Hurricane Sandy has caused widespread flooding, downed power lines, billions of dollars in property damage, and at least 30 deaths along a huge swath of the United States East Coast. The main part of the storm cell came ashore October 29.
The storm has shut down the city that never sleeps, New York City, as well as the New York Stock Exchange and the United States presidential race.
This storm came ashore under a Full Moon (referred to as the Hunter's or Blood Moon) when tides would be high. It also came ashore under a Mercury-Neptune square, indicating a certain fogginess or deception related to details and disseminated information. Neptune is the God of the Seas. Mercury is the winged messenger, including media.
The mainstream media is showing stories of the flooding and damage. CNN reporters are right out in the wind and floods, showing us how "in the thick of it" they are. How committed to the story. But none of them is mentioning the pink elephant issue that the alternative, internet-based media will be picking up on.
HAARP frequency was at a maximum along the U.S. East Coast at the time of the storm.
HAARP is the acronym for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. There is a major HAARP project located in Alaska, with a number of other ones around the world. The stated purpose of this program is to study the earth's ionosphere in an effort to improve radio communications and surveillance.
The unpublicized effects include mood control through electromagnetic frequency changes, as well as weather modification. HAARP frequency can be emitted in a pulse or continuously, and different frequencies have different effects.
On October 28, just before Sandy reached land, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the British Columbia coast, which is a rare occurrence. Along with hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes, heightened HAARP usage is associated with earthquakes. The electromagnetic frequency propelled into the ionosphere ricochets back down into the Earth. At a high enough frequency for a long enough duration, instability is caused, resulting in earthquakes. You can see an explanation of that here.
A site called Dutch Sinse follows storms and associated HAARP usage, providing radar photos and information. The site documents a "microwave anomaly" associated with Hurricane Sandy that was also associated with Hurricane Irene, which struck the same area of the United States East Coast late last August, just after the Virgo New Moon.
Many who are strongly hardwired to weather and to the cycles of nature have been aware for a while that something is up with the weather. Much of it no longer feels natural at all. This isn't "Mother Nature getting revenge." This is man-made manipulation and direction.
The mainstream media has been calling this hurricane "Franken-storm" due to the proximity to Hallowe'en (another big occult symbolism day). I would say they don't know how correct they are.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Feminine warrior spirit asteroid Pallas Athene is retrograde in late Pisces, and the fight has gone to the metaphysical realms. This makes things mighty tricky. We're fielding psychic waves of anger and aggression and even full-out attacks, but we can't always see where our opponents are coming from or who they even are.
The battle is on, nonetheless, with a key theme of: etheric catfight.
Bitches be scrappin', whether fully visible or not. And it's the witchy lines, the priestess lines, the alchemical artist lines, the wise woman lines, the earth mother lines that are kicking up most of the fuss. There's a long history of this type of stuff on the planet, and it can get extremely harsh. It isn't limited to women, but women are primary players.
With Venus in Libra in cardinal t-square configuration with Uranus and Pluto (exact November 1 to 3), the females are taking position.
We all think we know best. No, scrap that. We all know we know best. And working out whose version rules supreme, where, and at what time is part of the irritation.
The asteroid representing the female warrior who did it as well as, if not better than, the guys has been highly prominent over the past months, stirring its themes to the blazing point. Pallas Athene in Aries was up front and centre during the first two exact squares of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn in June and September, tightly conjunct Uranus. This added the element of establishment-busting female fight, female leadership, and feminine strategic direction to the proceedings.
Pallas Athene retrograded back into watery Pisces October 3 for a bit of a break from the fiery Arien front lines, but it's still carrying the charge from those Uranus-Pluto squares. Pallas stations direct November 20 at 22 degrees Pisces, re-entering Aries January 10, 2013. From there, it makes its final pass through the Uranus-Pluto square with a conjunction to Uranus in Aries January 28 and a square to Pluto in Capricorn February 12, 2013. This asteroid just keeps on kicking ass.
Male warrior planet Mars in Sagittarius squares female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene in Pisces on November 7 at 23 degrees of the signs, and things are pushed to an acute point. Philosophical and truth-related clashes will generate sparks. Differing belief systems, cultural allegiances, and flavours of wisdom coming into contact with each other will kick up the angst. Again, half the battle is in the psychic/metaphysical realms.
We're struggling with our own psychic spaces, as well as with potent psychic impressions swirling around us with stationing Mercury square Neptune in Pisces.
Pisces is a sign related to blind spots that can become weak spots. With Pallas Athene here square Mars, these are places where we're particularly vulnerable to attack. We need to know these places well. Buffer and protect every area that comes to your attention. Every gouge and every hurt serves as a reminder to get smarter, tougher, and more self-protective in those areas.
Anyone with placements in the late degrees of the mutable signs, particularly Pisces and Sagittarius, is working a particular hot spot here.
Soul mate asteroid Juno, which has a highly feisty quality all its own, is also transiting Sagittarius and will square Pallas Athene November 28. The friction (and potential bitchiness) of this Juno-Pallas Athene square is helping us to get clear on exactly what we believe and exactly what rings true to us as we mould our ideals for a new astrological era.
