The North Node of the Moon Enters Taurus and South Node Enters Scorpio: the Bull and the Scorpion as Uneasy Allies

 

"The North Node of the Moon Enters Taurus and South Node Enters Scorpio: the Bull and the Scorpion as Uneasy Allies" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons. 

 

You can read an excerpt of this article here: "Ceres and Persephone Conjunct the North Node of the Moon as the Nodes Change Signs"

  

Ceres and Persephone Conjunct the North Node of the Moon as the Nodes Shift Signs

Dwarf planet Ceres in late Taurus and her daughter asteroid Persephone in early Gemini are currently moving retrograde in a tight conjunction to each other as they also conjunct the North Node of the Moon. 

The Nodes of the Moon are about to change signs with the North Node entering Taurus and the South Node entering Scorpio on January 18, 2022. Ceres and Persephone will both station direct in January 2022 in tight conjunctions to each other and to the North Node of the Moon. This indicates that the themes surrounding this mother-daughter duo are very important as we orient ourselves to the new nodal axis, and this influence will continue over the next 18 months. 

What follows is an excerpt from an upcoming patron article on the subject, titled, "The North Node of the Moon Enters Taurus and South Node Enters Scorpio: The Bull and the Scorpion as Uneasy Allies." You can receive the full article and other in-depth articles like it by becoming a Willow's Web Astrology patron.

 

"Both Ceres, the dwarf planet associated with agriculture, nourishment, and the fertility of the Earth, and her daughter asteroid Persephone, unwitting (and unwilling) Queen of the Underworld, are stationing direct at the time of the nodal shift. Both bodies station direct in tight conjunction to each other and to the North Node of the Moon. This Ceres-Persephone conjunction has firm and lasting influence on our 18-month Taurus North Node path. The influence of Persephone, Pluto’s Queen, reinforces the importance of seeing, knowing, acknowledging, and addressing “what lies beneath.”

Ceres stations direct at 28 degrees Taurus on January 14, the same day as the Mercury retrograde station, and it forms an exact conjunction to the North Node, newly in Taurus, on January 31, 2022. This conjunction adds to the nurturing and protective elements discussed in this article. Under the Earth Mama dwarf planet’s fierce protective influence, we’re keeping things sane and stable in an effort to nurture ourselves and those around us. Ceres works to bring us all back to the land of the living.

At the same time, the potentially disturbing perspective Persephone brings from the Plutonic Underworld is critically important in informing our steps from here. Persephone is sharing some of this Underworldly information and insight with her mother, Ceres, and this meeting of the minds creates the beautiful, healing energy found in mutual understanding. Kidnapped by Pluto and forced to live half of each year in the Underworld as his Queen, Persephone holds a perspective that not many know or can fully comprehend.

Following Ceres’ direct station on January 14, Persephone stations direct at zero degrees Gemini on January 19, also in tight conjunction to the North Node of the Moon.

Following so many months of acute discomfort and difficulty, we’re creating relaxation, comfort, and mutual enjoyment (Taurus) to nourish our parched souls. The North Node shield provides even more important shelter for us under the mothering watch of Ceres. That said, the strong influence of Persephone in early Gemini at the time of the nodal shift indicates that we are required to mentally digest and integrate some very disturbing Underworldly information, context, and perspective if we are to be fully successful on our new North Node path.

Asclepius-Panacea in Libra Square Pluto in Capricorn: A Pattern of Denial, Dismissal, and Gaslighting From the Medical System (mRNA Shots)

As written about in a previous article, health and healing-related asteroids Asclepius and Panacea are currently in a conjunction in late Libra. Asclepius-Panacea in Libra are also forming square aspects to Pluto Rx at 25 degrees Capricorn.

Under these astrological influences, we're seeing the deadly and damaging (Pluto) effects of a corporate (Capricorn) global health panacea (Asclepius-Panacea) with an increasingly coercive campaign attempting to force this false panacea on unwilling people.

The asteroid Panacea holds domain over the theme: what heals or helps one person can seriously harm or even kill another person. 

In other words, there is no real panacea, no true universal cure. Attempting to force this type of false panacea for profit-based or control-based reasons will have disastrous and deadly consequences - consequences we're now seeing around the world.  

The injuries and deaths being caused around the world by the experimental gene therapy shots are being covered up and ignored by media, government, and much of the medical system. 

"Not vaccine related" and "no direct correlation" are the common refrains while scores of healthy, young people drop dead or suddenly become disabled after receiving the shots. 

Large social media groups related to injuries and deaths following the Covid shots have been deleted on Facebook. People who have been injured and disabled following the shot have been censored from sharing their own stories on social media platforms. Whistleblower doctors have been threatened, censored, professionally censured, fired, or stripped of their medical licenses for going against the enforced official narrative.

Asclepius-Panacea in Libra indicates a theme of health-related justice. To these ends, I've compiled information from online testimonials that shows a pattern of denial, dismissal, and gaslighting from the medical system in relation to the injuries and deaths that have followed the Covid shots. 

This type of denial, dismissal, and gaslighting is not the exclusive domain of the experimental gene therapy. No, indeed. This pattern is seen extensively in the medical system when it attempts to cover up or downplay adverse reactions and iatrogenic (physician-caused) illnesses and deaths. This pattern is also seen with illnesses the medical establishment doesn't understand or know how to treat.

