I’ve been double-teamed by Saturn and Buddha.

You’ll recall from last week’s forecast that Saturn was conjunct Wednesday’s Full Moon in Scorpio, which also was the festival of Wesak, an Eastern tradition in honor of the birth, death, and enlightenment of the Buddha. Normally I don’t schedule any activities on Wesak so that I can meditate in solitude. This year, I accepted a last-minute invitation to go for coffee and run some errands with a friend. I explained to her about Wesak and said we’d need to stop whatever we were doing at precisely 12:16 for a moment of silence.

We were looking at some outdoor furniture at World Market, when I encountered the Buddha sitting on a wicker chair. There he was, his image printed in vibrant colors on an orange throw pillow, directly facing the clock on the wall. We had been in a deep discussion and didn’t realize it was nearly noon. We got in line to check out.

While my friend was paying for her purchase, I looked around the cash register and spotted a small display of individually wrapped chocolate squares. My diet has been going great, and one small square of chocolate for 49 cents wasn’t going to break the scale or the bank. And they had my favorite, dark chocolate with chili. I dug out two quarters and gave them to the cashier. She rang up the sale … and the computer didn’t work. She rang it up again. Another malfunction. After the third try, she said she was going to have to call the manager. I asked if I could just leave the two quarters. No, I could not, because she was required to give me my change. My friend and I both looked at each other and said almost in unison, “It’s a sign.” With apologies to the cashier, I embraced detachment from worldly desire and left the store without the chocolate.

By which time it was 12:23. We joked about letting a 49-cent piece of chocolate distract us from our moment of silence, but it bothered me. Saturn is about discipline, and mine had lapsed on two counts. An hour passed, and then I received my Wesak enlightenment: Where I am and what I’m doing aren’t as important as who I’m with.

Earlier the same day, Jupiter formed a supportive trine to Chiron in Pisces, which represents healing very old wounds accumulated in the collective unconscious over millennia. Jupiter carries that energy forward to Saturn this week. As the old stuff is released, space is created for something new. We can either let more of the same old thing fill it back up, or we can consciously decide what we want to bring into that space.

Although Saturn is seen as the disciplinarian, keeping us on task and reminding us to honor our commitments and obligations, he’s also about manifesting physical form out of unmanifest energy. With Saturn in Scorpio, reinforced by Pluto in Capricorn, we’ve been in a strange kind of cycle in which something we want manifests, only to break down again. It’s frustrating, but each breakdown releases energy for us to recycle into a more sustainable structure. How do you want to use that energy? What do you want to build? What do you want to bring into your life to replace what has broken down?

With Saturn in Scorpio, we are able to peer into the murky depths of our individual and collective psyche. Now, with expansive and optimistic Jupiter moving into a supportive trine on Saturday (Saturn’s Day), it’s like the mythic hero who ventures into the underworld, confronts the demons, and returns with the elixir of regeneration. As Jupiter moves away from the grand cross of April, we’re starting to see the results of what we’ve been manifesting. The Jupiter-Saturn trine began early last summer, when the Big Guy moved into Cancer. If you finally feel as though you’re getting somewhere (I know I do), you might be able to trace these breakthroughs back to seeds you planted in June and July.

Now that the grand cross is breaking up, there’s a feeling that life is settling down somewhat, at least in the sense of knowing where things are headed. There’s still the business of getting there. The same applies to world events. There are ongoing conflicts, some of them very serious, and the geopolitical landscape continues to transform. That will always be with us. But I think you can sense the drop in intensity. The pressure will begin building again as Mars moves back into aspect with Uranus and Pluto in mid-June, but it will be temporary and not nearly as extreme. Mercury will be retrograde, so we can expect to revisit issues that reached a crisis point in April.

Mars returns direct on Monday after being retrograde since the beginning of March. Mars is the planet of war and also rules physical energy, and he’s been debilitated in Libra, all the more so while he was retrograde. Once he returns direct, stalled diplomatic negotiations can get back on track, although I doubt there will be much progress until he leaves Libra in late July. Some of you are feeling physically exhausted and slow. That will continue for most of this week and into the following week. In relationships, you can begin to move through difficult issues that have been dragging on for weeks with no solution in sight. Depending on how Mars is transiting your natal chart, the next few weeks could bring a breakthrough or a breakup, which in fact is breakthrough if you have been wavering or undecided about whether to stay with someone.

The Sun ends his passage through Taurus and enters Gemini on Tuesday. Even with Mars at a standstill, we should notice some acceleration in activity, especially anything to do with communications. The pace will pick up as Mars gathers speed in the next couple of weeks. If you’ve been working on a creative writing project and have felt blocked, the fog will start to lift, clearing the way for moments of inspiration. Work it, and soon you’ll be back in the zone.

Even if you’re not a writer, you may have a sense of being in a new groove. Synchronicities come with increasing speed, and thoughts manifest into reality faster. If you’re experiencing anything like this, don’t question it or try to analyze how you made it happen so that you can keep it going forever. Just flow with it. Trust the process.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat