Mercury Busts Out of the Retrograde Shadow, and Things Pick Up Speed

So mooooooo-ve it!

Photos: Willow

We are now gradually moving out of the edgy, mental stress and challenge indicated by an extended square between Mercury in Aries and Saturn in Capricorn. 

Messenger planet Mercury was retrograde in Aries from March 22 to April 15, forming three squares to Saturn in Capricorn during its transit of Aries (the final one April 25), and this indicated a complex and somewhat stressful start to spring in the northern hemisphere.

(Not to mention below normal temperatures in locations worldwide. Chiron on 29 degrees Pisces, the degree associated with the last day of winter, coincided with a winter that didn't want to end!)

We're now moving forward, but we've certainly been required to work for it every step of the way.

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury is putting the pedal to the metal as it breaks free of the Saturnine hold that has added challenge and hard work and strategy and complication and complexity to our fresh, spring plans. 

Mercury busts out of its retrograde shadow at 16 degrees Aries on May 3 and moves out of orb of the square to Saturn, now retrograde, in Capricorn by May 5.

This indicates a strong propulsion forward, and we must be prepared for it. After biding our time and working through challenges and making adjustments to the delayed timing indicated by Mercury retrograde and Mercury square Saturn, we must now be ready for things to take off quite quickly! The connections we're making, the conversations we're having, and the information we're sharing are bringing us onto new ground. The territory we have been striving to reach is about to get here fast, and this brings new challenges and requirements for successful navigation. 

Mercury in Aries will move into a particularly cardinal-dynamic period on May 12 and 13, as it forms a square to action planet Mars at 28 degrees Capricorn (May 12 at 6:30 a.m. PDT) and a conjunction to revolutionary Uranus at 29 degrees Aries (May 13 at 3:50 a.m.).

The Mercurial action around this time indicates particularly potent movement, as Mars will be just inside its retrograde shadow at 28 Capricorn at the time of the square (returning to these themes again in late August). Uranus will be in the final minutes of the sign of Aries at the time of the Mercury-Uranus conjunction, ahead of the Uranus ingress of Taurus on May 15. 

The Mercury-Uranus conjunction at 29 Aries is actually the last non-lunar aspect to Uranus before it enters the sign of the bull. This indicates the potential for mental breakthroughs, hot ideas, and startling/exciting realizations as Mercury and Uranus conjoin on the potent anaretic degree of Aries. The Moon will also be in Aries on May 13, forming a square to Mars in Capricorn and a conjunction to Uranus, and this amps up the potency of these aspects. We're fully immersed in the drive into new terrain. 

We can expect big, bold movement around this time, especially movement that we have been working for throughout the Mercury retrograde process. Some breakthrough moments are indicated as we break new trail and hit our strides.

However, there is also an indicator of some "peak stress moments" hitting around these times, as well. 

Mercury moves into grounded Taurus on May 13 (5:40 a.m.), immediately following the "too hot to handle" conjunction to Uranus at 29 Aries.

Mercury transiting Taurus indicates that a bit more of a mellow mindset is possible in the last two weeks of May, and this comes as a relief after the extended stress and charge of the Mercury in Aries retrograde in square aspect to Saturn in Capricorn. 

A nice, stabilizing trine between Mercury in Taurus and Saturn Rx in Capricorn occurs on May 18, and these two bodies are working together from much more harmonious angles. This earth trine should soothe some of the frayed nerves and raw mental states following the hard-angled cardinal energies we've been navigating.

May 18 also appears to be a fortuitous date to plant a garden! This date follows the 24-degree Taurus New Moon on May 15 and will involve Mercury in Taurus exactly trine Saturn Rx in Capricorn, as well as the Moon quite comfortable in its domicile of Cancer.

If one is planting according to the lunar cycle, it is said that plants that grow above ground should be planted between the New Moon and the Full Moon. Plants that grow underground should be planted from the Full Moon to the Balsamic Moon. The Moon in a water or earth sign is considered fortuitous for planting, and Moons in air or fire signs are said to be less fortuitous. 

So the Taurus New Moon on May 15, the day of the Uranus ingress, provides an official opening into Gardening Season 2018 (except for you lucky people who can garden almost year-round).

I generally plant my gardens intuitively, when I have the time and energy to plant, as I'm sure most people do these days. I also don't generally plant the above ground plants and the below ground plants at different points in the lunar cycle. But since the astrology seems to be lining up nicely, I may pay a little closer attention to it this year.