Iatrogenic (physician-caused) illnesses and deaths are epidemic at this time, fueled intensely by the profit-driven antics and influence of Big Pharma. Iatrogenic deaths are in the top three causes of death in the United States, and some say (due to massive under-reporting of adverse reactions) they are the leading cause of death.

The people who have been injured by the Covid shots are just the newest initiates into the Hell of iatrogenic injury and disability - a most often denied reality. This is a Hell that hundreds of millions of people around the world know or have known, including this astro-reporter. The attempt to cover up and suppress the injuries and deaths from the Covid shots is just the most recent area of cover up and suppression when it comes to adverse reactions and iatrogenic injuries and deaths. 

Asclepius-Panacea Conjunction in Libra and Health-Related Justice

This is an excerpt from the July 25, 2021 patron article, "Healing Asteroids and Centaurs: Chariklo, Asclepius, Hygeia, Panacea, and Aegle."

ASCLEPIUS is considered a god of medicine and the healing arts. He was the son of Apollo - also a healer - and a mortal woman named Coronis. Asclepius had wonderful and powerful healing gifts and was widely recognized for them. He healed many people and was even able to bring people back from the dead. The snake-entwined Rod of Asclepius remains a symbol of medicine today.

Asclepius had five daughters who were healers themselves: Iaso (goddess of recuperation from illness); Aceso (goddess of the healing process); Aegle (goddess of radiant good health); Hygeia (goddess of hygiene and cleanliness); and Panacea (goddess of the universal remedy).

The original Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians began with the invocation, "I swear, calling upon Apollo the physician and Asclepius, Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath and this contract according to my ability and judgment.”

PANACEA is one of Asclepius’ daughters and is known as the goddess of the universal remedy. (Though I’m personally unsure if true universal remedies exist!) Panacea is associated with medicines that will cure most people. The go-to remedies. The cure-alls.

Panacea is associated with near-universal cures but also with the problem of certain medicines being applied as blanket cure-alls when they do not work for everyone and may actually harm some people. Panacea holds domain over the theme: what heals or helps one person can seriously harm another person.

Asclepius formed an exact conjunction with his daughter-asteroid Panacea on July 19, 2021 at 20 degrees Libra.

What we are seeing at this time is a particular remedy (the experimental gene therapy shots) being put forth as a panacea, as a universal remedy, when it is far from a universal solution. This conjunction brings up a lack of fairness (Libra) when attempting to force a treatment with definite dangers on all people. For some people (including this pharmaceutical-injured astro-reporter), the supposed remedy is more dangerous than the ailment it claims to cure. The supposed remedy holds more risk than the virus.

In most cases, the legitimate reasons for refusing the shot are not being acknowledged in the public realm. Almost across the board, informed consent has not been achieved. People were not warned about the potential dangers of the shots before they were administered, and they were not informed about the lack of knowledge on long-term effects.

Libra is a sign symbolized by the scales. It relates to issues of fairness, weighing the options, and justice. Under the Asclepius-Panacea conjunction in Libra, we’re seeing issues pertaining to health-related (Asclepius-Panacea) justice (Libra), and indeed, those who are attempting to force this gene therapy on all people are being sued in various courts of law at this time.

In fact, I was amazed to realize that the most recent lawsuit was filed by America’s Frontline Doctors against the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on July 19, 2021 – on the very day that Asclepius and Panacea came together in exact conjunction at 20 degrees Libra. 

Healing Asteroids and Centaurs: Chariklo, Asclepius, Hygeia, Panacea, and Aegle

 

"Healing Asteroids and Centaurs: Chariklo, Asclepius, Hygeia, Panacea, and Aegle" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

 

Ladies of the Zodiac: It's Showtime. (A Re-Post)

The following article appeared in the first issue of Hexagon Astrology Magazine in Summer 2015. In light of current world events (sexual misconduct fan turned President of the United States of America, Eetos-Chay Itler-Hay), along with current astrological events (Saturn in the last leg of Sagittarius trine Uranus in Aries), a re-post seems appropriate:

Astrology is a lens through which we can view life on this planet, and this lens reflects back to us certain insights that would be much more difficult to glean without it. 

As a reflection of the patriarchal constructs of current human society, we deal in an astrological zodiac that is masculine-heavy, illustrating certain reinforced dynamics on the planet. Seven of the 10 major planets used in astrological analysis are considered masculine (the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) with one (Mercury) considered neutral. Only the Moon and Venus are considered feminine. Important as those bodies are, this is still a whole lot of imbalance. 

Women and the feminine influence are far more multi-dimensional and diverse than the loving, pleasing, and supportive mate (Venus), the mothering nurturer (Moon), or the vindictive, vixen/seductress version of the dark feminine.

We pick up some of the slack as far as the feminine influence in the zodiac with the feminine asteroids and dwarf planets.

The four major “secondary” bodies most often used in astrological charts – asteroids Juno, Pallas Athene, and Vesta, along with dwarf planet Ceres - are considered feminine, though these bodies most often play second fiddle to the planets, doing their thing with little recognition or fanfare in mainstream astrology.

An invisible feminine force doing its work from a disempowered position for much less than its due share of recognition, respect, and reward. Sound familiar?

As with the planets, these four bodies have ties to Greek and Roman mythology, which color their themes in astrological analysis.

Unfortunately, the men who created and furthered the mythology that is used in current-day astrology have missed about 50% of the story. They missed the herstory of the history, as they say.

