Mars in Sagittarius: Headings versus Headaches

 Mars thin...sometimes described as 'tenuous' atmosphere as photographed by the Viking Orbiter (photo credit: NASA-JPL, 1976)

Mars is entering Sagittarius on Sunday, October 7th at 3:22 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

Generally speaking, as an astrologer I think of Mars entering Sagittarius and I say ‘oh boy – everyone’s going to be out there living to the max!’

To me, Mars in Sagittarius connotes good things. Active things. Trying-it-out new efforts, new attitudes, a renewed willingness to hear others out and listen to new ideas. Mars in Sagittarius fairly reeks of open our minds to the improbable but possible. The startlingly stunning, but real.

Okay…so full confession here, I do have a natal Mars in Sagittarius. Conjunct asteroid Scheherazade, my Sag Mars is a validation of my life as a writer. It doesn't matter what field I work in...eventually I end up writing.

And yes, this does mean I'll soon be getting a new Mars Return. Also yes - all such returns are highly informative!

But when I erect my personal Mars Return chart, you can also bet I'll be thinking about this Mars/Sagittarius ingress.

 Mars entering Sagittarius

October 7, 2012 - 3:22 a.m. UT/+0 - Aries Wheel

(location not specific)

And oh boy - is this an interesting chart, or what?!!

The first thing I notice (and yes, I'm looking at a highly detailed version of what's posted here) is that as Mars reaches 0 Sagittarius, asteroid Medusa is sitting right there.

That's right - right there at 0 Sagittarius.

And five degrees ahead? There stands Juno.

And four degrees behind?

There sits the Scorpio North Node.

Here's a snip from my screen view:

Medusa is one of the most interesting asteroids around. If you haven’t read a full discussion on it, here is a LINK to an article I’ve written on the subject. But for those who don’t have time for that at the moment (don’t worry, it’ll still be here later), suffice it to say that Medusa encompasses all of our fears about what we might learn…most of all about our Self.

That ‘hair turned to snakes’ Medusa thing and her gaze ‘turning us to stone’ – that isn’t about others. That’s about us, about how scared we each can be to learn things about ourselves which causes us to simply be scared of who we are. Or could be. Or have been. Where we see Medusa, we see where we are apt to try our hardest not to have to look. We’ll skate and avoid and deflect and evade, all in an effort not to see the truth.

And that truth is not about the thing we’re seeing. It’s about our reaction to it. It’s about us – our feelings and how we do or don’t govern them, how we do or don’t own them, how we do or don’t allow ourselves to feel them….or at the other end of the spectrum, how we do or don’t govern or reign them in – maybe take responsibility for them.

That part of the Medusa tale speaks volumes about Juno being positioned here at 5 Sagittarius. Juno (another name for Hera, wife of Zeus - aka Jupiter)…Juno is a guardian and regulator. When all is well and our Juno is well placed, we’re good with taking care of our home, our family, our responsibilities, our job, our mentality, our emotions – the whole enchilada.

When Juno is iffy in the natal chart, or during periods of stress even the best of us will squirm and quake. The question is however, will we give way? Will we allow ourselves to let our discomfort cause us to run away instead of doing something which could benefit us in the long run? Or maybe something which could help someone out – even heal some terrible wound?

Juno is about priorities. Most often you’ll hear me speak of Juno as self-discipline because that’s what it takes to get ourselves to face life’s music no matter how discordant we think it sounds. To have Juno just ahead of Mars says that some of us need to be prepared to ‘discipline’ ourselves through a process soon to come.

That could be just cleaning the garage. Or maybe you need to start a new business. Or maybe you need to admit you’ve made some terrible mistake or misjudgment somewhere along the way. Maybe you need to admit your mortality? Or your irresponsibility. Or your unwillingness to feel your own vulnerabilities, hurts, anger or disappointment.

The issue is not about ‘them.’ It’s not about whether you can tell them…it’s about your ability to deal with the truth of who you are and discipline yourself to be the person you really want to be.

Juno and Medusa are a really and truly tough pair. I know one fellow with Medusa-conjunct-Sun who does a very tough job and does everything he can not to be involved in it. As a result, he fails the standards he would like to think he lives…and the more the process goes on, the more upset with himself he becomes and the less he wants to admit that he’s upset or feel the upset….

Medusa can be a quagmire. Medusa is a tough, tough point – and we all have one. Yours may not be conjunct your Sun, but it’s somewhere.

