Lucky 13 Sagittarius New Moon as Uranus Stations Direct and the Truth is, It's All Just a Bit Surreal

Uranus is currently stationing direct at 26 Pisces and it's bringing the weird in sometimes overwhelming fits and flashes amidst the stone cold serious grouping in Capricorn (Ceres, Pluto, the North Node and stationing Mercury).

Our December 5 Lucky 13 Sagittarius New Moon (11:36 a.m. CT) is infused with this concentrated Uranus in Pisces energy as Uranus stations direct later that evening (7:50 p.m.). Mars in Sagittarius will be just past a square to Uranus in Pisces (December 3) adding some feistiness to the proceedings.

Emerging soul spaces and rejuvenated inspiration based in direct experience of our own guiding truths, strengthened and clarified at this New Moon as we rapidly transition from Piscean to Aquarian astrological eras.

There are many people who believe they have the truth these wild and woolly days - from New Agers, 9/11 Truthers, and UFO researchers to genetically engineering scientists, politicians, and WikiLeaks. But often, these so-called truth-tellers are wrapped up in the very systems and organizations and ideologies they claim to be attempting to out. What (possibly) started off as true opposition becomes enveloped, assimilated, hooked into the same old end points. Celebrity, cliqueiness and in crowds - and the thirst for recognition within them - start to overshadow the real work.

People realize how difficult it is to stay true, how unpopular the truths no one else wants to touch are - and how unpopular speaking those truths might make them. And they fudge it a bit. They soften their standards for the acceptance and energy of being more palatable to the crowd.

Figurehead truthtellers are put forth as supposed radicals who carefully control the information and oppositional vibes, never coming close to the full root truth.

I recently had an experience with an individual I would consider an establishment truthteller figurehead, after being invited by my roomie to a speech by a man named George Galloway. I hadn't heard of this man and generally avoid these types of things but decided to go with her. It turns out he was on a paid speaking tour across Canada. Of course he was. He's a Scottish MP in the British Parliament currently embroiled in a public pissing match/legal battle with Jason Kenney, the Canadian federal minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, who attempted to have him banned from Canada as a terrorist due to his really quite uncontroversial stance on Palestine and Israel. Basically, he isn't rampantly pro-Zionist as the Harper Conservatives are.

So I sat at the speech for a while listening to him loudly proclaim what I suppose passes for revolutionary thought in Parliaments these days. Most of the crowd was eating it up, clapping at all the right moments. But as I listened to him make his middle-of-the-road points and talk about his accolades and his meetings with Her Majesty the Queen, I thought, if this is what's passing for independent, radical thought these days in the peace movement, we're in trouble.

Why are people still so desperate for an authority figure, a hero? And why are so many people willing to pay to listen to a guy saying things that any woman (or conscious man) knows pretty much from birth?

I closed my eyes, and his loud, emphatic speaking tone started to sound a bit like Hitler's. My head started to ache. My pelvis started to hurt. My feminine energy was protesting that I would sit and subject myself to it.

Needless to say, I had to leave the speech early and regretted parting with my dollars to listen to this man. My roommate did some research later and found out he is anti-abortion and votes that way in British Parliament. Definitely not my cup of tea. But the rapt attention this man was receiving, including a partial standing ovation, was a bit surreal.

It's all a bit surreal, isn't it? The trances, the consensus realities - especially in so-called alternative circles. The establishment has definitely set in in this Pluto in Capricorn Age.

The dispositor of the Sagittarius New Moon is Jupiter in Pisces, which is conjunct Uranus, making the Uranian/Piscean Bizarre-o World flavour even more pronounced.

Think Nazis and NWO-ers dancing the reel with the cast of the early John Waters films to Isabella Rosselini in red lipstick singing a Roy Orbison song.

At this New Moon, we're gathering the Uranus in Pisces flashes of insight as puzzle pieces to guide us through the bizarre and surreal aspects of Pisces-to-Aquarius.

With the Sun and Moon involved, the two luminaries, the truths we're being inspired by at this New Moon are personal ones. The masculine-heavy rhetoric and posturing clear away at the Dark of the Moon. The lunar energy washes over us as we honour the truth that we are, the wisdom that we hold, simply by being, and the direct access we have to it always. The truths we embody just by being who we are and living true to that in these times, with the experiences we've had or understood through our physical and spiritual lineages ringing through every cell. This involves, especially, feminine truth. The truth of the women of this planet. And sure, the truth of the men who hear and feel and know that feminine truth and take responsibility for it. They are few.

This New Moon is a point in time to welcome rejuvenation of the force of optimism in our lives amidst some fairly horrifying circumstances.

The Gulf stream current has been disrupted, more than likely purposefully, by the nightmare going on in the Gulf of Mexico. This basically means all life on this planet has been disrupted. Uranus (disruptor) in Pisces (oceans and energetic flow). There is an old, energy-holder culture whose patterns have been disrupted, destroyed, in the Gulf fishermen and women. A rhythmic, natural flow that helped to regulate life on this planet has been shattered, just as the lives of those people have been shattered with loss of livelihood, loss of way of life and loss of health.

More than that, this is an intentional traumatic break between Piscean and Aquarian eras. A giant symbolic offering to those forces that would like us to head down the dystopian Aquarian track. An artificial jumpstart.

This 13th degree Sagittarrius New Moon is an opening into renewed faith, renewed inspiration and a renewal of our ultimate guiding truth in light of the very tricky times in which we find ourselves living. And in light of our awareness of all those thirteenth witch realities that are still so obscured and denied by the majority. This New Moon portal opens new emotional territory for us along these lines that sustains us going forward from this point.

Sagittarius is often associated with things like university education, philosophy, and religion, but I always found those associations too patriarchal to be the whole story for a sign as connected to our wildness and freedom as Sagittarius. Sagittarius requires intellectual freedom and room to roam, and really, higher education, philosophy and religious scholarship can be trappings. Historically, these things, along with another Sagittarian association, long-distance travel, have been accessible only by people of a certain financial and social privilege and mostly by white men within that privilege.

Sagittarius is a sign related to direct experiences with life that bring us closer to truth, so how can Sagittarius be tied up with these things when every individual did not and does not have access to them? To me, they can be a means to an end, but they are not the crux of the sign - free thinkers don't need ideology or university degrees, although exposure to those things can definitely be beneficial.

The symbol for Sagittarius is the centaur - half human, half horse - and I think the real talent of Sagittarius energy is its development of inherent knowledge of the natural way of things - how things would go down and should go down if we were all really free to live in attunement with the natural world around us.

Although the centaur is often considered a masculine symbol, centaurs are also female, and I think the female aspect of the symbol is part of what emerges at this New Moon.

After Uranus goes direct, every planet in our zodiac will be moving direct. We're moving forward quite rapidly from this New Moon to Spring Equinox and Uranus in Aries. At that point, Uranus will not be back to Pisces for 76 years.

All this forward planetary motion will help to offset the hardcore Mercury retrograde we'll soon be experiencing (December 10-30). Mercury will be the only planet moving retrograde until January 26 when Saturn turns retro at 17 degrees Libra.

So we're on our way at the point of the Sagittarius New Moon to one of the most all-encompassing birth point equinoxes we've seen in quite some time.

This is why the strengthening of our personal truth, the clarifying of our personal wisdom and the rejuvenation of our faith, our spirit and our optimism is so important at this New Moon.

And if you have to walk out of the speech early because it just isn't hitting you as legit, by all means...

The Moon enters Sagittarius December 4 at 11:50 a.m. CT. The New Moon is December 5 at 11:36 a.m. Uranus goes direct December 5 at 7:50 p.m.

Uranus Rx Re-Enters Pisces Just in Time For More Neptunian Slumber

The Great Awakener (Uranus) certainly has its work cut out for it. I'm not sure even Jupiter Rx re-entering the mix September 8 can make the issues big enough to create any real, lasting lucidity at this tail-end Piscean era.

So many dark secrets twisted up in watery graves that most seem willing to allow, to keep buried, rather than bringing them to the surface and letting them do their catalytic work...

It's been five days since Matt Simmons was found dead in his Maine home (8/8/10), and the cleansing of the mainstream media of nasty details about the Gulf has been swift, simultaneous and very nearly complete.

On Friday, August 6, the United States Food and Drug Administration declared Gulf seafood safe to eat.

Then the reports started coming about Obama serving Gulf seafood at his birthday party to show people just how safe it really is. The date of the big birthday bash? August 8.