This missing feminine/female influence is apparent in Greek and Roman mythology as well as in much of the standard religious and spiritual imagery of the current 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.

The feminine bodies used in astrology have been saddled with an Old Boys Club mythology. There is widespread sexual violence, control, and misconduct toward women, among many other offenses, in the stories of those old Greek and Roman dudes. Women are most often in secondary roles with their stories told for them by males, through the male lens.

A Check-In with the Asteroids

The major asteroids (along with dwarf planet Ceres) generally do their thing in the background of the primary astrological discourse. Becoming more strongly aware of their positioning in both the natal chart and in the current transits can illuminate their themes so that we can both support and be supported by the activity of these feminine bodies.

Earth Mother dwarf planet Ceres is currently moving direct through late Capricorn after a retrograde period from June 3 to September 14, 2015. This indicates that we nurture others most deeply now by taking care of business, and we are nurtured ourselves by those who do the same. We are nurtured and supported by those who keep a stiff upper lip, working diligently to get the job done, and we nurture others by displaying that same commitment to excellence. Responsibility, structure, and the successful meeting of goals, especially financial and business-related goals, are nourishing to us now. Ceres in Capricorn indicates that we are traversing areas where women or the feminine force can take stronger leadership roles, and this includes with food, agriculture, and purchasing power.

Women and the feminine force are coming into stronger authority within the structures as they exist. This is happening out of necessity more than anything else. This position is cemented as Ceres stationed direct at 25 degrees Capricorn on September 14, 2015, completing the transit of Capricorn October 27. 

This is an excerpt from the article, "A Check-In with the Asteroids." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

Pallas Athene Direct Within An Asteroid-Based Mutable T-Square

Female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene has been retrograde in soupy Pisces for a month-and-a-half and goes direct November 20 at 22 degrees.

Pallas Athene going direct in this sign makes me think of Uma Thurman's drug overdosed gangster girlfriend character in Pulp Fiction snapping awake after that adrenalin shot to the heart.

Or maybe it's more like her Kill Bill character coming out of the coma, hellbent on revenge.

Whatever Uma performance you liken it to, Pallas Athene is waking up, and though she may not be able to do much about it at the moment from foggy Pisces, she's becoming very aware of who is fucking with whom.

From a previous post, Mars Square Pallas Athene Rx in Pisces: Kicking up the Etheric Catfights:

"The asteroid representing the female warrior who did it as well as, if not better than, the guys has been highly prominent over the past months, stirring its themes to the blazing point. Pallas Athene in Aries was up front and centre during the first two exact squares of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn in June and September, tightly conjunct Uranus. This added the element of establishment-busting female fight, female leadership, and feminine strategic direction to the proceedings.

Pallas Athene retrograded back into watery Pisces October 3 for a bit of a break from the fiery Arien front lines, but it's still carrying the charge from those Uranus-Pluto squares. Pallas stations direct November 20 at 22 degrees Pisces, re-entering Aries January 10, 2013. From there, it makes its final pass through the Uranus-Pluto square with a conjunction to Uranus in Aries January 28 and a square to Pluto in Capricorn February 12, 2013. This asteroid just keeps on kicking ass."

Pallas Athene has been on a sort of court-ordered "rest cure" after her Herculean effort during the first two Uranus-Pluto squares, and she's none too happy about the groggy after-effects. This lady needs her edge and her keen, strategic wits about her, and after a retrograde in Pisces - no matter how short - she's feeling a little fuzzy around the edges.

The etheric catfights are getting a little tiresome, too. Pallas Athene would rather bring it all out into the open, but the battles remain obscured, in the dreamy metaphysical and psychic realms, until January 10, 2013.

Once direct, Pallas Athene will be gunning for zero Aries so she can get back to the Uranus square Pluto action in early 2013.

A spicy, asteroid-based mutable t-square with soul mate asteroid Juno in Sagittarius and keeper-of-the hearth asteroid Vesta in Gemini, in effect from now into the first week of December, provides plenty of stimulation until then.

The feminine asteroids are generally considered secondary influences in astrology, so the effects can be subtle, but they're important.

This t-square indicates frictional contacts possible related to the communication of personal wisdom and truth. Differing ideals as we move deeper into a new astrological era are creating tension and division on many fronts. Differing takes on the situations we find ourselves in on the planet - and what to do about them - are creating clashes.

This t-square configuration kicks up yet another wave of angst coming from the witchy lines, the priestess lines, the alchemical artist lines, the wise woman lines, and the earth mother lines.

Juno is outspoken, flamboyant, and hand-on-her-hip righteous on the Sagittarius end of the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity but must be careful not to become strident, grating, and self-righteous. This is the type of eye-rolling irritation that can come from all those self-declared visionaries, wise ones, and goddesses running around these days.

On the Gemini end, Vesta holds a major investment in keeping the social gears functioning, the discourse flowing, and the ideas cross-pollinating. Vesta in Gemini puts a great deal of effort into networking and keeping things socially cohesive. The caution there is that things might be kept too superficial and watered-down to be meaningful in any way.

My guess is Juno in Sagittarius won't be letting that happen.

Squares to both Juno and Vesta from Pallas Athene in Pisces indicate some acceptance, transcendence, and "giving it up to the universe/God" are necessary as we roll with things, staying fluid and adaptable through the frictional spots.

