White Men Can't Sweat Lodge: A Slap on the Wrist

James Arthur "Death" Ray was sentenced today to two years in prison after being convicted in June of three counts of negligent homicide stemming from a faulty sweat lodge he performed in Arizona.

This means, of course, that there are people in United States prisons serving more time for robbery than Ray will serve for the deaths of these three people. 

Many other participants suffered health damage - some permanent - from the faulty sweat lodge.

Prosecutors had requested three consecutive three-year terms (nine years), the longest allowable sentence for Ray's crimes. The defense requested probation.

The families of the dead more than likely will not even be able to recoup their losses in civil court. It was declared in court records during the trial that, despite living in a Beverly Hills home, Ray is $4 million in the hole.

All those people bilked and not a dime to show for it. Pretty depressing all around that this scheister is getting off so lightly.

Background articles on James Arthur Ray

My Black Moon Lilith in Leo Would Like to Say Something...

Painting: Black Moon Lilith by Willow

I don't believe in celebrity. It's from the age of the dinosaurs and big, clunky, gas-guzzling cars, in my mind.

There's no credential, accolade, or association that could really impress me all that much.

We all star in our own lives, and every minute we're not doing that is a minute wasted, a minute diverted.

I know how good this blog is. I know I'm a good astrologer. And that's all I need to know. I'm not sure why I would need the validation of anyone else to prove that to myself or to my readers. It should be apparent by now, yes?

It's always nice when someone enjoys your work, but it doesn't really change anything. I'm not being discovered. I've been here all along, doing this work for a good long while now, and I imagine I will be here doing this work for a while to come. I don't need to be put under anyone's wing. I don't need to be taught anyone else's style of astrology. I don't need to fit into anyone else's scene. I'm not looking for a teacher or a mentor or to be someone's protege or muse. I'm not looking to kiss any asses or prop up any egos. I'm no one's clay to be moulded. Chronological age has very little to do with it.

These are all things I've encountered in subtle ways over the past few years when coming into contact with other astrologers, mostly older men who consider themselves better established than I.

Perhaps on this earthly plane...

The truth is, I don't fit into any existing established scene, astrological or otherwise, primarily because most of them are hierarchical/patriarchal and do not permit the true radical feminine perspective or the true radical woman as equal within their confines. The egalitarian Aquarian thing is a very, very early work in progress across the board at this point, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise...

This is difficult on one hand. On the other hand, though, it's pretty fucking great, as it keeps me free, developing on exactly the right trajectory, doing exactly the right work and exactly the right readings, and that's the only way it can be. If I can't speak freely, there's absolutely no point in continuing. I won't alter myself or what I say in any way to fit a role, and I won't accept readings that aren't mine to do for the money.

I'm unaffiliated because I really believe that's the only place for me to be.

I don't think there are many astrologers who go to the depths I do, who see and communicate as clearly, who are as unencumbered.

And the more unencumbered I am, the more potent the work.

I don't court a big scene because, honestly, it's not worth the hassle. The size of the audience is not the prime indicator of success in my mind, and the fact that this blog grows very slowly is not an indicator that it is in any way a failure. The slow growth is actually a good thing. Things are being very carefully cultivated, plain and simple. I'm not a highly prolific astrologer, either in writing or in readings. When your perspective is deep and under pressure, extricating and exposing embedded things, it's not possible to run wide open. I think very gradual and sustained growth is the best foundation for me to be a professional astrologer with staying power.

It's important for me to hit my marks, to do the work I'm here to do and to do it well, and to say the things that need to be said - anything outside that is not really my need to know. How many people are reading is not much of a concern. It's more important that the right people are reading, the people who can appreciate and utilize the writing and astrological perspective here and the people who can benefit from my readings. I think I have that, and it's increasing over time, so, to me, the blog is already (and always has been) a complete success.

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

November 10, 2011 - Mars enters Virgo
November 18, 2011 - Mars enters the retrograde shadow
January 23, 2012 - Mars goes retrograde at 23 degrees Virgo
April 13, 2012 - Mars turns direct at 3 degrees Virgo
June 19, 2012 - Mars leaves the retrograde shadow
July 3, 2012 - Mars enters Libra

The Mars transit and retrograde through Virgo involves an eight-month period of mutable, transitional energy that requires our precise and active participation to direct, re-direct, adjust, and re-adjust our courses. Throughout this time, we'll be directed down only the most pertinent and effective channels in our lives, honing and refining our courses and withdrawing personal energy from anything that is not necessary, valuable, or vital moving forward. This process is happening, specifically, in the house or houses where Virgo falls in your natal chart. That's the area where things need to be tightened.

Virgo is one of the quieter placements for Mars. Mars is active here but only in the ways that count. No excess of motion, exertion, words, mental function, or use of will. Small movements, adjustments, and re-direction have big effect, and temperance rules, as too much effort in one direction results only in energy expended for self-correction.

The energy on the planet will be getting very bizarre and out of control at times over the next years, and things can really go haywire if we allow them to. This is why we need the Virgoan qualities applied through the iron will of Mars to set our courses now, doing battle on the fine points.

If we're oh-so-careful and diligent, smoothing every screwy detail, critiquing every glowing illusion, attending to every nagging issue, we set a tone with this retrograde that can keep us grounded and out of the worst of the hyped baloney and utter bullshit being amped up on this planet.

