Tag Archives: Mercury retrograde

Weekly Forecast September 23: Venus Trine Jupiter, Mercury Enters Scorpio

Signs of Fall. © Osk Ingad Alden, 2013.

If you feel like a wrung-out dishrag following last week’s tension, you’re not alone. Fortunately, we get a bit of a breather this week, and we might even witness a historic event that gives us some hope for humanity.

Given last week’s tense astrological aspects, the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard wasn’t surprising, nor was it any wonder that investigators couldn’t find a motive. When someone cracks and goes off the deep end, they don’t have a “motive.” Perhaps the question investigators should be asking is why some people just quietly put a gun to their head, while others are driven to shoot randomly into a crowd.

I’ve written before about the mental health crisis in the United States (I can’t speak for other countries, but I imagine there are similar trends). The national suicide rate is increasing in the face of enormous stress. Much of it is financial. Homeless figures show that some people without homes actually have jobs, but their wages are so low that they can’t meet basic expenses. Readers outside the United States might be shocked to know that there is no state-sponsored healthcare here, many employers don’t provide health coverage, and the cost of medical care is prohibitive for those without insurance. The suicide rate is particularly high for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who don’t receive adequate support. To add insult to injury, a recent study funded by the Defense Department says there is no link between combat and military suicides, but that soldiers who take their own lives were predisposed to mental health disorders.

Against that backdrop, the Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government unless President Obama’s healthcare program is defunded, and they want to cut food stamps for the poor, too. It’s as though they’re itching for riots in the streets, which they’d no doubt respond to with police armed with tear gas and perhaps even lethal weapons. It’s possible this is just political theater, intended to divert public attention and divide people politically so they won’t start exercising their power. However, rioting in the streets is exactly the scenario astrologers have foreseen, given the Uranus-Pluto square and the various T-squares that form throughout the year. In fact, when last week’s shooting began, Mercury was conjunct the Ascendant, in a T-square with Uranus and Pluto. Mercury is the Messenger planet, and he’s in Libra, the sign of equality and justice. Mercury in Libra also represents mental balance.

The congressional budget fight will continue this week, and hopefully saner heads will prevail. Meanwhile, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday for a week-long debate on pressing global issues. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is scheduled to make his first speech, and he has declared his willingness to negotiate on Iran’s nuclear program. The United States and Israel have charged that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and to counter the perceived threat, Israel receives billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid. If that pretext no longer exists, dynamics in the Middle East will change. It isn’t yet clear whether President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Rouhani; in the past, the U.S. delegation has walked out of speeches by Iran’s leaders. If they do meet, it could be a worthy legacy for Obama, especially given his aggressive stance on U.S. military strikes in Syria. Some observers are comparing an Obama meeting with Rouhani to Nixon’s 1972 trip to China. Speaking of Syria, it also will be a hot topic at the U.N. meeting.

Mercury remains in Libra for the rest of this week, so this is a good time for negotiating. With Venus in secretive Scorpio, there’s bound to be plenty of backroom wheeling and dealing, but it could come out quite well, as Venus forms a favorable trine with Jupiter on Thursday. Venus and Jupiter are the two key financial planets, so there’s a good chance that congressional leaders could reach a favorable agreement this week, too. Don’t count on hearing about it in the mainstream media, though. We’ll have to look elsewhere to try to find out what really happened, and even then, there’s a good chance it will remain a secret.

Depending on where Venus and Libra fall in your chart, you could stand to gain, too. Financial issues are the most likely outcome, but Venus also is the planet of love, and Jupiter is the planet of luck, so romantic relationships may blossom at this time. Again, it depends on where these planets are transiting your natal chart. As I mentioned in my mid-week post, I decided to go ahead with the StarGuide Fall 2013 forecast. I received several e-mails asking about it, and I know that many people are interested in knowing what might be in store, with two eclipses, another round of the Uranus-Pluto square, and Mercury retrograde – all within a few weeks of one another. I’m trying a new format that gives me the flexibility to provide more personal information. Because I’m writing more material from scratch, I also raised the price a little. As I said, I’m going to have to see how this goes. It’s a lot of writing, and it will take me longer to produce one report, which means I won’t be able to fulfill orders rapidly. If you want to try one of these new reports, be sure to order right away. When I get your e-mail, I’ll give you an ETA. In case you’d like to see what it looks like before you decide, I created a sample using the chart for Edward Snowden (who has a challenging time ahead).

The good feelings of Venus and Jupiter begin wearing off over the weekend, when Venus squares Mars (exact on Saturday, September 28). Still, I think the good will generated earlier in the week will carry through. The Moon is in Cancer from Thursday through Sunday, and on Saturday, she conjoins Jupiter and trines Venus, carrying forward another wave of that positive vibe. And anyway, the Venus-Mars square, while edgy, does have some welcome manifestations, primarily in romantic relationships. Sex is more urgent, raw, and primal. If that’s how you like it, plan on hooking up next Friday or Saturday night (or both!).

On Sunday (September 29), Mercury enters Scorpio, which is the sign he’ll be in when he turns retrograde on October 21. He enters the pre-retrograde shadow period on October 1, so it’s important to spend next week wrapping up paperwork, sending important correspondence, and backing up your computer data. If you’re a writer working on a major project, spend the next four weeks producing a draft, and then edit and revise while Mercury is in reverse (what it looks like from our perspective on Earth).

Pumpkin Boy. © Osk Ingad Alden, 2013.

Some other activities are favored while Mercury is retrograde, especially when he’s in Scorpio. This is the marker for investigative research, digging into trash cans, old court cases, and other hidden places where important clues could be hiding. Back when I was a reporter in Washington, D.C., I had a reputation among government PR types as a conspiracy theorist. One wrote to my boss that I “never met a conspiracy I didn’t like.” That was mostly true, but I investigated every lead to confirm whether my theory was correct, and sometimes I found that it wasn’t – or that maybe it was, but I’d never find the proof, in which case we couldn’t go to press with it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t an astrologer back then and didn’t know that Mercury retrograde periods are great for going back over your information to find leads you might have missed. This will be all the more true with Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. It’s a good bet that we’ll discover more than one embarrassing government secret, and they could be whoppers.

Again, if you’d like to know where Mercury will be retrograde in your chart, you can find out in the new Fall 2013 edition of StarGuide.

That’s pretty much it for this week. Next week, we get another round of a cardinal T-square, so do make sure to take a bit of break this week and recharge your batteries for October.

Much love and courage to you all,
Pat

Weekly Forecast July 15: Grand Water Trine, Mercury Direct

“Not a morning person” doesn’t even begin to describe me. On a good day, it takes three to four hours to jumpstart my lacertian metabolism.

In other words, waking up is a bitch. Until the sun rises in your brain, memories of past lives, childhood trauma, unforgotten insults, and the awful things you’ve done to others dance in your head like ghosts on a grave at midnight.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that as humanity wakes up, the trauma in the collective unconscious is unleashed in the world and manifests as unspeakable acts of violence. The good news is that increasing numbers of people finally are hearing the alarm clock. The bad news is that the collective metabolism is worse than mine. And there’s no guarantee, actually, that people will get up and get moving. We might just decide to stay in our jammies and lie around watching re-runs of Arrested Development.

It’s hard to remain optimistic with all the grave headlines in the news and the dawning realization that we’re not heading toward a global police state, we’re already there. We know we need to act, but we don’t know what we should do or even can do, without risking everything, including our lives. Several years ago, I read a study showing that workers in oppressive job environments end up depressed. (Needless to say, it wasn’t conducted in this country. If anyone can find it, feel free to leave a link.) Is it any coincidence, then, that we have a serious mental health crisis in the United States? An estimated 11 percent of Americans take antidepressants, the third most commonly prescribed medication. More people die of suicide than gun violence or terrorist attacks.