It's been a long haul, friends, but as Mercury burns its way into new degrees of the zodiac as of May 3, we're over the hump. 

Happy Gardening, and enjoy the warm and sunny weather!

Mars Enters the Retrograde Shadow of a Highly Uranian Retrograde Period

Action planet Mars, exalted in Capricorn, is currently activating the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square (yes, it's STILL within orb) ahead of a very Uranian (unpredictable, erratic, surprising, forward-thinking) Mars retrograde period from June 26 to August 27, 2018.

We're moving into a period of "goals assessment" - determining which goals we have successfully met, which goals must now be released or re-jigged, and which new goals must be committed to at this time.

With most of the Mars retrograde occurring in Aquarius, we are focused on forward-thinking and far-reaching goals that propel us into a preferable future. We're looking to advance the play on multiple fronts (personally and collectively), turning our ideas and concepts (Aquarius) into action (Mars).

Mars goes retrograde once every two years, and in basic terms, Mars retrogrades involve reviewing the personal trajectory we have taken in the prior two-year period, determining how effective our actions and ways have been.

During these retrogrades, we re-visit our use of will, desire, motion, physical energy, aggression, and sexuality, and we also make adjustments as we set off on a new two-year action and goal cycle.

We re-visit what we wanted and whether we achieved it, but we also review the continuing value of certain goals altogether. What we once wanted may not be what we want now. Mars retrograde periods give us a chance to update our goals, our trajectories, and our methods for achieving our goals.

Mars forms a conjunction to Pluto at 21 degrees Capricorn on April 26, and we are asked to get smarter, more streamlined, and more cunning in the ways that we fight (Mars) corruption and general bullshit (Pluto) on this planet, particularly in the patriarchal hierarchies and institutions (Capricorn) of the day.

Mars in Capricorn now slowly forms a dynamic square aspect to revolutionary Uranus as Uranus enters the new sign of Taurus on May 15, and to be quite frank, all bets are off.

We are heading into a very Uranian Mars retrograde period this summer which will be followed by a very Uranian Venus retrograde period this fall.

False Flags, the Friday the 13th Bombing of Syria, and Timed War Attacks with Chiron at 29 Pisces/Zero Aries

Wounded healer Chiron is currently on the final degree of the zodiac (29 Pisces), about to enter the first degree of the zodiac (zero Aries) on April 17.

This is a highly symbolic area, related to powerful endings and beginnings all rolled into one, and this oh-so-potent end point/birth point zone has been used by the current global fascist regime as a marker to time war attacks in the past. 

When Uranus was on this 29 Pisces/zero Aries point in March 2011, we experienced the illegal bombing of Libya and the assassination of Gadaffi by NATO forces. The illegal attack against Libya by the United States government and allies coincided with covert nuclear warfare being unleashed at Fukushima, Japan with the destruction of the Daiichi nuclear power plants, subsequent explosions, and ongoing releases of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean ecosystem is now in a state of collapse, most often erroneously being blamed on climate change or even plastic in the ocean.

Now, as wounded healer Chiron activates this 29 Pisces/zero Aries point again, there is a new illegal war attack unfolding, this time against Syria. United States, British, and French armed forces initiated the new round of bombings on Friday the 13th - April 13, 2018 - with Chiron on 29 degrees Pisces, just ahead of the ingress of Aries on April 17.

Pretty boy elitist and lapdog of the NWO, Justin Trudeau, has pledged his allegiance to psychopath U.S. vice-president Mike Pence, committing Canadian armed forces to the farce.

The Astrology of the Bombing of Syria on April 13, 2018 with Chiron at 29 degrees Pisces, about to ingress Aries April 17 - click image to enlarge

This new round of bombings follows what can only be an orchestrated false flag in the form of chemical weapons attacks against a refugee camp of Syrian civilians at Douma on April 8, 2018.

Whenever I hear "chemical weapons attacks" in the media these days, I think, "Iraqui Soldiers Stealing Preemie Babies Out of Incubators." It's all a sham and a scam, folks - except for the bombing and the slaughter. Unfortunately, that's real.

Chiron Enters Aries and Uranus Enters Taurus: Healing the Divisions or Creating Deeper Fractures As We Move from Orchestrated Identity Wars to Orchestrated Class Wars

"Chiron Enters Aries and Uranus Enters Taurus: Healing the Divisions or Creating Deeper Fractures As We Move from Orchestrated Identity Wars to Orchestrated Class Wars" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons. 

