Venus Stations Retrograde in Via Combusta Scorpio October 5: Hematite Shields Up!

Relationship planet Venus is slowing down on the 10 degree of Scorpio, preparing for a retrograde station October 5 (12:05 p.m. PDT).

Venus will be spending an extended amount of time traipsing through Via Combusta (particularly combustible) Scorpio, and Scorpio is considered the sign of Venus' detriment. Scorpio is opposite Taurus, a sign Venus naturally rules and operates within comfortably, so this means we are experiencing an extended dose of relationship themes and dynamics that might not be so comfortable.  

Venus in Scorpio particularly relates to the hidden dynamics of relationships, the emotional and psychological subtext, and that emotional and psychological subtext is not always pretty or easy to navigate.

Co-ruled by war planet Mars and Lord of the Underworld Pluto, the relational themes of Scorpio can be a bit feisty, to say the least. At their worst, they can be downright poisonous, attacking, abusive, or emotionally/psychologically detrimental. 

Crystals and stones can be very helpful in dealing with all kinds of scenarios and dynamics. Some of the stones that are particularly helpful for Scorpio are black, grey, or red in colour.

A particularly helpful substance to use for Scorpio themes is hematite, which is an ore rather than a stone.

From November 1, 2012:

"[With strong Scorpio in the astro atmosphere], people (and energy dynamics, in general) are looking for weak spots, and it's best that we protect ourselves on metaphysical as well as physical levels.

I've found that hematite is a great material for deflecting nasty emotional and psychic energy. I have a pendant and ring I wear a lot, and hematite beads can be made into other jewellery.

Hematite is the mineral form of iron oxide. Some of it is red, and its name was derived from the Greek word for blood. Some varieties are even referred to as "blood ore." I have a hunk of that stuff, and it's pretty primordial feeling.

Did I mention it's good for dealing with 'blood feud' energy?

The hematite that is processed for beads and jewellery becomes a shiny, gun metal grey. It's extremely hard but not brittle. In other words, it can withstand and deflect some major abuse.

Hematite beads

Hematite was discovered on Mars, astrology's war planet, which gives it a sort of hardcore fighting connection.

To me, it's a very Plutonic material. It has an industrial feel and would possibly be too heavy for a strongly lunar or Neptunian person, but I find it protective and shielding in difficult circumstances. It both deflects energy and absorbs and draws it away. It also seems to have a clearing effect on electromagnetic excess.

If you're going into a situation that instantly makes you think "yuck," or if you're going to be in contact with people you will possibly be frictional with, this stuff can help you through it.

Plutonic/Scorpionic types often unintentionally trigger nasty reactions in other people. Hematite can keep us safe from those reactions, which are often directed toward us.

As far as metaphysical protection, one can conjure up in the mind's eye a shiny, gun metal grey hematite shield covering the entire body. Any slings and arrows tossed our way are easily deflected, and nothing can penetrate through it to injure us. As far as I know, it's pretty much indestructible. Just make sure it's covering every inch of exposed self, and pay special attention to buffering your known weak spots.

Whenever your Scorpionic spidey sense starts going off in a bad way and things start looking a little dicey, you can call "Hematite Shield!" and place it around you."


For more of the Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio/Libra, consider becoming a Willow's Web Astrology patron. Patrons received a juicy and in-depth article on the Venus retrograde in August, and this article is available to all new patrons, as well. 

A Via Combusta Venus Retrograde: Reaching Escape Velocity From Old Hurts, Heartbreaks, and Relational Trauma-Prints

Venus Retrograde in Scorpio: the Re-Valuing of Astrology and the Mad Scorpio Skillz

I work at a couple casual jobs to supplement my astrology practise and writing, and I discovered that my Scorpio co-worker enjoys astrology. I sent her a copy of her birth chart and told her a few things about it, and she surprised me with this beautiful pottery mug as a thank you. I was delighted and a little amazed. This might seem like a small thing, but it was actually a somewhat profound experience for me. It's quite rare to come across a person who truly values astrology and astrological insight in my physical (non-online) life. 

Unfortunately, real astrology and astrological work continue to be chronically de-valued within most of society, even as "sound byte" pop astrology surges in popularity. I talked a little about that phenomenon in this video: "What is Astrology?"

Many people who do appreciate and utilize astrology maintain it as a "dirty little secret" in their lives for fear of judgment in a society that brands astrologers and people who "believe in" astrology as kooks or at the very least as silly and naive.

("I don't believe in astrology. I use it because it works." - Antero Alli)

This kind gesture and act of recognition from my Scorpio co-worker reminded me of one of the best qualities of Scorpio - the ability to suss out the neglected, the under-valued, the put upon, the languishing, and to feed it some desperately-needed energy and support, to inject new life. This is one of the most magical and under-recognized abilities of the sign of Scorpio.

This mutual exchange between me and my co-worker was one of the good Figure 8 dynamics associated with the sign. And I like it. I like it a whole lot.

Venus entered Scorpio this morning, and we now start to get down to brass tacks as far as the meaning and themes of the upcoming Venus retrograde in Scorpio/Libra (October 5 - November 16). With a Venus retrograde in Scorpio, along with Greater Benefic Jupiter completing its transit of the sign, the time is ripe for the re-valuing of astrology and all the Scorpionic skillz that are so often under-recognized, under-respected, and under-valued.

It's time to stop the chronic mockery and under-valuing of astrology. It's time to give astrology and real working astrologers the respect they deserve. This is only fair. And with Venus retrograding back into justice-oriented Libra, fairness is a big element of this retrograde process.

As an illustration of the insidious (and quite insane) de-valuing of astrology and astrologers, I'm re-posting an excerpt from an old article about a truly shit-tastic comment left on my blog like a steaming pile of cow dung (Scorpio/Pluto relate to excrement, too, let's not forget). I've fielded similar commentary throughout my decade+ as a professional astrologer, continuing to the present day.

There are a whole lot of assholes out there. And doesn't Venus in Scorpio know it?

A Via Combusta Venus Retrograde: Reaching Escape Velocity From Old Hurts, Heartbreaks, and Relational Trauma-Prints

"A Via Combusta Venus Retrograde: Reaching Escape Velocity From Old Hurts, Heartbreaks, and Relational Trauma-Prints" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons. 

If you regularly find Willow's Web Astrology articles valuable, please consider becoming a patron. WWA patrons receive juicy and detailed astrological articles to their email inboxes that are not available on the public blog.

Venus Enters Scorpio: An Energetic Discharge of Venus Retro 2010

Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes. - William Gibson, sci fi novelist and Scorpio South Node  

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

From October 6 to 19, Venus moves through the degrees of its previous retrograde in Via Combusta Libra and Scorpio (27 Libra to 13 Scorpio). This kicks up any unfinished business from the fall of 2010 (with roots to fall 2002, fall 1994, fall 1986, fall 1978, fall 1970, fall 1962...), allowing us to complete some things and to energetically reconstitute ahead of the upcoming Venus Transit and Venus retrograde in Gemini in May/June 2012. 

As Venus moves through this area, we're given a status report on how far we've come in relationship since last fall and on what points might still require a little alchemical pouring-of-the-coal-to-it to move beyond. 

It's possible, if one has very responsibly dealt with his or her relationships in the past year(s), to get a free pass here. Nothing left to examine, resolve, or purge. No etheric tendrils left to disconnect from at all. 

However, this is a fairly charged little stretch of the zodiac at the best of times, intricately connected to collective dynamics, and this is even more the case due to the previous Venus retrograde through this zone. Things can flare up in unpredictable ways with little provocation, especially if transiting Venus is making aspects to the natal chart. 

Love planet Venus is in detriment in Scorpio, the sign of all things socially uncomfortable and hidden. It's difficult. (Venus in Virgo hears what I'm sayin'.) 

