Saturn Retrograde in Libra Opposite Sun in Aries and A Watched Pot Never Boils

From a previous post:

"The Sun in Aries opposes Saturn Rx in Libra April 15, and the relationship re-structuring going on has to accommodate our whole blazing selves, or it might as well be scrapped."

This is the case, pretty babies, and there's no getting around it.

As the Sun in Aries pushes into an opposition to Saturn Rx at 26 degrees Libra April 15, the asteroid Vesta and true Black Moon Lilith placement form a conjunction at 23 degrees Aries, also opposing Saturn. The soul-level investment here is in being ourselves and being true to ourselves within relationship right down to the last, rough edge. Honouring individuality beyond what the constructs of the relationships say. Honouring our fight and our scrappiness and our will to survive, even when those things are seemingly down to their last embers at this, the end of the astrological Piscean era. This is the flame we won't let die. This is what we bank on. 

In Aries, our money's on us. 

The investment here is in going deep into ourselves, loving every last secret corner where the shame, hatred, rage, grief, and deviation from the norm live. This is our fuel, what keeps us sharp, what edges the competition. Fighting for ourselves down to last breaths. Fighting to be true. 

It's an investment in only those people and those relationships that can contain this version of you, the whole version - no fibs, no lies, no cheating around the edges. This is the exertion of whole self, all chambers firing, and we stretch right out into it with these oppositions. Standing up when we have to. Letting fly when we have to. 

Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are here to make sure we don't compromise ourselves detrimentally one iota, that we don't try to squeeze ourselves into a relationship two sizes too small, that we don't attempt to dull any of our feisty edge or whitewash any of our colour as Saturn tries to convince us that we're running out of time, past our prime. 

There is no moment but this moment, and every day, in every way, we're getting better, truer, stronger. This is what Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are whispering, together, in our ears as we bloom into weird and wild Aquarius. 

Invest in yourself, in this moment. This is the most important relationship you'll ever have. 

The Aquarius Moon sextiles the Aries bodies/points and trines Saturn retrograde in Libra on April 15, the day of the Sun-Saturn opposition. We're willing to set ourselves apart, to risk it. It's the refusal to be anything but ourselves, the refusal to be dimmed or dulled that re-builds the world. 

The Moon continues on its way, meeting Vesta in exact conjunction in late Aries April 20 with both bodies in exact opposition to Saturn Rx in Libra. The themes continue. 

Saturn retrograde in Libra reminds us that, when it comes to relationships, a watched pot never boils. The worry and heaviness and sense of arduous delay brought to the topic of relationship by Saturn dissipates only when we're too busy doing our own thing to concern ourselves with it. 

And all this Aries opposing gives us the perfect opportunity to stop watching. Stop waiting. Just go.

We're Pissed Off or Fine With Things, Irritated or Content, Aggravated or Accepting. Probably All at the Same Time.

The combination of the now-loosening Venus-Mars-Neptune mutable t-square, Pluto in Capricorn stationing retrograde (April 10), Mars in Virgo stationing direct (April 14), and Mercury traipsing through the last degrees of Pisces (until April 16) is making for some highly-strung, highly-changeable, and highly-odd astro conditions. 

We can go from irritation to rage to despair to all-is-right-with-the-world to a chirpy, chatty phone conversation about monumental future plans in minutes flat. 

Mars stationing direct opposite Neptune in Pisces has us dreaming, kicking up all kinds of oddness, and we can wake up enraged, floating, or paralyzed under the intensity of it all. Possibly all three or more. 

This combination of stations and aspects is all over the place, and though we're certainly working with tension, friction, and frustration at this point, there's a lot of give here with all the mutable energy. This provides much-appreciated grease for the wheels as Lord of the Underworld Pluto permeates the skies with its inky influence and war/aggression planet Mars stops any progress in any direction, either forward or backward. 

At this point, we just have to go with the weird while sort of continuing as if things are functional. (Though I have to admit, all the internet problems I've been having over the past month have pushed me right to the brink.) 

Pluto going retrograde in Capricorn provides a change in direction that brings us ever-closer to the first of the seven Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares, and, as of April 10, we start to feel the squeeze in earnest. 

Pluto is moving backward and Uranus is moving forward, on an inevitable course toward that initial square June 24. 

Venus in Gemini is crossing the South Node currently, and excessive conversation - particularly certain topics of conversation with certain people - are to be avoided. At the same time, Venus is sextile Uranus in Aries (exact April 9), and we split yet another set of relationship paradigm atoms on our way to the Venus Transit June 5. We shift from one relationship track to another repeatedly between now and then, but we have to continually choose something new. 

The Sun in Aries opposes Saturn Rx in Libra April 15, and the relationship re-structuring going on has to accommodate our whole blazing selves, or it might as well be scrapped. 

Keep paddling, little duckies.

How to Get (And Keep) a Man, Zodiac-Style

Ladies, if you want to get yourselves a man, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: it’s as easy as the subtle manipulation of his Venus sign! 

Venus is what he loves, see, and if you want him to love you forever and ever, just keep hitting the old Venus spot. We all know that once you’ve gotten yourself a man, the next trick is holding onto him. The beautiful thing about Venus is: it’s also a key to keeping him! Just use these simple tricks of the astrological trade, and the days of crying your lonely, single ass to sleep every night will be OVER! 

Venus in Aries: Go out and shoot yourself a buck. Anything over a four-point should do. Strap it to the roof of your car. If you can borrow a Jeep, Bronco, or Hummer, even better. Grab a couple six packs of his favourite brew, and drive over to his place with your rifle in the back seat to show off your kill. 

Venus in Taurus: Talk about money a lot. Make it clear how important it is to you. Leave copies of your credit card statements lying around to show him how high your credit limit is. Get involved in the newest hedge funds, and brag about the returns. Talk about how you dumped currency and bought metals.

Venus in Gemini: To keep him interested, never answer his calls or texts right away. Leave them for a few days if you really want to get him hot and bothered. Talk about all the other messages you’re fielding to prove how uber connected and in demand you are. “Accidentally” send him an ambiguous text meant for some other guy just to keep him guessing. 

Venus in Cancer: The key to this man’s heart is all about emulating his Mama! Look at old pictures of his Ma when she was your age, and subtly copy her style. Dress like she did. Do your hair and make-up like she did. Meet him every day after work with lipstick on, an adoring smile, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven. 

