Dateblog: May 2015

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So here we are at May 2015 ... Venus and Mercury are in Gemini prompting many a notion worth considering and while the Sun-Mars combination in Taurus we’re starting the month out with can be a wee bit stubborn (a wee bit?), the combination of all (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars) also typifies the sort of inner core stability we’d expect in those who know where they’re starting from - and given that, what they’re willing to risk.

Or at least think about risking. (Sun and Mars in Taurus can be provoked, no doubt. But this is not a ‘hasty’ combination - just ask Ferdinand the Bull!).

There’s a lot of ‘this and that’ going on in life and the world - that we would expect as a reflection of the ongoing Eta Aquarid meteor shower - not that such ‘sparks of inspiration’ may not lead to something good.

With the Full Moon in Scorpio, it’s virtually guaranteed a few things in life will be coming to a head. They may be joyous, they may be testy - and without question they will in some way be prompting each of us to ask each of us (depending on where we are with our Self) about whether what we thought things were was really right.

That’s one of the things Full Moons are for ... astrologically, they’re all about our checking in our our Self and how we’re feeling about things - the everyday things of everyday life and all the people which go with that. A Full Moon in Scorpio, whether testing or terrific is about that which sticks with us or that which we feel stuck with. It raises the sticky aspects of interactions so we can wonder why things ‘have to be this way’ - or whether they really need to be as complicated as we all make them.

Depending on what we meet up with, we let go or dance our fandango. Then we simply move on, as Full Moons are phases - like days and moments and pre-memory selfies taken by our mind, some of which will last, and some of which we’ll by and by toss in the mental trash.

By the time the New Moon turns up in Taurus on the 18th (UT/+0), Mercury’s being on station to go  retrograde (on the 19th) with Lilith entering Scorpio two days later on the 21st spells reconsideration - or the necessity to do so. Something needs consideration (not that we want to think about it...). With Mercury in Gemini retrograde and Mars having joined the Gemini parade, there’s a lot of ‘noise’ - inside and out. Factors are shifting ... do we ‘tackle the job’ and count on adapting to input on the fly? Or do we continue thinking, talking and gathering data and ideas while wondering apace?

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Not that May is likely to ‘feel’ all that much like April. The spirit, the atmosphere, the general and elemental ‘feeling’ we get about things ... well, with all the emphasis on earth last month, that’s had us being (or becoming) much more aware of (earthy, tangible) realities in terms of what could (fire) happen on many important-to-everyday-life earth/earthy fronts. And now? By the time the Sun exits earthy Taurus for airy Gemini on May 21st (UT/+0) a lot of that earthy ‘drive’ (courtesy of Mars) will have turned into considering of and looking into options - which would be particularly apt, what with Mercury going retrograde on the 19th (UT/+0).

And since just after that upsurge of whatever which occurs around the time of the (Scorpio) Full Moon on May 4th (oh, do have fun...) Venus rolls into Cancer (date: late on May 7th, UT/+0) ... well, the net of all such, plus the Mars which entered Gemini on May 12th being in position to oppose Saturn (in retrograde) as Mercury goes retrograde ...

Expect some stoppages. Whether they are yours, or why they are yours (or aren’t yours or aren’t about you) is individual. But with Saturn opposing Mercury as Venus trines Neptune during Mercury’s (Gemini) station, the concepts of transit, traffic and ‘commerce’ would seem up for grabs ... in any and every form, whether that’s personal, professional, conversational, negotiable, insightful, enlightening, or of any and every other sort.

That much ‘Gemini as many’ we would expect. After all, it is that ‘many’ Gemini quality which forces us to think things through and then choose, which is exactly what Gemini’s about.

And it’s also what the whole process of Mercury retrograde - which means we’re getting a double dose of doubling back on our thinking ... which if you accept the idea that unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should ...means we are not just meant to be facing and dealing with whatever we have on our plate(s) at the moment (some people having bigger life tables with more plates on them than others...), but that there is indeed something to be learned from present circumstances. No matter how the circumstance itself goes, metaphysics teaches that we have the option and some opportunity in the Now to be more of who we will ultimately like ourselves better for being - and how that’s the key to the happiness and security we’ve been all balled up about.