These announcements despite conclusive tainting of blue crab larvae with oil and despite the fact that tests done by Tulane University researchers have not even been completed to determine whether the larvae have also been tainted with Corexit.

But the tests don't really matter.

The trajectory was set. The orders came down.

Show's over, folks! Crisis averted. The well's capped. Tens of millions but more likely hundreds of millions of gallons of oil have miraculously disappeared. Two million gallons of Corexit are but a memory. Everyone can go home! It was all just a bad dream.

"There is no information at this time to indicate that they (dispersants) pose a public health threat from exposure through the consumption of seafood," says the FDA.

Simmons' death was overshadowed in mainstream media outlets by the death of former U.S. senator Ted Stevens in an Alaska airplane crash August 9. Like Simmons, Stevens had a connection to the Gulf catastrophe. Stevens was involved in a probe related to whistleblower information that BP was fully aware of cheating on blowout preventer tests conducted at oil wells they owned.

"Mike Mason, who worked on oil rigs in Alaska for 18 years, says that he observed cheating on blowout preventer tests at least 100 times, including on many wells owned by BP...

Mason was interviewed by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2005 during a probe into allegations that Nabors Drilling, a subcontractor to BP, falsified such tests, among other claims that BP failed to report blowouts at the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field. The probe was spurred by oil industry critic Charles Hamel, who forwarded his allegation to then-Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska."

Also interesting is the fact that Hamel had previously been spyed on by a Wackenhut security firm after his investigations into a BP-owned Alaska pipeline forced BP to spend $1 billion on safety-related improvements. Wackenhut was hired by the pipeline company that operated the pipeline for BP. Hamel won a lawsuit against the company as well as a full-page newspaper ad apology. Of that, Hamel said:

"These oil interests are very powerful - they will stop at nothing to stop you."

But roll on over now, darlings. Go back to sleep. Stuff your heads back in celebrity gossip and sports scores and shopping and Blackberries and your friend score on Facebook. That quiz on what chakra you are or which Muppet you're most like isn't exactly going to do itself. Pour your energy into ascension and love and light and New Earth and looking the other way. Nestle in and take a big old hit of ether for Mama. Just forget all about this whole mess. It's nothing you have to worry your pretty little heads over.

The relief within the collective that they've been let off the hook by mass media and government agencies and Mr. Obama, that they no longer have to concern themselves with the Gulf horror, is palpable.

You see how potent the media-driven Neptunian fog is at this tail-end Piscean era, how quickly people will latch back onto the teat as if nothing had ever happened to jolt them out of their haze. This much Neptunian delusion is most certainly toxic to the system(s). But it feels oh so good, oh so easy, after a long and drawn out confrontation with planetary reality.

A quick glance at the New Orleans daily paper online, the Times Picayune, and you would barely know the Gulf catastrophe even existed, let alone that it continues to this day. (To recap: they haven't capped the main gusher - just the one the public had its eyes trained on.)

"New Orleans Saints defense was less than stellar." "Man shot dead at apartment complex." "MTV Real World New Orleans episode review."

An advertisement for a Save the Gulf T-shirt is the only mention of the Gulf at all.

And now Obama is planning a trip to New Orleans August 29 for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This Uranian-Neptunian character, designed and moulded just to divert and diffuse during these cross-over times, continues the spin. He'll put forth a big Leonine show of the King visiting his people, not forgetting them after their time of (purposefully-inflicted) tragedy. And with his carefully-crafted words, he will drop the veil on the Gulf.

And most will be more than willing to grab and pull and help it drop.

Lest we forget?

Lest we remember.

Uranus Rx re-enters Pisces tonight. It will re-enter Aries moving direct March 11, 2011.

The Lowdown and Mother Earth Water Walk Day

Mercury is retrograde in early Taurus for about another week, turning direct May 11. Our patience is being tested and tested again...and again.

Saturn is slowing in late Virgo to turn direct May 30. More patience required.

The Sun in Taurus has just squared Mars in Leo. Squares from bodies in Taurus have been keeping our forward motion in tight check on this front. Mars is still in retrograde shadow degrees - hitting new territory May 17.

Pluto and Ceres are retrograde in tight conjunction in early Capricorn, trining Mercury. The situation is pretty sombre for those of us not living in some pseudo-transcendent bubble or talking ourselves into the idea that it doesn't really matter, anyway - that we're meant for bigger and better things in this Universe than Planet Earth! Sigh.

Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, is transiting the anaretic degree of Pisces, the last degree of the zodiac. It's tail-end Piscean Era, and we've got what could become the oil disaster to end all oil disasters going on in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a classic case of "closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out," more than two weeks in and after two million or so gallons of oil have been dumped into the sea, British Petroleum is attempting to figure out some way to stop the gush of oil while they drill a relief well, estimated to take three months to complete. BP is now planning to lower a coffer dam (a giant dome) to the ocean floor to place over the leak in hopes that it will contain most of the oil. This coffer dam was built only after BP was ordered by Obama to take responsibility for the ongoing spill. No proactive safety protocols here - just ineffectual scrambling after the worst case scenario has already happened. How can these companies be allowed to continue hideously dangerous drilling practises with absolutely no plan for containing the pressure involved?

If human technology (Aquarius) can't figure out some way to stop this gush of oil (Pisces), it could be game over for our oceans altogether. This is so textbook Piscean/Aquarian overlap, I can't help but roll my eyes in disgust. The Pisceans have seen this stuff coming millenia away, but our cautions too often fall on deaf ears...

All in all, things have been slow, careful, and restricted lately, with Plutonic pressure and Piscean/Neptunian despair threatening around the edges.

When I think of all the wonderful little sea creatures that are going to ingest oil, get sick and die along the Gulf Coast, I just want to cry. But really, there are few tears left this far along.

And it's not only the sea creatures. This is the point most people seem to miss.

Eleven families have a big, gaping hole in them right now.

Fishermen have had their livelihoods destroyed. As we know, along with that comes increased rates of bankruptcy, domestic violence, divorce, even suicide. The farmers know this scenario well.

These are the Piscean lessons, see? This is what most people on this spinning wheel can't seem to grasp - or would rather overlook than take responsibility for. It really is all interconnected. Events like this one have chain reaction consequences that go on for decades, a century maybe, more.

The world probably wouldn't give two hoots about Louisiana fisherman losing their livelihoods and ways of life...but what about when Miami's South Beach is threatened? Or the Florida Keys?

Hmm...getting your attention now, dumb fucks? (Erm...not referring to the people reading this.) When the playgrounds of the rich and famous are at risk, suddenly people's ears perk up. And you get Arnold Schwartzenegger mawing into the camera about it.

So yeah, you ignorant, self-absorbed bastards, this affects you!

What affects one affects all. What is done to the Earth is done to us. Toxifying our oceans, our land, our air, our lakes and rivers toxifies us. It cycles through all living things. When your health is gone, those little scraps of paper we call money don't matter a bit.

As much as the Atlantean Aquarians want to turn us into robots or hybrids or space travellers, we're biological organisms, inextricably connected to the Earth and all its living things. That's the case. No getting around it, no matter what sci fi fantasy world you live in.

Today has been declared Mother Earth Water Walk Day. And wow. Aren't we doing a bang-up job honouring Mama Earth and her water?

A Canadian Ojibwa grandmother, Josephine Mandamin, and a group of other First Nations women walked around all five Great Lakes between 2003 and 2008, carrying a pail of water with them, as a protective action and to bring attention to the necessity of stewardship of the Earth's water, keeping it clean and healthy for current and future generations.

They were also drawing attention to the current state of the lakes, especially Lake Ontario, and the levels of pollution and heavy metals in the water.

You can listen to Josephine speaking about the water walk here:

Mother Earth Water Walk Part One
Mother Earth Water Walk Part Two
Mother Earth Water Walk Part Three

Josephine speaks about the lack of support from men on these issues and the necessity of the feminine and the masculine coming back together to work together. She also speaks of the ongoing phenomenon of science (Aquarius) "proving" what has been known spiritually (Pisces) all along about water.

Our water is precious. As precious as any child. And the horror and rage I feel at these filthy-souled (do they have souls?) men abusing and mistreating our water, our land, our air and us cannot be expressed in words.

All I can do is join with those who know and who feel the same way. It's the only way I can continue to stomach what has been done and is being done to this Earth, to all living things, to us. They have no right to do what they're doing.

Please oppose all offshore oil drilling. Support renewable, non-polluting energy sources and the development of more of these.