Clean, crisp, clear. In Virgo, every detail matters. Virgo is a sign that needs things to be just right, and with Mars here, we're going to have to take it personally when they aren't.

If it hits our ears as incorrect, it's rejected, no matter how many people are saying it, doing it, or believing it. Anyone trying to fill our minds, bodies, societies, or environments with useless crap is viewed as an enemy of our health.

Enemies of our health. There are many. Under Mars in Virgo, we're consciously fighting to maintain health in a world increasingly toxic to living things. Our systems are quite literally being attacked on multiple fronts. There's an immediacy with this Mars transit. There's no more time to put off the changes necessary to fortify our health. It's on. In order for our systems to continue processing and metabolizing what's going on, they need to be in tip-top condition.

Diet, exercise regimes, habits, routines, work conditions, the quality of our food and water, our mental and emotional environments - a crucial analysis and refinement is on the docket during this transit, fighting to maintain systemic health while preparing us for the next years on the planet. This involves the removal or at least strong limitation of anything that weighs our systems down: excess alcohol, drug use, cigarettes, perfumes, air fresheners, chemical cleaners, electromagnetic pollution, noise pollution, pesticides and additives in food, refined sugar, artificial colours, genetically modified food, fluoride, excessive internet, TV, music, shopping, socializing.

Mars is a hard-ass in Virgo, and with good reason.

Even things touted as healthful should be gone over with a fine-toothed comb. With Virgo, less is more. Be careful what you add to your life and to your system. In most cases, Virgo is about what needs to be taken away.

There is a sexual element (Mars) to health (Virgo) here. A more precise application of sexual energy is required. A new understanding of the effects of sexual activity on health and on the surrounding energetic environment as a whole comes about here. The "too much, too fast, too soon" sexual ethic constantly shoved down our throats is rejected by those who use this transit well, and the application of sexuality is streamlined with a new awareness and focus on the health of the individual, the partner, the relationship, the immediate social groups and society, and the spirit, in general. There's a re-wiring of attractions and sexual habits here, a clarification, and a removal of toxic sexual connections. Holistic sexual health.

Our work is infused with a necessary level of fight during this transit. We fight to overcome the redundancy, uselessness, and listlessness forced upon so many through mass institutionalized unemployment, underemployment, and lack of meaningful paid employment.

Charting the course for the next two years correctly requires our absolute focus over the next eight months.

Mars entering Virgo sets off a grand earth trine with Jupiter Rx in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn that will be in effect most strongly November 16-23.

Mars retrogrades back into this grand earth trine in March when the configuration will be exact. Jupiter in Taurus, Mars Rx in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn will be exactly trine each other at 9 degrees of the earth signs from March 12-15, 2012.

Mars in Virgo will trine Pluto in Capricorn one last time May 15-17, 2012 with Mars moving direct. At that time, Jupiter in Taurus will be out of range.

Needless to say, within these grand earth trines, the application of specific choices and actions - including what we choose not to do or say - has big ripple effects, creating real, concrete, structural changes.

Previous post on Mars in Virgo retrograde from August 29, 2011: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde

Weeping Willow Designs with Mars in the Last Degrees of Leo Opposite Stationing Neptune in Aquarius and Closing Out a Creative Cycle

- Industrial Romantic necklace with onyx, hematite and Bali silver -

Before Pluto entered Capricorn and the wrecking ball was unleashed on independent businesses (as well as non-independent), I started working for a cool Jewish man in his cool little store called Art of My Heart, which I've written about on the blog.

It was at this job I learned that I know how to make bead jewellery designs. In the same way I discovered that I know how to practice astrology, I was given the opportunity to draw something to the surface that had been there all along, and I'm ever-grateful.

Art of My Heart was an art and curiousity shop that a man I'll call Harold had been running by himself (with supplemental help from various colourful part-time employees) for a decade-and-a-half. Harold was a world traveler and importer and an art and beauty lover. He traveled to various countries over the years, buying art and curiousities and bringing them back to sell in the store. His favourite place was Bali, Indonesia.

Art of My Heart was located in the downtown mall and was basically an anachronism. Harold had moved in many years prior when mall culture was vastly different - ie. independently-owned businesses were still being allowed to operate. That was changing very quickly. The Pluto in Cap writing was on the wall, and as time went on, indie-owned businesses were having their rents increased to unsustainable amounts or were not having their leases renewed at all. They were dropping one-by-one, and as the plans for wide-scale gentrifying renovations in the mall drew nearer, Harold and his wonderful store, among the final independent hold-outs, were increasingly unwelcome.

The squeeze was on.

I was traipsing through Canada's most cleansed and corporatized city, Calgary, at the time like a refugee ghost trapped between worlds, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. Astrology had taken me over a few years prior. I was sure of the path I was taking on that front. I was committed. I just wasn't sure how I was supposed to sustain myself financially along the way.

I was between a rock and a hard place (with a fixed t-square on the angles, one will often find oneself there), in a temporary living situation that was increasingly tense and overwhelming. I was drowning and desperately needed to find my own place to live.

The vacancy rate was hovering around 0.7% at the time. There was very little to rent and what there was was highly inflated. I went to see one dirty, rickety, studio apartment that should have been condemned with a $750/month price tag (and this was 2006). Without a steady source of income (ie. my fledgling astrology business wouldn't cut it), I was hooped.

One day in late fall, I officially gave up on life and decided to get a job at the mall as holiday help - any job I could tolerate doing, which was a tall order.

