The Final Jupiter-Pluto Conjunction in Capricorn as Mars Stations Direct in Aries: A Resurgence of "Medical" Martial Law and Health-Based Control Tactics

According to a letter posted on the school website, schoolchildren at Broadgreen International School in Liverpool, England will be Covid tested by the British Army in a pilot project beginning November 9. Every child and adult will be given a barcode, and the school will "secure" the child if positive results are obtained. It is not clear what this entails.

This is an early element of the 5G-driven program of global health tracking, tracing, monitoring, and surveillance currently being implemented worldwide under the guise of "public safety."

The army is also going door-to-door to homes in the UK to test people.

Update November 8: This article has come out reporting on mass testing schemes in Liverpool and three other English cities to be carried out by the army. There are plans to extend the schemes (and true schemes they are) to Wales and Scotland and potentially further, as this is being called a pilot project. The mass testing in the U.K. is being called Operation Moonshot - more militaristic terminology to add to "Operation Warp Speed" in the U.S. and "5G deployments" worldwide, as well as "lockdowns," a term used in prisons.

Let's recall that the Covid-19 virus has not been purified/isolated, and the PCR test being used was never designed to diagnose viral illness. The results are near-meaningless with a majority of false positives - potentially all false positives - with 40 amplification cycles or higher. In light of the fact that Covid-19 has not been isolated, how are we certain that any of the positive results indicate Covid-19 infection? You can read additional information about the PCR test here. Dr. Thomas Cowan talks about the amplification cycles used with the PCR test in this video.

Broadgreen International School is not getting parental permission first as they usually would. In this case, if you wish for your child to opt out of Covid testing, you have to make a written request.

I can't imagine the fear and trepidation felt by schoolchildren as they see the army roll into their school to line them up for Covid testing. It's something out of a dystopian novel, but unfortunately, this is real life. 

This is a pilot project, meaning governments will most likely be attempting to roll this out in schools around the world. This type of mass testing is also a precursor to the military-backed global rollout of the fast-tracked, experimental, synthetic messenger RNA vaccine which will admittedly alter our genetic material in a permanent manner, potentially creating unintended and detrimental effects in the body.

Active resistance and opting out are necessary.  

What follows is a (very poorly-written) letter from Broadgreen International School in Liverpool, England to parents and carers of children. You can see it on the website under the November 6, 2020 "Important letter from Headteacher about Covid testing in school": https://www.broadgreeninternationalschool.com/parents/letters-home

Pallas Athene's Guidance Along Our Warrior Path

"Pallas Athene's Guidance Along Our Warrior Path" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

Channeling Pallas Athene as we Thwart the Advancement of the Technocratic State

As written about in previous articles, the orchestrated pandemic, global authoritarian power grab, and attempted implementation of "medical" martial law around the world have unfolded in lock-step with the astrology. 

For millennia, the powers that be have used astrology to plan and organize their nefarious schemes, and this, perhaps the hugest and most complex nefarious scheme in all of human history, is no exception.

We can see two key periods - March equinox and December solstice 2020 - that indicate major attempted advances of this authoritarian power scheme. I say 'attempted' because that is all it is - attempts by individuals and groups who hold no legitimate authority over us. These are not our leaders - far from it. The power they hold is an illusion, something they try to back up with violence or the threat of violence, coercion, manipulation, poisonings, fakery, tricks, and lies. This is not true power. These people and groups hold no true power over us. 

Awareness of the astrology and the associated themes can assist us in resisting these timed power grabs while retaining our sovereignty, body, mind, and spirit. Once you see through these machinations - the attempts to use astrology and nature's power for evil ends - it all becomes quite pathetic and easily rejected.