Give up driving or at the very least drive only when absolutely necessary. Think about what you're supporting when you drive, when you consume cheap oil and gas, and drive responsibly, with that firmly in mind. The joyride is over.

Ceres-Pluto in Capricorn and the Environmental Irresponsibility of Big Oil

British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward claims his company is not responsible for the offshore drilling rig explosion that killed 11 men April 20 and has resulted in 200,000 gallons of oil per day being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. There is no way to stop or contain the current gush of oil, and this level of spill could go on for months. Just ponder that for a moment.

U.S. Gulf Coast states Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have declared states of emergency as they wait for the massive oil slick to wash ashore (just as that bird is unknowingly doing in the picture above). This spill threatens shrimp and oyster beds, fish stocks and fragile marshland ecosystems full of other marine life.

Shrimp and fishing boats are now sitting idle and the livelihoods of fishermen and their families are in limbo.

The Blessing of the Fleet was to occur yesterday (Sunday) at Gulf Island Marina in Chalmette, Louisiana, but no commercial boats were there to receive their blessing. They are docked, restricted from beginning their season due to the oil slick.

British Petroleum, owned by the Rothschild family, is woefully unequipped to deal with a spill of this nature, nor does it care to deal with it. These are the Rothschilds we're talking about. Due care and attention for human beings or animal and plant life on this planet have never been on the priority list. The complete opposite, actually.

And you can see by British Petroleum's track record over the past five years just how absent from the priority list they really are. From an article at The Daily Green:

"In March 2005, a massive explosion ripped through a tower at BP's refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring 170 others. Investigators later determined that the company had ignored its own protocols on operating the tower, which was filled with gasoline, and that a warning system had been disabled. The company pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was fined more than $50 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Almost a year after the refinery explosion, technicians discovered that some 4,800 barrels of oil had spread into the Alaskan snow through a tiny hole in the company's pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. BP had been warned to check the pipeline in 2002, but hadn't, according to a report in Fortune. When it did inspect it, four years later, it found that a six-mile length of pipeline was corroded."

Hideous negligence and arrogant lack of regard for life being given slap on the wrist after slap on the wrist and allowed to proceed - the story of most corporate operations these days.

Obama has pressured BP to take responsibility for the current spill (ha!), and their answer to the ongoing disaster has been to pump chemical dispersants into the source of the oil leak.

As online commenter msdasista points out, this just buries the problem instead of actually cleaning it up:

"This "dispersant" is not "working." It is simply keeping it from getting to the surface, where it can be cleaned up. Now the oil, in combination with another petrochemical byproduct called "dispersant," is hovering in the water column making it much more likely to be ingested by all underwater species (including oysters) and migratory pelagics like tuna, etc. The environmental problem, while now hidden, has been worsened exponentially by the addition of "dispersants.""

Burying and obscuring the environmental destruction caused by your corporate activities and making things even worse through that burying/obscuring - how very Pluto in Capricorn.

But again, Ceres isn't having it. Not this time. This poor old Earth is at the brink. It's fully saturated as far as disaster-absorption of the nefarious corporate oligarchy. And it's about ready to start eviction notices.

Uranus is currently transitting the last degree of the zodiac - 29 Pisces. Pisces is the sign related to both the ocean and oil. The 29th degree of Pisces is the end of the road, the final saturation point - psychically, emotionally, ecologically.

This sign, at the end of the astrological Piscean Age, has been the watery grave dumping ground for far too many dark and dirty secrets. The pollution of our oceans reflects this.

Far too much remains unresolved as we push forward into the Aquarian Era, and this does not bode well.

The forced corporate continuation of the Oil Age - instead of putting resources into the evolution past oil to solar, wind, geothermal and other safe, non-polluting energy sources - is now causing disaster after disaster.

Unfortunately, it's good, decent people who always seem to pay the price for top-down corporate criminality of this nature.

I'm sorry families of the men killed. I'm sorry animals. I'm sorry Gulf Coasters. I'm sorry Louisianans. On top of Katrina, this is way too much.

But we're into the master Piscean lessons here, aren't we?

The only way to shoulder this much grief, pain and despair is to share it around. With true Piscean energetic connection, this has happened to us all. Your ecological tragedy is our ecological tragedy, whether the effects hit now or 10 or 30 or 50 years from now.

Uranus Stationing Direct in Pisces: Keep Your Heads About Ya

Uranus is potent right now in Pisces, stationing direct conjunct the soul mate asteroid Juno. (December 1 at 1:28 p.m. MT) The Moon is also in Pisces for the next two days, adding to the Piscean vibes.

Things are more spacey, time-warpy than usual right now and will be until the end of next week, so keep this in mind and do your best to keep your mind from wandering off into the etheric realms whilst doing anything potentially dangerous like driving, crossing the street, chopping veggies...

No time warping while you run the bath or broil some nachos!

When Pisces is strong, there is a tendency toward little slip-ups, accidents and injuries, so protect against that with grounded mindfulness and by not taking any unneccessary risks. The Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius could tempt us to push the limits, but that is not advisable as Uranus stations in Pisces.

Uranus conjunct Juno in Pisces means we're getting some strong communiques from our spiritual assistance (whatever form that takes) related to the way forward from here, so allow time for that connection and understanding to come through fully. Allow time for it to envelope you, but don't become distracted while doing anything that demands your full focus and attention.

If Saturn in Virgo and the opposition cycle to Uranus in Pisces has taught us anything, it's the importance of managing our time along these lines and successfully balancing the otherworldly/etheric with the material/physical. Both realms have different requirements that need to be co-managed.

The importance of soul mates in our daily lives also comes into focus here with the conjunction to Juno, whether they be people who are constants in our lives or just people we pass by on the bus or in the grocery store. The spiritual will be peeking through in the oddest and most unexpected of places.

At the same time, there's a strong tail-end Piscean Age necessity to filter out any Neptunian/Piscean communication or energy that isn't for you. The ability to screen that energy, turn it off and focus only on our own experiences is especially important during this direct station and will help us from becoming energetically overwhelmed or creeped out. There's another Saturn in Virgo lesson we can put into action - differentiating between what's for you and what isn't and reinforcing boundaries related to that.

Dreams are very potent, too. The division between waking and dreaming life is very thin now, becoming more of a single flow than usual. Dreams can be very literal, and it might help to write them down and analyze them related to what is going on in your day-to-day life.

Uranus in Pisces is in mutual reception with Neptune in Aquarius (indicating the transitional period between Piscean and Aquarian eras) and is the final body going direct related to that mutual reception with Neptune in its place in the long-term triple Aquarius conjunction. After Uranus moves direct, all the outer planets will be in direct motion. Full speed ahead.

Another post on that is here: Status Update on the Aquarius Triple Conjunction

Uranus Retrograde in Pisces and the Next Saturn-Uranus Opposition

Uranus turning retrograde July 1 at 26 degrees Pisces means that all three outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) plus Jupiter and Chiron are moving retrograde.

This is a lot of retrogrades, but we've just gone through one hell of a changeable and often bizarre period on planet Earth, so we need them.

We're going back over the territory we just whipped through to internally recalibrate to what we've just experienced. This is a time of regaining our bearings, especially in light of the three bodies conjunct in Aquarius and the infusion of future-oriented energy and vision we've just received. Our path forward is probably different from what we thought it was going to be...in some cases, very different. There have been some abrupt changes in course, and these retrograde periods give us a chance to adjust to the new space we're occupying. Here, we let go of previous-held dreams and visions in favour of new ones.

These retrogrades should help with clarifying what we're doing and where we're going now - a very necessary thing considering how heavily involved Neptune/Pisces are and have been. A lot of veiled fogginess and illusion to contend with. We can also emotionally prepare ourselves during this time frame for any big changes up ahead.

Since Uranus has gone retrograde in Pisces, I've had some very bizarre dreams. A common experience, I'm sure, since Pisces relates to dreams and the subconscious.

What I've also noticed, after the shift of Uranus retrograde, is an increase in weight and pressure from Saturn in Virgo. I've been waking up depressed and having an extremely difficult time clearing the fog. Just completing the very basics seems to be a task-and-a-half.

What's going on is that Saturn and Uranus Rx are heading to their third opposition in Virgo and Pisces. They are within a 10 degree orb at the moment, getting ever-closer, now that Uranus has turned retro, to exact opposition between now and September 15.