Communication planet Mercury conjuncts responsibility planet Saturn in the sign of balance, justice, and equality Libra today (5:01 p.m. CDT). The Sun is also moving to a conjunction to Saturn in Libra October 13 just as Venus in Scorpio sextiles Pluto in Capricorn, and the key is to responsibly deal with any flares. (Keep a box of baking soda at the ready.) This includes staying out of other people's relationships and steering well clear of associated Plutonic detritus. Scorpionic relationship issues can sometimes be tempting to get involved in, but, for the most part, it's best to let the dramz move on past without our involvement. 

We're moving through a time frame when a lot can be energetically laid to rest. The focus is on allowing things to resolve themselves and moving onto new ground, not getting deeper into relational muck. Things shift, and new foundational steps gain traction here, but it won't necessarily be easy. 

Just before Venus enters Scorpio, it trines Neptune Rx in Aquarius from late Libra on October 7, bringing in the ghosts of relationships past and tempting us with mirages. Over the next month, don't be alarmed if you have a cringe-worthy "Not this again!" relational experience or two involving patterns, dynamics, or people you thought you had put behind you. This includes receiving poorer treatment than you warrant from people around you - Scorpio is a sign that deals with abuse and mistreatment, however subtle. Draw on the primal anger and strength of your lineage, hold your value, and respectfully demand better - for all of you. 

Work through the Scorpy paranoia and fears, stay conscious, and show unwanted dynamics to the door - firmly. Don't give them anything to attach to. Unravel from participation in the hyper-charged figure eight dynamics, ground them, and walk away. Make no bones about it. 

Consciously move out of reach of old attractions to people and situations that are not in your best interests, and keep moving. This is not the time to let things slide that really and truly need to be eliminated from your life and from your relationships. Scorpio relates to reading and heeding red flags and disentangling before you get sucked into an enervating black hole Plutonic vortex. Eventually, we get so good that we see the red flags a mile away, avoiding vortex territory altogether. Venus in Scorpio will lay out the path: we just need the trust, the grit and the courage to follow it all the way through the exit ramp. Easier said than done. 

There are things that need to be resolved amidst insecure and fairly dicey conditions on many fronts, creating a truly new energetic balance in relationship before we can move on, and this process takes longer than we think. 

With Saturn currently in Via Combusta Libra, soon to be disposited by Venus in Scorpio, we're challenged to responsibly bring to a close connections, dynamics, residual emotion, and entanglements from the past ahead of the whole new relationship ballgame indicated by next spring's Venus Transit. 

Until November 3, Saturn transits, in one pass, new degrees of the zodiac (17 to 22 Libra) that it will not be returning to. 

Until November 2, Venus transits Scorpio as the dispositor of Saturn in Libra. 

There is a lot of long-term relationship progress possible here, and masterfully working with tricky, sticky Venus in Scorpio is the key. Getting a solid foot-hold is more complex and challenging than most will realize. Under Saturn in Libra, we're building a new framework of relationships to sustain us over the difficult years ahead, applying lessons we've learned from previous partnerships. Simultaneously, we're required to responsibly extricate ourselves from past connections tying up our emotional, physical, psychological, and psychic resources. 

As we head into full-on Sun in Scorpio season October 23, we're working to shift deeply ingrained energetic dynamics while setting new standards for relationship (Saturn in Libra). Personal efforts to get down to core reality on this front shift things on broader, collective levels in ways that desperately need to see some movement. Every little flicker of 'intolerable' that enters our personal relationships has a long, dark, deep root to a broader collective issue. This especially relates to the piss-poor ways in which many women (Venus) are treated on this planet: domestic violence and mistreatment of all varieties, sexual and energetic control and exploitation, rape, devalued work, domination, financial dependence, poverty, invisibility, under-representation in positions of power, lack of access to resources, being shunned and stigmatized for not fitting traditional feminine moulds. 

Each individual who refuses to let things slide and digs in to set things right in personal relationships helps get things moving in a more beneficial direction on a larger scale. 

Scorpio asks us to go as deeply as we can into ourselves, to be truer to the actual experiences and emotional, psychological, and psychic realities of our souls in these human bodies. And with Venus transiting Scorpio, testing us on all the retrograde points, it's also about sharing this, responsibly sharing our process, with another person or people. 

With Venus in Scorpio, especially Via Combusta Scorpio, we have an access point where we can burn through artificial, socially conditioned ideas of what relationship is, what love is, what beauty is, what value is, what a healthy sexual relationship is. 

This transit is a time for a final energetic house cleaning, getting to all the nooks and crannies you might have been held off on during Venus Retro 2010. 

If you still have people and dynamics in your life that just don't do it for you, this transit is the time to gently shed them while coming together more fully with those that do. (It's also a time to work through the difficult emotions if you're one of the ones being shed.) 

This is about future success in relationship and releasing anything that would hold us back from that, but it isn't emotionally easy territory. 

Venus in Scorpio is a good time to forgive ourselves for getting involved with people in the past who hurt us, burned us, did us wrong, and did not have our best interests at heart. It's a time to forgive ourselves for allowing people into our lives who did not have the character to be there, and it's a time to make a strong commitment to ourselves that no one with those character flaws gets through the gates again. 

With the sign of Scorpio, there are themes related to the difference between meaningful, reciprocal, mutually-supportive and empowering relationship dynamics and relationship dynamics that just end up with someone getting used and burned. 

 Getting out from under relationship dynamics that drain our energy and resources is of especial importance now as we head closer to Saturn's ingress of Scorpio in October 2012, when it will be in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn. 

This Scorpio season is about putting ourselves in good position ahead of the Saturn in Scorpio transit. Make your choices with cold, hard Scorpionic resolve now to avoid being dragged through the Plutonic muck later by those who have not been so energetically responsible. 

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

Mercury in Scorpio - October 13 to November 2 

Sun in Scorpio - October 23 to November 22 

New Moon in Scorpio conjunct Juno - October 26

Ripple Effect Ceres-Pluto in Capricorn Themes and Radioactivity in Food

When Ceres and Pluto came together in early Capricorn this past October during the Venus in Scorpio retrograde, I knew hidden and obscured food issues would be pushed to the surface, especially relating to the corporate control and pollution of food and soil. But we really could have done without such a literal interpretation of this conjunction as radioactivity in the food...

More Iodine-131 has been discovered in milk in California. It has also been found in fish in Hong Kong. Because Iodine-131 is said to have a half-life of 8 days, this indicates that the releases of radioactivity are ongoing and require continual follow-up. Cesium-137 has been found in milk in San Francisco, in strawberries, kale, mushrooms, spinach, arugula and grass in northern California, in rainwater, in topsoil.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency initially refused to do any testing of Canadian milk for radioactivity after the Japanese nuclear disaster began, despite requests from British Columbia dairy farmers themselves to do so. But it seems the CFIA has now decided to do a half-assed job (taking a page from the United States Environmental Protection Agency) and released test results May 25 on 24 samples of milk.

Twenty-four samples? Over almost three months?

It sounds like the same testing standards that were used to test Gulf seafood.

Drink up, people! If nothing was found in 24 samples, obviously the CFIA was right to insist that people were just being silly and alarmist even requesting the tests in the first place.

There are some big holes in these testing standards aside from the tiny sample size:

- They are testing for Iodine-131, Cesium-134 and 137, but they are not testing for plutonium or strontium. Even trace amounts of those would be catastrophic news.

- They are listing the results as MDC: Minimum Detectable Concentration. That doesn't tell us what concentrations were found, who determines the levels considered safe (considering the overload of radiation we get in daily life, I don't think any increase in radioactivity is safe, personally), or if the levels have increased since the nuclear disaster began.

- The CFIA is doing an obligatory job. With something Plutonic like this, you have to dig, dig, dig and leave no stone unturned. You have to monitor and read even trace amounts and take even the slightest fluctuations into consideration. Pluto is the "tip of the iceberg" planet where seemingly small events indicate much larger issues.