The plaster is still wet, holding form for those ideals, and this means our sweetest, loveliest efforts are vulnerable to outside forces mucking them up. These squares indicate we're going to be defending our ideals, along with the right to freely live our own dreams, our own truth, our own cultural wisdom, and our own versions of what's right - while the people around us do the same.
The key is to get these squaring energies working together, on the same team.
Spiritual and religious paradigms past and present have whitewashed out the female influence, making it invisible and subservient. These squares act as the frictional impetus to stand up, speak up, and add the wisdom and knowledge of the feminine to the scene.
That wisdom and knowledge doesn't necessarily come in the form of easily-swallowed, non-threatening Glittery Goddesses and Angels and Mermaids and Faerie Nymphs, either. (A lot of that was designed to titillate dudes, anyway.)
The feminine wisdom and knowledge that needs to be integrated is white hot and will shake things up considerably. It requires something of people. It makes people uncomfortable at times. It's not about being pretty or demure or seductive. It demands its rightful place - nothing more, nothing less.
And all this will potentially be making females very feisty with each other as they clamour to have their truth heard and fully represented.
Women are used to having to compete for a limited number of spots, a limited amount of influence. We're working our way into full representation now - or at the very least, into a full understanding of the detrimental feminine shortfall - and it takes our "A games" to get it right.
The smallest sticking points now have connections to deeper ancestral grudges, potentially stirring profound insult. Their ripple effects emanate from many other times, other places, other people, other dimensions. This stuff has more layers than Farmer Dave's prize onion at the county fair.
The key with the strong Pisces element is to accept the feisty dynamics for what they are while also finding the threads that connect seemingly disparate versions of truth, wisdom, culture, freedom, politics, morality, and ethics. Pisces is the "universal factor." When you clear it all away, the truth of the human condition on this planet has commonalities, universalities, that go beyond time, space, race, gender, culture. The ultimate goal is to find the point where the feistiness and fight drift away into the magical, mystical, awe-inspiring flow that is life on this planet. Into that pure love and compassion that catches in our throats, chokes us up, makes us grateful for every moment of every day on this trying little planet.
Easier said than done with everyone primed to etherically shank each other's asses.
Where there's Pisces, there's grief. This is one of the commonalities at the tail-end astrological Piscean era. Most of us hold shell shock and grief inside related to what's gone on and what continues to go on on this planet.
Being unheard and under-represented is a common cause of this grief. Feeling inconsequential and helpless as we watch the pain, dysfunction, and destruction caused by an imbalance of masculine and feminine/male and female is another.
Having our deepest, dearest wisdom passed over, diminished, disrespected, and then being forced to live through the horrifying results of that. Being refused due respect, influence, and position.
Most wise women clamouring to be heard now know this grief. We carry what we know as an ache in our hearts. This is one of the things we share.
Oh, we're going to scrap it out, there's no doubt about it. It's necessary. But remember the Piscean threads that connect during the heat of the battle.
The female fight moves from metaphysical to active duty January 10, 2013 when Pallas Athene re-enters Aries.
Mars square Pallas Athene - November 5 - 9
Pallas Athene direct station at 22 Pisces - November 19 - 21
Juno square Pallas Athene - November 26 - 30
Posted by Willow at 2:12 PM
Friday, October 26, 2012
The Blood Moon Opposite Sun-Saturn in Scorpio: Every Nook and Corner is Lit. Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide.
We slip into the dark half this All Hallow's Eve and, in effect, don't fully emerge until Saturn surfaces in Sagittarius almost three years hence.
The Taurus Full Moon falls at 6 degrees and is fullest on the nights of October 28 and 29. This Full Moon, the second after autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere, is referred to as the Hunter's Moon or more dramatically as the Blood Moon. The moniker is apropos as the Moon pushes to its fullest point opposite the Sun in Scorpio - the sign associated with childbirth, midwifery, and surgery.
From bloody birth to bloody death and everything in between.
The Hunter's Moon follows the Harvest Moon (the first Full Moon after autumnal equinox) and precedes the Beaver or Mourning Moon. These Full Moons are special in that the Moon rises earlier and sets later than usual. The Moon is visible in the sky longer, and we are, therefore, under the moonbeams longer.
These Moons correspond with the Full Moons after March equinox in the southern hemisphere.
The extra light from these Full Moons was said to have helped farmers get their harvests in and hunters track their prey in the effort to stockpile food for the winter. Hence the names.
The Hunter's Moon is a spooky Moon for more reasons than one. It ushers in Hallowe'en this year, the day the veil between living and dead is said to be at its thinnest. But that isn't exactly it, is it?
Traditionally, blood runs at this Moon. Teeth are bared. There are few places to run and few places to hide for the animals that find themselves hunted prey under this Moon.
This is a fitting metaphor as the calm and collected Taurus Full Moon shines down in a maximized duration of light opposite the Sun and, this year, Saturn in Scorpio - the sign that exposes secrets, hiding places, and dark underbellies.
Scorpio and its co-ruling planet Pluto both confront with the knowledge that there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from the underlying realities and dynamics of life on this planet. They dog our asses like a hunter dogs his or her prey, ensuring there is, ultimately, no escape from the things we must sense, see, and address.