So the balance here between Saturn in Virgo earthly practicalities and Uranus in Pisces spiritual vision is starting to come to the forefront again. The challenges of receiving downloads of spiritual insight and then applying them in the day-to-day material realm while staying on an even keel is tricky. Balancing the requirements of both material and spiritual while bringing them together as one and the same. Knowing when to surrender to circumstances (Pisces) and when to dig in and get to work (Virgo) is proving to be very confusing, at times.

I've felt paralyzed at different times throughout the entire Saturn-Uranus opposition cycle (combined with my Saturn Return) and unsure of what to do next. A lot of void time and weightiness.

And with the reinforcement of the transitting bodies, I sort of feel like, enough already! hahaha But Saturn says no. It's not enough until it says it's enough. Isn't it funny how Saturn transits always have that feeling of, "Isn't it over yet?" Saturn and time. So relative. It feels as if "this" has been and will be going on forever.

Not to mention the odd effects on our experience of time in general with all the Uranus/Aquarius influence. I was re-reading some of the posts on this blog and couldn't believe that some of them were written only a few months ago. I feel as if I wrote the December 2008 post years ago - and it was only six months! It sort of boggles the mind how much ground we're covering these days, doesn't it? Warp speed.

(Another reason those retros are necessary.)

I was trying to do a little predicting for my own life, and looking at the aspects for the rest of the summer, I have a feeling things aren't really going to get moving until mid-September. As much as I don't want this to be true, for my sake and for the sake of anyone who is feeling at the mercy of the universe right now.

But let's be honest. All the outer planets are in retrograde plus Jupiter and Chiron, and Saturn is still going through its retrograde shadow (previously covered territory).

Things really are still in the freefall. Massive scrambling and restructuring are still underway, and it's quite difficult (if not impossible) to get a new direction going on until the dust has settled. This is my feeling for myself, anyway. There's a lot of wheel-spinning possible but not a lot of getting anywhere solid. Baby steps are all we can do in a lot of cases. And treading water.

Saturn hits new ground August 21 (phew!) and starts moving into opposition with Uranus Rx at 24 degrees Virgo/Pisces, exact on September 15. This will be the third shake-up between concrete structural reality (Saturn) and revolutionary change/upheaval (Uranus).

In the midst of that, Pluto goes direct at 0 degrees Capricorn on September 11. Zero degrees at Ground Zero. Starting on the second wave of Plutonic break down and transformation of our structures, hierarchies, public images and versions of success. Round One was the economic meltdown, the bail-outs, the job losses, the business closures, the funnelling of trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to international banks, the lack of integrity, honesty and transparency in our structures coming to the surface. You know...all that fun stuff.

If I were a predicting gal (which I'm not, generally), I would say that Pluto going direct at 0 degrees on September 11 will coincide with more 9/11 scrutiny. This could be when the idea of U.S. government involvement and/or knowledge before the fact could go from conspiracy theory to commonly held suspicion. Maybe we'll even get some proof on this front, for those who need it.

My feeling is that these September astro-events are the major catalyzing aspects we're leading up to this summer.

However, the eclipse season we're currently experiencing should have an initially loosening effect to get things started. Especially the total solar eclipse on 29 degrees Cancer. It's the longest total eclipse in the 21st century, not to be surpassed in length until 2132. It's a big one.

The Current Connections to Uranus in Pisces

My apologies! I realize I skipped over the current connections to Uranus in Pisces. (Also in the Saturn Direct post.)

Well, I didn't actually skip them...because the influence of Pisces is always there. :) But I didn't mention the specifics.

I've been talking about the Taurus-Aquarius square themes a lot, but just before the bodies in Taurus square the bodies in Aquarius, they sextile Uranus in Pisces, now also at 26 degrees.

This, again, is and indicator of the Piscean Age to Aquarian Age transition. As is the mutual reception of Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius. So the related themes are sort of an umbrella we're existing under. Aquarius is very much interconnected with Pisces at the moment, and vice versa. So it's almost as if when you're talking about one, you're talking about the other, as well.

I have a tendency to focus on the trickier aspects (like squares) just because I think they are generally more difficult to deal with and require a bit more time and analysis to really successfully navigate. My personal bias there.

But it's nice to know we have a nice sextiling energy from Taurus to Pisces to give us a little boost of spiritual intelligence as we do our thing in the earthy Taurean realms. It eases the square vibe a little.

Willow's November 2008 Astro Perspective

There are a lot of shifts going on this month. Here is the highlights reel:

- Neptune and Uranus (in mutual reception) going direct
- Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces (the first of four oppositions in those signs)
- Pluto entering Capricorn for a 16-year stay

We’ve inched our way toward the changes we wish to see or have been dragged kicking and screaming and now we’re at the pinnacle of the big hill in the roller coaster ride. There were a couple dips and weaves in September to get our stomachs dropping out and our mouths running dry in preparation, but this month seems to be the whoooosh toward real movement. Saturn in Virgo has us climbing the big hill bit by arduous bit, waiting on it, waiting on it, step-by-step, grinding closer to the big paradigm changes. We have to want it; more than that, we have to earn it, going over every last detail…and now, this month, our momentum takes us up over the hump and we let go into the unknown. All the while, it’s still Scorpio season in a big way, baby, as the collective becomes ever-more aware of, to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, the brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord 2008 (almost 2009) on Planet Earth.

That is, if I’m reading this crap right.

;-) Just kidding.

The Sun and Mars remain in Scorpio for the first part of November (Mars until November 16 and the Sun until November 21), on the tail of the New Moon in Scorpio, October 28. We’ve reached a new level of “cutting the crap” in our lives.

Mercury will join the Sun and Mars in Scorpio on November 4, just in time for the U.S. people to speak in their election. Taking on the do-or-die intensity of Scorpio with what they say with their votes is quite fitting, isn’t it?

We cleared the Mercury retrograde shadow on October 30, so we’ve just nicely gotten into new intellectual/communication territory as November begins. Also fitting that Mercury leaves Libra just as the U.S. election is completing. The gloves are off! No more Libra surface-level, playing-to-your-crowd social wizardry. Now we see who was really elected.

And we deal with the inevitable nastiness that rises to the surface after one of the most hardcore, teeth-bared, divisive political races in history.

Because of the power and current foreign policy of the U.S., this is an election that affects the entire planet.

The Sun in Scorpio is keeping our conscious moment attuned to the things that have to come out in the wash, or else. Getting down and dirty with the nitty gritty. Mercury keeps us speaking our gut-level truth, and Mars ensures our actions reflect that truth - our soul’s truth.

The fixed and unrelenting gaze of Scorpio is important now for stability as we experience a very big astro event - the Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces on November 4. Also on the day of the U.S. election, of course. (The White House really MUST have an astrologer or two on staff. The Internet rumours are right.)

I wrote about this opposition last month, but basically this is an opposing clash of the material structures as they exist (the “way things are”) - Saturn - and our vision for the future as an impetus to revolutionary change - Uranus.

Preparatory work for Pluto in Capricorn, as we’re infused with the spiritual vision to guide and sustain us during the next 16 years of structural transformation.

Saturn and Uranus will oppose each other in Virgo (earth) and Pisces (water) four times - November 4, 2008, February 5, 2009, September 15, 2009 and April 26, 2010. We’ll be working on this stuff for a while, but the first major dose of spiritual - structural re-alignment happens with the initial opposition on November 4.

Flashes of insight showing the way forward and once seen, nothing is ever the same as it was. Nothing CAN be the same as it was.

With Uranus and Pisces involved, expect things to get a little weird, a little surreal, a little bizarre. Unexpected and shocking spiritual revelation-type stuff. Rebellious energy straining in opposition to dense, material confines.

The material structures are getting a shake-up due to the fact that we are speeding along toward the Aquarian paradigm. How things have been set up in the past no longer serves our imperatives, and they need to change. Simple as that.

Both Virgo and Pisces are mutable signs, meaning changing and adapting to conditions. These oppositions will toss unexpected events and insights our way designed to shock us out of our current structures. Confusion and chaos could threaten to overwhelm, which is why the fixed Scorp energy is so necessary.

Scorpio keeps a cool, clear gaze on what’s really going on, on the surface and below, and to both extremes. It sees the highest spiritual highs (eagle) and the lowest physical lows (scorpion).