I went to Customer Service and asked if the girl manning the desk knew of any stores that were hiring. This was at the height of the housing and labour shortage, and the girl told me something that would turn out to be profound. She said, "I think they're pretty much all hiring right now. Just look at the directory and see where you'd like to work and apply."

Of all the jobs I had done up to that point (and there had been many), it had never once crossed my mind that I could work somewhere I wanted to work. And that I might actually find something. This was revelatory.

I looked at the mall directory and saw something that seemed interesting - a store called Art of My Heart. I located Art of My Heart on the map and went to find it, resume in hand.

I walked down the hallway where it was supposed to be, but it appeared there was nothing down there. I turned to go back to the directory but decided to go just a bit further and saw it.

There was an overwhelming amount of stuff in the store, so I pushed through a little goat trail through it all to a counter located at the back of the store. There, behind a sort of ornately-carved wooden confessional nailed to the counter, was a fifty-something man in a ball cap sitting on a stool. I ducked my head down to peer through the opening of the wooden confessional thing (maybe it was a puppet theatre?) and asked if he might be hiring help for the holidays. He said maybe.

I went back the next day and asked again. Again, he said maybe.

I went back again, and that time, despite his resistance, I was hired on a part-time basis.

This guy needed my help. Badly. And I needed the work equally badly.

Art of My Heart was full of rich, gorgeous, delightful items from around the world - if you could find them.

The place looked like a hoarder's garage sale, albeit a culturally-rich one. There was no rhyme or reason. Everything was thrown together, piled on top of each other, topsy turvy. Only about half the stuff was even priced. Everything was dusty.

The dingy, gray carpet hadn't been vacuumed in ten years. Yes, ten years. The floor was coated in a layer of dust, dirt, grime, old price tags, and packing material.

If the store looked like a hoarder's garage sale, the back room was the hoarder's official lair. Parting the curtain made out of a sarong, I saw broken furniture, puppets with missing limbs, tangled shell curtains, chipped masks, cracked ceramics, dirty, handmade carpets, crumbling terracotta candle holders, glass mosaics with lost squares, pieces of leather, fur, straw, paint, shellac. Harold hated to throw any beautiful thing away, convinced he would some day be able to fix it. Everything was stuffed in to the rafters, and, as in the main store area, there was a narrow goat trail leading to the bathroom.

Ah, yes. The bathroom. The bathroom, too, had not been cleaned in at least ten years. A layer of grey-black filth covered the toilet and sink. The toilet bowl itself was orange-brown. I was actually a bit in shock when I saw it. Cleaning that thing was one of the first tasks I set out for myself (Harold never would have asked me to do it), and later, after the Willow-style transformation of the store was complete, Harold said, "It all started when you cleaned that bathroom."


- Ornate sterling Bali bead with turquoise earrings -

On my first day of work, my assignment from Harold was to show people jewellery. He had four or five lovely, old display cases full of jewellery that had to be opened for customers. And I would have been happy to show people the jewellery - it was gorgeous - if I could find it! Bracelets, earrings, necklaces, pendants, rings - everything had been dumped into the display cases by the handful, just tossed in like the tangled, gnarled mess of a child's costume jewellery box. One earring would be in one display case, and its match would be found in another display case across the store. A lot of it was not priced, nor were the stones labelled. So I started the intricate work of putting these display cases in some type of order.

At the end of the day at the store, there was more fun. The massive floor-to-ceiling screen door to close the shop was basically falling off the hinges. You had to drag the thing along as the steel screeched and moaned, making sure you didn't pull too aggressively or the whole thing would come apart.

Harold was a music fan, especially Bob Dylan. He would put the same song on repeat and listen to it all day. All day. The same song. Until finally, I couldn't stand the song boring into my skull any longer and would change it. Eventually, we got into a rhythm. Harold would open the store in the morning and put his song on repeat. I would come in at noon and take it off repeat.

Sometimes Harold would bring mini-buffets of Chinese food up from the food court for us to eat. He would make the poor employee take four pieces of this, three of that, five of that, creating a combo plate that didn't exist on the menu.

Harold didn't believe in making anyone do anything he or she didn't want to do. This made him an extremely easy-going boss, but it did create some problems in the running of the store. One of his previous employees was a hippie girl who would be scheduled to work in the late morning but had a problem getting up before 1 p.m. Harold just worked around it.

The chaotic look of the store reflected the chaos of the way the store was operated. After many, many years in retail, Harold had a strong aversion to dealing with people. It didn't help that people often made outrageous demands, trying to take advantage, and that Harold was too scared of them to stand up for himself. (The bourgeois who fancy themselves artsy and cultured are a very specific breed of pain in the ass.)

I didn't blame him. I had had a bellyful of customer service by that point myself. The problem was, he was your standard Libra who would make promises to customers just to make nice and get out of the interaction and then not deliver. The customers would then call me or come in repeatedly, making me the middleman, and I had to field it while trying to nail Harold down. This would be carried on to a ridiculous extent. So many excuses and weaselings out that we could have been on a British comedy.

That's how good this guy's stuff was, though. He had lasted 15 or so years in business with people barely able to locate the goods to purchase, being strung along with all kinds of promises he couldn't keep.