For some, this is terrifying. For some, liberating. For most, it's a mixture of both.
Hunting requires patience, a calm demeanour, a steady hand. It takes a quiet endurance to expose things that don't want to be exposed. The exalted Taurus Moon has these qualities in spades.
This Taurus Full Moon, this Hunter's Moon, this Blood Moon, has senses heightened, including the sixth. Goosebumps. Hair standing on end. Electricity in the air. It lights up the nighttime hours seamlessly, and there is truly no reprieve from the consciousness it bathes us in under the moonbeams.
Underlying loyalties shake out under this Moon, and we start to get a clearer picture of where people stand as we head deeper into Saturn in Scorpio. Incompatibilities glossed over during Saturn in Libra are pushed to the surface, like it or not. Crossed motivations send up sparks. Lips will curl, unconsciously, showing our fangs if we come too near those with whom we lack inherent common ground. The ties that bound friendly allies during Saturn in Libra snap like dry, autumn twigs under Saturn in Scorpio. Soul compatibility is something altogether different.
The Blood Moon is followed by a New Moon total solar eclipse at 21 degrees Scorpio on November 13, conjunct fixed star Alpha Serpentis (Unukalhai). The Alpha Snake. This fixed star is considered by most to be an unfortunate influence. In sidereal astrology, it has been associated with suicide, insanity, accidents, love problems, loss, and earthquakes. This one has it all!
But awareness of this potentially sinister layer of things does a lot to disarm it.
An eclipse is a sort of super-charged New or Full Moon, a generally unstable "backdrop change" indicator. This one will be visible in parts of Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South America, and Antarctica. As you can imagine, in Scorpio conjunct the big, bad Alpha Snake as well as the Scorpio North Node, things really shake out at this New Moon. Soul-deep incompatibilities go from cracks, to divisions, to chasms. There can be no doubt where we stand on the other side of this New Moon portal.
If there is any doubt, it can kick up all kinds of problems.
The wacky, dominance-hungry occultists will be drawing all sorts of nasty energy onto the planet through this New Moon, all hot and bothered over the serpent imagery. The myths talk about a period of snake-worship secretly brought to Earth. Under worship of the God of the snakes, this period brings evil, crime, unhappiness, bad weather, and death. Stirring up hell for the people.
Detrimental trajectories will be set by some coming out of this New Moon, and with a Mercury-Neptune square strongly colouring the proceedings, there is a tendency to be unknowingly drawn in.
Mercury in Sagittarius will be exactly square Neptune in Pisces on the day of the Taurus Full Moon (October 29), and it will retrograde into this exact square again on the day of the Scorpio New Moon (November 13). This one is working us over a bit. You can read more here.
The Mercury-Neptune squares have "glamourous, media-driven mindfuck" written all over them. But it's more than that. It's psychic media. It's messages sent through those channels. Manipulation of mass psychic energy and impressions. The power of suggestion, particularly from those considered glamourous, star-like, special, heroic, truth-telling - but also in our day-to-day interactions. Communication that attempts to slip things by us. Chatty deception.
Watch the stories and narratives being furthered at this time. The mass media drones on in new frequency, as does the pseudo-alternative media. Diversionary "exo-political" stories supposedly telling us what's really going on on this planet open into new chapters. New Age gurus shape shift into something more hip to the now. Snake oil alchemically transforms into something delicious, tantalizing, and **NEW**.
That's what people are always searching for, isn't it? Something **NEW**?
**NEW** and improved versions of fascist spiritualism, including in the political realms, will be "trending," to use the vernacular. "Swallow this very old product with the exciting new flavouring down whole."
Neptune is stationing to go direct November 11 at zero Pisces, permeating the atmosphere with its wool-over-eyes themes and ensuring the Kool-Aid is especially potent. People can be very impressionable over the next few weeks, very easily led and misled. Ideas can be planted en masse. Things can be slipped by. Consensus reality is particularly malleable and can be manufactured and shaped to benefit certain factions.
The United States presidential election falls between Blood Moon and Scorpio New Moon, between the two Mercury-Neptune squares.
Know where you stand, where your loyalties fall, and don't let anything slip through your own New Moon portal. Run a Neptunian sobriety test or two. Let intuition guide, moulting anything (and anyone) that could keep you from the right Scorpionic trajectory coming out of this New Moon.
Posted by Willow at 1:49 PM
Monday, October 22, 2012
Saturn Trine Neptune Ripple Effects: Magically Delicious Grand Water Trines Morph into Cardinal T-Squares June Through August 2013
Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces are currently just past an exact trine - a favourable 120-degree aspect. They last formed this aspect in 2002 in air signs. The current water trine is helping make dreams a concrete reality, while also dissolving long-held hopes and illusions that have not proven viable. Saturn and Neptune formed the first exact trine October 10 and will form the last of the exact trines June 12 and July 19, 2013.