This keeps us honest. Scorpio holds us in a place where we are unable to deny those “brutish realities of this foul year of Our Lord” as we experience future flashes and pick up speed. Can’t get drunk on change here, people, believing we’ve left the cares of the past behind us. When all that Aquarian air starts going to our heads (after the poor little Piscean fishies thought they were suffocating, flopping around on the floor), there will be an overwhelming temptation to buy into the oxygen overdose jubilation, believing “we’re already there.” Well, we aren’t. There is much to be done to actually get us there, and we have to keep a close eye on where we are, on the damage that has been done that now asks to be repaired, and on the practical adjustments that need to be made. We’ll get there, but we have to integrate and successfully deal with all parts of the human experience (the true test of tail-end Pisces), even the ugly parts. We have to deal with the details, unpleasant as they may seem.

(And for anyone who insists that yes, we are already in utopia, again, take a look at what the U.S. army has been up to lately with depleted uranium munitions in Iraq and Afghanistan: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/DU-Baby2003.htm. Careful! It’s not nice. But this is what we’re doing these days. Let’s take an honest look at it.

And for those who claim the photos are fake or that this is propaganda, please watch this documentary on the subject and decide for yourselves: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5146778547681767408)

Thank goodness for the Scorpio energy this month, keepin’ it real and puncturing the utopian fog (not to mention the political bullshittery).

We can’t get too caught up in the rosy vision (a distinct possibility with Pisces involved) and believe it is effortless. With Saturn involved, that is not the case. We each have to take individual responsibility for bringing the changes into our daily lives and it’s going to take adjustments, practice, diligence, self-mastery. That’s not to say there won’t be levity. Some things will come about seemingly effortlessly (due to previous preparation) and there will be a great deal of energy available for the right things. But we have to stay grounded, channelling our vision into the minute details of our material structures - into our work, our interactions with others, into every aspect of ourselves.

Uranus uses our spines like lightning rods, and it can also knock us on our asses if we’re not careful. Think about a lightning bolt of insight and vision, full of information and energy designed to take you far into the future, coming through the top of your head, travelling through your body and communicating with all parts of it until it reaches the point where your feet touch the earth, grounding the charge so we don’t short out the system. This is how we bring the vision and insight into the material day-to-day and live them. And vice versa - we communicate the realities of our material, day-to-day existences on the planet to the realm of spirit, focussing on the details and communicating about what is necessary here.

This revolution is a practical one, bringing it in from the fringes into the mainstream. It will be so common sense that no one could argue - except those profiting from the old system. But even some of them are getting it together. T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil tycoon and the most capitalistic of the capitalists, is now promoting wind energy. Even people who created and were made financially wealthy from the old structures want to be part of the solution. (Mostly because they can now make money and get press with new technology and green power, but hey, whatever gets us there, I guess.)

These are our challenges and this is how we build a world in which we all want to live.

We have to learn from the 1960s (the last time Saturn - Uranus oppositions occurred - in the opposite signs: Uranus in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces) and embed this revolutionary spirit and vision, the possibilities of what can be, in our daily lives. We can’t let our hopes and fantasies get so huge, so beyond the day-to-day mainstream reality, that the crash back down to earth and accompanying disillusionment completely destroys the momentum for change.

So yeah, folks. This means even though right-wing, Bush-loving Stephen Harper won again in Canada, and even if McCain - Palin win in the U.S, we are still responsible for taking up the challenge in our own lives, for bringing about the changes we wish to see in our own day-to-day lives, in our own mindsets, in our own ways of living. And if Obama becomes president and turns out to be yet another upper-upper-middle class establishment-type with *ahem* certain blood ties or can’t bring about the changes he promised due to structural opposition, well, we’re still not off the hook.

The revolution isn’t going to be led by anyone but us. You and me, comrades. The Aquarian era means holding no superiour. Being your own leader, guide, boss. Living by your own code and joining forces with a tribe of people who are working for the same things.

As the hierarchies continue to rot on the vine, as their stench becomes so overpowering that no one can turn a blind eye, we won’t be surprised. When people are shocked at the dirty dealings coming out into the open over the next 16 years of Pluto in Capricorn, we’ll be forewarned and better prepared.

Don’t participate in things that are not acceptable to you. Don’t put your personal energy into things that lack integrity to you. Make your service to the planet a sacred thing and answer to a higher power than the business/money hierarchy. Answer to yourself.

Saturn in Virgo combined with Pluto in Capricorn shows us that it’s the small changes that will create the necessary structural adjustments. It’s each individual worker choosing “right action” in their day-to-day lives and service that will bring unjust hierarchies toppling down, and business will have to do better from that point on.

Jupiter in Capricorn trines Saturn in Virgo November 21 (with Saturn still in opposition to Uranus in Pisces and Jupiter sextiling it). We see how the further expansion in business (Jupiter in Capricorn) is shaped by the holistic health of the structures as a whole. The whole system has to get better. Power and rewards have to be more equitably distributed.

Really, the only way capitalism can work sustainably is if everyone receives their fair cut of the pie (while working within natural laws - yes, the environment does matter). Right now, the energy is moving from the ground floor to the top where it becomes concentrated. Top-heavy and consistently eroding those who make up the foundation (workers). So eventually, a stiff (Aquarian) breeze will bring the whole thing toppling down. Well, let me tell you, Pluto is more than a stiff breeze, so all hierarchical structures that are operating out of integrity had best take heed.

As my Dad put it: They’re feeding all the oxygen to the big fish and leaving the little ones to go belly up.

The big fish don’t seem to understand how reliant they are on the little fish or that they only got to be big fish because of the little fish.

Still such flippance about working people in Canada and the U.S. Such sickening classism, accepted to the point where most people don’t even know they’re continuing it.

Both Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces turn direct this month (Neptune on November 1, Uranus on November 27) - another indicator that we’re moving forward on all fronts now, so we have to have things in order.

Neptune and Uranus are in mutual reception and will not be completely out of this configuration until March 2011. Mutual reception means that each is in the sign the other rules. (Neptune rules Pisces; Uranus rules Aquarius.) This mutual reception is the big indicator of the Pisces to Aquarius transition - ending of astrological Piscean era, beginning of Aquarian. These two bodies have been working together on the hand-off, with the completion of one era and the beginning of another overlapping. They are making sure that the lessons of Pisces are well learned, well-understood and well-integrated before heading into Aquarius, but also that the tail-end Piscean energies don’t hold onto tenure too long and sabotage the virility of the Aquarian push to the future.

A smooth transition is trickier than it looks, and the retrogrades of these bodies were ensuring nothing would trip this paradigm shift up. Now they go direct and we get this show on the road.

Pluto heads into Capricorn November 26 for its 16-year stay in the sign of business, prestige, public image, money and achievement. Pluto exists in whatever sign/area of life is most in need of purging and transformation. It’s an area that, without this transformation, will lead to the death of the species. (No joke.) So here we see how “to the brink” we’ve pushed it with things like consumer capitalism, corporate control, the rule of money over all else, business/finance and governments becoming one and the same, working for the “market” and for other financial bigwigs instead of for the people, achievement at all cost, excess masculine ravaging feminine.

I seriously hate myself every time I buy a coffee in a disposable cup. And then I start thinking about all the cups used at that Starbucks or Second Cup or indy coffee place or wherever I am, and then I think about all the cups used in the entire city or in New York City or in the entire world in one single day. And then I think, this goes on EVERY day. And I start to see just how far gone we really are.

I think during Pluto in Capricorn we’ll start to see how sick our mainstream societal concept of success is. And the misery people, animals, and the environment have to take on to allow for certain individuals to portray that image of success. Many people at the top of the current capitalist hierarchical echelon have gotten there on the backs of others and to the detriment of the environment. Maybe we’ll start to see the abuse, control and oppression of other people and resources that went into those rich, shining superstars on the society pages of the local paper.

Western society has a tendency to look only at the “winners.” To hold them up as pinnacles of human achievement (Capricorn) to be admired and emulated. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that the history books were written by the winners? Well, thankfully Scorpio (where we have a concentration this month) knows the truth of the “losers” and holds it equally important (if not more so out of sheer neglect).

Scorpio bears witness as part of its spiritual course. It sees the ways that abuse, oppression, domination, coercion, however subtle, are used to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. It looks at the ugly parts of history, life, self…the parts that are usually denied, glossed over, swept under the rug, and demands that they be brought out into the open, into the air.

It looks to the roots that are sustaining the glossy surface-level situation, and when those roots are connecting to a past of abuse, torment, oppression, injustice, lack of integrity, coercion, what’s going on on the surface is not actually something to be held as a pinnacle of human achievement to be admired and emulated. To Scorpio, the applause and congratulation, in those cases, should be turning stomachs.