I truly want to believe that we’re on the threshold of a leap in human consciousness, possibly so significant that we might mutate in to a higher species. But I also know from history that we’ve been in that place before, and the transformation either was aborted or sabotaged. The example that comes immediately to mind is the revolution that was taking place in Occitania in the 12th century. The region was the first to emerge from the Dark Ages, with flourishing music, literature, and a culture that respected women. The Church wasn’t having any of it, and conspired with the king of France to overrun the region, slaughter much of the population, and burn dissenters as heretics. So much for the revolution.

We can’t take it for granted that an evolution in human consciousness will happen all by itself. It faces enormous pressure by those who stand to lose the most. We need to support each other in waking up and staying awake. By “support,” I don’t mean attempting to convince others that they need to “wake up” and think like you. Spiritual awakening is a deep, mysterious internal process. It’s not going to happen by shouting down people who don’t agree with your politics.

Over the past few weeks, as the summer’s grand trine approached, we’ve seen some incredible acts of heroism and inspiration. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on NSA’s data collection, Wendy Davis literally stood up to the good ol’ boys in the Texas legislature, and Malala Yousafzai faced world leaders with a powerful call for equal education.

Click on image to enlarge

The chart to the left shows the grand trine (blue triangle) between Saturn, Neptune, and Jupiter. You also can see the looming cardinal T-square (red triangle). On one hand, we have a favorable configuration, filled with opportunity and hope. On the other, we have a difficult configuration, filled with conflict and dread. One might be tempted to conclude that the opportunities won’t be as great or that they will be extremely short-lived and overshadowed by disaster. The way I see it, it’s precisely through the conflict that the opportunities and breakthroughs will come. Isn’t that usually the case? Only when we face impossible obstacles do we come up with miraculous solutions. Or, as a friend once said to me, people tend not to change until their back is pushed so far against the wall that their asshole is sucking plaster. Sounds like an effective wakeup call to me.

As I write, we’re already feeling the influence of this extraordinary trine. We did have something like it in 1967, complete with Uranus and Pluto in a revolutionary aspect. But that trine wasn’t as close is this one, which is aligned to the exact degree from Monday to Wednesday. There have been other trines between these three planets, too, but not in water. I don’t know how many centuries we’d have to go back to find another like this. In short, it’s exceptional.

After forming an exact trine with Saturn and Neptune on Wednesday, Jupiter advances a degree, but we’ll still be able to ride this incredible wave through the weekend and on into next week. On Saturday, Saturn and Neptune form an exact trine. Mars, meanwhile, has just entered Cancer and traces the path of Jupiter until he finally overtakes him next Monday (July 22). The energy begins to drop after that, but we’ll feel this positive vibe until the end of the month.

Right in the middle of all of this, Uranus turns retrograde on Wednesday, which means he’ll start moving back toward an exact square with Pluto in early November. As Jupiter advances, he’ll turn the square into a T-square. We had a taste of it already a couple of weeks ago, when Mercury passed that degree. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that greater numbers of people will suddenly “get it” and that protests against repression, corruption, and injustice will get bigger and louder as the glow of the grand trine wears off and the reality of the T-square sets in.

Speaking of which, for those disappointed by the ruling in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, stayed tuned. The jury has spoken, so it’s not likely the verdict will be overturned. However, at the moment the jury announced its decision, Mercury was retrograde and the Moon was void of course. Typically, this indicates that something is going to change. I just read that the Justice Department is looking into a criminal civil rights violation, and Zimmerman also faces civil penalties. This isn’t the end.

Mercury finally returns direct on Saturday, and not a moment too soon. Maybe it will end the spate of stupidity and ignorance requiring public apologies. It seems like many of them had to do with racist remarks. The trickster has been retrograde in Cancer, which is associated with family and ethnic roots. Then there was the story about the student who absentmindedly dropped an envelope with $400 into a mailbox. The envelope was unsealed, and the only thing written on it was “deposit.” Classic Mercury retrograde. I’m guessing she had a lucky transit or two to compensate, because the Postal Service tracked her down and returned her cash.

Wishing you all a wondrous week filled with love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast June 24: Jupiter Enters Cancer, Mercury Retrograde

Solstice Sunset. Looking northwest on Puget Sound, 9:20 p.m. © Pat Paquette, 2013.

When I was in kindergarten, I refused to drink my milk.

My teacher, Mrs. King, made me sit alone at a table in a dark corner until I finished it. For everyone else, it was playtime. When this strategy failed to work, she sent me home with a note telling my mother I had a problem with authority.

I lived out in the country, an hour’s bus ride from school. Every day on the way home, while all the other kids played and shouted, I leaned my head against the cold glass. I never mentioned it to anyone – probably because I had no idea that I had a headache or that this was abnormal. One day, it was so bad that I about passed out when I got home. I remember my mother carrying me up the stairs. Still, no one thought it unusual. Back then, milk was considered the perfect food, and I lived in the second-largest dairy state in the nation (behind Wisconsin). My father was a dairy farmer. No one suspected that I was allergic to milk.

I finally figured it out at 21, still well before dairy allergies were studied and publicized. As a child, all I could say was that it was “yucky” and I didn’t like it. Adults, however, had all the power, and I was forced against my will to do something that was bad for me. It likely was one of the defining moments in my childhood development.

It’s no coincidence, then, that I sympathize with protestors around the world who are rightly upset with tyrannical governments who insist they know what’s good for the population better than the people themselves. Instead of being forced to sit in a corner, those who don’t go along with the program get water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. They get thrown in jail. And right now, it seems that they are overpowered.

As a child, I didn’t have the knowledge or the vocabulary to fight the appropriately named Mrs. King. Even if I had, I doubt she would have listened, as the notion that milk could be bad for a child was simply too outrageous to believe. I knew instinctively that something was wrong, but that didn’t count. Collectively, we know instinctively that something is very wrong, despite what we’re being told and what many of us have believed for so long. Whistleblowers like Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden are supplying knowledge, and yet the truth is too outrageous for many people to believe. For many, it’s easier to believe outrageous lies.

By now, even people who don’t believe in astrology must be wondering whether there is something going on “up there” to account for the increasing number of protests and riots around the world. That something, as you know, is the Uranus-Pluto square, with Uranus in volatile Aries and Pluto in domineering Capricorn. Police in riot gear are a perfect image for Pluto in Capricorn.

And yet, Pluto is also about revealing hidden secrets – all the more so with Pluto in mutual reception with Saturn in penetrating Scorpio (mutual reception occurs when each of two planets is in the sign ruled by the other). Snowden’s revelation of NSA spying on U.S. citizens is a manifestation of the same energy as the massive anti-government protests in Brazil and Turkey. In Brazil, the spark that lit the fuse was a 9-cent increase in public transportation fare. In Turkey, it was a plan to turn a city park into a shopping mall. I often wonder what it would take to light a fuse under this country. Apparently, being spied on isn’t enough.

Last week, I was listening to an interview with Ralph Nader, a longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, talking about a federal minimum wage.

“Thirty million workers in this country are making less today than that workers made in 1968, inflation-adjusted,” Nader said in an interview with Aaron Maté of Democracy Now. “… [T]he question is: Is our society so inert, is our society so surrendering of any kind of civic sovereignty, that we cannot get a minimum wage equal to 1968?”

Nader goes on to denounce President Obama, asking whether there has been “a bigger con man in the White House.” Whatever you may think of Nader, you have to give him credit for a sense of humor in the title of his latest book, I Told You So. He has made many predictions over the years that were ignored or dismissed. As an astrologer, I know how he feels.