You can read more about the Saturn-Neptune trine here: Saturn in Scorpio Trine Neptune in Pisces: The Last of the Wounding Piscean Era Illusions Are Gently Purged From the System
What's going on now is just the beginning, however. The good celestial vibes from the current Saturn-Neptune trine emanate through the end of 2012 and into fall of 2013. There are threads, both ethereal and material, connecting the benefits we are receiving under this trine now with gifts and blessings - potentially beyond what we can currently imagine - bestowed next spring and summer.
Jupiter, the planet of luck, expansion, blessings, gifts, the broadening of horizons, wisdom, and faith, moves from the sign of its detriment, Gemini, to the sign of its exaltation, Cancer, on June 26, 2013 where it will remain until July 16, 2014.
Jupiter in the sign of its exaltation indicates a year-long period of strong cosmic grace amongst the difficult transitions and movements indicated by the ongoing series of Uranus in Aries – Pluto in Capricorn squares.
From this much stronger, exalted position, Jupiter is going to get a lot done, and it shines its benevolent light on almost every aspect of life on Planet Earth during its year-long transit of the sign of the crab.
Benefic Jupiter will form a gorgeous, glowing Grand Water Trine with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces July 17 and 18, 2013, along with a series of more challenging cardinal t-squares and cardinal Grand Crosses during its transit of reflective, Moon-ruled Cancer.
In fact, the Saturn-Neptune trine we are currently experiencing expands into a series of magically delicious Grand Water Trines next spring/summer as the personal planets (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, and Mars), along with Jupiter, move through Cancer, forming the final leg of the water triad and dividing the zodiac into three 120-degree parts.
Throughout June, July, and August, 2013, we will experience, in waves, multiple Grand Water Trine formations that morph quickly into cardinal t-squares.
As the planets move to 4/5 degrees Cancer, they form the easy and flowing Grand Trines with Saturn and Neptune in water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Anyone with natal placements in the early degrees of water or, to a secondary degree, earth signs should be particularly experiencing the good graces.
As the planets continue into the 9 to 12 degree range of Cancer, they then become part of more tense, stressful, and challenging t-squares (180- and 90-degree aspects) in the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn. People with natal placements near this range of the cardinal signs will be feeling the pressure and the impetus to act.
The water signs relate to emotion, intuition, spirit, metaphysics, inner guidance, and the unseen realms. The cardinal signs relate to initiation, action, new directions, leadership, and decision-making. The movement initiated this June - August is guided and informed by water wisdom of all varieties.
These are waves of flowing water magic followed by more tense, dynamic, and active configurations. We drift and meander and soak up the blessings of the Grand Trines, but are then required almost immediately to put them to good use. Things are uplifting, flowing, bursting with good vibes. We're buzzing with new dreams, renewed faith, and a sense of loving cosmic connection and grace. The water in each and every cell is singing beautiful harmonies - and then we are challenged to do something with it.
Considering all the benevolence the universe is showering down on us with these waves of gorgeous Grand Water Trine, it had better be something substantial.
The multiple Grand Water Trines soften the edges considerably next spring and summer, easing frayed nerves caused by the almost constant cardinal square tension and stress we've been working with now for the past three years.
Benefits and cosmic grace will be coming to us through the feminine/yin qualities of Cancer: emotional connection, nurturing, comforting, caring, gentleness. These are all things we can use more of during the cardinal square years, and Jupiter in Cancer provides. Psychic abilities will be keen under all the water aspects, and an awareness of emotional/inner guidance will be particularly acute.
We will have expanded opportunities to experience home and family under transiting Jupiter in Cancer that are quite exciting, with renewed faith and inspiration found in those things as we are prompted to live our very own "family philosophies." The nests we set up, expand, and and commit to during this transit provide interest, excitement, and fortification for what's up ahead.
Luck comes to us through family under Jupiter in Cancer - both birth and chosen. Our sense of family expands to suit a new era flavoured by Aquarius, and we are able to find a sense of belonging where there was only cold isolation and anomie previously. The idea of family and home (Cancer) continues to expand (Jupiter) under the Aquarian umbrella, and friends become family. Home bases can be set up and secured under these transits with like-minded souls who become family to us. The wisdom in our hearts guides the process.
During the transit of Jupiter in Cancer, things we learned and wisdom we gathered during the experiences of our early upbringing become aces in the hole. Under this transit, we come into wisdom and a big-picture understanding about some emotionally tough experiences we've had, especially early experiences of family and home that have stuck with us.
Anyone who has refused to sacrifice emotional health for career advancement, soul security for monetary gain, or inner work for public image will be reaping the benefits of those choices. People who have followed the guidance of the inner voice and the emotional cues, as those around them favoured blind ambition, at-all-costs gains, and destructive advancement, will be in the sweet spot during the Jupiter transit of Cancer.
We're moving through some often rough waters on this planet and will continue to do so, but the blessings and grace coming to us through these Grand Water Trines do a lot to comfort and protect us along the way.
Grand Water Trines Morphing into Cardinal T-Squares – June through August, 2013
Mercury and Venus, conjunct in Cancer, form the first wave in early June.
Mercury in Grand Water Trine - June 3 – 4
Mercury in cardinal t-square - June 7 and 8
Venus in Grand Water Trine - June 7
Venus in cardinal t-square - June 11 and 12
Sun in Grand Water Trine - June 26
(This formation is made a kite by the Capricorn Full Moon June 23.)