The spicy, feisty Juno-Pallas Athene square is exact November 28 and occurs with Mars and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn and Venus and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio. This one is particularly loaded. The friction here, as we come into contact with soul-triggering people and situations, helps us to get very clear on our own truth and beliefs, particularly heading into December 21, 2012 with the "Biblical End Times/Ascension/Beam Me Up, Scotty" rhetoric flying fast and furious.

Stay loose. Stay fluid. Don't become overly concentrated in one area of this t-square. Keep things moving like a buzzing bee in a field full of flowers.

The fourth (and stabilizing) leg of this t-square is Virgo, so discernment is key. Filter and guard your mental space from the December 2012 blah blah blah and the myriad soapbox sitters catching a ride on the bluster and buzz. Choose your angles and your battles. Say your piece, but don't force the issue if you run into opposition - especially if you're outnumbered. Pay attention to social tension as a guidance mechanism and adjust accordingly.

The asteroid-based mutable t-square loosens by the second week of December with Vesta Rx in Gemini moving out of range, but its tensions and themes stay with us into winter solstice.

The spice will be stirred yet again by the Sagittarius New Moon at 21 degrees on December 13, conjunct Juno in Sagittarius and square Pallas Athene. This forces us to clear a path through the cacophony based on our own truth and nothing but.

The frictional themes stay in our face, brought right up into our current, conscious moment, as the Sun moves from that New Moon into the exact square to Pallas Athene in Pisces on December 15.

The Sun will continue its transit of late Sagittarius in a conjunction to Juno, finally forming the exact aspect at 1 degree Capricorn just after winter solstice on December 22.

Communication planet Mercury in Sagittarius squares Pallas Athene in Pisces December 29, triggering friction again and indicating potentially charged interactions, double meanings, and obscured verbal-psychic barbs.

What we believe and what we hold to be true or untrue as we head into this winter solstice are very important as far as the unfolding of events. We're experiencing the intentional machinations toward another world war, which becomes oh-so-clear by December 30 as the Sun conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn, but the truth is, it's all man-made and manipulated. There isn't any "divine direction" behind these rockets and bombs.


With all the feisty feminine asteroid action going on, hematite shields can come in handy. If anyone is in need of some lovely protection of this sort, I have a new hematite set available on the jewellery site that is simple, elegant, and powerful. I like the necklace so much, I made one for myself!

Mars Square Pallas Athene Rx in Pisces: Kicking up the Etheric Catfights

Photo: Willow

Feminine warrior spirit asteroid Pallas Athene is retrograde in late Pisces, and the fight has gone to the metaphysical realms. This makes things mighty tricky. We're fielding psychic waves of anger and aggression and even full-out attacks, but we can't always see where our opponents are coming from or who they even are.

The battle is on, nonetheless, with a key theme of: etheric catfight.

Bitches be scrappin', whether fully visible or not. And it's the witchy lines, the priestess lines, the alchemical artist lines, the wise woman lines, the earth mother lines that are kicking up most of the fuss. There's a long history of this type of stuff on the planet, and it can get extremely harsh. It isn't limited to women, but women are primary players.

With Venus in Libra in cardinal t-square configuration with Uranus and Pluto (exact November 1 to 3), the females are taking position.

We all think we know best. No, scrap that. We all know we know best. And working out whose version rules supreme, where, and at what time is part of the irritation.

The asteroid representing the female warrior who did it as well as, if not better than, the guys has been highly prominent over the past months, stirring its themes to the blazing point. Pallas Athene in Aries was up front and centre during the first two exact squares of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn in June and September, tightly conjunct Uranus. This added the element of establishment-busting female fight, female leadership, and feminine strategic direction to the proceedings.

Pallas Athene retrograded back into watery Pisces October 3 for a bit of a break from the fiery Arien front lines, but it's still carrying the charge from those Uranus-Pluto squares. Pallas stations direct November 20 at 22 degrees Pisces, re-entering Aries January 10, 2013. From there, it makes its final pass through the Uranus-Pluto square with a conjunction to Uranus in Aries January 28 and a square to Pluto in Capricorn February 12, 2013. This asteroid just keeps on kicking ass.

Male warrior planet Mars in Sagittarius squares female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene in Pisces on November 7 at 23 degrees of the signs, and things are pushed to an acute point. Philosophical and truth-related clashes will generate sparks. Differing belief systems, cultural allegiances, and flavours of wisdom coming into contact with each other will kick up the angst. Again, half the battle is in the psychic/metaphysical realms.

We're struggling with our own psychic spaces, as well as with potent psychic impressions swirling around us with stationing Mercury square Neptune in Pisces.

Pisces is a sign related to blind spots that can become weak spots. With Pallas Athene here square Mars, these are places where we're particularly vulnerable to attack. We need to know these places well. Buffer and protect every area that comes to your attention. Every gouge and every hurt serves as a reminder to get smarter, tougher, and more self-protective in those areas.

Anyone with placements in the late degrees of the mutable signs, particularly Pisces and Sagittarius, is working a particular hot spot here.

Soul mate asteroid Juno, which has a highly feisty quality all its own, is also transiting Sagittarius and will square Pallas Athene November 28. The friction (and potential bitchiness) of this Juno-Pallas Athene square is helping us to get clear on exactly what we believe and exactly what rings true to us as we mould our ideals for a new astrological era.

