Yearly Archives: 2011

Full Moon in Cancer, January 19

Not only is next Wednesday’s Full Moon the peak of a cycle that started with an eclipse, but it falls at the exact degree of a big solar eclipse in July 2009.

The 2009 event, on July 22 (July 21 in the Western Hemisphere), was a total eclipse and the longest of the century. It was the second in a new series of eclipses in Capricorn and Cancer. There is one more eclipse left in this series, on July 1.

Astrologers debate how long the influence of eclipses lasts and what factors determine this timing. My gut feeling is that a total eclipse that’s the longest of the century has got to have long-term meaning, and since eclipses appear to be windows on time, we should look for clues about what “time” is being revealed. A Full Moon at the exact degree and minute – 29°27′ – is a mighty big hint.

I ran a comparison to look at the two charts together, and a couple of things jumped out at me. First, Uranus is still in late Pisces, just one degree from his position in the chart for the July 2009 eclipse. Uranus is the rebel, the inventor, and the bolt of lightning that blasts erroneous beliefs from our minds. That is often what it takes to wake us up. Remember, the seventh planet was discovered in 1781, between the American and French revolutions. If that wasn’t a political awakening, I don’t know what was.

I’m going to digress for a minute to mention something I read recently in the subscription-only newsletter from CounterPunch (which I highly recommend; it’s only $35 a year). The entire December 16 issue was devoted to an article by Mason Gaffney, a professor of economics at the University of California, about how radical political reform in the United States has grown out of cyclical religious awakenings.

According to Prof. Gaffney, the First Great Awakening led to the American and Jeffersonian Revolutions, the Second Great Awakening led to the Civil War and Abolition, the Third Great Awakening led to the Populist and then Progressive Movements, the Fourth Great Awakening led to the New Deal, and the Fifth Great Awakening led to the “Great Society,” feminism, and social upheavals.

Prof. Gaffney’s prediction that another awakening was about to happen gave me chills.

“Expect to be surprised, and expect it fairly soon,” he writes. [T]he calamities of President G.W. Bush and the fumbling of President Obama have opened the doors for a new alignment.”

Back to the chart for Wednesday’s Full Moon, Uranus is in close conjunction with Jupiter at 29 Pisces, the last degree of the zodiac, representing a “wrap-up” of spiritual searching and discovery. Among his attributes, Jupiter expands minds and fosters spiritual growth.

It’s interesting to note that at the July 2009 solar eclipse, Jupiter was tightly conjunct Neptune in Aquarius. Neptune and Uranus remain in mutual reception, and they also have been in a close semi-sextile since mid-2008. A transit to one is a transit to both. Moreover, Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces both reflect a sea change in the collective unconscious. It’s only a matter of time before new ideas bubble to the surface.

Spiritual is the new religious. Could that be the missing link that Prof. Gaffney has overlooked? Elsewhere in his article, he notes that the new movement will come out of left field and will be resisted by academics and intellectuals. What is more resisted by academics and intellectuals than astrology? We need only review the past week’s media shenanigans to reaffirm that truth.

In a strange way, last week’s media fiasco represents a shift in itself. Is it not ironic that the tables are turned, and now astrologers are trying to prove that an ignorant scientist had his facts wrong? I was dismayed by the media response to the brave astrologers such as Susan Miller and Jeff Jawer who tried to set the record straight. For their efforts, they were misquoted and further ridiculed. But that’s part of shifting consciousness. As the status quo is challenged by new ideas, the initial response often is anger.

The Moon’s trine with Jupiter is the last aspect she makes before entering the next sign. The following day, the Sun enters Aquarius, which in modern astrology is ruled by Uranus. Mars is already there, stirring the pot.

The rest of the chart reflects this week’s planetary aspects, which I’ll cover in my forecast later today.

