This week Mercury moves out of its shadow phase, Mars conjuncts Pluto and then squares Uranus, Mercury trines Neptune, Venus conjuncts Saturn, the sun squares Jupiter, Neptune stations direct and Venus ingresses into Sagittarius. (Inhale)
Therefore we know that (at the very least, but perhaps most significantky) there are two new cycles beginning (every time two planets conjunct it can be seen as a “new moon” type of phase between the two planetary bodies).
One new cycle is between Mars and Pluto in Capricorn (passion, ambition, power, rage, sex, lust, greed, guts, glory, will, direction, focus and fearlessness in the style of a strategic, no-nonsense, all-business Bosslady) and the other is between Venus and Saturn in Scorpio (relationships, love, beauty, clarification, simplicity, commitment, containers, complainers, masters, teachers and maturity in the style of deep-diving, alchemical emotional realness).
Mars conjoining Pluto and squaring Uranus sets off the Uranus/Pluto square. Any planet that does so gets caught in the game-changing, society reforming energy of this larger transpersonal planetary dance that lasts from 2012-2015. It’s where the personal becomes political. It’s when we just can’t hold our tongue and perhaps the flapping of our gums effects a bigger change we never saw coming. It’s when small things feel like big deals. It’s when the big issues get highlighted by sometimes very small actions. It’s exciting. It’s illuminating. It’s disruptive and rambunctious.
This is a time to make plans and Get. Shit. Done. But not without considering the fact that our best laid plans often blow up and back-fire in our well-groomed faces. So I suggest that under the current skies we commit to what we truly, madly, deeply love, knowing full well that we are in it for better, worse and wonderful.
There are no guarantees in life and this week is one to grab by the horns without trying to tease the bull too much. There’s fire in the skies so no need to tempt fate. Harness the energy and use it in the direction of what you most wish to do.
Aries & Aries Rising
Like we talked about a couple of weeks ago your ruling planet, Mars, is rattling some cages and flipping some lids in your career. This energy could have you performing on all cylinders and like a revved up race car in your profession and public life. But careful, cowgirl. Look around. Where are you going? Notice your surroundings. Is there the possibility of you mowing down innocent pedestrians? Are you moving with meaning or are you just moving to move? Are you distracted by all of your many missions or do you have laser-like ambitions? Because if you are able to corral your kittens of creativity, right now is the time to put your pedal to the metal.
That and you know that this moment is about so much more than just pure ambition. Pure ambition is just appetite without discernment. Pure ambition is just want without wherewithal. Pure ambition is just getting without caring about how it was got. You are onto something far more significant. You are hot on the trail of your life’s work.
Therefore look for and dig deeper into a sense of meaning in all that you do. Try to distill some truth out of the chaos of loss and try to find love even in the darker corners of this thing called life. You might be trying to figure out another’s motives. You might be trying to figure out another’s feelings but truth be told, just tell it like it is on your end and it will come out fine on the other. Be clear, be honest and be thoughtfully motivated in moving closer towards all of your goals.
Taurus & Taurus Rising
I have been reading and re-reading the very simple yet very deep handbook on boundaries by Anne Katherine, MA appropriately entitled, Boundaries: Where You End And I Begin. It’s a gem. She can get a little judgey about wearing bikini’s and is totes heteronormative, but if you can read past all that might irk you, it’s got some very good material in it. Especially if you grew up with less than appropriate boundaries.
Which I think describes most of us.
Setting boundaries with others can be a terrifying process. One that is nearly impossible to do if we have yet to spend the time understanding who we are, what we want, like and need. Like, apart from anyone else’s approval. Like, apart from anyone else’s ideas of us and apart from anyone else’s likes and dislikes. I mean, you, my precious bull, aren’t known for being a pushover but the astrology certainly is saying that it’s time for you to brush up on your skills of division, individuation and decision.
What one might venture to say is part of this work for you is to learn how to not push your agenda onto someone else. You may be formidable at knowing yourself and what you want but not always so keen about seeing what others want and need from you.
Especially when it has nothing to do with your ideas of what that should be. Which I would say is part of knowing yourself.
If that sentiment resonates then I might suggest that you ask yourself: Do I tend to lean on others until I get what I want? Or do I just hope and pray that I get it my way?
If you have you mastered the fine art of listening simultaneously to you and your loved ones this could be a time of making powerful contracts, agreements, revisions to the container and nature of your commitment.