And I was in my element. My Virgo/Scorpio was made for that type of assignment. I gently woke dormant energies in the store, getting gears moving that hadn't moved in years. I cleaned, sorted, organized, labelled, displayed, priced, created new store policies, and tried to set 15 years of creative chaos to some type of order without losing the original charm. Some felt I failed on that front, but I did the best I could.

The thing was, I knew things were coming 'Pluto in early Capricorn' unglued. I knew we had to get the store's act together if we were to have any chance of staying in the mall. So I tried to get things moving in that direction. Harold, however, was freaked out by the sense of change in the air and dug his heels in on every issue. I had to inch forward, bit-by-bit, and if I pushed just a bit too far, there was a meltdown. The way of Scorpionic transformation.

We fought like a son-of-a-bitch. It was almost cliched. Two strong-willed, blazing-eyed, tempestuous creative types who really didn't give much of a fuck anymore having it out, yelling at each other as the ship starts to go down. It was old school.

Can you imagine such a scene going down in the ever-more-homogenized malls of today? It's a good thing Art of My Heart was located in the middle of nowhere, down a hall almost no one ever used.

I wanted more hours. He wanted to give me fewer.
I wanted an employment contract. He refused to give me one.
He wanted me to take apart one of the necklaces I made to use the beads for a bracelet for a customer instead. I said I wouldn't. He did it himself.
He wanted to keep all the broken stuff in the back room so he could (one day) fix it. I knew this was not going to happen and nagged him to clear it up.
He said he would do things by a certain date and didn't do them, forcing me to nag incessantly.
We had cultural battles.
And on and on.

- Turquoise and Bali silver bracelet and earrings -

Throughout it all, I was making jewellery like a house on fire.

Harold found gorgeous beads on his trips. Unpacking the crates after he came back from his buying trip was like finding treasure. I would make new designs, put them out in the display case, and most of them were purchased within a couple weeks. Sometimes I would put something out, and it would go the next day. It was a winning combination, Harold and I.

So I was pouring all I had into making sure Art of My Heart made the transition. If we couldn't stay in the mall, I was going to do my damnedest to put us in good position for a new location. I was going to make Art of My Heart run like a well-oiled machine. This was the plan.

I gave it my all, and I thought we actually might make it. The mall gave us a new and coveted spot on the ground floor as our old space was gutted. The jewellery was selling well. The furniture was doing well. People were all over the masks and art. We were actually starting to make some money.

And then they booted us. They told us when the current lease was up, which was a couple months away, we were out.

And then one day I walked up to the mall entrance and saw an ambulance parked outside, lights flashing. I knew who it was there for. I went into the store and saw some paramedics in the back room, surrounding Harold. A customer was there in tears and said she thought he had had a stroke. He'd been talking to her, sipping his coffee, when it started dribbling out of his mouth.

A paramedic came out of the back room and told me Harold was refusing to go to the hospital. There was nothing they could do. They couldn't force him into the ambulance. They left the store, and I locked the front door and went into the back.

Harold told me he was fine, that it was no big deal. His mouth was drooping on the left side.

I told him he was not fine, that he had probably had a stroke, and that he needed to go to the hospital.

He insisted he was fine, that nothing was wrong.

I knelt down in front of him and told him to smile.

"I can't," he said, mouth drooping.

I made him squeeze my hand. His grip was weak.

He got up and started searching for his drill to work on a cabinet.

"You're going!" I shouted, starting to cry a bit in frustration.

I called his wife and told her Harold was having a medical emergency and refused to go to the hospital.

"Oh, no!" she said, "You have to be kidding me. My dog is sick right now, too!"

These people had five aging dogs that were like their children - literally. Harold had spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years trying to keep his senior citizen canines alive.

I convinced her it was really sort of a bad situation, and she came to pick him up.

I kept the store open over the holidays, working alone, and managed to stay on top of the rush. I visited Harold in the hospital on Christmas Day. He was weak but looked pretty good. He was going to be OK, though he had a long recovery ahead.

- Amber and turquoise earrings -

When I realized Art of My Heart was truly no more - that there wasn't going to be a new location, that there would be no resurrection - I was devastated, not to mention at a huge energy deficit. I'd worked there for two-and-a-half years. This was the first and only job I'd ever loved, and I was good at it. We were just starting to make some headway, and Harold deserved to have a profitable, successful store. But it wasn't going to happen. Yet another one of those Plutonic life lessons.

A lot of people are having those right now as far as work and career go...

Working there almost feels like a dream at this point. Like I dreamed up the coolest place I could think of to work with the most interesting, kooky, funny, insane, kind-hearted employer I could imagine.

I bought back some of my designs from Harold and made some new ones, carrying on up until now as Weeping Willow Designs. Harold has mostly recovered from his stroke, though he has not opened a new store.

Now, Mars is opposite stationing Neptune in Aquarius, moving through the last degrees of Leo before entering Virgo November 10. A two-year creative cycle is complete.

The price of silver has now made it prohibitive to continue making jewellery with sterling beads, and I'm not sure what will happen moving forward. What I do know is I loved every minute of making this stuff.

If anyone is looking for a special item for a gift (or a personal treat) for the holidays or just because, please peruse the wares:

WEEPING WILLOW BEAD DESIGNS

They're my well-loved original designs, made with semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls and handcrafted Bali silver beads. All findings and earring hooks are sterling silver. And they all have a little bit of Art of My Heart energy in them, which is now priceless.

I also have a few new designs I haven't photographed yet, so check back later if interested.