- As far as I understand it, the bigger problem is microscopic radioactive particles, which have been detected. The levels of radioactivity involved might be considered low, but it's the ingestion of the particles that causes the problems. Once ingested, the body can't get rid of them, and they accumulate over time.

- All this depends on the CFIA being a transparent, trustworthy organization with the people's best interests at heart doing real testing and providing real results. This is the group that refuses to label genetically modified foods, allowing genetically modified crops free rein in the Canadian landscape. Under Pluto in Capricorn, "transparent" and "trustworthy" are not words I would use to describe government agencies like the CFIA or the U.S. EPA.

As Neptune stations on the zero degree of Pisces, the media blackout on this issue continues to create an absolutely surreal atmosphere where the vast majority of people are none the wiser, simply going about business as usual.

My heart is with the people of Japan.

Enenews: Energy News

Saturn Retrograde in Libra and the Via Combusta Venus Themes Come Up For Review

Saturn retrograde, 17 to 10 degrees Libra - January 26, 2011 to June 12, 2011

"This is not your standard Neptunian-glossy, Hollywood-manufactured love and relationship, either. This is Saturn in Libra dispositing Pluto in Capricorn love. It's gritty business. Remaining Neptunian illusions about love and togetherness are unceremoniously stripped, a big part of which being the money drying up, and people stop being able to fake it."

This is what I wrote after Saturn first entered Libra in June 2010 and moved into cardinal t-square formation. It remains relevant, as difficult as it is to hold relationships and relationship dynamics under the cold, hard light of day without Neptunian buffer.

Neptune is messing with us on multiple fronts this far into tail-end Pisces, and following its familiar siren song is a surefire false path designed to waste time we don't have time to waste.

Saturn has just dipped into the early Via Combusta degrees of Libra and gone retrograde. Until June 12, we're doing backtrack restructuring of the relationships (and relationship issues) that have come into focus since October 22, 2010, post-cardinal t-square summer. Things shifted in a big way this past summer. They got very real very quickly. And during this retrograde, we work on getting our legs solidly under us with the partnerships we find present in our lives after the dust has settled.

Jupiter is back in Aries, heading to its final incendiary square to Pluto in Capricorn February 25, and the themes stirred this past summer of movement, forging out way out of the muck, dynamism, action, new territory and survival in the face of brutal Pluto in Capricorn corpo-governmental oligarchy intensify.

There is a necessity here to work together with those compatible with us in whatever ways will catalyze win-win forward progress, especially along structured career lines.

Banking on glossy potentials and wished-for outcomes remains perilous. Concrete, here-and-now, show me my return on investment.

The themes of the most recent Venus retrograde through the Via Combusta degrees of Scorpio and late Libra also remain potent until May/June 2012 when Venus retrogrades again in Gemini.

Because Saturn is in Libra and Venus is considered by most to be the ruling planet of Libra, Venus' transits through the signs until October 2012 add a crucial layer of influence to our successful dealings with Saturn in Libra. Venus in whatever sign it is transiting is referred to as the dispositor of Saturn in Libra.

Regardless of the sign Venus is transiting, though, until the next Venus retrograde in Gemini, the overarching thematic flavour of our relationship work has been set to "Scorpionic deep" and "cut the crap." There is a necessary ruthlessness here, a clarifying realism, with an impetus to intricately rebalance and restructure especially the subtle energetic and vibrational levels of relationship.

We're working for and carving out a new level of justice - energetic justice - in our relationships "related to the hidden energy exchange (Scorpio) between the sexes, which includes money as well as misuses of sexual energy. Huge issues, culturally reinforced for millenia."

Scorpio is a healing energy. It intuitively knows where the trouble is and gets right to work, divining and digging to trigger multi-layered release points. It isn't just treating symptoms, either. Scorpio knows it's either go deep or go home, and it puts forth immense stores of energy to go to the mat for people, driving right to the root of the problems that keep them locked up, inauthentic, programmed, and less effective than they could otherwise be.

Scorpio digs the poisoned thorns out - and if it's masterful enough, it gets them all.

But Scorpio's mastery is also it's downfall. Here's where the betrayal aspect of the sign comes into play. Scorpio is a liberating energy, an almost magical transformer of all things oppressive and stagnant and intolerable - and its emotional, psychological and psychic currency is woefully undervalued. Quite often, it's used and abused with little to nothing offered in return. It's left holding the bag with nowhere left to put the shit.

What Scorpio does is mostly in the energetic realms, and because so few people have developed the sight to see this type of energy work, people take it and run. Often, they take it and run right back into the same unhealthy patterns and dynamics Scorpio was expending so much energy to extricate them from in the first place.

Moving out of the ass-burning, should-have-known-better depleting and into the vital and mutually sustaining. Choosing carefully when and how to apply the potent Scorp medicine. Determining the most worthy recipients - and ensuring they are ready and willing to take full responsibility for what is given. This is Scorpio territory, and this is a major theme embedded in our Saturn in Libra relationship work.

"We're in the midst of a five-year gutting, restructuring and energetic rebalancing process in relationship that will not reach ultimate completion until the end of a period of mutual reception between Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn when Saturn leaves Scorpio September 2015...Our collective progress out of the Pluto in Capricorn rubble hinges on the successful rebalancing and restructuring of relationship constructs and dynamics, especially related to the ways men and women interact."

So all these tricky, winding, hidden dynamics are being brought back into play for a Saturnine sober second look during the Saturn retrograde in Libra.

We've got a blazing opportunity now until spring of 2012, infused by the Via Combusta Venus retro, to forge through and beyond complex layers of relationship dynamic detritus and half-decayed constructs that will constrain us, keeping us from the love that will truly nourish and sustain, if we allow it.

More on the Via Combusta Venus retrograde review later...

Venus in Scorpio Works its Magic on the Era-Shifting Mutual Reception and Fighting for the Right to See Through Our Own Eyes...Part Two

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,
Five thousand and twenty blackbirds fall from the sky.

Venus in Scorpio is just moving out of its square to Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius and trine to Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces.

Venus is the last body to march through Scorpio, applying the Scorpionic X-ray vision to the astrological era-shifting Uranus-Neptune mutual reception, which comes to an official close March 11 when Uranus re-enters Aries.

The Venus aspects were exact the day of the January 4 Capricorn New Moon/partial solar eclipse, and we're experiencing a little Neptunian media-driven deja vu.

In late October, as Mars in Scorpio passed through this hot spot in the zodiac, the official line on three massive fish kills in Louisiana was: oxygen depletion unrelated to Corexit or the BP oil disaster.

This despite independent testing that found oil in the gills and livers of the fish.

Now, as Venus moves through late Scorpio, the last in the cavalry of the asteroids and personal planets to move through these aspects from Scorpio, we hear "experts" telling the mainstream media that the deaths of 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings near Beebe, Arkansas just before midnight on December 31, 2010 were caused by: a loud noise (possibly fireworks) that startled the birds into flying into low-lying structures like buildings.

Yes. All 5,000 of them. Flew into buildings. To their deaths. In a town of 5,000 people. At the very same time. One last hurrah for 2010.

The blood clots and internal hemorrhaging found in the birds is simply evidence that they experienced a "traumatic event."

Another massive fish kill of 100,000 drum fish in the Arkansas River, 125 miles from Beebe, and the deaths of 500 more birds (red-winged blackbirds, sparrows and starlings) in Labarre, Louisiana at around the same time are unrelated, these experts say.

Apparently, the location of the Pine Bluff Arsenal outside Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a U.S. military facility that stores and distributes chemical and biological weapons, is also unrelated. It hasn't warranted a mention in the mainstream channels.

Here's the deja vu.