As for Juno, I know probably fifty or so people who have very prominent Juno’s in their natal charts (I went on a Juno study kick last year, hence this particular collection of people and charts). Out of the fifty people with prominent Juno positions, so far forty-nine of them have revealed their ability to be highly disciplined people UNTIL you hit those couple of vulnerable spots…at which point someone else becomes the object of their ‘you need to…’ disciplinary chant.

Juno’s interesting. It’s not the emotional molasses pool Medusa is…no, Juno is less sticky than Medusa but tougher. Our Medusa factor is squishy. And if you learn to master your Medusa factor you will be looked upon by friends, foes and various standers-by as pretty awesome, but tough – probably beyond their tolerance.

Like attracts like. Remember that. When you work to improve your life you automatically run the risk of needing a whole new herd of friends to run with. Why? Because people aren’t all that good at tolerating differences. Tons of people partner (and marry) based on someone who matches them at their lowest and weakest point instead of their strongest. Then, when one person grows, the marriage (or partnership) ends. Our wanting someone to ‘feel’ us is usually about our fears, our lack of willingness to try, our being sick and tired of being the whole who ‘always has to…’

Who’s disappointed when we don’t do that ‘always’ thing? Them, you say? Uh, no. Us. We’re disappointed that they don’t like us in spite of our not trying.

That’s Juno. That irritation with them is really about us. That’s our Juno responding to the ongoing, life-long conversation we all have with ourselves about what we need to do, what we can slough off, what we can leave for later, what we need to do now…all that stuff.

(And now that you know more about the astrology of Juno and Medusa than you had on today’s to-do list, now we're going to add in the North Node!)

(The NORTH NODE?)

The Nodes just changed signs – the blog on which is found HERE. Suffice it to say that the North Node always (always, always, always) represents that which we should do …and which we don’t really want to do…which in this case is to find solutions which really-o, truly-o work for EVERYBODY equally. That may not be ‘equal’ in the same sense, but the amount of satisfaction from ‘the thing’ should be equal.

For instance: ask a half-dozen people what they want from a primary relationship and you may end up with a list which goes like this…one for love, one for companionship (so they won’t be alone), one for sex, one for financial security, one so they can have children and one so that their parents will stop going around whining ‘oh where did I go wrong…?’.

The numbers you can argue. The point is, people do things for different reasons. And when it comes to the Scorpio department of life – which in this case involves your doing that thing you don’t really want to do and which seems soooooo burdensome and so NOT what you want to be doing with your life…not only do you have to do the thing, but you have to care that everybody gets an equal share of satisfaction out of it.

Got it? NOBODY likes their North Node. The South Node? Hey, everybody likes their South Node – which in Taurus is wanting it OUR way….not THEIR way.

(Sometimes as I write these blogs I get the vision of the entire human race as a bunch of kids about to flunk ‘play nice in the sandbox’ class...)

 Children playing in a Harrisonburg, Virginia Our Community Place sandbox

(photo credit: Artexerxes, June 2008)

The combination of all this has Mars entering Sagittarius with our being afraid of what lies ahead or studiously ignoring that which is back there in time…or simply lurking in the back of their mind. We know we have to get to it, but…

And wait – there’s more!

(I know…who can wait, right?)

Just to make this all more juicy, Mars’ ingress position (0 Sagittarius) is the ‘starting point’ of a mutable t-square.

As portrayed by this t-square, everything we’ve just discussed is a factor in some current situation. The ‘object’ of the t-square being the South Node (in Taurus) conjunct Black Moon Lilith in early Gemini – this is  something not every exotic (read: all too common) in our lives - wanting to get ‘the thing’ over and done so you don’t have to talk…or even think about “it” anymore.

That “it” may be what you need to get through to achieve freedom from the problem-situation-challenge (etc.). Or “it” may be the situation itself.

Not noted on the above diagram (sometimes things get by me in the moment, sorry...!) are two fixed stars which enter into this discussion. The first is Mirfak - also known as Alpha Perseus. Positioned at 2 Gemini and thus exactly conjunct Black Moon Lilith and soon to be opposed by transiting Mars (around October 9-11, depending on what time zone you're in), Mirfak has two main thrusts and a duality which fits its position in Gemini.

The first part of the question asks whether we are courageous, or merely into competition or competition's nasty brother, arguing.

