Mars Conjunct Saturn in Libra: The Finesse of Socially-Strategic Manoeuvres Makes or Breaks Long-term Positioning

Photo: Willow

A very irritated Mars is moving to a conjunction with Saturn in Libra August 15. Constricted will is the theme of the week, and it's our social responsibilities and positions keeping us so tightly under the thumb.

Mars has been in Libra for over a month now (after clearing an almost eight-month transit of and retrograde in Virgo), and some social/relational frustration and angst has been building since early July.

Mars is already in detriment in Libra, and finding its movement additionally constrained by the close proximity to taskmaster Saturn is making it fume. Pressure, friction, and pissiness build. People will be itching for a passo aggro battle, complete with social audience, along “I’m so much more civilized than you, not to mention more popular” lines.

From a previous post:

"The Mars-Saturn conjunction August 15 falls at 24 degrees Libra, conjunct highly fortunate fixed star Arcturus. This is potentially a saving grace - but we're going to need all the help we can get.

Malefic planets Mars and Saturn teaming up is a potentially nasty combo at the best of times, and Mars is going to be pretty well sick of all the forced social graces by the time it hits Saturn near the end of Libra.

If people haven't been dealing well with mounting social frustations and pressures, consciously working on perfecting that balanced will, they'll be irritable, testy, and ready to blow (or collapse) by the second week in August.

If people have been letting things slide where they should have been digging their heels in - particularly in professional relationships - anger and social inflammation can be expected.

We're fighting for what we consider fair, balanced, and just, and with Saturn finishing its transit in Libra, we're fighting for rightful social position. But remember: we're fighting like a Libra, so you can't let them see you fight. You have to fight nicely, politely, using social power and prowess, and with a smile on your face.

In Libra, the Mars action, aggression, and fight are often subverted, which can lead to some underhanded moves. People will be using their social currency and already-established social scenes rather than fighting their own battles. Passive aggression is a classic trait of Libra under pressure (including Mars in Libra), and if you've learned how to successfully sniff out, head off, and deal with passo aggro, you're ahead of the game."

The moves being made now are socially strategic, designed to secure new and long-term position, and not all of them will be above board.

Do your best not to be triggered, even if you can’t believe what some people are getting away with. A little social flaring is to be expected - and is even necessary - leading into this conjunction, but work your rules of disengagment so that social grease fires don't become full-on, damaging blazes.

Make no mistake, this Mars is pissed and ready for a scrap, but in Libra, it’s required to uphold an easy social demeanor. We must maintain equilibrium, even while gritting our teeth under yet another conciliatory social gesture.

Mars is the planet of pure personal will. It wants what it wants when it wants it, and its instinct is to go after its desires directly and expediently. In Libra, though, the planet has to continually balance its desires with the desires and needs of other people. It has to put its sword in the sheath and sit down to tea. With Mars in Libra, the battles move to the social realms where it is in your best interests that no one sees your aggressive manoeuvres. This is a big part of the advantage while Mars is in Libra: that no one sees you fight, that you can deny fighting at all, and that you come off looking sweet as a prairie saskatoon pie.

Keeping hold of our tempers and maintaining balance are of utmost importance now, as this Mars conjunction to Saturn - nearing the end of its transit in Libra - acts as a major social placement test.

What goes on socially and in relationship over the next two weeks is fairly high stakes. We have the ability to make or break long-term positioning here. Any major losses of temper, overt acts of aggression (or passive aggression), or visible social attacks have the possibility of blowing the hard-earned relational progress and social reputation we’ve built over the past two+ years of Saturn in Libra.

This transit is additionally important, as it tests, under pressure, newly developed social/relational rules, standards, and positions ahead of cardinal Grand Crosses in 2013 and 2014 that feature Mars in Libra prominently.

More on that here: A State of Ongoing Cardinal T-Square and Some Mars in Libra Foreshadowing

The dispositor of this conjunction of the malefic planets is Venus in Cancer, which forms an exact cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on August 15/16.

Our relationships with family, our loving, feminine qualities, our abilities to nurture, to emotionally connect, to create warm and comforting home bases are keys to successfully navigating this time frame.

At the same time, opposing Pluto and squaring Uranus, there are emotional patterns to discontinue and denial to shed in relationship. Certain comfort zones are being busted up. Certain hidey holes and fallback people are no longer available.

Venus is just coming out of an era-shifting retrograde period involving the last Venus Transit most of us will experience in our lifetimes. At the same time, Saturn is completing the final leg of its transit through Via Combusta Libra.

In relationships of all kinds, we officially need to know better.

There is little to no tolerance for Piscean era delusions and dreaming. The old relationship ideals no longer apply, so don't be surprised when they fall flat.

If all this slippery social fighting and manoeuvring comes across as a little disingenuous and hypocritical to you, never fear. Things take a turn from nice-and-smiley passive aggressive to get-it-on-the-table aggressive aggressive by the last week of August, and all the pent-up social angst finds a much-needed release point:

On the other side of the conjunction to Saturn, Mars slides into its second home sweet home in Scorpio August 23, just before the North Node enters Scorpio August 30. Mars in its domicile is breaking trail and leaves the sign the day after Saturn's ingress of Scorpio (October 6).

We’re heading into a prolonged Scorpionic period over the next 2.5 years, and during that time period, if the air needs to be cleared, the air will be cleared. Long-held beefs will rise to the surface to be dealt with. The time will come.

Until the end of August, though, work those socially-sophisticated Libra muscles like a champ, and never let them see you sweat.

Venus Leaves its Retrograde Shadow at 23 Gemini

Photo: Willow

New Relationship Territory August 1

Love, money, and relationship planet Venus clears its retrograde shadow at 23 degrees Gemini on July 31, and as it does, it makes an exact trine to Saturn at 23 degrees Libra, in the final leg of its 2.5-year transit through the sign of the scales.

This has a very nice completion feel to it. Things are being capped off gently with this flowing air trine, and we're made aware of how far we've come in matters of love, relating, and partnership since Saturn first began its relationship overhaul and renovations in October 2009.

If we've done the work, we're in stronger relational position now than we've ever been.

Chapters end, cycles close, and we officially move out of the Venus retrograde period in Gemini which included the Venus Transit June 5, putting that momentous event behind us. Venus has been in Gemini for about four months. You can read more about the transit here: Venus Enters Gemini, A New Relationship Cycle Begins, and Mutable Madness Permeates the Skies.

As of August 1, Venus clears the last of the retrograde degrees, and we're officially in new territory on relationship fronts - just in time for the Full Moon in Aquarius that night. According to certain astrological indicators, we've officially entered the first relationship cycle of the astrological Aquarian era, making the new relationship cycle opening more far-reaching and all-encompassing than usual. New relational rules, standards, and responsibilities apply.

Saturn in Libra Check-List

Coming to the end of the Saturn in Libra transit:

"There's a solid groundwork that should have been built by now - new relational rules and standards, a heightened command of social responsibility, the ability to maintain equilibrium under pressure, as well as a new maturity in the tone of our relationships, especially between the sexes. At this point, people either have it or they don't...

This far into Saturn's transit of Libra, we start to see the social and professional results of having put this groundwork in. We also see the results of not having put it in, as well as the areas that contain hazardous holes and breaks in structure. This is especially apparent when we relate with those who have shirked the full effort.

Under Saturn in Libra, we've determined who makes for a favourable partner and who doesn't, and now these standards must be applied across the board...