Venus in Leo: Buy paintings from local artists and prominently hang them to show what a big supporter you are of the local art scene. Take him to performance art pieces and poetry night at the local pub, even if you don't like it, to show him how artsy you are. Try out for a local theatre troupe, even if calling your acting skills “wooden” would be charitable. Show off your star power. Of course, it goes without saying that a lady should never outshine her man. He’s the real star here, and the more you keep that in mind, the more in love he’ll be! 

Venus in Virgo: Hire a housecleaner to come in and covertly clean your apartment to an immaculate shine before each of his visits. Strip your bed (in front of him) and wash the sheets in hot water after every time you do the deed. Casually mention that you floss three times a day. Buy a top-of-the-line juicer. Hide junk food, and fill your refrigerator with leafy greens. 

Venus in Libra: Make it known how in-demand socially you are by constantly talking about all the fascinating, cultured, and hip people who want to hang with you. Make it difficult for him to schedule a date into your almost-frantic social calendar. Call and re-schedule a few times to drive home the point. Leave a subtle impression that he wasn’t your first choice for a Saturday night. 

Venus in Scorpio: The key here is continually proving what a hardcore freak you are in the sack. Leave whips, handcuffs, chains, and ball gags lying around your apartment – not just in the bedroom! Maybe put a cage up. Mirrors on the ceiling, a video camera set up near the bed, and a stripper pole are de rigeur. 

Venus in Sagittarius: What’s really going to do it for this guy is making it known how much freedom you need in relationships. Don’t worry if it isn’t true – by the time he figures out the real story, he’ll be hooked on you! Talk about your plans to study philosophy in Paris, and make it known that he shouldn’t wait around. Do some speed research on wine, and talk about how you’ve always wanted to take a trip to wine country to experience the great whites and reds. 

Venus in Capricorn: The key to this guy’s heart is in showing him how impressive and upwardly-mobile you are. Talk about how you’re crushing your competition at work. Brag about how much your boss loves you. Repeat the basic points of your Five Year Plan like a mantra every morning, and make sure he can hear you. 

Venus in Aquarius: Here, it's all about making it clear to him how outside the box you are. Throw a vegan, soy-free potluck and invite all the freakiest people you know. Talk about alternative working models and the suppression of Tesla technology. Ride a community-owned bicycle to get around, even if you have been a staunch car driver up until then. Dye your hair pink or purple. Get a septum ring. 

Venus in Pisces: The key here is in proving your superiour spiritual development. Talk about your dreams a lot, and make them seem really symbolic and profound. Talk about the multi-dimensional experiences you’ve had, and make it clear that you can’t really be bothered with the concerns of the material world. Name drop a couple gurus, and work the popular spiritual catch phrases of the day into casual conversation. Work these Venus tips, ladies, and you will go from sad and lonely single to ecstatic and loved-up couple in no time!  

April Fools from Willow’s Web Astrology! April Fools post 2011

Mercury Rx Back Into Pisces: Mental Hauntings Ahoy!

Mercury has just retrograded from the first degree of the zodiac (zero Aries) into the last degree of the zodiac (29 Pisces), which means the zippy communication and intelligence planet is now dragging ass retrograde through the swampy, foggy morass of the sign of its fall. I wrote a bit about this previously: (Another) Mercury Retrograde Through Tough Territory March 12 - April 4

In a lot of ways, this Mercurial movement back into watery Pisces - where it will be until re-entering Aries April 16 - acts as a necessary, yet potentially confusing and most likely frustrating, reprieve. Mercury was a primary player in the blazingly potent Aries New Moon we're opening out of, and, coming out of its prolonged conjunction to Uranus, our mental circuitry needs some recovery time just floating in the Piscean abyss. This is one placement that lets us know in no uncertain terms that most of it is not in our control.

The thing about that is, it's just not all that relaxing floating in a tail-end Piscean abyss at this point. You really don't know what you're going to find floating around in there, you know? Corexit, tar balls, industrial waste, ghost sharks, old tires, broken records, Slurpee cups, dead bodies, fish with three eyes, old, lingering impressions that bring the creep factor, thoughts that haunt, a mirroring of communication patterns, terrifying blind spots. Oh, and don't forget the odd hot radioactive particle.

It's a mixed bag, that tail-end Pisces, and this mental floating over the next three weeks isn't always going to be comfortable. Often it'll be creepy. Grievous. At times, it'll be almost unbearable.

We've just been infused with a massive amount of Aries "blast off" energy, and blasting off is what we're primed to do. Ants are officially in pants, and the idea that we will now be delayed, confused, thwarted by Mercury retrograde in the sign of its fall is a hard one to swallow.

Uranus is currently closing in on the first of its seven squares to Pluto June 24 as we move from spring equinox to summer solstice, and the unsettling and unsettled energy is increasingly permeating our realities. The Sun in Aries conjuncts Uranus tomorrow at 12:20 p.m. Central, keeping the nerve-jangling New Moon effects up front and centre. The Aries Sun then squares Pluto for a little stomach-dropping horrification and "in light of the current circumstances" personality/ego purging March 29 at 1:56 p.m.

We know we have to go through it. Those Uranus-Pluto squares are right in front of us now. And the Sun in Aries keeps this in our conscious moment this week.

I appeared on a radio show yesterday when the transits were fairly dicey personally because the issues came to me to be spoken about. It was a toss-up, and I knew it, but I decided to talk. I got the information across, but it did come back on me in some unpleasant ways.

It has to be noted that often these days, communication is difficult. Sometimes it's dangerous. Many choose not to speak on certain issues, not to be bothered, not to risk it. But I was woken up at 3 a.m. on March 12 as Mercury stationed retrograde in Aries conjunct Uranus, completely wired, with this post thrumming through me, insisting it be written. So I followed its course. It led me to a letter-to-the-editor in the local paper, a Doonesbury comic strip, and 14 U.S. states bringing forced sonogram laws down on women seeking abortions. You see the connections that occur when fighting the same fights.

Mercury is about to retrograde over my South Node, and to tell the truth, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm tempted to stay silent. It might be easier.

For other people it would be. But for me, the only course to follow is to haul myself out of bed and write it down. Even when it seems it will do no good. Especially then, actually.

And oddly enough, my internet connection, which has been intermittent for three weeks and almost non-existent this past week, is back today. I'm taking that as a sign I can write this post - even though it's kind of all over the map - without any South Node nastiness foaming up on me like backwash.

We'll see.

Happy Astrological New Year and Willow on Ask the Astrologer with Matt Savinar

Today is spring equinox, the Sun has entered Aries, and we're surging forward into a new astrological year.