The second question asks us what's the honorable (respect-generating) path to follow and if we're going to follow it.

In conjunction with Black Moon Lilith, Mirfak describes a (Gemini) choice of how to act and why to act that way, with the understanding that there is a universal response to decisions we make on how to act and what sort of standards to hold ourselves to.

The second star is Alcyone. Currently positioned at 0 Gemini and therefore in exact opposition to the Mars-Sagittarius ingress, Alcyone (also known as Eta Taurus) is worthy of a blog post on its own (I'll schedule that for later in the month - not to worry!) but in short, a star which at some level represents the linking of our spirit - the essence of who we are - with our life, what we do and how well or not well that functions.

With Black Moon Lilith involved here, there's a whole statement being made about how you are affecting your world as seen through how you are being received and respected BY your world.

Our lives are very separate. We each live with unique circumstances and considerations. We may be very 'popular' or successful in an area of life which gives us one thing but not another. As with all things Gemini, the big question is priorities. If one thing is going well and another thing is going not so well, the real question is which is more important to your life?

The Black Moon in conjunction with Mirfak and Alcyone says we're all missing some component in our equation. Most important are those which cause us to not get where we want or...even worse...to be trying, trying, trying without getting any positive responses.

Constellations Perseus and Triangulum from the Mercator Globes

in Harvard University's Map Collection

(Gerald Mercator 1512-1594)

So the 'goal' now is to re-balance life while (Mars in Sagittarius) growing your effectiveness and ability to operate in that life. As part of this Mars ingress (and the involved t-square) we are being asked to focus and work on our lives with particular attention to how well our choices are working (or have/haven't worked) and whether this means we need a shift or re-orientation in our priorities. With Mirfak in this picture, we either want our challenges to work/work out for us here in this next six weeks or so, or to at least understand why and where they aren't working so we can fix that - all while maintaining some modicum of honorable behavior or responsible priorities - in short, whatever is required to not just 'get the job done' but to earn/maintain the respect of others in the process.

And now that we understand the goal, back to the challenge - the 't' in the t-square!

So what of this particular 't'? Composed of Neptune-Fomalhaut-Chiron, we know that anywhere where we've tried to cut corners (in life, in our heads, in our hearts), we stand to experience emotional comfort. And as if that wasn't itchy enough, we also seem to have a Neptune-Fomalhaut-Chiron request (read: requirement) to self-examine ourselves for behaviors which...whether they're 'uber-good' (pure as driven snow) or rather off into the corruption ditch, have to do with our efforts NOT to have to confront our own vulnerabilities.

Especially where that may pertain to mistakes we have made.

This sounds very much like a six-week transiting pain in the low back (or neck, depending). And it well may be just that! But it's also the solution to life's current puzzles.

How would that work? Well...Mercury/Saturn in Scorpio here is talk to them…or think through it, step by step. (Same parameters on “it” as before.) And the Moon-Ceres part of this? That’s have a plan or get a plan. So if you need to talk to someone, think through what you need to say. Think through what questions you may get asked.

Your (Ceres) plan is to get through what you need to do. Something needs to be cleared up, cleared out or made to function dependably and productively in order for you to get past your emotional road block.

That means you either haven’t yet thought things through (Saturn-Mercury) or your (Ceres-Moon) plan has a flaw in it that you don’t want to acknowledge.
The giant kicker in this configuration – which let’s remember, is going to play out through the next six weeks while Mars transits Sagittarius – is that Fomalhaut is involved.

Fomalhaut/Chiron is pain, painful circumstances or ‘progress being injured’ by something which isn’t wholesome. Fomalhaut/Neptune is a wavering ‘is it real, is it not real, is it me, is it them’ sort of quality which creates discomfort of whatever sort.

Still, Mercury/Saturn in Scorpio spell a way forward: finding out the facts and sorting everything out from there in spite of the emotional discomfort involved.
It’s music-facing time!

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Just as a sidebar note here…any time we see a connection between Neptune and Saturn there is a marked chance for compulsion/need driven activities which - whether habitual, addictive or otherwise amount to compensations or 'walls' again the difficulty somebody is having with the idea of dealing with life (reality) on the emotional level.

With Saturn in Scorpio this energy is particularly likely to surface as efforts to deny culpability, involvement, guilt, debts or responsibilities - particularly those which involve 'Saturn things' like laws, contracts and career matters and/or Saturn-Scorpio 'transactional' issues which, whether they involve money or not, are plainly based on trust or emotional responsibility.