We're looking for long-term pay-off in relationship here and nothing less than that is worth the time or energy. Those who prove they cannot be responsible toward us, in relation to us, are not worth the time or energy.

Only take on the responsibility toward others that feels absolutely right to take on, and don't give anyone a level of responsibility in relation to you that he or she is not meant (or equipped) to take on...

[I]t's a person with solid integrity, with some financial savvy, with a nose for legitimate advancement, with expertly handled personal responsibilities, and with the ability to dig in and get the job done even if it means deferring personal pleasures who is most attractive under these astro energies.

[Saturn in Libra] is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). [It's] seeking a partner who understands the full realities of life, including the difficult, sombre, or "unfun" aspects, who understood them early on, and who worked with them pretty much from the get-go rather than sloughing them off...

People who are obviously playing catch-up on this front are not going to hold as much appeal. We're looking for the results of long-term efforts - what a person has built and what progress has been made over the course of the lifetime.

Charm is a quality with a decreasing amount of value the closer Saturn gets to Scorpio if it is not also attached to absolute integrity and authenticity. Those are the qualities that make bank under Saturn in Scorpio. People who have skated by on looks, charm, charisma, or social prowess and facade are going to find these qualities don't get them nearly as far as they used to.

Playboys (or girls), those who refuse to grow up, the skittish, the cheaters, the fibbers, the non-committal, those who can't manage limitations, restrictions, or adult responsibilities - these people become less and less attractive."

Venus in Cardinal T-Square, Mars-Saturn Conjunct in Libra: Relationships Tested Under Intense Pressure

Let's hope we're quick on the uptake with the new relational rules, standards, and responsibilities worked out through Saturn in Libra because they're being put immediately to the test.

We have exactly one week to enjoy the new Venus in Gemini territory and the Venus-Saturn trine before Venus enters cardinal water sign Cancer August 7, moving straight away into tense cardinal t-square formation with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

That cardinal t-square is exact August 15 and occurs on the same day as Mars in Libra forms a difficult, constricting, even at times desperate conjunction to Saturn in Libra. The constriction of will, energy, and personal direction indicated by this conjunction of the malefics will be difficult to endure during the second week of August, particularly for males and for females who are used to unfettered energy and movement.

Venus in Cancer within cardinal t-square formation is the dispositor of both Mars and Saturn in Libra, and tense, challenging relations under a whole heap of pressure are the dominating theme August 7-17.

We're grinding out progress, but it's hard-won, to say the least.

Soft, comfortable places we're used to falling with Venus in Cancer can prove poisonous under opposition from Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Capricorn. The familiar can become suffocating quagmire, with the Venus square to Uranus in Aries forcing us to go beyond relational comfort zones, beyond usual faces and dynamics. This cardinal t-square forces us to shed prior safe havens in search of something more dynamic as people and relationships morph and change before our eyes.

Relationship structures new and old are being tested on all fronts this August. Every joint, every weld, every bolt and screw are being given the no-nonsense go-over. Anything that cannot withstand the pressure now will crumble ahead of Saturn's transit of Scorpio and the 2013-2014 cardinal Grand Crosses. Shoddy workmanship will not stand.

Weaknesses in our relationship foundations and structures being drawn to our attention now are blessings in disguise, however, as we will have some time to rework things and fortify ahead of Saturn's ingress of deeper, darker, more potentially ass-biting Scorpio October 5.

Structural relationship weaknesses or issues left unresolved will certainly start kicking up the angst once Saturn enters Scorpio, so dig in now wherever you find a fatal flaw. Long-standing issues, hurt, and resentments that have been buried or denied will surface, resurface, and then surface again under Saturn in Scorpio, so make sure your relational frameworks are as sound as they can be ahead of those challenges.

Make sure the people in your life will hold under pressure, that they are solid, and that they can be counted on. Make decisions about who you have in your life now, with Saturn in notoriously indecisive Libra, or the decisions will be made for you.

Giving the wrong person the wrong position in your life at this point creates very sticky and protracted problems later.

Saturn is currently conjunct highly fortunate fixed stars Spica and Arcturus, making relationship challenges a little easier to manage until August 17. You can read more about that here: Saturn Re-Enters a Fixed Star Safe Haven From the Heat of the Via Combusta

Because of Saturn's (relatively) beneficial position, the best time to address relational weaknesses is as soon as they come up this August.

Resolve all you can in relationships past and present. Move into and solidify new social position. Finalize decisions around relationships and social scenarios.

The North Node moves from Sagittarius into Scorpio August 30 just ahead of Saturn entering the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, x-ray vision, and hardcore soul drive this October. Clearing slates before then is very much in our best interests.

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

Saturn in Libra and Beauty at Every Age - AKA Society (Libra) Makes Me Tired (Saturn)

The transit of Saturn (aging) through Libra (beauty) has drawn my attention again and again to how revolting and screwed up mainstream versions of beauty are. This is a subject that is certainly not new, but the particular Saturnine issue here that has my rancour up is the assigning of beauty strictly to the young.

As Mercury in Aries - the most youth-oriented sign in the zodiac - moves into opposition to Saturn in Libra (May 5), the theme is strong, particularly in media.

I find this, along with all the attempts to maintain youth - surgically, hormonally, or otherwise - horrifying, not to mention enraging. I can't get over how eroding it is. How false it is. And I also can't get over the acceptance of this as "the way things are" by people who, I feel, should be rebelling against it.

I'm tired (Saturn) of hearing people, especially women, talk about the "aging = losing your beauty" paradigm as if it's a real thing. "Betty, you just turned 50? Well, I guess it's time to hand over the hot." Looks shift and change with age. Health problems crop up that can make people feel less attractive. There's no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean people automatically lose their beauty and appeal as they move through the seasons of their physical lives. Quite the opposite in many cases.

This is a version of youth-obsessed physical beauty created, programmed, and reinforced almost entirely by monied mainstream media in order to keep people grasping and buying.

Real beauty doesn't make you feel jealous or 'less than' when you behold it - that's socially-engineered glamour and the energy of beauty as some sort of false hierarchy. It's "who's the fairest of them all" stuff, created mostly by males for the male gaze, and it keeps women insecure, competing, and divided - in this case, along younger versus older lines.

It's a false version of beauty I do my best to steer clear of, but I can't help but see it seeping into the psyches of some wonderful people I know, and I can't help but want to bust that shit up in a major way.

I've never been enamoured of youth. Even when I was in my teens and twenties, I wasn't that into it. I don't look back on my younger years as the good old days or as the point where I hit my peak in any way, shape, or form. I've also always found people of all ages attractive - both men and women - and still do, so I just don't buy this idea of the aging woman or man as some sort of fading flower, past its prime.

Photo: Willow

But man, that is one insidious idea to purge once it has gotten hold. It's amazing how many people believe this on one level or another and how it's continually reinforced culturally. And once this idea has gotten hold, it really does start to suck the radiance and vitality out of people as they internalize it. In my mind, this is what's chipping away at people's attractiveness - this poisonous and faulty idea of age, not the actual aging process.

Now, you have to understand, this is coming from a person with Venus in Scorpio in the natal chart. This might sound eyeroll-worthy, but Venus in Scorpio really is about the beauty of the soul, primarily, radiating through the physicality. It's like an old leather jacket perfectly worn in. A pair of cowboy boots that have walked a couple hundred miles. The beauty of wisdom through experience, of an authentic life honestly lived, scars and all. That wary, weary, wise look in the eyes that says, "I've seen your kind before. Don't even start with your bullshit."