"A robotic, manipulated, insane official explanation that defies all basic, human logic - and the requirement to shrug that off and dig for the real story ourselves.

Getting beneath the permeating official line created by such crafty manipulators of the collective ethers takes all our skill, determination and courage. Tearing multi-layered masks off the soft-lit illusions that persistently work to keep people enmeshed in insane constructs not their own is a step-by-step process requiring us to go slowly and carefully, countering every official line with raw, gut-level Scorpionic authenticity - and research."

A CNN story shows a drugged or poisoned John P. Wheeler III, ex-Pentagon official, defense adviser and expert on chemical and biological weapons, stumbling through surveillance videos two days before his body turned up in a Delaware landfill. Wheeler was a Council on Foreign Relations member, an adviser to both Reagen and Daddy Bush.

The Wheeler murder story runs two stories prior to the official line blackbird story.

In plain sight, but the connecting threads are not offered by the coiffed and make-upped CNN anchors.

Lucky 13 Capricorn New Moon/Partial Solar Eclipse and the Grande Finale Venus in Scorpio Status Report

The new track emerging for us at the Lucky 13 Capricorn New Moon is a further disengagement from and propulsion out of dead-and-dying, skewed-to-the-masculine power structures and set-ups, including - with Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Pisces - ones related to spirituality.

Venus in Scorpio is strongly involved here with the 'denied realities of the thirteeth witch' astro energy. The resources and energies being kept tied up and tightly controlled within corrupt, unjust, masculine-heavy constructs, within the "way things are," have been Scorpionically stirred.

And after our Venus retrograde in Scorpio and late Libra through the Via Combusta degrees, we've gotten wise in a big way to our own energetic currency - social, emotional, psychic, soulful, sexual. Rather than unconsciously pouring it outward to fufill every demand and request, we're keeping it close, maintaining our own personal control.

The power-hungry at the top of the crumbling Pluto in Capricorn pyramid schemes want to starve us out? Make us their fin-de-Pisces sacrificial lambs? Replay Jesus and the gang en masse in one big, symbolic puppet show? Pin us down and tell us because we don't hold enough of their phony fiat currencies that we're worthless, meaningless, purposeless, that we don't deserve the basics of life?

All right then. We'll have a little game of chicken. How about some Libra tit-for-tat?

There's that wily, crafty Venus in Scorpio motherfucker rocking it into the new decade that I was talking about. We don't go down without quietly using every trick in OUR book, without playing every...last...card. And I still say we hold the biggest trump in the deck.

There comes a time when even the most staunchly consensus reality individual can no longer use their personal resources to support what is going on - and we inch ever-closer to that domino trigger point. Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn should bring it.

With Venus involved so strongly, this plays out in personal relationships and relationship constructs, with self-esteem, money and values, as well as in the broader social and political realms. As always, these are inextricably inter-related. The personal is political.

The New Moon at 3:03 a.m. CT January 4 is a partial solar eclipse and marks the third of six New Moons at 13 degrees of the signs, interspersed with five anaretic (29th) degree Full Moons.

Our Cappie New Moon is surrounded by powerhouse aspects including the final Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of this Uranus in Pisces era, which happens at 27 degrees Pisces. We take a step at this New Moon toward more fully trusting our own authority, especially spiritual authority as it applies to our physical lives, slowly gaining the emotional wherewithal to responsibly deal with the abrupt changes up ahead.

In November, I wrote about the divergence being Scorpionically carved out in wave after wave by the personal planets and asteroids (Pallas Athene, Mars, the Sun, Moon, Vesta and Mercury) transiting Scorpio throughout the transit of Venus in Scorpio. All these bodies travelling through late Scorpio formed, almost simultaneously, a square to Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius and a trine to Uranus-Jupiter in Pisces. This is the Uranus-Neptune mutual reception we've experienced over the last seven years, which indicated the most densely interwoven crossover period between astrological Piscean and Aquarian eras. This mutual reception is about to come to an end when Uranus re-enters Aries. Big shift.

"The personal planets in Scorpio, a sign that does what it knows it has to do whether it really wants to or not, are doing their thing to break this party up, triggering some separation and distance. A divergence point is being carved out on the most nitty-gritty of levels, in the hidden areas of which only Scorpio is aware. We have to know exactly what (and whom) we're dealing with in order to know what direction (Aries) to take right out of the Aquarius gate. Every individual's movement and choices count. Don't be fooled into giving your influence away...

On the most basic level, we're being asked to examine the motivations of our own souls (Scorpio). Divining to the core, to our source, to the reason we are here at this time. We're being asked to draw in, to keep our deepest spiritual values close, and to determine what is so important to us that there is nothing in this Earthly experience that could make us give it up.

These configurations also have to do with the human soul and spirit in relation to our biology and our connection to Earth and to the life force here. This connection is being used against us in the most heinous ways by those who believe they have harnessed the life force, life itself, and have become the source of it altogether. Our biology is being poisoned and our DNA manipulated by these fools.

And we're asked to determine what it means to us to be human - at a time when our survival as biological human beings is coming into question under the current conditions and possible future trajectories...

The transitions are fast now, but it's nothing in comparison to the speed with which the realizations of where we are will strike when Uranus re-enters Aries, no longer buffered and obscured by the Piscean veil...

We're having to strip the dead energy of the Piscean Age overlay layer-by-layer in preparation for Uranus in Aries tipping the scales further into Aquarius at the upcoming Spring Equinox. This doesn't mean Pisces energy itself is dead - though, I think many in "power" would like this to be the case. It's because true Piscean wisdom and understanding are going to be so crucially important as we shift into a stronger Aquarian overlay that we have to Scorpionically carve away and drop what is no longer effective or relevant to the times. Pisces energy is being born anew in an ongoing process - as all the signs/energies of the zodiac are - as we head to the Aquarian infusion marker of Uranus in Aries (beginning March 11)."

Scorpio is about the merging of energy, lives, souls and the power of transformative change available through successful mergings. But before the merge comes the purge.

Throughout the Via Combusta Venus retrograde in Scorpio and into late Libra, which I've written a lot about, the divergence points were carefully examined and painstakingly extricated so we had the power to consciously eliminate detrimental combinations of energy and take new routes. Old attractions and patterns, especially related to the acceptance of mistreatment or misuse of our personal energies, love and effort, were shed. To create the kind of alchemy, especially relationship alchemy, we need, there can be no errors. We must be working with the finest characters, the highest quality, the strongest compatibilities. No improper ingredients in the alchemical mix.

At the time of the New Moon, post-retrograde Venus is the last member of the Scorpy cavalry to make these aspects to Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus, and Chiron and we have our final checkpoint status report showing us how far we've come - as well as any final adjustments and eliminations that must be made.

The Venus square to Neptune comes at the very end of the Dark of the Moon period, just a half-hour before the New Moon, and this indicates that there are some very fast, in-the-nick-of-time shifts that need to be made, especially emotionally.

Some of most tenacious wounding Neptunian illusions and misdirections have held on until the end, and these shifts onto firmer and more reality-based ground need to be made so that we do not become entrapped once again in what keeps us stuck, unmoving, tricked and played.


Capricorn New Moon eclipse - January 4, 2011

2:27 a.m. - Venus in Scorpio square Neptune in Aquarius
3:03 a.m. - Capricorn New Moon/Sun conjunct Moon at 13 Capricorn
6:53 a.m. - Jupiter conjunct Uranus at 27 Pisces
7:33 a.m. - Venus in Scorpio trine Uranus in Pisces at 27 degrees
7:39 a.m. - Venus in Scorpio trine Jupiter in Pisces at 27 degrees
Venus in Scorpio squares Chiron in Aquarius later in the day

January 7, 2011

6:30 a.m. - Venus enters Sagittarius


Anaretic Degree Full Moons

October 22, 2010 - 29 Aries
November 21, 2010 - 29 Taurus
December 21, 2010 - 29 Gemini (total lunar eclipse)
January 19, 2011 - 29 Cancer
February 18, 2011 - 29 Leo

Thirteenth Degree New Moons

November 5, 2010 - 13 Scorpio
December 5, 2010 - 13 Sagittarius
January 4, 2011 - 13 Capricorn (partial solar eclipse)
February 4, 2011 - 13 Aquarius
March 4, 2011 - 13 Pisces
April 3, 2011 - 13 Aries

Mercury Goes Direct and Looking to the Plutonic Root

We've navigated our way through a tricky solstice period and are now released from some of the most constricting aspects.