There's a blazingly potent Aries New Moon coming up this Thursday, March 22 conjunct Mercury Rx and Uranus and trine the Sagittarius North Node, and things are getting mighty hot.

I'll be a guest on Matt Savinar's radio show, Ask the Astrologer, on Thursday between 10 a.m. and noon Pacific to talk about this Moon, the line-up of bodies in Aries led by Ceres, the corresponding attacks on women's reproductive rights, and the horrific forced sonogram laws in the United States being brought to public awareness this month through the Doonesbury comic strip.

Throughout 2011, forced sonogram laws were tabled in 14 U.S. states and were made law in four - Texas, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina.

These sonogram laws, brought about by pro-life Republicans, force all women seeking an abortion to submit to a transvaginal sonogram of their fetuses - involving a probe that goes into their vaginas - as the characteristics of the fetus are described to them by their doctor. The woman is then asked if she would like to see the sonogram and hear an audio recording of the fetus' heart. She can refuse this, but she cannot refuse the procedure. And in North Carolina, any woman who refuses to look at the sonogram or listen to the heartbeat has her name marked and kept in a record for seven years. The doctor is also required to discuss alternatives to abortion. Under these sonogram laws, women are also forced to wait 24 hours after the sonogram before they are able to receive an abortion, unless they live more than 100 miles from the abortion facility.

These attacks against women's reproductive rights are real, and they're going on right now.

From March 12, 2012: Ceres in Aries and the Fight for Women's Reproductive Rights

Ask the Astrologer with Matt Savinar runs every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon Pacific on KOWS 107.3 FM. The station serves Occidental, California and West Sonoma county, so if you're in that area, please tune in. If not, a link to the show will be up a bit later on Matt's YouTube channel.

You can also listen live online here: KOWS 107.3 FM

Canada's Uranus-Sun in Cancer in T-Square Lock Down within the Uranus-Pluto Square Series - Part Two

I’ve written about the importance of the upcoming Uranus in Aries – Pluto in Capricorn square series in relation to Canada's corporate chart, as well as this June's Venus Transit in Gemini falling exactly on Canada’s Venus placement:

From March 8, 2012: Canada's Uranus-Sun in Cancer in T-Square Lock Down within the Uranus-Pluto Square Series

Transiting Uranus and Pluto acting intensively on the Uranus-Sun in Cancer in Canada's astrological chart are forging deep, fractious changes in this country while the astrological transits are used by those in positions of power to continue toward a vision that I do not wish to see become a reality in this country. The agenda of the current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and his government, merged within broader global agenda, lead in a direction that, despite the government's claimed majority, most Canadians do not wish to follow.

Harper-Style Restructuring and Global Governance

In October, 2011, Conservative agriculture minister Gerry Ritz introduced a bill that would strip the Canadian Wheat Board of much of its power, making it a voluntary institution for farmers. Though the bill was challenged in court as illegal, it was passed in December, 2011.

The Canadian Wheat Board was established by Canadian Parliament in 1935 to help offset the devastation of Canada’s farmers by the Great Depression. Since then, the Wheat Board has marketed and sold all the wheat and barley in Canada for Canadian farmers, providing a stable and guaranteed price from year-to-year.

Harper sold the bill as an increase in individual choice for farmers, who can now choose to market and sell their own grain rather than going through the Wheat Board, and it's true that some farmers welcome this - at this point.

In effect, though, what Harper and his government have done is bust the union. Without the collective power the Wheat Board had on the global market with the pool of Canadian wheat and barley, it will likely not be able to secure the same level of prices. The Harper Conservatives’ hog-tying of the Wheat Board at this time leaves both the Board and individual farmers open to the wild fluctuations of price within the global grain market.

Canada’s grain industry has just been served up on a silver platter to multi-national agribusiness.

The global grain market is currently destabilized. From August 8, 2010: Ceres Direct in Sagittarius on Its Way to Pluto in Capricorn and Benefitting Financially From the Starvation of the People After the U.S. mortgage collapse in 2008, investors were looking for a place to move their money. What they found was the relatively stable grain market, and soon grain prices were on the roller coaster that is the derivatives market. Investors were betting on the rise in the price of grain, and as speculation grew, prices rose. As the price of basic grain staples skyrocketed worldwide, people could no longer afford food and began to starve and riot.

Coincidentally, flooding of the world breadbaskets over the past three years, including in the Canadian prairie provinces two years running, has ensured dips in supply (or at least the appearance of dips in supply) in order to further push grain prices up. This year, it will likely be drought creating grain shortages after Canada experienced a surreal winter of record-breaking high temperatures and little snowfall.


- Flooding of farmland near Estevan, Saskatchewan in the spring of 2011 (Photo used with permission) -

For the short-sighted, a single farmer selling his wheat for the inflated prices created by a speculation bubble sounds great - for a year or two. But without the stabilized prices and collective power provided by the Wheat Board, that same farmer will have no protection from the “free” market once prices take a nose dive.

As we are now officially entering a Uranus in Aries square series to Pluto that we last experienced during the Great Depression - complete with wildly destabilized and deregulated markets - now is probably the worst time to reduce the stabilizing clout of the Canadian Wheat Board. Well, it’s the worst time for the country and its farmers. It’s a great time for agribusiness corporations who now find the Canadian grain industry ripe for the plucking and for the manipulating.

Swiss-based commodities trader Glencore PLC and U.S.-based agribusiness corporation Cargill have already been sniffing around Canadian grain handler Viterra in potential takeover position. This follows the hostile takeover bid of the Saskatchewan Potash Corporation (used to make fertilizer) by English-Australian mining corporation BHP Billiton. That takeover bid was blocked by the Feds, though Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale recently called the Harper government negligent for not fulfilling a promise to clarify foreign investment rules after that potash battle. From November 13, 2010: Ceres and Pluto in the Headlines: You Only Want Me For My Potash

Cooperation has always been a major aspect of the survival and success of independent farmers. Now, Harper and his government have set up individual farmers, many blinded by the dollar signs of an inflated, derivatives-fuelled grain market, against huge multi-national corporations. Guess whose interests prevail over the long run in that set-up?

But these prices are going to last forever, right? Just like the housing bubble.

The Canadian housing industry is currently experiencing inflationary real estate prices with most Canadians in urban centres paying more than 50% of their incomes to maintain their mortgages and related costs. Interest rates are being kept unnaturally low to entice new buyers with rates that will often increase after three to five years (sound familiar?). As was the case in the U.S. housing market, which was intentionally set up to collapse and pay off in hedge fund insurance policies, inflated Canadian mortgages are also now being hedged to the teeth.