The lit and make-upped, fake boobs, fake teeth, fake lips, fake hair, fake tan, Photoshopped version of beauty does nothing for Venus in Scorpio. It isn't interested in pretty, empty vessels. What it's looking for won't be found on the pages of Maxim or Vogue or People magazines, and it won't be found in the Hollywood blockbuster. It wants the battle of life worn through flesh and bone. It's one placement that finds the changes and processes people go through throughout life - including the difficult stuff - fascinating and attractive. The beauty (Venus) of metamorphosis (Scorpio).

One of the reasons I bring Venus in Scorpio up is that the energetic flavour is similar to what we are about to experience with Saturn's movement from late Libra into early Scorpio. As Saturn completes its transit of Libra, the issues around age and beauty are up front and centre. And as Saturn begins its transit of Scorpio in October of this year, the issues deepen.

One of the truly beneficial aspects of Pluto's transit through Capricorn is the opportunity (should we take it) to completely change the ways in which we view aging and older people. This is going to require a breaking down and re-structuring of programmed ideas about aging, as well as the institutional ways of relating to older people, and it's going to require people resisting, rejecting, and proving wrong the current ideas and ideals.

Things hit extreme catalytic/metamorphic potency on this front with Pluto in Capricorn in mutual reception with Saturn in Scorpio (October 2012 into September 2015) when we have two heavy-hitter planets double-teaming issues around aging - Pluto over the longer term and Saturn over the shorter term.

This will bring the opportunity to face deep, collectively-ingrained fears related to aging and death, shifting the orietation to those things dramatically and sloughing off current ideas about what those things even are.

Throughout the Saturn in Scorpio transit, we'll have the opportunity, personally and collectively, to shrug off once and for all the phoniness and fakery we're told is beauty and to appreciate the depth and gorgeousness of our own souls and the depth and gorgeousness of those around us - at every age.

A strong alternative to the current paradigm can be solidified and strengthened during this transit - one that appreciates the mystery and magic of life on this planet, the deep beauty of its continual metamorphosis, and the processes of aging and time passage as the modus operandi of that metamorphosis.

This is one of the best case scenarios for the Saturn in Scorpio transit: people honouring their beauty and attractiveness, simply refusing to accept a version of reality where a person loses appeal past a certain age marker. People of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, working it, confident that they're hot tamales, no matter what the current paradigms are telling them.

Pluto in Leos, you lead the way.

The Final Saturn Retrograde in Libra For 30 Years and Your Saturn in Libra Post-It Note from Willow

Saturn retrograde in Libra (29 degrees to 22 degrees) - February 7 to June 25, 2012  

Saturn's last retrograde in Libra for 30 years will be testing all weak points in the sign of the scales over the next four+ months, going over territory we first entered in early November, 2011. Expect circumstances from around then, particularly regarding relationship, fairness, balance, and justice, to come up for resolution now, though this retrograde reaches back much further than that. 

This is the final going over for the entire Saturn in Libra transit, which began in October 2009 and ends in October 2012, and it reaches back to relationship and relating issues from 1980-1983, 1950-1953, and 1921-1924. If we don't ace our Libra lessons now, we drag relational issues and weaknesses - mostly related to the astrological Piscean era - forward for the next 29 years. Chew on that one for a minute. 

This retrograde station brings with it some dread, some fear, some pressure, some challenge, some difficulty, and some "looking back over it all" melancholy (all Saturnine things), especially as far as relating, relationships, and the structuring of our lives to include other people. 

Holding our noses and taking our Saturn medicine now puts us in good position for upcoming cardinal Grand Crosses (more on that later in the article), but knowing that doesn't necessarily ease a mad case of the Saturnine dreads. Because of Saturn's almost exact trine to Neptune as it stations, there's some discouragement possible related to the disparity between where we hoped we would be at this point (Neptune) versus where we actually are (Saturn). However, if we accept and work with our limitations and challenges over this 4.5-month retrograde, we find ourselves in much stronger position in late June as Saturn turns direct and we experience the first of the seven exact Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares. 

I've written quite a lot on Saturn in Libra and the upcoming retrograde, and I'll post some pertinent excerpts and links here. Hey, it's a retrograde. I'm bringing up old posts and previous efforts (Saturn). This will be new to some, and for those who've read it before, it can serve as a solid reminder. Consider this a Saturn in Libra Post-It note on your mirror from Willow. 

From a previous post on the remaining leg of the Saturn in Libra transit November 21, 2011: Venus-Saturn Mutual Reception November 26 - December 20: Ants Get More Play Than Grasshoppers  

"There's a solid groundwork that should have been built by now - new relational rules and standards, a heightened command of social responsibility, the ability to maintain equilibrium under pressure, as well as a new maturity in the tone of our relationships, especially between the sexes. At this point, people either have it or they don't... 

This far into Saturn's transit of Libra, we start to see the social and professional results of having put this groundwork in. We also see the results of not having put it in, as well as the areas that contain hazardous holes and breaks in structure. This is especially apparent when we relate with those who have shirked the full effort. Under Saturn in Libra, we've determined who makes for a favourable partner and who doesn't, and now these standards must be applied across the board... 

We're looking for long-term pay-off in relationship here and nothing less than that is worth the time or energy. Those who prove they cannot be responsible toward us, in relation to us, are not worth the time or energy. Only take on the responsibility toward others that feels absolutely right to take on, and don't give anyone a level of responsibility in relation to you that he or she is not meant (or equipped) to take on... 

[I]t's a person with solid integrity, with some financial savvy, with a nose for legitimate advancement, with expertly handled personal responsibilities, and with the ability to dig in and get the job done even if it means deferring personal pleasures who is most attractive under these astro energies. [Saturn in Libra] is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). [It's] seeking a partner who understands the full realities of life, including the difficult, sombre, or "unfun" aspects, who understood them early on, and who worked with them pretty much from the get-go rather than sloughing them off... 

People who are obviously playing catch-up on this front are not going to hold as much appeal. We're looking for the results of long-term efforts - what a person has built and what progress has been made over the course of the lifetime. Charm is a quality with a decreasing amount of value the closer Saturn gets to Scorpio if it is not also attached to absolute integrity and authenticity. Those are the qualities that make bank under Saturn in Scorpio. People who have skated by on looks, charm, charisma, or social prowess and facade are going to find these qualities don't get them nearly as far as they used to. Playboys (or girls), those who refuse to grow up, the skittish, the cheaters, the fibbers, the non-committal, those who can't manage limitations, restrictions, or adult responsibilities - these people become less and less attractive." 

Everyone will be feeling the Saturnine relating/relationship pressure to a certain extent, as we all have Libra somewhere in our natal charts, but this retrograde is particularly potent for those with strong natal placements in Libra. On a generational basis, this relates in particular to the Uranus in Libras (1968 - 1975), the Neptune in Libras (1942 - 1957), and the Pluto in Libras (1971 - 1984). 

As mentioned, with sustained effort, the Saturnine squeeze on Libra puts us in good position for the upcoming cardinal Grand Crosses (2013-2014) when the personal planets in Libra will form, in waves, the fourth leg of the configuration. Having a firm, mature, responsible handle on the energy and themes of Libra - especially the slippery bits - will be of great benefit to us then, so grit your teeth and dig in now.  