We made our way through Sun conjunct Pluto in Capricorn December 26 and Mars in Capricorn square Saturn in Libra December 29, which had some bleakness and bottoming out effects associated. We`re now slowly putting some time and distance between us and the grinding, heavy-hitter aspects that were working away beneath the buoyance of the holidays.

Mercury went direct at 19 Sagittarius early this morning, and the travellers stranded, delayed and diverted by wicked winter storms in the United Kingdom and along the eastern parts of the United States and Canada will be breathing a sigh of relief that the holiday season is coming to a close. A wicked Mercury retro it was, infused powerfully with both Pluto and Mars in Capricorn energy at the time of the retrograde station.

We saw uncharacteristically stormy weather wreak havoc in the United Kingdom and along the eastern side of Canada and the United States. But there was weird weather in many other areas, too, including much cooler than usual temperatures in Florida and much wetter weather in California.

With Pluto involved, there is a deeper and broader root cause for the symptoms of wicked weather and resulting Mercury retro chaos. And with Jupiter about to form a conjunction to Uranus in Pisces on the day of the 13th degree Capricorn New Moon/partial solar eclipse January 4, I think we can look to the disruption of the Gulf Loop Current by the BP oil disaster.

The Loop Current plays a crucial role within the Gulf Stream, the ocean current that travels from the tip of Florida along the eastern coastlines of the United States and Canada. The Gulf Stream then splits in two, with the northern stream moving to northern Europe and the southern stream moving to West Africa.

The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland and the west coast of Europe. In particular, this current carries warm water across the Atlantic, making Western Europe warmer than it would otherwise be.

Hmm...

Dr. Gianluigi Zangari, an Italian theoretical physicist, warned this past cardinal t-square-infused summer that the disruption of the Loop Current within the Gulf Stream could cause extreme weather and temperature changes, as well as droughts, floods and resulting crop failures. More fodder for the derivatives schemes.

And here's the Piscean tip: the Loop Current plays a crucial role within the Gulf Stream which plays a crucial role within the interlinked system of ocean currents that regulate global weather patterns. To say that the disruption of the Gulf Loop Current means the disruption of all weather patterns on Earth and, therefore, all life on Earth, is no exaggeration.

Here's where we're being attacked at this tail-end Piscean Era: with all the inter-related aspects of life on this planet. Permeate the whole by attacking individual parts. Ripple-effect shock waves set off by broad-scale events that reach right into personal lives.

Venus is in late Scorpio and will enter Sagittarius January 7, having moved out of retrograde shadow degrees and the Via Combusta at 13 and 15 degrees Scorpio.

Venus will square Neptune-Chiron in late Aquarius while trining Jupiter-Uranus on the day of our Cappie New Moon/solar eclipse (big aspects day), and our gut-level intuitive understanding gets a big workout from the Pisces-to-Aquarius, we're-living-in-some-sort-of-sci-fi-novel backdrop. Have your Scorpionic bullshit detectors at the ready! We're going to have to honour every last twinge of our feelers here - both personally and on the social/global scale. The key is reality-based smart over possibilities-driven hopeful. This far along, every Neptunian/Piscean trick in the book is at the disposal of those who have no problem putting that to use.

There are big almost-post-Piscean patterns here we need to move out of: patterns of belief, hopes, illusions, ideals, wishes that prove to be wounding mirage again and again. Dig down into your wiliest, craftiest, most boo-yah! self and let that motherfucker rock it as we close out 2010 and enter 2011. Peel through the weak-ass ploys and plays of those working the fuzzy wuzzy, pumped up Neptunian trip. Every layer debunked and illusion shattered matters now - on multiple levels.

We need the new track. The truly new one. Oh boy, do we. And that starts by proving ourselves with the Grand Finale Venus in Scorpio aspects coming...right...up.

Venus Stationing Direct Trine Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius

Venus has almost finished its 41-day retrograde through Scorpio and the late degrees of Libra and is currently stationing direct at 27 degrees Libra. The Venus retrograde themes are potent as we grind out the final days of this retrograde. If issues around love, money, relationship, values and self-worth are frustrating or painful (especially along the what could have been/what we wish had been and what really is and was front), hang in there. We're coming around the bend. No rash movements. We've come too far and done too well to blow it now...

Venus is back at the opening doorway of the retrograde shadow, where it was September 4. This is where we started the review of all things Venusian in our lives, probably most intently with love relationships. Venus will go direct Thursday, November 18 at 3:18 p.m. CT and will leave retrograde territory altogether at 13 Scorpio on December 19.

Jupiter is stationing direct simultaneously (at 23 degrees Pisces, conjunct a stationing Uranus) and will start moving forward through the zodiac the same day Venus does at 10:54 a.m. CT.

Jupiter and Venus moving forward on the same day frees up some beneficial energies. Retrogrades have a way of making things feel very constricting, and that starts to shift now. These direct stations are yet another layer of pulling up old anchors as we move toward a grand-scale shift in early 2011.

From a previous post:

"As we hurtle through this portal and start to gain momentum, the other planets are going direct like dominoes. We're pulling up old anchors one-by-one as Neptune, Chiron, Venus, Jupiter and Uranus all station direct by December 5. December 5 to January 25, 2011 is a time when all planets, excluding Mercury, are direct and many wheels start to turn ahead of Uranus re-entering Aries March 11 and a huge push forward into new territory at Spring Equinox.

We need a running start into that time in order to launch ourselves beyond the entrapping tail-end Piscean Age tendrils and the nasty uses of Pluto in Capricorn energy - to truly cross the great stream - and that running start begins now with the initial steps."

Just as it was when it entered the retrograde shadow, Venus is in tight trine to Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius, which have both recently gone direct themselves in exact conjunction. You can read more about these themes here:

Venus Trines Neptune-Chiron and Enters the Retrograde Shadow at 27 Libra

This Venus retrograde has gone down in an area of the zodiac called the Via Combusta or the Burning Path - very alchemically charged. Venus will come out of this zone at Winter Solstice. You can read more about this here:

Venus, Eros and Mars in the Via Combusta and Karmic Love Cleansing Through the Alchemical Fires

Another important piece of this Venus retro, which kicks off a new 18-month Venus cycle, is the strategic positioning of the feminine asteroids around the time of the retrograde station:

Ladies of the Zodiac...It's Showtime.

Pluto and the North Node will be conjunct at 3 degrees Capricorn during Venus' direct station, and the empowerment of the feminine, bringing it to the decision-making table as a full partner, becomes an even stronger necessity in the Plutonic restructuring process currently underway.

Our real status report checkpoint as far as how we've done with the themes and issues this Venus retrograde has brought to our attention doesn't come until early January.

Venus will square Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius and trine Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces from Scorpio at that point, marking the final personal planet to do so. These aspects happen on a potent little day also - January 4, the day of the 13th degree Capricorn New Moon. A new level of responsibility (especially emotional and energetic responsibility) in relationship unfolds from there.

Venus gets back up to full speed by the end of November, and we should be making progress with relationship issues of all kinds - as long as we can apply what we've been made aware of during the retro phase.

The Divergence

The personal planets in Scorpio are hitting the square to Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius and the trine to Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces in wave after wave.

