Tag Archives: solar eclipse in Cancer

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer, July 1

This image of the total eclipse of the Sun on July 11, 2010, was shot in French Polynesia by Terry Evans of Exmoor, UK, whose birthday was that day! The July 1 eclipse will be partial.

Another week and we’ll be out of the inter-eclipse Twilight Zone. It has been a strange trip indeed.

You’ll recall in a previous post that I said big changes were on the way for me, but I was going to wait until after the July 1 eclipse to take definitive action. Well, less than 24 hours after the June 15 eclipse, my plans for this fall totally fell through … or so I thought. A few hours later I received news that the original message had been an error. So it looks like everything is on track. Still, I’m waiting to make a final commitment until after the eclipses are well behind us.

At 9 degrees Cancer, the New Moon solar eclipse on July 1 is the last of the Capricorn-Cancer eclipse series and represents a wrap-up or resolution of a difficult situation that began in mid-2009. You may have another couple of weeks of “cleanup” to do – until the Full Moon on July 15. But overall, the challenge you’ve faced for the past two years will fade away in the rearview mirror, and not a moment too soon! Everyone is exhausted and ready for a break.

Tennis diva Serena Williams is a perfect example. With her Sun at 3 degrees Libra in the sixth house (health), Serena suffered one debilitating health problem after another, starting with a leg injury in April 2009. Last July, just as the cardinal T-square was approaching a peak directly on her Sun, she stepped on glass in a restaurant and required surgery. While in rehab earlier this year, she was treated for blood clots in her lungs. After a year of not being able to compete, she returned to Wimbleton last Tuesday, won her opening round, and broke down in a flood of tears.

“It definitely was so emotional for me because, you know, throughout the last 12 months, I’ve been through, a lot of things that’s not normal,” she said on her website. “So it’s just been a long, arduous road. To stand up still is pretty awesome.”

That pretty much says it all! Most of us have had a harrowing two years, complicated by the eclipses in cardinal Capricorn and Cancer. And while the last one forms a tense grand cross with Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, I still feel that it’s going to be a relief for us, and that the tears we shed will include tears of gratitude that we’re still here and still standing.

Click on image to enlarge

I have to admit that the chart for this eclipse is intimidating, dominated by a bright red grand cross. However, I remain optimistic, because there are two very clear “outs” – paths where blocked energy can flow and be put to positive use.

The first out is a trine between Pluto and Jupiter. This easy aspect supports transformation and positive change. Finding solutions to wicked problems (as a friend of mine calls them) requires expanding the mind. We can do that now. Both planets are in earth signs, suggest tangible, material results.

The second out flows between Saturn and Mars, the planet of action. In Gemini, it’s speedy action, too, although there’s a risk that there may be more talk than action. Still, with Saturn recently returned direct and Mars in an air sign, we can put on our thinking caps, come up with realistic plans, and do the hard work necessary to get the results we want. And it will be hard work. The inconjunct between Mars and Pluto suggests that acting without thinking things through could end up a total waste of energy.

The real difficulty I see here is the square from the Sun and Moon to Saturn. For many of us, moving in a new direction required leaving something or someone behind. Even though we may feel confident that we made the right decision, loss is sad and painful. Cancer is the sentimental sign of the zodiac, so we could be very emotional for a day or two on either side of the eclipse.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Weekly Forecast. In the meantime, if you want a look ahead at what July will bring for you personally, I highly recommend StarGuide Monthly, my new transit forecast. Or, if you prefer, order StarGuide Seasons and get three months rolled into one at a discount of nearly 15 percent. Although I’m not writing reports from scratch anymore, I designed these forecasts to be 100-percent personalized, using your exact birth data. To see what you get with this report, check out my samples for George Clooney and Julian Assange.

Pat

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.

The Collective Reboot: Birthing a New Reality

Light on the Summit. Since ancient times, mountain peaks have been symbols of higher consciousness. I took this photo of Mount Rainier the day of the eclipse. © Pat Paquette

In my post on Sunday’s eclipse, I referred to a “collective reboot.” It’s happening, and we’re giving birth to a new reality.