Cardinal Grand Crosses 2013-2014 

A Grand Cross is a formation of four bodies within two oppositions (180-degree aspect) or four squares (90-degree aspect). All four bodies within the upcoming Grand Cross configurations are in cardinal signs, indicating the need for grand scale and dynamic new leadership, direction, and initiative within highly pressurized global circumstances. As the square is a tense, difficult, and frictional aspect, this configuration involves feelings of being boxed in from all angles, with the impetus to move in new directions coming from the tension of our circumstances on the planet. 

The Grand Cross formed in the summer of 2010 that kicked things off was not a full cardinal Grand Cross because Saturn was in late Virgo, a mutable sign. I referred to it as a cardinal t-square. 

The formations of the summer of 2011 were full cardinal Grand Crosses, involving Uranus in Aries, Saturn in Libra, Pluto in Capricorn, and the personal planets (Mercury, the Sun, Venus, and Mars) in Cancer. 

The cardinal Grand Crosses that form from August to December, 2013 and in April, 2014 will involve Uranus in Aries, Pluto in Capricorn, Jupiter in Cancer, and the personal planets (Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and Mars) in Libra.  

August 23-27, 2013 - Venus in Libra will move into place, forming the fourth leg of the cardinal Grand Cross.  

September 14-20, 2013 - Mercury in Libra will pass through this territory, using a nine-degree orb.  

October 1-13, 2013 - The Sun in Libra will trigger the cardinal Grand Cross using a ten-degree orb for aspects.  

December 23, 2013 – January 1, 2014 - Mars in Libra moves into cardinal Grand Cross formation to close out 2013.  

April 21-24, 2014 (exact) – Consider all prior cardinal Grand Crosses a dress rehearsal for this one. Mars Rx in Libra makes an exact cardinal Grand Cross configuration with Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto Rx in Capricorn all at Lucky 13 degrees of the cardinal signs. This formation strongly colours the Mars retrograde through Libra February 28 to May 19, 2014. 

From a previous post: 

"Aren’t you glad Saturn in Libra is drilling us on our maturity and responsibility with Libra themes right now? Weak points related to this sign’s energy would (and will) wreak major havoc within these future cardinal Grand Crosses. Going out of balance within the pressurized circumstances of this formation would require an immense amount of effort to put right. Under this type of tension, if one spring goes, they all go. This formation, especially the exact one April 21-24, 2014, will have a hugely polarizing effect socially with a tendency to move to extreme ends of the spectrum in relation to other people or groups. 

Mars is in detriment in Libra and indicates a struggle to maintain any semblance of social diplomacy and human decency. It will take great effort (Mars) to maintain peace (Libra), especially in light of the groups gunning for another world war. Thirteen is a potent and highly symbolic number, and we can expect this formation to be used to trigger further symbolic events on the world stage. Learn your Libra lessons well between now and October 2012, and the foundation will be set as far as future success with these cardinal Grand Cross formations." 

More articles on this Saturn retrograde in Libra: 

January 16, 2012: Let's Just Say The Cosmos Isn't Going to Be Blowing Confetti Out Our Butts This Week 

December 27, 2011: Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees

Saturn Stationing Rx on 29 Libra Trine Neptune and Talking to Ghosts

Using women, treating them badly, treating them as if they don't matter, and then making it all part of your "process." Waxing poetic about all the self-understanding and the peeling of layers and the healing you're doing as a result.

Well, good for you, buddy.

The fact remains that you treat women badly. And it doesn't matter if it stems from Mommy's early rejection, from an ex unceremoniously ditching your ass, or from some sort of genetically-wired inclination to misogyny in the 20th century male. You treat women badly.

Being as "self-actualized" and "enlightened" as you claim, you should understand that this is one of the most selfish and cad-like ways to relate to another person. It's detrimental to any type of real relating and mutuality because you aren't interacting with the person. You're interacting with your own baggage, using that person to "get in touch" with it.

It isn't all about you and your "process." Get it?

You used me and them as a port in the storm, to strengthen yourself as you steamrolled forward, doing the damage you do. You've stolen my time and energy and the time and energy of other women with no intention of reciprocation or restitution. And you left a whole bunch of your shit behind for us to deal with and clean up.

It's like a revolving door, right? That's what you said. One woman exits and there's another one waiting, at the snap of your fingers.

Lucky women.

And again you're talking about forgiveness. Whatever that means in your world. And again, it's all about what WE can do for YOU. How we can let you and males like you off the hook before you've even scratched the surface of your energetic irresponsibility. How we can make it all better for YOU, allowing you to continue your misogynistic merry-go-round. Allowing you to be hero-worshipped for a style-over-substance that never even gets close to the truth or the reality of anything.

New Age men. Fucking Christ, you know?

Luckily, it isn't up to me. It's in Saturn's hands now, and whatever isn't held accountable in Libra surely will be in Scorpio.

Let's Just Say The Cosmos Isn't Going to Be Blowing Confetti Out Our Butts This Week

We move this week to a somewhat sobering and quite enervating square between the Sun in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra (January 19). With both planets on the final degrees of those signs, there's no time to mess around. 

We consciously and conscientiously advance through the last few steps of Sun in the sea-goat as we're brought to a relative (yet tension-filled) resting point on the anaretic plateau that is Saturn's retrograde station February 7. 

Our forward motion on the relationship structuring front is officially slowing - yet highly potent over the next three weeks - with every step eked out from here an effort as we grind out the last bit of progress, firmly planting ourselves in the new and exalted social/relational positions we think, hope, and fear we've earned. 

New standards in relationship, new platforms, new boundaries, new frameworks: the last steps forward have to be ground out with certainty now as Saturn prepares to look over its ledgers one last time in the sign of the scales. Its retrograde - February 7 to June 25, 2012 - will inform us of the progress we've made in real terms, the position we've concretely earned, as well as the areas that will require more diligence during Saturn's final pass direct. 

The difficulty of planting each step grows over the next three weeks, and the weight drags at us, requiring that we fully prove our mettle, our maturity, and our readiness for new relationship frameworks and a new relationship rulebook. The stern and all-business Sun-Saturn square makes for a very odd atmosphere, indeed, as Saturn in Libra continues its just-a-hair-short-of-exact trine to Neptune in the last gasp of Aquarius. 

We meander in and out of this state of conscious responsibility. One moment we're hitched to the Saturnine plow, most assuredly aware of the limitations and tiresome requirements of physical life on this planet, and the next moment life is characterized by a fluid, dream-like surreality, and it seems we might just slip out of it altogether (Neptune). 

Saturn will be testing us on all points during its retrograde, carrying Neptunian siren song and nostalgic sentiment with us, tempting us to give up our hard-won new position by compromising ourselves and our relationship principles detrimentally. 

The anaretic degrees are vibrating with tension and import. A lot can be gained here with adherence to the principles, and even more can be lost if we break under the strain. Under this anaretic tension, one misstep, and we slide down a chute that squanders at least some of our hard work. 

We're taking a trip with the Ghost of Relationships Past during this Saturn retrograde in Libra, to be certain. We'll be looking back and even going back physically in some instances, meeting again with those who have had a place in our lives in the past. 

But this is a trip purely to show us how far we've come. There will be no staying, no matter how glorious it feels to be blanketed and comforted by this glowing, dreaming phantom love. 

Within the pages of an English novel, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester find blissful union, at last, long last, as two halves of the same soul meet in holy matrimony. A fictional love to make your heart ache, feverish that you may never find its equivalent. 