Mars, following asteroid Pallas Athene, kicked off the aspect parade October 20, with Mercury now moving through the same aspects beginning today and completing November 6. The Moon is strongly involved here, too, and will make the same aspects to Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron and Uranus as it conjuncts Venus and then the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio under the influence of this weekend's New Moon.

The Pisces-to-Aquarius flavour is very strong in the astro proceedings...

The sequence goes: Scorpio planet trines Jupiter in Pisces, squares Neptune in Aquarius, squares Chiron in Aquarius and trines Uranus in Pisces. You see how intermeshed this time frame is and how potent this pivot point is.

The Sun in Scorpio will hit this mark November 15-18, bringing us up to speed in our full, conscious moment as far as the sometimes nebulous realities of the Pisces-to-Aquarius transition. Watch closely what the Scorpio Sun shines its light on during this time frame. The final personal planet to run this gauntlet will be Venus in early January, just before it enters Sagittarius January 7.

The personal planets in Scorpio, a sign that does what it knows it has to do whether it really wants to or not, are doing their thing to break this party up, triggering some separation and distance. A divergence point is being carved out on the most nitty-gritty of levels, in the hidden areas of which only Scorpio is aware. We have to know exactly what (and whom) we're dealing with in order to know what direction (Aries) to take right out of the Aquarius gate. Every individual's movement and choices count. Don't be fooled into giving your influence away.

This divergence point is carved out as Chiron, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus prepare to go direct, releasing us from backtrack mode. By December 5, the whole gang - Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius in mutual reception along with the bodies conjunct them - will be moving direct, with Jupiter and Uranus on their way back to the Aries birth point we had a taste of this past summer during the cardinal T-squares.

On the most basic level, we're being asked to examine the motivations of our own souls (Scorpio). Divining to the core, to our source, to the reason we are here at this time. We're being asked to draw in, to keep our deepest spiritual values close, and to determine what is so important to us that there is nothing in this Earthly experience that could make us give it up.

These configurations also have to do with the human soul and spirit in relation to our biology and our connection to Earth and to the life force here. This connection is being used against us in the most heinous ways by those who believe they have harnessed the life force, life itself, and have become the source of it altogether. Our biology is being poisoned and our DNA manipulated by these fools.

And we're asked to determine what it means to us to be human - at a time when our survival as biological human beings is coming into question under the current conditions and possible future trajectories.

Did I think I would ever be living in a time when people would be being coerced to turn themselves into robots, synthetic forms? Or that we would unwillingly be part of experiments along these lines? Um...no. But here we are.

Nowhere is the intermixing of Piscean and Aquarian themes more apparent than in the Gulf of Mexico - unfortunately, taking expression in some of the most abominable forms possible.

Michael Edward, a gentleman in Florida who is getting the word out about what is really going on in the Gulf of Mexico, has dug up some information about a partnership between BP and a company called Synthetic Genomics. This company's goal is the commercialization of synthetic genes, DNA sequences and organisms. BP invested in this company and made a long-term research and development deal with them in June of 2007. One of the biggest areas of interest for this company is microbial cells in oil.

Remember those bacteria that eat that oil we've heard so much about?

It's possible that along with the deadly Corexit, synthetic organisms have also been unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico. A massive Pisces-to-Aquarius science experiment with human beings, animal and plant life - nature itself - as pawns. As the Corexit breaks the oil down into bite-sized chunks...

The shocking emergence of Aquarian technologies that change everything. A technological attack on the basic building blocks of life itself, DNA, genetic lineage. Uranus in Pisces to Aries.

The transitions are fast now, but it's nothing in comparison to the speed with which the realizations of where we are will strike when Uranus re-enters Aries, no longer buffered and obscured by the Piscean veil.

Black Moon Lilith is also hanging out along this Pisces-Aries cusp now and for the next while, letting us in on some of the dirty little secrets we need to know going into this next year related to the corruption of the feminine force.

We're having to strip the dead energy of the Piscean Age overlay layer-by-layer in preparation for Uranus in Aries tipping the scales further into Aquarius at the upcoming Spring Equinox. This doesn't mean Pisces energy itself is dead - though, I think many in "power" would like this to be the case. It's because true Piscean wisdom and understanding are going to be so crucially important as we shift into a stronger Aquarian overlay that we have to Scorpionically carve away and drop what is no longer effective or relevant to the times. Pisces energy is being born anew in an ongoing process - as all the signs/energies of the zodiac are - as we head to the Aquarian infusion marker of Uranus in Aries (beginning March 11).

I wouldn't get too caught up in Aquarian fervour, though.

Let's recall that Neptune in Pisces, transiting its own sign, will be a potent force for the next 15 years. It dips into Pisces for a quick, catalyzing blast of Uranus in Aries energy April 4 - August 5, 2011 before entering Pisces for good February 3, 2012. Here's the very beginning of Pisces for the Aquarian era. Pisces for the post-post-modern era? Neptune will be at home in its own sign of Pisces, but its home sign will also feel somewhat foreign as our spirituality and vital connection to spiritual guidance and intelligence shifts for the sake of direct relevance and effectiveness in these times on our planet.

Pisces on the other side of its hijacking by End Times, Armageddon, Revelation, Ascension.

Chiron (wounded healer asteroid) will also be in Pisces for the next seven years, marking a period where great healing but also great wounding devastation is possible, especially along Piscean lines. Holding Piscean wisdom and understanding will not be easy during these times as we watch things unfolding that go against everything we know in our hearts and souls to be right.

Things really start to shift at this New Moon with Neptune and Chiron going direct in tandem.

Venus and Jupiter both go direct November 18, adding to the forward-ho momentum.

Then December 5, Uranus in Pisces goes direct on the same day as our second 13th degree New Moon in Sagittarius.

At that point, every planet in the zodiac is moving direct heading into the New Year (other than a Mercury retrograde December 9 - 29).

Venus entering Sagittarius January 7 and Jupiter re-entering Aries January 22 stokes the flame.

Only Saturn in Libra will turn retrograde (January 25) before Uranus re-enters Aries for good March 11, just in time for a super potent Spring Equinox when the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus will all be in the sign of the ram - ready for a strong burst forward.

So let the layers be lifted off you this weekend at this New Moon, release the burdens that are ready to go. Stake a new claim, and get ready for some big changes up ahead.

Thirteenth Degree Scorpio New Moon and Mercury Squares Off With Some Potent Stationing Neptune-Chiron Illusions

The Scorpio Sun and Moon come together at 13 degrees late on Friday, November 5 (11:52 p.m. CT), marking the first in the series of six New Moons at 13 degrees of the signs.

Venus will be about two-thirds done its retrograde in Scorpio, which ends November 18 on the same day Jupiter turns direct in Pisces, and this New Moon happens on the exact degree where Venus turned retrograde. We're working to emerge from some claustrophobic old attractions and layers, past-related attachments and etheric grasping, and emotional reactions and patterns in relationship, especially ways in which all that has to do with our self-worth. We're digging into some deep issues here on multiple fronts and purging a lot from our systems, traversing some very bumpy (yet all-too-familiar) terrain, and boy, it's exhausting.

But as the Sun and Moon fuze in Scorpio in a stellium with Venus, Vesta and Mercury, we have a golden opportunity to hold to what's true, letting old stuff burn away and drop to the ground, breaking its hold over us and moving intuitively onto new emotional ground.

This has to do with family patterns and the relationship constructs and dynamics patterned through our familial lines, as well as unfinished love/relationship business along spiritual lineages as part of the ongoing Pisces-to-Aquarius collective purging and reformulating. Multi-layered with a lot trying to grasp and attach and suck us back in. It will take a strong conscious awareness of interpersonal dynamics and emotional realities to make it fully through this New Moon portal. We've been working on this a long time, and here it can be shed.