The Sabian Symbol** for the Moon at 29°27′ Cancer is, a daughter of the American Revolution, with the keyword INHERITANCE. This is an interesting symbol in a time when the ground beneath our feet seems to be shifting. It speaks to the old, established way of doing things and of forming ties with others based on tradition and social status. There is a natural tendency to protect the status quo, especially in the face of outside pressures. However, this symbol cautions against resisting necessary change. There’s also a message here that if you have inborn talents and gifts or are otherwise in a privileged position, you’re a natural leader, but you will get into trouble if you think this makes you superior to anyone else.

For the Sun at 29°27′ Capricorn, the Sabian Symbol is a secret business conference, with the keyword OPPORTUNITY. Unlike the symbol for the opposite degree above, which is about tradition and identifying with a certain group, this symbol is about taking advantage of situations that crop up from one day to the next by forming relationships with the people involved. I’ve always maintained that good things come to us through others, and the best things come through those with whom we share positive feelings. The downside of this symbol is exploiting others for our own selfish gain.

Again, it comes down to maintaining your integrity. This is more important than ever when we’re being tossed about on the astrological tides and sometimes lose track of who we are and what we’re here for. It’s also essential that we find our circle of friends, the people who will be our allies in the times ahead. Knowing what you believe is important, and being able to examine those beliefs objectively is even more so.

Pat

** From The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones. The author, an astrologer, channeled this work in 1925 with the help of Elsie Wheeler, a gifted psychic. There’s one symbol one for each degree of the zodiac, and we can use them to gain insight into charts.

Ask Real Astrologers: Has My Sun Sign Changed?What About Ophiuchus?

This week’s question comes from Blake in the United States:

Browsing the Internet today, I saw the excitement over Ophiuchus, the proposed 13th astrological symbol. Since the unofficial addition, the dates for sun signs seem to change … While all this seems so boisterous and asinine I decided to investigate what my proposed “new sign” would be (Sagittarius). Well, it turns out, I relate more to the Sagittarius sign than Capricorn. It’s like I found my “true” sign amidst all this “new information” on star signs.

How do I interpret this? Can your “sign” actually shift or am I projecting my craziness to Jupiter?

Blake, Blake, Blake … How on earth can we even begin to set the record straight when Time magazine is reporting this idiocy as some kind of scientific (read God-given) truth? Continue reading →

The Astrology of the Giffords Shooting

The Tower, from the Haindl Tarot.

When an event is as shocking and tragic as last Saturday’s shooting spree in Arizona, we call it “senseless,” and yet, we try to make some sense of it, to find some meaning.

Astrology is uniquely suited as a code to decipher hidden messages. If there is any meaning to be found at all in a senseless act of violence, the key is to find the “right” charts.

Typically, we start by looking at the charts for the individuals involved. The temptation is to start with Jared Lee Loughner, the perpetrator, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, his alleged assassination target. Although I agree that these charts are significant and did look at them, my initial reaction was to wonder why we should assign more importance to a member of Congress than to the six people who died in the attack or the other 13 who were seriously wounded. On that premise, I began my investigation with a simple chart for the event itself.

According to press reports, the shooting occurred at 10:10 a.m. This puts the Moon exactly on the Ascendant, by degree and minute, at 7°06′ Pisces. In mundane charts, the Moon represents the people. It also signifies crowds, women, and what the people focus their attention on. The first house, meanwhile, represents the country. We might call it the “state of the union.”

I really didn’t need this uncanny alignment to tell me what I already suspected intuitively, which was that the message here is about the country in general and not about Giffords or the mental state of the assailant, who by all reports is deranged.

Still, I was curious about what synchronicity brought these two together and was hardly surprised to find the cardinal T-square strongly implicated. Giffords has natal Mars at 4 degrees Cancer, in a square with Uranus at 4 Libra. Loughner, meanwhile, has natal Mars at 10 Aries (retrograde), square Neptune at 7 Capricorn.

