Sun in Taurus

A Monarch Butterfly

(photo credit: Tony Hisgett, September 2011)

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There’s something nice about the idea that those in power (whoever they were) decided to schedule Earth Day for an early Taurean degree. The event falls on April 22nd and the sign which goes with it is all about both the qualities of being ‘secure’ or ‘secured’ on this planet ... and whatever gives us that sort of personal security.

So Taurus isn’t ‘about’ money. Or luxury goods. Or even food. It’s about the sense of security those things give us. Our world has taught us that if we have money we have a better ability to guarantee our survival, but the money itself is not Taurean. What money gives us is the security to think in broader terms, which is why one enterprising U.S. ex-governor (whose name I don’t recall, please forgive me...) spoke of his time trying to live on welfare’s stipend for a couple of weeks as an exercise which taught him that the essential and inescapable trial of hunger and poverty is not about whether someone is lazy or a go-getter, but how knowing we have so little stops us from thinking in terms of what we can do, instead forcing us to consider what we can’t do if we hope to see another day.

That sort of insecurity is the instinct which underlies Taurus. In Taurus we learn to take care of our Self so we can develop, so we can learn to master our body, our mind, our feelings and through all those lessons, our life.

And anything that threatens that? Or which could possibly change that when we haven’t (Gemini) thought about it and ultimately (Leo) chosen it?

That which threatens to change our life without our agreeing to it stands in opposition to our ability to feel intrinsically (individually) secure about ‘owning’ (being in control of) our own life.

In other words, it stands in opposition to the basic Taurus premise. And that sign ... that influence is Scorpio.

In Taurus, we own our Self. All things Taurus are about that Self, the owning of that Self, the having confidence in that Self and recognizing that Self as our primary and most important resource ... which is why we work to determine what our abilities are and aren’t (Taurus people are famous for standing their ground and defending the value of said position in all cases and either direction!) ... from which comes our sense of valuing of those abilities (and therefore our Self for having developed them).

Against all of this is that very peculiar Taurean instinct - an instinct which, in zodiacal terms, is purely instinct since Taurus precedes Gemini, the sign of our development of conscious and useful mentality.

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From that - from that ‘pre-mentality’ Taurean state we face others, instinctively self-defensive (at least Aries precedes Taurus!)... and that’s why Taurus-Scorpio is the polarity wherein we face our fears.

Fear is instinctive. In Scorpio - an interactive sign - others test our security ... our Taurean Self ... all along the emotional border where that Self chooses to interact - and thus risk something (even if it’s just a moment of your time) with, or in the presence of others. And how well we deal with that ability to risk our feelings ... well, while the experience of the risk (being interactive) may be Scorpio, the security of the Self, any part of which might just possibly be at risk in that Scorpio situation, that part of the saga is entirely Taurus.

It’s that part of us which values us and works to keep us safe. Or which doesn’t keep us safe. Or which simply won’t risk.

Or which dares not feel what it means to fear because the loss of false security is such a fearful thing.

War - any war against others or some situation is Scorpionic, whether we're at war with(within) our Self and prone to inflicting the byproduct of that nastiness on others, whether we're in a direct contest with others, whether we're at war with some control or restriction or whether that war is against some civil entity or faction of civilization against some other faction of civilization.

And yet peace also requires a fight. That's the nature of fixed signs - to struggle to create and to struggle to contain, which here pits 'my (Taurus) reality' against what (Scorpio) makes that reality feel safe or not.

That's the fight - our fight to get us past our own instinctive Taurus fears to where we can (Gemini) understand the world and our options and choose based on our own cooler (Gemini) ability to think and be rational. In other words, if we haven't resolved our 'fear of our own fears' on an individual basis, we aren't likely to have sufficient peace all the way around.

And yet, it's so much easier to (Scorpio) vent than (Taurus) take our Self on.

Sunset on Australia's Middle Park Beach

(photographer unknown)

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You know, by moving from the second stage in the zodiacal process - the Taurean stage - into Gemini, where with our fears in check we learn to gather information, sort through our priorities and choose, plan and set about our daily (or lifelong) business.