Related articles:

From March 22, 2020: "The Use of Astrological Timing and Symbolism by the Power Establishment: Orchestrated Attacks around March Equinox"

From March 17, 2020: "New Moon in Aries at Apogee Conjunct Chiron: Resisting "Medical" Martial Law, the Surreptitious 5G Roll-out, and the Expansion of Authoritarian Control in Our Daily Lives"

From March 14, 2020: "Major Aquarius Ingresses 2020 - 2023: Resisting 5G Technology, Energy Weapons, and the Creation of Digitized Dystopian Hell"

From February 27, 2020: "Coronavirus: Neutralizing the 'Terror of Contagion' with Mercury Retrograde in Pisces"
 
The central aspect that kicked off this worldwide test of the authoritarian power grid was the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto at 22 degrees Capricorn on January 12, 2020 (chart). The Saturn-Pluto conjunction also occurred in close conjunction to Earth Mama Ceres and communication-related Mercury. The conjunction indicated an intensification and consolidation of authoritarian power, but also a grand-scale transformation of power, particularly the vehicles of power.  

Saturn conjunct Pluto - January 12, 2020

Click to enlarge

The Pluto in Capricorn years (2008 – 2023) have coincided with the rise of the corporation as a vehicle for the power elite. In addition, corruption and illegitimacy (Pluto) have been exposed in institutions (Capricorn) of all kinds throughout these years.

Pluto in Aquarius (2023 - 2043) indicates two decades characterized by the rise of technology as a vehicle for the power elite. 

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. 

Pluto Stationing Direct, the Second Uranus-Pluto Square, and Pallas Athene Still Kicking a Little Butt in Aries

Pluto is currently slowing in the zodiac to station direct at 6 degrees Capricorn September 17, and as it does, it permeates the astro atmosphere with its deep, dark, raw intensity. Feeling nauseated, greasy, triggered, paranoid, exhausted, poisoned, irritable, low on tolerance, ready to blow, and as if you are energetically moulting are all par for the course during a Pluto station.

Our bullshit detectors are more highly-tuned than usual when Pluto hangs heavy in the atmosphere, as it does this September, and listening to anything dishonest or lacking in integrity can actually make one feel physically ill. (I would suggest skipping the phoniness of the United States' presidential politics at this time if you’re particularly sensitive, or you may find yourself gripping a toilet bowl.)

Add to this Pluto direct station (late on September 17) the fact that we experience the second Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square the very next day (late on September 18) and we have an extremely intense fall equinox going down.

Uranus and Pluto are moving back and forth, back and forth, in a series of seven squares between 2012 and 2015. The last time we experienced a square series between these two was 1932 – 1934 during The Great Depression.

Uranus and Pluto are outer/transpersonal planets, and their movements indicate global seismic shifts that trickle down into the personal life.

This second square, with both bodies retrograde, picks up where we left off at the first Uranus-Pluto square June 24. We drop into new gears here under pressure and friction that create (or force) movement into new territory. The entire structural reality is in a state of morph, being shaped by global power structures of nefarious motivation, and we’re challenged to keep our balance throughout the process.

We’re seeing orchestrated movements from Global Governors worldwide under this square series and a state of corruption and inhumanity that is truly mind-boggling as it goes on under the noses of the populace.

The tension purposefully being created by macro power moves is immense, and we're seeing people crack under the pressure.

Intense hatred is being stirred intentionally on this planet, and the coping skills necessary to deal with it are being withheld, particularly for men.

Mass shootings have become somewhat commonplace in the United States, with a major one occurring every year or two, but we saw a horrific concentration of them between the first Uranus-Pluto square June 24 and the second September 18.

There was the Aurora, Colorado theatre shooting July 20 that killed 12 and wounded scores more. Then there was the mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin August 5, committed by an ex-U.S. Army member and white supremacist, that left six people dead and four wounded. A gunman opened fire at Texas A&M University August 13, killing two people and wounding three more before he was shot dead. And a mass shooting outside the Empire State Building in New York City on August 24 by a man who had recently been fired left two dead (including the shooter) and six wounded.