And in real life, its author Charlotte Bronte marries a clergyman she is merely fond of - no great, melting love of her life - after watching her entire family perish one-by-one, only to die herself while pregnant soon after being wed. 

The high romanticism of the Neptunian love story is very dangerous at this tail-end Piscean era, threatening to submerge us, to shroud us in its gauzy myth for 30 years more. 

How many of the great historical love stories, so implanted in the collective psyche and so sought after, have been myth? And yet, the crushing emotional weight of Saturnine reality is just as dangerous now. We require our carefully meted out Neptunian dreams in order to withstand our circumstances, and you see just how carefully we have to tread with the current significators in the zodiac. 

Love, sweet love, is still the thing. But a love that is real and sustained is worth more than every fictional love story ever written. 

The Sun in Capricorn moves through its square to Saturn in Libra and into Aquarius January 20 (10:10 a.m. Central) where it will almost immediately form another square - this time to Jupiter in Taurus - to further pee on our parade. Tense and difficult aspects to both the restrictive and the expansive this week. We get it both coming and going. 

Mental exhaustion is still apparent from two months of Mercury in the sign of its detriment, followed by a conjunction to Pluto, which powerfully flooded our circuitry with the deep, the dark, the triggered, the paranoiac. 

Communications retain their Plutonic edge into this upcoming weekend. Hidden emotions can easily show themselves in moments of impatience or temper, and that could be catastrophic. 

Our social responsibilities are heavy and our relational challenges complicated with Saturn stationing retrograde on the last degree of Libra. Our challenge is to keep things as harmonious as possible while not compromising ourselves or our positions. 

Do everything in your power to remain socially pleasant and above reproach this week by neutralizing the Pluto-poisoned mind, tongue, and ear (Mercury).

The Planets Align This Friday the 13th: Hang a Horseshoe, Clutch Your Rabbit's Foot, and Load Up on Kitty Treats for Those Neighbourhood Black Cats

First Venus. Venus in Aquarius trine Saturn in Libra - 3:05 a.m. Central Venus conjunct Neptune in Aquarius - 9:17 a.m. Venus enters Pisces - 11:47 p.m. 

Love and relationship planet Venus crosses through the 29th degree of Aquarius - the official degree of the astrological era shift - on Friday, and as it does, it trines Saturn in Libra and conjuncts Neptune in Aquarius before ingressing Pisces late that night. This Friday the 13th, a day ripe with folklore, is an official relational tone setter, drawing on themes previously outlined here: Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees and way back here: Venus, Eros and Mars in the Via Combusta and Karmic Love Cleansing Through the Alchemical Fires. 

Recall that Saturn (challenges) is currently in Via Combusta Libra (spicy, crackling relationship issues), and we're still working under an overlay from the fall 2010 Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio and late Libra. That overlay isn't complete until the Venus Transit in Gemini June 5, 2012, and all this colours the relationship proceedings. 

On this Friday the 13th, we have another opportunity to calibrate ourselves to the tone of Venus' movement, letting it seep into our bones, and then commit to the new relational track. Venus conjuncts wounded healer Chiron in Pisces January 16, indicating a time period ripe for experiences of the healing, transcendent power of love, as well as, if we aren't careful, the wounding power of human interaction - with both experiences possible in the same interaction. We need to fortify and protect our wounded spots carefully, as this is very old salt in very old wounds. The wounding themes are related, in part, to: 

- unconscious/semi-conscious ways in which we interact with people and they interact with us 

- setting ourselves up for failure in relationship by overlooking key matters 

- social niche and social pigeonholing 

- being the scapegoat for the crowd or the one whose feelings and needs are sacrificed or stepped on when a sacrifice has to be made 

- social isolation 

- weak spots in boundaries: being too permeable when it comes to other people's energy field/influence 

- pining, looking back, excessive nostalgia for relationships past, seeing things through the veil of time, not how they actually were 

- old Piscean era social archetypes: the party girl, the ditz, the idealist, the wishful thinker, the one who's allergic to reality, the stoner, the addict, the starving artist, the energy vampire, the person with "bad karma," the sick one, the disabled one, the hard luck story, the martyr, the saviour, the chronic fuck up, the person who can't get it together, the one who's unlucky in love, the person ill-equipped for the rigours of life 

- keeping ourselves on the losing end of character flaws - in ourselves or in other people 

These are cyclical relational patterns, standard dynamics worked into a deep groove over the course of the astrological Piscean era that must be consciously ushered out with the door locked behind them. 

Throughout Venus' transit of Pisces (January 13 - February 7), we have the opportunity to set the relational tone to "Pisces for the astrological Aquarian era," but this won't necessarily be easy, especially for those who have been resisting a stronger Aquarian vibe. The Piscean pull into dreamy Never Neverland is strong, becoming stronger as Neptune (illusion, delusion, blind spots) enters its home sign of Pisces February 3, and we have to actively head off its influence at points. 

We're being enticed down many relational rabbit holes we've been down fruitlessly before. The application of rational mind that can break us free is like the fight to wake up from one of those dreams that paralyzes you with its intensity. If the will is not there to do so, we plummet down the rabbit hole. 

For those who would like to avoid the surreal Alice in Relationship Wonderland this time around, things are a little counter-intuitive. Venus is in exaltation in Pisces, which means there's a strong feeling that it knows what it's doing in this sign. There's nothing quite like the heights of Piscean love, and with these glowy, exalted Venusian vibes, it's going to be difficult to convince people that some changes are required. 

There's a lot of criticism from the sign of Pisces (and from those vibing strongly to it) of the more Aquarian take on love, relationship, and partnership: it's cold, unfeeling, hard, heartless, overly intellectual, devoid of emotion, lacking in romance. 

Those who refuse to adopt the more detached, responsible, and self-preserving tack in relationships will continue to play out the same old stories, making the same old excuses. 

The successful tack in our relations involves using the relevant qualities of both Pisces and Aquarius. Determining which are the relevant qualities and which are the redundant and detrimental is what we work out now and throughout Saturn's retrograde through Libra. 

Venus will be on the 29th degree of Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - at the time of Saturn's retrograde station on the 29th degree of Libra February 7.  

Now the Moon and Mars.  

Moon conjunct stationing Mars in Virgo - 6:36 p.m. 

The Moon is in Virgo this Friday the 13th and conjuncts Mars at 22 Virgo. Mars is slowing for its retrograde station January 24, and its themes permeate the astro atmosphere. The Moon-Mars conjunction occurring as Venus conjuncts Neptune and enters Pisces increases the impetus to sharpen the details, remove the unnecessary, and clear the Piscean/Neptunian fuzz and wishful thinking. 

This is a conjunction of a major feminine planet (Moon) with a major masculine one (Mars) and has to do with the perspective of women/the feminine taking the lead in subtle and influential ways as the male-dominated trajectory on the planet is further set to: war, war, and more war (Mars). This is the fight to stop war and the impetus to discontinue support for the trajectory toward war right down to the finest details in our daily lives. 

More on the Mars in Virgo transit and retrograde here: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines  

Here: Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

And here: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde 

Now Mercury.  

Mercury conjunct Pluto in Capricorn - 7:03 a.m.