If you regularly find Willow's Web Astrology blog insightful or helpful, please consider becoming a patron. Patrons receive juicy astrological articles to their email inboxes that are not available on the blog. 

Chiron in Aries: April 17, 2018 to April 14, 2027

Chiron retrogrades back into late Pisces (29 - 27 degrees) from September 26, 2018 to February 17, 2019

Uranus in Taurus: May 15, 2018 to April 26, 2026

Uranus retrogrades back into late Aries (29 - 28 degrees) from November 6, 2018 to March 6, 2019

Juno in Pisces and Our Relationship With Illusion at the end of the Astrological Piscean Era

Soul mate asteroid Juno entered Pisces on February 24, 2018 for a transit that will last until April 28. Juno in Pisces adds a bit of a supernatural element to things - stronger spiritual, psychic, or etheric connections that are working away behind the scenes.

Juno in Pisces indicates a web of ethereal connections that transcend time, space, and location with certain threads being plucked at certain times throughout the transit. As particular threads are plucked, we start to see and sense connections to other people, times, locations, and eras that may have been invisible previously.

Part of the beauty of the human condition is that we are connected at the heart and soul to others who have experienced similar things as we have during their time on the planet. We're never truly alone. These shared experiences create a psychic imprint that is accessible and relatable no matter what era we're living in. It's perhaps the more painful and isolating experiences that create the deepest and most long-lived bonds, the strongest psychic connections that endure through time and space. 

Juno in Pisces connects us at our most vulnerable places, in the most poetically painful or bittersweet of human experiences.

From a previous article: 

"With Juno in Pisces, we are also working with "soul mates" where the connection we have is almost entirely unseen, etheric, and non-tangible. These are individuals we feel some connection to (desired or not) that cannot be fully explained logically. Juno is a complex and often frictional symbol, and this indicates we are working our way out of energetic entanglements we have with people that are almost purely psychic or etheric.  

Simultaneously, we are finding sometimes surprising moments of communion as we see evidence of the unbreakable love of the universe, and our spirits are shored up." 

Juno transiting Pisces indicates a period of time when we are working intricately with our relationship to illusion - a textbook Pisces theme.

With transiting Juno in Pisces, the soul mates in our lives may be helping us with these illusions in some way - perhaps drawing attention to areas where the rose-coloured glasses are a little thick or providing experiences that pop our Neptunian bubbles and bring us back to reality.

Under this transit, we may be bothered more than usual by people trying to portray "the perfect life" or "the perfect relationship" through media or social media. (Narcissistic tendencies are another Piscean/Neptunian theme, and we have more than enough of those going around these days...)

At the same time, we may have soul mates who are helping us to see through these carefully-curated lifestyles and immaculately-filtered images. Once we pop an illusion, once we disrupt the glossy surface sheen, once we see that there is no such thing as "the perfect life" or "the perfect relationship" or "the perfect Instagram filter," there's really no going back. There's no going back to a time when we were fooled by those things.

And at that point, we really have to ask: why are so many people putting so much time, effort, and money into portraying this false image of lifestyle-perfection? Why are people creating lifestyle illusions designed only to make other people covet their lives and what they have?

It's a little pathological, really, isn't it? 

We are now officially in the astrological Age of Aquarius, but there are still plenty of old, Piscean-era ghosts traipsing around and old, Piscean-era illusions left to dissipate.

The high romanticism of the standard Neptunian love story is one illusory element that may need to be put in tighter check under this Juno in Pisces transit. 

Within the pages of a classic English novel, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester find blissful union, at last, long last, as two halves of the same soul meet in holy matrimony. A fictional love to make your heart ache, feverish that you may never find its equivalent. And in real life, its author Charlotte Bronte marries a clergyman she is merely fond of - no great, melting love of her life - after watching her entire family perish one-by-one, only to die herself while pregnant soon after being wed. 

How's that for a sobering reality check?

How many of the great historical love stories, so implanted in the collective psyche and so sought after, have been myth, illusion, just a good story?

And how many of the great Facebook or Instagram love stories are cut from that same cloth?

We have now planted our flags on the Aquarian-era side of things and are looking to create a more rational and realistic version of romance and of life, in general. Even if we aren't looking to do that - that's the path to greater success, veering away from the highly-idealized and soft-lit versions of love, romance, and "lifestyle" that generally end in disappointment and bad feelings.

We're looking to maintain that beautiful Piscean love and connection, but we're doing it with our feet on the ground, with a keen eye toward egalitarian love, rather than a love that places anyone or anything on a pedestal. 