In the case of the current ingress, the Sun is entering Taurus at 9:43 in the morning of April 20th (UT/+0 time) in trine to Pallas (still in station mode) and square an Aquarian Ceres, speaking to not just to our relationship with society or ‘social/societal forces,’ but to something which focuses on (or simply focuses) our perspective on all such matters - that being the Pallas part of things. Pallas detaches us from things so we can 'see' what they are more clearly, whether that takes accepting something else or isolating (or becoming isolated) from some group, idea, lifestyle, system or information/comprehension, and given Pallas' April 19th turn to retrograde, we are all in the process of either internalizing something or seeing something about (or possibly in) our Self.

And that process ... or just the facts we come up with ... those things are helping us gain (Pallas) perspective on our instincts. Or maybe our various forms of ‘immaturity’ (physical or emotional) in play ... or where we are quite possibly the ‘immature’ player, whether that means we (or something) is as yet not ready for something, whether someone is simply being childish or whether the reference here is to something or someone who is just ‘young,’ whether in age or their own perspective - as one might be for reasons of lack of education, lack of mental health, or any other reason which might mark someone as not capable of (or willing to) interact on a level of equivalency or as an equal.

With Venus (the ruler of Taurus) transiting Gemini as the Sun enters Taurus, this year’s ‘Taurus Experience’ is likely to start out as a slight ‘rounding’ or ‘gentling’ of thoughts (and the feelings promoted by those thoughts) initiated through general conversation and our everyday perceptions. Most of us are a little tired of - and ready to ‘give up’ or ‘get away from’ something we’ve already met up with which we’d like to respond to (or manage) with some level of panache (and if not panache, at least competency!) ... and there’s something weighing on us which we either don’t yet know how to get done, or which we don’t want to do incorrectly and which we want to get organized before embarking upon.

Maybe even before we mention it.

Moreover, not everyone which is going on is likely to be pleasant or friendly-feeling all the way along the line. As of yesterday’s New Moon (that being the New Moon at 28 Aries - see previous post) Mercury - which is also in Taurus - came into orb of conjunction to Mars. Mars being already about half way through Taurus is representing all those things which we want ... which as Mars reaches the Taurean cross-quarters point (15 Taurus) is life pushing us to move from a ‘learning’ mode into an ‘application’ mode.

Mercury-Mars in a Taurus conjunction can represent determination. Then again, it can also represent frustration - even hostility towards self, others or (as we would suspect), some level of fear driven by a sense of lack or incapacity, perhaps. So while we may be wanting to be the person who determines something, this conjunction (which perfects at 15 Taurus on April 22nd, and which ends on April 25th) is also an opportunity to ‘try’ something or when you ‘determine’ what you want to do. Perhaps you’ll embody this by becoming determined to master some task, whether you’re trying to understand, work with or accept and interact some notion, value or fact.

Or maybe you’ll just be not wanting to admit to anything, right or wrong. Or you're just not in any mood to be challenged.

Any Mercury-Mars conjunction is going to provoke feelings of some sort. It's as if all we can (Mercury) think about is what we absolutely want ... or really truly don't like (a lot).

And that stirs many a feeling - and often some sort of instinctive (read: not necessarily well thought out) assertive (Mars-type) reaction.

 A rural road in northern Switzerland

(Benjamin Gimmel, April 2004)

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We are in other words, simply prone during this period to getting ourselves bogged down (or allowing ourselves to be stuck) in simply not wanting to change because we don’t want to.

And yes, this could be exactly the sort of immaturity being challenged - or which we are finding so very (very) challenging in others. This ‘planted in one spot’ quality is something all the earth signs adopt as a methodology at least some of the time, with the Taurus attempt to ‘own’ that which it opposes without having to actually ‘touch it’ generally taking manifesting as various attempts to control or manipulate without actually getting involved.

In other words, Taurus is the sign under which we often attempt to interaction with others without having anything apply to us ... which sounds like a way to protect one’s (Taurean) resources, but which inevitably leads to starving your Self of input and everything which could in the long run provide the tools and keys to inner security.  

People talk about Taurean negativity as ‘stubbornness’ often without any conception of how limiting the choice to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn is ... and how the refusal to consider anything else is not about strength, but about a fear of our own vulnerabilities. And sure, we’d all rather have someone else carry our emotional baggage, but when we do that, we poison our own chances for the kind of long-lasting strength of security which can only be achieved through self-knowledge and self-confrontation.