Communication/transportation planet Mercury is in Capricorn until January 27, following more than two months (including a retrograde) in the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius, and we're happy to have some type of solid movement here. Unfortunately, a lot of it is Plutonic movement, as Mercury moves out of its square to Uranus in Aries and into a conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn, exact this Friday the 13th. It doesn't take much to hear (Mercury) the Pluto in Capricorn (corpo-governmental oligarchy) undertone coming through loud and clear these days as we head to the first exact square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn this June. The global war profiteers are just itching to get things started, and oil and nuclear take centre stage... 

Verbal aggression is ramping up (again) through the media from Western governments toward Iran over its nuclear facilities and enrichment of uranium. As always, the Plutonic insanity is only understood by a minority, as the media-fed mainstream accepts a scenario in which the only country that has ever actually used nuclear bombs in an attack against another country (the U.S. of A.) is instated as armed-to-the-teeth global nuclear watchdog, determining who can and can't have nukes. 

U.S. and U.S. Allies: Yes. 

U.S.-declared Bad Guys: No. 

The hypocrisy is amazing, and still relatively very few will openly admit the Emperor's naked as a jaybird. 

The aggression is not limited to the verbal this time, though. The United States (through the United Nations) has brought sanctions against Iran, attempting to force it to discontinue its uranium enrichment program. The sanctions have made it impossible for Iran to continue its international oil exports, leading to the plunge of the Iranian currency to an historic low. Devastation (Pluto) of currency and business infrastructure (Capricorn). 

(Incidentally, don't bother trying to use PayPal or to buy books from Amazon in Syria, either. Both these activities have been blocked as part of the broader and more destructive U.S./EU economic sanctions against that country. People with Syrian IP addresses are told they are in a "forbidden country." A further Pluto in Cap crackdown on the flow of money.) 

It might be useful for those in Cancer Sun nations United States and Canada to imagine a role reversal here. One can only imagine the outrage that would ensue if the U.S. economy and the flow of oil in and out were disrupted and interfered with to this extent by a foreign country. After all, the United States enriches uranium for weapons and munitions (and uses them), does it not? Iran is the fourth largest oil producer in the world with a large percentage of its exports (500,000 barrels per day of its 2.6 million barrels per day output) going to the European Union. This adds an interesting element to the dick-swinging global dynamics. 

Pluto relates to one's underlying interests and the overwhelming impetus of those underlying interests. The European Union is now forced to implement sanctions that are in the best interests of the United States which, in effect, starve its nations of oil. Iran is now threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that carries about 1/6 of the world's oil supply from the Gulf nations. 

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz would be met with military aggression from the U.S. and its allies, aggression that would, again, have the seal of approval from the media-fed masses. 

Transportation routes are Mercurial, and the corpo-governmental steamroller being allowed to progress at all costs is Pluto in Capricorn. This appears to be a primary Uranus square Pluto hot spot. 

Like clockwork, it is. 

In Canada, two massive oil pipelines are in the works - though strongly opposed by many. One is the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would move oil from Alberta's oil fields to the West Coast, with a port in Kitimaat, British Columbia, to be sold and exported at a whopping price to Asia. 

The second massive pipeline, called the Keystone XL, would move oil from the ecological and humanitarian catastrophe that is the Athabasca Tar Sands in northern Alberta all the way down to Texas in the United States. Thousands and thousands of kilometres of pipeline just waiting to spring a leak, ripe for international and domestic sabotage. 

With a majority government led by Global Governor extraordinaire Stephen Harper, we won't be seeing any ecological responsibility coming from the Feds on this one, and it's left up to the citizens of both Canada and the United States to form the resistance. 

The United States' presidential race is now well underway, consuming massive amounts of time, energy, and analysis on media outlets. This doesn't stop at the U.S. border, however. (What border? There are no borders anymore.) 

If you flip on Canada's mainstream news (I wouldn't suggest it unless you are a fan of satire that isn't actually satire), you will see an almost equal fervour and an almost equal obsession with the minutiae of the farce going on to the south. The propaganda readers on CTV Newsnet (Canadian Television is a misnomer if ever there were one) could easily be mistaken for those on CNN these days. 

The hidden merger (Pluto) of media (Mercury) and its ownership (Capricorn). 

Because, you know, there isn't anything going on in our own country that might warrant any airtime. (See: Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines) 

As stated previously, we no longer have even the facade of a sovereign nation in Canada. Pluto in Capricorn has ripped the mask off, and Stephen Harper's Conservatives - good little Global Governors that they are - take their orders and implement them dutifully. 

 In August, 2011, under a Cardinal Grand Cross that will form again throughout the fall of 2013 and in April 2014, it was announced by the "Harper Government" that the Canadian Armed Forces would be rebranded the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy. 

From a previous post: 

"The Canadian Armed Forces shed the "Royal" stamp in 1968, but in a wave of propagandistic nostalgia, the Global Government-aligned Harper Conservatives have brought the "Royal" back with a vengeance, complete with masses of Canadians all too happy to re-pledge allegiance to the Queen and British monarchy. 

Wartime patriotism and pride are being stirred in preparation and hope that the people will gladly repeat the old cycle, hands on hearts." Harper continues to do his mightiest to stir the militaristic patriotism of Canadian citizens as he does his part to create consensus for more global war. He's even adding a commemoration of the War of 1812 to this year's Canada Day celebrations in the country's capital city, Ottawa. "Hey, kids! Forget about ice cream. Look at this cool musket!" 

(You may recall that during Canada Day 2011, again under the Cardinal Grand Cross, the citizens of this country had their Stockholm Syndrome worked into a frothy lather as Wills and Kate came for a visit, also reinforcing the dominion over Kanata of Mummy Dearest in jolly old.) 

At the same time, the "Harper Government" - who sent out memos telling people not to bother calling them the Government of Canada anymore - have made an absolute mockery of the House of Commons, simply shutting it down on two separate occasions. 

The difficulty and lack of transparency Canadian journalists face when attempting to get information from Harper is well documented. 

Really, they have just unveiled, Pluto in Capricorn-style, what was always there. The facade has been stripped, and the idea that the people ever really had all that much of a say in it has gone kaput. 

So multiple exact aspects go down this potent Friday the 13th, a day rich with symbolism and superstition, making it a day with a potentially far-reaching tone. Stay on the good side of luck, as the astro conditions have a bit of a "fated" quality about them and might not let us away with much.

Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees

Saturn transits the 28th and 29th degrees of Via Combusta Libra just minutes shy of an exact trine to Neptune in Aquarius from now until early February, 2012.

Due to the upcoming Saturn retrograde, the trine between Saturn and Neptune won't become exact until October 10, 2012, at which point both planets will have moved from air to water - Saturn into Scorpio and Neptune into Pisces.

Saturn stations retrograde on the anaretic (29th) degree of Libra February 7 and will station direct again at 22 Libra June 25 - the morning after the first of the seven squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, just to make that a little more over the top.

The last leg of Saturn's transit through Libra has been coloured strongly by a Venus trine to Uranus in Aries that occurred just as Saturn entered its final retrograde shadow in the sign of the scales. Here's the raw and radical, weird and wild, friendly and freaky Uranian shift into Aquarian era-flavoured relationships, giving us the impetus to bust out of old forms, old ideals, and old ways of relating that no longer get the job done. Venus in Aquarius until January 13 keeps the tone set to "new relationship rulebook," and we grind it out Saturn-style.