The plaster is still wet, holding form for those ideals, and this means our sweetest, loveliest efforts are vulnerable to outside forces mucking them up. These squares indicate we're going to be defending our ideals, along with the right to freely live our own dreams, our own truth, our own cultural wisdom, and our own versions of what's right - while the people around us do the same.

The key is to get these squaring energies working together, on the same team.

Spiritual and religious paradigms past and present have whitewashed out the female influence, making it invisible and subservient. These squares act as the frictional impetus to stand up, speak up, and add the wisdom and knowledge of the feminine to the scene.

That wisdom and knowledge doesn't necessarily come in the form of easily-swallowed, non-threatening Glittery Goddesses and Angels and Mermaids and Faerie Nymphs, either. (A lot of that was designed to titillate dudes, anyway.)

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.

And all this will potentially be making females very feisty with each other as they clamour to have their truth heard and fully represented. 

Women are used to having to compete for a limited number of spots, a limited amount of influence. We're working our way into full representation now - or at the very least, into a full understanding of the detrimental feminine shortfall - and it takes our "A games" to get it right.

The smallest sticking points now have connections to deeper ancestral grudges, potentially stirring profound insult. Their ripple effects emanate from many other times, other places, other people, other dimensions. This stuff has more layers than Farmer Dave's prize onion at the county fair.

The key with the strong Pisces element is to accept the feisty dynamics for what they are while also finding the threads that connect seemingly disparate versions of truth, wisdom, culture, freedom, politics, morality, and ethics. Pisces is the "universal factor." When you clear it all away, the truth of the human condition on this planet has commonalities, universalities, that go beyond time, space, race, gender, culture. The ultimate goal is to find the point where the feistiness and fight drift away into the magical, mystical, awe-inspiring flow that is life on this planet. Into that pure love and compassion that catches in our throats, chokes us up, makes us grateful for every moment of every day on this trying little planet.

Easier said than done with everyone primed to etherically shank each other's asses.

Where there's Pisces, there's grief. This is one of the commonalities at the tail-end astrological Piscean era. Most of us hold shell shock and grief inside related to what's gone on and what continues to go on on this planet.

Being unheard and under-represented is a common cause of this grief. Feeling inconsequential and helpless as we watch the pain, dysfunction, and destruction caused by an imbalance of masculine and feminine/male and female is another.

Having our deepest, dearest wisdom passed over, diminished, disrespected, and then being forced to live through the horrifying results of that. Being refused due respect, influence, and position.

Most wise women clamouring to be heard now know this grief. We carry what we know as an ache in our hearts. This is one of the things we share.

Oh, we're going to scrap it out, there's no doubt about it. It's necessary. But remember the Piscean threads that connect during the heat of the battle.

The female fight moves from metaphysical to active duty January 10, 2013 when Pallas Athene re-enters Aries.

Hot Spots:

Mars square Pallas Athene - November 5 - 9
Pallas Athene direct station at 22 Pisces - November 19 - 21
Juno square Pallas Athene - November 26 - 30

Pallas Athene in Aries, Exposing Rape in the Military, and Control of Women's Sexuality in Mythology Connected to the Feminine Asteriods

The asteroid related to the female warrior, Pallas Athene, is currently very strong in the zodiac. It has been on Uranus in Aries like white on rice for a few months now, moving retrograde with it in tandem, and has played a prominent role in the first and now second Uranus-Pluto squares.

The female warrior asteroid is infused at this time with the energy of necessary, radical change and re-direction as we enter a new astrological era (Uranus in Aries), and it is coming into tense, clashing square contact with the patriarchal power structures as they exist (Pluto in Capricorn).

These symbols indicate a theme of women fighting for change in all aspects of society, coming into contact with corrupt, unjust, and downright abusive power structures - the Pluto in Capricorn "accepted way of things."

These symbols are also playing out very literally with female soldiers fighting for justice and change in relation to the male-dominated power structures of the United States Armed Forces.

The horrifyingly high incidence of rape among female soldiers by male soldiers in the United States Armed Forces is an issue gaining traction at this time, as are the cover-ups and miscarriages of justice associated with those crimes.

According to a study released on April 13, 2012 by the U.S. Department of Defense, 3,200 rapes are reported to the military annually.

Since an estimated 80 percent of rapes go unreported, the annual total is closer to 19,000.

Of the 3,200 rapes that are reported, only half are deemed worthy of pursuing in military courts, and of that half, only 6 percent result in a conviction. One out of three soldiers convicted of rape is retained by the military, keeping his job and his place on the payroll.

Many of the women who report being raped are then harassed by fellow soldiers.

A Veterans Affairs Administration study found that nearly 1 in 3 female U.S. soldiers is raped during her service, more than double the (also horrifying) 15-percent risk of rape for civilian women. This means nearly 500,000 military women have been raped since the U.S. Armed Forces first began accepting female soldiers in 1948.

The fact that the military investigates and prosecutes itself has long been problematic, but an attorney named Susan Burke is hoping to get around this by suing the Unites States military on constitutional grounds. The claim is that the military violated her clients' constitutional rights to due process, equal protection under the Fifth Amendment, and First Amendment free-speech rights to report sexual assault without retaliation. Three lawsuits involving multiple women in each suit are either in progress or are soon to be launched against the U.S. military.

These women are truly the embodiment of Pallas Athene in Aries in action. 