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The rule with t-squares is what it is: until we get past the ‘my ego’ factor described by the ‘t’, we get bounced back to the start of the configuration. In this case that means getting bounced back to that Mars-Juno-North Node knowing you need to face doing it even though you don’t want to.

So what happens if you do nothing?

Ordinarily, that’s a maybe this, maybe that sort of question. But in this case, there’s going to be a solar eclipse on November 13th.

AND...as that solar eclipse occurs, Mars is going to be rolling across 27 Sagittarius – the degree of the Galactic Center of our local Milky Way galaxy.

The Galactic Center has a rule: what you get out of life depends on what (how well) you contribute to that life.

Being in Sagittarius, this is not 'local.' It cannot just be about you or your chosen few.

Being at 27 Sagittarius (part of the last decan/third of the sign), YOU don't get to decide how worthy you or your contributions are - the world (other people and worldly institutions) do that! 

Solar eclipses are a big astrological deal. So particularly if life is not going your way, there's some tall thinking which deserves some priority, quality time in your near future...lest you regret not having stopped to think in the long run.

We always say that the last six-to-eight weeks before a Solar Eclipse represent a 'breakdown' period. Anything which you know (in your heart, head, or otherwise) is not working needs letting go of. 'That' - whatever it is - is not your answer, your solution, even your safe harbor at this time. You need to let go, move on and accept that life...inclusive of your life...is changing/has changed.

We'll be talking more about the Solar Eclipse in days (and weeks) to come. But this Mars entering Sagittarius event? That's a tick-tick-tick of the cosmic clock.

What is it time for in your life?  
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Neptune Goes Retrograde

 Le Reve de Parsifal by Margret Hofheinz-Döring (1977)

Neptune goes retrograde once every year. It’s part of life. Physically, retrograde is all about simple solar system mechanics…as the Earth goes orbiting around the Sun, during parts of every year other planets will “disappear” behind the Sun.

That’s what we call retrograde. The “backing up” through the zodiac part…? That’s all about astrology being geo(Earth)-centric(centered). In other words, astrology is all about how the universe looks from here on Earth. 

Yes, there is heliocentric astrology. ‘Helio’ being related to ‘Helios’ the Greek god associated with the actual disc of the Sun (as opposed to Apollo as god of light and hence enlightenment)…there is some ‘sun-centric’ astrology out there.

But let’s be real. How many of us are going to live a life standing on the surface of the Sun? That’s so hard on the tootsies!

The reason why some astrologers like heliocentric astrology though…? That says something important.

The Sun is our source of energy-as-life. That’s just a fact. So metaphysically (and if we consider the solar system as our metaphysical ‘life system’) the Sun is at the center. It’s our “us,” if you will. And in that sense, the Earth is our…world! And our world…yes, it revolves around “us” (the Sun).

Just don’t tell the egotists and narcissists out there, okay? I know a few, and that ‘it’s all about me’ stuff is entirely irritating!

But getting back to the point…if retrograde is when the planet ‘vanishes’ behind the Sun as seen from Earth, that’s a rather good metaphysical-metaphorical picture of retrograde as a function all about planets (or other objects) functioning “out of sight” and within us …not “out there in the world” when they’re in retrograde.

So now that we’re all going ‘ohhhhh…I get it now…’ let’s just get to the Neptune stuff of el momento.

Neptune will go retrograde on June 3rd at 7:29am, UT/+0. That makes the period from June 1st through 5th a period in which Neptune hopes will run high, when Neptune disappointments will leave you feeling particularly low, and where we are all likely to get yet another lesson in why expectations and lack of realism doesn’t work.

Oh yes – and let’s not forget that ‘some things are better left as fantasies’ Neptune thing. While Neptune supports fantasy, knowing what is fantasy or what is best left as fantasy is the flip side of that Neptune lesson. As is knowing what to believe in and knowing when believing and just ‘having faith’ or ‘thinking good thoughts’ is simple silliness.

 A postcard about Parsifal from around 1900 (artist unknown)

We all get lessons about this throughout our life. We all have those ‘boy, I really should’a known better…’ moments. And the ‘Neptune Lesson’ (if you will) does not mean that we should never believe. Or be motivated. Or trust. Or have a bit of faith, particularly in ourselves.