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a Canadian Crown corporation, is currently hedging $541 billion in mortgages, nearing its ceiling of $600 billion. This ceiling was only recently raised from $450 billion in 2008 in response to the mortgage crisis and economic collapses worldwide. The Canadian banks handing out loans for mortgages have now moved en masse to buy CMHC insurance so they can then bundle and sell the mortgages to investors – a practise that was common in the United States in the lead-up to the housing collapse but relatively rare in Canada up to this point.

The Harper Conservatives have floated the idea that, with the release of its upcoming budget March 29, Canadians should get ready for sweeping, transformative changes. We all know what “sweeping, transformative changes” the Global Governor set bring, particularly the neo-conservative branch.

The upcoming budget is being likened to a Brian Mulroney-style vision. Mulroney is the ex-Progressive Conservative Prime Minister who signed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, one of the first steps in carving up the country, its resources, and its people in offering to One World Government.

Canadians can expect the slash-and-burn erosion of social programs, which has up until now been kept somewhat in check via minority governments, to move into high gear with this budget. From erosion, we move to grand-scale, undemocratic, semi-legal dismantling, as has been seen with the Canadian Wheat Board.

The two-tiered health care system Harper has ushered in will be cemented into place with more privatized care creating one system for the rich and one (underfunded) system for the not-so-rich.

Remaining protection of national industries will be gradually dismantled, opening Canada to more foreign ownership. Resources will be divvied up to the highest international bidder with no view of conservation or stewardship, and water will probably now officially be put on the table.

And of course, the war machine will roll on, mostly unhindered.

Already, Harper is angering the provinces by making unilateral decisions that affect them without consultation. His "tough on crime" bill has dumped billions of dollars in extra costs on the provinces with, of course, little focus on addressing the actual roots and cycles of criminal behaviour.

Harper is also currently working to raise the age of retirement from 65 to 67 to reduce costs - but don't worry, Baby Boomers! This doesn't take effect until 2020 when most of you will be safely on the Old Age Security rolls, so you can keep voting for old Steve. The passing of bucks to the younger generations continues.

The conditions stemming from the orchestrated economic collapses worldwide will be used to implement the vision.

This has been the trajectory for decades, though Bilderberg-approved Harper was unable to fully bring about his part of the Grand Vision within the minority governments he won in 2006 and 2008, and it has been simmering, simmering, biding its time. Now, Harper gets to work the Uranus-Pluto squares to push full speed ahead in choreographed lock-step with the plans being unfurled worldwide. The majority government Harper and his Conservatives won in May, 2011 ensures that Harper is now free to do exactly as he sees fit. The inconvenience of Parliament and the democratic process can officially be shaken off his pant leg, and he can implement the Grand Vision like a good middle manager of the Global Government would.

The hatred and contempt Harper holds for both the Canadian people and Canadian institutions, apparent throughout his stymied run as leader of minority governments, can now come out full force. This is a man used to making unilateral decisions, following the buck, following the global leaders. The will of the people is a quaint concept to “leaders” like him.

Oh, but about that majority.

The Harper Conservatives have one little problem on their hands, one little hitch.

It seems that their majority win is suspect. A scandal is a-brewing. There are calls coming from all corners of Canada for an independent inquiry into the possibility of election fraud.

Tens of thousands of complaints have come in to Elections Canada related to robocalls – automated telephone calls – made on behalf of the Conservative party around the time of last May’s election. The calls gave voters misleading information, telling them their polling stations had been changed.

The Conservatives have pleaded ignorance. Ex-Reform Party leader Preston Manning has spoken out publicly in indignance, too, about this type of fraud - which leads to an interesting connection. Preston Manning was once leader of the uber right-wing Reform Party, which morphed into the uber right-wing Canadian Alliance. Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance in 2002, forming the Official Opposition in Canadian Parliament. The Canadian Alliance and the slightly more right-of-centre Progressive Conservative parties then merged, and that merger spawned the current Conservative Party, of which Harper is now leader.

On March 5, as Mercury and Uranus formed the initial conjunction in Aries that will be repeated March 18 and April 22, one of Canada’s national newspapers, The Globe and Mail, published a letter from John Fryer, adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Administration, talking about a campaign school he attended in 2010 at the (Preston Manning-founded) Manning Centre for Building Democracy:

“Intrigued, I signed up for the three-day event. Topics covered included voter identification. Discussion ensued about suppression techniques. Instructors explained voter suppression tactics were borrowed from those used by the U.S. Republican Party. Many kinds of suppression calls were canvassed. Another instructor gave detailed explanations of how robocalls worked, techniques for recording messages, plus costs… He distributed his business card upon request.

Instructors made it clear that robocalling and voter suppression were an acceptable and normal part of winning election campaigns.”

During the cardinal Grand Cross of June 2011, Brigette DePape, a young woman participating in the Canadian Senate Page Program, held up a sign during the throne speech that read, “Stop Harper!” In a later interview with CTV, DePape said, "Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation."

DePape spoke for the majority of Canadians with this action.

Canada is set up under a form of democracy that is not truly representative of the people's political will. This form of democracy is referred to as “first past the post,” meaning whatever candidate wins the most votes in a riding wins that seat in Parliament. If the Conservatives win 40 percent of votes in a riding, the New Democrats win 35 percent, the Liberals win 20 percent, and the Green Party wins 5 percent, the winner takes all, and it is a Conservative seat, despite the fact that only a minority of people voted Conservative.

A truer form of democracy, proportional representation, uses the total percentages of popular vote to determine the make-up of seats within Canadian Parliament. If you win 40% of the popular vote, you receive 40% of the seats in Parliament.

Considering the merger of the ultra right-wing Canadian Alliance with the generally more moderate Progressive Conservatives, my guess is that even some conservative-minded people within that party do not support the current Harper agenda. What this man, what this government, what all the lock-step governments worldwide are steamrolling ahead with is disastrous. It’s happening at both warp-speed (Uranus in Aries), before Canadians can really get their minds wrapped around what is going on, and also as a slow motion train wreck unfolding before our eyes (Pluto in Capricorn).

And again, the awareness and sustained action of the people who oppose these agenda is required and will be required acutely throughout the Uranus-Pluto square series.

Ceres in Aries and the Fight for Women’s Reproductive Rights

Feminine dwarf planet Ceres, related to fertility and particularly women’s control over fertility, is currently transiting Aries, the sign of, among other things, the war, the battle, the fight.