But no, it may not be fun - which I agree, is dislikable in the utmost (to put it politely).

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Yet whatever we’re up to, and whatever we’re doing, its hardly set in stone - or if something is, it leads to something so directly (and that may so directly lead to something else) that it appears that we know what we’re doing even though the whole of May is likely to be an endless series of moment by moment decisions - which may sound trying or complicated, but then again, may just point to that rather lovely quality we humans call awareness.

Some will skate, evade and never settle during May. Some will skim surfaces and never get beyond wetting their toes wet in glassy shallows.

Then again, maybe they can’t swim - would you have them drown in something they’re unprepared for?

And maybe all that skating is the performance of a virtuoso, the flawless tacking from point to point while virtuously sailing a metaphysical wind.

Being how all the teal (jade?) color in the chart represents mutable energy, we should expect things to change this month. Change can mean many things to every person, so all we know is that things will change this month, whether we’re the initiator, the participant, the onlooker or just someone hearing some tiny factoid which causes us to change our opinion on something.

That’s a prime astrological verb for May 2015: change. The constant isn’t constant - and if ‘it’ is constant, we aren’t. This can represent some sort of rebelliousness, but it may just represent differences neither good or bad. With Jupiter in Leo moving through Leo’s ‘teen’ degrees, there’s a lot of idealism going around - which might be just fine except along with the idealism is likely to occur an equal measure of hard-headedness.

And that hard-headedness? Though it absolutely feels necessary, it may be necessary ... and then again, we may just be feeling emotionally squishy deep in our innards. (You know, in those inner places we don’t even like admitting to?)

Surely we’re all going to be trying a lot of things and differing tactics this month. Once we get to Mercury retrograde (on the 19th), the better part of our ‘learning curve’ is internal in spite of however much is going on, with the astrological ‘why’ of that - the things which trigger that learning - probably being associated with (starting as) Black Moon Lilith enters Scorpio on May 21st, the day when the Sun enters Gemini.

That date - the 21st - is actually the end of a four (or five, depending on your time zone) day coagulation of events (which will probably be the next post here at the blog) and certainly the most astrologically notable recipe of the month. Between here and there is the Full Moon of the 4th (at 13 Scorpio), Venus moving into Cancer on the 7th and Mars entering Gemini on the 12th - which will be a big breath of energetic air for us all.

And yet ... just about the time that Gemini Mars gets to reflecting in life, revving us up and getting us thinking (if not going) in a hundred different directions, that’s when we reach that Mercury retrograde.

(Plus a few other things ... so stay tuned!)
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Astrologer's Diary: Mercury in Scorpio, Venus in Libra

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I feel like I'm in a race against the solar eclipse. As I've told you, I have a back injury. And try as I may, it's amazingly hard to get help for it.This is not about naming names or pointing fingers... it's about a serious physical need on my part and a dismal amount of systemic and individual unwillingness to take responsibility for what one is supposed to take responsibility for (since that's what you're doing) going around.

All such moments (people, situations, choices)...and I'm sure you're either running into it or embodying it (whether out of necessity or preference)...reflects the October 23rd solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio.

Hence my race. That eclipse can't get here and gone in my book. (And yes, there is great irony to saying you're running any race when your problem is a back injury.) However... with that duly quipped (I'll be telling jokes on my death bed, no doubt), before I contemplate surrendering to being horizontal, here are a few thoughts Mercury moving into Scorpio and Venus entering Libra which may be tasty or tasteful enough to chew on:

Mercury is entering Scorpio late on the 27th at 10:40 in the evening (UT/+0 time) and Venus will enter Libra on September 29th at 8:53 in the evening, UT/+0 time.

These two signs (Libra and Scorpio) occur in succession (Libra then Scorpio). As with any two adjacent signs, this means their tone (element) and nature or mode of activity (modality) is entirely different. Mercury entering Scorpio is all about passionate thinking and feeling our way into issues. Or feeling because of issues.

Meanwhile Venus is entering Libra - the sign which most exemplifies the whole Venusian (Aphrodite) 'beauty' idea.