At the same time, we're all about fried from so much Scorpio and Pluto emphasis over the past month (Pluto, Ceres and the North Node are still conjunct in early Capricorn), so we have to be very gentle with ourselves and with others. It won't take much to push to emotional catatonic overload now, so we need to close out this lunar cycle and begin the new one slowly, with our emotional readiness and the readiness of those around us as guides. A little goes a long way here.

This New Moon occurs as Chiron and Neptune are both stopped in the zodiac, stationing direct at the same time in a tight late-Aquarius conjunction (Chiron November 5, Neptune November 7). Stations are times when the energy of the planet/body is considered especially potent and resonant, permeating the astro atmospheric conditions.

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury in late Scorpio plays a strong role in this New Moon chart, locked into an exact square with stationing Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius. Mercury is also trine Jupiter and Uranus, still retrograde, in late Pisces.

This makes the Mercury-Neptune/Chiron square a huge highlight and energetic theme of this New Moon chart and the next lunar cycle. We're about to get the initial layers of this show on the road with Neptune, Chiron, Venus and Jupiter stationing direct this month and Uranus following suit December 5 on the day of our next thirteenth degree New Moon in Sagittarius. Holding the unwavering Scorpionic eye on the proceedings is just what we need to get started in the right direction now.

As I've written about previously, the personal planets and a couple asteroids have already transited (Pallas Athene and Mars) or are currently transiting (Venus, the Sun, Moon, Vesta and Mercury) Scorpio, triggering in wave after wave this square to Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius and trine to Jupiter Rx and Uranus Rx in Pisces.

The Scorpionic penetration of wounding Neptunian illusions and delusions about the future absolutely has to occur if we are to get to any real state of equality and freedom on this planet anytime in the near future.

Future-oriented utopian ideals and 2012 'consciousness ascension' fervour have been pumped so full of Neptunian ether at this point that they're bursting at the seams, having little to do with solving the actual problems and remedying the actual injustices on this planet from the ground up. Feet have been lifted so far off the ground and people have been pulled so far out of their grounded, intuitive understanding and earthy logic, that we've been left with a dangerously maleable group, tossed this way and that depending which way the information fads and the media, both mainstream and "alternative," blow them.

Tell me again why the over-glorification of the "upper chakras"? All too purposeful, I think...

Multiple overlays attempt to buy our attention, our allegiance, our truth, our minds, our words. Much of the "alternative" has been swallowed up, infiltrated, now little more than a subsidiary arm, never getting to the root.

The consuming, obsessional quality of information and of information-seeking in this over-saturated multi-media age comes to the forefront under this aspect. The looping, addictive patterns from one information source to another. Internet, television, radio, internet, television, radio. Never a moment free from the blaring frequencies that act so detrimentally on our personal frequencies. More and more information with less and less meaning, creating a group of people who don't know what to believe until they are told what to believe, attempting to fill up on conflicting informational bits and pieces and coming away hungry, unsatisfied, enervated, ever-further from the wisdom of their own souls. Seeking something of substance, something that hits the mark and gives some real perspective on the matters at hand.

There is a strong impetus here to purify our information channels, eliminating those that do not deliver the goods. The cleansing and protection of our mental and psychic environments.

Here, the Scorpionic crap-cutting and ability to see in the dark become crucial, with our own penetrating personal insights (Mercury in Scorpio), merged with others' of just the right tenor, key in extricating us and our real vision for the Aquarian future from those who seek to hijack them.

Mercury in Scorpio has a direct line from our ears and our eyes right to our guts. Body intuition connected to our receptive minds. Mercury in Scorpio can listen to the energy of words, determine the underlying agenda and extricate itself from the manipulated scene before the speech's opening paragraph is even complete. It can follow reaction - both personal and collective - to oratory, to official lines and official announcements, and understand the true motive of what is being floated in the public. It can watch the movement and sway of the crowd and determine when it is being herded by Uranian/Neptunian dangling carrots. This is where our minds are now, what we can tap into as we butt up against the Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius futuristic siren songs attempting to suck us into more of the same.

But first, the Scorpio energy has to be honed in the individual to the point where it is trustworthy above all else. We have to be able to trust that when we extricate ourselves from the din of dis/information and from the movements and shifts of the group mind, we'll be left with what's real and true, even if that means standing alone.

And all this while the collective conscious and unconscious is being purposefully saturated with every fearful End Time possibility. Scorpio and fear go hand-in-hand. Facing our fears, accepting and disarming them and neutralizing the power they have over us as best we can are all part of the liberation and spiritual elevation of the sign.

Nowhere is this more apparent, with Venus retrograde, than in our relationships. All the old fears - of being alone, desolate, unvaluable, unworthy, unlovable, rejected, of being deprived and starved of love, money, resources - are coming to the surface, testing their power over us. There's a fear telling us we can't let go of our connection to the subpar in relationship and elsewhere in case that's all there is for us.

The old illusory traps are also out in full force. We just think we've gotten past one, and another pops up like a black hole on the ground in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

This deep into the Piscean era, Neptune has certainly got our number as far as long-held hopes and dreams in and for relationships. We've taken the bait countless times in the past and swallowed nasty-ass dealbreaker realities hook, line and sinker, leaving us in huge messes that we had to dig ourselves out of.

And here, the Mercury-Neptune/Chiron square is prevalent, too, preceding the square to Neptune and Chiron by post-retrograde Venus itself next January.

New lovers speak the same phrases the old ones did, whispering just what Neptune thinks we'd like to hear. But this time, the words are surprisingly hollow, easily punctured.

Soul mate asteroid Juno is at 13 degrees Virgo at the time of this New Moon, exactly sextile the Sun-Moon conjunction. Add some no-nonsense Virgoan wheat-from-chaff standards and grounded analysis into the mix, and we're in good shape, very good shape. Promises that seemed so plausible before in our Neptunian loved-up states now seem laughable. Did we really fall for this previously? Have so many before us really fallen for this?

The clarifying messages should be coming in loud and clear. And here's the hot tip with Juno in Virgo sextile Sun-Moon in Scorpio and Mercury squaring Neptune-Chiron. The truth is really very simple, very basic. Reality is grounded and healing, not something from which to get intoxicated. Love is, too. So if that's what people are looking for - yet another temporary fix, yet another informational or verbal or sexual spike to the vein to calm their fevered and frenzied states - they'll miss it. The voice is quiet, responsible, firm...and effective. There are no bells and whistles. No phony Neptunian blasts elevating beyond the situation on this planet or the circumstances of human life...only to crash to the ground later.

Saturn in Libra has shown us the value of what's solid, real and responsible over the dream and the rosey potential. Show us the money and walk your talk or move along down the road. Wishful thinking has never been so unsexy. The old hopes and dreams seem somehow stale and outdated now, naive, and so much less valuable than love that is available and right in front of us.

This time, when the sweet nothings hit our ears and our stomachs lurch a little, we can follow our guts rather than smoothing things over and talking ourselves out of what we are really feeling, what we really know.

The final snips to what is illusory and inevitably disappointing and heartbreaking in relationship and elsewhere are just about ready. All those who have come before, who have pined and wept over their sweet and wonderful dreams unceremoniously crushed, are about ready now, too.

Mercury enters Sagittarius November 8 (whew!), joining Mars and Pallas and leaving Venus, the Sun and Vesta transiting our old pal Scorpio. (Except that Venus dips back into Libra November 7 for the last stretch of it's retrograde, re-entering Scorpio direct November 29.)

Venus goes direct November 18, the same day Jupiter goes direct in late Pisces. This is also a reliever, and we can start looking forward to Venus entering Sagittarius January 7 and Jupiter re-entering Aries January 22. That's a fiery blast forward that should be very welcome.