A 27-degree Pisces New Moon conjunct wounded healer Chiron on March 17 (Happy St. Pat's!) stirs the associated themes, and this continues through the following 28-day lunar cycle. 

Juno will form a conjunction to Neptune at 14 degrees Pisces on March 26, 2018, and the soul mate lessons here involve the differentiation between real Piscean love, spirituality, understanding, and communion...and the highly-illusory, highly glossed-up cardboard cutout versions we see portrayed so often through media and social media.

Chiron is very potent in late Pisces during this lunar month, traversing the final degrees of the zodiac. Big, collective karmic wallops possible. 

On a personal level, we may find ourselves a little haunted, a little hamstrung by all the psychic threads we're connected to, even beyond this Pisces season. But the fiery-potent 26-degree Aries New Moon conjunct Uranus and Eris on April 15 releases us from some of the old etheric webs. It burns up some of these webs, simultaneously lighting the way into new territory and fresher dynamics.

The Aries New Moon on April 15 also opens us into the Chiron in Aries transit (2018 - 2027), which begins on April 17. Mercury will station direct at 4 degrees Aries in a conjunction to Chiron on April 15, as well.

Juno enters Aries on April 28, 2018, following the Chiron ingress of Aries April 17. Juno and Chiron will form a conjunction at zero degrees Aries, the first degree of the zodiac, on April 29, indicating some refreshing movement out of the reach of old ghosts, old illusions, and old Neptunian bubbles. 

This Juno-Chiron conjunction at zero Aries - such a potent initiatory degree - provides the cosmic impetus to carve our way out of "Image Factory Hell" once and for all. Let's use it!

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Cardinal Clashes Force Movement While Retrogrades Simultaneously Slow External Development

"Cardinal Clashes Force Movement While Retrogrades Simultaneously Slow External Development" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

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Thank-you to Jo Taylor for this beautiful photo! Jo was the lucky winner of the WWA 10th Anniversary Prize Pack in the patrons' draw, and this rose quartz talisman was one of the goodies included.

Mars Square Chiron Marks the Seventh Anniversary of the (Ongoing) Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Mars in Sagittarius is closing in on a square to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces (exact March 14) at 28 degrees of the signs. 

With Chiron in the late degrees of water sign Pisces, entering Aries April 17, 2018, the painful (Chiron) truth (Sagittarius) about the state of the world's oceans (Pisces) is coming to an acute point (Mars), and nowhere is our attention more urgently required than with the state of the Fukushima-contaminated Pacific Ocean.

The Mars-Chiron square occurs as a marker of the seventh anniversary of the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan on March 11. 

The initial explosions at the nuclear power plant in March 2011 released large quantities of radioactive isotopes and particles into the atmosphere and jet stream. Many different isotopes were aerosolized and released at that time, including but not limited to Cesium, Strontium, Iodine, Uranium, Xenon, and Plutonium. The half-lives of the isotopes vary: Cesium 134 has a half-life of two years. Cesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years. Strontium 90 has a half-life of 28.8 years. Many Plutonium isotopes have half-lives in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. 

The radioactive isotopes and particles came down in precipitation all over North America and are most likely still coming down. Even with extremely spotty and under-funded testing, Fukushima-signature isotopes Cesium 134 and 137, along with others, have been found in fish, seaweed, water, sand, and produce along the West Coast of Canada and the United States since 2011 and continuing to recent times. 

Radioactive isotopes/particles are poisonous to ingest, in addition to releasing radiation. They bio-accumulate in the body, so contamination levels may seem relatively low, but continual ingestion over time accumulates into much bigger doses. In a process called bio-magnification, tiny fish are eaten by small fish; small fish are eaten by medium fish; medium fish are eaten by large fish; large fish are eaten by us, and at each stage, the radioactive contamination is magnified.

Despite what the nuclear industry and profiteering governments/scientists would like you to believe, there is no safe level of man-made radiation exposure.

Continual exposure to even low-dose radiation can cause catastrophic health damage. 

Being continually irradiated internally by ingested man-made radioactive isotopes is very different from the limited external radiation exposure that comes from things like X-Rays or airplane rides.

Naturally-occurring radioactivity in things like bananas and potatoes is also very different from man-made radioactive isotopes, which bombard the body in combinations and concentrations and with a constancy of exposure that we would not come into contact with naturally.

A Solid Decade of WWA!

Yes, I sang Happy Birthday to my blog. So did this rotating lotus candle. That's just how we roll.