Sun in cardinal t-square - July 2 to 4
Mars and Jupiter, conjunct in Cancer, form the final wave in July and August.
Jupiter in Grand Water Trine - July 17 and 18
Jupiter in cardinal t-square - August 7 through 21
Mars in Grand Water Trine - July 20
Mars in cardinal t-square - July 27 through August 1
The Moon in Cancer will form very fast-moving Grand Trine and t-square configurations June 10, July 7, and August 3/4, 2013.
Jupiter in Cancer Forming Multiple Cardinal Grand Crosses - August 2013 to April 2014
In addition to the Grand Water Trine and cardinal t-square it forms next July and August, Jupiter in Cancer will star in a series of five cardinal Grand Crosses involving Uranus in Aries, Pluto in Capricorn, and the personal planets (Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and Mars) in Libra.
Grand Crosses are made up of two oppositions or four squares and usually occur in signs of the same quality (cardinal, mutable, or fixed). In this case, the tense, clashing, and highly dynamic configurations are happening in the cardinal signs, indicating (yet more) grand-scale new directions, new frameworks, and new leadership emerging under pressurized circumstances, both personal and global, micro and macro. The friction creates movement and growth.
The first cardinal Grand Cross involves Venus in Libra and forms August 23 – 27, 2013.
The second involves Mercury in Libra and forms September 13 – 19, 2013.
The third involves the Sun in Libra and forms October 1 – 12, 2013.
The final two cardinal Grand Crosses involve Mars in Libra – both direct and retrograde. The first Grand Cross forms with Mars direct between December 23, 2013 and January 8, 2014.
The final Grand Cross forms April 21 – 24, 2014 and is exact, as all four bodies – Mars Rx in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn – will be at 13 degrees of the cardinal signs.
Did I mention Jupiter was going to be a busy little beaver during its transit of Cancer? It's hitting all the marks from this exalted position and playing a part in all proceedings. The cardinal Grand Crosses (or Grand Squares) kick the global and personal re-structuring up to fevered pitch yet again, and we're going to need every last bit of Jupiterian blessing from its position of exaltation.
Cardinal t-square 2010
Cardinal Grand Cross summer 2011
Cardinal Grand Crosses 2013 and 2014
Posted by Willow at 9:55 AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio Conjunct the North Node: Catalytic Conversations, Shedding Mental Habits, and Honing Scorpy Insights
Mercury Retrograde: November 6 through November 26, 2012
4 degrees Sagittarius to 18 degrees Scorpio
Mercury enters its retrograde shadow - the degrees of the zodiac it will be moving back over during its upcoming retrograde - on October 18 at 18 degrees Scorpio. This entryway into the retrograde zone marks a concentrated and potentially influential point, one we will be returning to in late November when Mercury stations direct.
In basic terms, conversations, ideas, and connections made (or almost made) from October 18 through November 6 are all potential fodder for the retrograde process.
During the retrograde, Mercury will move back and forth over a conjunction to the Scorpio North Node, and we experience a mental re-wiring of the deep, dark Scorpionic variety. This mental re-wiring coincides with the Sun and Saturn coming together in Scorpio for the first time since November 1984, settling us into a more serious, reality-based tone.
The North Node relates to our successful, soul-driven path forward - a major navigational system. This Mercury retrograde will be drawing to our attention points related to power, allegiance, energy exchange, motivation, intuition, honesty, and trust that could be the make or break of our North Node journey through the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, and hardcore soul drive.
Themes are coming up that will require our attention and action over the next years, and everything we can clear or resolve now frees up time and energy later on.
Mercury conjuncts the North Node at 26 degrees Scorpio for the first time October 25, the same day the Sun makes its first conjunction to Saturn in Scorpio in 28 years. Consider that one for a moment…
Mercury Rx backs into the second conjunction to the Scorpio North Node, also at 26 degrees, on November 17. Mercury Rx will also be conjunct the Sun at this time, as the two bodies come together in interior conjunction smack dab on the North Node. Like a laser beam showing us the way...
Mercury makes its final pass over the North Node December 7 at 25 degrees Scorpio.
Thinking like Scorpio and talking like Scorpio are keys to our successful advancement here. If we fail to pick up on the underlying tone or message during Mercury's first pass over the North Node, it will make sure we figure it out during the second pass and are ready to apply it during the third.
During the Mercury retrograde period, we will be drawing on the forward-thinking optimism, inspiration, and faith of Sagittarius while wrapping our minds around both the challenges of the Saturn in Scorpio transit and its considerable opportunities for advancement.
Our intuition and Scorpionic insight will be honed via this retrograde, whip-smart, razor-sharp, through what we are hearing, reading, thinking, and talking about.
Conversations and exchanges of information during Mercury's transit of Scorpio will catalyze both collaborations and the severing of ties.
Drawing on the strengths of the Taurus South Node, mental and verbal boundaries will be re-formulated and reinforced. Respect them. No dumping information or secrets on someone just to get them off your mind.