As you may recall, the cardinal T-square played out over summer 2010 in the first degrees of Aries, Libra, and Capricorn. In 2011, the T-square will take place a few degrees later, but still in the first decanate of the cardinal signs. That the charts for Loughner and Giffords include all four cardinal signs in a close square, each with an outer planet (broad, social trends) aspecting a personal planet, tells us that they are part of a much bigger story.

Looking further into the chart for the shooting, we find the Sun and Mars in Capricorn in the 11th house, which is associated with elected bodies such as Parliament and Congress, square Saturn on the 8th house cusp. The Sun corresponds to persons of note, while Mars represents events such as terrorist attacks. Saturn signifies high-profile funerals and “public sorrow.” The eighth house, of course, is associated with death.

Perhaps the biggest clue, however, lies in the tight conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter in the first house. Uranus is the rebel and rabble-rouser, and is associated with political protest and riots. Jupiter represents bankers, the national wealth, and the justice system. Among those killed was a federal judge.

Taking the analysis a step further, I compared the chart for the shooting with the natal chart for the United States (Sibly). Essentially, this creates a transit chart for the United States at the exact moment of the event. Those of you who follow the U.S. chart already know what most of those transits are. For example, we’ve known that Neptune currently is transiting the U.S. Moon at 27 degrees Aquarius. We’ve also known that Jupiter and Uranus, which feature large in the shooting chart, are approaching the cusp of the fourth house at 1 degree Aries in the Sibly chart, which also was a key T-square degree last summer.

If we look at it in reverse, the Sibly Uranus at 8 degrees Gemini is on the fourth-house cusp (IC) of the shooting chart, and thus we have a two-way incidence of Uranus on the IC. Not that you need to be an astrologer to know that the public is in a rebellious mood, but what this tells us is that action is about to follow thought. I don’t expect a rash of copycat murders and the sudden targeting of members of Congress, but I’ve written all along that as Uranus reaches a closer square to Pluto, there will be violent rioting, and it likely will be against the government.

As for Loughner, much has been revealed over the past few days about his state of mind. One theory about his motive for targeting Giffords is that she blew off a question he asked at a political event in 2007. The question was nonsensical; Giffords probably had no idea what he was talking about and dismissed it as a crazy rant. But Loughner felt ignored and held a serious grudge.

A growing number of people are angry with their elected representatives for ignoring them. Politicians make all kinds of promises to get elected and then promptly ally themselves with their corporate donors and leave the voters to fend for themselves. When the political uprising begins, how many more people will fire into a crowd? And how many cops will fire back?

My conclusion, looking at these charts, is that the Giffords shooting may be a shot over the bow.

What I find infinitely more disturbing are the reports that Loughner was dabbling in astral travel. In an interview with Mother Jones, a friend speaks of Loughner’s obsession with “lucid dreaming” and his belief that he could fly. It’s hard to pass this off as more evidence of mental illness when it’s exactly the kind of thing we talk about here on RealAstrologers.

As human consciousness evolves, lucid dreaming likely will be a common experience, along with past-life visions and other shifts in our perception of time. Was Loughner truly tapped into this? Or was he just deluded? Maybe both?

Mental illness falls within the twelfth house, which in modern astrology is ruled by Neptune and Pisces – the Ascendant in the chart for the shooting. When we travel on the astral plane, we’re in the realm of Neptune, and it’s not all angels and rainbows – especially not in a time of so much collective fear and anger. How many people are in mental hospitals because they played around with this stuff without being adequately grounded?

In addition to being a bellwether for public unrest, the Giffords shooting may be a warning that the awakening of human consciousness will not be without attendant dangers and that it’s not for the weak-minded.

Pat

Weekly Forecast January 10:Mercury Enters Capricorn, Mars Sextile Jupiter

Causeway blocks disappearing into the distance. © Scott Liddell/Dreamstime.com

If it seems like you’re still going back over old ground this week, it’s probably because you are.

Last month, Mercury went retrograde in Capricorn right after crossing the critical degrees of the summer’s cardinal T-square. Mercury and Mars were in close conjunction, too. For many of us, that meant revisiting pressing matters that arose over the summer. Then Mars moved on, and Mercury went back into Sagittarius.

