Saturday is the end of the week, and so this seems like a good time to look back at some our reader polls and make a few observations.

In our most recent poll, we asked whether you plan by the phases of the Moon. This is one of the simplest uses of astrology, and your answers reveal that most of you are aware of this tool and use it, at least some of the time.

As you may know, Real Astrologers celebrated its first year earlier this month. We definitely considered the phase of the Moon in the timing of our launch (and our Web host, InMotion, nicely humored us, right down to the minute). Would we have been as successful if we hadn’t done so? There’s no way to know the answer to that. But we most certainly have had a stellar first year, with 165,000 page views and still climbing. Our readership spans 120 countries on six continents.

The posts that consistently generate the most page views are Neith’s lunation reports, so it’s not surprising that you are tuned into the lunar cycle. On a day-to-day basis, the Moon’s influence typically is fleeting and not very strong, but if you pay attention, you likely will notice a correlation between events in your life and the New or Full Moon in a sensitive place in your chart.

On April 1, we asked how you were experiencing the Mars-Saturn opposition. Most of you didn’t seem to be too bothered by it, which was a surprise. There were a lot of shootings in the news that weekend, along with an eruption of Mount Redoubt and, a few days later, a devastating earthquake in Italy. But overall, it passed without a global catastrophe or personal trauma for our readers.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Mars-Uranus conjunction is going to be far more disruptive. Already, we’re seeing drama on the high seas as Somali pirates use hostages, including an American merchant marine captain, to ensure their escape from international authorities. It’s hard to imagine how this standoff isn’t going to end badly for someone. Of course, we’ll ask you what’s going on in your life personally in our next poll.

In our poll on March 25, we asked whether you’d forgive someone for bad behavior if they were experiencing a difficult astrological transit. I have to say that I was taken aback by the response. An overwhelming majority of you said no. A lot has been written about the power of forgiveness to heal, and most of us doing spiritual work know this. But are we putting it into practice? Perhaps this is a topic that needs more exploration.

Going back one more week, to March 18, I asked you to vote for the astrological aspect that may have been underlying a friend’s head injury. This was admittedly a tough call, as there was so much going on in his chart. However, the majority of you gave the most weight to transiting Mars, and this was my conclusion, too. Still, I couldn’t help thinking that this guy also just needed a good knock on the head.

Thank you to everyone who has voted in our Wednesday polls. As Neith and I have both said many times, your feedback helps make us better astrologers, and we’re all enriched by the experience.

Pat