New Moon in Libra As We Complete the First Leg of Saturn in Libra

Our Libra New Moon on Thursday, October 7 at 14 degrees (1:44 p.m. CDT) happens loosely conjunct Saturn in Libra as Venus, almost stopped in the zodiac, stations retrograde in Scorpio. Things are getting serious. There's a pervasive feeling that if we don't get on top of this relationship stuff now, we miss a major opportunity, one that might not come around again.

Mercury in Libra is coming up on a conjunction to Saturn at the time of the New Moon (exact at 6:35 a.m. CDT October 8), and our communication skills are highlighted as the key to further progress in the ongoing restructuring and rebalancing of partnerships of all kinds.

This is the energy work we're doing for the planet now through our interpersonal relations - and this is why there is such a serious tone to all this Libra rebalancing of yin and yang. The energetic imbalance on Planet Earth between men and women and between the masculine and feminine (internally and externally) is reaching the point of no return. The influence of Saturn in Libra challenges us to dig in here and commit to finishing the job with even the thorniest and most trigger-happy of issues, if for no other reason than we have to. The continuation of humanity on this planet hinges on it. No joke.

Saturn most definitely has its work cut out for it in this sign.

In a society of easy come, easy go, quick-fix divorces and leaving partners in all sorts of bunged up emotional heaps, emotional responsibility in relationship is something many people aren't even aware is required, let alone practise in their own lives and relationships. We become oh-so-aware of the lasting emotional/psychological damage and trauma (and the effects of it collectively/globally) caused by this irresponsibility as stationing Venus, Eros and Mars transit Scorpio and we start to untangle, repair and heal. We mess each other up and get messed up in a lot of ways before we're conscious of what we're doing in relationship. With Venus, Eros, Mars and soon Vesta in Scorpio, we have the opportunity to become aware on very subtle levels so that we can completely rework and repattern our relational dynamics and energetic exchanges. There's really no excuse for going forward unconscious from this point on.

The Moon in Libra conjuncts both Mercury and Saturn Thursday morning prior to the New Moon as it completes its Dark of the Moon phase. This indicates unfinished emotional business that needs to be spoken about before we can unfold into the new relating and relationships indicated by this New Moon. Within the Dark of the Moon phase in Libra, we're challenged to balance the inner stillness required to close this cycle with the required communication and relating with others that will be stirred and impelled.

Mercury conjunct Saturn in Libra with dispositing Venus in Scorpio indicates that the conversations could be more difficult than lovely Libra would like. But the overlay of Venus in Scorpio will not waver from its path of uncovering core relationship realities, especially underlying and previously unspoken energetic ones. Finding the words to do our situations justice, to speak the authentic truth from our positions, especially if coming from a subtly disempowered or subjugated one, is a tight process. Then, on top of finding the right words, we're challenged to keep them palatable enough for others to receive and swallow. There is a masterful responsibility required now in our choice and use of words as well as in our unspoken communication.

At the same time, we're required to go right to the core of the matter with Vesta, Venus, Mars and Eros in Scorpio while not irresponsibly spilling our emotional processes all over other people. Knowing what to share and what to keep to ourselves for internal processing - and at the same time, not allowing triggered people to dump their stuff all over us. There will be a lot of that going on in people who have not-so-responsibly kept up with the Scorpionic processes thus far.

At the New Moon, we have a window of time, a newly emerging portal, to enter a more mutually respectful, responsible and honest way of relating. It's a delicate beginning, as New Moons generally are, and it will take some effort (Saturn) to get it cemented into our relationship foundations. But with the influence of Saturn, the opportunity to build a more just way of relating and exchanging energy into our relationship foundations is certainly there, with Mercury holding the hammer and the nails.

An exciting aspect of this New Moon is that we have just about completed the first leg (or 10 degree decan) of Saturn in Libra. The territory we covered this past summer with Saturn in cardinal t-square position has been cemented into place, and there's no going back. Saturn has initiated big long-term progress since re-entering Libra July 21, and we've been veritably zooming through the first decan of Libra - as much as Saturn can zoom, that is.

Saturn completes this first decan and enters the degrees of its retrograde shadow October 22 at 10 degrees Libra, and at that point, we're in territory we'll be going back over so as to restructure and solidify. Saturn retrogrades January 26 to June 12 from 17 to 10 degrees Libra.

Now comes the more plodding and sometimes arduous movement of Saturn - more of the energy we're traditionally used to with this planet - without the potent initiatory impetus of the cardinal t-squares.

The Sabian Symbol for the Libra New Moon is Circular Paths. This is apropos considering our deep Venus-Mars-Eros in Scorpio work at this tail-end Piscean era. We're being drawn back into the etheric imprints of relationships past (where did this all begin, anyway?), often through the people in our lives. Dating some ghosts.

I think this New Moon gives us the opportunity to take a new path, out of the circular maze that brings us right back to where we started. But only if we accept and successfully complete the challenges related to the new path - staying conscious every step of the way, humbly receiving guidance from our higher power/intelligence, and then doing what we know is right, even when it's the more difficult emotional path, even when we're being compelled to take the familiar karmic loop.

Mars-Eros-Venus Conjunct in Scorpio Form a Bonded Channel - Potent But Emotionally Deadly

Today, Mars at regular direct speed finally catches up to slowing-to-station Venus at 12 degrees Scorpio. Both those bodies are in tight conjunction to Eros, asteroid of erotic love and beauty, and we're getting into the good stuff.

Things have taken a turn for the deepest depths as these three wrap themselves around our hearts and squeeze out our truest and most profound soul's desires for love, intimacy, sex and togetherness. Our emotions run to extremes with this conjunction - from the devastating and detrimental to the sublime and mystical in a matter of minutes - and the feelings of deprivation if we are not with a love so true can cut exquisitely sharply. Self-esteem can take a hit with these energies, so be loving and gentle with yourself and others despite the edge.

The Venus-Mars conjunction is exact at 4:58 p.m. Central Daylight Time, and at that point, Mars and Eros move out ahead of Venus in the zodiac and start to create some much-needed breathing room as they continue direct while Venus turns retrograde. There's such thing as too much togetherness, too much keeping it real, and these three are at the brink of experiencing it in this conjunction in Scorpio.

Things are not going to let up from this sometimes nearly intolerably intense zone entirely as Venus stations retrograde October 8 just a day after our Libra New Moon (1:44 p.m. CDT October 7), increasing the power of its influence in the sky. At the point of the station, we've got Mars, Eros, Venus and Vesta in Scorpio with Ceres and the North Node coming together with Pluto. Prepare for bumpy navigation through psychic and emotional storms up ahead as we wrest ourselves free of unhealthy attractions, old, karmic ties and outdated attachments in love. Scorp territory.

Saturn's in Libra, and we're challenged to sternly keep ourselves from tipping back into old behaviour patterns in love, driven by desires that have already proven time and time again to be not in our best interests. Examining our desires and holding ourselves back from acting on the ill-advised ones can be just what we need now to slough them off like a dirty shirt.

If you do fall back into Scorpionic siren song territory, never fear. No beating yourself up. Just get back on the right side of things as soon as humanly possible. A Venus retrograde in Scorpio is just begging us to get drawn back into old crap we had the strength to pass over before, but don't let yourself get drawn too far. You can dip a toe in the murky waters, but no diving in, no matter how lovely and sexy and appealing they seem.

Everything we've been experiencing related to love, money, relationship, sex, emotion and shared resources of all types since the beginning of September shall be gone over again as we comb through the imprints of loves past, disengaging from dynamics that keep us repeating more of the same and powering through to healthier, happier and more soul-satisfying ground.

Venus retrograde cycles through the same sign every eight years, so anything love-related from around October/November, 2002 will be especially ripe for discharging here.

There's a lot of heart heaviness to clear before we can come together fully in the types of unions we would really like to experience. It's a bummer, for sure, but we're close - closer than we've been in a good long time.

Drawing From the Venus in Scorpio Vault

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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