The Messenger returns to Capricorn on Thursday, January 13, and makes a third and final pass over those critical T-square degrees. This is usually when we find resolution. Since Mercury also rules commerce and business negotiations, you may have a chance to renegotiate a contract or verbal agreement that didn’t quite work out for you in early December.

Mercury is a busy little guy this week. Before returning to business-like Capricorn, he makes contact with Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Chiron, who have been tracking so closely over the past several months that I’ve started thinking of them as “the usual suspects.” A contact to one means a contact to all, and the only reliable interpretation I can make at this point is that whatever happened to you over the summer (and what happened in the world at large) becomes a dominant theme again this week.

[callout]Whosoever tells the truth shall be chased out of nine villages. ~Turkish proverb[/callout]

Taken as a whole, this week’s Mercury aspects allow us to see circumstances more clearly, which in turn helps us form a better strategy for moving forward. The Mercury-Uranus square on Monday may be disruptive, but sometimes we need a little disruption to light a fire under us and knock us out of a familiar but unsatisfying and unproductive rut. Doing things the way they’ve always been done is not an option now.

I recently started reading The Discoverers, by Daniel Boorstin, who writes that the obstacles to discovery are “the illusions of knowledge.” The whole book is based on this theme, that beliefs ingrained in human consciousness can prevent the acceptance of truth. The discoverers of these new truths often are vilified and persecuted.

A client recently sent me the following quote, ostensibly an old Turkish proverb: Whosoever tells the truth shall be chased out of nine villages.

Mercury in Sagittarius often results in inconvenient truths, and with a square to Uranus in Pisces, those truths indeed could upset the collective perception. The situation that springs immediately to mind is WikiLeaks and attempts by the U.S. Government to find grounds to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his colleagues.

Mercury in Sagittarius square Chiron in Pisces says that the truth can be painful, but it also will set us free.

Mars sextiles Uranus on Wednesday and Jupiter on Thursday, suggesting that action will follow thought. Since a sextile is a favorable aspect, we can assume that the action should be positive. If you have a chance to act on a situation, these are excellent days to do so. Uranus often introduces an element of surprise, so be prepared to move quickly and decisively.

On Saturday, Mars enters Aquarius, where action benefits the collective, humanitarian causes, technology, and perhaps even astrology. In any event, it’s time to try something new and experimental.

By the way, Boorstin’s book talks about how astrology paved the way for science, a fact often overlooked by scientists and academics. I do believe that we’re on the cutting edge of bringing astrology back in the mainstream, albeit with a new approach that gives it more credibility.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

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Living Soul Astrology, Part II: Your Personality Signs

In this fascinating article, Ruth explains how your Sun, Moon and Rising signs fit together and how the lunar North Node supports your Soul’s development. ~Pat

Stars on the Move. Image courtesy NASA/ESA.

In Part One, we looked at your Soul Sign and what that could tell you in terms of the current stage of your Soul’s Development. However, your Soul’s development is not something you usually have conscious awareness of in your everyday experience.

Your everyday experience is shaped, received and perceived through the filters of your personality. The simplest definition of “ego-personality” is when your mind is thinking about itself. It is how we experience ourselves and who we believe ourselves to be: our tendencies, pre-dispositions, habits, gifts, talents, urges, reactions, beliefs and opinions. It is our overall feeling of “there’s a ME in here” (usually swiftly followed up by an ongoing story of what that ME is all about!).

It is the sum of all our learned behaviour, from this and past lives, our self-image and our self-concept. It is both the mask we show to the world and the window through which we see and experience the world. All of this might feel very real to us now, yet it has all been picked up along the way and added to our underlying true nature.

Our Soul is our underlying true nature, our Divine “pure” essence (in the sense that it cannot be tainted by anything we have collected). To understand this, let’s use water as an example. It is, by nature, wet. We can add things to it: it can be cold water, hot water, coloured water, salty water, etc. However, nothing we add to it will ever change its essential wetness.

