Mercury in Blazing-Hot Catalytic Territory As it Stations Direct

So it's Monday. It's January. And Mercury is stationing direct conjunct Pluto.

Well, then.

"One step ahead of reverse" may sum up the proceedings of this day (or the next couple days, to be honest), but keep inching your way through it. Tackle responsibilities like a champ, step-by-step, even if the steps you're taking are teeny-tiny. This will ease your mind and take some of the Plutonic pressure off.

Communication/intelligence planet Mercury will be in forward-ho motion at 14 degrees Capricorn by this evening (direct station at 3:50 p.m. CST).

Mercury's position (tightly conjunct Pluto in Capricorn and square Uranus in Aries) indicates that communication and information flow this week is all kinds of potent.

Pluto is pulling up some yuck, some buried energy or emotion, forcing potentially uncomfortable "air clearing" exchanges designed to move us beyond old sticking points and unsatisfactory ways of interacting. Mercury crawls forward in the zodiac this week, making one final exact conjunction to Pluto at 15 degrees Capricorn on January 29 (11:58 p.m.).

At the same time, Uranus in Aries is blasting us out of old physical and mental constructs in favour of a new vision, a breath of fresh air, new energy sources, new ways of doing things, a fresh start. Mercury will make one last square to revolutionary Uranus at 17 degrees Aries on January 31 (9:41 p.m.). We may see cracks opening or widening within the current structures for us to move through.

We're finding the catalytic words, perspectives, and ideas that propel us beyond the same old crap.

Some (possibly long overdue) speaking up may be necessary, but, with Mercury in Capricorn, we have to be strategic about it. Don't allow the Plutonic build-up to make you lose your cool or overstep your verbal boundaries, especially at work.

Love, money, values, and relationship planet Venus has also just taken up residence in Capricorn and will repeat the activation of the Uranus-Pluto square with a conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn on February 5 (7:15 p.m.) and a square to Uranus in Aries on February 6 (4:03 p.m.).

Things are a little unsettled with business plans, structure, love, and money! 

People may be on edge this week: touchy, defensive, quick to anger, easily hurt or insulted, fed up, fuming.

Things are building all week to the Mercury-Pluto conjunction on Friday, and if people are not being fully honest or authentic in their dealings with others, Plutonic meltdowns may force that honesty and authenticity. "Well, then. Tell us how you really feel!"

Things are simmering. Energy is trapped within structures, systems, and rules that are no longer humanly possible to upkeep. Trying to continue with "business as usual" may push people past their breaking points now.

But we have to go past those breaking points in order for the necessary changes to come into play. 

The Mercury contacts to Pluto and Uranus indicate that some major structural shifts are in progress, but it's such a slow-burn process of transformation that our quick-footed messenger planet may be getting a little frustrated.

I would encourage patrons to do a quick review of this article for more context on Mercury in Capriocorn's movement and retrograde process: Mercury in Capricorn Triggers the Uranus-Pluto Square Just as it Enters the Retrograde Shadow

The best use of these aspects is to clear any air that needs to be cleared using right timing and the organic Plutonic process. Don't force your words between anybody's ears, but definitely say what you need to say. Words resonate now far beyond the current moment.

New boundaries and lines in the sand may be established now.

Future plans will become solidified as Mercury regains speed direct, perhaps relating to the overall situation and/or the changing conditions on Planet Earth. 

Mercury will re-enter Aquarius on February 13, cooling our hot, little, Plutonically-charged brains. It will leave the retrograde shadow at 1 degree Aquarius on February 14.


"Named must your fear be before banish it you can."

 - Yoda

(Mercury conjunct Pluto)

A 'Best of WWA' Re-Post: Warning: You're About to Read a Plutonic Punk Astrologer. Proceed at Your Own Discretion.

As Mercury backs into a prolonged, slow burn conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn (in effect strongly January 22 to 29), this post on what's it's like to be Plutonic is coming out of the vault, originally posted June 27, 2011:

I'm always surprised when people are surprised that I'm fairly Plutonically hardcore (and so is this blog). It seems evident to me, but with all the Neptunian projection that goes on on the interweb, a disclaimer might be a good way to get it out of the way.

As is the case with most Plutonics/Scorpionics, I don't put up with any crap, and when people try to feed me crap (yes, I see them doing it, and yes, I know it's crap), I refuse it and dump it back in their laps. This generally leaves people miffed and/or stunned, but their crap is not my responsibility.

Some would call me bitchy. I prefer witchy.

That said, Plutonic/Scorpionic types are generally deeply intuitive and accepting of extremes, able to hold the energy of people in various emotional and psychological states - usually because they have experienced some variation of those states themselves. They don't shy away from the more difficult aspects of life, including death.

If you're dealing with a difficult situation (or a difficult life, period), if your life has just imploded, if you have a major case of the transformational yucks, or if you are just royally and righteously pissed off for some reason, someone with a good handle on this energy is the person you would want in your corner. You can tell them what's really going on for you - as long as it's honest and coming from your own experience - and they can not only deal but work with it intricately to help extricate you from the oppressiveness of it, all while empowering you and keeping you out of co-dependency.