With the current Mercury-Uranus conjunction in Aries square Pluto infusing the atmosphere, the Ceres in Aries themes are quite apparent within media (Mercury) channels. Case in point: the verbal attack (Mercury in Aries) from Rush Limbaugh of law student Sandra Fluke.

As many are probably aware by now, Fluke spoke at a congressional hearing in favour of the Obama health plan covering the cost of contraceptives. Her support for this was based primarily on health reasons – a friend of hers lost one of her ovaries due to a condition that could have been controlled had she been able to afford birth control pills. Limbaugh, one of those right-wing, privileged, white males who seem to be so oppressed by women having control of anything these days, called her a slut and a Feminazi on his radio show, prompting a storm of controversy and the pulling of multiple advertisers from his show.

Here's Rush at his finest:

“So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

Limbaugh's language has an undertone of sexual violence and is a broadcasted voicing of the hatred, rage, and fear within the societies at large related to women's control of their own sexuality and reproduction.

The thread of hatred toward women, particularly strong women and particularly feminists, is out with teeth bared these days, not least of which in the race to become the next leader of the United States Republican party.

“The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.”

- Scary, scary Rick Santorum from Khamenei or Santorum? You Be the Judge by Reza Aslan

Incidentally, radical feminism does not mean “extreme, over-the-top feminism,” the way most anti-feminist people, like Rick here, use it. Radical feminism is a branch of feminism that pertains, coincidentally, to the idea that the primary force of male oppression and dominance over women is in the control of their reproduction process. This control could be literal physical control – as in continually impregnating them and limiting the access to abortions and birth control – or coercive control through social mores and constructs.

The thread of underlying hatred toward feminists is prevalent on certain astrology blogs, also, and the Team Rush commentary following this incident involved an almost inexplicable rush (no pun intended) to dissect Sandra Fluke’s natal chart.

I understand there are problems with feminism - it is an institution at this point with multiple flaws and areas of bloat, requiring the same Pluto in Capricorn integrity-checks and metamorphosis that other institutions require at this time.

But this isn't really about feminism as an institution - it's about women's rights and the virulent rage and attempt at domination that comes about when women exert those rights. It seems that nowhere does this exertion strike a stronger chord than in the area of women's reproductive rights. There is a continued attempt at the erosion of these rights, including systemic attacks both legislatively and in the arenas of public opinion by people who would like to use Pluto's transit of Capricorn to cement a nice, no-rocking-of-the-boat old school patriarchy.

As usual, "women's issues" are actually everyone's issues, and last time I checked, accessible birth control benefited men, too. Men want to have sex without unwanted pregnancy, too.

Astrologers talk a lot about the revolutionary, future-oriented energy of the Uranus in Aries transit, and that drive is certainly there. We just have to remember that not all visions of the future are versions we would like to see come to realization.

An extreme regressive tendency can also be expected throughout the square series between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn with a move back to a "good, old days" 1950s male-female ideal that never really existed. I've written about this before - a type of nostalgia for the "angel-of-the-home woman/breadwinning-bringer-home-of-bacon man." Gender roles where the man controlled the money and made all the decisions and the woman was happy to birth and rear kids, cook, and clean.

Along with this regression will come the continued attempt to erode access to abortion, the morning after pill, and contraceptives. Nostalgia for back alley abortions, coat hangers, and women dying of infection and hemorrhaging, I guess. Might as well paint that shit into a Norman Rockwell painting.

Feminine Ceres has been reclassified as a dwarf planet and is now on equal astronomical footing with masculine Pluto. These two have always had equal power for growth and regeneration as well as death and destruction. The battles along the male-female, masculine-feminine lines will be intense, sometimes heated, and often in-your-face over the next years on this planet as the equalization and sharing of power is ground out one battle at a time.

These are our fights. Right now, right here. This is where we take a stand. The current feminine force including Vesta, Black Moon Lilith, and Ceres in warrior sign Aries is showing us the battleground, and every woman and man who does not want to see a regression in the areas of reproductive rights, women's rights, and the equalizing of power between men and women must take up the battle now.

Signed,

Willow, defender to her death of women’s reproductive rights

(If that makes me a Feminazi – seriously, that term needs to go – so be it. Anyone who doesn’t like it can mosey on over to the aforementioned Team Rush astrology blogs. Check out some inspirational reading in Michelle Duggar's 7 Rules For Being a Good Wife while you're at it.)

Stationing Mercury Conjunct Uranus in Aries on the One-Year Anniversary of Fukushima and a Retrograde Over the Zero Aries/29 Pisces Point

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima, Japan nuclear disaster - a disaster that is ongoing just as the industry, government, and media cover-ups of it are ongoing.

It's as difficult today to extract any real information or context as it was a year ago, though a picture is slowly forming.

Eighty percent of the people tested who lived in the Fukushima area at the time of the initial radioactive releases have been found to have excessive levels of radioactive iodine in their thyroids - something that could have been mitigated or prevented had the Japanese government distributed potassium iodide to the residents and instructed them on its use immediately.

Documents released March 9 revealed that immediately following the disaster, the Japanese government feared it could be worse than Chernobyl. Because of the intentional lack of action from a government that "didn't want to create panic in the population," hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people may now face a shortened lifespan with increased incidences of radiation-related health problems, including cancer. Two hundred eighty thousand people lived in the city of Fukushima at the time of the disaster with many more in the surrounding areas, including 100,000 people evacuated from the 20-kilometre no-go zone surrounding the reactors.

One year in, official-level denial continues to run rampant. According to an article by Yuri Kageyama, the health adviser for Fukushima prefecture, Shunichi Yamashita, continues to insist exposure to 100 millisieverts of radiation per year will have no ill health effects on people. Before the disaster, the Japanese people were exposed to 1 millisievert of background radiation per year. Background exposure, of course, also does not address the ingestion of radioactive particles via food, water, or air.

You might remember Yamashita as the guy who whipped out the New Age memes to placate the citizenry, telling people, "The effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy and laughing. They come to people that are weak-spirited, that brood and fret." From June 14, 2011: The Law of Attraction Fukushima-Style

People are showing up in doctor's offices with unexplained rashes all over their bodies. Women's hair and teeth are falling out, and doctors are diagnosing them with autoimmune disorders.

These are the same types of diagnoses people received (and are likely still receiving) in the U.S. Gulf states after being poisoned with Corexit and oil following the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April, 2010.