Some of us are experiencing painful situations. When we experience a leap in consciousness, our old way of being becomes incompatible. The more we try to hang onto it, the more we suffer. Some of us are better at letting go than others. There are times when tenacity doesn’t pay, and it sure looks like this is one of them.

If you suffered a loss during this eclipse, there is no going back. When we lose something that has outlived its purpose, it still hurts. Grieve for the loss, and keep moving forward, even if you don’t know where the road is leading. It’s scary, and you may feel alone at first, but that feeling will dissipate once you realize what you gained. Stay aware, and look for evidence that your higher consciousness is manifesting, without interference by your “egoic” mind, as some call it.

I was reading Eckhart Tolle this morning and stumbled on his comment about the fall of the Berlin Wall:

[T]he ego is destined to dissolve, and all its ossified structures, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations, or governments, will disintegrate from within, no matter how deeply entrenched they appear to be. The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first. This has already happened in the case of Soviet Communism. How deeply entrenched, how solid and monolithic it appeared, and yet within a few years, it disintegrated from within. No one foresaw this. All were taken by surprise. There are many more such surprises in store for us.

The Berlin Wall fell during the cardinal T-square of 1989, which in many ways was a precursor to the T-square of 2010 and 2011. I suspect that we’re going to experience many more losses between now and 2012, both individually and collectively. All of these events will be signs that the old, ego-centered order is falling away as we enter a New Age of Interconnectedness.

There was something symbolic about returning home from a difficult weekend to find my car surrounded by huge tree branches and yellow police tape. The car sustained only minor scratches, and whoever had put up the barrier left it low enough for me to back out of my parking space. It was a reminder how easily things can come and go — and when we least expect it.

As one door closes for me, a new one seems to be opening, thanks to those of you who responded to my request for donations. Many of you sent notes of encouragement along with your contribution. Some of you couldn’t donate but sent e-mail affirming your support. I was incredibly touched and now have renewed faith that RealAstrologers could become a viable business to serve those entering the new reality.

Pat

Weekly Forecast July 12: In the Wake of the Solar Eclipse

Detail of The Storm Spirits, by Evelyn De Morgan, 1900.

We begin this week in the wake of Sunday’s solar eclipse in Cancer, and that’s really the biggest news — that, and the steady march toward the peak of the cardinal T-square, just a couple of weeks away now.

Eclipses often signal rapid change, and these sometimes are evident within three days on either side of the eclipse date. But in the case of the New Moon eclipse, developments may take until the Full Moon to unfold or until the next New Moon. Sometimes the effects are delayed by two or three months, but I don’t think that will happen in this case, due to the building energy of the T-square.

Under astrological influences such as we’re experiencing in 2010 and 2011, world events may not happen at the moment planetary alignments are exact, but can be staggered throughout the year. Sometimes transits by the Moon or Mars to critical points can trigger an event. It can all get pretty complicated.

Otherwise, there’s not a lot happening this week (as if that’s not enough). Venus in Virgo trines Pluto in Capricorn on Tuesday, an aspect for physical love and the emotional intensity that can come from sexual desire, if you let go and allow it to take over. When sex is approached as a means of deeper connection and not just for instant physical gratification, it is a powerful agent of spiritual growth. This can be scary for some people, usually because it involves giving up mental control.

The emotional intensity is even greater on Wednesday, when the Moon conjoins Venus and trines Pluto. Sexually, things could get even more interesting, as the Moon conjoins Mars on Thursday, carrying forward the energy of Venus and Pluto to the planetary ruler of the libido. Events mid-week could be a prelude to the Venus-Mars conjunction on August 20, so keep your eyes and ears open.

The Moon enters Libra on Friday, and for a brief period we have a mini-version of the cardinal T-square. The Moon moves too quickly for lunar transits to have much impact (eclipses being a major exception), but in this case the Moon may act as a trigger for events related to the T-square. Stay alert, and note any unusual events on that day.