It should be known that Plutonics don't let up easily. A dog with a bone. We're pretty close to relentless. We have to be. We're here to expose power dynamics that have been kept buried for millenia as well as the injurious, unjust, and deadly consequences of those buried power dynamics.

We're here to figure out what's killing us so we can expose it and stop it. We're here to reach critical mass, to hit the marks that catalyze real improvement, real change, while providing such unerring, unfaltering evidence that it breaks through the mass denial that has been crystallized into insulating, deadened shrouds.

It's no easy task.

We're working with issues that people will do everything in their power to deny. People will kill (and do) to keep this stuff covered up.

Most would rather deal with a slow, unexamined, day-to-day poisoning that does not require anything of them than be faced with the raw truth of the situation - something they would have to deal with.

Plutonics wouldn't, though. They can't. So they have to dig it out, and they're here to get all of it. Nothing half-assed will do. Any tentacle left behind will attach and re-grow.

Plutonic people can follow a thread for months or years through thorny bramble bushes, over barbed wire, through mucky gutters, past armed guards, finally reaching the root and clearing away the detritus around it. In a lot of cases, as soon as they get it cleared, along comes a boot to kick mountains of earth back over it. Then the boot plants itself in their faces.

But in other cases, not. In other cases, they find the spaces to move through and bring it up to the light of day. This is happening more and more. It's getting easier.

I'm not a fearmonger. I'm also not "negative," "dark," "pessimistic," or any of the other words used to discredit my point-of-view.

As I've said before, I don't see the world through the New Age light/dark, positive/negative filter. I believe that paradigm is an artificial one set up to keep people from their own authentic experience while denying the authentic experience of others - where the power is.

Incidentally, the denigration and demonization of "the dark" has its root in black/white racism and Aryan supremacy - something the New Age is intrinsically connected to.

From Howard Zinn's book A People's History of the United States:

"The colour black was considered distasteful in England. The Oxford English Dictionary defined it as: "Deeply stained with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul. Having dark or deadly purposes, malignant; pertaining to or involving death, deadly; baneful, disastrous, sinister. Foul, iniquitous, atrocious, horribly wicked. Indicating disgrace, censure, liability to punishment, etc."

The colour white, on the other hand, was often used, especially in poetry, to mean beauty, purity, chasteness, what's good and right."

(Black is my favourite colour.)

I'm well aware that the power and spiritual energy of righteous people is stronger than the nasty deeds and tactics being used by the criminally insane/inhumane who call themselves our leaders. That has never been in question.

But I also know the ways in which people's most potent energy and awareness is being diverted, manipulated, and used for ends that are not in their best interests.

I know fascism when I see/feel it. You can dress it up, Photoshop it, call it enlightened - it's still fascism.

So I strip the layers, bit-by-bit, as people kick and scream and fight to hold on, to stay comfortably blanketed in them.

What a Plutonic person knows is that in order for things to change this stuff has to be brought up and fully integrated into collective awareness. People have to be living as if it's real, as if it affects them, and as if the wrongs being brought down are being brought down on them - because this is the case. Decisions have to be made, courses have to be changed, using this awareness, so we keep uncovering and providing it. We keep finding the cracks to widen.

And I guess knowing it can make people feel helpless and hopeless because we're dealing with issues that don't fit into the problem-reaction-solution model - another artificial construct. There are no easy, quick-fix answers. It's almost impossibly complex, complicated, tangled.

But working with this bottom-line reality is what I find meaningful. It's what I find exciting and interesting. Sometimes it's even fun. And it's what makes me a good astrologer.

The soft, sleepy Neptunian clouds are maybe pretty to look at, but I do beauty, not pretty.

I know what has been brought down on the people on this planet, and I know what is still being brought down. The injustice of their injuries and deaths burns in me because it's my own. This is not the ancient past. We are not "ascending" out of it. We do not simply "transcend" what has gone on and what is currently going on. The slaughters and poisonings were brought down 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 40 years ago, a century or two. It's the blink of an eye. It's yesterday. It's just the other side of the Neptunian veil dropped over the eyes of the willing. It's a single step outside the Aquarian virtual realities holding rapt attention.

I know the people who have been hurt because they are me. These are the people whose hearts are with mine. What has been brought down on them has been brought down on me, on us. That's real Pisces - not the separation and transcendence and lovey-lighty, awakey-ascendy glossing over that's being preached and sold these days.

All this smoulders and burns until it is rectified. And until it is out in the open, understood, felt, loved, and dealt with en masse, so do I. So does anyone who feels it as their own. The Plutonics.

At this point, holding the awareness of what has gone on and what is going on is doing something. Making changes and decisions in your own life based on it is doing something. Most people are not doing so. It flits into their minds for a minute or two, maybe, and then it's onto something else.

So for all the Plutonic consciousness comrades out there:

Don't doubt yourself.
Don't ever let them reframe your experience into something more palatable and comfortable for them.
What you're doing, reaching the points of authenticity and honesty that you are reaching, is highly effective, and that's why it's such a threat to those who wish to maintain the establishment status quo as you go. 

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Happy 2016!

Photos: Willow

Well, 2016 is off to a bit of a creaking start under the Mercury retrograde station. It's always a little difficult to get back into the swing of things after holidays, and the communication/information/connection planet standing still in the zodiac is not helping this cause all that much.