The position of communication planet Mercury in Aries at this time as well as its upcoming retrograde movement (March 12 - April 4) are highly significant.

The 9.0 earthquake that caused the damage to the nuclear reactors and the initial explosions (Uranus) was unleashed as Uranus moved from 29 Pisces to zero Aries - the symbolic end degree and beginning degree of the zodiac.

The washboard ripples of HAARP clouds were visible, blanketing the sky, soon after.

Now, on the one-year anniversary of the initial disastrous events, Mercury has just moved past the 29 Pisces/zero Aries point and is stationing retrograde at 6 degrees Aries conjunct Uranus and square Pluto in Capricorn. Due to the retrograde station, Mercury stays tightly locked in this conjunction to Uranus for three weeks, infusing the mental environment with the themes.

Mercury will retrograde back over the powerful and highly symbolic zero Aries/29 Pisces point March 22/23, making for a blisteringly potent Aries New Moon at 2 degrees conjunct Mercury and Uranus on March 22, following the spring equinox March 20.

Mercury will make its final pass over the 29 Pisces/zero Aries point direct on April 15/16, just after the Pluto retrograde station in Capricorn. It forms its final conjunction to Uranus in Aries April 22.

A poll conducted March 3-4, as Mercury (media, opinion, information, communication) initially moved over the 29 Pisces/zero Aries point, found 73% of Japanese people are worried, either greatly or somewhat, about health effects from the radioactive releases. A vast majority of those also believe the government is hiding information related to the disaster.

Also released during the Mercury-Uranus conjunction (on March 5) was data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency related to samples taken and tested recently from around California's Santa Susana Field Laboratory located between Chatworth and Simi Valley.

While run by U.S. aviation company Rocketdyne, a portion of that area called Area IV was used for the very early testing and development of nuclear reactors. Area IV was also the site of the country's first operational nuclear reactors, which ran from 1953 to 1980. The areas surrounding the site were radioactively contaminated throughout the years via various fires and the improper containment of radioactive materials. The largest radioactive release and contamination, however, came from a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1959.

Residents of the area, including children and former employees of the Laboratory, have suffered increased incidences of cancer for decades. Famously, the daughter of former resident Vince Neil, lead singer of the band Motley Crue, died of cancer at the age of 4 in 1995.

Of the 437 samples taken recently, 75 exceeded acceptable standards for radioactivity. More than 50 years after the meltdown, cesium-137 along with seven other radioactive isotopes were measured at levels between 100 to 1,000 times higher than the standards. Plutonium and strontium were also detected.

Residents, activists, and public officials have long fought for a clean-up of the area, now owned by Boeing, and this data proves what they have been saying all along.

The Rocketdyne site is just one more tip of a very large radioactive iceberg being drawn into the collective psyche via the current disaster in Fukushima. The extent of the radioactive contamination worldwide from nuclear testing, accidents at nuclear facilities past and present, and the use of depleted uranium munitions has been thus far sealed. But as we head to that potentially explosive Aries New Moon March 22 conjunct Mercury Rx and Uranus (uranium), the continued battle to get the information out has the potential to blow the lid right off.

There's an immediacy and a courage available to people here - the kind brought on when facing down the extinction of our kind. The relevant information and broader context entering the scene at this time have the ability to draw people fully into their present moments, right to the most vital and cutting edge points in their lives at this time on this planet. The concept of time breaks down even further now and throughout the 2012-2015 Uranus-Pluto square series, and the obsession (Pluto) with stock portfolios, RRSPs, what the banks are going to do next (Capricorn) can be understood in a different light - in the light of a Uranian lightning-strike - as long as people have the courage to look and then act on what they see.

Canada's Uranus-Sun in Cancer in T-Square Lock Down within the Uranus-Pluto Square Series

Uranus is picking up steam in Aries, and the global scenario is taut to say the least as it closes in on its first exact square to Pluto. 

The first of the seven exact squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn occurs June 24, 2012 and locks the Cancer Sun-Uranus conjunction in Canada's official (corporate) chart into an exact cardinal t-square at 8 degrees of the signs. Uranus will station retrograde at 8 degrees Aries July 13 exactly square the Sun-Uranus in Cancer in Canada's chart, and the cardinal t-square lock down remains strongly in effect through June, July, and August of 2012. 

To say Canadians can expect a highly-charged, potentially fractious summer of 2012 would be an understatement. More unnatural disasters, manipulation of weather and crops, globally-integrated war/police state activity, and the fallout from those things are themes, based on cardinal t-square and Grand Cross formations in the past two years. 

After two years of weather-manipulated flooding of the Canadian breadbasket, we can expect dry conditions and areas of drought after a surreal winter of record-breaking high temperatures and little snowfall. 

The second exact Uranus-Pluto square at 6 degrees follows soon after the first on September 18, 2012, not allowing a reprieve from the tension. The remaining squares (into March 2015) all fall within range of the Canadian Sun-Uranus in Cancer, and we can be certain the government (Capricorn) and military (Aries) of the fair Kanata - a country rich in oil and uranium - will play primary roles in the global proceedings. 

From May 8, 2011: "Canada's benign, peacekeeper image, so strategically useful on the world stage, is in the process of being stripped bit-by-bit by a Pluto in Capricorn opposition to its Cancer Sun. Squared by transiting Uranus in Aries, the shocking extent of Canada's role within the global war machine emerges as the facade is stripped. The fundamental understanding of Canada's identity on the world stage - past, present and future - shifts rapidly and repeatedly over the next four years." 

Just as the cardinal t-square formation becomes exact (making for one hell of a Canada Day July 1), the Venus Transit in Gemini occurs June 5 exactly conjunct Canada's natal Venus in Gemini at 15 degrees. The Venus Transit - an eclipse of the Sun by Venus - indicates a major relational backdrop change, so suffice it to say Canada's Venus return marks a dramatic re-orientation within its global relations. Canada's dual identity - always in existence, not often prominent - becomes undeniable. 

The ambitious, strategizing, cunning twin that has mostly stayed in the background, behind the glad-handing, people-pleasing diplomat, comes screaming to the forefront as the stage continues to be set and booby trapped for more global war. Slick manipulation of media and the slippery shifting of perspectives (Gemini) become primary aces in the hole for the elitist interests holding the people of this country - and the world - hostage. 

