This week’s question comes from Rose in Melbourne, Australia:

Nothing is going right for me. I have a teenage son who has developed a drug problem, my seven-year relationship ended last year, and work is tough. I make an effort every day to stay positive and ask the universe for guidance, but the last 12 month are one step forward and ten steps back. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and God bless.

Neith’s response:

Rose, it looks like you have been slammed by several major transits over the past year and I think you are doing well to still be working on maintaining a positive attitude! One of the major events over this past winter was Mars in Cancer going retrograde and with your Aries rising and natal Mars in Cancer that had to have felt exactly as you said, “one step forward and ten steps back.”

At the beginning of this time period, Saturn in Leo transited your natal Uranus in Leo, triggering your natal Uranus square to your Moon. This translates into all matters pertaining to home and family being highlighted, because of the Moon-fourth house connection.

The problems with your son appear to have been triggered by Saturn’s transit into your fifth house, which pertains to children. Your natal Pluto and South Node are on the fifth house cusp, which means that Saturn will soon conjoin these two points. Hopefully when Saturn moves past this point in mid-August, matters will begin to heal, as Saturn in Virgo also promotes handling health-related issues in sensible manner.

When Pluto returns to Capricorn in November, you will begin a journey in self-discovery. Pluto transits to personal planets are capable of transforming our personal landscapes but they are not easy. Jupiter’s passage over your natal Mercury, Sun, Jupiter and Saturn have given you a hint of what’s to come. When Jupiter turns direct in September and transits over your Jupiter and Saturn heading for Aquarius shortly after the first of 2009, you may start to see more resolution of the current set of challenges.

Good luck!

Pat’s response:

My heart goes out to you, Rose. One look at your chart tells me that you are going through a hard time, indeed.

There is not much I can add to Neith’s excellent analysis, except to say that I recently went through my Saturn-Pluto conjunction, and I have a couple of clients who also experienced this difficult transit, so I know firsthand how it can make us feel stuck in every area of our lives. You feel like you’re being hit from all sides at once, and there’s no safe harbor.

But I can also tell you that I experienced some important life changes as a result, and I’m feeling more “myself” than I have in my whole life. I think this will happen for you, too, once you get through this “dark night of the soul.” Among other things, you may develop a new relationship with your son based on a stronger role as a parent and loving guide.

Hang in there, and stay in touch.

Stuck and don’t know what to do? Consider having Neith or Pat do a transit reading for you. You can find out more on our forecast page.

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