[headline h=”4″]This week’s forecast[/headline]This week, we have two major shifts, both in Cancer, a sign very much concerned with security and patriotism. On Tuesday, Jupiter enters Cancer, the sign of his exaltation. The following day, Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer.

When I think of Jupiter entering Cancer, Gustav Holst’s Planets suite inevitably takes over my brain. (You can listen online or download a very fine version for free here. Be sure to read the copyright notice.) Jupiter has been in detriment in Gemini and so not as jolly as his big, expansive character would like. He’ll more than make up for it in Cancer, although I wouldn’t put it past him to stir up some massive storms. He may get overly patriotic, too, and he’ll definitely be big on national security, especially when it comes to foreigners. These less desirable qualities may come to the fore in August, when he forms a T-square with Uranus and Pluto. But for the next month, he forms a rare and highly favorable grand trine with Saturn and Neptune, and there will be unprecedented opportunities to make some much-needed changes. We’ll have to act fast, because the window is short.

Mercury turns retrograde on Wednesday at 23 degrees Cancer. This is a good time to look at your past, particularly in terms of how your childhood and early home life shaped you as an adult (thus, the personal anecdote above). Ethnicity sometimes comes into play. I also like to consider past lives. Conventional psychoanalysts like to pin all of our complexes on bad potty training or inadequate bonding with mommy and daddy. We come into this incarnation with a chart, which can express itself in unlimited ways. For some of us, being born at that exact moment can be traced to our karmic past.

Mercury turns retrograde just a degree shy of natal Mercury in the chart of the United States (Sibly) and will be in close conjunction with the U.S. Sun when he turns direct on July 20. It’s likely that any discussions of Snowden’s revelations will occur in the context of damaging national security. Most of our political leaders, including the president, say Snowden is a criminal and should be extradited for prosecution. There likely will be discussions about how to prevent future leaks.

Also on Wednesday, we have a lovely grand water trine with the Sun in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio, and Neptune in Pisces. Keep your antennae up, and you’ll get some hints about the good things to come when Jupiter steps into the Sun’s place in mid-July. In the meantime, deep feelings may surface by day or night this week. Pay attention to your dreams. Write down your goals and aspirations. If you’re a writer or artist, this is an incredibly fertile time for you. Have a notepad handy wherever you go to write down flashes of inspiration.

On Thursday, Venus leaves Cancer and enters Leo. This is a showy, flashy Venus who loves bling and being the center of attention. She’s glamorous, but unfortunately more into style than substance. But sometimes style is what we want. I have to say that I’ve always had great haircuts while Venus was in Leo. If Venus is in Leo in your birth chart, you’ll soon have your “Venus return.” The Venus return chart can be a great tool for looking at where love or money (or both) will show up in your life over the next year or so.

On a final note, in case you missed my announcement last week, I’m offering a Summer 2013 transit report in place of StarGuide, which I’m not going to be able to prepare for at least two weeks, possibly longer. If you don’t want to wait, you can order your transits now, I’ll apply the cost toward the full report once it becomes available. (Click here to view a sample.)

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast June 17: Sun Enters Cancer, Full Moon in Capricorn

Mommy Deerest. © Pat Paquette, 2013.

We have an eventful week ahead, with the summer solstice and the biggest Full Moon of the year.

By “biggest,” I don’t mean astrologically, but literally. Next Sunday’s Full Moon in Capricorn occurs just 22 minutes after the Moon reaches its closest point to Earth in 2013. It actually will appear larger in the sky than usual. This is the closest the Moon will get to the Earth until August 2014.

You can find a terrific article about it on EarthSky.org. I love that the author discusses the history and meaning of the term “supermoon” without dissing astrology.

Rather than breaking down the week by individual transits, I’ll discuss the week’s astrology through the Cancer ingress and Full Moon charts. That will be plenty, I’m sure. Starting with the Cancer ingress, I’ve set the chart for Washington and will base my interpretation on the United States, with apologies to my many readers around the world. I have to set the chart for somewhere, and this happens to be where I am. So, with that caveat, let’s have a look.

The Ascendant is 27 Pisces, with ruler Neptune in the twelfth house. The Ascendant in mundane astrology represents the general condition of the nation. This combination smacks of secrecy and deception. Neptune and Pisces also are related to epidemics and mental health. Before declaring that the whole country is going stark-raving mad – or, legitimately, that we have a serious mental health crisis on our hands that could well be called an epidemic – I decided to look up the Sabian symbol.* As it turns out, it’s quite a lovely image: A fertile garden under the full moon. (Gee, could that be Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden?)

There’s no doubt that we’re starting out the season with a debate on the surveillance state, which is described perfectly by Pluto in Capricorn in the tenth house. See last week’s forecast for more on that topic. We also find Uranus, planet of rioting and rebellion, in the first house and still in a fairly close square with Pluto. It’s hard for me to imagine people rioting in this country over privacy issues or even low employment, which also is a tenth house issue. Be that as it may, there does appear to be some serious discontent on the way in the next few months.

Click on image to enlarge

It’s interesting to note that the Sun in this chart is in the fourth house, closely conjunct Jupiter on the fourth-house cusp. In mundane astrology, the tenth house represents the party in power, while the fourth house represents the opposition. The Sun represents the country’s leaders, especially the president. According to the rules of mundane astrology, the leaders of this country, including its president, are more in the camp of the Republicans than the Democrats. Then, as John pointed out in an excellent comment on last week’s post, there’s not a whole lot of difference anymore. And, as it also so happens, Jupiter in mundane astrology represents banks and bankers. I don’t know how they could be any more in cahoots than they’ve been in the past, but this chart suggests an even closer relationship – or, at the very least, a significant event on the way rooted in these shady connections.

We also see a very tight inconjunct (technically, a quincunx) from the Moon to Jupiter and the Sun. The inconjunct says “nothing in common.” You don’t need an astrologer to tell you that our political and financial leaders are totally out of the touch with the people. It’s not so much that they don’t have their interests at heart, but that they don’t even know the meaning of the word “public interest.” However, the Moon and the Ascendant are in perfect harmony, so even if those at the top don’t “get it,” comprehension may be dawning within the public at large. Yes, hope springs eternal.

Despite the “fertile garden” image, there are several indications in this chart of death and sorrow, whether from epidemics, severe weather, or some other cause. Planets on the fourth-house cusp can indicate weather patterns. Jupiter suggests very big ones, and in the air sign of Gemini, we’re probably talking violent winds. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration already has said that we can expect a extremely active hurricane season in 2013. This chart would seem to reinforce that assessment, and I think it’s also possible that the summer’s spectacular grand water trine also could make for some massive storms involving flooding. I concede that weather astrology isn’t my forte, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Venus and Mercury are conjunct by exact degree. Venus represents peace and diplomacy, while Mercury represents commerce and the media. This would seem to be indication of positive developments, but Mercury is stationed, about to turn retrograde on June 26, and neither planet makes aspects to other planets in the chart. Moreover, they are in the fifth house, a sort of “light-weight” placement. Whatever these two have to say likely won’t be taken seriously this summer. However much we value programs to educate and protect our children, it may be that other issues are going to take precedence.

There is more I could write about the ingress, but let’s turn now to the Full Moon, which occurs on June 23. The Moon is in her detriment in Capricorn, but the Full Moon in Capricorn always falls with the Sun in Cancer, the sign the Moon rules. This gives us a week or so of inner angst and collective tension. The word “lunatic” derives from an old belief that people acted crazier at the Full Moon. With the Moon at her closet to the Earth and the motion of the Sun “stopped” as perceived from Earth, I’d say it’s a good bet there will be a lot of craziness. Add to that the connection to the 2010 cardinal T-square by degree, and we’ve got the makings of a perfect storm, be it symbolic or literal.