Moreover, life truly wants to give us what we ask for. So when we fear others doing something to us - that’s what metaphysics says will happen ... which is something worth thinking about. This doesn’t mean we should think only happy, candy-coated thoughts as that doesn’t apply - not to mention how such sugar-coating is hardly honest, and avoidance of honesty is a sure sign of those underlying lacks of self worth which are so negative Taurus.

 Buffalo grazing on the Wyoming grasslands

(photo credit:Ron Nichols, United States Department of Agriculture) 

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In short, if you don’t want a war - with others or with yourself, deal with the fear within. The fear we don’t deal with we project - which does nothing other than offer opportunities to those who will fill in that gap and give us something to fear in reality.

It’s harder ... but ultimately probably a lot more productive to face our fears on our own. Once we do that, then we can live in the security of our own core providing validity and security to everyone else ... which in any mode and by any means is one of the better definitions of human success.
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Pallas Retrograde at 13 Virgo

 Pallas Athena by Gustav Klimt (1898)

As of January 7th asteroid Pallas is going retrograde at 10:21 in the morning UT/+0 time at 13 Virgo, inviting (or prompting) us to either see/consider things dispassionately or to use/utilize some sort of dispassionate understanding or ability some effort, a situation - or maybe just in formulating the decisions of the day.

Whatever is afoot doesn’t have to be earth-shattering (and we will certainly hope it’s not Earth shattering). It’s just another influx rolling through as we are going through our Capricorn paces about where we’re going in life and how to get there.

However…(yes, that is the magic word in astrology, isn’t it?)…this is happening at 13 Virgo. And 13 Virgo is a very particular degree.

Aren’t they all?

Answer: yes. But 13 Virgo has always piqued my interest as it’s a degree which tends to manifest through what one astrologer refers to plainly enough as ‘a love of fine arts.’

And yes, this could mean the obvious arts. On the other hand, what finer art is there than the art of being a human being? Taken from that position, the experience of or reflection on 13 Virgo takes an additionally poignant quality - beyond the fact that by definition, any degree between 10 and 19 of any sign is going to be where that sign manifests emotionally. Considering how (also by definition) 13 Virgo is an earthy and earthly degree, that means that we're likely to be focused on what realities are, what reality is (or could be) and what our realistic regard is - for ourselves and others...

...into which comes Pallas, the third largest asteroid known. Like all asteroids, Pallas represents things we get confronted by or end up working through 'along the way' between some initiation (Mars) point and the "Jupiterian" moment when we have mastered the goal - and in that comes to symbolize our 'mindset,' if you will.

So! When Pallas shifts its perspective through going on station and going retrograde (which more accurately is a change of perspective on Pallas from here on Terra Earth changes), we tend to change too.

That this particular Pallas station occurs under Venus retrograde theoretically suggests much going on inside of us. Having started at 28 Capricorn, Venus has now reached 24 Capricorn and that's a subtle (maybe even not-so-subtle) undercurrent which questions sophistication as truth.

- Link to - 

Venus Station-Retrograde

at 28 Capricorn

 

Is sophistication and the 'striving life' better than one which is plainer and, perhaps more simplistic or coarser truths? Can both be relied on equally? Can both be built with to our own satisfaction?

Falsehood, artifice, pretense – call it what you will, the station period between January 5th (or so) through the 9th (give or take) is likely to be something we ignore more than react to. There is a genuine need and longing for common honesty now which has nothing to do with taking stands or making any declarations – it’s about being realistic enough about who we are and how our world works so that we are able to go about the business of being our Self learning and teaching as we go.

There is some chance that someone will step up to help you – or that you will recognize the need to extend support or assistance to someone else during this time. Whether that effort is “successful” or not (however you might define success in that situation) is what it is, and so long as you handle your part of the matter with integrity your proverbial hands should be ‘clean.’

Generally where Pallas is concerned, woe comes only to those who take advantage or manipulate others for personal gain or unwarranted pleasure. Interpersonal relationships could get a little strained now as well as Pallas stationing under Venus retrograde suggests ‘revelations’ or provocations which have less to do with the passion of expression than the inability to understand.