The election of the separatist Parti Quebecois in French-speaking province Quebec on September 4 re-opened old fault lines in Canada, as well. A gunman opened fire at the celebration party for the PQ win in Montreal, killing one and critically wounding another. The man reportedly shouted, "English are waking up! English are waking up!" as police took him into custody. You’ll recall that Canada’s Sun-Uranus at 8 degrees Cancer was locked into exact cardinal t-square by the first Uranus - Pluto square in June, and it is within tight orb again during the second.

All this violence might seem to be coming out of the blue (Uranus in Aries), but if we look at the violence being brought down around the world by both the United States and its trusty sidekick Canada, we understand that these seemingly random acts of violence are occurring fully within their context (Pluto).

Female warrior Pallas Athene continues to be a major player in the Uranus-Pluto squares. This asteroid is on Uranus like a second skin as the planet cries out for women and the feminine to step it up, speak out, and exert themselves at the threshold of this new astrological era.

“This feminine warrior asteroid is absolutely potent at this important time on the planet and will not be shuffled to the side. Pallas Athene was right up front in the proceedings, exactly conjunct Uranus in Aries and square Pluto in Capricorn, during the first of the seven Uranus-Pluto squares on June 24, 2012, and it has stayed there ever since. This asteroid holds crucial position for women and for the feminine, in general. It simply won't back down. Like a dog on a bone, it moves retrograde, step-for-step, in tight conjunction with Uranus into the second Uranus-Pluto square September 18/19.”

Both Mercury and the Sun in Libra move into cardinal t-square position this September, and social dynamics – with Saturn transiting the final degrees of Libra – are, at times, tense, stressed, and highly-charged.

September is the last full month of the Saturn in Libra transit – Saturn enters Scorpio October 5 – and our social lessons and maturity in relationship are certainly being put to the test under these configurations. We are proving or disproving our ability to hold social position, authority, and responsibility under this pressure.

Mercury enters Libra September 16, and our state of ongoing cardinal t-square is triggered yet again as it moves into position opposite Pallas Athene-Uranus in Aries and square Pluto in Capricorn. The t-square configuration is exact September 20.

Our communications with others are taut, to say the least. People are wound tightly here, and things are simmering beneath the social interactions. Words are highly-charged and potentially incendiary with Mercury squaring volcanic Pluto and opposing unpredictably inflammatory Uranus and Pallas Athene.

Mercury in Libra does its best to keep things socially smooth and congenial - often the domain of women.

Pallas Athene, working on the astrological Aquarian vibe in conjunction to Uranus, is fighting to break us out of stifling, control-based social roles, particularly for women.

You see the tension of this opposition.

Playing social roles and maintaining the comfort of a position within polite society is the domain of Mercury in Libra. But…

“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."

With Saturn cementing our relational position in the last degrees of Libra, we have to maintain social standards here, but this is very tough to do when we feel like snarling Plutonic beasts with an overwhelming Uranian-Pallas Athenian urge to annihilate every social more in existence.

The sweet, social Libra tongue holds everything in the balance. We keep it congenial – unless, that is, it becomes oh-so-necessary to fight a lightning-flash verbal battle. The feminine perspective is particularly at the breaking point here. It’s put up with all it is humanly possible to put up with, and speaking up on inflammatory issues when necessary becomes just as important as maintaining social decorum – probably more so.

The Sun enters Libra September 22, and our state of ongoing cardinal t-square keeps right on trucking as we head through fall equinox in the northern hemisphere.

The cardinal t-square involving the Sun is exact September 29, and it is the dominant configuration involved in the Aries Full Moon that night. The Aries Full Moon falls tightly within t-square configuration, conjunct Uranus and Pallas Athene, opposite the Sun in Libra, and square Pluto.

All I can say is: yowtch. These configurations are too hot to touch, almost too intense to handle, but we're going to have to keep our balance and our social graces about us with the strong Libra influence. With Saturn completing its transit, it’s final exam time in the realm of relationship, both personal and professional.

It’s easy to be nice and socially congenial when things are going smoothly. But toss this level of friction, intensity, and potentially volatile energy into the mix, and let’s see who can maintain their Saturnine stiff upper lips.