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As you can see in the chart, the Sun makes a lovely grand trine with Saturn and Neptune, an early reflection of the rare configuration about to take place with Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. The trine with the Sun will be more exact toward the middle of next week, and then the trine with Jupiter will be exact on July 17. I’ve written before that this astrological phenomenon indicates a window of opportunity to make headway in some of your most cherished goals. You should know by now what they are, and hopefully you’ve been doing the work. In world affairs, this is also a time to make some progress on issues that have been at a standoff. However, the political will to do so must exist, and I’m not sure I’m that optimistic.

At the most fundamental level, Cancer and Capricorn represent mother and father. It’s no accident that throughout history, people have referred to their countries as the “fatherland” or the “motherland.” Governments and their leaders often represented parents, with an expectation that those parents would take care of their children. Many of us still have those expectations, although they vary wildly. At the most basic, we expect our government to protect us from foreign enemies. But it would seem – in this country at least – that what we’ve got is more like Saturn devouring his children. Lest you find this metaphor somewhat morbid, remember that in the Greek version of the myth, the children were saved by mother goddesses Rhea and Gaia, who hatched a plan with Zeus (Roman Jupiter) to give Cronus one hell of a bellyache so he would vomit the children back out. They then overthrew him and became the twelve gods of Olympus.

I’ll end on another personal update, since I know that many of you are still waiting for reports. Also, a couple of readers have written to ask whether there will be a summer StarGuide. I have started writing reports again, but it’s very slow going. I’m hoping I’ll continue to improve, but I’ve learned that I need to stop making promises, because I never know what to expect from one day to the next. I feel better today than I’ve felt in a long time, but I could wake up tomorrow with a splitting headache. In order to get through the backlog, I’ve posted a notice on my report order page that I’m currently not accepting new orders. Of course, I’ll post a new note when that changes.

That means I won’t have the summer forecast up before June 21. It could be two or even three weeks before I have the time to do the prep work. In the meantime, I’ve decided to offer the transit section of the report at a reduced cost of $19 for those who want to know what’s ahead. I can produce these fairly quickly. I’ll post a sample shortly so that you can see what you’ll get. Just so you know, there will be no Full Moon or New Moon interpretations, no “best days” graphs, and no fancy formatting – all the things I do that distinguishes StarGuide from other transit reports you can find online. But for now, it’s the best I can do, and it seems like a workable compromise. [UPDATE: Click here to see the sample report.]

Wishing you all much love and courage,
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.

Weekly Forecast March 25: Full Moon in Libra

Swinging Bridge near Oark, Arkansas. © Gretchen Friedrich, 2013.

Swinging Bridge near Oark, Ark. © Gretchen Friedrich, 2013.

We’re heading into a wild and crazy week, with an active Full Moon that triggers volatile planetary energies set in motion in the summer of 2010.

You remember that one, right? The infamous cardinal T-square that marked new directions and the start of turbulent journeys for so many of us, myself included. Now, before you get your panties in a twist, let me say right off that I don’t think we’re going to have a repeat of those events. In fact, I think there’s a good possibility that we might make rapid advances that seemed far away and nearly impossible back then – the operative word being rapid.

It’s the old “feast or famine” metaphor. Events may occur that aren’t crises in themselves, but when piled together, are more than we can deal with, or at least, deal with and stay sane. My best advice is to take a lot of deep breaths and keep going. It’s OK to be afraid. Just don’t let fear stop you.

I should also say that there’s a good possibility the most noticeable manifestations of this Full Moon will be on a collective level rather than an individual level. We’re already seeing some of it. Ray Merriman has a great column this week talking about global finances and the crisis in Cyprus. As he points out, these developments most certainly correlate to the cardinal T-square and, more precisely, to the square between Uranus and Pluto, which will continue for another three years.

Individually, it’s more likely that you’ll experience a sudden jump in activity related to the houses where the Full Moon is located in your chart. If you don’t know how you read your own chart, I spell out possible scenarios for you in my StarGuide monthly and seasonal forecasts. If you order right away (like now), there is a chance I might be able to get your report to you by Wednesday. As usual, I have a backlog of 2-3 days, so please keep that in mind. I do each of these reports by hand and have to cast transit charts for you for each New and Full Moon.

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Speaking of which, let’s have a look. As you can see, the Sun and Venus are in conjunction by exact degree opposite the Moon, with Mars and Uranus only a few degrees away. All five bodies are in a square with Pluto – Mars by exact degree. I’d plan to be hiding under my bed if it weren’t for the sextiles and trines (the blues lines) providing outlets for the this highly charged energy. Imagine, if you will, a raging torrent hurdling through a canyon, about to slam into a dam. With no outlet, the force of all that water hitting the dam would smash it to bits. But what if, right before the dam, there are a bunch of little canyons leading off in various directions? And what if some of those pathways led to areas much in need of water? Further, what if you had a boat just sitting there on dry ground, waiting for the water to rise so that you could sail out to sea? I think you get my drift…

The only scary part is that we don’t have a lot of control here but can only go with the flow and hope that the work we’ve done over the past three years has put us in a position to benefit from this powerful energy surge. That said, even though we’re in the wake of the Full Moon already, I think there’s still time to get your boat in working order and point it in the right direction, if it isn’t already.

I don’t know that it would be all that helpful to discuss individual aspects in this chart, since there are so many of them and they are all interdependent. The important points are that Uranus and Pluto signify revolution and breakdown, and events around this Full Moon could feed into that process. The outlets feed into Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter. Saturn is about structure, discipline, and commitment, essential ingredients for advancing our goals. Mercury in Pisces represents thinking intuitively and tapping into buried memories, perhaps even of other lifetimes. We’re in the post-retrograde shadow period, still working out issues that arose in early February, especially regarding communications and gadgets that connect us. Mercury remains in mutual reception with Jupiter in Gemini, great if you’re working on big writing or publishing projects. Pluto and Saturn form a Yod with Jupiter (the green dotted lines), but I’m ignoring it, not only because I’m on the fence regarding the significance of Yods, but because there are too many major aspects in this chart to either worry about a Yod or to be able to link it to any particular outcome. For that matter, it will be near impossible to link any aspect this week with a particular event, because there’s no way to isolate them.

Ray Merriman, incidentally, mentioned in his column that he’s got a two-way transit of Jupiter and the North Node, just as he’s reaching a pinnacle of his life’s work. So, you see, just because this Full Moon packs frightening power, it doesn’t automatically translate to a major catastrophe in your life.

I would love to hear from all of you about your experiences this week. You do have to register (unfortunately, it’s necessary to prevent abuse), but it’s fast and easy.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast March 4: Sun Conjunct Retrograde Mercury, Saturn Sextile Pluto

Image courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

It has been a strange week, with all this Pisces energy and Mercury retrograde. I’ve been doing some historical research – Pisces loves going back, as does Mercury retrograde – and have dug up some amazing information and startling synchronicities.

I sat down to write this week’s forecast with the intention of telling you about some of what I found and how it relates to current events. Then I got distracted by a column by Rob Brezsny, “everybody’s favorite astrologer,” ragging on astrologers who predict communications mix-ups, travel problems, and other irritations during Mercury retrograde. “It makes me sad when the sacred art of astrology is turned into just another excuse to be superstitious. Using half-baked horoscopy to justify self-fulfilling prophecies is astrology abuse in the extreme,” he writes. “Sorry to get so riled up … I truly love astrology’s power to enhance our willpower, and it bugs me when it’s ignorantly invoked to accomplish the very opposite.”