 

Today is the ten-year anniversary of the fateful night I unleashed the first Willow's Web Astrology post onto the worldwide web.

Happiest of Birthdays, ten-year-old WWA blog!

As with most professions, writers generally improve and hone their skills over time, but I would say the overall tone of this blog was there from the very first posts! I started the blog with Pluto on the zero degree of Capricorn, and the themes are definitely still ringing a bell with Pluto now two-thirds of its way through the sign. 

Let's reminisce, shall we?

(Or skip to the bottom if you're not in the mood for astrological reminiscing...)

Published on the WWA blog's birthday, February 25, 2008:

"Pluto fuels a process of intense examination and scrutiny of the aspects of life we would often rather not look at. All the dark creepy crawlies we’d prefer would just stay hidden under the rug - the dark undercurrents of life, ourselves and other people; denied emotional realities; abusive, unequal relationship dynamics; things we repress that then come out in our lives and selves in a multitude of unpleasant ways; power struggles; control issues; hidden motivations; betrayals; emotional suppression and poisoning; oppression; domination and subjugation; lack of personal integrity; behaviours and circumstances that result from disconnection to the core, soul-level reality; etc. All that fun stuff that we all love dealing with!

...Pluto in Capricorn will be a time when the Plutonic process is applied to things such as: business and corporations and the hierarchical structures within them; “bosses;” owners; management; time; money; economics; material goals and progress; patriarchy; use of power of those at the top; the aspects of control and power that money and position afford; public image; what our societies respect, recognize and deem worthy; leadership and the legitimacy of that leadership; concepts of success; climbing the corporate ladder and where that ladder is leading us; etc.

In my view, the masculine and feminine energies on the planet are currently unbalanced and unequal to the point of collapse. And nowhere is this more apparent than in our business structures, with the prevailing ideology of growth and achievement at all cost and a seeming lack of concern about negative effects on the environment, the populace and the basic overall soul of things. To me, we’ve gone as far as we can go with the current system of unfettered growth (to the point of almost destroying our planet), and now we desperately need some balance. We need to inject some soul into our structures. We need to balance outward achievement with inner reflection and guidance. We need to care about how our actions and “progress” affect other people and the planet. We need to make sure that the ways we’re striving to be recognized and respected in the public world feel right to us in our inner world...

Addressing and rebalancing these issues through Pluto in Capricorn will, hopefully, change the lifestyle track that people are running on of go, go, go!, "I'm so busy," tossing down three Starbucks a day to keep going, cocaine sniffing (yes, business people have resorted to that, apparently), body in a constant state of alert/panic, constant growth, constant focus on outward results, goals!, achievements!, recognition!, outpacing the other guy/gal, etc...

This Plutonic transformation will also renew our respect for and understanding of growth cycles - the fact that creation involves outward growth, but also rest, dormancy and connection to the inner for guidance. The fact that the human body is not a machine, and it cannot just produce, produce, produce. Energy levels fluctuate. There is a timing of things...

Pluto will help us to see what power is legitimate in our business structures and what isn’t, who is rightfully a leader and who does not have the personal integrity or character to truly lead humanity into a new era, who is a dinosaur clinging to power using the old methods of coercion, manipulation and control…and who has rightfully earned the position of leader."

I'm glad this blog has survived the past decade, and I'm glad I've survived to continue with it.

Thank-you to the readers, patrons, customers, and friends of WWA from the past 10 years. Thank-you for your comments, your emails, your patronage, your business, your trust, your intelligence, and your humour - and also for just being kick ass humans on Planet Earth! I'm grateful that my work means something to you, and it's amazing to think that some of you have been reading this blog for almost 10 years! Some of you have!  

A lot of things have changed over ten years, but luckily, being an old school Blogspot is not one of them. heh (If people turn their noses up at Blogger blogs, they're really missing the point...)

I'm glad people still read blogs.

I'm glad people still read.

I'm glad you read.

Thank-you for reading.

I'll keep telling you what I see through the astrological-sociopolitical lens.

Party on, Willow's Web Astrology! Party on, Willow's Web Astrology readers!

Mars-Vesta in Sagittarius Square Neptune-Chiron in Pisces: Keeping the Motivating Flame of Truth Alive

 Photos: Willow

Mars is currently transiting Sagittarius until it reaches more solid ground in the sign of its exaltation, Capricorn, on March 17.