All Art of My Heart articles

Neptunian Sobriety Tests Brought to You By the Astrological Aquarian Era

Neptune is currently stationing and will go direct at 28 degrees Aquarius November 9 before making a final pass over the 29th degree - the degree of the astrological era shift - in January/February, 2012.

Neptunian concentrations are running very high.

Considering the dangers associated with the tail-end Piscean era, Neptunian sobriety tests will be collected over the next few weeks in order to make the public aware of who among it is hitting the sauce a little too hard.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but have you been inhaling tail-end Piscean era ether and then operating your life? You know that's a danger to the public as well as to yourself, Sir."

Anyone found to have excessive amounts of tail-end Piscean era Neptunian ether in their systems will be asked to postpone any and all major life decisions (and even some basic daily tasks) for at least 48 hours until he or she has sufficiently sobered up.

The following are some tell-tale signs of excessive imbibing:

1) A bad case of the Spirit Eyes. Sometimes erroneously referred to as 'enlightened' or 'unconditionally loving.' Really, they're just glazed.

2) A slip of stale Piscean era terminology. Examples include "creating reality," "manifesting abundance," "releasing limiting beliefs," "awakening," "transcending," "chakra clearing," "indigo," "spiritual warrior," "twin flame," "Pleiadian royalty," "fifth dimension," "oneness," "harmonics," "kismetic," etc.

3) Inability to carry on basic conversations without quoting at least one guru type and getting a far-away look in the eyes indicating "I've checked out." (variation: see Spirit Eyes)

4) Inability to complete mundane daily tasks such as bill paying, washing dishes or making it to appointments on time due to being excessively hopped up on Ascension, Awakening, Enlightenment, Rapture, or 2012.

5) Reaction to basic facts and realities of life with accusations of "negativity," "darkness," "ignorance," "unenlightenment," or "vibe-killer."

6) Delusional commentary related to oneself or one's group being "the chosen ones," "enlightened/awakened/ascending," "moving to 5D," or any variation of spiritually hierarchical Messiah Complex that triggers knee-jerk reactions of eye rolling and "You have to be fucking kidding me" from onlookers.

7) Inability to utilize the following basic skills: discernment, critical thinking, judgement of character, saying no to multi-level marketing schemes.

If you have a tail-end Pisces Neptunian ether problem, please do not attempt major life decisions while under the influence. Seek help, and for the love of all that is holy, do not seek it from the New Age establishment.

If anyone you know has a tail-end Pisces Neptunian ether problem, do not take the individual's word at face value while he or she is under the influence, as cognizance cannot be guaranteed.

This has been a Public Service Announcement brought to you by the astrological Aquarian era.

Scorpio on Not Letting It Go Too Soon

There's a lot said about the "letting go" and "releasing" related to Scorpio and its ruler Pluto, and that's certainly a part of it - eventually.

The thing is, though, that letting go too soon screws Scorpio over a second time.

Scorpio energy has a tendency to trigger the worst in people and to be on the receiving end of the worst in people. Until, that is, it learns to make and use the enriched fuel that will get it the hell out of there.

Once it has gotten on top of the energetics, Scorpio has the ability to turn every betrayal, every mistreatment, every dis, every screwing over into something that propels it further. It can empower itself through being disempowered - as long as it gives itself enough time to complete the process, which can be lengthy. Scorpio doesn't just metamorphose itself. It turns shitty energy into something it can use.

Hatred and anger - the results of those betrayals, mistreatments, and screwings over - become slow-burning, high octane fuel, propelling it out of the dynamics and away from the types of people that fed it shit in the first place. Nothing but these emotional extremes - and Scorpio won't pretend it doesn't feel them - has the potency, depth, or enrichment to get it where it needs to go. Scorpio is co-ruled by Mars and Pluto. Anger (Mars) fuels the metamorphosis (Pluto).

It would be nice if people knew this before telling someone in full meal deal Scorpionic murk to "just let it go." This is an oversimplification, one of many applied to the sign of Scorpio, and following that advice could be to the person's detriment.

To "let go" of the difficult emotions too soon is to squander the fuel source, keeping themselves stuck eating shit sandwiches from inferiors.

From a previous post: "Yes, it is necessary to let go of everything we can. To just disengage. To not allow ourselves to be drawn into the figure eight dynamics with the other person/situation trying to get our goats.

But there are also times when one needs to face down his or her opponent and show it who's boss. To get rid of it once and for all. To "let go" in these instances is actually counter-productive. It just allows the dynamic to circle back and bite you in the ass from another angle. So in these instances, we wield the sword and shield, and we cut our way out of the entrapping garbage. We clear our path. We don't wait for it to clear on its own."

Scorpio will let it go, but first it'll hold it, feel every harsh angle, gain understanding of it inside and out. It'll let it go, but only after it has benefited fully from it, after fully harnessing the roiling, pitch black emotion threatening to do it in, after it has turned it over and over, drawing out absolutely everything that could possibly be useful.

And when that fuel is, at last, completely spent, it'll let it go and never look back.

For the sake of all those dealing with Scorpionic scenarios like these, who have been dealing with them for a good long while, I hope Venus and Mercury completing their transits of Scorpio this Scorpio season involves a lot of people dropping spent fuel...

