time, especially those that are Eris-related or along male/female or masculine/feminine lines.

For more on that: Saturn Re-Enters A Fixed Star Safe Haven From the Heat of the Via Combusta

Friday, June 15, 2012

Oh, Canada: Officially At the Line in the Sand at the First Uranus-Pluto Square

Uranus-Pluto Square Makes a Direct Hit

The first of the seven Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares occurs June 24, and the heat is officially on around the globe.

Uranus turns retrograde July 13, backing into a second square to Pluto September 18 at 6 degrees of the signs. Uranus and Pluto will be within one degree of an exact square from now into mid-October. The themes are hot, pressurized, intensive, and fairly unrelenting this summer and early fall.

Lock-step Pluto in Capricorn agendas being brought about around the world by members of the global elite - with middlemen and women firmly entrenched within government, business, and finance - are stirring staunch resistance and clashes with those striving for a free humanity on this planet.

Nowhere is the Uranus-Pluto square more influential than in Canada, a country currently experiencing highly-charged and fractious national events.

Harper Conservatives' Pluto in Capricorn Omnibus Steamroller

The right-wing Harper Conservatives holding majority power nationally are acting so unilaterally, so undemocratically, and so in contravention to Canadian institutions and stated values that there is a movement afoot to unite all other parties in an effort to oust them. The idea coming to the forefront is to run only one other candidate in every riding - it's either a vote for Harper or a vote for the alternative. This strategy is not only involving the more left-of-centre parties like the New Democrats, the Liberals, and the Greens - conservatives are also joining the effort, disgusted by the secretive direction of the Harper Conservatives.

The initial Uranus-Pluto square is so powerful in this nation because the Sun-Uranus conjunction in Cancer in Canada's corporate chart is locked exactly into cardinal t-square by the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square June 24, which falls at 8 degrees of the cardinal signs.

From a previous post: "Transiting Uranus and Pluto acting intensively on the Uranus-Sun in Cancer in Canada's astrological chart are forging deep, fractious changes in this country while the astrological transits are used by those in positions of power to continue toward a vision that I do not wish to see become a reality in this country. The agenda of the current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and his government, merged within broader global agenda, lead in a direction that, despite the government's claimed majority, most Canadians do not wish to follow...

Considering the merger of the ultra right-wing Canadian Alliance with the generally more moderate Progressive Conservatives, my guess is that even some conservative-minded people within that party do not support the current Harper agenda. What this man, what this government, what all the lock-step governments worldwide are steamrolling ahead with is disastrous. It’s happening at both warp-speed (Uranus in Aries), before Canadians can really get their minds wrapped around what is going on, and also as a slow motion train wreck unfolding before our eyes (Pluto in Capricorn)."

Harper is steam-rolling his policy change agenda through with the massive 2012 budget, called Bill C-38, and it touches on every aspect of Canada's public affairs. Critics, including in his own party, say the types of changes proposed should not be rolled into a money bill.

The funding cuts in Harper's budget, referred to as the omnibus budget, are sweeping and act as the straw the breaks the camel's back after years of erosion in areas of science, the arts, media, and environment. Because of the size and complexity of the budget, it is impossible for opposition members or Canadian citizens to understand the full effect of what is contained within it. Requests to divide the budget up into smaller segments were refused.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Jupiter Enters Gemini Conjunct the South Node and Things Are About to Get (More) Complicated

Jupiter in Gemini - June 11, 2012 to June 25, 2013

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, entered Gemini yesterday for its one-year stay in the sign. Jupiter spends one year in each of the 12 signs, making one full pass through the zodiac every 12 years.

Because of its size, Jupiter is the planet associated with all things big. It is a planet considered to have an enlarging influence on everything it touches and relates to expansion, luck, benefits, cosmic grace, and the broadening of horizons. The activities and themes related to the house where Gemini falls in your natal chart will be ripe for expansion this year - this is where the Jupiterian spotlight falls for the next 12 months.

Jupiter is considered to have a philosophical bent, relating to things such as meaning, truth, and wisdom gathered through direct experiences in the big, wide world. Through its association with Sagittarius, the sign it rules, and the 9th house, the house naturally ruled by Sagittarius, Jupiter can have some connection to travel, happy-go-lucky adventures, culture, higher education, gypsy life, fortune telling, foreign lands, wilderness, randy centaurs, and wild, Dionysian parties in the middle of ancient forests.

Jupiter also relates to hedonism and detrimental overindulgence in sex, food, drink or any other arena, recklessness, gambling, financial overextension, overstepping boundaries, "too much, too fast," relying on luck over hard work and planning, dogma, pedantry, and being a bit of a fly-by-night candy-ass.

It's the Las Vegas of planets.

Though it is overarchingly associated by astrologers with luck, beneficial events, and good will flowing freely to us from the universe, when we say Jupiter enlarges everything it touches, this can also mean the enlarging and expansion of unpleasant characteristics and events and their consequences.

As Jupiter in Taurus crossed back and forth over the natal South Node of New Age huckster James Arthur Ray in 2011, for example, his excessive focus on related South Node exploits (money, material wealth, "manifesting abundance") and the resulting abuses of his Scorpio North Node - leading to the deaths of at least three people and the injury of dozens - coincided with his trial for three counts of negligent homicide and a resulting guilty verdict.

The lucky part of Jupiter in Taurus' influence in James Ray's life meant he was sentenced to only two years in prison, rather than the nine years for which prosecutors were hoping.

Jupiter can certainly kick up what appear to be lucky breaks, but it can also put a spotlight on areas of weakness, excess, or past recklessness that are then blown up into major issues.

As part of this, Jupiter conjunct the South Node could be referred to as the James Ray Effect, and the James Ray Effect is a distinct possibility from now through the end of July as transiting Jupiter crosses the South Node in Gemini.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Full Moon in Mutable T-Square on the Way to the Venus Transit

The Moon is full in Sagittarius tonight (exact June 4) after it makes a conjunction to the North Node this afternoon. This Sagittarius Full Moon is happening as we head into the Venus Transit June 5/6, and things are coming fast. The Full Moon is a partial lunar eclipse, following the zero degree Gemini New Moon annular solar eclipse that was spectacular in many parts of the world.

The Sagittarius Full Moon will be in tight mutable t-square with the Sun-Venus in Gemini and Mars in Virgo, all at the mid-degrees of the mutable signs. If you include Chiron in Pisces at 9 degrees, this is a mutable Grand Cross.

What does all this mean? To say things are in transition would be an understatement. Even the transitions are in transition.

Let's take a cue from the Moon crossing the Sagittarius North Node today and not overthink it, overtalk it, or over-rationalize it. The importance of this point in time richly saturates every moment, every interaction. This is a time to be in our hearts, no matter what our hearts say, and even when our hearts have been broken and chewed up by the living and loving we do on this planet.

Just a reminder: I'll be visiting Matt Savinar in the radio studio June 7 on his Ask the Astrologer show. We'll be sharing Venus Transit stories then and now and talking relationships, in general. The show will be interactive in honour of Venus in Gemini, and we would love to hear from you.

The show runs 10 am to noon Pacific every Thursday on KOWS 107. FM serving Occidental and West Sonoma county.

You can call 1 (707) 874-1073 between 10:30 and 11:45 am to talk to me and Matt on the show, or e-mail me ahead of time with stories or questions.