Judging by the comments on his post, his readers are grateful and relieved that they no longer have to take Mercury retrograde seriously. Even some professional astrologers thanked him for his brilliant insight. I have to admit that I’m puzzled, and the more I think about it, the more riled up I get. Maybe he didn’t intend to say what it sounds like he’s saying – after all, Mercury is retrograde, and I might have misunderstood. And perhaps his comments don’t apply to me, because I don’t advise my clients to put their lives on hold for three weeks, three times a year. Still, I have made statements of the nature he ridicules, and I absolutely stand by them. Observation over time tells me that Mercury retrograde periods are to be approached with some caution. I don’t consider this superstitious at all, and in fact I believe it’s the highest use of “the sacred art of astrology.”

As I see it, working with planetary energies is precisely the point. You might well ignore a forecast for violent thunderstorms and decide, “I want a picnic and I’m going to have it come hell or high water!” Undoubtedly, there are people who love being out in the elements, delighted with the freedom and adventure of soaked underwear and soggy sandwiches. It’s all in the attitude, right? Call me a stick in the mud, but if I knew a raging thunderstorm was on the way, I’d be bringing in firewood, taking a quick trip to the library, and making a pot of hot soup.

It’s hard for me to understand how an astrologer could argue that Mercury retrograde periods are innocuous to the point of being irrelevant, and that thinking otherwise will attract the very experiences you hope to avoid. In other words, if Mercury is retrograde and you get stuck in traffic, miss your flight, and as a result miss an important meeting, it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy created by your own superstition and fear of Mercury retrograde. I would say just the opposite. With a healthy respect for Mercury retrograde, you would make sure to give yourself lots of extra time to get to the airport, and if the meeting was that important – if your entire future depended on it – you might consider departing a day early and staying overnight. The mind does have incredible power, and it is possible to conjure up our worst fears. But it does not follow logically that if something bad happens, it must be because we unwittingly caused it through fear, erroneous thinking, or some other failing.

On one point we at least agree, and that’s the idea that events and circumstances we think of as “bad” can present opportunities, if we set aside our expectations and conditioning. In that regard, attitude is important, and our response to events can be more significant than the events themselves. But it’s a mistake to carry that logic to the extreme and argue that we have complete control via our minds. As the bumper sticker says, “Shit happens.” Indeed, the search for meaning in the face of unimaginable human tragedy gave rise to philosophy and religion, and astrology was born in part by the desire to avoid such tragedies. Tell someone whose entire village has just been wiped out by the plague that they’ve been blessed with a “growth opportunity.”

Now, this is a nice segue into my historical research, which centered on 17th century Europe. This was a critical period in human development, when science and metaphysics split, and anything that couldn’t be proven by “scientific method” was discarded as superstition. Astrology was one of the first casualties, and the attitudes of science today against astrology, religion, and other spiritual beliefs might as well be lifted right out of 17th century manuscripts. While Europe itself was in turmoil, with wars that radically shifted national boundaries and the center of political power, philosophers argued fundamental concepts of God, fate, the nature of the soul, and man’s place in a universe of which the earth was no longer the center. And here we are, 400 years later, embroiled in similar arguments. Science, it seems, has not lived up to its promise of providing all the answers to the meaning of life. It hasn’t even provided all the answers to questions about the material universe, let alone humanity’s place in it.

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Among the trends at the time, there were several popular uprisings against rulers in Europe and elsewhere, leading one Swedish diplomat to wonder “whether this can be explained by some general configuration of the stars in the sky.” He was more right than he possibly could have imagined. In 1648, when an uneasy treaty ended the devastating Thirty Year’s War, Uranus, Neptune, and the lunar South Node were in near exact opposition to Pluto, Saturn, Mars, and the North Node, with Jupiter in a close square. I’ve included the chart for a solar eclipse on the summer solstice in 1648 so you can see for yourself. Even without the benefit of the outer planets, which hadn’t been discovered yet, astrologers were so alarmed that they were predicting the end of the world. Of course, this didn’t help their professional status and might even have led to the “end of the world” for astrology. But they were onto something nonetheless, and now that we have the benefit of hindsight to analyze outer planetary cycles, we know that such an intense planetary configuration was bound to manifest as turbulence on earth. Incidentally, a wave of extremely cold weather began around the same time, which some climatologists later declared was part of a “Little Ice Age.” Coincidence?

One of the main reasons for assaulting astrology in the 17th century was the question of fate. The idea that our fate may lie in the stars went against science and the Church, and it still does. But fate and free will aren’t mutually exclusive. Using the example of retrograde Mercury, is it written in the stars that you’re going to lose your best friend and everything on your hard drive? Certainly not. But depending where Mercury is retrograde in your chart and what aspects he’s making with other planets, you may be at a higher risk for these outcomes. Free will enters the picture in that you have a choice to ignore the warning and take your chances, or to take reasonable precautions and hedge your bets. I can’t foresee everything in everyone’s individual charts, so I give you general guidelines in my weekly forecasts. You get more specific guidelines in my StarGuide seasonal and monthly reports.

The Sun and Mercury conjoin on Monday, so it’s quite possible we’ll get to make some additional observations. My read on this aspect is that it holds potential for being productive, especially if you’re writing songs, poetry, or fiction. This is also a signature for vivid dreams that could produce other kinds of inspiration. Keep your journal handy. Less than an hour later, Venus squares Jupiter, which can improve communications and good feelings considerably, especially if there is alcohol involved. Just take care not to overdo it.

The bigger news this week is the exact sextile between Saturn and Pluto, who also are in mutual reception; that is, Saturn is in Pluto-ruled Scorpio, and Pluto is in Saturn-ruled Capricorn, thereby magnifying the energies of each and making them greater than the sum of their parts. Saturn and Capricorn are about structure, discipline, and progressing toward a goal one step at a time. Pluto and Scorpio are about destruction, transformation, and unquenchable desire. Combined and in a favorable relationship, these two manifest as stunning breakdowns in order to rebuild more sustainable structures. This can apply to just about any area of life, although you’ll likely find it most operative in the areas of life ruled by the houses in your natal chart that Saturn and Pluto currently are transiting. This pair is even more significant in world affairs. My favorite example is the American Revolution, which is what happened the last time Saturn and Pluto were in mutual reception. There was definitely a whole lot of breaking down there. We’ve got another two years of this influence, and it’s likely that some radical shifts will happen in that time, since Pluto also is in an ongoing square with revolutionary Uranus through 2015.

On Wednesday, Mercury conjoins Venus, and throughout the week, they each conjoin Chiron, sextile Pluto, and trine Saturn. The involvement of Mercury and Venus bring the transformative power of Saturn and Pluto down to a personal level. Again, I expect that the more creative among you will find major inspiration this week, and the ideas that come to you should be useful. Pisces has a reputation for being a poet, a dreamer, and an escapist. With powerful aspects to Saturn and Pluto, dreams can become reality, and even escapist tendencies could produce something of lasting value.

For me, creativity is definitely highlighted, and Mercury’s retrograde, combined with an overflow of Pisces, seems to be carrying me on an enlightening journey back through time. But I’m finding that this time is best spent working in solitude, one of the key traits of Pisces. Where communications are particularly sensitive and vital to the success of a project, I’ve deferred further activity until the end of the month.

In celebration of Mercury, I leave you with a new NASA video created from images from the MESSENGER spacecraft, including the one above. Please note that this is not the actual color of Mercury. Still, it’s pretty darn cool.