Mercury standing nearly still on the first degree of Aquarius, like it is now, does set our sights on the future. It just doesn't let us jump too far ahead. As Mercury changes direction in early Aquarius (the retrograde station was January 5), our focus is held on the earliest phases of the blueprints that take us through this year and closer to a future vision for our lives, for our communities, and for this planet that we'd actually like to live through and experience...

There are some practical and gravity-laden challenges associated with getting to that future vision, however. (The current state of toxic, illegitimate, injurious, and deadly power structures on the planet would be a major one). The rest of Mercury's retrograde period will bring us into contact with some of these challenges.

The way things are being done by the establishment does not make logical sense to anyone with a fully functioning heart and soul.

This is hard on a brain. It's hard on a heart. It's hard on the emotions. Accepting the reality of this is one of the requirements now, one of the ways we succeed during Mercury's retrograde period.

As Venus (values) forms a conjunction to Saturn (establishment/structure/patriarchy) in Sagittarius on January 8, influencing Mercury as it slides back into late Capricorn, we're cementing our own value systems and guiding philosophies as the over-arching righteous force in our lives. We're cementing love as the over-arching righteous force in our lives. Love is the deepest and wisest and most enduring sage. Committing to love and to the loving path (Venus), no matter what, positions us for long-term success (Saturn) now, while also helping us to overcome any fears that may be holding us back in this new year.

Fear is no match for love.

Fear is no match for the love that rings through every cell of your body, radiating from its Central Sun, from the centre of the galaxy that is you.

Under this Venus-Saturn conjunction in Sagittarius, we're committing to the righteousness of what's in our hearts, and in a system intentionally designed to disconnect us at the heart, that alone is a radical act.

We may also be confronted by the values of the current establishment (both what is declared and what is displayed in practise), forced to reject whatever proves false or illegitimate to us.

We're wrapping our minds around all this during the Mercury retrograde (January 5 - 25), extricating our own brains and logical processes from the systems and structures that have run us off a cliff.

We're protecting our own mental health and the mental health of our loved ones from systems and structures intentionally designed to entrap, poison, manipulate, divert, distract, and control.

Mercury will now backtrack to a conjunction to Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Capricorn where it will station direct January 25, still within tight conjunction. This creates an extended, slow-burn Mercury-Pluto conjunction that is strongly in effect during the last 10 days of January, with exact aspects January 22 and January 29.

The protection of our mental space over the next weeks could require the elimination of certain media, contacts, information sources, thought patterns, or communication. It could also force some uncomfortable but necessary interactions as buried feelings, grudges, and resentments come spinning off and up to conscious awareness. A clearing of the air that leaves everything lighter and fresher, like the aftermath of an intense thunderstorm.

Mercury-Pluto contacts are transformative, bringing us to empowering points of steely-eyed clarity. Remember the Plutonic method behind the madness when things get tough. 

Mercury in Capricorn will also fuel itself up via dynamic squares to Uranus in Aries, exact January 20 and January 31. We can expect some charged insights about the way forward as our brains process the energized and erratic impulses of Uranus. Ruminate on your forward-ho vision around these dates. Ruminate on how that vision fits into the collective scene. And allow space for lightning-bolt insights and realizations that change everything. 

(More astro analysis of this Mercury retrograde can be found in this patron article: Mercury in Capricorn Triggers the Uranus-Pluto Square Just as it Enters the Retrograde Shadow)

It may seem that "the way things are" is stepping on our vision and plans in a big way. But the clusterfuck of hell that is the current establishment power structure (trickling down to workplaces, family structures, and personal relationships) is actually giving us the fuel, the motivation, the smarts, and the propulsion to go all the way with it.

We can go a different way - a way that feels better, a way that feels loving, a way that feels right. But we have to know exactly what we're dealing with, exactly where we're starting from, in order to make the right moves.

Our minds are heading back into hell, to a certain extent, as we move into 2016. Our minds are (temporarily) locked on this hell that we must work through, this hell that is really and truly going on on this beautiful planet, this hell that is intentionally being brought down on us, on our loved ones, and on all the precious life on this planet.

Our minds are going back into that clusterfuck (temporarily) so we can understand it from all angles, so we can gain full mental possession, so we aren't scared.

So we aren't too scared to do what we need to do. 

We're mentally working our way out of the last tendrils of manipulation and maya and mindfuckery. How refreshing. How empowering.

And Pluto is all about empowerment, when it comes right down to it. Pluto shows us the dark and dirty so we don't waste our precious time as dupes, as less effective that we truly are or could be.

Mercury re-enters hard-nosed, all-business Capricorn on January 8 just as Venus conjoins Saturn in Sagittarius. (Mercury will re-enter Aquarius on February 13, crossing out of the retrograde shadow just in time for Juno Day on February 14.)

Immediately following Mercury Rx's re-entry into Capricorn on January 8, we experience a Capricorn New Moon at 19 degrees (February 9 at 7:30 p.m. CST), and we really don't have much time for lollygagging at that point. The holiday's officially over coming out of that Capricorn New Moon, and we need to get back to being large and in charge of things in order to feel good about ourselves and our progress.