Similarly, our Soul is, by nature, goodness and love. Everything else we believe ourselves to be (our ego-personality) has been added to it and, although we experience it as ourselves, it is not our true Self. Our Soul vibration is our purest nature, and this is indicated by our Ascendant.

[headline h=”5″]The Personality Signs: Your Sun and Your Moon[/headline]

In Soul Astrology this collection of habits and reactions is symbolised by your Sun and Moon signs. They represent your habitual (learned) ways of thinking and acting. The Sun is that aspect of our personality which we are aware of, conscious of; it is in the light. The Moon is that which we are unaware of. It is in the dark, our shadow personality.

Our Moon Sign is at least of equal importance to our Sun Sign, if not more so. Because it is our shadow, it is more difficult for us to see, and therefore has a quality of sneaking up on us and sabotaging our efforts. When we have reacted to somebody unconsciously and then later regretted it, we have probably been overwhelmed by an emotional reaction that is in alignment with the qualities of our Moon Sign.

The learned behaviour of our Sun and Moon signs is so powerful that we identify with it. We feel as though it is “who we are.” Our spiritual path involves dis-identifying from these personality traits and reactions by changing our behaviour patterns and by recognizing that while we might have those tendencies and abilities, we are so much more than that. In the case of our Sun Sign, while it is never easy to challenge habits – especially ones reinforced by strong ego-identification – it is made somewhat easier by the fact that these qualities are “out in the open.” It makes it easy to see what we are working with.

The Moon Sign indicates our innate emotional state and who we become in relating with others. It is often others who recognise our Moon-Sign traits, before we do, because it is when others push our buttons that we get to see our shadow-nature. It is revealed to us in our reactions to them. We then have the opportunity to heal these patterns, which is why relationships are such good “Soul-training” grounds!

[headline h=”5″]The Moon’s Nodes[/headline]

I read an excellent article recently on the Moon’s nodes – however the author kept referring to me as a Virgo Soul, because I have a Virgo North Node. I am a Cancer Ascendant, so the reality is, I am a Cancer Soul, but with a Virgo option. Being more Virgo-like and developing Virgoan qualities will support my development as a Cancer Soul.

Your North Node is like a prescription for changing your past-life conditioning. Your Ascendant is your Soul Vibration, while your North Node indicates a possible pathway that supports your Soul’s development by breaking the patterns of past-life conditioning (your South Node). Your North Node is not your Soul’s essence, but rather a spiritual path of choice.

In describing and defining yourself I invite you to consider using your Ascendant first, so it sounds something like this: “I’m a Cancer Soul with a Gemini/Leo personality” (Cancer Ascendant, Gemini Sun, Leo Moon.) This description sums up our individual spiritual path: the challenge to release identification with our personality traits, and lead with our Soul qualities.

Living Soul Astrology means using our horoscope as a living tool to support our spiritual journey. By thoroughly understanding all the energies at play in our natal chart, understanding what stage of development our Soul is at, and the challenges that our personality signs create, our Astrological profile becomes a valuable tool that supports our process of integrating personality and Soul.

Once we are fully conscious of our Sun and Moon sign behaviours, and are no longer identified with them, our Soul begins to use the qualities of those signs, in the expression of its purpose in this lifetime.

Ruth

[hr]

Ruth Hadikin – Soul Astrologer

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

Follow Ruth:

Ask Real Astrologers: How Do I Interpret Multiple Transits?

This week’s question comes from Beth in Victoria, B.C.:

When you look at my chart with current transits, you will see something absolutely amazing. All my bells are being rung. Pluto conjunct my Saturn, which forms the final aspect to the Yod in my chart, looks important. Plus the recent and upcoming eclipses affect transiting Pluto conjunct Saturn at the arm of the Yod. I also have a double Grand Cross and a Grand Trine, which are lit up by major transits.