Much love and courage to all,
Pat

Weekly Forecast February 25: Full Moon in Virgo, Venus Enters Pisces

I woke up this morning laughing at a comical dream, courtesy retrograde Mercury. In the dream, the glyphs for Mercury and Mars were revolving around the Sun, which was shining over a field of golden wheat waving in a violent wind.

Now, skeptics would say this was just my psyche conjuring up an image, with my conscious mind fully aware that Mercury and Mars were about to conjoin at the Full Moon in Virgo. Maybe. But it’s not the first time I’ve had dreams with images symbolic of planetary movements. Planets often appear as characters in my dreams, and almost always when they’re in a major transit. I was, after all, born with Moon in Pisces, just a few hours before Neptune went retrograde. And right now, Pisces energy is raging across the sky like killer goldfish in Lake Tahoe (I’m not making this up).

Sure, I’m open to the possibility that there’s nothing magical about my nocturnal stage plays, but then I’d say it’s no great mystery that our psyches are in tune with planetary movements. In fact, that’s key to my belief about how astrology works.

“Belief” is a keyword for Pisces. I’ve often written about beliefs, about how they inform our world and also how hard it is to change them. Back in 2006, when I was writing for my blog The Pisces Chronicles, I took the opportunity of Mercury’s retrograde in Pisces to discuss how we’re shaped by our beliefs and, more importantly, how if we’re going to change the world, we need to start with our own belief system. I revisited that article a year later when Mercury went retrograde in Pisces again, and I figure it’s as good a time as any to give it a third go-round. There’s one big difference now, though, in that Saturn is in Scorpio, and as the planets move through Pisces, they each form a supportive trine with the planet of structure, in the sign of transformation. There’s no time like the present to examine our beliefs and assess whether they really are true.

Our political beliefs are among the biggest candidates for change. As many of you who followed The Pisces Chronicles know, I used to write a lot about politics and had quite a large following. I swore off political astrology after the 2008 election, in which so many people were sure that Barack Obama was the next savior of mankind. I was one of the few astrologers who weren’t falling all over themselves in adulation, and I made the mistake of predicting that Sarah Palin and John McCain had a chance of winning the election. Several readers believed I was endorsing the Republican ticket and felt within their rights to post flaming personal attacks. There are people in the world – bless their hearts – who thrive on stirring up angry debate, but I’m not one of them. I just do my thing, as sincerely and genuinely as I know how, and I figure if anyone doesn’t like it, that’s what the “delete” key is for.

Given that history, you can imagine my amusement upon receiving a huffy e-mail from a reader last week accusing me of being – gasp – a Democrat. Here’s the full text:

I love reading ur blog, but I don’t like that u put Romney in the same context as Osama Bin Laden. I realize he’s no genius, but I find ur reference offensive. It’s obvious from this comment & others in the past, what ur political leanings are.

I suppose that means I should post a correction putting Mitt in the same sentence with Einstein. Any objections?

Kidding aside, I’m fascinated that this reader had no problem with Romney in the same sentence with a convicted murderer, but not with a man whose villainy is accepted by millions as indisputable truth, even though he was never charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks, let alone convicted. I recall that as the news was breaking, the driver of the bus I was riding to work was on an angry tirade about how that bastard Yasser Arafat was going to pay for this. There was no question in her mind that it could have been anyone else. The Bush administration managed to convince millions of Americans that Saddam Hussein was to blame. Once Saddam was neatly disposed of, bin Laden’s alleged confessions conveniently surfaced in prerecorded videotapes. Bin Laden was assassinated – at least that’s what we’re supposed to believe – without benefit of a trial or conviction. One of the few things we do know for sure is that he came from a family of wealth and influence with close ties to the Saudi royal family and to the family of then-president George W. Bush. If conspiracy theories have flourished, it’s because so many facts are missing. Absent the truth, people will believe what they want. Politicians on both sides of the aisle know this, and they use it to their advantage.

I’m not sure that all this Pisces energy is going to help uncover any truth. But it could. It certainly could help focus attention on the human tendency to believe what we want to be the truth, rather than taking the time to examine facts with an open mind. Analyzing data is one of Virgo’s special talents, so Monday’s Full Moon could aid in separating the wheat from the chaff. Be prepared for tempers to flare, though. It’s not going to be an easy week, as you’ve probably recognized by now, given that we’re well into the period of influence of both the Full Moon and the Mercury-Mars conjunction.

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As you can see in the Full Moon chart, the Sun and Moon form a mutable T-square with Jupiter in Gemini. Mercury rules both Virgo and Gemini, so it’s quite possible that emerging facts could upset some hardened beliefs. This could be quite sudden, too, with Jupiter and Uranus in a tight sextile favoring explosive change. Now, Jupiter isn’t happy in Gemini, and a lot of random facts don’t add up to truth. But the empty side of the T-square falls in Sagittarius, which is the sign of Truth, with a capital “T.” At least to the extent that it can be known. Jupiter and Sagittarius are about the big picture. I found an interesting news article last week about the so-called “God particle” that nicely illustrates this concept. First off, we’re still not sure it’s been found. But if it has, and if physicists are right about it, it could tell us that we’re all doomed. We might well start calling it the OMG particle.

Ceres also is in Gemini and at the Full Moon is in a close square with retrograde Mercury. Astrologers are still collecting information to decide how we should treat transiting Ceres, but my intuitive reading of this aspect is that some of the facts coming to light this week could be embarrassing for factions trying to restrict women’s rights, degrade the environment, and harm the food supply. The New York Times Magazine’s cover article this week is an exposé on how the junk food industry abuses science to create addictive snacks (thanks to Peggy Petersen for the link).

Right after the Full Moon on Monday, Venus enters Pisces, the sign of her exaltation. She’ll conjoin Neptune on Thursday, which I hope will be a blissful antidote to Tuesday’s Mercury-Mars conjunction. The thing is, with both Mercury and Mars in Pisces, it’s possible that arguments will be indirect and passive-aggressive. It’s hard to talk through conflict when the other party won’t even tell you they’re upset. Then, it’s hard to talk though anything with Mercury retrograde. I was having a difficult time negotiating an important project last week, and my solution was to ask to defer further discussions until the end of March. Fortunately, I’ve got the luxury of time. You might not, and so if you’ve got a deal on the table, be as direct as you can and as clear as possible about what you want. Even then, I don’t recommend that you engage in discussions of any consequence on Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday might be better, and Friday holds some promise, too, with the Sun sextile Pluto and trine Saturn. Even with Mercury retrograde, this triumvirate can cut to the chase and produce a win-win situation. Again, the most productive exchanges will be those in which all parties are willing to open their minds and at least set their beliefs aside temporarily.

For more strategies to cope with Mercury retrograde, check out the latest video by Armand Diaz.

I’ve been way too busy in the past week to spend much couch time with my favorite BBC production, but the urge to escape and pull the covers over my head is coming on strong. Still, don’t let that deter you from sending a nice e-mail. I just received a lovely response from a new client who was elated that someone finally was able to help her understand the complicated cardinal grand cross in her chart. Truly, that makes the occasional flame worth it, and it’s why I do what I do.

Off to catch the end of the Academy Awards – oops, I mean the “Oscars.”

Wishing much love and courage to all,
Pat

Weekly Forecast February 18: Sun Enters Pisces, Mercury Retrograde

The Sun enters Pisces this week, bringing to four the number of planets in the sign of the Fishes – five, if you count Chiron.

Although I’m an Aquarius, Pisces and Neptune are so strong in my chart that often I get confused and think I’m a Pisces. I certainly know what it feels like to be one.