Patience is now required – and all you know going in may be a natural byproduct of what you find yourself being or becoming exposed to. Listen, think, Pallas often asks us to ‘balance’ things out, so try to understand how what you hear and what you’re going through now applies to you…and equally to others.

Sometimes focusing on who we are is a matter of looking within. Sometimes it’s a matter of holding that image in our minds while we simultaneously recognize through life and people around us who we aren’t.

It’s in the synthesis between those two things that Pallas occurs, granting us wisdom of perspective – from which comes the clarity, that sureness of mind which allows us to achieve with sufficient grace to know for sure what track we’re on, lest we defeat ourselves.

By the time Pallas goes direct again this April at 24 Leo we will have thought through our personal ‘bag of tricks’ and come to recognize that some of them don’t work.

Or that the only person we’re tricking in ourselves.

And since we can look ahead and know that April is when we will be running through one of those transformational (Pluto station) periods plus another set of eclipses, it would seem pretty certain that there are dotted lines which begin here...(yes, that’s a big red “X” under your feet)...and which end in April.

Whether April means anything to you now or not is not the point. You may read these words and say to yourself ‘okay – I’ll do “that” in April.’ Or you may be absolutely, positively sure that April 2014 is going to be just another month of clicks, clatter and life’s regular symphony.

The answer to all that is ‘yes.’ But there’s more – and that’s the educational part. At the very least we’re in for a lesson in how to be educated. Or the cost of not being educated – by which I mean either school learning or ‘being informed.’ The quality here may be as simple as whether we listen or don’t listen to someone else – or whether we (or they) are willing or even able to hold opposing ideas fairly and equally in mind.

One last idea here: that of ‘right and wrong’ being relative. The nature of the Virgo-Pisces polarity being what it is, the idea and the details (style, method, tools, etc.) count less than the intrinsic intent.

This is a very plainspoken time which keeps us rooted in a reality we thought we had sorted out to our ‘standards,’ values or tastes while showing us a few errors in our equations. That physical poverty can embargo some in the security of affluence for which they pay with the truths of their spirit and soul is the real loss.        
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Dateblog: The Week Ahead (May 29-June 4)

 Creation of the world XII by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1906/07)

With last week having uncovered what we don’t like, this week starts the process of what are we going to do about it? 

Mind you, the ‘what we don’t like’ part could be about ourselves – or the world around us. Or someone we know. Or how something we’ve been working on has turned out – or been received with less than sterling applause.

Last week’s Hybris and Nessus going retrograde in Aquarius was reflected in comparisons with others and dismissiveness of or from others.

But give us all a few days and most people get down off their high horse, whether that steed is named Resentment, Don’t Push or Missed the Mark.

To reflect once emotions settle down a bit…that’s just human nature. But have we forgotten? Probably not. Moments which have not gone as planned (or expected) will still be stuck to the side walls of our mind…and as we mentally pass by, they catch our attention. Some stick their tongues out at us, others are merely pinned to the constructs of our consciousness all crumpled and sad.

May 29th is a day of asteroids changing signs. Athena and Eos are first…signaling a ‘dawning’ (Eos) of new perspective which allowed us to reconsider and begin to move on from our ‘ouches’ to possible solutions for same.

After all, our aims are still our aims. So…how to get from here to there?

As Athena moves into Gemini, we know we need to understand. And we know we need to choose better if we are to get the results that we really want. That this change happens only a couple of days in advance of a Gemini Solar Eclipse is part of the whole ‘description’ being given to us on the astrological level about the changes which are necessary in our personal life – and life all around us. Athena in Gemini points to the need to make decisions based on knowing (acquiring the information from which to make a decent choice), a lack of emotionality (in a more logical and less passionate mode) and that the knowing person (the “Athena” mind) knows that choices must be made (dithering forever or stonewalling is not a solution)…that choices have consequences (Sagittarius as polarity sign to Gemini) and that once you make a choice, following through on that choice making adjustments as you go is part of the whole Gemini/Sagittarius mutable lesson. Just because you encounter a bump in the road does not mean the choice of that road is faulty. We weather the bump, we then move on.

Life is not smooth. The road of life is bumpy!

Eos makes this shift at 1:43pm, followed by Athena moving into Gemini at 1:44pm (both UT/+0).