Scorpio holds awareness until such a time that the collective is willing to look at and integrate these dark and twisted parts of the situation on Planet Earth. Until we look at the ugly motivations that have driven and continue to drive human beings. Scorpio’s been waiting for a whole long time now. It’s been holding consciousness for the collective for almost too long, battling to stave off poisoning itself and sometimes failing. The longer the collective refuses to take on its responsibility for this awareness, the closer those who bear Scorpionic consciousness of the situation come to destruction. The closer they come to a level of hatred toward those who refuse to see and know. And the closer they come to extremism, fundamentalism, and violence in an attempt to force people to see. (Suicide bombers being a prime example of this, I think.)

As I said, with everything going on this month related to “the future,” the Scorpio energy will make it impossible to skip over the aspects of reality we wish weren’t there.

And as Pluto re-enters Capricorn, (remember, it was already in the sign between the end of January and end of June 2008), we are already in a different situation as far as “the economy,” business, government, money, etc. goes. We’ve had the first unearthing where we started at the roots of the structures in our material world and began to make them visible. Capricorn rules the 10th house of the birth chart and the most visible, public point, the Midheaven. So we see how all this will continue to be confronted in a visible, public way throughout the transit as part of the massive transformation. We’ll look to the roots sustaining the structures to see where they’re coming from, what they’re made out of. Anything that lacks integrity will crumble and be transformed into something better and stronger. Anything being propped up with Band-Aid solutions involving dishonesty, coercion, fear, oppression, suppression, abuse will have its fatal flaws come out into the open in a very public way. (As stated, we’re seeing this with the U.S. banking industry and various corporations lately.)

And there’s really so much fear and coercion around the business/work world these days, isn’t there? I often think, if people weren’t so freaking scared all the time, things would be so much better. None of this garbage would even be going on. If people weren’t willing to allow the suppression of their creative drives, their personal morals, their emotions, their humanity, in general, because of fear of losing their jobs, losing their livelihoods, losing their status, losing their image…the world would be a much different place.

Well, Pluto should be forcing us to confront those fears and hopefully this will purge them in a big way within the work structures.

The entire mainstream view of “success,” what makes for a “successful” person or a “successful” business, will be deconstructed, and we’ll be forced to ask the question: Is this really something to be admired and emulated?

Our hierarchies. “The way things are.” The way we set our world up so that only those who can function in the typical workplace and the typical work structure are considered “successful.” The push for homogeneity…making personal diversity into something embarrassing or pathological. Our businesses, our governments, our work/home set-ups, all institutions (prison system, court system, police, health system, education system, money system, etc.) Our concept of time. Watching the clock at work. Having to “look busy” when you’re not. Ideas of external authority looking over our shoulders.

And, because Cancer is the polarity point of Capricorn, it will have to do with honouring emotion, the feminine and inner guidance in our structures. This brings a transformation of the family unit and the way things are set up there.

All these things will have their structural problems brought into the open for core-level change/transformation. All structures that will no longer sustain humanity in its evolution will have to be gutted and transformed into something more suitable.

There is no more “way things are.” Thank God. Because the way things were was driving humanity on this planet to destruction.

We need a new set up. We need a new form of leadership - a natural hierarchy in which true leaders with real personal integrity, expertise and a vision for all rise to positions of power. Not just people who know how to work the old structures to their benefit - with money and connections (family or otherwise) too often determining who our “leader” is.

How can we respect the leadership when we know that we have a superiour vision and understanding than those claiming to be our leaders?

My Dad said to me recently, when I was talking about proportional representation rather than the majority rule system we have in Canada, “Do you ever notice it’s the losers who want to change the rules?”

To me, this pretty much says it all about the way things have been set up. Winners and losers. So if your perspective isn’t in the majority, you’re a loser and you don’t count. Fatally flawed system, that is. Undemocratic, actually.

And it really just never made sense to me, considering I think the majority of people aren’t really deep thinkers and aren’t all that informed about things going on outside their personal lives. But by this logic, I’m a loser because I don’t think like the mainstream. If I don’t fit into a structure created by and for these mainstream people/thinkers, then I’m a loser. It’s not that the structure was made too simplistic, too homogenous or too lowest common denominator. It’s that I’m a loser. That’s that.

Hmm…all righty then. Thanks, Dad!

The Aquarian paradigm is about going beyond winners and losers, beyond hierarchy, to an egalitarian system where win-win is the only way to go. I win because you win. I benefit because you benefit. It’s a system that has moved past the idea that I win only if I can make you lose.

Within the Aquarian paradigm, personal diversity is a bonus, not something that makes you a loser. When we’re all using our individual personal genius, things are at their best for the collective. All perspectives are taking into consideration…not just those that the “majority” of people have.

Makes sense to me. So let’s getter done!

Emotional Shocks

I forgot how insane the lightning strikes of Uranus can be. Wow. So far for me this month, things have been emotionally shocking, to say the least. The lightning strikes hitting and momentarily lighting up the steps forward have been quite uncomfortable. All the Cancerian energy really wants to do is settle in to emotional safety and security and a place that feels like home. But the inconjuncts between Cancer and Aquarius are forcing us to move forward...rattling us out of our comfort zones. Argh. All I want is my comfort zone back! :) There's such thing as being forced TOO far out of your comfort zone...to the point where it affects your mental health.

I just saw a TV show about electrical storms, and they were talking about how one of the biggest problems people have after being struck by lightning is the psychological damage and fear...post-traumatic stress syndrome. Is it going to happen again? This is pertinent information this month. The emotional shocks we're experiencing can be very traumatic, so taking care of our emotional and psychological health is important. Using the mothering Cancer energy to love and nurture ourselves and those around us who are having some traumatic shocks of their own.

This month is a wild and wooly one, and we're only a week in! Yipes.

Willow's June 2008 Astro Perspective

Well, I might have over-stated the feel-good Taurus aspects of last month a little. The 29 degree Scorpio Full Moon on the 19th seemed to trump the happy, happy springtime vibe a little…or a lot. And this was the case on the global scale, too.

A similar number of people died in the cyclone in Myanmar/Burma and the earthquake in China in May as died in the two nuclear bomb attacks against Japan in World War II. Just to put the vibe into perspective a little. Massive and violent energy shifts and a lot of horror and pain for the people in those countries (and around the world)…which continues…

So May’s forecast might have partially been a case of having my head in the wishful-thinking, Neptunian clouds a little (stationing Neptune was involved quite heavily in May), but it was also just a perfect example of the odd duality of our times…which Gemini, symbolized by the twins, experiences in spades.

As we start the month, the Sun, Mercury (going retrograde) and Venus are all in Gemini. So we have plenty of this theme to go around.

What is this Geminian duality, you might ask?

Watching a story on the news about 100,000 people dying in a cyclone amped up by global warming/climate change…and then jumping in the car to pick the kids up at soccer practice. Seeing masses of people buried under the rubble of earthquake-toppled buildings in China…as you munch on Chinese take-out for supper. Learning that Native people living around Alberta’s oil sands are suffering from an abnormally high rate of rare cancers, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus…but being really happy about your hard-earned raise at work, made possible by oil activity. Being able to access information through the media, the Internet, books, magazines, about atrocity after atrocity committed on this planet…and then having to live our daily lives, somehow integrating that information and including it in the context of our lives. The co-existence of absolute horror with mundane daily realities. The joy of creation alongside the brutality and grief of destruction. Pain and pleasure, light and dark. And the ability to just roll with it, Gemini-style…as two sides of the same coin. All part of the human experience, it seems.

For me, a symbol of this Geminian duality was selling a poorly-strung Burmese horse puppet at the store where I work to a woman who wanted to restring it as an act of support for the Burmese people. The strings were too short, leaving the poor horse’s legs all bound up and useless. I thought this was such a sweet and touching thing for her to do. (Especially being born in the Year of the Horse and feeling quite oppressed and constrained in my work situation at the time…a personal layer to the symbol.) And I was selling it to her, as she attempted in her own way to support people affected by yet another natural disaster (arguably) made much more severe by global warming, from a store in Calgary, Alberta - a town made rich through oil money. A town where Hummers and SUVs are plentiful as all hell. In a province now doing all sorts of hideous environmental damage while milking the oil sands for every last drop of black gold. Not to mention the oil that was burned getting that horse puppet from Southeast Asia to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

This is a situation that exists, dualistic as it may be. You can throw down any judgement you’d like (and with Saturn currently in Virgo, we’re meant to be discriminating, to be sure), but it is what it is.