Where can I find an astrologer who can address transits affecting major aspects such as this? Simply discussing one planet’s transit at a time is not going to consider these major aspects.

Beth, you certainly do have quite a bit going on in your chart! Because of the complex interactions between your natal planets, you probably won’t ever be able to get an accurate forecast with a computer-generated report. But, as you note, that’s especially true now, with the cardinal T-square activating several key planets and points in your chart at the same time. No computer report could possibly synthesize all of this information for a reliable forecast.

This is true for just about everyone right now, whether or not you’ve got a chart as complex as Beth’s. As an example, suppose you have Venus in the first few degrees of Capricorn, and you ordered a computer-generated forecast at the peak of the cardinal T-square last August. Your Venus would have been conjoined by Pluto, and squared by Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus. That’s six different interpretations you’d have to read, and some would be contradictory.

Only an experienced professional astrologer can sort through these complexities, and even then, it’s a challenge. Beth, I’m willing to bet that ten astrologers looking at your transit chart would give you ten different interpretations, although there likely would be general areas of agreement.

Another thing to keep in mind is that forecasting becomes much harder when so many aspects are occurring simultaneously, and it’s a challenge even for the most experienced astrologers on the planet. Further, the cardinal T-square of 2010 and, to some degree, this year’s repeat, are unprecedented in our lifetime. That means no living astrologer has witnessed such a planetary configuration. The best we can do is to look to history for clues. You can bet that we’re all taking a lot of notes. This is a living laboratory, to be sure – and we’re all cosmic guinea pigs!

I cautioned my clients last year that, due to the complexity of the T-square, my forecasts were tentative. Nonetheless, clear trends do emerge, even in complex charts like yours.

For example, your natal Sun and Chiron are on the Descendant, a key chart angle, and transiting Neptune and Chiron are sitting right on it. The Descendant is the cusp of the seventh house, which rules close relationships. Neptune and Uranus are in mutual reception, and Uranus and Jupiter are conjunct your natal Venus, the planet of love and relationships. So you can see that relationships are an important theme in your life right now, with extremes and an inability to see your way clearly.

My advice is to look for someone you feel comfortable with and, in New Age parlance, “resonate with.” Even if the astrologer you chose didn’t examine every detail, you could probably count on the synchronicity of the universe to deliver the message you need to hear at this time. It’s funny how that works, and given your Sun-Chiron conjunction, I have a feeling that you always manage to meet up with the right people to carry you further on your path.

Thanks for an excellent and timely question, Beth. I wish you all the best in moving along this year’s fast-moving currents.

Pat

Got a quick question? Click here to contact Ask Real Astrologers. You must use this form to contact me, or I won’t get your question. I do read all of your questions, although I am sorry that I can’t answer them all. If you need immediate guidance or in-depth advice, please contact me for a private consultation. THANKS!

Jupiter in Aries

Jupiter is about to return to Aries, and this time he’s going to storm through like a charging elephant.

This is huge, and it’s pretty much a given that we’re going to make up for a lot of lost time after last year’s blockages. The planet of growth and expansion will be hindered here and there in the next few months, but not for long. He simply is moving too fast and has too much momentum behind him.

Normally, Jupiter spends a year in a sign, but because he went retrograde last year in early Aries, he did most of his retrograde time in Pisces. When he returns to Aries on January 22, he’ll blow through the entire 30 degrees in just over four months before entering Taurus on June 4. Aries is impulsive, pioneering, and very fast.

Of course, Jupiter isn’t actually moving faster than usual; it just looks like it from down here. “Speed” is an illusion created by the relative orbits of the earth and other planets around the Sun. Nevertheless, symbolism is a big part of astrology, and if it looks like he’s speeding, then we interpret it that way. Think of a bull elephant charging at the speed of a cheetah, and you’ve got the picture.

