Category: Current Astrology

Jupiter Conjunct Unukalhai: Big Snake Medicine

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With Jupiter retrograde and passing over Fixed Star Unukalhai (AKA Alpha Serpentis; the primary star in the constellation of The Serpent), we definitely have some Big Snake Medicine in the air at the moment. Jupiter magnifies things, and in this particular case it’s the Serpent’s Heart being blown up for our view.  We’ve already seen big headlines hitting recently re: Donald Trump’s Alpha Serpent fixer lawyer, Michael Cohen, getting raided by the FBI – Jupiter has long had an association with lawyers and when near this Fixed Star it brings the crawling King Snake variety of attorney into view in a way that simply cannot be ignored. Per Fixed Star authority Vivian Robson, Jupiter conjunct Unukalhai presages “…deceit, banishment, imprisonment, or exile” – looks like somebody’s going to jail.  We’ll have to see what further developments arise when Jupiter makes a third and final pass over this star in late September/early October.

But nefarious political implications aside, Jupiter near Unukalhai can be looked at in a much more neutral context via animism.  Snakes have long been symbols of knowledge, occult wisdom, sex, kundalini energy, death & rebirth, “shedding” things in order to grow, and metaphorically keeping low in order to avoid detection – perhaps some or all of these themes benefit us now with benefic Jupiter within range of this star.

Interestingly enough, in Traditional astrology Jupiter is associated with dreams and several nights ago I was paid a visit by both a King Cobra and an Anaconda in the same dream – Alpha Serpent Medicine indeed!

Image credit: Michael Allen Smith

 

04/10/2018

Guardian Mars

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Mars is in a tricky position right now despite occupying his Capricorn fortress.  Marching across the ramparts to gain a superior vantage point, he assesses the conditions and notes hostile forces closing in on the castle from multiple directions.  Rather than send his troops out to meet his enemies on the battlefield, he issues the following order – “Fortify your positions and prepare to hold the line!”  The wisdom gleaned from having weathered many battles during his long and illustrious military career tells him this is going to be a waiting game. He’s sent word for reinforcements, though nobody knows if the messenger will survive the long and treacherous journey to the neighboring duchy.  But General Mars knows that if he yields to fear by allowing himself to be baited by his enemies into leaving the relative safety and protection of the castle walls in haste, the results could prove ruinous.  No; better to hold tight for now and make preparations.

This same advice applies to all of us at the moment.  If we’re engaged in any kind of conflict or can see one brewing on the horizon, patience, a cool head, and professionalism are indispensable.  No matter how tempted we may be to escalate things, the situation requires careful self-regulation now.  This is a chess game we’re definitely going to want to mentally calculate a few moves out as opposed to doing anything rash, because otherwise things may go downhill quickly; particularly if we find ourselves going up against an opponent with more status/clout/authority/seniority.  Though there’s a possibility the messenger may be captured or killed and reinforcements may not arrive on time, this is no reason to lose our head – we’re in a stronghold and won’t be taken down quickly or easily. Best for now just to stockpile ammunition and supplies while strengthening our position and awaiting aid from allies – Mars picks up support from Venus next week, potentially availing us of a comrade-in-arms.  Or at least someone who has resources to spare/share and is fighting on the same side – all we have to do is hunker down and ride it out for a bit; exhausting our adversaries by allowing them to grind themselves into dust against our fortifications.

04/02/2018

The Intimate Benefits Of Jupiter In Scorpio

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One of the perks of Jupiter in Scorpio as I’ve said before is how it has the capacity to improve intimacy, including our sex lives.  While some might be tempted to get this twisted and think “more” automatically equals “better” or follow in the philandering footsteps of the mythological Jupiter himself, this is really about elevating our beliefs and perspectives regarding intimacy in every sense of the word rather than focusing purely on the physical facet of fornication. Yes this particular placement certainly can increase sexual appetites, but this is an area of life we might apply a more insightful and empowering narrative around if we truly want to reap the benefits Jupiter in Scorpio has to offer to the absolute fullest – especially while Jupiter continues to sextile Pluto off and on throughout the year (Jan, April, & Sept 2018).

It’s important to understand that low-vibration intimacy is something to be avoided like the plague under Jupiter in Scorpio – Jupiter’s influence is primarily one that magnifies things; this can be in a dysfunctional capacity just as easily as it can be an enriching one.  Consequently, whatever vibe we’re approaching sex and intimacy with during Jupiter in Scorpio becomes amplified BIG TIME; wouldn’t we naturally want this to be something positive rather than negative, then?  Ideally, intimacy should always be an uplifting experience that we find deeply enriching and that expands the root system of a relationship.  It allows us to expose parts of ourselves that nobody else sees, and when it’s positively received and generously given back in kind this in turn increases trust and thereby strengthens the alliance.