Until then, slide back into the working grind gradually, allowing plenty of slack-cutting for your fine selves...

Happy 2016, WWA readers! I'm very happy to be your anarchist astro-reporter again this year, pulling news and views out of the cosmos for your navigational assistance. Keep making this planet great!

Hexagon Astrology Magazine Subscription Drive!

Hexagon Issue #2

Hexagon Astrology Magazine, the blazingly awesome new astrology magazine being put out by astrologer/editor Matt Savinar, is having its first subscription drive!

You can check it out here:

Kickstarter Subscription Drive for Hexagon Astrology Magazine 

A one-year subscription (4 issues) can be had for pledges of $55 US or higher.

Canadian subscriptions will be $75 US ($20 shipping). This will be converted for Canadian subscribers when you make your pledge.  

Hexagon Issue #2 will also be available in 335 Barnes and Noble stores in the United States, and further distribution is being worked on. I'm hoping for Canadian distribution, as well, at some point.

If you missed the premier issue of the magazine, which came out in August 2015, there are pledge amounts that will snag you a copy of it, as well. 

The first 144 subscribers (The Original 144) will also receive this highly cool patch as a memento:

Great job, Hexagon team!

Mercury in Capricorn Triggers the Uranus-Pluto Square Just as it Enters the Retrograde Shadow

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury is closing in on a conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn (exact Dec. 19), and words have the ability to pierce to the core.

Mercury-Pluto contacts indicate that the air needs to be cleared in certain arenas, but we are also looking for verbal and communicative (Mercury) caution/maturity/responsibility (Capricorn) so as to avoid any Plutonic shitstorms that linger like your Dad's last bathroom visit.

Mercury will be coming back to all this during its retrograde period in January 2016, so a little strategic verbal caution now makes for a smoother time later...



This is an excerpt from the article, "Mercury in Capricorn Triggers the Uranus-Pluto Square Just as it Enters the Retrograde Shadow." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

The Relationship Planets in "Detrimental" Mutual Reception: Navigating Charged Social and Relational Territory As We Close Out 2015

This is a reminder for all you lovely WWA readers that Venus and Mars are now full-on involved in the "detrimental" mutual reception that carries us to the end of 2015.

Venus is transiting Scorpio until December 30 and Mars is transiting Libra until January 3, 2016. This means both relationship planets are transiting signs of their detriment - signs opposite the ones they naturally rule. This makes for a somewhat challenging period of time in matters of the heart and in matters of money. The social realms and other people, in general, are not simple or easy to deal with now, as we move to solstice and the end of the calendar year 2015. Frictional.

Not only that, but Venus and Mars are in mutual reception in signs of their detriment, meaning they are each transiting a sign ruled by the other planet. (Venus rules Libra; Mars rules Scorpio.) This creates a tightly interwoven energetic scenario, a special affinity and relationship between the two planets, as each traverses the other's turf and gets a whiff of what the other deals with.

In basic terms, we have quite a charged social and relational setting as we move through December. Interactions are a little more loaded and triggering than we may like. Relationships and social scenes are complex. There's a lot going on, especially in the realm of subtext. There are underlying and perhaps previously-hidden connections being activated this December, and many of these connections are soul-deep.

We're working out some of the trickier relationship stuff this month and through the holidays.

In addition to this, we have transiting Black Moon Lilith in Libra, making the dark-and-denied emotional subtext of relationships that much more charged, raw, and potentially triggering.

The denied emotional realities and structural shortfalls of the standard relationship constructs are being stirred, and this can be a little ugly, especially to more mainstream-minded people. The relational truth Black Moon Lilith is stirring this December is often denied, ignored, and shunted aside by mainstream society. "Proper people" leave all this unacknowledged.

Only those with strong Black Moon Lilith energy running through their souls simply can't do that...

From a previous post October 27, 2015, "A Couple Welcome Shifts With a Side of Mutual Reception Relational Angst as We Close Out 2015":

"You can kind of feel it, though, can't you? The unfinished business from this summer's Venus retrograde in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio? You really didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you? This is the backwash from that Venus in Leo retrograde with all the break-ups, make-ups, social shifting, and new couples emerging.

And we get into it this December and for the holidays.

You can dress up a failing relationship in all its holiday finery, but with these transits, you can't cover up the underlying problems bringing about a slow collapse.

You can gloss over social tensions with trumped-up holiday cheer and goodwill, but underneath, the teeth are still gnashing. The relational friction is still grating.

The holidays this year provide a distinct challenge to new couples, to newly separated or divorced people, and to couples who are holding their existing relationships together by a thread.

Complex territory.

It's hard to pretend in our relations with others when Venus is transiting Scorpio, that's for certain. Both love and hate run deeply and intensely with this placement - often both at the same time. Money issues, especially in relationship, get sticky. Our value systems can clash on very deep and fundamental levels.

Venus gets a good dose of the shittier aspects of human beings and of human relations in Scorpio. It gets a snoutful of the nastier aspects of human relationships and the energy dynamics that pass between and among us: the manipulation, the artifice, the using and abusing, the power struggles, the betrayals, the full-out hatred and undermining of each other.

Venus in Scorpio has to deal with stone, cold reality in human relationships. Anything else is sheer poison. Anything else will end in it getting screwed. There is no Libran glossing over, pretending, compromising, smiling to make others comfortable. Transiting Venus in Scorpio this December is going to get into it, make no mistake about it. All we can do is: avoid what (and whom) we can, avoid getting overly involved in dramas, and keep our distance and our balance socially wherever possible.

With anger, aggression, and war planet Mars in smile-and-it-all-goes-away Libra until January 3, keeping our poise and our balance socially is going to be no small feat. We're navigating some major social friction as we close out 2015 and begin 2016.

But it has to be navigated. If Saturn in Scorpio taught us anything, it's that we can't shove this stuff under the rug anymore. It's too damaging. It's too harmful. Someone gets stuck holding the bag. Someone gets hurt. Someone gets stuck processing the heaping helping of unresolved collective emotion, and that simply isn't fair.

Libra and ruling planet Venus, above all, seek what's fair.

So the best way to deal with this mutual reception of Venus and Mars in signs of their detriment as we move through December and close out 2015 is to proactively and realistically deal with whatever we can as it comes up.

You know what? We don't all get along. We shouldn't all come into contact with each other. Some people - even family members - are best avoided. Some social situations are best avoided. Certain combinations of people create a bad reaction. Certain combinations of people are actually dangerous. Certain relationships should have a skull and crossbones sign on them."

Under the progressive (yet inflammatory) energy of the Mars in Libra - Uranus in Aries opposition this December, we can move into this new era of reality-based honesty in relationships of all kinds - so long as we gather the courage to go.

The angsty Venus-Mars mutual reception in signs of detriment, along with transiting Black Moon Lilith in Libra, is designed to draw the poison out of our relationships and social scenes. We can "get real" here in ways that are desperately needed and amazingly freeing.

So hold your true emotional bottom line as we close out 2015, and work from there - even if it is uncomfortable territory.

Encourage and assist others to get to their true emotional bottom lines, as well - even if this is uncomfortable territory.

Stick to the bare bones truth. Don't be triggered into saying too much or getting overly involved in dramatic scenarios. There is a particular caution on this front as transiting Mercury conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn on December 19 (12:56 p.m. CST), squares stationing Uranus in Aries December 20 (9:07 p.m.), and then conjuncts female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene in Capricorn on December 22 (5:05 a.m.).

Words are potent and potentially triggering December 18 - 22. Nonetheless, the air must be cleared in certain arenas!

Everything pushes to a culmination point at the Full Moon on December 24/25 (3 degrees Cancer), followed by the Uranus direct station at 16 degrees Aries, also on December 25. This makes for a fairly energetically over-the-top Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Above all, don't lose the love this holiday season. Hold the love, hold it tight, even for the most difficult of people. Hold the love as we all work out our own emotional bottom lines, as we all work out the complex and intricate machinations of these human hearts.

Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays, and Happy 2016, WWA readers!

This writing, as always, comes to you from my own hardcore, Plutonic punk Venus in Scorpio heart. It is my love to you - straight-up, no chaser.

New Moon in Sagittarius: The Integration of the Sobering Truth Shall Set Us Free

We are currently moving to a 19-degree Sagittarius New Moon, exact at 4:29 a.m. CST on December 11.

The Sun and Moon in Sagittarius generally have a buoyant and inspiring feel to them, indicating an over-arching freedom of spirit that uplifts no matter what our circumstances may be.

The availability of this uplifting energy is a very good thing, as the Moon will be in the sign of its fall - deep, dark, tooth-gnashing Scorpio - leading in to the New Moon on Friday.

The Moon will also form a conjunction to Saturn in Sagittarius as it completes its Balsamic or Dark phase (exact at 9:02 a.m. on December 10), drawing the energy of the "sobering truth" into the proceedings for the following 28-day lunar cycle.

We'll need some cosmic assistance to buoy our spirits as we work with the heavier emotional tenor indicated by this Moon-Saturn conjunction...

The themes outlined in this article will be in effect for the 28-day lunar cycle that ends with the Capricorn New Moon on January 9, 2016.

This is an excerpt from the patron article, "New Moon in Sagittarius: The Integration of the Sobering Truth Shall Set Us Free." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

Powering Up Into Full-On Aquarian-Era Relationship Dynamics With Mars and Venus in Cardinal T-Square

Maintain your fences.

Photo: Willow 

Mars is currently transiting Libra (the sign of its detriment) until January 3, 2016, while Venus is also in Libra (the sign of its domicile) until December 4, 2015.

When desire planet Mars is in Libra, we want relationships and a social life, but we also want balance, peace, and harmony.

You can see the conflict right off the bat, considering the often non-peaceful state of human affairs on this planet today...

Mars is often an inflammatory body, and transiting Mars in Libra indicates the possibility of an irritating and sometimes angering effect in the social realms. (Constant war manoeuvres and manipulative false flag events staged by Global Government will do that.) 

A "charged social setting" can be expected under this transit, and Mars will be stirring this particular pot into the new year. Social factioning can also be expected, so navigate the dividing lines as carefully, diplomatically, and peacefully as possible without compromising yourself. 