Willow's Web Astrology on Plutonic Consciousness

Venus Lightens the Tone in Sagittarius and Trines Uranus Rx in Aries, Colouring the Last Leg of Saturn in Libra

Mercury and Venus, still travelling conjunct, move into Sagittarius together on November 2, and almost immediately, the dense, complex Scorpionic tone we've been experiencing starts to lighten.

Both Mercury and Venus in Sagittarius trine Uranus Rx in Aries during the morning of November 3. We're palpably at the cutting edge here, moving into a fresh and freaky astrological Aquarian era future after Scorpionically severing ties to any Piscean era backsliding.

Intellectually (Mercury) as well as in our relations with other people (Venus), we're there. The knowledge of where we're going and of where we've been adjusts our orientations to the new coordinates accordingly. Though, with Mercury in Sagittarius in the mix in the sign of its detriment along with a Mercury retrograde in Sadge November 24 - December 13, trying to communicate what we're going through won't necessarily be easy.

Also November 3, Saturn enters its upcoming retrograde shadow (the degrees it will move back over during its February 6 - June 23, 2012 retrograde) at 22 degrees Libra. Saturn will station retrograde on the anaretic (29th) degree in February.

Just like that, we're more than two-thirds finished Saturn's transit through Libra.

The last leg of the transit of Saturn through Libra is strongly influenced by the Venus in Sagittarius trine to Uranus Rx in Aries. This continues a theme of relationship disruption as sometimes shocking elements of personal identity, new direction, beliefs, and philosophy emerge as we shift further into astrological Aquarius. As we move forward from here, people we thought we knew are going to surprise us - in pleasant ways and in not so pleasant - and radical relationship breaks can come almost out of nowhere, especially if people have been putting things off.

Saturn is looking to shore up only long-term, sustaining, and sustainable partnership material - partnerships with legs - while Uranus is looking to push us way out there into our most real, raw, radical, and instinctual selves. The conservative, step-by-step building nature of Saturn will necessarily have to leave room in its blueprints for the wild Uranian effects busting things loose and demanding freedom, independence, and individuation at almost any cost.

Being ourselves, our whole selves, right down to the last jagged edge is necessary for survival, for direction, for perspective and orientation now, but there are mercilessly rough, disturbing, even violent and heartless elements to the way Uranus works through our relationships. All those with Venus-Uranus contacts natally or by transit can relate. The fact that this is a Venus-Uranus trine softens the edges and makes things less traumatic, allowing us to philosophically rise above, but the disruption is there. Some relationships survive this emergence of raw, new identity and direction, and some don't. Kind of exciting, though, isn't it?

Happy All Hallow's Eve from Willow!

I hope everyone's Hallowe'en has been adequately ghoulish. 

Venus and Mercury are in the last gasp of Scorpio, adding some very potent spook to the atmosphere. This is the one day of the year I feel I can truly be myself... 

All the best this All Hallow's Eve from Willow!

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

Photo: Willow

Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno - October 26 at 2:56 p.m. Central Daylight Time

There's a bit o' spook in the air along with the smell of fallen leaves as we cross into the dark half of the year in the northern hemisphere. The Sun enters Scorpio. Cailleach takes the reins from Brigid. Persephone starts her sombre trek. The veils between the living and the ancestors, the light half and the dark half, become so thin as to be nearly non-existent.

Witchy origins rise to the surface at this time of year. We recognize each other quite readily now - on the bus, in the grocery store, passing on the sidewalk. A knowing glance. A subtle acknowledgement. The history laid bare. We know each other. We know. It's not so necessary to hide ourselves just now, camouflaged amongst the ghosts and goblins, creatures and spooks.

The Scorpio New Moon is a moon of underlying magic and mystery, crackling with alchemical possibility. Drink it in, and feel how powerful, how potent you are, distilled into this very moment on this very planet.

Photo: Willow

Feel the responsibility you hold for being so powerful. The weight that keeps you here, grounded, enduring. The unyielding limitations and stern restrictions you've come to respect and even love, keeping you on the straight and narrow. Keeping you from devastation, disaster, attack, exhaustion, injury. The borders and frameworks that contain you and your power, keeping you safe and keeping others safe from you. Holding you at your most concretely effective position because anything less would be less than you are.

At this Scorpio New Moon sextile Pluto in Capricorn, we step through a doorway - open for a limited time only and only to the wise among us - into the tone and themes of the Saturn transit through Scorpio when it will be in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn.

Every New Moon indicates something emerging: new emotional realities related to the sign in which it falls, as well as deadfall - dead and done emotional realities - to clear away during the Balsamic phase. Here, we step into a new layer of inheritance. Sacred gifts of the soul, of our ancestral and spiritual lineages, are bestowed upon us at this New Moon. We step more fully into their power and into the responsibility we hold for making good use of them from our strategic positions of influence on this planet.

Saturn, the planet related to strategic positioning, is at 21 degrees Libra, about to enter its retrograde shadow November 3, and will be exactly sextile Mars at 21 degrees Leo at the time of the New Moon. Mars in Leo (square Mercury-Venus in Scorpio) is at a potent distillation point, closing out its two-year cycle under the energy overlay of the lion. Explosively creative partnerships emerge out of this New Moon in Scorpio along with corresponding new levels of social and creative responsibility for bringing about the particular astrological Aquarian era future we wish to be part of.

This is the last Scorpio New Moon before Saturn ingresses the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, hardcore soul drive, and metamorphosis October 5, 2012. Those who understand the seriousness of the times in which we're living and the level of responsibility it takes to truly get the job done get a head start here - almost a full year of extra time to put in our energetic prep work. With Saturn, it pays to be both prepared and unrushed.