Let’s remember where Neptune – the planet – lives: it lives way out there in our solar system at the end of the line of known planets. Here I’m differentiating very clearly between ‘planets’ and other objects – be they dwarf planets, TNO’s, comets, asteroids or what have you.

And part of this is (yes,) about size. Neptune is a big giant planet. It’s 3.88 (almost 4 times) the size of Earth. And popular though it may be, Pluto is not even 20% the size of Earth. Put another way, Neptune – though not nearly as big as Saturn or Jupiter is both big enough and quirky enough to control the orbits of a whole squadron of celestial bodies orbiting beyond Neptune…one of which is Pluto.

Anyway…particularly if this station aspects your chart you’re likely to feel a large dose of either ‘wow!’ or ‘huh? I’m confused!’ in your life. There are also those who will get all ‘but, but…!’ as something they’ve worked for or feel entitled to gets taken away.

But remember: Neptune is a tricky planet to understand the reality of – because it represents where reality ends. Where Neptune is concerned, that we think most likely to be isn’t…and that we would have bet good money on not being the truth becomes our reality. The great ‘coping mechanism’ where Neptune is concerned is astrologer Rob Hand’s immortal suggestion that we allow ourselves not to know. 

Or…thinking in the ‘astrological rule’ term on how  connections between tricky Neptune and trickster Mercury often indicate ‘the lie’…from that we extrapolate Mercury as the mental part of the lying and Neptune as the squishy emotional stance which makes us think we can ‘get away’ with something.

Put more concretely, that you think has vanished now may or may not be really gone. That you think is ‘yours’ may in fact not be yours for long. Or it may not be what you think – as wonderful or terrible as you think.

That Neptune is ‘outcome ruler’ of Pisces and at 0 Pisces as it goes stations and goes retrograde also adds not just an emotional point but a suggestion that what we are supposed to do is better understand our emotionality. Though we tend to experience Neptune transits as confusion or elation or other things which emotionally “remove” us from our (quote/unquote) normal clarity (and yes, I know that can be a pretty nebulous commodity with some…!) though all such periods or moments ‘alter’ our “sober consciousness” the real theme behind Neptune is understanding what that difference is…and in the case of lying or intoxication or the need not just to enjoy the occasional fantasy but to live in one…?

What IS reality? That’s the biggest of all Neptune questions. This is the last planet moving out through our solar system beyond which lies the unknown and metaphysically ‘unknowable’ – celestial objects which represent forces and ideas we comprehend abstractly, but which come upon us as some sort of epiphany, surprise or shock every time they happen.

Neptune represents all things idealistic and idolized. Everything we escape with and the feelings we are trying to escape from. But at the heart of it, Neptune is really about knowing the difference…and why we choose to escape and when that is a sensible thing to do and when it amounts to self-destruction. 

Addiction, abandonment, grief…these are all Pisces commodities. Neptune represents them as an ‘outcome’ in our life because they are states in which we are ‘parted’ from normal productive clarity and sobriety of sensibility. Why we get to/into these states is the deep emotional waters of the metaphysical Piscean ocean. But let not a one kid you…it’s no better to live life addicted to the non-reality of addiction than it is to live life addicted to the non-reality of uber-optmism or slavish devotion to some belief.

Why? Because they’re ALL versions of not coping with reality. The Pisces lesson – ultimately – is to accept reality because only by accepting facts can we do or build anything with them. Or change them. Change doesn’t happen because you wish it would happen…it happens either because you make it happen, or because it is part of a natural cycle (like spring following winter).

In going retrograde at 0 Pisces, Neptune asks us what we have begun to feel – or whether we are dealing with a basic/base line reality. Events now ‘bring home’ lessons to some, evoking feelings they don’t want to feel. For others, these are days when they feel a lot for all of mankind. Or the planet. Or some cause. Though at times we may be calloused, or living behind some sort of wall (mental, emotional, physical, temporal), Neptune’s ‘turnabout’ serves to strip us of that callousness or protection and leave us bare.

Bare to whom? To ourselves. And for many of us, that’s the hardest thing of all.

I chose ‘Le Reve de Parisfal’ to headline this blog not just because it’s pretty (which counts, let’s face it) but also because of the idea of the thing. A painting is an artist’s rendering of something – layer one of Neptune imagining. ‘Le Reve’ means ‘the dream’ – and whether our dreams are the fancy of nighttime slumber or a yearning or a goal we have not yet reached, the whole concept of the real/unreal which is either our brain processing ideas as we sleep or something we are working towards or something we wish would take us away from the reality of here and now…that’s oh-so very Neptunian. And Piscean, yes.