At any rate, ponder getting the book. Or any other manual that dedicates itself to teaching the fine art of understanding where you end and others begin.
Gemini & Gemini Rising
Like the princess and the pea, this week looks to be very helpful in locating what has been disturbing your slumber and ruffling your dreamtime. To locate the seemingly invisible, to locate the thing that is always present, like a just out of reach itch, is important for our sanity but so too is the journey to discovering it.
Now is the time that you get down to the reason beneath the reason. In fact it looks like you are on the road to discovering some of your more mischievous motives and/or those of another.
So, don’t fool yourself with surface solutions.
Or excuses.
This week wants you to roll up those sleeves and get out the elbow grease cause self-knowledge takes work, hunny bunny. There is some chattering and mumbling that’s about to turn into straight up hooting and hollering about committing to the tasks that eventually bring you pleasure, connection and a sense of belonging. You know, taking out the garbage may be a drag when it’s cold outside but it’s a whole heck of a lot better than it stinking up your apartment.
Commit to the tasks that keep your life afloat and free of unnecessary debris.
Cancer & Cancer Rising
“You have anger.” said my herbalist as he took my pulse. “Yes. Not so much today but in general, I mean, ya. I have . . . anger.” I replied because I couldn’t quite tell if it was a question or a statement. “Yes. You have PMS. You have anger.” he repeated.
He explained to me that anger is like a bully in one’s internal neighborhood. It goes around from house to house or organ to organ beating everyone up.
Yes just like Mars. The planet isn’t all bad of course. I’m not sure if anything in our universe is (but I reserve the right to be wrong). Mars gets us up, gets us going and yes, gets us fighting when we need to. Because sometimes we do. Need to.
And sometimes all we are doing is bruising our internal sphere. Nothing hurts us more than being a total jerk to someone else. The entire week is jam-packed-full-to-the-brim-bursting-at-its-seems with Mars lessons for you and yours. Maybe it’s your anger, but maybe it’s there’s. And maybe their anger evokes your own. Maybe the opposite is true.
Chickens. Eggs. Doesn’t matter once the vegan stew is made.
The days ahead are full of lessons about honoring commitments that you have made or are in the process of making with lovers and intimate partners of all kinds. So see if the agreements you are making are actually right for you. If they make you angry that’s a good sign that they aren’t. You’ll be more tempted that usual to blow your lid, squash some toes or compile a list of litanies against another. So easy does it, tiger.
Can you conjure in your mediations a trusted master-healer that inspires only a kind of yes ma’am or sir response in you, someone who looks at you without an ounce of condemnation and just tells it to you straight – you’ve got anger? You need inner allies to help you get below the desire to blow-up because this week’s astrology also states that you can make powerful moves forward with others. You need to stay connected to the wise ones that dwell within. The ones that say, hey young buck, cool your jets and look for the opportunity.
We all have anger, but this week the question is, are you going to let it beat you up?
Leo & Leo Rising
There is an interesting thing happening with your energy. You have a determined and focused amount of it. You are capable of getting a tremendous amount done through sheer ambition and drive. Ride that beast, babes. But careful too. You can be extra pushy at the moment, hot to the touch and unyielding in your movement forward but you have good reason to stay nimble on your feet right now. Directions might need to shift abruptly, work situations might change on a dime and so too could the attitudes of colleagues. Focus on solutions and how to help your team move forward on whatever bumpy terrain there is ahead of you. If you can, I stay with my original hypotheses of you can get a lot of shit accomplished right now.
You can also get down to the root of a health issue. Symptoms help us get to root causes. Symptoms are the golden threads that we must follow in order to get down to the issue they point towards. Symptoms signal our attention. Follow any symptoms though you may need a specialist to get down to the root of it. And it may very well be an issue manifesting in the body that is something much more connected to your family of origin issues, so take a look there.
Take a look there for the sake of your physical wellbeing but also take a look there because that is the other hot spot in your chart right now. I suggest looking at issues about home, family, parents, folks you live with and a psychological/spiritual understanding of what it means to feel comfortable and to have a safe place to land. You’ve been steadily working in this area of life for the past couple of years and the last weeks of 2014 round out the lessons you have been learning here.
Virgo & Virgo Rising
It’s about truth and getting down to it. It’s about the willingness to be honest which, said another way, is understanding why you might be tempted to lie. It’s about being willing to stand and face the flack for the beliefs you behold and how you choose to phrase them. It’s about clarifying the intent that is behind the telling of the tales.