The structural work we’ve done in relationships so far is put practically to the test, with every bolt and screw challenged under intense, real-life pressure. As with the Mars in Libra conjunction to Saturn mid-August, how we perform now determines whether we cement new social position and authority or whether we’re unceremoniously demoted. Skimmed-over weaknesses or skipped steps from the Saturn in Libra transit will be apparent now.

Earlier this summer, we had an emphasis on the Cancer-Libra square. Now, with Mercury and the Sun squaring Pluto, the emphasis shifts to the Libra-Capricorn square.

This is the dynamic friction between “all-business” Capricorn and “life-work balance” Libra. Capricorn can’t see any goals other than getting the job done, achieving, and advancing. Libra sees that there are issues of human relationship, beauty, fairness, and social justice that must come into play.

The Libra-Capricorn square holds within it the tension related to maintaining right human relations within an increasingly ruthless business world.

The social role of women in business, in particular, comes under intense scrutiny here. There are aspects of the expected female role in the workplace that are stultifying, oppressive, and just plain unfair. Women are held back from achieving and from holding positions of recognized power due to social conditioning and the expectations that they will stay within that conditioning.

Again, the energy of Pallas Athene conjunct Uranus in Aries is highlighted here, with a do-or-die, now-or-never effort on the part of women and the feminine to bust out of the social roles, conditioning, and expectations that have kept them so unhappily confined.

Venus in Cancer Square Saturn in Libra: Standing Your Ground, Speaking Up, and Disarming the Feminine People-Pleasing and Passo Aggro

Venus in Cancer is currently moving to a square with Saturn in Libra, exact in the wee hours of Monday, September 3. Some building tension is possible in relationships this week as we enter our first major test coming out of the June 15 Cancer New Moon.

Depending upon the foundation laid so far, we could pass this test smoothly with flying colours, or we could find it frictional.

You'll recall that the Cancer New Moon in June occurred within a square to Saturn in Libra, just as soul mate asteroid Juno stationed direct in Scorpio. That New Moon opened an opportunity to get real with the energies and themes of the Cancer-Libra square, a square that is prone to many less-than-real characteristics.

From A Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice Cancer New Moon With Puppy Dog Tails Brought to You By Juno Direct in Scorpio:

"You have the mother (Cancer) and the diplomat (Libra), and both are invested in being nice - or at the very least, in appearing nice. Both these signs like to be seen as giving, congenial, and self-sacrificing for the happiness and betterment of others.

Both Cancer and Libra have a tendency to deny any characteristics - in themselves or in the people around them - that would show them in a different light. This is particularly prevalent when bodies in the signs are being squared, as they are now.

The truth is, both these signs have "dark" characteristics (as all the signs of the zodiac do) that they like to keep off the radar screen, and as far as signs of the zodiac go, there is very little discussion of these...

Both Cancer and Libra, particularly when in square formation, are prone to avoidance of uncomfortable issues, denial, phoniness, blaming others for their own disappointed expectations, underhanded social or familial power plays, and guilt-tripping. All stuff for which Scorpio has little tolerance.

It's the "I bend over backwards for people, and this is how they treat me" syndrome. The "I give and give and give, and this is the thanks I get" thing where people are held hostage by all that "selfless" giving and concern.

Because these are two signs that will go to great lengths to keep up the nice, self-sacrificing image and because both like to avoid conflict at almost all cost, they'll agree to do things they don't really want to do but then rebel by acting out in passive aggressive (yet still, on the surface, "nice") ways.

Both signs have a tendency, unless overcome, to pass the buck rather than standing their ground in an honest and upfront manner. 'Selfless' becomes 'complete loss of self,' and chaos follows. At a certain point, it becomes impossible to know where these two signs really stand, and their word becomes very slippery.

Both signs love to be needed by others, but there is a tendency to overestimate how much they give altruistically and how much is given with an already-expected return.