There’s also the Parsifal part. The reference is to an opera (more Neptunian/Piscean artistry) on the subject of Percival’s quest for the Holy Grail…how much more Piscean do you want to get? The search takes place in reality and the hero holds that the Holy Grail is real. But is it? Or will it become ‘a reality’ in his life?

Parsifal by Hermann Hendrich (1854-1931)

This is the very sort of Neptunian questions many of us – and our world – is now wavering on deciding the realities and non-realities of. That Neptune is going retrograde shy of fixed star Fomalhaut (at 4 Pisces) and Chiron’s current position at 5 Pisces…that should tell us that we are either not yet ready or not yet willing to take on those things we so don’t want to face: our own recognition of how close or far we are from what we deem as proper.

Fomalhaut is one of the great Persian fixed ‘royal’ stars. Like its brethren symbols, Fomalhaut promises success IF one human attribute is avoided. In the case of Fomalhaut, that attribute is corruption…or an idea which is corrupted or corruptive.

Chiron here speaks to the thing we can only learn by doing. Wherever we see Chiron we know there is likely to be a lot of talking about what ‘they’ should do and a hesitancy to look in the mirror. There will be much swearing that ‘I don’t know HOW!’ with the solution – and the lesson of ‘how’ to be found through doing.

We plainly want to know the answer before we start…whatever now. But that’s not forthcoming. There is only the recognition of what we have done here to contemplate. There is only the self-marshaling to deal with reality against the willfulness of ‘I’ll just ignore the part I don’t like’ or retreat from confrontation or the attempt to drown that small voice inside your own head (generally known as your conscience) by yelling ever so loudly about the perceived ills of others.

Modern astrology assigns rulers to every decanate (ten degrees – from the Latin ‘deca’ for ten) in the zodiac.

Neptune's station-retrograde, June 2011

(Aries Wheel - Location Not Specific)

As shown above, Neptune is currently in a Neptune decanate – using modern rulerships. Behind this is the fact that always, always, always – when we talk Pisces we are talking first Jupiter we walk in with: the knowing, the understanding, the comprehension. Jupiter in Pisces being the emotional side of Jupiter (knowledge) we are thus talking about knowledge ‘internalized’ – or wisdom.

How wise are you?

In the above chart, you will see Jupiter at 29 Aries. And the Moon at 29 Gemini. Gemini is mentality. In Gemini, the Moon represents the degree of our  personally having absorbed information. Or our willingness to make a choice. Or – of course – own our choices. Aries being the “I Am/I Do” sign of the zodiac, the question is who am I and what am I doing with (or in) my life? 

The angular aspect between these two points – a 60 degree sextile – is one of opportunity. It’s a tool – think of this as pliers….you can get a grip on things…but will you?

Last year’s Neptune retrograde was entirely in Aquarius. We had ‘internalized’ (that being the retrograde part) the problems going on in our world, our Aquarian society and marketplace.

This year’s Neptune retrograde starts in Pisces and retrogrades back into Aquarius. Thus the question is posed: will you do something with your life to better your societal reality? For some this is doing what the world wants, rejoining the world…or even letting go of some part of your ‘world’ which is no longer applicable to your life. For others this will be tackling that ‘thing’ to become what you could be in the world.

And a word to the wise here: once Neptune goes direct in November 2011, it has to come back through the end of Aquarius into Pisces. The last time it did that, as it hit 29 energetic degrees of societal Aquarius (one ‘critical mass’ point) Uranus was at 29 degrees of oceanic Pisces. During the five or so days that this overlap existed, the giant earthquake off Japan’s shores occurred, triggering a devastating tsunami and the associated (and ongoing) nuclear plant disaster.

The earthquake/tsunami occurred during the last 12 hours (or so) that Uranus was in Pisces – in other words, the last moments of this overlap.

When Neptune comes back through 29 Aquarius, Saturn will be at 29 Libra. This is a slightly different dynamic in that Uranus and Neptune are BOTH ‘transpersonal’ planets, meaning they symbolize forces beyond human control (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, nuclear toxicity).

Saturn is a ‘generational planet’: it represents factors which we work for. In broad stroke terms, Saturn is everything about governments and governance and everything about social systems, from civilization as a concept to energy, plumbing, economics and the global marketplace.