People may want to spill their guts, but that doesn't mean you have to be the receptacle.
Mercury in Scorpio can be a fairly incendiary placement, and the reactions we receive from the things we say now show us how we may need to adjust our courses. We're sharpening our tongues here in Mars and Pluto-ruled Scorpio, no doubt about it. But with Saturn in Scorpio, we're also finding the right levels of verbal restraint. Scorpio is the sign of secrets - kept or blabbed - and there is an intricate withholding of information and personal perspective required.
How we feel in our guts after conversations we've had tells us whether we're hitting the mark or whether the alchemical mix has to be adjusted. From this point on, people ignore their Scorpionic spidey sense at their own peril. Every twinge, every unsettled moment, every whisper of ill-at-ease is speaking to us now. It is in our best interests, as we take on both a Scorpio-flavoured path forward and the challenges we will find along that path, to listen carefully.
At the same time, there is a "worst case scenario" type of thinking associated with Mercury in Scorpio that must be carefully mitigated.
During this retrograde, with weighty Saturn holding down the early degrees of the sign, it's helpful to remind ourselves that it's never as bad as Mercury in Scorpio thinks it is.
(Except when it's worse.)
Mercury in Scorpio involves dense information. With Saturn sitting at one end of Scorpio like a bowling ball, an anvil, and a boulder combined, the insights we're having during this retrograde can prove to be too much. The layers of the situation too complex, too heavy, too mind-twisting. Again, the strength of the Taurus South Node needs to be channeled here so that we don't overstep our own mental boundaries or the boundaries of others.
We have to be careful not to go too deep, too dark, too fast with this one. Inject some levity wherever possible, and disengage from conversations, exchanges, or thoughts that leave a bad aftertaste.
Verbal (Mercury) power struggles (Scorpio) can be expected. Watch for them as they start to dig in and disengage wherever possible.
We can take a real load off our minds during this Mercury retrograde if we cut away everything we need to cut away.
Scorpio is a sign of alchemical streamlining, unceremoniously shedding what no longer cuts the mustard. In this case, the shedding/streamlining/re-wiring process involves old communication habits and patterns, crystallized neural pathways that no longer get us anywhere, mental and conversational ruts, and detrimental thinking.
With Mercury retrograde traversing the North Node, we're honing in on the mental acuity and depth that will assist us over the next years while also getting a handle on the detrimental aspects of the sign of Scorpio as filtered through our minds and mouths.
Mercury in Scorpio is known for a deeply researching brain as well as tremendous powers of focus and concentration.
But the challenges of the Scorp brain - dug up during this retrograde - involve the mitigating of mental and verbal extremes. Mercury in Scorpio is often a triggered brain. Ideas or conversations can set it off, stirring inky, all-encompassing emotional or psychological reactions that can cloud the logical, intellectual functions of Mercury. Small triggers can flood the synapses with emotional and psychological detritus, paranoia, and fear. And Scorpio is a fixed sign, so once something disturbing is on our minds, it can be difficult to dislodge and clear it.
Mercury in Scorpio penetrates, with the mind, to the roots of the situation. But as it digs in, it kicks up all kinds of nasties.
Concentration can turn to fixation, focus to obsession.
Again, during this transit and retrograde, make sure you are not delving too deeply or allowing the detrimental effects of the Scorpio brain to run the show.
Determining reality from over-the-top fear, paranoia, or "worst case scenario" thinking is not an easy task, but luckily, we have a very supportive sextile (60-degree aspect) from practical, discerning Venus in Virgo to assist us in paring away excess crud. This paring of the crud is how Venus in Virgo shows its love!
This "cut the crap" Venus in Virgo - Mercury in Scorpio sextile is in effect for most of October. It was exact October 16 and becomes exact a second time October 25 - the same day as the Mercury-North Node conjunction and the Sun-Saturn conjunction in Scorpio. Very influential.
Mercury will form squares from zero Sagittarius to Neptune in Pisces October 29, November 13, and December 11, creating the possibility of mental fogginess, forgetfulness, and problems related to inattention. It's probable that our minds will be on other things, in other worlds. Don't zone out while driving, and watch for inattention in others.
Pay careful attention to details, particularly during the retrograde square November 13, or things could slip by and create problems later on. Not a good day to sign or solidify contracts. People could easily be taken to the cleaners while under the Neptunian delusion that they're getting a hell of a deal!
Misperceptions and false assumptions are probable in the days surrounding these squares. This aspect has the feel of yelling to make yourself understood while underwater. People may grasp bits of what you're saying, but the full point could be lost.
Mercury will be in the sign of its detriment (Sagittarius), it will be retrograde, and it will be forming a frictional aspect to Neptune, a planet often allergic to details, logic, and clarity. These squares are potentially tricky and will require our conscious mental and verbal navigation.
Mercury enters Sagittarius late on October 28.
It retrogrades back into Scorpio November 14.
It re-enters Sagittarius December 10.
What is Mercury Retrograde?