On the weekend of March 3-4, with Mercury (media) conjunct Uranus in Aries, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Ottawa, exerting himself through the mainstream media as a "staunch ally" of the Israeli regime. This was a strategic verbal (Mercury) act of aggression (Aries) - toward the ghettoized and brutalized Palestinians as much as the Iranians - and, with its connection to Uranus, there will be many more of its kind. 

The lean, mean, Global Governing machine is utilizing mainstream media coverage and strategic meetings of its members in the ongoing attempt to create public consent for the bombing of Iran, supposedly over Iran's move to make nuclear weapons under the guise of a nuclear energy programme. 

In reality, neighbouring Iraq was bombed into submission during the eight-year Uranus in Pisces cycle using a fake connection to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center bombings and false reports of Sadaam's weapons of mass destruction. Now, Uranus in Aries heralds the next phase of violent domination of that oil-rich area to secure monied interests.

A Gorgeous Grand Earth Trine with Benefics Venus and Jupiter Conjunct March 12 to 14

After navigating the grease fires, irritations, and provocations of Aries, culminating in a trying opposition to Saturn Rx in Libra March 4, Venus will exit the feisty sign of its detriment for almost a month of home sweet home in earthy Taurus starting March 5. Venus is a very comfortable Earth Mama in Taurus, all soft curves, bare feet, baby slung on broad hip, bread baking. 

As Venus slides into this home turf, it moves to a conjunction to Jupiter in Taurus March 13, and the two benefic planets collude to shower us in pleasantness. Not only do we experience a conjunction of the benefics, but the conjunction also happens within an exact Grand Earth Trine, increasing its influence considerably. Efforts made in the right directions (and there's the key) are rewarded handsomely as Venus and Jupiter form this exact Grand Earth Trine along with Mars Rx in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn at 9 degrees of the earth signs. If you've been digging and working and getting your hands dirty, major gears can turn here both personally and collectively. Things come together. Increased efficacy, precision, craftsmanship, practicality, and attention to detail, being honed through the Mars retrograde in Virgo, start to pay off, and our yokes are seemingly lifted off us for a time, made light as a feather. 

Gorgeous. 

At the very least, outside any gorgeousness, the influence of the benefic conjunction offsets most of the difficulty associated with retrograde Mars (malefic planet) and Pluto (potential dirty bugger). 

This formation is exact between March 12 and 14, influential through most of the month. Trines are 120-degree aspects usually between bodies in signs of the same element - in this case earth - and the themes work together almost effortlessly. Grand Trines generally involve bodies in all three signs of that element (fire, water, earth, or air) forming a triangle and creating ease on multiple fronts. 

An exact Grand Trine like this one is something special, made even more so by the Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Taurus with Venus in its own sign. 

Mars in Virgo first formed a Grand Earth Trine with Jupiter in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn in mid-to-late November, 2011, though it was not exact. Progress made at that time gets a major boost here as Mars backtracks and picks up where it left off, triggering new developments. This isn't just the goal, the dream, the far-off vision. This is real life, here and now, right in front of us. 

The final Grand Earth Trine formation involving Mars in Virgo happens May 13 to 16. It is very close to exact, also, as Mars in Virgo moves direct into a Grand Trine with Mercury in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn at 8/9 degrees. At that time, benefic Jupiter will have moved into late Taurus and will be out of orb. 

The formation in May finalizes the details, solidifies the earthy progress made earlier, and grounds us fully within the new two-year goal cycle initiated by the Mars retrograde in Virgo. 

The only caution with the upcoming Grand Earth Trine with Venus and Jupiter conjunct would be taking this energy for granted. It won't last long at its height, so be sure to enjoy it and use it to your benefit by building on the events, themes, and progress of November, 2011 during this time of grace in the earth signs. 

Background: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines

(Another) Mercury Retrograde Through Tough Territory March 12 - April 4

Mercury is currently transiting the final degrees of Pisces, the sign of its fall, and communication is a bit of a slog. Mercury has also entered its retrograde shadow, meaning it will be moving back over these degrees during the upcoming retrograde (March 12 - April 4).

The quick and zippy communication and intelligence planet does not operate smoothly or with ease through the lens of foggy, soggy, often surreal Pisces. The Sun, Chiron, Pallas Athene, and Neptune are also in Pisces, and trying to translate into words what we experience in this swirly, dreamy, meandering sign is a challenge, to say the least. Poets and artists have been making their attempts for thousands of years. And Mercury in its fall in retrograde motion, to boot - forget it. It's like one of those dreams where no one can understand what you're saying no matter how hard you try. We stress and strain and repeat ourselves, but either the words won't come out, we can't accurately express what we mean, or people just don't get what we're saying, regardless of how we say it.

Finally, if all efforts are thwarted, we decide to just be quiet and let the underlying psychic flow do its thing.

It seems as if we've been in difficult Mercurial territory for ages now. The last Mercury retrograde fell in Sagittarius (November/December, 2011), and there, again, we had Mercury in a tough placement (the sign of its detriment) going through a retrograde and extended transit.

Mercury just catches a little break entering Aries March 2 when it runs straight into a lightning bolt - a conjunction to Uranus in Aries March 5. If not careful, the excitable forward surge of communication and mental function when Mercury enters Aries will amp up the Uranus conjunction, overloading and singeing our circuitry. Pace yourselves. Mercury slowing to station retrograde (1:49 a.m. Central on March 12) with one final dip into Pisces might just seem like a soothing reprieve from the Uranian blast.

This Mercurial action is another Pisces-to-Aquarius transition: Mercury is revved up and raring to go after the conjunction to Uranus in Aries, but not so fast: we have plenty of Piscean insight to go back for. How's that for understatement?

Oddness with communication of all sorts, particularly electronic, can be expected as we mentally ground the Uranian charge and go back into the soupy Pisces mix for full context.

Mercury stations retrograde at 6 degrees Aries March 12. Mercury Rx re-enters Pisces March 23, stationing direct at 23 degrees Pisces April 4. It re-enters Aries April 16, leaving its retrograde shadow April 23.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Babyyyyyy.

Four years ago on February 26, 2008 at 12:39 a.m., I posted my first Willow's Web Astrology post on this site. It's been quite the ride since - personally and on the planet, in general. 

Time is definitely a relative concept at this point. I couldn't tell you whether I've been writing for four months, forty years, or four millennia. Four years is the Earth Time they say has passed, so that's what we'll go with. 

I didn't plan to post the first WWA article at a particular time or on a particular date, as many astrologers would have. The original format wasn't even my own. Another astrology site was looking for an astrologer/writer to write a monthly forecast, and I wrote a couple to send in. When that astrologer passed on them, I held them for a while until asking my friend Saviabella for instruction on how to start my own site. (Thanks, Savia.) 