During his first two months in Aries, Jupiter squares Pluto (February 26) and opposes Saturn (March 28). This means we’ll be back in cardinal T-square territory, but the configuration will be wider than it was in 2010, with fewer planets involved. Also, Saturn will be retrograde as of January 25 and won’t return direct until after Jupiter enters Taurus. That means the moderating influence of Saturn will be weakened, allowing Jupiter’s energy to expand with few constraints.

Wherever Jupiter is in your chart is where you can expect to expand, grow, and experience major breakthroughs. Depending on how he interacts with other planets in your chart, you may experience this influence as external events — for example, you may get a big raise or promotion or move to a larger home – or you could feel it more internally, as a spiritual awakening. If that’s the case for you, external changes will follow as your outer world shifts to match your inner landscape.

Although there are still plenty of surprises and plots twists in store, you should know by now the general direction in which you’re headed, and you won’t encounter as many obstacles as you did last year.

In terms of the collective, the general direction is also is pretty clear at this point, although I’m not sure I could name even one collective “goal.” There is still a great deal of polarization everywhere, even in matters of life and death. Especially in matters of life and death. A small group of people benefit from war and economic instability, and those few currently wield a large amount of power. I have to think that their goals are quite different from those who want to see more equitable social systems, and yet, they, too, are part of the collective.

The one thing we can count on is that the landscape will continue to shift as the cardinal T-square continues to play out in 2011 – starting with Jupiter’s arrival in Aries on January 22.

Pat

Weekly Forecast January 3:Jupiter Conjunct Uranus, Solar Eclipse in Capricorn

We don't often get such clear weather in Seattle in the winter, but this is what I've been treated to off my deck for the past week. © Pat Paquette, 2010.

Party’s over! It’s back on the treadmill – figuratively and literally – and time to start figuring out how you’re going to keep up and make new plans at the same time.

And that’s probably what the entire year is going to be like. Many of us found a new groove in 2010, but getting in it, staying in it, and building momentum was a problem. We can do that in 2011, starting this week.

The Moon enters serious Capricorn on Monday and immediately conjoins Pluto. Right there, you’ve got a reminder of events that took place under the cardinal T-square over the summer. On Tuesday, the Moon eclipses the Sun at 13 degrees Cap, the first of six eclipses this year. For details, check out my New Moon post last week.

Several other transits make Tuesday a big day. In addition to the eclipse, Jupiter meets Uranus for the third and last time before heading back into Aries later this month. Talk about momentum! These two made up a powerful leg of the T-square over the summer, and we might have experienced breakthroughs back then were it not for Saturn standing in the way. Then, we might want to be grateful for that. If Saturn hadn’t supplied the brakes, the effect might have been like skiing down a steep, ice-covered slope with no poles.

With Jupiter and Uranus both at the end of mutable Pisces, we can expect a rush of last-minute changes that position us for success in our goals. The pieces are all falling into place, and rapidly.

We also need to include Neptune in this aspect. Not only is he in mutual reception with Uranus, but he’s the modern ruler of Pisces. Often, what holds us back is some aspect within ourselves that hasn’t yet been healed, which in turn keeps us from tapping into the part of our being that is pure energy. That’s the part of ourselves that’s connected to everything, including what some call the “God” force. Whatever you want to call it, it’s where healing takes place – “heal” being from the same Latin root as “whole.”

Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all get contact from Venus on Tuesday, which tells me that love and relationships are a major part of our emerging wholeness. How can it be otherwise? Connections, by definition, are relationships. Planetary aspects are relationships. There is no movement without relationships. As we gain momentum, our relationships will grow and change, too.

On Wednesday, Venus squares Chiron. Alone, this might indicate a painful experience in love, but with the interplay of the other planets, I see this more as a reminder. Moreover, Chiron in air sign Aquarius suggests that the pain may be in our collective memory. It’s always good to be aware of these things, because then we can release them or, at the very least, accept and embrace them as part of our identity.

There aren’t any other major planetary aspects mid-week, but we’ll be plenty busy in the wake of the eclipse.