But now Saturn's retrograde period (February 7 - June 25, 2012) is set strongly to "Neptunian rose-coloured" as Saturn carries the energy and themes of its not-quite-exact trine to Neptune into the retrograde process. Things are, indeed, being stirred to a frothy fin de Piscean era pitch as we push into 2012.

This is compounded by Venus, Saturn's dispositor, transiting Pisces from January 13 to February 8. Venus will be on the anaretic degree of Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - at the time of Saturn's retrograde station on the anaretic degree of Libra, and you see the relational completion themes quite clearly.

This is Piscean-to-Aquarian relationship dynamics out the yin yang, and they're those final, anaretic degree issues, which can be tricky.

One of the major cautions with anaretic degrees is to stay where you are, working with the present, rather than projecting ahead into the new sign and new territory. Projecting ahead is not what we're asked to do on the anaretic degrees, and doing so is a recipe for failure - something Saturn doesn't like, especially in the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Venus is also in the sign of its exaltation (Pisces) at the time of Saturn's retrograde station, and this indicates that if we put forth our best effort over the 4.5-month retrograde, not jumping any guns, we can release the whole Piscean era relationship-related kit and caboodle.

There's isolation (Neptune) here that, this far into the proceedings, reaches intolerable points as we responsibly, sometimes grudgingly wait out (Saturn) the closing of the era. It's playing with us, testing all points, testing the power of its influence to make us jump into something not in our best interests. Many of us are completing a Saturn in Libra endurance test involving loneliness, disappointment, and dull, dry depression in order to finally move beyond the sticky Piscean era tendrils attempting to draw us back.

We need to be smarter now, and an exact Sun-Mercury conjunction in Aquarius at the time of the Saturn retrograde station February 7 keeps our eyes on the Aquarian prize. If we're serious, if we're responsible, this is a major and potentially final cross-over in relationship.

Piscean era and Aquarian era are two ships passing in the night, and with this Saturn retrograde, we can make sure, once and for all, that we're on the S.S. Water-bearer.

Again, though, we're not there yet, and this retrograde through Saturn is really going to rub our noses in that fact if we neglect or avoid the issues it's bringing up. Expect vaguely familiar situations and people to pop up like ghosts during this retrograde. Lingering impressions find form. A song from the soundtrack of an old relationship plays on the radio, triggering the wisp of a memory. A dream reminds you of someone not yet quite gone. An old, free-floating dynamic plays out, yet again, with someone new. Can we never escape them? The old hauntings and longings, carried for so long.

These are our squirm-inducing Saturnine placement tests. We're officially under the thumb. All are meant to be passed through. They can't be held to. They can't sustain us in the land of the living. These ghostly Saturnine tests will be hitting the most open and loving places in our Piscean hearts. They'll be testing our weakest points, our most hopeful points, the sweetest, most longed-for Piscean dreams we held for so long, the points that can bring us to our knees. And we're tired. We're tired of these hauntings and these half-awake, half-dreaming relational situations. The only slightly new cast of characters playing out only slightly rewritten scenes. The loves lost, the loves regretted, the loves pined for, the loves that never quite were. With lives so full of ghosts and disappointments, there's scarcely room for another living, breathing, human being.

But it's weakening. As long as we're able to separate it from the reality before us, it loses its grip. We have to bear it, and we have to show it the door, firmly. We need the radical break.

This isn't about losing the love. That pure, full, ringing-through-every-cell Pisces love that tells us we're human. The love that makes it worth living. It's about love changing. How we give and receive love and what that means changing. Creating truer channels and purer, less distorted connections.

Pass the tests of the final Saturn retrograde in Libra for 30 years, and we move on. Fall for it - fall for the same old tricks and diversions, fall into the same old relational comforts instead of reaching further - and it's broken record time all over again.

Neptune re-entering its domicile of Pisces February 3 gives us a major upsurge in Pisces energy and themes, in effect all year. There will be many glowing articles about this ingress coming from astrologers, but I would advise caution with this energy. Due to the strength of this potentially diversionary upsurge, it's imperative that we carefully filter the sign of Pisces, removing the last habitual pull into hoped-for illusion over fortifying reality, particularly in relationships. With the influence of Mars in Virgo, we're carving out a "Pisces for the Aquarian era," and any Piscean era relational stuff carried forward from here creates an increasing amount of distortion, longing, delusion, dissatisfaction, pain.

We have to work (Saturn) for this. We have to put everything we have into leaving the wounding Piscean era romantic ideals and the associated "should have known betters" behind us. We have to nip them in the bud before they take hold, and these days, they can take hold quickly and with great force. It doesn't always make sense, but that's OK. All we need to do is: keep going.

And yet, in some ways, we're helpless. Pinned under the weight of collective love dynamics 2,000+ years deep, playing out cycles that do not have origin in us. We battle our way out of the cloying, heart-hollowing Piscean era relationship forms not only for ourselves but also for every lover who ever fell prey to their seductive, glowing archetypal dynamics. For every person who fell for potential over reality, who was scammed, used, burned, treated badly. The rage and grief of our mistreatment burns in our souls.

And ladies, it's we who have borne the brunt of it. The cads of the male gender have been traipsing through time and space, century and nation, getting away with the most obscene things. These fools have been doing damage with subtly and not-so-subtly misogynistic dynamics on cyclical repeat. They've skated away, from woman to woman, etheric criminals. Each new woman disconnected from what's come before, sure that he's different with her. Each woman proud to hold up her prize.

And here it stops. With us. Uranus in Aries blazes our trail.

We can only do so much as we twist and turn under this tail-end of the tail-end of the Piscean era, but Saturn tells us, both men and women, if we commit to it, if we keep noses to grindstones, if we do all we can, we progress. We move on. We gain new relational position. We set up relationship frameworks that have a much better chance of meeting the love and companionship needs of all involved as we move into a new astrological era.

With this Saturn retrograde through the last of Libra, we're doing the last of the work to shift the structural set-ups of our relationships out from under Piscean era phoniness, deceit, illusion, immaturity, and foolishness.

For the ladies (especially) who refuse to stand up and step out from the relationship structures and ideals that cause so much misery: Good luck to ya.

Saturn is digging in from the anaretic degree, and we're not going to be allowed to let anything slide here. We're also addressing the very last of the Neptunian shitbag stuff. It's very tricky and very subtle, woven into the fabric of our relations, especially between men and women. Even a breath of an impression of it has to be addressed.

We have to get very serious, very grounded, and very responsible about illusions, delusions, mirages, escapism, and outdated Piscean ideals in relationships of all kinds. Trying to form ourselves around someone else's ideal instead of being who we are. The coquettish damsel batting her eyelashes demurely, arranging long, flowing locks around her while waiting for her Valiant Knight Saviour. (These days, of course, it also goes the other way around.) All the fairy tales fall short once the fair maiden gets hitched to her Big Catch and sinks into the reality of patriarchal rule.

Over the next six months, we have to watch the tendency very carefully in ourselves and in others to throw our arms open to embrace what we wish were true (the fairy tale), rather than what is true.

If people aren't there by now, they aren't going to get there.

Neptune is very good at convincing us otherwise.

Tell Neptune to shut it.

Neptune finishes its 14-year transit of Aquarius February 3 when it re-enters Pisces for 14 years.

Neptune re-entering its domicile Pisces is the last in the series of outer planet shifts (following Pluto's ingress of Capricorn and Uranus' ingress of Aries) and officially wraps up the strongest Pisces-to-Aquarius transition period, indicated by the mutual reception between Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius.