Simply stated; say what you mean and mean what you say. Without being mean about it.
There is a tremendous amount of passion available to you right now and that can either be used to fuel creative projects or romantic ones. Fall in love with your art. Dress up your dates or let them dress you. Play in bed. Rediscover how turned on you get when you let yourself be silly and free. Heal yourself through being practically sexual (have sex to raise your consciousness and heal yourself and your partners-what could be more practical?). Be driven to discover your talents and to realize your true desires. There is no reason to hide. Not now. Not when everything is revved up and raring to go. This is a moment of voluptuous velocity that you want to ask to dance.
Or go make subversive street art. Or make out. Or make-out as art.
Just seize this. Seize this without needing to know where it is going because it’s unpredictable. Seize it without it having to make sense because that’s not what it’s about. Seize it without knowing if it’s right or wrong or good or not. Just seize the song in your heart so that you can share it unabashedly with whomever is there in front of you and without overthinking it, love the ones your with.
Libra & Libra Rising
There are times in life, situations that arise, fates that form before our eyes that help us get to the current heart of the matter. Yours is located within the following questions:
How did my family deal with anger? What did their bodies do when they were upset? Did their faces contort? Did they disappear? Did they puff up? Did things break? What was acceptable in terms of expressing anger, what was forbidden and how did that make me feel as a young child?
What is the underlying feeling that accompanies me from age to age, success to success, landmark to landmark and defeat to defeat? Is it an underlying sense of discouragement? Is it a feeling that I can’t really fail? What lies waiting for me when all other busy activity rests? What is my background soundtrack?
How am I currently dealing with issues of anger, upset and discord in my home situation? Am I re-living old patterns or am I consciously trying to resolve things without getting too caught up in getting my own way or being right?
Once I’ve gathered that data what am I doing with the information?
Anger is just an emotion. No better or worse than any other. Anger is power that can often get misdirected. Anger is a fuel that can sometimes leak out of the tank and cause explosions. But anger, or passion as it were this week, is a fire under your feet right now. Get down to your core values around money and how to make it and commit to what works for you there. Be in praise of your determination and focus to heal the deeper hurts that surface. Do the necessary psychological healing so that the power of this moment can help you bust through generations of psychological warfare and get to a new baseline to build from.
Scorpio & Scorpio Rising
“There’s no desire to be an adult. Adulthood is not a goal. It’s not seen as a gift. Something happened culturally: No one is supposed to age past 45 — sartorially, cosmetically, attitudinally. Everybody dresses like a teenager. Everybody dyes their hair. Everybody is concerned about a smooth face.” Said nobody ever in the entertainment world except Frances McDormand.
No matter what age you are, dear reader, embrace these words. Especially right now. Especially in the face of the astrology you are entering. Especially in the face of a culture that wants to erase any signs of knowledge of your age.
The planets are asking you to distill what you value as beautiful, talented and worthy down to a minimalistic understanding. Youth culture =death culture=dummy culture. It’s a distracted culture. Beyond it’s obvious charm and minute-meal nutrition it’s a waste of energy and space if you take it for serious. That’s not what serious is seeking. Especially not for you, not this week at the very least.
Though last week’s full bull moon in your Seventh House of relationships most likely highlighted an intimate other, this week most of the emphasis is on your commitment to yourself and all of the learning, studying and hard work that you have put into you over the past 2 plus years. Because unless you have been shirking every single one of your responsibilities you have been anything but distracted and frivolous with your time and energy.
You have the rare gift right now of being able to focus your mind on anything you wish. You also exhibit the immense talent of putting others off via how you put things verbally. There may be a fight itching to happen. There might be an argument or two in the making. Or there might be an idea that is so explosive, so powerful and so timely (like appreciating one’s age and wisdom) that it rockets your life forward so fast it bypasses all of the road blocks and speed bumps these last few years have placed in front of you.
Sagittarius & Sagittarius Rising
Use what you’ve got. Utilize any and all materials around you. Understand how money works in your life and how to get on the right side of your banker’s books. Get real and strategic with what you can do but don’t forget to leave room for the gift that ambition can give. You can make fire without a Bic lighter. You can build a life with the sheer spirit of a fighter. You can get the gold without being righter.