About four hours pass, then at 5:59pm (UT/+0) Klotho – a signature of beginnings and bringing thing into being – enters Cancer.

With two solar eclipses about to happen successively in Gemini and Cancer, this ‘what am I going to do with or about my life?’ question is going around like a case of extremely contagious itchiness. At this point many are still caught up in the what-to-do, how-to-do-it more Gemini part of the question, but the Cancer realization that this is…

1. A time of opportunity. You can make something of yourself now.

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2. A time when what we do with our lives is going to determine how we live and basic options we will or won’t have in years to come.

….all that Cancer ‘this is important!’ stuff is really beginning to bubble up from within – Klotho (beginnings) hitting this point is an indication of how such issues are ‘rising to the surface.’

How will we cope? Well, in one of several ways. Some are likely to live through a period of what Thoreau so elegantly referred to as ‘quiet desperation.’ Others will go back and forth, torn by restless, logic-versus-emotion tug of war. Then there are others who really know what they need to do in order to get where they want to be. Those people will now begin moving into a new phase of laying (Cancer) groundwork, getting (Gemini) information and in general, organizing (or reorganizing) their (Gemini/Cancer) plan.

And if you catch from that last bit that the best thing we can do is fuse need and logical process into a plan to get us where we want to go, you get a cookie!

(And yes, a glass of milk with which to wash it down.)

As for Klotho against Eos/Athena, the signs and differences in time suggest that we get the ‘idea’ (Eos/Athena) then set about figuring out how to ‘spin it’ into reality – Klotho being the first of the Greek Fates and she who spins the thread out of ‘a raw yarn’ (the rough idea).

To illuminate this briefly and personally: you’re seeing changes here at astroPPM. They’re a result of my having learned a lot by push the ‘blog-bounds’ for myself and (quite honestly) the astrological community throughout the last year.

In doing that, I’ve learned much about astrology and timing (using astrology to time things) a bundle about blogging and a bushel and then some about the generalities of operating on the web.

That’s all very Gemini.

Against this is what I’ve also realized about what I need to do going forward in order to take care of myself. You heard one fluffle about this back in December as the Sun moved past the 29 Sagittarius (Sag being opposite Gemini) into Capricorn, the sign in opposition to Cancer.

Cancer is about all we consider basic: family, homeland, upbringing and culture. The roof over our head and how we make our way in the world - that's all very Cancerian.

For me, that Capricorn 'opposition' point was when I really began considering how to work this blog so as to give you the information you want while working to put a fiction work which has and is my goal into print.

We had a Capricorn eclipse in January...which we've seen has been about every form of 'how life/my life is structured' around. Now we face off against that: the picture moves from the worldly (governments, rulers, public demonstrations) into the realm of the local and personal.

 Solar Eclipse of June 1, 2011, 9:04pm (UT/+0) at 11 Gemini

Aries Wheel - Location Not Specific

As I experimented, I came up with the monthly Dateblog idea. That's been sufficiently popular that now I’m broadening its use so you can continue getting your astro-trend information while I get more space in which to write different kinds of posts…plus have time/energy left with which to edit my book.

We work in cycles. I keep saying that and this is a pretty good example of how such things evolve. With Uranus now in Aries poised against our June 1st Gemini solar eclipse…that spells “opportunity.” But it’s the sort of opportunity which only comes to life when we each ‘seize the moment’ and learn to operate the parameters of whatever it is we’re going after.

Uranus’ impending square-by-sign to the July 1st Cancer solar eclipse? That challenges us to break out of old molds. They may be comfy, but even from where we sit, we can see they can’t last (or work)  forever.

With that much said…

May 30th has asteroid Amor moving into Gemini at 9:55am (UT/_0). Amor is ‘warmth’ as opposed to Eros, which is passion. Think friendship instead of lovers and companions or compatriots as opposed to partners.

With the Moon moving into Taurus at 1:03pm (UT/+) in anticipation of its Gemini eclipse moment on Wednesday there is a quality of ‘worth’ (or worthiness) getting tossed around here. People who have self-worth problems are likely to feel quite agitated in ways which very much point to unresolved issues which they’d like to think are about others (or “their fault”) but which in reality have to do with a lack of respect for Self. When something about us doesn’t ring ‘right’ with us, we struggle. When we are unable to face the facts and deal with them, we hurt.