We CAN – with much effort, clarity of mind and determination – deal with all such ‘social systems.’ The question now is will we? Given that Neptune re-enters Pisces on February 3, 2012 at 6:53pm (UT/+0) that makes February 2nd and 3rd of next year a date to circle on our calendar.

And to aim for. For while there is no assurance that everything will go right, for those who have lined their ducks up by that time, Neptune scheduled to re-enter Pisces next February with Jupiter at 3 Taurus and Saturn going on station at 29 Libra to go retrograde…you can bet your bottom dollar more than a few people who have worked to create something will see their efforts crowned with achievements at that time.

For those who haven’t? A sense of having missed your own boat will be the outcome.

Meanwhile…back to the present. Those with planets or chart placements between 25 Aquarius and 5 Pisces are going to feel the current ‘turn of affairs’ most personally. Those with highlighted chart positions between 25 Leo and 5 Virgo will be confronted by something which can no longer be relied upon to remain as it has been.

Those with chart positions between 25 Scorpio and 5 Sagittarius AND/OR 25 Taurus and 5 Gemini are to be sympathized with for a period of confusion. With Mercury currently at 0 Gemini there is a real thread of ‘needing to learn and get more facts’ which applies to us all but this is a far more essential issue in your life than it is for many.

Those with chart positions between 28 Virgo and 2 Libra and/or 28 Cancer and 2 Leo? Adjustments to current methods, aims or relationships are in the works. Or should be!

Planet Neptune

photo credit: NASA/JPL - Caltech

With this station/retrograde happening just a couple of days after a solar eclipse in Gemini, while there may seem to be a veneer of coping in your world there is emotional quicksand beneath what is actually a very thin crust. Tread lightly and be realistic about where you can and cannot go.

Better yet, deal with the quicksand. Those who do will be in better shape for having done so. Rainbows are nice, but in reality, rainbows don’t really last all that long.

Real reality, on the other hand, lasts forever – and can support our efforts, providing us with what we really need…in reality.

Mercury, Venus Chiron, Niobe: Aims in Search of a Focus

 Venus and Mercury (1585)

by Bartholomaus Spranger

We’re going to tackle a three day range here – from May 7th through 9th. It’s a nice enough weekend for those fond of Taurus times…the Moon will be transiting Cancer on Saturday and Sunday which will make things nicely home for those who have time, and those who are hot on fire about some project are going to be brainstorming apace, whatever else is afoot.

Taking Saturday on its own, it offers one other highlight as well: Venus and Mercury coming into conjunction at 20 Aries.

Now let’s be realistic here…Venus and Mercury have been playing tag pretty much since the first of the month. And it’s something of an interesting indication this, what with Venus being in Aries. Let’s remember after all, Venus is a symbol of what we like to get from others in return for what we do or who we are (or a return on our investment, be that of time, money or effort)…and when Venus transits Aries, we’re sort of stuck with ‘getting’ that from ourselves. Or looking to ourselves for satisfaction with what we’re doing. Or even rewarding ourselves for good (would you believe ‘decent’?) behavior. Or with putting up with inconveniences.

Or that never-popular looking Self in the mirror thing? You know – when we get real about why we’re not getting where we think we want to go?

Mercury, on the other hand, is quite all righty-roo in Aries. Mental and conceptual, Mercury can express itself a little too self-critically in Aries – or too egotistically. Mercury in Aries is often a sign of impatience, or the tendency to get frustrated overly quickly – at least in comparison with how patient we usually are. (Except if you have Mercury in Aries natally. Then that ‘comparison’ thing becomes a big fat maybe…maybe not!)

Put these two together and you can get a lot of brainstorming (as suggested above) or really harsh critique (try not to!) or clashing of titan opinions (which works well in Japanese horror flicks and not so delightfully in real life) or haste making waste and getting frustrated over that…

This would be a classic time to splurge or act on a whim. And that may work for you – or it may not. How would you know which is which? Probably by why you’re doing what you’re doing. If this is a sudden ‘bingo!’ thought – the ‘aha!’ moment where you see how to do something or fix something or fit that hole and make ‘it’ all work? That’s the Mercury-up side of this conjunction and it proves that you’re thinking.