This is the war planet (Mars) in the sign of peace (Libra). It's the planet of sex and unabashed desire (Mars) in the sign of social niceties and romance (Libra).

Again, you see the conflict.

Both Venus and Mars in Libra are involved in cardinal t-square formations over the next few weeks as they first square Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Capricorn and then oppose radical, revolutionary Uranus in Aries.

Venus will move through the at-times frictional Pluto-Uranus gauntlet exactly from November 20 to 23. This action is sandwiched between Neptune's direct station on November 18 (7 degrees Pisces) and Chiron's direct station November 27 (16 degrees Pisces). Saturn in Sagittarius will also form a square to Neptune in Pisces on November 26.

In addition to the ramping up of the global war machine (or maybe just the mainstream press coverage of it), this indicates a potent shedding process in relationships and in ways of relating as we transition more fully out of Piscean-era relationship constructs, rules, and ideals.  

We're officially busting our relationships and social scenes into cooler, fresher, and more Aquarian-styled territory, as we move deeper into the new eight-year relationship cycle kicked off this past summer with the Venus retrograde in Leo.

Under these aspects, it's possible to leave much of the longing, the pining, the fantasizing, the whinging, and the crying behind us. That Piscean-era sad sack, heart-wrenched, love = pain stuff can be dropped like the stinking pile of crud that it is - but only if we're willing to make the move. 

 

Mars kicks up these relational era-shift themes again as it re-activates the cardinal t-square from December 6 to 10.

If we didn't get the memo the first time around, Mars is going to whip things up into a situation that requires definitive action on our parts.

If we did get the memo, we will be required to hold a hard Aquarian line in relationships and social settings. We're moving ahead. There's no time for karmic loops or love delusions that get us nowhere.

We're looking for self-contained. We're looking for detached yet friendly. We're looking for interactions and relationships that are clean, independent, no hidden strings, no draining dynamics.

We're looking for interactions and relationships that allow us to be exactly who we are, while allowing room for others to be exactly who they are, as well.

We're looking for interactions and relationship dynamics that don't require a pound of flesh. 

A little turbulence - personally, professionally, or both - could be experienced during the acute cardinal t-square periods as we are positioned and oriented for social/relationship success in the new astrological era.

We are now operating under a new relationship rulebook, and these cardinal t-squares give us a little extra push, a little extra courage, to experiment with this and to implement it in our daily lives. We are supported now by the dynamic energy of these transpersonal planets to make moves and to take quantum leaps in relationship that we didn't even think were possible. 

At the same time, human relations have a definite edge to them during these periods of time (November 20 - 23 and December 6 - 10), as we are forced to drop outmoded ways of relating while simultaneously adopting more vital methods.

These are transpersonal planets we're dealing with, so we're dealing with broad, collective shifts and how they trickle down to our personal relations. In other words, this energy has a mind of its own. It has its own blueprint for how things are supposed to look and be in human relationships in the early stages of the astrological Aquarian era, and we have to follow along as closely as we can.

So stand back and insulate yourself from any pissy Plutonic exchanges or dramatics over the next few weeks. They're designed for movement. Some of the "honesty-and-reality checks" coming from others around these times may cut to the core. 

At the same time, open all the doors and windows to facilitate the fresh, Uranian/Aquarian breeze blowing through relationships and social scenes of all kinds.

Relationships, as we bust loose into the rip-roarin' Aquarian era, are harder-angled and more eccentrically-constructed than the Piscean era versions. They're harder to get a handle on. They're more unpredictable, off-and-on, hot-and-cold. They involve unusual (yet exciting) combinations of people. These emerging new-era relations are challenging, to say the least, and this is part of the frustration during the current transit of Mars through Libra. But they're also oh-so-exhilarating.

You mean we don't have to set relationships up in the same, old, stale-ass ways? We don't have to follow the same stultifying social conventions? We don't have to put up with the same old crap? You mean we don't really have to put up with any crap, if we don't choose to?

It's true. Try it.

Things are different now in relationships and in social settings. Who we're attracted to and who is considered a good match for us (in love, friendship, or business) may be shifting dramatically now. What we want and need in relationships and in social settings may be shifting, stripped down to the essentials, to the immediate.

Independence and self-reliance are becoming much more valued traits. "Co-dependence as love" is less attractive by far. 

Don't try to force things (or people) to meet your expectations or long-held ideals. Don't be disappointed if it doesn't look how you thought it would look. This will be many times better.

For more on the sassy little end-of-the-year mutual reception we have with the relationship planets in signs of their detriment: A Couple Welcome Shifts With a Side of Mutual Reception Relational Angst as We Close Out 2015

Neptune and Chiron Station Direct in Pisces, Bringing the Anesthetic Effect

Psychedelic Haight-Ashbury, no Photoshopping

Photo: Willow

We've just experienced a strong concentration of energy along the Virgo/Pisces polarity, which - this far into fin-de-Piscean-era - can be a bit much to handle.

A Venus-Mars-Jupiter sandwich in Virgo opposite wounded healer Chiron in Pisces was the main event for late October/early November 2015, and we have just barely moved beyond the acute stress and problems kicked up under that configuration. (Both Venus and Mars have now moved into early Libra.)