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

The lovely ladies of the zodiac are up front and centre in the chart for this February 14, Juno Day. This is a day for soul mate relationships of all kinds - not just the romantic ones - and an observation of the shit we all go through to complete our relational soul work together.

Is there a greeting card out there with this sentiment? If not, there should be.

My parents were married 35 years ago today on February 12, 1977, and with synastry like: Sun square Sun, Mercury square Mercury, Venus square Venus, Juno square Venus, Mars-Saturn conjunct Sun, and Chiron conjunct South Node-Neptune, they're pretty much the poster couple for the underlying meaning of this day. (You'd expect nothing less to spawn such a lass as Willow, right?)


On this fair Juno Day 2012, Ceres - the asteroid related to the harvest and fertility of the earth, symbolized by a sickle - is in tight conjunction with love and relationship planet Venus, in detriment in Aries, and both bodies square Pluto in Capricorn. Feminine bodies Ceres and Venus joining forces in the sign of the warrior, squaring off with masculine body Pluto in the sign of hierarchy: the underlying battle rises to the occasion.

Ceres squares Pluto February 14; Venus squares Pluto February 15.

You'll recall that Ceres and Pluto have a long and brutal history between them involving kidnapping, rape, hell, and the utter destruction of life on the planet. Every time these two meet, especially in tense aspect, you can expect things to get a little frictional along the male-female, masculine-feminine lines. And in Aries and Capricorn, that might just be an understatement.

"Let's get real here, shall we?" Ceres purrs.

"We shall," drops Pluto.

Ceres and Pluto are now on astronomical equal footing, both having been scientifically re-classified as dwarf planets. Despite Ceres being far more down-played in the astrology of the day, they always have been equals. Their power - both for growth and generation/regeneration as well as for death and destruction - are evenly matched.

Ceres and Venus are flanked by Uranus in Aries and the true placement of Black Moon Lilith in Aries in this Juno Day chart, adding unpredictability and charge. The feminine is infused with raw, radical Uranian energy as well as on-the-edge, on-the-verge Black Moon Lilith, and Ceres, now included in modern astrological ephemerides with the other major bodies, leads the way.

The feminine, sensing Uranian freedom from previous forms in the air, exerts itself, forging ahead and stirring deep, structural unfinished business with the squares to Pluto in Capricorn. Some hot button male-female, masculine-feminine issues are being pushed to the surface, to say the least.

At the same time, quick temper and burning anger can trigger us to go too far - a distinct possibility with Black Moon Lilith involved in Aries - and this must be kept tightly in check to head off self-destruction. Anger acts as an instinctual guide and as impetus to action and self-exertion here, but it's the erratic warrior nature - dodging and weaving, ducking and moving, advancing then retreating, appearing then hiding, here and then not here - that keeps us safe within the battle and the rebellion from that which oppresses and snuffs out life. The fears of rejection and forced exile are founded ones when Black Moon Lilith is strong. We must ferociously rise to the occasion when it's required but just as quickly douse our flames.

Black Moon Lilith in Aries does lend her beautiful punk presence to the proceedings with the conjunction to Venus and Ceres on this February 14, but it's a loose conjunction, and she's not all that interested in getting involved. She's played this game before - and been played by it. For the most part, she's happy to do her thing from the outskirts of this one, and in Aries, so are all those fierce and independent who couldn't give a rat's ass about the expectations and manufactured importance of this day.

Still, this day for the sweethearts has been implanted pretty deeply in the collective psyche...

Squares abound in this Juno Day chart, meaning lots and lots of "growth opportunities." Don't we all just love those? Perfect for the day of the soul mate, but not so cool for those who like to keep their relations on the soft-lit, romantical side. There's tension beneath the lovey dovey.

With Neptune, Mercury, Pallas Athene, and Chiron conjunct in early Pisces, people are going to be giving it their all to keep the glossy, glowy Neptunian mirage of the Standard Romantic Love Relationship afloat. Illusions swirl as people fight to maintain Piscean era ideals about love, romance, and togetherness. A lot of these are on life support at this point, but they're still being played out and often quite sincerely.

Still, there is some Piscean magic to be had on this day.

Vesta in late Pisces opposes illusion-puncturing Mars in Virgo and says, "Hey, bud. No getting too nasty here. We don't want anyone falling down a black hole depression spiral from a too-severe love blinder removal."

But with Chiron edging the party, if not careful, people do set themselves up for disappointment.

Our celestial body of the day, soul mate asteroid Juno, squares the early Pisces party from telling-it-like-it-is Sagittarius and gains effect from the Sagittarius North Node. Juno square Neptune, Juno square Pallas Athene, Juno square Mercury, Juno square Chiron: on this Juno Day, the Piscean era love story cliches are straight-out played. The truth about love and relationship, much more attractive to Juno in Sadge, will prevail nicely, naughtily, or both.

The Moon in Scorpio squares the Aquarius Sun at mid-day on the 14th, and this is the friction between friendly detachment and airy, social, live-and-let-live on an outer level and an inner, emotional bottom line of "the same old bullshit ain't gonna fly." Emotions run deep here, and any crossed etheric lines related to lovers past can create major and potentially incendiary insult. With such caked-on collective love karma as this day has, those crossed lines are a major possibility. Be very careful to be fully present with the one in your life right now, body, mind, and psychic space. No replaying old scenes from Juno Days past with current loves.