As warrior planet Mars moves through philosophical Sagittarius, we're truth-applying missiles, following the motivational drives of our own truth, ethics, and beliefs. We're seeking the quickest and most direct route (Mars) to greater understanding, meaning, and purpose (Sagittarius), but this path is not simple or clear-cut.

As Mars works its way through Sagittarius, it is retracing the steps of Saturn in Sagittarius (December 2014 - December 2017), which means it is activating/inflaming the themes of the Saturn in Sagittarius square to Neptune in Pisces (in effect late 2015 through 2016) and then the Saturn in Sagittarius square to Chiron in Pisces (in effect late 2016 through 2017).

Many found the years 2016 and 2017 to be highly challenging under these aspects, and we're now going through a (relatively quick) re-cap of the associated themes. 

Mars is in some pretty thorny territory with many quagmire areas in which we could get emotionally or psychically bogged down.    

Mars can have an inflammatory effect, and Mars transiting Sagittarius indicates a time period when people following their own truth may come into frictional contact with other people following an entirely different truth.

Frictions may be particularly acute in the days surrounding these exact squares:

February 13 - Vesta in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces at 13 degrees (along with Mercury in Aquarius square stationing Jupiter in Scorpio at 22 degrees)
February 17 - Mars in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces at 13 degrees
February 25 - Mars conjunct Vesta (18 degrees Sagittarius) square Venus (18 degrees Pisces)
February 28 - Mercury in Pisces square Mars in Sagittarius at 19 degrees
March 14 - Mars in Sagittarius square Chiron in Pisces at 28 degrees
March 28 - Vesta in Sagittarius square Chiron in Pisces at 28 degrees

We may be moving through some murky confusion about which way to go now. We're stepping into the backwash of some broad collective problems that seem to have no easy solutions. Under the sensitizing, immersive influence of Neptune/Chiron/Pisces, the pain and problems we face (personally and collectively) can seem particularly daunting and intolerable, and we can experience acute points of frustration, followed by depression or despair, about the way forward from here.

Motivation may be dampened somewhat under these Mars-Neptune and Mars-Chiron squares, and we may have to fight to keep our spirits buoyed and to stay on task. We may have to force ourselves to forge on, to stay on track, despite the energetic remembrance of disappointment and futility, hanging around us like stale fumes. 

We're working through some energetic lulls, some points of inertia, and some points where our footing seems to drop out from under us, and this may have us questioning the effectiveness and meaning of our current path.

These aspects are in full effect around Valentine's Day, a day which creates a big, old void of sucking misery at the best of times for a lot of people (honestly, for couples and singles alike). 

Stop Bayer-Monsanto's Crimes Against Humanity, Animals, and the Environment!

The 66-billion dollar merger of Bayer and Monsanto, two of the most evil corporations in the world, each with extensive blood on its hands, will reportedly go forward as planned, closing in early 2018, despite what many see as a clear violation of anti-monopoly/anti-trust laws.

The unholy union between pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and GMO (genetically modified organism)-giant Bayer with chemicals and GMO-giant Monsanto will solidify as Saturn and Pluto come together in conjunction in Capricorn. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction is in effect from 2019 through 2020 and will be exact at 22 degrees Capricorn on January 12, 2020.

We can see these corporations positioning themselves, preparing to use the energy of the merger - under these hardcore astrological markers - to advance their nefarious operations. 

If approved, the merger would create the largest chemical pesticide/herbicide and GMO corporation in the world. 

The merger comes together under transiting Jupiter in Scorpio (October 2017 to November 2018). This indicates a theme of large (Jupiter) mergers (Scorpio) that involve great complexity along with (in this case) a sinister underbelly. The power dynamics and detrimental practises (Scorpio) of these corporations are being exposed under the spotlight-scrutiny of Jupiter transiting Scorpio. 

Despite flatlining sales and millions of people around the world vehemently and vocally opposing its chemical-ridden, genetic modification of the food supply, Monsanto has said that it "expects to accelerate the growth of products it offers to farmers" via the merger with Bayer.

"The synergy coming from the merger is expected to contribute significantly to Monsanto's overall sales, which for the past two quarters have been flat compared to analogous quarters a year prior." (Source: "Monsanto Merger with Bayer Progresses" by Alberto Abaterusso)

Here we see a method that keeps many a criminal corporation in business - the "synergistic merger" with another criminal corporation. The planned merger of Bayer with Monsanto follows other recent mega-mergers in the GMO and chemicals game - Dow and DuPont joined forces to form DowDuPont in 2015, and ChemChina merged with Syngenta in 2016.