Friday is a mixed bag, with Venus entering Sagittarius and the Sun squaring Saturn. Sun-Saturn contacts can feel heavy, and you may feel the effects all week. Still, I think the heaviness may be more on the order of a tough physical trainer or coach who tries to goad you into exceeding your self-imposed limits. He may seem cruel at the time, but when you accomplish more than you ever thought you could, you thank him.

Venus in Sagittarius is the bright spot of the week. Venus normally spends three to four weeks in a sign, but because of her retrograde phase, she has been in her detriment in Scorpio for four whole months. Although the party’s over for now, we’ll at least have some fun and joy in our lives.

Don’t forget to laugh! It’s a great way to stay balanced in the face of stressful change. Indeed, it might be able to help you enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Wishing you all much love and laughter,
Pat

Saturday Extra!Looking Back, Looking Forward

Bust of Janus, the Roman god of gates, doors, and beginnings. Vatican Museum, Rome.

January is named for Janus, the Roman god with two faces, one peering back into the past and the other looking toward into the future.

There’s sure a lot to look back on. Astrologers knew years before 2010 arrived that it would be an eventful year. Among other things, we predicted there would be earth events, environmental disasters, political upheaval, police crackdowns, and economic collapse. All of that happened and more. We also predicted personal challenges and sweeping changes, depending on where the year’s powerful planetary configurations fell in individual charts.

Humans are wired to stay with familiar patterns, even when they don’t work – which is why the “shock and awe” of the cardinal T-square wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many of my clients have complained over the years that they were stuck, and more and more people have come to understand that it’s possible for circumstances to change in their lives, but the underlying patterns remain stubbornly ingrained.

All of that has changed since the T-square. At the very least, the worn-out and decaying structures – in society, in our individual lives, in our thought patterns, perhaps within the planet itself – began falling apart so that something new could take their place. The process began slowing down after September, when the planets moved out of the tight cardinal T-square formation. Not coincidentally, we experienced flashbacks in December, after Mercury and Mars conjoined Pluto, and Mercury went retrograde.

As 2011 begins, we’re still in a state of shock. Even those of us who experienced wonderful breakthroughs are reeling, mostly because circumstances changed so quickly. Everything is still in a state of flux and likely will remain that way this year. We’re riding a fast-moving current, and it’s all we can do just to hang on.

The good news is that 2011 won’t be another 2010. Rather, it will bring an unfolding and ripening of whatever was initiated last year. Whatever was broken down entirely – including economies – will begin building up again, but in new and different ways. What still needs to break down further before it can be reassembled will continue to fall apart.

And here is where we come in. We will indeed have choices, and our thoughts and actions will be critically important. Banish from your thoughts any notions of going back to how things used to be. Focus instead on how you as an individual and we as a collective can do things differently – radically differently – to achieve a different outcome.

I’m reminded of a quote from R. Buckminster Fuller:

[callout]You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.[/callout]

That is our mission in 2011. It will be accomplished through continuing spiritual awakening. In our personal lives, we can bring new worlds into being by giving less energy to the old way of doing things that doesn’t work and doesn’t allow us to live to our fullest potential.

On a larger scale, corrupt and dysfunctional systems continue to exist as long as people feel powerless to do anything about them. As more and more people awaken, we’ll understand what our options are and work to bring them into reality. I am not naïve enough to think we’ll have a bloodless coup – indeed, violent public protest over the next several years is virtually guaranteed, with rebellious Uranus creeping toward an exact square to Pluto in authoritarian Capricorn. In addition to the general predictions I made in Part II of an article I wrote last year on the cardinal T-square, we may be headed for a class war, too.

The Romans honored Janus as the god of endings and beginnings and the guardian of gates and doorways. Here’s a nice summary from Wikipedia:

Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.

Never was this symbolism more meaningful. We aren’t just standing on the threshold of a new year, but of a new universe.

Happy New Year!
Pat