Also on Friday, Mars in Virgo squares Ceres in Sagittarius. Astrologers are still studying the movements of Ceres, and it will be some time before we collect enough data to make definitive statements about her role in individual and mundane astrology. It does appear, however, that she is a marker for environmental issues and also for events that are cyclical in nature. A conflicting square between Ceres and Mars in detail-oriented Virgo might, for example, indicate serious problems in BP’s attempt to contain the well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As I explained in last week’s forecast, we’re in a period when change could come swiftly and out of the blue, so it will pay to stay focused and in the moment. I liken it to being in a boat on a fast-moving current. The river determines our general direction, but we can lean to one side or the other and alter our course slightly — perhaps enough to avoid the rocks. This is especially true for the collective. Where our thoughts go, our lives follow.

Before I sign off, I’d like to express my deepest thanks again to those who made donations. If you haven’t made a donation yet, please would you take a moment to do so? We’re all connected here, and what you do really does affect whether RealAstrologers continues as-is, morphs into something else, or rolls down the shutters and folds. I’ve created a special page to tell you more about how you can help. Please spread the word.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Saturday Extra! Countdown to the Eclipse

The Seven Sisters. Star-patterned sand dollars, Westport, WA. © Pat Paquette

Sunday’s eclipse will be the last total eclipse of the Sun in the current Capricorn-Cancer series.

This series began last year with a dramatic solar eclipse at 29 degrees Cancer. The longest solar eclipse of the century, it made a broad sweep over Asia.

By contrast, tomorrow’s eclipse will be visible only in certain parts of the South Pacific and southern Chile. Then there won’t be another total solar eclipse until November 2012.

The New Moon is a time to make new beginnings, and this is all more true with solar eclipses. If you don’t know already what you’d like to begin anew, there’s still a day to think about it. (You can read my full report on Sunday’s eclipse here.)

I’ve spent the better part of the past two weeks contemplating where to take RealAstrologers. Since Diane left in March 2010, I’ve been on my own to research and write three to four in-depth posts a week, find and format all of the images, perform all of the technical updates, read all of your e-mail, and do everything else that needs to be done to maintain an active website with readers in 133 countries on six continents.

It’s almost a full-time job, with no pay. Initially, Diane and I conceived of RealAstrologers as a storefront for our consulting services, with a blog on the side to give readers an idea of our style and approach to astrology. But most visitors just come for the free content and leave. That would be fine if I were independently wealthy and didn’t need to earn a living, in which case I would do this as my service to humanity.

Alas, I have no rich relatives or family inheritance, not even a husband to share household expenses. It’s just me, and I can’t carry the load all by myself. As of this eclipse, I’m being forced to confront the reality that, as a business model, this sucks, and I may have to give up the project altogether.

Before I close shop, though, I’d like to explore creative ways to spin this site into a viable business venture. I’ve developed a five-year business plan that includes horoscopes by Rising sign and lots of other cool features. With enough funding, it even would be possible to offer computer-generated reports. They have their limitations, but I believe I have a way to design them that would be more meaningful and personal than what’s currently out there. If you have access to venture capital or know anyone who does, please contact me and let’s talk.

In the meantime, I’ve put a donations button in the sidebar (to the right), to help raise enough cash to cover my monthly web-hosting and other expenses. To those of you who have responded, I repeat my deep, heart-felt gratitude.

There seems to be a vague notion floating around that astrologers shouldn’t ask for money. I don’t know how this got started; maybe it comes from ancient times when people brought offerings of food and drink to the temple in return for advice from the priestesses. Nice concept, but not very realistic in today’s world.

We are attempting to create a new world together, one in which our hearts, souls, and creative energies are the most precious assets we have. If wisdom and spirituality are to take their place above material things — or at least be considered equally as important — then we must start acknowledging them by materially supporting the people who provide those services. The return on investment is priceless.

If you’re a regular reader of this site and haven’t donated yet, there’s no time like the present. If everyone contributed the equivalent of one latte or beer a month, it would allow me to continue my current posting schedule and perhaps even expand it to more posts per week.

Who knows where it all could go?

Pat

Weekly Forecast July 5: Uranus Retrograde, Solar Eclipse in Cancer

Artist's conception of a geomagnetic storm. Image courtesy of SDO (NASA).

This week begins with Uranus turning retrograde and ends with a total eclipse of the Sun. We’ve got all the information we need, and now it’s time to spend a few days preparing before we venture into new territory.

Uranus, the innovator and awakener, entered pioneering Aries on May 27. Since then, we’ve been able to scout the unknown terrain to give us a better idea of what’s out there in our Brave New World.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to have a lot of time to analyze the data, and events may unfold too quickly this summer for us to follow a coherent strategy. Still, we have a better idea of where we want to go and who we want in our camp, and we do have a bit of time this week to put together a hasty roadmap.

Uranus turns retrograde on Monday. He’ll re-enter Pisces in mid-August and then return to Aries on March 11, 2011. With the Moon in Taurus on Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll have just the space we need for some quiet contemplation and, hopefully, sudden inspiration.

Venus opposes Neptune on Thursday, an aspect often associated with fantasy and delusion in romance. It depends on where these two are in your chart. If you’re looking to create an illusion of glamour and enchantment, this is your ticket. Just make sure you’ve got a ride home when your coach turns back into a pumpkin at midnight.

Friday is a busy day, with communicative Mercury making a productive sextile to Saturn in the final degree of Virgo. Think about what you really want. Better yet, talk about it. Often we don’t want what we think we do, and that sends out mixed messages to the universe.

Later in the day, Mercury enters Leo. It’s hard to find humor in our circumstances when we’re under so much stress, but sometimes that’s exactly what it takes to break the spell. Mercury trines Uranus on Friday and Jupiter on Sunday, which should provide lots of inspiration and mental stimulation, even with Uranus in retrograde mode. On the downside, there’s a potential here for major electrical outages.

On Saturday, Venus enters nitpicky Virgo — not her favorite sign. If you feel an urge to be critical at every turn, channel that energy into helping those you love in simple, practical ways. Likewise, when someone does something nice for you, no matter how small, recognize the love in their actions and show your appreciation.

Also on Saturday, the Moon enters Cancer and begins moving into position for Sunday’s total eclipse of the Sun. The Sun, meanwhile, sextiles Mars in Virgo, the only aspect this New Moon will make with any of the planets. As I wrote in my eclipse post on Saturday, I’m hopeful that this easy aspect will bring positive results, but there is always the possibility that it will be the path of least resistance for the pent-up energy of the eclipse.

The cardinal T-square between Saturn, Pluto, Uranus, and Jupiter continues to get closer, but as of the eclipse, Saturn remains in the final degree of mutable Virgo, so technically it’s not a cardinal T-square. I’m not sure how much of a distinction this is, but I’ve theorized that Saturn in Virgo has been a stabilizing influence — an advantage we’ll lose once the lord of time re-enters cardinal Libra on July 21. That’s when the T-square will be at peak power.

That said, events don’t necessarily happen when planetary alignments are exact. There can be lags of days, weeks, or months, and sometimes events happen in advance of the planetary marker. That certainly was the case in 1989, the last time we had anything resembling this year’s cardinal build-up. With Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all in Capricorn, cardinal energies dominated the skies for much of that year.

I went back and looked at several charts for events in 1989, including the Exxon Valdez spill, Hurricane Hugo, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Loma Prieta earthquake, the protests in Tiananmen Square, and the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid due to a geomagnetic storm. None of these events occurred when the planets were in exact alignment, although some of them were pretty close. In some cases, key planets were on the Ascendant at the moment of the event.

What this tells us is that the changes could come at any moment. We know we’re in the hot zone, and so nothing that happens in the next two months should surprise us, no matter how unprecedented, extraordinary, or totally outside of human experience to date. We asked to come along on this journey, but we can’t control what happens once we’re on the trail.

Much love and courage to all,
Pat

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer, July 11

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, Greece, silhouetted against the annular eclipse on Jan. 14, 2010. Photo credit: Elias Chasiotis.

The New Moon on July 11 occurs with a total eclipse of the Sun, making it a powerful indicator of new beginnings.

At 19 degrees Cancer, the eclipse is too far from the early degrees of the cardinal signs to make contact with planets in the cardinal T-square. Nevertheless, it feeds into the T-square in a very significant way. The New Moon generally is a time for starting over, and this is all the more so when the Sun and Moon are in cardinal signs, which favor action. Further, eclipses in and of themselves tend to bring sweeping change.

Throw that all together in one pot, and we’re in for a collective reboot.

It’s hard to make predictions when there are so many variables in this astrological equation. Nevertheless, I do want you to be aware of the potential of the upcoming T-square and of this eclipse period as markers for dramatic developments. In the past, influences such as these have coincided with major earth events, along with landmark geopolitical, social, and economic upheaval.

Now, it’s quite possible that we’ve already had our eclipse-related earthquake. On February 27, there was a magnitude 8.8 mega-quake in Chile. It is well known among astrologers that eclipses can have an influence several months in advance, and yet when analyzing astrological charts, we typically look at present or recently past alignments and forget to look into the future.

There are a couple of startling factors in the chart for the Chile quake that link it to the July 11 solar eclipse. The Ascendant in the earthquake chart is 19°17′ degrees Capricorn, with the lunar North Node in tight conjunction at 20 degrees Cap (the transiting nodes determine when eclipses occur). The July 11 eclipse takes place directly opposite that degree, at 19°24 Cancer. It’s also interesting to note that the earthquake chart ruler, Saturn, is tightly conjunct the Midheaven at 3° Libra. The early degrees of the cardinal signs are where the T-square will peak in late July and early August.

The eclipse will pass directly over the southern tip of Chile. Historically, there are correlations between the path of powerful eclipses and subsequent events. The difference here is that the earthquake happened several months before this eclipse. Why not? Time isn’t linear, and eclipses often open windows “out of time.”

I hope this means we can relax a little, although we do have some serious predictions by government scientists of an above-average hurricane season and a peak in solar storms between now and 2012. We also still have a gaping hole in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day. OK, so maybe this isn’t doomsday, but it’s plenty dire enough. Are we so accustomed to seeing the world blown up in Hollywood films that anything less barely gets a yawn?

I’ll have more in my weekly forecast tomorrow about planetary aspects in the eclipse chart that will be active during the rest of the week as well. I’ll also report on similarities between this year’s cardinal T-square and the planetary alignment of 1989. For the rest of this post, I’d like to focus on the two direct aspects to the eclipse.

The closest aspect is a sextile from the Sun and Moon to Mars at 19 degrees Virgo. We usually view trines and sextiles as favorable and would conclude that positive outcomes are likely. The only trouble with this interpretation is that “positive” and “negative” are human constructs. What’s good for us may not be good for the rest of the planet. Moreover, trines and sextiles can represent the path of release for pent-up cosmic energies. Fortunately, Virgo is not a warlike placement for aggressive Mars, and we should be able to find more productive outlets for our frustration. Indeed, this could represent a concerted effort to come up with real, practical solutions to some of our more pressing problems.

The second close aspect is a conjunction with Juno, an asteroid I haven’t written much about.

In Roman times, Juno was venerated as the wife of Jupiter and, therefore, queen of the gods. She held a special place in the hearts of the Roman people, who believed the goddess warned them of an impending raid by the Gauls in 390 B.C. Thus she was called “Juno Moneta,” one who warns or protects. Because Juno was associated with money, her nickname ended up as our modern word for cash.

When I saw the conjunction of asteroid Juno with the Sun and Moon in this eclipse chart, I immediately wondered whether we were being warned of an impending event. Could it be financially related? Something to do with our money supply? A communications glitch that shuts down our ATM system, or something like that? Speculating is useless, of course, but emergency planning is smart. Living on an island in an earthquake zone, I’m always conscious of having some basic necessities stashed away. Instead of fretting about what might be, channel that energy into practical steps to increase your security.