The Moon leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius by 7 p.m. Central, just in time for things to get underway. The Moon moves to a warm and spicy conjunction to Juno by the wee hours of February 15, but also through those clashing squares to the bodies in Pisces.

The night leaves us with a warm, loved-up buzz, but only if we remain aware of how things are changing, staying ahead of the curve...

With so many frictional aspects involving the feminine bodies, this is not a day to mess with people's emotions. Anyone doing the Valentine's thing had better show up on time, well-dressed, probably with flowers, and it had best go off without a hitch. Mars in Virgo disposits love planet Venus, irritated in Aries, and the details matter. If you're going to do it, put in the effort to get it right.

If the current astro dynamics find you without the funds for entertainment (or the inclination to be an acquiescing consumer), the good thing about Mars in Virgo is that appreciation can be shown by anyone for anyone in inexpensive and practical ways: clean the house to a spotless shine, make a lovely dinner, offer a well-deserved massage, spend the evening in conversation without distraction. The simple things keep desires stoked, as long as we appreciate and acknowledge the offerings.

All in all, February 14 is a day that has seemingly been designed for people to build themselves up only to be let down. Maybe they eat more chocolate that way?

"The snub" is a Juno theme built right into the day, pricked the very first time we didn't get a Valentine from someone we hoped we would in elementary school. There has always been an underlying edge to this day, and it's made crystal clear under these particular astrological aspects.

There's a symbolism related to this day that by default makes a lot of people outside the confines of a relationship feel at least a little lonely and left out. (Or annoyed? Disgusted?) The possibilities for this are greater than usual under these cosmic energies unless people can puncture the illusions right from the get-go, refusing to be sucked into the tail-end Piscean era collective love undertow.

I have to say that with Saturn retrograde on the anaretic (29th) degree of Libra and the restructuring around love and relationship a prevailing theme, busting this particular day loose from its rigid, existing forms would be one mighty fine use of the astro energies.

Happy Juno Day 2012 to all you lovers and fighters out there, whether coupled up or flying solo. And Happy 35th Anniversary, Mum and Dad!

Ceres and Pluto and this Fall's Venus Retrograde in Scorpio

The Moon is now just past full in Scorpio and acts as an emotional indicator of what shape we're in heading into next October/November's Venus retrograde in Scorpio.

This Full Moon as precursor brings to light any issues related to our pasts that need addressing: relationship dynamics, etheric attachments that need to be discontinued, crystallized emotional reactions, triggers and habits, and stultifying conditioning that need to be dealt with.

At this Full Moon, these things are ripe for release, and we shed what we can now. Anything we deal with at this point lightens the load on the upcoming Venus retrograde (October 8 - November 18, 2010) and puts us in much better position to use those energies consciously and proactively, instead of receiving the unpleasant Scorpionic burns that force us into conscious action.

A really interesting thing about this Scorpio Full Moon chart, and the subject of this post, is the just-about-exact conjunction of Ceres and Pluto, two bodies that really mean business - especially in the sign of business, Capricorn! Oh, I'm so funny.

Ceres has been making the steely-eyed run up to this guy for a while and is currently at 4 degrees Capricorn, less than one degree from Pluto Rx at 5 degrees. Now, less than a single degree from full contact, she turns retrograde - just hours after the Full Moon in Scorpio. Mmm-hmm.

It's not time. Not just yet, Ceres says. We've got a whole lot of working things out to do before we can actually meet face-to-face and not tear this little planet to shreds in the process.

Mythologically, these two have a long and brutal history between them. Serious Scorp stuff. Going to the mat, hitting where it hurts most, dragging you to hell and back, destroying every single thing you love, rageful, wrathful stuff.

Ceres is pissed. The feminine force (represented by the asteroids) is pissed. And Pluto, well that dude was born pissed. There is brutal hurt here. And the only sign that could possibly contain this complexity of history and emotion and transmute that sort of anger and anguish into something beneficial for all involved is Scorpio.

And guess what? The final show-down, when Ceres and Pluto do finally meet face-to-face in conjunction, happens during the Venus retrograde in Scorpio this fall. You have to love astrology. You just have to.


I'm not a big mythology buff by any stretch. I just work with the very basics in order to understand the astrological energies, so here are the basics of the Ceres-Pluto history so as to understand the dynamics at play:

Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, kidnapped Ceres' (also known as Demeter) daughter Persephone and hauled her off to his dark and twisted underworld to be his Queen.

Ceres is the quintessential Earth Mother, Goddess of plants, especially grains/cereals, the seasons, the harvest and the fertility of the Earth, in general.

When Ceres realized her daughter had been abducted and dragged off to the underworld, she became so depressed, so full of rage and anguish, that she made the cold and the dark descend on the planet, and nothing would grow. Literally, she had the power to destroy life on Earth, and this Mama in anguish for her kidnapped child did just that.

There are a few different versions about how this stalemate between Pluto and Ceres was finally brought to a head and solved.

In one, things got so dire on the planet with the cold and dark and nothing growing that Zeus, King of the Gods, forced Pluto to return Persephone, sending Hermes to retrieve her. Unfortunately, Persephone had eaten some pomegranate seeds while chilling in the underground, and eating any food while you were down there meant you were forced to stay, at least for a portion of the year. Based on the number of seeds she ate, Persephone had to return to the underworld for four months of every year - corresponding with the winter season.