Posted by Willow at 9:12 AM
Thursday, October 4, 2012
A Mercury-Weighted Jupiter Station As Mercury and Saturn Form an Anaretic Libra Conjunction and Enter Scorpio
Jupiter stationed retrograde at 16 degrees Gemini this morning and will remain in retrograde motion until January 30, 2013. The expansion and broadening of horizons we've experienced since June 2012 have come to a stand-still, and we now go back over areas of growth, particularly related to society, neighbourhoods, siblings, ideas, networking, social cross-pollination, and communication.
Stationing Jupiter is disposited by Mercury forming a conjunction to Saturn at 29 degrees Libra. This Mercury-Saturn conjunction at the tail-end of Saturn's transit of Libra (exact tomorrow morning at 3:44 a.m. CST) colours the Jupiter retrograde.
The brakes have officially been applied to information exchange, networking, and daily conversation. Big ideas stirred by the Jupiter station are now stuck in limbo, potentially leaving us with mental wheels spinning. Caution and a wait-and-see attitude are favoured, though these are difficult to put into practical application with big, bold Jupiter so potent in the atmosphere.
Mercury is our dominant body at the moment, dispositing the Moon, Black Moon Lilith, Jupiter, and Vesta in Gemini, as well as Venus newly in Virgo. It's a Mercury-weighted scene, and this makes what we think, type, and say highly influential - both for success and downfall.
Be careful about moving forward with new ideas, conversations, and information interchanges over the next few days. Saturn is in the very last bit of its transit of Libra, and things are highly weighted. We have to put into practise the new maturity, the new standards and boundaries, and the new understanding of relational timing we've learned under the Saturn in Libra transit. We're challenged by the last bit of relationship structuring here, putting the final touches on relational frameworks that serve as a foundation for our next 29 or so years. Our mouths and typing fingers can make or break.
There are certain ways to advance the scene through interaction, but opening the wrong line of conversation at the wrong time can hit a discordant note, putting us on a less solid footing than we would like. This is particularly the case with Mercury entering Scorpio. There is a tendency for people to want to relieve themselves of the pressure of the Mercury-Saturn ingresses by blurting it out, getting it out of their systems, speaking on the spicy, charged taboo points, passing the bag for someone else to hold.
This won't be successful.
Go out strong. Don't allow yourself to overstep your verbal or mental boundaries, and don't allow anyone else to overstep theirs in relation to you. If the outlet is not there, don't force it. If in doubt, hold your tongue and your typing fingers.
These themes are strong into mid-October.
More on Jupiter in Gemini
Posted by Willow at 11:06 AM
Monday, October 1, 2012
Saturn in Scorpio Trine Neptune in Pisces: The Last of the Wounding Piscean Era Illusions Are Gently Purged From the System
The faeries are camera shy.
Solid advancement seems just within our reach, at our fingertips, when the tide goes out yet again, washing things away, back to chaos, back to square one.
And then it’s time for another attempt, for a new set of plans, for a new angle of advancement.
If a foothold does gain traction here - finally, beyond all reason – it’s because it is infused with some 'Pisces for the Aquarian era' pixie dust. It’s a step that has found, through trial and error and otherworldly instruction, a new direction into a new framework of successful energy dynamics.
Our experience of time (Saturn) continues to reformulate. The concept of time having a static and regular nature seems to belong to a different era. Certain time segments speed by, disappear, are seemingly lost altogether, and then time slows, seems to crawl, becomes standard again. Time being relative is antiquated understatement at this point. We snap in and out of the timed reality, the linear regularity, touching down and blanketing ourselves in its weight to regain bearings. Oh, clock. Oh, watch. Pin me to this grounded life. Comfort with your tick tock tallies of life’s moments, speeding blindly past.
Progress made now is not purely linear, easily planned, or directed via desire for personal advancement alone. Things are being put in place, but the work is completed on its own timeline.
Saturn and Neptune. Neptune and Saturn. The finite and the infinite, the infinite and the finite. These two bodies will form three exact trines in these signs – October 10, 2012, June 11, 2013, and July 19, 2013. This trine is in the air for the next year, working its meandering magic.
Our challenges and responsibilities – somewhat daunting, perhaps, at the beginning of Saturn’s almost three-year trek through deep, dark Scorpio – are eased by a sense of floating Neptunian surrender and faith.
There’s only so much we can do about certain nightmare scenarios we find ourselves living through on this planet. But if we’re doing everything we can, everything on Saturn’s docket, we’re also very aware that the loving and benevolent universe (AKA God) picks up the slack. We’re digging in to the nitty gritty as Saturn transits Scorpio, going third-eye deep, peeling away the artifice – but when we’ve dug in as far as we can go, there is both assistance and guidance through the intricate and sometimes arduous matrices.
The stone-cold, ground-zero Scorpionic realities are softened here with just an impression of a glimpse of a wink from the universe. A feather lying in our path, an animal guide making itself known, a glimmer of the faerie folk in a mischievous smile, a remembered dream tying it all together. A reminder that no matter how bad it is, it’s still OK – as long as we’re living and working within soul-deep reality. We’ve come to this point together, and we move through it together.
Our structural realities (Saturn) are in a state of sometimes traumatic morph (Scorpio) as global seismic shifts indicated by the Uranus-Pluto square series drop the bottom out in certain areas and open new opportunities amongst the wreckage in others.