Gemini understands that there is not just one situation going on at any one time - there are many inter-related situations going on simultaneously. There is not just one perspective to take into consideration - there is angle after angle to bring into play. Our daily lives are shaped by layer after layer of information, ideas, perception, connection. Gemini, ruled by Mercury the messenger planet, takes it all in. It gathers information from all sources, all perspectives, in an attempt to tap in, to understand its own context and to engage successfully with the world around it.

Traditional astrology holds Gemini as the ruler of short-distance travel, while Sagittarius, it’s opposite, ruled long-distance travel to foreign lands. Short-distance travel includes the local, everyday travelling we do within our societies - to the store, work, home, the local watering hole, whatever. But it also relates, traditionally, to trips that took three days or less. Well, these days, with air travel, you can pretty much reach anywhere on the globe in three days. The local is global. Perfect example of how the Aquarian “global village” is affecting our day-to-day. At this point in history, we’re connected, and we know it. My life and actions affect your life and actions and vice versa. It’s sort of chaos theory at work. The connection between selling a Burmese horse puppet in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and a global warming-assisted cyclone killing 100,000 people in Burma. Directly connected or big leap in logic? A butterfly flaps its wings…

This month, we’re being asked to take a good, hard look at our everyday lives, in context, to make sure we’re really walking the walk AND talking the talk. Saturn in Virgo is going over every detail of ourselves and the lives we’re living as the Gemini planets energetically square it this month (so square it not by degree, but by sign). This continues the themes of the squares from May. Saturn in Virgo also disposits retrograding Jupiter in Capricorn and retrograding Pluto in Capricorn (until Pluto re-enters Sagittarius on June 13).

We’re being asked to look at what we’re supporting with the way we live our daily lives and with the interactions and connections we make on a daily basis. To follow those interactions/connections all the way around the globe if we have to, to see how our daily lives and the choices we make affect the daily lives of other people in our own societies and beyond. We’re being asked to understand our own context and to make refinements when necessary. The refinements don’t have a blanket application like, buy only organic! Go vegan! Stop driving! They might take that form…or they might be more subtle. There is no one cookie-cutter way to live. Everyone’s life has its own circumstances and Gemini knows this. It enjoys diversity, variety, choices. It understands that the guilt and pressure Virgo puts on itself to be perfect is worse than just indulging a little…in the right way. But there is definitely a theme of responsibly refining and making step-by-step improvements where necessary. The smallest adjustments can produce big results now, supported by these aspects. It might be improving the way you speak to or think about others (or yourself). It could mean being more respectful toward the person serving you your coffee in the morning (or mentally acknowledging the people who picked the beans!). It could mean noticing and appreciating the person who empties your office garbage can or the person scanning your groceries at the supermarket. Or thinking about all the people who had a part in getting that food to the supermarket shelf. Understanding that there are a million (often not-so-visible) ways that we are supported in our daily lives by the actions and work of other human beings.

Venus and the Sun in Gemini also square Uranus in Pisces this month on June 12. This is another aspect of the same theme where we have to take our big ideas for the future and our spiritual understanding of what we’re a part of (Uranus in Pisces) and bring it down to the societal level (Gemini). To use it as a guiding principle when making the multitude of choices we make every day. This is the way to carry our daily lives forward until they reflect our visions for the future. Big ideas don’t really matter so much if you can’t put them into practise and live them. We’re challenged with these mutable squares to make adjustments, especially in how we interact with each other on a societal level. Really cleaning up our own personal lives before we do anything else. Living our ideals and making our everyday lives a force for change in the world. The personal is political.

One of the big aspects this month is Pluto heading back into the last degrees of Sagittarius on June 13. This is the last crack Pluto has at Sagittarian themes for about 248 years, so you’d better believe there won’t be a stone left unturned. And you know what happens when you turn a stone over…the creepy crawlies come out! Eep!

For the first two-thirds of June, we’re building to first a Venus - Pluto opposition and then a Sun - Pluto opposition, both at the 29th degrees of Gemini and Sagittarius. Yes, MORE 29th degree aspects bringing up the themes of the Mars - Pluto opposition cycle. The 29th degree of all signs is the final, culmination degree, and this is culmination time related to the Gemini and Sagittarius themes we’ve been chewing on. At the 29th degree, we have to prove that we “got it” during the lessons of all the preceding degrees of the sign by putting what we’ve learned into practise. Anything we have glossed over, attempted to avoid, or half-assedly taken on…anything that needs to be brought to a conclusion…will come up as we attempt to earn our mastery over the themes and free ourselves from related karmic entanglements.

With Venus and Pluto interacting, we’re reaching a bottom line in our relationships, stripping down our interactions with each other to their core realities. Karmic dynamics within our relationships that have been set up to teach us about these themes will come to a conclusion one way or another.

With the Sun and Pluto involved, it’s gonna burn, burn, burn and build, build, build day-by-day, so we’d best stay on top of the proceedings all month. The Sun relates to creative force and how we outwardly express our identities and personalities in the world. Pluto relates to soul-directed, generational evolution and transformation and brings to the surface for purging and release anything that threatens our progress there - ego be damned! This opposition will transform the expression of who we are on a social level, alchemically burning away any attachments and personality glitches that are hindering our continued progress. It’s difficult when Pluto is cutting deeply into things as personal as our self-expression, our creations, our belief systems…but when personal ego goes head-to-head with Pluto…well, you know who generally holds the trump card. If you insist on clinging to the things Pluto is pulling from your clutches, you’re polishing the brass on the Titanic (to use a “Fight Club” line).

With Gemini and Sagittarius “playing“ together this month, it’s the alignment between what we say (Gemini) and what we hold as true (Sagittarius). It’s stripping away false social artifice that is disconnected from deeper understanding, while simultaneously keeping things functioning as congenially as possible in the day-to-day realm. Sagittarius can be too blunt and harsh, even to the point of rudeness. Even to the point of PRIDE about its rudeness in the name of “truth.” (And I’m not talking only Sagittarius Sun here, of course. We all have Sagittarius represented in our charts.) Well, truth is, we all have to get along and work together in society. There are things that need to be said and things that should be given a pass. There are times when we must take a stand, and there are times to yield for the sake of continued social functioning. There is a way to say things to take the edge off so as not to insult…a way Gemini knows well. On the other hand, it’s important not to fall prey to the “going along to get along” that Gemini sometimes does. We have to head off the Geminian tendency (which will seem especially attractive this month, as we squirm under Plutonic intensity) to playing to its crowd. Gemini has a slippery tongue at times, and we also have to guard against using gossip and playing people off each other as a way to gain the upper hand in any power struggles brought up this month.

So yes, here is the 29th degree culmination, it seems, related to these themes. The Venus - Pluto opposition just after midnight on June 18 and the Sun - Pluto opposition on June 20 should bring to light anything that still hasn’t been adequately addressed related to ugly tendencies to dividing people along the lines of race, class, sex, religion, culture, ideology, philosophy, education level, etc. These oppositions will make us aware of how that colours the way we treat each other in daily society - sometimes unconsciously and ever-so-subtly. Assumptions, dogma, fundamentalism, things that have been continued through our cultural lineage. Excessive cultural pride. Stereotypes - the falseness but also any grain of original truth related to them. The slight ways we extend more humanity to certain groups/people and less to others. Focussing on problems in other countries while overlooking and neglecting the ones in our own back yards. The “ruling” ideology and how it shapes “truth.” Condescension. The smugness of insidious superiority complexes related to culture, race, religion, sex, class, education level, etc. With Gemini involved, it will be the little things speaking volumes about these topics.

Under the context of the Aquarian Age (with the North Node, Neptune and Chiron currently in Aquarius), we’re all equals and really have to put that into practise, rather than just paying lip service to it. We’re all experiencing the human condition, and I don't believe there is any group of people, at this stage on the planet, that has not lived through oppression, injustice, degradation, violence and persecution, either personally or historically. People also experience these things within their own cultural/religious/racial/gender/class groups. They’re universal themes that cross these boundaries, and in order to move forward, we have to be motivated to improve the conditions of all groups experiencing these things, not just the ones we “belong to” or identify with. It doesn’t mean whitewashing circumstances or telling groups of people to “just get over it.” It means working together to overcome and taking all perspectives into consideration, not just the ones currently in a dominant position. Admitting this stuff has happened and continues to happen. Honouring and validating others’ experiences. Understanding that these things don’t just happen “over there,” in other countries…and that we have to look at and address the problems going on in our own societies. Macro reflects micro and vice versa.