Saturn in Scorpio will require:

Energetic responsibility. Absolute energetic responsibility.

Intricate, masterful restraint.

Decision-making based in perfectly-honed intuition. Heeding gut feelings and Scorpionic spidey sense, but waiting until we're absolutely sure of what they're telling us before acting.

A new level of care and caution with emotions, psyches and psychic space.

A much lower tolerance for baggage, unfinished business, emotional/psychological/sexual entanglements, and otherwise bullshitty behaviours.

A no-nonsense release of anything no longer vital to our long-term soul-level success. (Saturn would call those things "frivolous.")

A slower, more gradual timing for the merger of energy and resources, especially financial and sexual.

A deepened respect for our power and our influence on others, on the world, on the universe itself. A deepened respect for what flows through us, for what we're connected to, for ancestral context, and for how it works through us.

The understanding of our positions as change agents. The facilitators of structural metamorphosis.

Photo: Willow

As with the other 11 signs, under the astrological lens, everyone has Scorpio in one form or another. Because of its power, complexity, and extremes, Scorpio is an energy prone to misuses and abuses. It's the sign of "the occult," and there are many, many people being very, very irresponsible on this front.

Speaking of which, this Scorpio New Moon is potent for another reason: contrary to popular belief and all the December 21, 2012 hoopla, there's a good chance the date for the end of the Mayan calendar is actually October 28, 2011 - just as we unfold into the new energetic and emotional realities indicated by this Scorpio New Moon.

A bunch of fools is currently attempting to bring about the "end of the world" on this planet - at least for those of us considered expendable collateral damage for the ascended, the enlightened, the awakened, the raptured, and the planetary/inter-planetary elite. And yet another bunch of fools is vociferously glorying about this magical and wonderful culling that will supposedly bring about their new age, their saving grace, their shot in the big leagues, their ticket out of here.

Neptune is currently stationing direct at 28 Aquarius (November 9). Chiron Rx is conjunct at 0 degrees Pisces. The wound is a wound of faith, of naivete, of belief, of hopes, of glossing over, of pedestal placing and pedestal sitting, of damaging ethers, of pseudo-spiritual blinders and manipulation. Neptune and Chiron now straddle 29 Aquarius, the degree that tips us into the astrological Aquarian era. Make sure you know where you're placing your faith and which version of the Aquarian era future you're supporting with the choices you make in your life.

All these layers make keeping the Scorpionic bullshit detectors perfectly honed and perfectly attuned coming out of this New Moon that much more important. And they certainly add an element to the level of responsibility required as we navigate our lives during these particular times.

I wrote about the themes of this Scorpio New Moon previously in conjunction with the Libra New Moon. I'll re-post it here because I feel this is an important time frame. From September 23, 2011: Upcoming New Moons in Libra and Scorpio - More Spice Than Sugar For the Next Two Months

- Via Combusta New Moon in Scorpio October 26 Conjunct Juno -

The New Moon in Scorpio October 26 deepens the process. Things move from the social to the energetically alchemical, and a big part of the process moves out of our hands.

The New Moon (2:56 p.m. CDT) is in full-on Via Combusta territory at 3 degrees Scorpio, which will be tightly sextile Pluto in Capricorn. The New Moon is also conjunct soul mate asteroid Juno, newly in Scorpio at zero degrees. Venus and Mercury will be closely conjunct each other at 21 and 20 degrees Scorpio respectively. This is certainly a New Moon with an edge.

Sextile Pluto in Capricorn, it is an energetic precursor to the upcoming period involving the Saturn in Scorpio - Pluto in Capricorn mutual reception (October 6, 2012 to September 18, 2015) and brings us into the tone of that time period - deep, soulful, serious, pragmatic, no fucking around.

This Juno-vibing Scorpio New Moon opens into the knowledge that finding a "soul mate" is only the beginning of the work. We're in some thorny, collectively karmic relational territory these days, and there are plenty of knots to be worked out ahead of your standard 'utter soul union bliss.' Aspects of unbalanced power dynamics are perpetuated through our interactions just by virtue of us being on the planet at this time, and we're challenged to consciously work them free together.

The relationships that deepen coming out of this Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno have to be right, no doubt about it. We still have some time under Saturn exalted in Libra to get the balance right, but under Saturn in Scorpio, our energy will be restricted; our resources will be limited. Heading into Saturn in Scorpio, we cannot afford to take losses (including emotional/energetic/psychic losses) or to make bad judgement calls as far as the integrity and abilities of the people with whom we enter partnership.

It will not be easy to get ourselves out of the wrong partnerships, and it will not be easy to recover from the wrong mergers of resources and energy (particularly sexual energy) from here on out...

The extrication processes during Saturn in Scorpio are more likely to be difficult: turbulent, protracted, nasty, even so enervating and devastating as to be deadly. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Make firm decisions about the people you have in your life now, and don't compromise your standards. Being a highly popular social butterfly spreading yourself over multitudes of acquaintances isn't going to mean much during Saturn in Scorpio. Only the relationships that truly pay dividends, soul-deep, are going to be worth the energy. Keep only the people you're absolutely sure about, and even then, work to create proper boundaries for all members of your social circle - including yourself. Good fences make good neighbours, especially under Saturn in Scorpio.