And idea is the thing, too. It's the idea of what beauty is... or what we would like, this Venusian move. On one hand it supports grace in (and of) conversation. It's an opportunity to be creative and when much can come of what you otherwise might think is something easy.

On the other, Venus in Libra can be lazy (think 'languid,' but in an uglier, more irresponsible light). Venus in Libra can also be charming. Or graciously demanding in that curious way no one even thinks to frown at or resist.

With Mercury's having entered Scorpio, there's likely to be some sort of 'subterranean' atmosphere - the aura of wanting to know (or) wanting to play your cards carefully/close to the vest, whether that's needed particularly or not.

That's right - we could be fooling ourselves about how good OR bad something is simply because we're far too over-focused, a quality which is likely to infiltrate everyone's thinking and feel less than pleasant (!!!) as Mars (in Sagittarius) comes into semi-sextile with Pluto (in Capricorn) just as Mercury changes signs.

The 'solution' here is in keeping with all semi-sextiles: we are going to feel 'offended' and yet, to act solely on that (to allow ourselves to 'operate in the reactive,' as it were) only makes things worse. Semi-sextiles, in this case whether that of Mercury-to-Venus' Libra/Scorpio combination or this other Mars/Pluto (Sagittarius/Capricorn) tend not to indicate  comfortable moments. But they are just that - moments.

And another thing... in stirring up Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn, this pair of semi-sextiles is combining to effect a complete and continuous image of one-third of the zodiac - the operative interactive and worldly third of the zodiac - being involved in challenging processes of an interactive nature.

Any time Pluto and Mars connect by transit there's a generous quality of focus/over-focus which gets lobbed into our works. In this case, the prime/most intense period for same begins (in earnest) during the latter part of the day on September 29th (UT/+0). From there it will extend into October 1st - but the repercussions and effects of this time will continue to evolve for most of two months.

You know... through the solar eclipse and beyond, a fact made all the more poignant by the fact that Pluto is the 'outcome ruler' of Scorpio, sign of said eclipse.

Prepare for more unearthing of whatever is very wrong - in the world, yes... but even more than that terms of who we are and why we value and devalue others most of all. Through bringing out all the many ways our interactions aren't working this eclipse - as part of the plural-year Scorpio eclipse sequence now being completed - we are being asked to consider what our most basic values are and whether we are inclined (or even able) to relate to our own sense of weakness with as much perspective and in-depth consideration as that we tend to apply to others, however we relate to them.

Then there's the fact that Libra is a cardinal sign, which can indicate promptness, wit and being in the right place at the right time...or impatience, demands of nature and a general tendency to downgrade someone or something simply because we want what we want at the moment, whether it's important or not.

Against this, Scorpio is a fixed sign... and fixed signs live up to the idea of being 'fixed in place' rather well. Even half-past well - at a level which is all about wanting your own way because the idea of having to feel someone else get their way or deal with someone else getting to dictate to us isn't anything we want to face.

But nothing is forever in this formulation as Mercury's about to go retrograde. (I know... you're just jazzed, right?) The start of said retrograde is October 4th at 5:03 in the afternoon (UT/+0 time) with Mercury at 2 Scorpio, a degree which asks whether we are willing to take on the responsibilty of getting past our own challenges - challenges which are defined as intense and intensely testing of us on the inside.

Think 'do I have faith in my Self?' 

It will take Mercury a full week to move back through three degrees and re-enter Libra (on October 11th) - an indication that things are generally 'sticky,' probably within and without. There is an 'up' side here however... once everything shakes out the next (almost) two weeks will have both Mercury and Venus in Libra, giving us time to get a lot done - none of which is worldly or highly apparently.

The actual nature of this time is self-reflective. And it's during this self-reflective period with its flashes of forward insight and moments of recognition with regards to why something doesn't work that the solar eclipse occurs.

Oh joy...a solar eclipse under Mercury retrograde. We're being asked to let go of some old idea, some image, some vulnerability we probably cover with a bristling shield of armor. Plus (if you must know)... this incoming eclipse is going to occur in full-fledged conjuction with Venus.

A few values are getting radically changed.

What things are they will not be two-and-a-half years from now. We don't believe it... most of us can't even see it. But it's out there. Something is happening which besides occuring (and probably testing us) in the present is also preparing us for something which will occur a couple of years from now, something which we wouldn't even be prepared to appreciate if we weren't going through all the many things occupying us right now.