But you’ve got to be willing to build some pretty strong internal structures in order to find, feed and maintain the faith through all the ups and downs of the day. Delays don’t dictate failures. Having to wait for far too many years for clarity to come doesn’t mean that you haven’t succeeded. Not at all.
Rather it’s the other way round. Right now you get to understand the internal fortitude that you have built up in over the past couple of years. Right now you get to get down to the real fears and ferocious monsters that you’ve got tucked away in closets of all kinds.
Right now is your moment to get clear on what those beasts of burden have been hiding for you.
Yes, for you.
You may not have been ready to see them until now (no shade though). You may not have been willing to make room for them (though ignored monsters take up much less space in the bright light of day). You may not have been able to do what you were doing and tend to such grueling inner work.
But it looks like you are now so you may as well get yourself ready to steer the ship like a captain with no regrets because the last thing that you want is for your fears to stand in the way of your progress.
Capricorn & Capricorn Rising
If you could do anything what would it be? If money was no object and you had connections to everyone that you could ever dream of needing to connect with what would you do? If money meant nothing what would you dedicate your life to?
Get out your 1998 Nike shirt and wear it like it’s your church clothes, your best shabbat duds, your ritual regalia or your cutest club-gurl cocktail dress.
Just do it.
Do it. But don’t be a jerk when you are. Do it with some panache. Do it without losing your consideration for others, do it for the love of doing it and because you have the ability to do so right now. Because you do, so get it done.
You might be rousing some ruckus this week. You might be pissing off a few peeps, you might just be pissed but you also might just be in connection with a live-wire like energy that runs through you when you’ve got a goal in sight. Collect that magic juice, make a power smoothie out of it and down that sucker. Use the nutrients to conquer any and all stagnation that has recently set in.
.
Aquarius & Aquarius Rising
There’s a lot cooking in your cauldron. There are many an opportunity that you can begin to develop and take hold of. There are possible partnerships coming together so I urge you to be clear and concise about all you are about to get in bed with. Therefore I give you a few simple rules to live by this week, Water Bearer:
#1. Distillation is a process.
It takes time to figure out what it is that we really want to do. Enjoy the process of self-discovery. It unveils what a magical, enjoyable and alchemical process life really is. Right now it’s mighty important that you take the time and do the inner work necessary to get down to what excites you, drives you and gets your motor running. Much of your work is behind the scenes at the moment but it won’t stay that way for long. Enjoy the ride it’s really the only thing that you are promised.
#2. Clarification is a turn on.
Cut out all the BS, get down to brass tax and drive straight through needless drama and self-doubt that would otherwise divert your energy. Kittens and puppies get distracted. They can get away with it because they are so cute. You no longer have that crutch to rely on. Besides, only grown-ups get the gold.
#3. Finding out what really motivates you makes you unstoppable.
It’s like when your lover knows how to get you going with a turn of phrase and the graze of a revved up gaze. When you get down to what gets you weak in the knees all you need to do is put the moves on your motivation and you are off and running.
#4. Commitment is sexy.
When you commit to what you really want and not just what you think you are supposed to do you are dangerously desirable and everyone wants to work with you. Committing means that you are focused on accomplishing a goal, dream or vision for your life. It means that you are in the driver’s seat come well paved or gravel ridden roads. It means that you are your own road dog, down for whatever the ride may bring. And when it’s like that, Team You wins every time.
Pisces & Pisces Rising
Remember when we talked about you having to deal with it a few weeks back? Well, this would be what I was referring to. There is some pretty explosive astrology happening in your Eleventh House of friends, groups associations and allies. There may be a ruffle in the goose feather filled clouds that normally would distract you with their silver linings. You’ll have to weed out the bad seeds and call in the good deeds you’ve done for others in the past. You might need a friend right about now.
If everything is hunky dory in your friend and community domain then it’s high time you get together with those you share creative insights with and plot your plan for total global domination.
Work with those that share a common faith, philosophy, outlook or sense of purpose. Join forces with those that you know could teach you a thing or two. Hang out with folks that have a fire in their belly and passion in their blood.
Work with those that know how to make money, honey.
There is no need to be broke if there are other options on the table. It’s always good to surround yourself with those that know how to make coin doing what they love. Fulfilling one’s spiritual callings and filling one’s bank account needs not be separate situations. With Jupiter still in your Sixth House of employment there is a definite need for you to expand your sense of self in your daily grind and cash in on any of the relationships that you have nurtured with would be employers, clients and co-workers.