Jupiter makes everything bigger, while Virgo is related to, among other things, mental stress, worry, and problems. So we have problems (Virgo) being made bigger (Jupiter) and more stressful as one effect of this Jupiter in Virgo transit. Oh, good times.

Coming out of that configuration, we now have both Neptune and Chiron stationing direct in Pisces with Chiron still within range of the opposition to Jupiter (which will be exact again in February and August of 2016), and this can have a bit of a wet blanket effect, depending on your personal astrology.

Physical reality can feel heavy and burdensome as Pisces energy concentrates in the astro atmosphere, and this effect is exacerbated at the moment as the karmic South Node of the Moon has just entered Pisces, as well (November 11). People are under the effect of illusion and delusion more strongly now, and decisions and commitments can be reversed very easily. Things are not entirely as they seem (ahem, watch for those false flags) with Chiron and Neptune in Pisces flooding the psyche so strongly.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, though! Take a meditative approach to cleaning, cooking, hygiene, and daily details, and give yourself plenty of praise and encouragement (Jupiter) for completing even the smallest and simplest of tasks (Virgo). You flossed your teeth, cleaned your shower, clipped your fingernails? Go, you!

This is a re-post (with updated transit information) of an article from the last time Neptune and Chiron stationed direct, in November 2014. The themes are still just as applicable:


"Pisces is the sign of the most sublime spiritual bliss and also of the harshest disappointments, loss, and devastation known to humankind. It's the idea of the lotus flower, blossoming beautifully out of some of the dankest and most difficult muck this planet has to offer. It is the idea of being invisibly bound together by the trials and tribulations of the human condition but also by the love, sweet love, that brings us through it all.

All this is woven into our reality this November as we have two bodies stationing direct in Pisces - Neptune (in its home sign) stations direct at 7 degrees Pisces on November 18, while wounded healer Chiron stations direct at 16 degrees Pisces on November 27.

The dual stations in the sign of Pisces can bring some grogginess, some dreaminess, and some general mind fog. Everything is a bit weirder and a bit more surreal under the energy of these stations. The veil between the material and the immaterial is just a bit thinner. Taps on the shoulder from the universe are a bit stronger. We perceive the other side communicating with us a bit more clearly.
 
I've written about Neptune stations in the past, and I will include it here for your perusal. The themes are similar for the Chiron in Pisces station November 27:

From "Neptune Stations Direct and Brings the Foggy, the Floaty, the Wispy, and the Surreal," November 9, 2012:

When a planet appears to slow in the zodiac to station either retrograde or direct, we often experience a palpable concentration of that planet's energy and themes.

Neptune is the planet associated with, among other things, dreams; illusions; spiritual communion and guidance; psychic connection; the unconscious; sublime artistic ability; surreality; escapism; oceans; fluids; flooding; permeation; blind spots; smokescreens; fraud; deception; and addictions...

With stationing Neptune permeating the astro atmosphere, we can expect a few of the following symptoms to be kicked up... 

- Dreams can be much more vivid and involved. They can have a "journeying" quality, as if we have traveled through many other worlds, and we can wake up feeling more tired than when we went to bed. Prophetic or foreshadowing dreams are more common.

- Sleep can be deeper, as if we're falling off into utter abyss and have to drag ourselves out and back into waking life. We may sleep longer or more often than usual, and people can continue to have a sleepy, dreamy quality throughout the waking hours. The standard afternoon coffee just doesn't cut it!

- We can experience disrupted sleep with odd periods of wakefulness in the night.

- "Cosmic winks" and communication from the universe are more apparent. It can sometimes feel as if the radio or TV is communicating directly to you. A stronger than usual feeling that you are not alone.

- Daydreaming increases. Imagery from the mind's eye is clearer and more active than usual and can be distracting in day-to-day life.

- Our psychic space is more permeable when Neptune is strong, and we have to carefully filter the heightened impressions we're receiving.

- People can be more impressionable, easily swayed, and prone to wishful thinking, particularly with love relationships. We can be convinced of things when Neptune is strong that we could not be convinced of at other times. The standard, "What was I thinking?" In the same way that we can believe a dream we've had is real, it's possible to believe things are one way when all logical conclusions (and later, hindsight) would indicate otherwise.

- We can be more easily deceived by people, missing major character flaws because we're blinded by the good in them, by their "spiritual auras," or by their potential.

- Plumbing problems are more likely. A low water level for flushing toilets, in particular, is common during Neptune stations.

- Personal plumbing issues are also more likely. Urinating more than usual or having to use a (hopefully natural) diuretic to assist urination. (Uva Ursi works well.) Urinary tract irritation is more common when Neptune is strong, so avoid soft drinks, caffeine, and alcohol, and increase intake of water and real cranberry juice.

- There can be a strong jonesing for drugs and/or alcohol.

- But we are also more easily altered and affected by drugs and alcohol.

- Food allergies and sensitivities can be heightened. We're craving "fun and easy" foods, but they can have ill effects.

- We can be more sensitive to perfumes and scents.

- There can be a giddy, giggly, intoxicating quality in the air. Neptunian whiffs of ether.