This Saturn-Neptune trine indicates that the progress being made in our lives and the opportunities opening to us now, though potentially scary and uncertain, are moving us toward our dreams, one step at a time.
We’re working (Saturn) for these dreams (Neptune), but they're new dreams.
We’ve stepped firmly onto the water-bearer side of the Pisces/Aquarius divide, and our dreamy ideals take on a new flavour. Our best case scenarios have reformulated, sometimes dramatically.
As Saturn trines Neptune, it is also trine wounded healer Chiron in Pisces. The first exact Saturn-Chiron trine is November 16, 2012. In order to make progress now, we have to be willing to give up some long-held dreams that have not proven viable, and this can be painful. The old ideals have become pale, brittle, faded, whisper-thin. Many of the Piscean-era dreams are going up in smoke, dissipating into thin air after years or decades or centuries of cherished hopefulness and longing.
Huh. Just like that.
Saturn first made the run up to this trine to Neptune in February 2012 but turned retrograde on the 29th degree of Libra February 7, just shy of an exact trine to Neptune on the 29th degree of Aquarius.
Twenty-nine Aquarius is the degree of the astrological era shift. And with Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, transiting that degree, we were challenged by changing dreams, changing outlooks, and changing rulebooks, particularly for love and relationships.
You can read some background on that here: Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees
The final Saturn retrograde through Libra (February to June 2012) was coloured strongly by relationship challenges related to the shift between astrological Piscean era and astrological Aquarian era. Saturn turned direct for its last pass through Libra June 25, on the heels of the Venus Transit in Gemini - another indicator of grand-scale paradigm change in love and relationship. Saturn's direct station fell just one day after the first exact Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square. And now Saturn is on the very last degree of Libra, cementing the very last bit of relationship progress.
Human relations are officially different now. Love is different. The standards and rules for relationship have changed. Ideals have shifted. And these changes continue, hurtling us deeper into a new astrological era…
Old habits and old Neptunian illusions flicker in and out of the scene, nipping at those weak points where the desire to stay tightly wrapped in the Piscean-era cocoon is strong to overwhelming. Fingers in ears. La la la. Repeating the well-trodden karmic loops, particularly in love and relationship, while under the very unreasonable impression that this time, it will turn out differently.
The twin flame soul mate. The One True Love. The perfect partner magically creating the perfect life. The rich, gorgeous, and brilliant white knight coming to save us from the drudgery and disappointment of human life. The enlightenment and bliss of two becoming one. Forever. The naïve perfection ideals of the astrological Piscean era.
These are all piles of ash. The fire at the Piscean-era hearth has burned clear.
Both Saturn and Neptune have ingressed new signs. Power and advancement here come from the whole-hearted adoption of the new ideals and new energy dynamics related to an expression of Pisces for the Aquarian era.
Love, money, and relationship planet Venus wraps up its last official duties as dispositor of Saturn this week. As of October 5, Mars and Pluto become the strongest influences over our Saturnine progress. But for now, beneficent Venus is at the helm, and the last major aspects it makes as dispositor are rich, beautiful, distilled, and just a little poignant.
Venus at 29 degrees Leo forms a sextile to Saturn in Libra October 2. This is the last contact between these two bodies with Venus as dispositor, and the supportive fire-air aspect has a warm, celebratory feel in its finality.
Venus then enters crisp, cool, illusion-puncturing Virgo just before 1:00 a.m. (CST) on October 3, and forms the official final aspect of its dispositorship - an opposition to Neptune at zero Pisces. Venus is in the sign of its fall in Virgo, and it has some grounding, bubble-bursting work to do during this transit, of which neither Venus nor Neptune are particularly fond. Venus is on task, however, applying practical details, removing blinders and gloss, and showing us real, earth-based love magic, until entering its domicile Libra October 28. Venus opposes Chiron in Pisces October 7.
There is the possibility with these Venus-Neptune and Venus-Chiron oppositions, strong though the first week of October, of falling for glamourous, escapist style over effective, earth-based substance. With an opposition, the trick is to find the right balance and energetic mix to have the best of both worlds.
Those most successful, most effective, and most relevant from this point forward use the Saturn in Scorpio trines and the Venus in Virgo oppositions to drop outdated Piscean-era ideals like a ratty, moth-eaten cloak. To alchemically burn them out of their systems, clearing the mesmerizing draws, dropping the baggage, and choosing the exit ramp, once and for all, out of the karmic loops.
The universe is going fairly easy on us here, but that won't always be the case. As Saturn in Scorpio trines Neptune in Pisces on the zero degrees, we have our first major opportunity to bank on what we know about human nature rather than what we hope is true. Success here comes from sniffing out true character and following it to its inevitable conclusions, rather than glossing over the things we'd prefer we didn't see in the people around us.
This doesn't mean we interact without humour or love in our hearts, but during Saturn in Scorpio, the benefit of the doubt should be given very sparingly.
Tail-end of the Harvest Moon 2012
Saturn last formed trines to Neptune in 2001/2002 when Saturn was transiting Gemini and Neptune was in Aquarius.
Posted by Willow at 9:23 AM