And granted, a lot of what's going around now is more than a little trying.

Against which, we're trying. (Hopefully.)

The idea of 'quality' is afoot. To get there, we are each facing our flaws, our weak points, our not-so-universal perspective and whatever tendency we have to insist on having things our way regardless of whether others agree. Or are even safe.

If I can get back here (all puns intended) in any short amount of time (I'm not that tall, so it shouldn't be impossible...) its on the calendar to explore the idea of Aldebaran (the royal star of integrity) moving to 10 Gemini. The date for this shift is October 1st, and as opposed to 9 Gemini (a degree which stresses mentality, mental stress and an indescribable need to be involved at a micro-detail level)... Aldebaran's next position is going to underscore the need to help and protect the poor, the abused, the neglected while doing two other things: 1.) internally recognizing the ills of human nature, complete to why we choose such actions in the name of 'solution' and 2.) requiring of our Self that we not embody those ills, particularly as pertains to others - the more innocent, beleaguered or battered, the more importantly.

Taken all together, yes, this does sound like the approach to a solar eclipse. Chances are we each already know about what is about to be eclipsed, though as yet few of us believe the bond will break, the time will come, that fate will move us on.

But it will. Mostly because by the time we get through the next month or two, we'll see the sense of letting go - not of our Self, but of something we've been clinging to because we think we can be nothing deeply satisfying without it.
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Mercury in Cancer

Landscape with Apollo and Mercury by Claude Lorrain

Mercury entering Cancer on Thursday June 7th at 11:15 a.m. (UT/+0) time is the first part of our yearly migration through Cancer. This year, Mercury is first to Cancer’s shores…to be followed by the Sun (late on June 20th)…and eventually, Venus.

Venus isn’t entering Cancer until August, and Mercury and the Sun will be long gone by then. From Cancer, I mean – not the solar system!

Oh yes – and Mars? With its almost two-year long orbit, Mars only sashays through Cancer about once every two years. Considering it’s currently in Virgo, we’re not thinking Mars will double back for any 2012 Cancer traipse.

Cancer represents many things: family, nationality, cultural heritage, home-hearth-real estate and base-of-operations stuff, dreams, habits, memory, childhood…all that.

But at the moment, I’m thinking the more important thing to consider is that Cancer is the first of the zodiacal water signs. Each of the first four signs…Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer…represents basic learning processes. Aries is about learning to be who you are – and learning that you even exist. Taurus is about recognizing how to get hold of things, and what it means to have things, and that the most basic thing we have (or should have) is some regard for who we are. Our Self. You know – that Aries thing.

Each sign builds on what’s just been learned. The zodiac is a process.

Gemini is the first of the airy, theoretical signs. So it’s all about thinking and our mentality – and learning how to use, harness and stuff that mentality full of nifty facts. (Yes, you get to define ‘nifty’ here.)

I’m always saying how Gemini is about ‘choice.’ That’s because it’s through doing that Gemini thinking thing that we decide what to do with that Self we’ve just learned to value (or hopefully learned to value) in Taurus.

Then we come to Cancer. First of the water signs, it’s ruled by the Moon and associated with tides and the surf zone. And since water is emotion, thus Cancer is moody.

 photo credit: Kahuroa (December 2002)

Oh gee – that’s what we need: moody (Cancer) thinking (Mercury) while our dear, sulfuric Venus is still staggering backwards through Gemini like some mentally bedeviled would-be-beautiful maiden disheveled beyond any useful conscious of consequence.

I’m so over this Venus retrograde – can you tell?

Probably lucky for us, Mercury won’t be in Cancer all that long. Only until the 26th, which means Mercury will be reaching 29 urgent degrees of Cancer…uh, yes – just when Saturn goes direct.

(A brief pause here while I contemplate the possibilities.)

That could be good. Then again, it could be tumultuous. It depends on what kind of basic shape your life – and maybe more importantly your life direction is in.

The overlap of Sun and Mercury is something shy of a week: starting on the 20th and for all intents and purposes ending on the 25th. Those days for some will feel very cozy. For others that’s when the salt water will hit the crabby fan.