Being a Pisces can be really difficult. If you recall your symbolism, Pisces isn’t just a sweet pair of gold fish who’ve found their soul mate and live happily ever after. No, these fishes are tied to each other with a permanent knot – which would be fine, if they were both swimming in the same direction. But they aren’t, and they can’t. For Pisces, nothing is ever certain. Seeing the big picture and the totality of everything means that every argument has a counter-argument, and every choice has an alternative. The choice then is to be paralyzed with indecision or to leap into whichever option seems best at the moment, with nothing concrete to go on except faith that all will turn out well.

It’s no accident that people with strong Pisces energy in their charts often turn to escapism, whether through drugs, alcohol, religion, or some other means of avoiding reality. The flip side – we’re talking Pisces here, so there has to be one – is that Pisces is one of the most imaginative and visionary of all the signs. The list of famous Fishes includes Michelangelo, George Washington, Frederic Chopin, Albert Einstein, Ansel Adams, and Steve Jobs. Then, it also includes Mitt Romney, L. Ron Hubbard, Sirhan Sirhan, and Osama Bin Laden … we think. We’re not really sure.

In a way, the dilemma of Pisces is the most urgent problem confronting humanity. And why not? The Age of Pisces isn’t over yet, as much as we might wish it. We’re still grappling with all of the dualities represented in the symbolism of Pisces, and it’s not overly dramatic to say that failure to solve the puzzle of Pisces could result in the extinction of our species. Conversely, moving beyond the seemingly implacable divisions into a new sense of interconnectedness could be our salvation. If you haven’t read it already, check out this old article by Ray Grasse about the transition we’re making from Pisces to Aquarius.

In any case, we’re all going to feel the energy of Pisces in the next few weeks, and some of you may have an increase in inter-dimensional experiences. As I’ve noted in the past, these intrusions, for lack of a better word, can be moderately to severely disorienting. It doesn’t help that they aren’t clear. They don’t come with instruction manuals in seven languages to help you decipher the message. My usual advice to clients is to observe carefully what’s going on in your life when these visions, dreams, and memories appear, and look for patterns in how they mirror events and relationships in this lifetime. For me, at least, there’s some kind of repetition. Also stay alert for synchronicities.

The Sun enters Pisces on Monday and begins his approach to conjunction with Neptune on Thursday. This is the imaginative, creative side of Pisces, so use the beginning of the week for work that requires inspiration and intuition. Keep a journal with you and write down any unusual events, sudden thoughts that seem to come from “somewhere else,” psychic flashes, or images in dreams that either are particularly vivid or that elicit a strong emotional response. Sometimes I forget my dreams, but then an image I see in the course of my day reminds me, and it all comes back. Those are times when you want a notebook handy.

Also on Monday, Saturn turns retrograde, and he remains at a standstill until Wednesday and then will slowly begin to creep backwards (what it looks like from down here, anyway). For many of you, old structures have been breaking down for some time now, and new ones are forming already, especially since Jupiter’s return direct. Some of you indeed had very happy news to report last week. For others, the breakdown phase will last longer. Saturn and Pluto in mutual reception, along with the Uranus-Pluto square, represent an uncontrollable tide. Depending on where these three planets are transiting your chart, it may be better to go along with the current than to expend all your energy fighting it. As an astrologer, I’m not immune to this process, and I totally understand how scary it can be.

Dreams and visions pick up toward the end of the week, as Mercury stations to turn retrograde on Saturday. Unfortunately, there’s an “ick” factor, too, as Mercury and Mars approach conjunction at the Full Moon on February 25. I’ve advised some of my clients to take vacations, if possible, and get out of the line of fire. Tempers are going to flare, with a strong risk of arguments that either blow entirely out of proportion or end up with people not speaking to each other, possibly for days or weeks. It goes without saying that you need to think carefully before opening your mouth. There are some words that cause irreparable damage to relationships and, once spoken, can never be taken back.

I’ve also started noticing early manifestations of retrograde Mercury, as I’m sure many of you have, too. My cell phone died on Friday, and getting through to customer service at T-Mobile was a nightmare. Meanwhile, my laptop was infected with not one, not two, but five viruses. Fortunately, I got an alert from my security software yesterday and was able to clean them all up before they got out of control. If you haven’t run a complete scan on your computer, don’t waste another second. Do it now!

My way of staying out of trouble and avoiding reality will be to lie on the couch watching back-to-back episodes of the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. If nothing else, it’s a delightful lesson in what happens when people completely misunderstand each other’s motives.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

P.S. I’m about to put StarGuide 2013 on sale, so this will be a good time to get your yearly transits at a discount.

Weekly Forecast February 11: Mercury and Mars Trine Saturn

We’re in a surreal, watery world this week, but don’t be deceived. Planetary aspects are excellent for major accomplishments and getting tangible results.

More importantly, this is the last week we have so much positive energy going for us, so make it count! If you can get all your ducks in a row now, it will be easier to navigate the stormy seas in the following weeks. Now is the time to finalize your trip plan, make upgrades to your boat, get all your supplies onboard, set sail, and get as far as you can. Since we’re mixing metaphors, make sure all your ducks are onboard, too.

We start out the week in something of a fog, with the Moon moving through Pisces and conjoining Mars, Chiron, and Mercury. She also makes aspects to Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn. But the ducks are lining up nonetheless, and you may find that events on Monday form a clear outline for the rest of your week. Quack, quack. Monday’s Venus-Saturn square isn’t cheerful, but it favors commitment to staying the course, no matter what.

Tuesday is busy, with Mercury in a sextile with Pluto and trine with Saturn. As I’ve mentioned before, Saturn and Pluto are in mutual reception, which correlates to accelerated breakdown in whatever is useless and outdated – in our lives, in society, and in global systems. I just started reading Al Gore’s new book, The Future, in which he discusses the massive global changes about to take place. Unfortunately, I don’t think he goes far enough, perhaps due to an ossified imagination and failure to see that his worldview reflects his privileged class more than he thinks it does. But, in fairness, he gets credit for understanding that we’re on the edge of a shift that promises to be unlike anything humanity has ever experienced. As an astrologer, I translate that to the Uranus-Pluto square, with Pluto and Saturn in mutual reception for the next two years.

Aspects with Saturn this week are especially powerful, as Saturn is stationed to go retrograde on February 18 (there’s got to be a “sitting duck” line somewhere in there, but I just can’t think of it). Saturn is the planet of structure, but in Scorpio it’s about breaking down structures that are decaying and weak and using the materials to rebuild forms that are stronger and more sustainable. What can you tear apart and rebuild to be stronger and more durable?

Also on Tuesday, Mars conjoins Chiron. Some of our deepest wounds aren’t physical but in our energy field, where they’re often much harder to identify and treat than injuries to the body. Not only are they invisible, but some people deny they exist at all. Mars is the surgeon, and he can cut straight to the source. Just be forewarned that it may feel like the dentist sticking a pick in your teeth to find the cavity. When you jump out of your chair and howl in pain, you know you found the problem. Resist the temptation to slug the dentist.

Thursday is Valentine’s Day, and while the Moon makes lovely aspects to the Sun and Venus, the Moon is in Aries, the “me-first” sign. Be prepared to lavish attention on anyone who gives you chocolate or flowers. If you don’t, they will feel unappreciated and resentful. But with Mars in Pisces, you probably won’t hear about it until Christmas, at least not directly.

Friday and Saturday are the power days, with Mars sextile Pluto and trine Saturn. Action is the order of the day, and it’s a highly transformative energy. Here is where you can make the most progress in changing what isn’t working in your life. The key is that there has to be common good in your plan. Whenever Pluto is involved in an aspect, selfish goals backfire, as do any plans that include manipulating others to do your bidding.