Feelings of helplessness or frustration with being unable to ‘get it right’ are likely to pop up now. Try to find the real source. No, it won’t be easy.

Try anyway. This being the opening of Pallas’ station and considering how Pallas is named for Pallas Athena and that pretty much automatically underscores everything said about Athena moving into Gemini. So especially when/where/if things are difficult, don’t just buy into the emotion – try to learn where it’s coming from. It may involve opening a whole new (or old) can of worms. If so, open it. Getting to real reasons may cause a lot of walls to come a’tumbling down, but this would be the time for walls to be coming (what with a Gemini solar eclipse about to happen) so dig, dig, dig! Ask questions! Be willing to hear the truth, ugly or beauteous.

Go for the knowing. What you learn now may change everything.

May 31st: All of the May 30th issues get a little more convoluted as Tantalus entering Cancer at 4:29am (UT/+0) which remember, is still May 30th if you live in the Americas or Pacific Basin. Tantalus in Cancer? An invitation to undermine ourselves through attempting to ‘manipulate’ the situation so we don’t have to a.) face facts…or, b.) change.

And though I’d like to say ‘good luck with that!’ and just move on, given that May 30/31st have the Sun fused with Aldebaran (integrity) and in opposition to Antares (obsession)…all this barely in advance of the Gemini eclipse really does set the stage for some new highs in lows and truly bad judgment.

The old slogan ‘check it once, check it twice’ doesn’t even come close to it here. With TNO Typhon moving on station, situations in everyone’s life will be provoking us at very personal and primary (even primal) levels which are individual to each one of us. 

And yet…if we acknowledge that the Gemini-Sagittarius polarity process is all about learning more and learning (among other things) to master the art of perspective on self this makes sense as part of a greater period about getting a grasp on what needs changing and the reality of life and our lives.

Those who are honestly willing to evolve, learn better, accept responsibility and all that good stuff? This may not be their favorite moment in all of life, but those are the people who will come out of these next few months knowing they’ve learned more and better.

They (meaning you!) may even have done something you’re really proud of yourself for doing because you’ve learned something new.

June 1st is Eclipse Day!

A solar eclipse occurs today at 9:17pm (UT/+0) at 11 Gemini, a degree which is by definition ‘mentally emotional’ (read: intensely whatever it is) and traditionally sort of childish, childlike…or maybe ‘surface oriented’ or just plain shallow.

The simplistic form of this polarity is that some will just try to do ‘just enough’ and some will tear off the veneer and in doing away with that, really get at the heart of the matter.

Known as a 'solar map' to astrologers, the above is how

modern astrological software pictures an eclipse track.

software: Solar Fire Gold (v.7)/Esoteric Technologies (alabe.com)

Interesting (at least to some!), the actual date of a solar eclipse often seems rather peaceful and inconsequential. Lunar eclipses? Boy, they go off with a bang! But solar eclipses? Usually not so much…but don’t be fooled! A season may not change in a day, but spring will become summer, fall will become winter, and the whole of the process is very much unavoidable and unstoppable.

 A close up (detail) of the same solar map reveals the eclipse path beginning

in the Far East - the beginning and end points of the eclipse (and often, points

all along those longitudes) being points of stress and activity particularly when

the eclipse is a total eclipse, which this one is not.

So it is with eclipses. In fact, seasons and eclipses are very much about the same sort of celestial mechanics. Sun, Moon, Earth…together they make seasons and years and tidal cycles and eclipses: all the basic stuff.

With Neptune going on station now there will be many really enjoying the ‘magical’ quality so part of any eclipse. And the combination of Neptune going on station and Pallas (factual wisdom) is a promise of insight to those who are wiling to see not just what they want to see, but the realities of things.

Yet, with Pallas going retrograde at 15 degrees of Aquarius (one of four cross-quarter degrees) it is implied that there are many in worldly power (or just ‘in power’) who are reluctant to let go of the reins (aka for some, their stranglehold and control). Cross quarter degrees always separate the more ‘mine’ from ‘the greater concern’ as pertains to each zodiac quarter and when it comes to the 4th quarter (which is public, pro-active and worldly) the question is whether the few or the many are in control…or even the point of the effort.