Meanwhile, we can expect a lot of folks to ‘cocoon’ with Mercury in Cancer, though probably half of them will do their lounging around the homestead while complaining about things at work, things out in the world, things they wish they were doing….

You know…things.

A fair number of people will trade the fun of bitching and complaining for thinking over how to reach their desired goals.

Then again, there are those who will actually be working on what they want to achieve…which has pluses and minuses, I should think.

If you’re not into ‘sign theory’ (which sounds very official) looking at a chart like this is rather interesting as it shows the zodiac’s patterns. The elements have an order: fire, earth, air, water. That pattern repeats three times. The modalities (the ‘mode’ of activity for each sign) also repeats, but it repeats per quarter: the first sign in any quarter is cardinal, the middle sign is fixed and the final sign is mutable.

The way this works out is that we end up with one sign of each element falling in each of the modalities. Cancer is cardinal water: Cancers are never shy about their feelings, right? And they’d like you to know about them, which is where Mercury comes in.

Mercury = communication. Do you think you’re going to hear about it? (Don’t ask me what…fill in your own “it”!)

If you have something feeling to say, you’ll want to say it under Mercury in Cancer. And plenty gets said with a lot of feeling (cold, heated, otherwise) under Mercury in Cancer.

Mercury also equals thinking. Anything which evokes emotionality will be on the thinking list in these next few weeks.

Have I ever told you that the water sign houses (and signs) are considered the signs of wealth? Not “having money in the bank” – real wealth… as in, how you get real wealth. (Or what you do with it, yes.)

Cancer is real estate. Scorpio is investments and inheritances. Pisces covers all the forms of “passive” income: royalties, mineral rights, annuities, pensions – all that.

So if you’re a purist-theorist-eventualist, this would be a good time to be figuring out where you stand in terms of all those ‘wealth’ things. In fact, with Venus in retrograde, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something caused you to need to think about such things. Or you could just be hearing others discussing such things.

But going back to that chart…if you’ll note please, Cancer is the only one of the first four signs to be on the right side of the ‘natural’ horoscope (the wheel of a chart set up to start ‘naturally’ with Aries). My point here is that the left hemisphere is all proactive. The right hemisphere is responsive, reactive…it’s where we respond based on what we’ve already learned (Cancer = memory).

So is it illogical that emotional motivation would underlie everything we do? Or that it's really those things we learn early in life which tend to (at least habitually) motivate us? No. And that 'what to do with my life' is a primal Cancer issue - as is the feeling that the very earth (the bottom of the chart wheel) is shaking when our home life or ability to have a home gets shaken.

The zodiac is an endlessly elegant thing. I particularly like (intellectually, that is) how Cancer, as the first 'receptive-responsive' sign indeed represents the family. And how clearly it's position as the first sign on the responsive side says that emotionality, while native to all of us is learned. We learn it in response to others. We learn it early on.

Of course we can also change it - if we are willing to go back through our system and figure it out. The emotional inability to cope is very Pisces - deep water. Scorpio is the sign of psychology: plumbing our watery, emotional depths.

In the end, it all comes back to the Cancer surf zone and lessons about how our mentality (Gemini, previous sign to cancer) works.  

So when we want to figure out ‘foundational’ issues, we look at the sign on the 4th house of a natal chart...then add in the thematic 'house factors' of whatever house Cancer is on...and check out a person's natal Moon.

Voila! Instant picture. It's sort of the digital snapshot of the chart (for you older folks, the Polaroid).

Those combined factors - separately and as a melange will be something we keep ‘dealing with.’ Why? Not so much to cope with life directly, but in order to understand our Self. Through sorting through what really works and is intrinsic to our nature and tossing out (or modifying) those unworkable molds we somehow came to think we need to fit into early on...it all leads us to being able to build a more stable, solid life.

I guess that's something to think about with Mercury in Cancer. At least for me. And while I do that, I'm going to watch the waves rolling in...and the waves rolling out. There’s a rhythm to life. While Mercury traverses Cancer is a great time to think things through, figure things out and tell someone that you really love them.

Yes, even if Venus is still in retrograde.