A major relational difficulty here is that with Pluto transiting Capricorn, the way things have been set up is corrupt. It no longer works. It never really did. The hierarchies are illegitimate. There is a detrimental power imbalance between men and women and the masculine and feminine energetic interplay. On a very many fronts, things are just plain wrong, and we have to change the course. All this must be consciously and mutually dealt with as mergers - business, love or otherwise - come about slowly and carefully, with full respect for the intricacies involved and the deep pitfalls to avoid. Trying to bring these combinations together fully before the power dynamics are reworked and the timing (Saturn) is right will only create more hurt and distortion.

In love, this involves creating right sexual relationships (Scorpio) with mutually held consciousness of the prior and current misuses and violent abuses of sexual energy. This especially involves abuses of women and the domination and control of feminine sexual power and knowledge. It also includes the damage done by the "too much, too fast, too often" mainstream sexual culture of the day. These misuses and abuses have become so energetically ingrained, hidden and accepted through millenia of cultural reinforcement, that it takes pristine focus and awareness within a sexual partnership not to repeat the dynamics in some form or another.

People are being kept from their full sexual power by false, mainstream-media constructed versions of sex, sexuality, beauty and attraction. But Scorpio is a sign that has the ability to make sex and the energetic interplay between people sacred and purposeful again. Issues start coming to the forefront out of this New Moon that will be on our plates during Saturn in Scorpio as far as the hidden energy exchanges between the sexes (and between those of the same sex).

The currencies of sexual, emotional and psychic energy as well as masterful Scorpionic healing abilities require conscious re-valuing and re-working, one interchange at a time.

We'll be working diligently on these intimate and highly complex issues throughout Saturn's transit of Scorpio into September of 2015.

In light of the complexities ahead, the decisions we make now must come straight from our souls, right from our core truth with no fibbing around the edges. There is very little margin for error now and there is a decreasing amount the closer we get to Saturn's ingress of Scorpio.

Allow the Scorpio New Moon October 26 to take you deeply into your intuitional guidance, the still place inside that already knows how the whole map has been laid out.

And don't be afraid. It all comes out OK, even if it doesn't.

Venus Clears the Fall 2010 Retro Degrees and Makes it Official With a Sun-Juno Conjunction on the Anaretic Degree of Libra

Venus leaves the degrees of its previous retrograde tomorrow at 13 degrees Scorpio, and if you've gotten through the past two weeks relatively unscathed as far as the sticky, tricky dynamics of relationships past popping up, consider yourself lucky. 

Actually, luck doesn't have all that much to do with it. If the clinging tendrils, unfinished business and ass-burning dynamics of previous connections haven't gotten their greasy hooks into you at this point, it's more likely a case that you've worked Saturn in Libra to the fine points, navigated your way out of the residual charge, and made different moves this time around. 

If a greasy hook or two is still latching, never fear. We're heading into a blisteringly potent Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno and sextile Pluto in Capricorn October 26. Coming out of that New Moon portal, greasy hooks can be purged once and for all as long as we don't waver from the intention of ending the old attachments and attractions that would keep us from present and future relationship success. 

It's not necessarily all that simple, though: 

Mercury and Venus, conjunct in Scorpio, are opposite Black Moon Lilith in Taurus, and nothing gets past BML unless it's Super Hardcore Gritty Real X 10. If you want to be free of unsavoury and unsatisfying relations, don't let up on even a single point. 

The Sun and Juno also form a conjunction on the anaretic degree of Libra October 22 just before both bodies enter Scorpio and move into position for the New Moon. The anaretic (29th) degree holds the final exam lessons for the entire sign. At 29 Libra, there's the ability for absolute social artistry, wonderful, mutually-supportive reciprocity and masterful balance as well as lots of shoddy, shoddy, shirking behaviours that let everyone, including ourselves, down. 

The Juno soul mates in our lives right now are working with us to create true fairness and balance within long-term supportive frameworks of relationships. They're also triggering the last decan of Saturn in Libra work - what we're going to be working on until Saturn ingresses Saturn in October 2012. 

Juno connections don't always feel great. They involve a deep level of soul work that is not always comfortable to do and can involve difficult emotions and highly-charged trigger points. It might feel as if it's not fair (Libra) that we have certain people and certain relationship situations going on in our lives right now, but Juno is triggering the last of the relationship stuff here, and it's in our best interests to work with the people in our lives on these points. 

Juno hasn't been in Libra since 2007, and we haven't experienced a Sun-Juno conjunction in Libra since October 2002. It can feel a little overwhelming on the last degree of the sign like this, and the weak points of the sign of Libra screwing various pooches is possible. 

Give it all you can to keep your equilibrium and hold out for real relationship fairness heading into next week's New Moon.

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This is for those who are in the financial position to subscribe on a monthly basis. Anyone who would like can offer smaller one-time amounts through PayPal at my e-mail address, also. 

There's a widget on the right side if you'd like to subscribe. You can subscribe using a credit card or PayPal. Subscriptions can be cancelled via your PayPal account, or you can contact me to cancel at any time. 

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Thanks very much. 

 

Willow 

Willow's Web Astrology

Venus Enters Scorpio: An Energetic Discharge of Venus Retro 2010

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

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

Mercury in Scorpio - October 13 to November 2 

Sun in Scorpio - October 23 to November 22 

New Moon in Scorpio conjunct Juno - October 26