As I said, there was not much planning or foresight. I just slapped the first two articles up when the mood struck, when I was impelled to do so, all messy-like. And yet, the exact aspects and positions are uncanny. You can see clearly from the chart for Willow's Web Astrology's "birth" the workings of the universe through the lens of astrological intelligence. 

This is a Pluto on zero Capricorn site. That's pretty apparent, I'd say, and it kind of speaks for itself. 

The site's Jupiter is also in Capricorn. 

Willow's Web Astrology site had its birth during the Uranus in Pisces - Neptune in Aquarius mutual reception, and it was certainly meant to be in existence for these times - a true "straddling the ages" navigational enterprise. The site's Aquarius North Node is conjunct Neptune in Aquarius, and Chiron in Aquarius is exactly semi-sextile Uranus in Pisces, increasing the theme. 

Willow's Web Astrology site has a Pisces Sun in the 4th house tightly trine a Scorpio Moon in the 12th. You'd never know, would you? (sarcasm) 

In addition to the Scorpio Moon, the site has a Scorpio Ascendant with true Black Moon Lilith on the 29th degree of Scorpio in the 1st house. 

The site came into existence with Mercury and Venus forming an exact conjunction in Aquarius in the 3rd house. The Mercury-Venus conjunction is loosely conjunct Chiron in Aquarius and square the Scorpio Moon. 

The site has Mars in Gemini in the 8th house exactly trine the Aquarius North Node in the 3rd house and sextile the Leo South Node in the 9th house. 

Saturn was retrograde in early Virgo at the time, tightly conjunct the Virgo Midheaven, trine Pluto in Capricorn, and sextile the Scorpio Moon. 

The site's 2012 Solar Return chart looks to me like a "go balls out" sort of chart, but along pristine channels with pristine filters. Who would expect anything less? 

I was introduced to one of the major Sun sign astrologers a few months ago - a Canadian woman who has gained her reputation by writing syndicated Sun sign horoscopes for newspapers and magazines. She'd written a book letting people know that they are more than just their Sun signs (sort of ironic) and was doing a talk in the city where I live to promote it. I normally wouldn't have known about it, but I was asked to go by an astrologer friend who, it turns out, is this woman's long lost cousin. Talk about weird. 

I was introduced to her as a blogger and as one of the better astrological writers out there, and her reply was, "But have you actually written anything?" 

What she meant, of course, was have I written a book? Because for a lot of people, if you haven't written a book, you aren't considered a real writer. (This despite all the shite books published these days.) 

How can I explain what this site is, what this writing is, to people who don't believe you're legit unless you have a publisher? 

I don't have a publisher. I don't have a book to sell. I'm not sure I ever will - not because I couldn't write one but because I don't know that a book is the way to go. I don't have a fancy website. I didn't even bother migrating to WordPress, the blog site considered more pro. I'm not a member of the associations or societies. I don't attend the conferences. I can't name drop any big name astrologers I've had dinner with recently (I'm more likely to have throwdowns with them, anyway). I'm outside the scene - or maybe at the edge of the scene, practising a form of astrology that doesn't fit neatly into pre-structured channels. 

And I guess that remains a struggle with this site: working and writing as a professional astrologer, and as a DIY punk astrologer, when the markers that would indicate career success - along with the parity with other astrologers who have those markers - are not apparent to a lot of people. When what I do here is diminished in the minds of people who look for daily blog hits in the hundreds of thousands; shiny, new books sitting on bookstore shelves; a book tour; a lecture circuit; magazine articles; candid photos taken with gurus-of-the-day; television appearances; a tiny picture of my face in every newspaper in the country. 

I just can't get all that jazzed about that stuff, you know? 

Maybe it's the site's Leo South Node in the 9th house (publishing). Despite its generally much lower prestige value, I can't imagine anything could usurp the relevance and potency of finger-on-cosmic-pulse blog/internet writing. I mean, what a weird and wonderful thing. Though I would love to have the usual indicators of "success" just to shut people the fuck up and put them in their places, I can't imagine anything more interesting than writing astrology on my own site, in the moment, as it happens. 

Is it a waste to write this way? To offer it up, article after article, to the worldwide web? I don't think so, but I can't be sure. What I do know is there are reasons I started writing this way, there are reasons I'm still writing, and I guess I'll just keep going until I'm advised to stop! 

Here are some of the articles I particularly like from the past 365 days: 

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

From December 6, 2011: Uranus Direct on Zero Aries (The Fukushima Degree) at the Gemini Full Moon Eclipse 

From December 1, 2011: Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

From November 6, 2011: Weeping Willow Designs with Mars in the Last Degrees of Leo Opposite Stationing Neptune in Aquarius and Closing Out a Creative Cycle  

From November 2, 2011: Scorpio on Not Letting it Go Too Soon 

From October 23, 2011: Via Combusta Scorpio New Moon October 26 Opens Into the Dark Half and Sets the Tone for Saturn in Scorpio 2012 - 2015  

From September 18, 2011: New Social Authority For the Pluto in Libra Generation and Blazing the Plutonic Trail Through Relationship Constructs Past  

From July 10, 2011: Ceres Stations Retrograde at Zero Aries Conjunct Uranus and Buying Organic Is a Revolutionary Act 

From June 27, 2011: Warning: You're About to Read a Plutonic Punk Astrologer. Proceed at Your Own Discretion. 

From June 14, 2011: The Law of Attraction Fukushima-Style  

From June 6, 2011: Saturn Stationing Direct in Libra Says: Time to Get Very Serious About Who You Have in Your Life 

From May 24, 2011: Neptune Stations in Pisces and We Head to the Gemini New Moon Entryway Into the Cardinal Grand Cross/Triple Eclipse Summer of 2011 

From May 8, 2011: Canada Day Cardinal Grand Cross Eclipse: Well, Golly Gee Whiz. Look Who's Fuelling the Global Nuclear Industry  

From April 18, 2011: Pluto in Capricorn Retrospective: It's All Just a Norman Rockwell Painting, Isn't It? 

From April 1, 2011 (April Fool's Day post): A Message From Our Starry Brethren at the Galactic Centre  

From March 20, 2011: The Sun Conjunct Uranus at the Zodiac Birth Point Marking Astrological New Year and the "Odyssey Dawns" 

From March 9, 2011: The Precession of the Equinoxes, Shifting Astrological Eras and '2012'