As we move fully into the Aquarian era, we’re making a collective shift from a primary allegiance to our “categories” (race, religion, culture, class, sex, etc.) to aligning as human comrades, working to create a planet that works for everyone. We’re moving from the current winners/losers paradigm (My group wins because your group loses; your group wins because my group loses) to a win-win paradigm (I overcome because you overcome; I’m free of this because you’re free of this). Our backgrounds and histories are still important aspects of who we are within our personal contexts. They’re an imperative part of the perspectives we bring to the table as far as understanding the world and its problems. But they are not meant to keep us divided into certain groups and certain allegiances. Pluto in Sagittarius is breaking down rigid attachments here to allow for a broader understanding of family and community - one more aligned with shared soul-level ideals rather than shared skin colour, religion or class status.

Successfully navigating these themes means interacting with people on a real level, as equals, while taking into consideration varied backgrounds and ideologies and respectfully making that part of the context of our relationships.

We’ll see these themes reflected in the world at large, with sharp divisions along ideological lines (different versions of truth) coming to light…divisions that might have been more easily hidden or glossed over in the past, but no longer. Differing religions, cultures, political ideologies all fighting to dominate. The U.S. presidential election is a good example of divisions among people along these lines coming out into the open…and I guess it’s no coincidence that the election takes place in November, just as Pluto leaves Sagittarius for 248 years!

During the first two-thirds of June, the aspects build to the point of the Venus - Pluto and Sun - Pluto oppositions, keeping these themes at the forefront.

June 3, we have a New Moon in Gemini, starting a new cycle of information, ideas, people and interactions. However, the New Moon is ruled by Mercury, still going retrograde in Gemini, so there is a feeling that we are not quite in new territory yet. Communication will still have glitches. The mail/e-mail, electronics, transportation, interactions and even manual dexterity will have their difficulties, so allow for a little more breathing room here. No getting pissy and frustrated! Mercury has its reasons for slowing things down.

During the New Moon, the Sun and Moon in Gemini are exactly sextiling Mars in Leo, bringing into play the power of our personalities and our creative goals and the willful application of them in our daily lives.

June 6, Venus in Gemini repeats the aspect, sextiling Mars in Leo. This builds on the power of our personal will related to being ourselves and expressing ourselves within our daily relationships. We’re really tossing it around now! Egos could be flying around at this point, fuelled by airy and light-hearted Gemini. So far, it’s all fun. But we’re building, building, building to those oppositions with Pluto…so don’t get too cocky. You hear that, Mars in Leo?

On June 7, the Sun and then Venus pass retrograding Mercury in Gemini, and we catch up to our minds. We get clearer on what this Mercury Retrograde period is all about as Mercury passes on the information it has gathered. Some of the fuzziness created by the Mercury - Neptune trine last month will be burned away at this point. Pay attention to any realizations or information coming to you around this time. Because of the trines to Neptune, the North Node and Chiron in Aquarius at the beginning of its retrograde, Mercury’s information has a lot to do with the blueprints for the way forward.

June 8, the Sun and Venus come together in Gemini, increasing the focus on our daily interactions within our relationships. Combined with the sextiles to Mars in Leo, this should help with staying in a state of self-love. This could be very necessary with all the possible ego hits and tenseness in our relations this month. Just don’t push it to the self-glorification point…or, again, Pluto will nail your ass later in the month. Just a friendly warning!

Throughout June 7 and 8, we have a conjunction of the Sun, Venus and ever-potent retrograding Mercury (which rules the Sun and Venus at this point). All this Gemini energy bubbling away is setting the stage, creating interactions and putting the focus on communication within our relationships. This makes for a very potent Gemini force opposing an equal but opposite very potent Sagittarius force later in the month. So all our chatting, interacting, connecting and information-passing are not as light-hearted as they seem. The Gemini planets are greasing the wheels so there’s no holding back. We’re getting it all out there.

June 10 and 11, first Venus and then the Sun, still in close conjunction in Gemini, trine first the North Node and then Chiron in Aquarius. This develops the themes of the entire Mercury Retrograde period. With Chiron involved, we are understanding what needs to be healed within ourselves and within the larger communities as we move forward…the things that have been left unsaid, untended to…very much tied into the ways we have divided and been divided along the lines mentioned previously. Perhaps we will see some movement on the issues important to Native people…to start real healing and progress there. Healing for all our painful cultural roots. I hope so.

June 12, Venus and then the Sun square Uranus in Pisces, as was mentioned earlier in the update. This could bring crackling changes and insights.

June 15, Mars in Leo conjuncts the South Node, yet another indicator that we have to leave our old ego constructs at the door. Excessive pride, sense of entitlement, overpowering with personality, demanding that things be our way, use of personal will and personal talents to recreate the forms of the past…all these things are not going to work. Detachment from the reactions to our personalities and creative expressions will help.

June 18 is the start of what we’ve been building toward, and it’s seriously powerful. Just after midnight, we have the Venus in Gemini - Pluto in Sagittarius opposition at 29 degrees. Venus slips into Cancer less than an hour later and becomes ruled by the Moon, which, adding to the intensity, is about to be full. Just before noon, we have a Full Moon at 27 degrees Sagittarius (the Galactic Centre) opposing the Sun at 27 degrees Gemini, bringing to an emotional head the Gemini - Sagittarius themes we’ve been dealing with all month. Actually since August of 2007. My goodness. This is spicy. Just to make the opposition even more uncomfortable, we’ve got the emotionally-attached Moon involved, combined with Venus in Cancer, making us very vulnerable around these issues of cultural heritage, religious roots, philosophy and personal truth. This is feeling VERY personal. The Moon and Venus in Cancer keep the past close to their hearts. Lots of emotional attachment - to our relationships, our families, our roots, our hometowns, our early lives. We’ve now got the weight of our entire ancestral lineage, not to mention our personal histories, involved. Yeesh. There’s no place to run, no place to hide.

Less than four hours after the Full Moon, the Moon conjuncts Pluto at the 29th degree of Sagittarius. Yet more stripping down of our attachments to belief systems, cultural/religious divisions and philosophical tenets that are past their prime and an anchoring to what continues to sustain us. It goes to the root, and we have the support of our ancestors behind us. We’re here doing this work for all of us. Keep that in mind during the tough points because, honestly, this day has “emotional meltdown” written all over it.

The very next day, June 19, ultra-potent stationing Mercury heads direct at 13 degrees Gemini, going forward over territory it has been dealing with since May 11.

Then June 20, we have the Sun - Pluto opposition at the 29th degrees of Gemini and Sagittarius. Things are not letting up. There’s little rest when the final degrees are being nailed again and again like this. But if we’ve been diligent and done our work since August, this should have more of a clearing feeling, heading off any nuclear meltdowns.

Just after the opposition, the Sun heads into Cancer…again, ruled by the Moon, which is still coming down after all the stuff that was stirred up two days before. At this point, signalling the point of the Summer Solstice (can you believe we're here already!), daylight hours start to shorten and we consciously move inward, getting back in touch with ourselves emotionally and tending to any emotional wounds we’ve received during this whole Plutonic strip-down process. But at the same time, we have to take a hard look at any ways that we are holding onto the past. Cancer strives for emotional/soul security. It likes family, roots, home, familiarity, a nice, secure nest to surround itself in. It likes feeling nurtured and safe and often retreats back to what it knows. The problem here is when the quest for safety and security becomes motivated by fear - and fear is a definite possibility considering all the Pluto energy digging up our deepest, darkest. At this point, Cancer can go into denial about very real threats…avoiding what it would prefer not to look at, regressing emotionally back to a time when it felt more secure, falling into conditioned patterns and familiar roles. This is not successful, especially not with all the Aquarian influence right now. So while we can definitely connect with our roots at this point, we need to make sure we’re not avoiding the challenges and changes of the future.

June 26, Uranus in Pisces goes retrograde, going back over larger themes related to the Pisces-to-Aquarius hand-off stuff. In a fit of cosmic synchronicity, Uranus will turn direct November 26...the same day Pluto moves back into Capricorn. The planet of revolution and lightning-fast change going direct the same day Pluto starts the long process of transforming our hierarchical structures (business and otherwise). Hmm…

On the final day of the month, June 30, we have a trine between Mars in Leo and Pluto in Sagittarius. If we’ve taken on the work necessary in the earlier part of the month, this aspect should create positive results, transforming our social identities and propelling us forward through our hearts…stripped down to only our dearest hearts desires with no detritus clogging up the works. At least, that was the goal…