In another version, Hecate, Goddess of magic, witchcraft, childbirth, lunar lore, ghosts, crossroads, gates and walls - a dark feminine figure herself and one brave and wise enough to deal with the underworld - rescued Persephone and brought her back to the land of the living.

And in still another (a version I've personally favoured), Persephone got herself out of there after coming to fully understand the power dynamics going on and realizing if she took action and wiggled and exerted herself in the right ways (properly used her masculine force), she could break her own chains to the underworld and get free. Possibly wishful thinking from a Ceres-Pluto square person with a Scorpio stellium, but I like it.

Regardless of how Persephone was returned, there is definitely some unfinished business between Pluto and Ceres. Ahem. Don't we know it?

This is the subtext of our relations and of the events going on between now and the end of the year. There is a lot of dark emotion being stirred, very ancient. A lot of old wounds being triggered and old distrust. All the aspects of human emotional and relational existence that most people prefer to deny exist, especially relating to the feminine and its historical abuses.

It's interesting that Ceres, when it was discovered in 1801, was classified as the 8th planet. After about 50 years, it was reclassified as an asteroid.

And in 2006, both Pluto and Ceres were reclassified as dwarf planets.

So the playing field has been levelled by this dual reclassification, and now the masculine (Pluto) and the feminine (Ceres) can finally get down to brass tacks. Under these conditons and with a lot of strategic effort, they can come up with a balanced, working partnership with which they can both be satisfied. Or die trying. heh

Really, we're at the brink of destruction on this planet with a hog-tied feminine and a masculine running amok. We're hanging on by a thread, and so we're reminded: the entry points for integration of the feminine are at those points where change can no longer be resisted. That's most points, these days, but successful integration still requires great skill.

Venus in Scorpio relates to, among other things, unequal power dynamics in relationship, domination/subjugation, emotional poisoning, abuse and the hell that unequal relationships put people through.

But it also relates to the deepest, closest, most soul-satisfying and fulfilling of relationships. A true mutually beneficial merger of energy and resources and the creation of a force that can do exponentially more together than it could apart.

There is the potential with this fall's Venus in Scorpio retrograde to clear the way for relationship mergers of that beneficial, soul-deep variety, but only if we clear the distorting detritus and histories that would keep us from that first.

The Ceres-Pluto conjunction this October happens in tight conjunction to the North Node in Capricorn, as well, so the path we're carving out post-Pluto-ingressing-Capricorn-destruction-and-collapse is infused with the energy of this conjunction of feminine and masculine. Committing to concretely addressing the imbalances within all structural set-ups as we go forward. The North Node conjuncts Ceres first, followed by Pluto. The feminine comes out in front...

I love that the asteroids are playing such a strong role in the skies these days. They probably always were, but they're making themselves known with greater force. To me, this represents the feminine stepping up, coming to the decision-making table, making herself heard. She's not screaming or wailing (though she sure feels like it at times, and who could blame her?). She's composed, strong, speaking her wisdom firmly and in measured tones, in such practical, common sensical ways that no one can dispute it. This increases the odds greatly of real influence and integration.

The asteroid Goddesses are also sick and tired of Venus getting all the play - especially when Venus is prone to jealousy, vengefulness, vanity and female back-stabbing and game-playing, all while getting credit for nothing but love and beauty and fanciful delights.

So Ceres (on behalf of the other feminine asteroids) and Venus have a little unfinished business of their own to deal with this fall, but I'm sure with a little effort, they can come away with their own mutually beneficial agreement.

Pallas, transitting Scorpio until early October 2010, also has some things to say on the "bullshitty feminine/masculine dynamics" front. Pallas is the asteroid related to female warrior and truth-teller energy, and in Scorpio, it's not afraid to strike right at the root of the matter.

Meeting Pallas in strip-the-facade-and-get-real Scorpio would more than likely be too much for lovely Venus to bear on top of all that Ceres-Pluto tension, and luckily, Pallas enters Sagittarius before Venus' retrograde in Scorpio. The sign of Scorpio will be ringing with Pallas' blazing trail of truth, though, so there will certainly be no denying the things that need work during Venus' retrograde.

As has been said a million times before, women/the feminine is far more multi-dimensional and diverse than just the loving and pleasing mate (Venus), the mothering nurturer (Moon), or the vindictive, vixen/seductress version of the dark feminine.

The strengthening of position of the feminine asteroids, to me, indicates the unfolding of the true feminine force, in all its glory and all its ugliness - or at least, the potential for that. It's all in how we apply it, of course. Do we have the courage to be honest here and really unfold with integrity and authenticity or do we stay safe (and stuck) in the old, one-dimensional societal feminine constructs, playing the same games and roles and falling into the same traps? Echoes of the 1960s again.

Ceres is the largest asteroid by far, and her power is a suitable match for Pluto. Equal power dynamics is what we're after, and this grand Earth Mama leads the way for the rest of the feminine forces.

She's got back-up, though, as she takes a retrograde breather until August 8 and then goes direct, heading to that October 19 meeting with dear, old Pluto. The feminine forces are with her on this one every step of the way.

At the same time, the feminine is working at a bit of a disadvantage because so much of its previous work and influence have been unrecognized and therefore, unassisted, left to wither on the vine or use huge energy reserves fighting for bare survival.

Again, just as with Black Moon Lilith energy, with due care and attention, we can help the feminine do what needs to be done in our own lives, and doing that is the gift we have to offer these Goddesses. They'll gladly accept.