The Sabian Symbol** for the Sun and Moon at 19°24′ Cancer is gondoliers in a serenade, with the keyword SENTIMENT. Happiness has little to do with money or things and everything to do with the fulfillment we get by contributing our unique gifts to the world and cooperating with each other for the betterment of the planet and everyone on it. When we do so, it’s like an elegant, complex symphony. When we don’t, the discord vibrates into every corner of our existence.

We are all connected.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

** From The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, by Dr. Marc Edmond Jones. The author, an astrologer, channeled this work in the early 1920s. There’s one symbol one for each degree of the zodiac, and we can use them to gain insight into charts.

Saturday Extra! Brain Chemistry, The ‘God Particle’ and the Space Between the Eclipses

In my consulting practice as well as my continuing study of astrology, my focus is on using astrology as a tool to predict how invisible energies flowing through the cosmos might manifest into material reality.

I’ve taken this approach for years, despite the lack of any evidence whatsoever that these invisible energies exist or that they somehow coalesce into tangible objects and events.

So imagine my surprise when I came across an article in the Guardian the other day quoting a leading particle physicist describing just such a process and encouraging his colleagues to start contemplating the “hidden world” behind our material universe.

It’s what I’ve been saying all along! I just didn’t have the scientific background to be able to describe it. Then, neither do most particle physicists. It is only recently that the idea has gained visibility, thanks to a new high-energy particle accelerator in Switzerland that may help prove the existence of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle believed to be the bridge between unmanifest potential and manifest reality. For that reason, it has been dubbed the “God particle.”

This is exciting news for astrologers, because it might establish the groundwork for understanding how astrology works. Of course, we then have to make the leap into understanding what the movement of the planets has to do with energy manifesting into matter. That will require another level of discovery, but I believe it will happen, and maybe in my lifetime.

How invisible energies manifest into reality is especially important now, when we have an astrological configuration that is unprecedented in human history. In our lifetime, we’ve witnessed bits and pieces of the cardinal T-square, but never anything like what’s coming up this summer.

We’re also at a crossroads in the evolution of human consciousness. Indeed, the very idea that any physicist would look at hidden worlds rather than taking a narrow view of material reality is quite a leap. On the whole, scientists are solidly in the left-brain camp. I would bet that those proposing these radical new ideas either are particularly brilliant — blessed not just with a high IQ, but with a highly evolved intuitive side — or they’ve recently had a “spiritual” awakening.

And what exactly is a spiritual awakening? First, it’s not a one-time event, but an ongoing process. We continue to evolve, although there definitely are “spikes” along the way. Indeed, we might expect lots of spikes with Uranus in Aries amplified by Jupiter.

Second, there’s a brain chemistry factor. Within the human brain, a chemical reaction must take place to bridge the gap between the transmitting and receiving terminals of the neurons. The bridging mechanism is called the synapse, derived from the Greek “clasping together.” When something goes wrong in that process, the result can be depression, which is a sort of separation sickness — two poles in the neuron without a bridge to connect them.

Interestingly enough, the function of synapses in the nervous system was discovered in the 1800s. During those same years, Neptune was discovered, and toward the end of the century, the term “New Age” was coined to describe the upsurge in spirituality.

I have a vague sense that spiritual awakening involves brain chemistry and that impaired brain chemistry even may explain the polarization of humanity and the separation between the divine masculine and divine feminine. What if the source of this story from the beginning of time is literally in our mind? What if the separation is in our own brain chemistry, perhaps a necessary step in the evolution of the human mind and body?

I see parallels between this separation of logic and intuition, male and female, and the separation of unmanifest energy and physical matter. And, in both cases, they need some kind of a bridge across the gap between them in order to re-connect, be it a “God particle,” a chemical, or an electrical impulse.

Eclipses are windows on time. This morning’s lunar eclipse will be followed in by a solar eclipse in Cancer on July 11 (Cancer is the sign of birth and the urge to manifest into form). What will bridge this two-week gap? What will connect us? What thought forms will fill this empty space and perhaps give birth to a new reality?

These are all questions I’m asking myself. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Pat