Cancer is certainly warm, cosy, and sweet, but it will bitch and moan to anyone who will listen about everything it does for you if it doesn't find an expected level of gratitude coming its way.

Libra is lovely and socially-welcoming, but be careful accepting its graces, as it will often be looking for a tit-for-tat reward. It'll wag tongue about you, too, if that reward is not forthcoming or if it does not meet preconceived expectations.

Both signs will give too much (their own issue) and then become resentful when they do not receive what they believe is their just desserts, placing blame on others."

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

Vesta Conjunct Pallas Athene in Aquarius: Fighting for Our Investment in the Future

Asteroids Vesta and Pallas Athene are currently conjunct in Aquarius as Pallas slows for a retrograde station May 31. Under this aspect, we're fighting for the soul-level investment we've made in the future direction of life on this planet. We're fighting for a free humanity, and the effort takes all we have this week. 

Pulling into the retrograde station, we're starting to tire. The fight has been long and hard, to say the least. Working for a broader vision of freedom, justice and equality on this planet has kept us battling, on the outside looking in in many ways. We knew the direction we had to go. We saw the path laid out in front of us. And we followed it, come what may. We've accepted our outside-the-mainstream status as bizarre, eccentric, odd, weird, misunderstood, and we've stood apart while holding the vision. 

We held the vantage point and kept driving forward because we knew what existed on this planet fell far short of where we needed to be. 

But with Vesta and Pallas Athene in tense square aspect to the Mercury-Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus, we're starting to wonder if it's even worth it anymore. We're starting to question whether we have it in us at this point. We're starting to ask, where's the incentive? 

Don't let up. Don't give in. We've put too big a personal investment in (Vesta) at this point to let it slip away now, so close to the tipping point. 

One foot in front of the other gets the job done this week as Pallas Athene inches forward, inches forward, planting the flag at 15 degrees Aquarius before falling back into a retrograde that goes all the way back to 27 Capricorn. Pallas will go direct again September 24. 

With Pallas Athene, the fight is a creative fight, so find whatever creative outlets and creative mojo you can find to eke out those last bits of driving feminine warrior spirit energy. Join with others of similar mind if you can and draw on the energy of the groups of people who also fight these fights in their own ways. 

Pallas stations as we experience the Gemini New Moon partial solar eclipse June 1, kicking off triple eclipse season and the Cardinal Grand Cross summer of 2011. The battling, never-say-die feminine spirit infuses the proceedings. 

Vesta, too, soon goes retrograde - June 21 at 19 degrees Aquarius until turning direct again September 16 at 6 degrees Aquarius. 

Vesta represents a great soul-level investment. It is the flame we continually tend, keeping it alive and burning despite the personal sacrifice and diligence that entails. In Aquarius, it relates to the future of humanity on this planet. It's the direction taken right out of the Aquarian era gate. It's our own vision of the future that we tend, outside the carefully manufactured options presented to us that take us into more of the same. 

Use the energy of the Taurus squares over the next two weeks to dig in and commit fully to your own version of the Aquarian future, staying grounded within some very bizarre and ungrounded societal and planetary scenarios.

Pallas Athene Square Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius Ahead of the Venus Retro

Feminine warrior spirit asteroid Pallas Athene is coming to the end of her long ten-month journey through the wild and woolly realms of Scorpio and squares Neptune and Chiron, conjunct in retrograde motion at 26 Aquarius, to cap it off.

Pallas squares Neptune-Chiron today and for the rest of September, entering Sagittarius October 7 just before Venus goes retrograde.

Pallas Athene, please take a bow. My hat goes off to you in this sign. You had a tough row to hoe but miraculously did what you had to do and came through it.

The Moon in Taurus opposes Pallas in Scorpio later today and also squares Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius forming a fast-moving fixed T-square. We get a quick reality check here, and grounded Autumnal reality does its magical thing, keeping us attuned to real possibilities rather than the often energetically disastrous style-over-substance false Neptunian kind.