- People can be more sensitive than usual and their feelings more easily hurt. There is stronger sensitivity to the suffering in the world, and people are more easily brought to tears when Neptune is strong. The Neptunian waterworks. People may choose more isolation than usual to offset this heightened sensitivity.

- We can spend money on things, particularly on frivolous things, that we wouldn't ordinarily spend money on. When Neptune is strong, we crave escapism, entertainment, and ease from the daily grind. Pizza delivery and Chinese take-out must see an increase in business!

- The simplest daily tasks can seem irritating and overwhelming. Multi-tasking is more difficult.

- People may embrace their inner dirty hippie and skip a few showers. Personal hygiene is one of those daily tasks that can seem impossibly arduous when Neptune is strong.

- It can be difficult to make ourselves fully understood, as if we are yelling underwater. People may pick up on one layer of what we're saying without grasping the full meaning.

- Generally, a lot of projection is flying around. People could be interacting with their own fabricated versions of who you are, rather than anything based in reality.

- Strongly Neptunian/Piscean people can usually be spotted by a sort of dreamy, shrouded, faraway look around the eyes. The area around the eyes can appear a little shadowed and hollowed-out."

So cut yourself (and others) a little slack this month as the unseen realms demand more of our energy and mental/psychic space. Understand that we're all a little haunted right now, and we're all a little confused at times. Maintain focus (especially while driving!), stay active however you can, even in the smallest of ways, and don't let the Piscean/Neptunian anesthetic effect take you under. 

Canada's Vested Interest in the Protection of the Nuclear Industry Via Continued Lies About Fukushima

Dana Durnford, the man who spent months documenting missing, sick, and dying marine life along the British Columbia coast, was recently arrested and charged with criminal harassment for calling out two soft-on-nuclear individuals in a YouTube video. (You can see Dana's work at his site, The Nuclear Proctologist, or on his YouTube channel, BeautifulGirlByDana.)

In an ongoing illustration of the backwards-ass world in which we live, a man who is telling the truth about Fukushima is being made a criminal by those who are downplaying the very real dangers of Fukushima fallout, thereby exposing the public to more health risk through ignorance.

The federal government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported in April 2015 that radioactive fallout from Fukushima had just been detected "on North American shores for the first time."

As is the standard line from establishment media and government regarding Fukushima, the public was told that the findings were no big deal, nothing to worry about.

(The truth is, there is no level of man-made radioactive isotopes that is safe to ingest. It all carries a risk. Even low-level radiation exposure can cause catastrophic health damage.) 

From the article:

"Trace amounts of radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have been detected on North American shores for the first time, but researchers say the amount of radiation is not a concern."

Two of the "researchers" interviewed in the article, Jay Cullen and Ken Buesseler, are the standard nuclear industry gatekeepers being held up in mainstream media as experts in order to placate the public.

These men, being held up as "experts" on the Fukushima fallout situation in Canada and the U.S., are testing sea water samples, rather than sea life (algae, kelp, fish, seals, whales, etc.) where the radioactivity actually accumulates, to determine the level of contamination. Testing sea water samples is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Their methodology is flawed, making any results they find close to meaningless. But that doesn't stop mainstream media from holding up these Fukushima-downplayers as supposed experts every chance it gets... 

Now, in order to understand the level of lying, manipulation, and complicity among the establishment scientists and media outlets, we have to look to the roots of the situation. We have to look to the allegiances. We have to follow the money trail.

New Life in the Dark and Dormant Places at the Scorpio New Moon

We experience a New Moon at 19 degrees Scorpio tomorrow at 11:47 a.m. CST, indicating emotional resurrection, mystery, new life brought to dark places, a sexual surge.

Things long dormant start to move. Painful at first, maybe, but the desire for life overpowers the fear or pain. The desire to get out of the dark becomes the strongest motivator there is. If there's a chance that the long night of the soul is over, we'll take it.

New insight, intuition, and soul stirrings open doorways that were previously locked and deadbolted. Places inside ourselves we had locked away - through hurt, neglect, or betrayal - start to come back to life.

The Sabian Symbol for this Moon is a beautiful one: "A Woman Drawing Aside Two Dark Curtains That Closed the Entrance to a Secret Pathway."

Over this next 28-day lunar month, the still and secret places in our psyches and souls can be touched, rejuvenated, resurrected. How incredible. After all that, our souls want to try again.

We simply can't resist.

Happy All Hallow's Eve, All You Ghouls and Goblins, Witches and Gypsies!

SCORP!

I love, love, love this day of the year!

I really just use Hallowe'en as an excuse to wear temporary tattoos, fishnet stockings, and glamourous make-up looks.

Happy Hallowe'en, Merry Samhain, and Enjoy the Entrance into the Dark Half of the Year from your anarchist astro-reporter (and "slightly slutty witch" for my shift at the redneck bar tonight), Willow.

We are under the influence of a lovely and ethereal Grand Water Trine today with the Moon at home in Cancer, the Sun in Scorpio, and Neptune in Pisces. This makes for a very strong spirit component. The spooky/otherworldly vibe we know and love on Hallowe'en is emphasized even further under this Grand Water Trine. The veil between worlds is even thinner. Interesting things can happen with this much water in the skies.

Have a safe and enjoyably spooky night, all!