Despite the fact that they are losing - badly - in the court of public opinion, Bayer and Monsanto are using the energy of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn to join forces in an attempt to dominate and control the global seed/food and chemical supply. 

The Anti-Hype Full Moon Report

The Taurus Full Moon at perigee November 14, 2016: the closest the Moon has been to Earth since 1948 (people were also peeing themselves over that one...)

Photos: Willow's Mama

 
Media, scientists, astronomers, and astrologers seem to be making a huge deal about the upcoming Full Moon at 11 degrees Leo on January 31, calling it a "SuperBlueBloodMoon" (Christ.) and creating all sorts of hyped-up woo-woo around it.

"Once-in-a-lifetime celestial event"

"First in 150 years"

A "super-duper-exciting-plus-sprinkles phenomenon"

The Full Moon at 11 degrees Leo (opposite Aquarius Sun) on January 31 falls at perigee, meaning the Moon will be at the closest point to Earth in its orbit. Because of this, the Moon will appear larger than usual in the night's sky. In astrological terms, this is a Full Moon opposite Black Moon Lilith, the symbol for the lunar apogee. This Leo Full Moon is also a total lunar eclipse, and it is the second Full Moon in the calendar month, referred to as a "Blue Moon."

In reality, though, this is not a super huge deal. In reality, this is pretty much just media diversion doing what media diversion does - focusing on a single, trumped-up (pardon the term) celestial event and manufacturing a bunch of artificially-heightened energy and buzz around it.

I try to neutralize this hyped-up energy because it's actually dangerous.

It's known that "the elite" have used astrology for millennia to plan their events, and this practise continues to this day. War manoeuvres are one area where it's quite obvious that astrology is being utilized.

Two major recent "wars" initiated by the United States/NATO - the unjustified invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the unjustified bombing of Libya in March 2011 - were timed to Uranus ingresses around March equinox. We have another Uranus ingress around March equinox in the near future - March 2019 when Uranus re-enters Taurus after a retrograde period. If the pattern continues, we can expect more warmongering hell to be unleashed at that time. Let's hope we can break the pattern. The symbolism of Uranus (rebellion, revolution, sudden changes, upheaval) indicates that we can.

The real deal is, war maneouvres have gone undercover in many cases. We are being attacked on multiple levels that are not even being recognized by the mass public. (Unexpected financial attacks or attacks to the financial systems/currencies are one possible theme for Uranus transiting Taurus.)

I would suggest that the timing and energy of the last hugely over-hyped eclipse in Leo - a New Moon total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 - was used to unleash extreme weather warfare in the form of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, followed by a destructive earthquake. 

From September 3, 2017: Hurricane Harvey, the Total Solar Eclipse, and This Era of Unnatural Disaster 

[Editor's Note: my eye is particularly on the total solar eclipse in Aries on April 8, 2024, being called the Great North American Eclipse because it will be visible across most of North America.]

Any time a subject achieves across-the-board mainstream media saturation (or even partial mainstream media saturation), it is being used in some way. It is shaping and manufacturing public opinion, directing people's gaze to a certain, narrow subject - and most likely away from other more pertinent subjects.

This way of reporting lacks context. Without understanding context, we are at the mercy of a media that creates Event Bubble after Event Bubble, never showing us the broader picture or filling in the blanks as far as how it all fits together. We see situations as existing in a vacuum, as randomly-occurring and isolated events.

So we have to look at the hype surrounding this Leo Full Moon eclipse at perigee (as well as all similar celestial events) for what it is: artificial, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous as we have a "look over there!" diversionary scenario unfolding in the general public - a prime opening for the powers-that-be to misuse celestial energy and slip some nastiness by.

It's also really exhausting to be this artificially jacked-up about anything, and I believe this is another reason certain subjects like this Full Moon are woo-wooed to death. Our minds and our energy are being hijacked, burning us out on it all.

Here's the reality-checking astrological context on this upcoming Full Moon total lunar eclipse in Leo: 

We regularly experience Full Moons at perigee. Again, "perigee" means that the Moon is at the closest distance it comes to Earth in its orbit. The term "SuperMoon" has unfortunately caught on for a Full Moon at perigee (which sounds as if they're trying to supersize the Moon a la McDonald's marketing), but I would suggest this is part of the hype machine. Three or four Full Moons each year can be classified as at perigee, falling in succession. The Cancer Full Moon on January 1, 2018 was also at perigee and so was the Gemini Full Moon on December 3, 2017. We experienced another uber-hyped Full Moon at perigee on November 14, 2016 at 22 degrees Taurus (pictured above), which was "the closest the Moon has been to Earth since 1948!!!!!" That Full Moon was flanked by two other Full Moons at perigee - on October 16 and December 14, 2016. We'll experience another set of Full Moons at perigee January 21, February 19, and March 21, 2019. The March 21, 2019 Full Moon at perigee at 0 degrees Libra (cardinal point) marks equinox and also Uranus re-entering Taurus. This indicates conditions that have that extra special occulty goodness the powers-that-be so often use to time war manoeuvres/attacks and other "random" events.