Working with our intricate emotional states, carrying things through and honouring every part even when it's not easy, can help us to finally put wounding Neptunian illusions/delusions to bed as we work with the potency of tail-end Pisces. Those tail-end smoke and mirrors effects that tempt us to fall for the old ploys, going through the wrong door to the wrong people and making us into that sillier, more naive, self-sabotaging version of ourselves. Let's not go back there, shall we? Looking these tendencies in ourselves square-on (and most of us have them), together, and following them firmly out the door (latch locked behind) is the way to discharge them for good. We'll have plenty of practice here as Mars, Eros, the Moon, the Sun, Vesta, Mercury and Venus follow into the very same square Pallas in Scorpio leads us through right now.

This especially has to do with our concepts of the future (Aquarius), as collective hopes and dreams here have been inflated and pumped full of Neptunian ether by last spring's triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron at this very degree of Aquarius.

There's a fine line between being reality-based and stomping on our dreams to the point that the future does not seem worth living. With Jupiter and Uranus both retrograding through late Pisces, the bottom drops out frequently and the icy fingers of despair can creep up and take hold whenever we go too far into the tail-end Piscean void.

The Sun and Saturn in Libra challenge us to fend off the despairs by connecting with other people and with the things that bring us pleasure. The people and pursuits that make this life worth living, despite all the fuzzy lollipop ends it has to dish out.

But then there is such thing as going too far into that territory, too. Ah, Libra. You're not as sweet and simple as people would like to think.

At the same time, being honest about the realities on this planet - especially, with Scorpio strongly in the mix, emotional/psychological/psychic realities - is absolutely essential. Anyone insisting that all is hunky dory at this point in human history either has zero understanding of anything outside their own privileged existence or is driven by fearful denial, willing to do anything to stay separate from the more difficult aspects of living and loving in these times.

Mercury has just cleared its retrograde shadow in Virgo, which should kick off some progress and untangle some delays. The combination of Pluto and Mercury stationing direct at the same time on September 12/13 was not a good time in my world. The Plutonic fetal-position terrors combined with Virgoan worry and mental stress are not much of a good time for anyone.

But today, my internet connection has finally been restored. I'm getting a new key to the building that actually works (soon-ish, anyway). And my speaking software arrived by courier today - even though our intercom to let people into the building is not working. At this point, I take what I can get as far as progress goes.

This means that once I figure it out (and provided it works with my free word processing program), I will be able to do e-mail readings while saving my wrists.

My astro article is coming out in the October 1 Phoenix File, also. If interested, you can check it out or subscribe via the link on the right sidebar.

Drawing From the Venus in Scorpio Vault

When the sign of Scorpio is prominent something is changing from one state to another. As Venus transits and retrogrades in Scorpio over the next four months (September 8 - January 7, 2011), Eros, Mars, the Moon, the Sun and Mercury will also pass through, keeping the Scorpionic state-changing process in the astro headlines. 

Under the astrological lens, we all have Scorpio in our charts, just as we have all 12 signs/energies/functions represented. If you have a strong Scorpio/Pluto contingent represented by planets, points, transits or aspects in your natal chart, the transformational changes in state will be ongoing and a much stronger, deeper theme in life - relating to a longer-term process of pressurizing and purging, tending and melding to continually wrest something truer and more to our soul's liking for growth and divine alignment from the elements with which we have to work on this planet. 

Wherever Scorpio lies in your chart is the area that will be undertaking this alchemical transformation over the next four months. With Venus, Eros and Mars involved, it is coming about through alchemical changes in relationship and relationship dynamics. The way we relate is ready to change. This especially involves underlying male/female and masculine/feminine energetic exchanges and dynamics, as well as money, value, self-worth, beauty and needs - especially emotional and sexual needs. 

Certain figure eight energy dynamics we've been ingrained into in the past must now be re-routed. Certain crystallized emotional pathways and roles we've been conditioned to take - or have allowed ourselves to be placed in again and again for the convenience of others - must be shed through conscious effort and use of will. Certain attractions and relational tracks we've taken again and again that prove not to meet our deepest needs must finally be moved beyond. The societal concept of relationship in general, especially love partnership, is undertaking a massive maturation process with Saturn's transit of Libra. 