But this would also be a classic time to try and ‘make yourself feel better’ by buying something or indulging in something or doing the ‘I deserve this!’ pout-pout thing. We all do it, so don’t beat yourself up about it – that really sulky Venus/Aries thing you just don’t need.

The point here is to understand what you’re doing and to do what you do with a bit of sense or sensibility as to boundaries and not going entirely overboard.

Remember, Chiron – the what I need to learn how to do by doing it…even though I dread the whole thought symbol – Chiron is still conjunct fixed star Fomalhaut. And Fomalhaut is the heart and soul of the karmic lesson about ‘no shady deals.’ Where we are above board, Fomalhaut promises success. So if you really need to learn how to do something and you really don’t know how to do it, provided you’re just tackling the job and have no ulterior motives for doing so, these past weeks have been good for you.

And this weekend continues being positive.

But! IF you’ve been craven or covetous, where you’ve been in an ‘I’ll show them!’ mood instead of merely dealing with your own life, where you know you have been unfair, mean or selfish…it doesn’t matter if you think you should be allowed to do so, if you know that isn’t cool, it isn’t. And for you, this would be a bit of a rocky time.

Continuing on with this Chiron theme as we move along to Sunday, Chiron actually ends its act of effusive fusion with Fomalhaut on Sunday. How are we likely to experience this? Probably as a loss of some sense that yes, we really can do this. Or that if we just follow the rules, the procedures, the Yellow Brick Road that we will eventually gain the upper hand, achieve our aims and in the end, succeed.

This does not mean that some mystical “chance” has been lost. No, you still can succeed! You’ll just have to do it without that little voice inside cheering you on – and seeing you through those really (Chiron) hard parts. As Chiron parts ways with Fomalhaut (with it being yet a while before Chiron moves out of orb), that’s when we get the other notice for this weekend – namely Niobe (pride) retrograding back into Libra.

When we say that Niobe is pride, we mean the kind which thinks ‘life has blessed me’ ….in that particularly (Greek tragedy) way which sort of almost taunts life to test your sense of blessedness. In Niobe’s case, she was boastful about her children. She thought her many beautiful children were the most beautiful and the most talented and better even than the children of the gods.

Let’s just say that such boastful pride, such luxuriating in what was especially in those days (when child mortality was so high) such a gift…that was just plain old everyday (and immortally) obnoxious. And when Leto – mom of Sun god Apollo (god of light, music, healing and enlightenment) and Artemis (aka Diana, goddess of Moon/moonlight, intuition, hunting and chastity) – when Leto heard Niobe boasting she SO wasn’t having any of it!

 Latona (the Roman Leto) and her Children, Apollo and Diana

by William Henry Rinehart (1874) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

This woman would have to be dealt with – and deal with her Leto would: Apollo and Artemis were told to take their exalted bows and arrows and to shoot down Niobe’s children, one by one.

So blind was Niobe to the error of her ways that it actually took her until most of her children fell dead around her before she realized what was happening. And with only one child left she began to beg forgiveness.

But it was too late – a last arrow had already left Artemis’ bowstring and Niobe was left with no children at all.

So Niobe is pride. But on a more specific level it is the sort of pride which tempts us to compare ourselves with others. Call it a ‘connective’ sort of pride – there’s always someone else’s something in the mix.

That part doesn’t bode so well with the Venus in Aries thing. Venus in Aries is about the struggle to believe in self, validate ourselves in our own eyes and to be satisfied with our own opportunities. So this suggests that this weekend – while good if and where we can reconcile our internal differences – can be problematic in the relation sense, particularly since Niobe retrograding back into Libra would tend to heighten the me/them tendency to compare.

On a whole other level, this can be a very discerning time. If you have to make a decision between this and that, this quartet of influences would be exactly what you might be looking to find on the celestial menu (providing you can get past your own tendency to want it all – or want things all your way!)

Since Mercury is nearing the end of a shadow cast by its March/April retrograde, there’s also a sense of moving ‘past’ some things. So expect a miscellaneous (even perhaps important!) matter to head towards ‘wrap up’ or ‘settling out’ mode – especially as we move into the week.

By early Monday, the Moon will have moved into Leo and it’ll be time to get a move on and to start seeing what bright ideas we can get moving and bring to reality. Providing you don’t lose your head or perspective, it’s a good time to move on.

Just remember – Chiron and Fomalhaut are still within shouting distance, so don’t do unto anyone else anything you would feel really peeved to have done unto you!