As I mentioned in last week’s forecast, one way that all this Pisces energy could manifest is a lifting of the “veil” between worlds that forms boundaries between dimensions of time and space. As a result, some of you may feel light-headed and disoriented, or you may have bizarre or disturbing dreams. Take extra care with alcohol and recreational drugs. You may find that you can’t tolerate as much as usual or that it affects you in unpredictable ways.

Time to get back to my ducks.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast February 4: Mercury Enters Pisces, New Moon in Aquarius

May your happiness be without limit. © Pat Paquette, 2013.

The most significant astrological event this week is the New Moon in Aquarius, which also happens to be the Chinese New Year. But the flavor of the week is definitely fish.

Starting this week, we’re approaching a stellium of planets in Pisces that will culminate in an emotionally volatile New Moon in March. In the meantime, Mercury will turn retrograde in Pisces and conjoin Mars twice. My read on this is that we’re about to go through a collective release of accumulated anger, frustration, grief, and past-life trauma. Not that this hasn’t been happening in a big way already, but I think it’s about to get even bigger.

Over the past week, I’ve been following comments on a few news stories, and I’ve been struck by how stupid, mean, and argumentative people can be. And I don’t know if it’s just my imagination or if reading comprehension is at an all-time low. Don’t they teach that in school anymore? Or could it be that Jupiter stationed in Gemini is translating to a fixation on details without understanding the overall point of the article? Regardless, I see this as the collective venting of a high level of frustration and anger. The real source of public frustration – the corporate thieves who plundered the economy, drove up the unemployment rate, and got off scot-free, along with their political accomplices – are protected behind gated communities and armed guards. And they are no doubt pleased that, instead of plotting to storm the Bastille, the “little people” are either fighting among themselves or dousing their pain through addictive and escapist behaviors.

Ah, but the plotting thickens, in however small a way. It’s heartening to see people rallying in support of a waitress in St. Louis who was fired from Applebee’s last week for posting a customer’s rude note online. Many of the comments on news stories display an appalling lack of comprehension of the facts, but the response was visceral, and in this case, channeled in the right direction. Although there were some unbelievably rude and bigoted comments about the customer, the majority response was to call for a boycott of Applebee’s and its parent company, IHOP. For its part, Applebee’s showed its true colors by totally failing to grasp the extent of the public outrage. In its official “explanation,” you can almost hear the collapse of a decaying corporate structure.

This is all just a long way of saying that a revolution is indeed in the works – not that we haven’t known for years that it was coming, given the Uranus-Pluto square with reinforcement from Saturn in Scorpio. I always maintained that the rebellion would be a class war. With Mars in Pisces, the collective anger is going to make itself felt – all the more so when retrograde Mercury conjoins Mars later this month. It’s critical in the next six to eight weeks that you look for ways to channel any anger and frustration into appropriate action.

Now, there’s another way that all this Pisces energy could manifest, and that’s the thinning of the “veil” between worlds, sometimes called the “Veil of Isis.” More and more people are beginning to have memories, dreams, and visions of incarnations in other dimensions of time and space. This is very definitely the realm of Neptune, and confusion and disorientation are key attributes of the ninth planet. These memories can be distressing. Depending on what happened and how vividly you recall the event, the force of the emotional release could be explosive. This is especially true of karmic relationships. It’s my observation that merely knowing what happened in another lifetime usually isn’t enough to overcome a negative pattern or obsession with someone. The emotional charge has to be released, and then something changes internally that allows you to move on. Anyone who has gone through this process knows that it can be upsetting.

Mars conjoins Neptune on Monday, but we’re already feeling it. On Tuesday, Mercury enters Pisces, where he’ll turn retrograde on February 23. In all, Mercury will remain in Pisces for more than two months, when he normally breezes through a sign in three weeks. I mention this now, because Mercury enters pre-retrograde shadow on Friday, making it all the more important that you take action in the next two weeks to establish your course for the rest of the year. Even though we’ll be sailing through patchy fog, all of the planets are now direct and giving us a huge green light until February 18, when Saturn turns retrograde. This is the only period in 2013 with all ten planets direct – actually, all the asteroids, too – and we won’t have one in 2014 at all.

Of course, the biggest news this week is the New Moon in Aquarius on February 10, which is also the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Water Snake (more water!). Since the rest of this week’s aspects are contained in the New Moon chart, I’ll discuss them in that context.

Click on image to enlarge

This is a bowl chart with an odd sort of symmetry. The Sun and Moon are at the bottom at 21 degrees Aquarius, not in aspect with any other planets but in a square with the lunar nodes by exact degree. And, of course, all of the planets are direct, making this a remarkable New Moon chart filled with the promise of a head-spinning fast-forward.

Mercury and Mars are conjunct (the alignment is exact on Friday), providing a glimpse of what will come later this month, after Mercury turns retrograde and the two planets are conjunct for a second time. Communication is key here, because otherwise the combined energy of this pair is passive aggressive. That’s what the Applebee’s customer did, and it came back to bite her in the behind. Her beef was with management, and the whole incident could have been avoided had she communicated directly.

Mercury and Mars are both square Jupiter in Gemini at the New Moon, and Mars is still in conjunction with Neptune, so it will take some effort to communicate clearly and effectively, and failure to do so could have exaggerated consequences. Chiron is in on this alignment, too, so there is an increased risk that someone is going to end up with hurt feelings. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Jupiter and Uranus are sextile by exact degree and Mars and Mercury are approaching a trine with Saturn – all indicating positive ways to redirect anger and irritation. If you can summon up the courage to be candid and direct, you can shift the level of the discussion to higher ground and build new ties in your personal and professional relationships.

Venus sextiles Uranus on Wednesday and trines Jupiter on Thursday. These combined energies suggest unexpected opportunities and a stroke of brilliant luck, most likely in the areas of career and financial deals. Thursday is a great day for signing contracts. However, at the New Moon, Venus is in a close square with Saturn, suggesting cold water thrown on plans that looked so good only a few days earlier. At the very least, you may have some version of buyer’s remorse, that “What could I possibly have been thinking?” feeling. Well that’s what Mercury retrograde is for. You’ll have a couple of weeks to do some additional research, and if you want to change your mind, you’ll probably get an opportunity to do so.

The square from the Sun and Moon to the lunar nodes suggests that whatever takes place at this New Moon could have a feeling of fate or destiny about it, at least collectively. It may apply in individual cases, too, depending on where the Sun, Moon, and nodes currently are transiting your chart. It’s also intriguing to note that the Uranus-Pluto midpoint and the Venus-Mars midpoint are both 23 degrees Aquarius, with the Sun and Moon just two degrees away. This further suggests events that are fated and part of the overall evolution/revolution of Uranus and Pluto. Gender relations are part of this scenario as the struggle continues for women’s rights and an end to violence against women and girls.

Frankly, I’d like to see an end to violence against women, girls, boys, men, cats, and dogs. The collective release of accumulated anger, pain, and trauma – whether from this lifetime or other incarnations – will go a long way toward that end. Just be prepared for a really big mess.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

RealAstrologers

The astrology of world affairs, human evolution, the future, and the state of the universe.

Tag Archives: Mercury retrograde

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Weekly Forecast March 25: Full Moon in Libra

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Weekly Forecast February 25: Full Moon in Virgo, Venus Enters Pisces

Weekly Forecast February 18: Sun Enters Pisces, Mercury Retrograde

Weekly Forecast February 11: Mercury and Mars Trine Saturn

Weekly Forecast February 4: Mercury Enters Pisces, New Moon in Aquarius