We experience eclipses every six months. Eclipses are just very precisely-aligned New and Full Moons. We experience a New Moon and a Full Moon every month. About every six months, the Sun, Moon, and Earth align more precisely than usual, and we experience New and Full Moon eclipses. A New Moon occurs when the Moon is passing between the Sun and Earth (Earth-Moon-Sun). During a New Moon solar eclipse, it appears, from our vantage point on Earth, that the Moon has blocked out the light of the Sun. A Full Moon occurs when the Moon is opposite the Sun in its orbit (Moon-Earth-Sun). During a Full Moon lunar eclipse, the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon, blocking its light. We experience a pair of eclipses - a New Moon solar eclipse and a Full Moon lunar eclipse - about every six months, two weeks apart from each other. Sometimes, we have a triple eclipse season with an extra solar or lunar eclipse. Most eclipses are partial. Total eclipses are more uncommon, but again, not rare. We often experience two total lunar eclipses in a calendar year.

Full Moons at perigee that are also total eclipses are uncommon but not extremely rare. The upcoming Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee occurs on January 31, 2018 at 11 degrees Leo. The last one experienced prior to that was September 28, 2015 at 4 degrees Aries. Future Full Moon total lunar eclipses at perigee will be experienced on January 20, 2019 at zero degrees Leo, on May 26, 2021 at 5 degrees Sagittarius, and on October 8, 2033 at 15 degrees Aries. Historically, these events also occurred in 1982, 1964, 1946, 1928, and 1910.

A Blue Moon is not really a big, hairy deal. The term "Blue Moon" refers to the second Full Moon in a calendar month. Depending on how much stock you put in the Gregorian calendar, this is not really all that significant. Blue Moons are not rare. We will experience other Blue Moons on: March 31, 2018; October 31, 2020; August 31, 2023; May 31, 2026; December 31, 2028; September 30, 2031; July 31, 2034; January 31, 2037; and so on. You can see - if a month has 31 days, it's not uncommon for two Full Moons to fall in that calendar month. We can also experience two New Moons in a calendar month (generally much less hyped), and the second New Moon is referred to as a Black Moon. The last Black Moon we experienced was October 30, 2016 at 7 degrees Scorpio, and the next Black Moon we will experience is August 30, 2019 at 6 degrees Virgo. (Disclaimer: some people use the terms Blue Moon and Black Moon to refer to the fourth Full or New Moon in a three-month season.)

So this Leo Full Moon total lunar eclipse at perigee, our second Full Moon in January 2018, is certainly significant and noteworthy. It is a particularly beautiful celestial event in our night's sky. The questions are whether it is hype-worthy (is anything ever really hype-worthy?) and why there is so much hype generated around single astrological/astronomical events such as these.

This Leo Full Moon conjunct the North Node of the Moon indicates a heart-directed culmination point - but one that requires that we unravel and deconstruct the machinations of the Kings and Queens (Leo) holding illegitimate positions of hierarchical power on our planet. The horrific events surrounding the Leo New Moon total solar eclipse in August 2017 would be a prime place to direct our gazes...

Eclipses indicate the potential for powerful backdrop changes with ripple effects extending for at least six months. As the Moon grows big and full in royal Leo, there are many illegitimate Kings and Queens of all stripes ready to be toppled from their thrones. 

Enjoy this beautiful and magical Full Moon eclipse in heart-centred Leo. Feel the love under these lunar rays. But do so with your feet planted on terra firma. It's better that way. 

Uranian Agitation and Conscience-Driven Breaks in Protocol: the Venus and Mars Retrogrades of 2018

"Uranian Agitation and Conscience-Driven Breaks in Protocol: the Venus and Mars Retrogrades of 2018" is available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons, or it can be purchased for $11.25 by PayPal or email money transfer. 

This is a 5,500+-word article delineating and interpreting the Mars and Venus retrogrades we will experience in 2018.