As a culture, North America has a very juvenile idea of what love and partnership mean along with an often energetically irresponsible use of sexual energy, reinforced through media. As Saturn digs in in Libra, Neptunian-illusory versions of love relationship, beauty, money, sex and what our needs really are within relationship are dissipating quickly. As a culture, we're being forced to grow up quickly around these concepts. But after the initial sting, reality within relationship will become much more attractive and much more deeply sexy than facade versions we've been accepting and reinforcing. This is how we get to the true relational power we can wield together for grandscale collective change. 

These themes are hinted at now as brave warrior woman Pallas Athene, out way in front of the pack in Scorpio for the past nine months, prepares to square Neptune-Chiron in late Aquarius at the end of this month. 

Pallas is wielding her etheric sword in Scorpio and will puncture wounding illusory bubbles, many of which were pumped up and reinforced during the Aquarius triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron May-July 2009. Neptune and Chiron have retrograded back to that degree. Now, as Pallas disconnects us from ties to the manipulative Neptunian illusions/delusions that can so easily be our downfall, we can dissolve them and come back to Earth - which is the truly healing path in the long run. Clearing them away is a process, however. Isn't it always? Pallas leads the way, but the themes grow in intensity October through December, coming to a head at various times during the Venus retrograde as the Moon, Mars, Eros, the Sun and Mercury also square Neptune-Chiron in late Aquarius. Especially feisty is a time period around October 22 when we power through the illusions with sheer strength of committed will as Mars-Eros square Neptune-Chiron. 

There is great healing potential through relationship with this Venus retrograde, but only if we're masterful with the energy, refusing to cheapen, dilute or downplay our experience as human beings at this time on this planet. Refusing to fall for the old tricks, the old detrimental attractions and the old plays on our hopes and dreams and the way we wish things were. 

To fortify ourselves for the journey ahead, I thought I would draw on some information previously posted since Mercury is retrograde in Virgo (going back over previous work). I sometimes find it fortifying to go back over pertinent information ahead of a big transit. 

In addition to a couple recent posts on the Venus retrograde ("Venus Trines Neptune-Chiron and Enters the Retrograde Shadow at 27 Libra" from September 2 and "Venus, Eros and Mars in the Via Combusta and Karmic Love Cleansing Through the Alchemical Fires" from August 25), here are some older excerpts: 

 A post from the second last time Venus transited Scorpio (September 23-October 18, 2008): "Venus in Scorpio, I Love Your Hardcore Ass! And Yet, You Make Me Want To Die...," October 7, 2008. 

"...we're the people who can never deny the dark and twisted elements of human experience. We see through the glossy, personality veneer right to the soul, right to the denied parts that people try to cover up and pretend don't exist. We see through the song-and-dance right to the hidden motivations of each individual we come into contact with. We know what they want from us and see the ways they're not being straight about getting it... Unlike other people, we can't pretend we don't know about this stuff. We can't pretend that we don't know you're trying to manipulate us. We can't pretend we don't see you doing the wrong thing and getting rewarded for it, gaining power from it. We can't turn a blind eye when we see you sucking other people dry and using their energy for personal gain... 

This is also why most Plutonic/Scorpionic-types can't stand the current "everything has to be happy, happy and positive" propaganda in the pseudo-spiritual circles. Scorpio knows negative and positive, light and dark, co-exist. They are yin and yang. To deny the dark and negative is to deny the realities of life. And it's this denial that actually gives the dark free rein to come out in ugly, twisted, unconscious ways - ways that can then be even further denied. 

When the masses insist that the dark doesn't exist, or that it doesn't exist IN THEM, it leaves a disproportionate amount of dark and ugly for the people who can't refuse its existence. In other words, it's just not fair, not balanced, when people refuse to accept and integrate the reality of light and dark co-existing. When people refuse to take responsibility for conscious awareness of the darker aspects of life and self, they leave a very skewed reality for those who know otherwise and can't bury their heads in the sand." 