As noted, Saturn in Libra will turn retrograde just shy of the exact trine to Neptune in Aquarius, and this aspect does not become exact until October 10, 2012 when Saturn on zero Scorpio trines Neptune on zero Pisces. The trine in those water signs, as you would imagine, has a whole different feel as we enter Saturn's transit of Scorpio in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune enters the "Pisces for the astrological Aquarian era" sign of the fishies.

Venus-Saturn Mutual Reception November 26 - December 20: Ants Get More Play Than Grasshoppers

Venus enters Capricorn from much more ebullient Sagittarius November 26 (6:36 a.m. Central) and immediately squares Uranus stationing direct at zero Aries - the birth point of the zodiac. This is a tense, jarring, electric reminder of the Uranus-Pluto square series just up ahead (2012-2015) that forces us on our way immediately by initiating necessary and radical new directions, truer to individual courses, within established relationship structures. 

The monthly Moon-Venus conjunction at 10:27 p.m. that night provides grounding and soothes the emotional edge, though it does not relieve us of our responsibilities or alleviate the serious tone. Saturn is just clearing its beneficial conjunctions to fixed stars Spica and Arcturus and moves back into full-on Via Combusta zone until next May. 

With its dispositor ingressing Capricorn, the uplifting Sagittarian wind beneath Saturn's wings also peters out, and we settle in for a landing. Whether that landing is harsh and depressing or validating and sustaining depends to a certain extent on how well we've been learning and applying our Saturn lessons in the sign of the scales. That's not to say Saturn only lays its particular brand of reality-based smack-down on irresponsible n'er-do-wells. Everyone goes under its thumb at one point or another. But people who have been actively attempting to wriggle their way out of Saturn's squirm-inducing, step-by-step relationship and relating lessons will certainly be getting a reality check here as well as one last chance to get it together. 

We're running out of time, see? 

We have less than one year remaining with Saturn in the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Saturn can get things done in the sign of its exaltation. It can make progress that sustains over the course of time, as long as we don't waste time. Wasting time is a distinct possibility with Saturn in Libra as the Saturnine proceedings in this sign often have a less arduous weight about them and a more social, less serious tone. Wasting time while Saturn is in Libra is a big mistake, though. Saturn in Scorpio is coming, and that one isn't going to let up. 

Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra will be in mutual reception - that is, inhabiting a sign the other rules - until winter solstice, creating a close and interwoven energetic relationship, and this has a sobering effect on relations of all kinds. Love is serious business here. Love is business. We're going to be made aware of how important it is to get on top of every action item Saturn has flagged. 

Issues that have been pushed aside will come to the forefront again to be dealt with by amicable (as amicable as possible, anyway) adults before things take a distinct turn for the not-so-amicable October 5, 2012 to November 23, 2015 as Saturn moves through sticky, tricky, potentially ass-biting Scorpio. Anything left on our plates during Saturn in Libra is stirred then in ways that can be truly nasty, so it's in our best interests to keep noses to grindstones. 

Luckily, Venus in Capricorn comes out of its square to Uranus in Aries and catches the tail-end of the grand earth trine formed in the zodiac by Jupiter Rx in Taurus, Mars in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn. Venus in Capricorn trines Mars in Virgo exactly December 5. 

We're assisted to get things done on all fronts, especially in and through relationship. Venus conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn December 1, giving us a further energetic reminder of just how nose-to-the-relationship-grindstone we need to be, kicking up distortion in any relational areas that require more laser-sharp awareness and honing from us. 

As we close out 2011, we're looking for relationship resolution and are doing our best to make peace with relationships past and present. Progress needs to be made in and through current relationships to put us in good position for what's up ahead, and as clean a slate as possible is needed for Saturn in Scorpio. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception keeps us sober, serious, grown-up, and pragmatic as we make big strides toward that and is especially good for the progress of women (and the feminine influence, in general) in business. There's a solid groundwork that should have been built by now - new relational rules and standards, a heightened command of social responsibility, the ability to maintain equilibrium under pressure, as well as a new maturity in the tone of our relationships, especially between the sexes. At this point, people either have it or they don't, and this mutual reception serves as a status report. 

This far into Saturn's transit of Libra, we start to see the social and professional results of having put this groundwork in. We also see the results of not having put it in, as well as the areas that contain hazardous holes and breaks in structure. This is especially apparent when we relate with those who have shirked the full effort. 

Under Saturn in Libra, we've determined who makes for a favourable partner and who doesn't, and now these standards must be applied across the board. The free-wheeling, boozy, philosopher king who spends his free time at the track might have been attractive under Venus in Sagittarius, but his debts are being called as Venus enters Capricorn. We're looking for long-term pay-off in relationship here and nothing less than that is worth the time or energy. Those who prove they cannot be responsible toward us, in relation to us, are not worth the time or energy. 

Only take on the responsibility toward others that feels absolutely right to take on, and don't give anyone a level of responsibility in relation to you that he or she is not meant (or equipped) to take on. 

With the influence of Venus here, there is definitely such thing as too sober, serious, pragmatic, number-crunching, and dry. Love, beauty, and romance need to be worked into the mix. However, it's a person with solid integrity, with some financial savvy, with a nose for legitimate advancement, with expertly handled personal responsibilities, and with the ability to dig in and get the job done even if it means deferring personal pleasures who is most attractive under these astro energies. 

Venus in Capricorn is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). Venus is seeking a partner who understands the full realities of life, including the difficult, sombre, or "unfun" aspects, who understood them early on, and who worked with them pretty much from the get-go rather than sloughing them off. 

All this reflects, in mutual reception, what Saturn has been requiring of relationships and potential mates throughout its transit of Libra. People who are obviously playing catch-up on this front are not going to hold as much appeal. We're looking for the results of long-term efforts - what a person has built and what progress has been made over the course of the lifetime. 

Charm is a quality with a decreasing amount of value the closer Saturn gets to Scorpio if it is not also attached to absolute integrity and authenticity. Those are the qualities that make bank under Saturn in Scorpio. People who have skated by on looks, charm, charisma, or social prowess and facade are going to find these qualities don't get them nearly as far as they used to. Playboys (or girls), those who refuse to grow up, the skittish, the cheaters, the fibbers, the non-committal, those who can't manage limitations, restrictions, or adult responsibilities - these people become less and less attractive. Flaky artist types also fall out of favour with Mars now entering a two-year Virgo-flavoured cycle. People who have been let out of many practical, adult responsibilities because they're so talented or so interesting or so tortured are going to have many fewer people hot for them. 

Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply. 

This is all part of the shift out of Piscean era relationship and partner ideals - a shift that gets a super charge this spring with the Venus Transit and Venus retrograde through Gemini. Relationship changes dramatically over the next while, and we can either move with the show or cling wailing and pining to old forms and old ideals that no longer get the job done and never really did. 

That said, there are a lot of people who are being kept out of relationship at this time so as to sidestep the harshest of the tail-end Piscean era relationship detritus. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception can be emotionally difficult for those who are not in a relationship and would like to be as it indicates the beginning of yet another cold winter with no one to keep their toes warm in bed. 

Again, though, this is Saturn we're talking about, and we have to be aware of the positioning of ourselves (going on right now) for long-term relationship success rather than for short-term toe-warming gratification. (If you can get both, more power to you!) It doesn't necessarily make it easier, but there are times when it's actually in our best interests to not be in relationship, and in many cases, this is one of those times.