The zodiac as an Aries Wheel showing the cross-quarter points plus

approximations of Neptune's station/retrograde and the Solar Eclipse position. 

Today, we get to hear a lot of interesting, inspiring ideas – and probably a whole lot of nonsense. Telling them apart? That’s the important thing!

June 2nd: With Typhon (basic needs and urges) going direct in Virgo today at 11:18am (UT/+0) AND Mercury entering its ‘home’ sign of mental Gemini at 8:04 in the evening (UT/+0), there’s hope and reason to believe we can get some sort of productive activity under way.

Well, except for the right to scatter things about that so many take to be the 'purpose’ of Gemini! They’re so, so wrong of course – if that was true, none of us would ever get anything worthwhile done! Where we see scattered attention, disorganization, lack of priorities and an inability to cope with realities, astrologers look automatically to Mercury, Gemini-Sagittarius (as a polarity) and the 3rd house of a natal chart, that being Gemini’s native house.

The combination of Typhon/Mercury spells a focus on the important stuff…or on how to disrupt that which is truly important to someone else. When these things function together in ‘first person personal’ we see the surfacing of personal problems, eruptions of long-buried feelings, needs or resentments - and with some, the exacerbation of mental illness.

All of this – from top to bottom – depends on our ability (and willingness) to cope with whatever our challenges and/or vulnerabilities (weaknesses, flaws, lacks of information, etc.) really are.

June 3: As Neptune goes retrograde at 0 Pisces – a degree known in Sabian Symbols as emblematic of the ‘marketplace’ the play of Mercury against Neptune for one, incites grandiose statements and the more-than-occasional lie.

(Sorry, I just tell it like it is!)

Whether the lie gets told now or it gets uncovered now depends on your life, your chart, your mindset.

Whatever the situation, there is the side of ‘knowing’ and the side of ‘feeling’ and here they are tested not to see whether you can withstand one or the other, but so we all can measure within our Self how realistic our life is…how real our estimations are…and how well we actually deal with reality on a whole.

Those who try to (as put by show host Adam on Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters) … ‘reject your reality and substitute my own!’ will feel caught up in a vortex not of reality versus fantasy, but of insecurities which result from an internal awareness of the difference between ‘your reality,’ ‘my reality’ and REALITY.

Only the third one works.

June 4th:  House being the emblem “being at home,” has this asteroid moving into Gemini at 3:17pm (UT/+0) on the 4th, reinforcing the idea of thinking things over – and the need to think things over.

Especially with Jupiter moving into Taurus at 1:57pm (UT+0) and Polyhymnia entering Leo this is a fine day for art, romance, social festivities, personal creativity – and especially with Neptune still on station (if now in retrograde) we are in a ‘negotiable’ mood and willing to talk things over with someone.

Can bygones be bygones? Can something which seemed mired in eternal tar and hopelessly stuck get moving now? Quite possibly yes. And to those who have business matters who are running to check their calendars, June 4th is a Saturday. But no, all is certainly not lost! So groan if you’re one of those ‘I need my answer NOW!’ types, but otherwise think of what you could say to whoever your issue is ‘stuck’ with and formulate a well-humored communication. This is when the fine art of knowing the benefit of leaving the message or sending out that email which will get read two days hence…when all that comes into play.

The real issue is your generosity of spirit and your willingness to be realistic. Business efforts and aims should all stress the market and the broadest possible appeal, not the ‘me’ and ‘mine’ and ‘I need to know’ part. If you’re looking for something strictly ‘flash in the pan’ (the one-time hit) that may work now, but don’t plan on it working two weeks from now. Maybe not even two days from now.

And for those who are looking farther down the road? Let your imagination lead the way – don’t lock yourself in to some small and narrowly defined niche. When we look around we see the prevalence of multi-national corporations, conglomerates which own many different kinds of companies and people parlaying success in one areas into an entre into another.

The balance now is what is really possible against what could possibly be. 

So good luck…and have a great week!

Oh – before I go - expect blogs to go up on the eclipse (June 1st), Mercury’s Gemini ingress (June 2nd), the Neptune station (June 3rd) and Jupiter entering Taurus (June 4th).

And be good to you!