And a post from the last time Venus transited Scorpio (November 7-30, 2009) "It's Been a Long Time Coming...And It STILL Ain't Here!" November 15, 2009. The Moon was conjunct Venus at the time of this post, just as it will be September 11. 

"The Moon in its dark phase came together with Venus this morning. A conjunction of the feminine planets, merging forces in the deep, dark sign of ancient soul knowledge, Scorpio. Feminine strength and its raw, powerful beauty - wounds, scars and all - holding its position as Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn square off in the first of three closing squares. Holding its position as the Old School Masculine believes it's divvying up the world and serving it on a silver platter to its cohorts at the top of their man-made pyramid-scheme hierarchies. Dividing it into dollars and cents, euros and yuans, rupees and dinars. 

All the raw, soul-deep Scorpio is squaring the triple conjunction in Aquarius and trining Uranus Rx in Pisces. Eyes on the future, eyes on the future is the constant refrain. But what about now? And what led up to now? It's been a hurtful trip to this Earth for many of us. A long succession of hurtful trips through the lineages. And we're supposed to believe a change is coming. That it's almost here. After lifetimes of dirt in our eyes and salt in our wounds, after being ground down and ground down until we barely had the strength to go on. After having the faith diminished to the tiniest pinprick of candlelight. After having what's right and good punished and abused and mocked for so long. 

Scorpio is intuition. The soul knowledge we kept inside and carried with us through generations like the most valuable of family heirlooms. Like the best china or lace or silver or pearls. Because it is the most valuable family heirloom. 

And we agreed. No, we'll never forget. We'll never give up. We'll continue despite derision and opposition and every dirty trick in the book. We'll use that derision and opposition and all those dirty tricks to get better and wiser and stronger and more effective. Until the change is here. Until we can see it with our own eyes and hear it with our own ears and taste it with our own tongues. And everyone who kept that promise, who kept his or her soul close, who protected the connection and the knowledge above all else and fought for that right in others, knows the struggle. 

We know it's the only battle worth fighting here on this beautiful little planet. 

Here's Beth Hart, an Aquarius Sun, singing about the real change - not the co-opted Obama-fied version: Beth Hart's A Change is Gonna Come 

It's an old song written by Sam Cooke that has been covered many times, but her version really captures the feeling of this Scorpio square to Aquarius and trine to Pisces to me. She's singing about all the times our hearts have been broken because the change didn't come. The sweet, child-like hope we had for it that was crushed so many times. And the times we went out on a limb for what was right and good and were left hanging because what was supposed to be there to support us wasn't. And she's singing about the never-say-die resolve. The sheer strength of will of what is right and good. The power of soul truth. And the love that is so strong it keeps us getting back on our feet to try again...and again. We can be thankful for the particular brand of Venus in Scorpio love here because with it, the heart has been broken and betrayed so many times that it won't be fooled again. Venus here is not an easy sell. Glossy words and social charms will never impress. Only the real change will suffice." 

From "Let's Be Thankful for Mercury Retrograde in Taurus Right Now," April 26, 2010. This also talks about the dynamics of a Scorpio Moon, which we will be experiencing as precursor to the Venus in Scorpio retrograde this Saturday, September 11. 

"The Moon wants to hold on, but Scorpio knows that to do so is death - at least soul death. So we have to be gentle but skillfully ruthless with any ways we've been conditioned to dish out or accept subtle mistreatment, severing ties to energetic dynamics that will never truly nourish us. There are themes of emotional deprivation/starvation here - and of fighting our way out of that and into truly nourishing territory. Psychic surgeon Scorpio, cutting away whatever snuffs us out emotionally so that the truly vital connections can strengthen and grow. It's a precise application now, more often working with people and relationships rather than simply cutting ourselves off from them altogether."

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.