This is a time to boost our overall consciousness about this area of life waaaaaay up rather than sleaze it up; particularly if it enhances our understanding, tolerance, and openness regarding anything that might relate to our biological sex, sexuality, or even sexual health.  So it’s definitely a “no” to anything that doesn’t better us in this respect; especially in the bedroom –  whether it’s a “Felon I’d Like to F***” kind of scenario, an insatiable sexual appetite masking a large and vacuous void hidden inside, mistaking major “intensity” and “complications” for true intimacy (See: 50 Shades of Grey), or hatef***ing the ex, the toxic side of this energy mustn’t be allowed to run free and wild.  All Scorpio energy holds the potential to consecrate or destroy, so being very conscious *not* to reward negative and/or self-destructive behaviors (like any of the aforementioned) with a dopamine hit is crucial.  This is why sex can be so powerful; best to make sure it’s being used as a force for Good rather than as a weapon of mass destruction.

03/27/2018

Jupiter Retrograde In Scorpio

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As Jupiter in Scorpio puts it in park before shifting into reverse (retrograde) gear tonight, the next four months present an ideal time to put our psyche under a magnifying glass and root out any possible inclinations toward destructive excess. Jupiter in Scorpio can have quite the Appetite for Destruction; a real vice for “more, more, more” whether that’s sex, food, maxing out the plastic on a deluxe shopping spree, or anything else – hey, if a little is good then more must be better, right? But when Jupiter traverses Scorpio this philosophy has the capacity be taken to an obscene degree; almost like something you’d see on one of those TV shows about hoarding.

However Jupiter turning retrograde in Scorpio tends to shift our psychological perspective to help us understand that any kind of Gluttony is in fact a Deadly Sin. So from now until around mid-July it is entirely possible to find ourselves overwhelmingly disgusted that we’ve overdone it in some area; prompting us to eliminate whatever this excess is. This process can be metaphorically akin to a “binge & purge” kind of scenario, and as such it would be extremely important that we examine the psychological underpinnings of why we compulsively stuff any kind of Void with “more, more, more”. This doesn’t even have to be an actual hardcore vice, either – you don’t have to be hooked on heroine/blow, blackout drunk, or 600+ lbs to know that your appetite for something may have gotten a little out of hand. It could be something comparatively more “benign” like caffeine, chocolate, carbs, sugar, whatever; something we’re overdoing in a way that’s bad for us because it feels so good. But if we were to dig a little deeper, what’s really driving us to mainline endorphins like this; why do we need that dopamine hit?

Jupiter In Scorpio: Terminal Positivity

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I want to talk about the notion that “positivity” is always a good thing – we love being upbeat because it feels…good, right? But like all things Jupiter-oriented, it does have the capacity to be harmful when taken to excess and it’s this angle that I want to discuss today with Jupiter continuing to traverse Scorpio until November 2018. Any planet tenanting Scorpio has to face its Shadow side for proper psychological integration, and when we’re talking about uplifting Jupiter this naturally entails an examination of how it’s possible to suffer from terminal positivity.

Let me begin by stating that I am generally of the opinion that what people choose to believe is their own business – as long as you’re not going door-to-door trying to promote your life philosophy to others and “convert” them, vaya con dios. I prefer “Live and Let Live”, so provided you’re not bothering me or mine by “correcting” others and telling them they’re “wrong”, have at it. But please bear with me, because for the purposes of this post I do need to outline how certain beliefs have the capacity to turn dysfunctional on us and this includes Jupiter’s optimism.

There is a point where positivity warps into something pathological and one of the primary indicators we have of this is zealousness; especially regarding the promotion of it. Jupiter in Scorpio can be prone to fanaticism because Scorpio is a sign of extremes, so it takes the moral, philosophical, political, and spiritual beliefs of Jupiter and applies them with passion. Now there is nothing wrong with believing something very deeply; however when this crosses the line to where we seek to impose our personal truth upon others (no matter if we think it for their own good and do it with a smile), this is a problem. This kind of coercion or manipulation does not respect the sovereignty of the individual and is in fact an intrusion – recall the saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

Another important point to consider is whether or not the “positive” individual is open to discussing different point of view. Scorpio energy can tend to make things very black-and-white, all-or-nothing and one of the signatures of terminal positivity is negating the existence of all that does not fit within its paradigm. If one is very fixed in their doctrine and finds it threatening to contemplate or discuss other ways of seeing things, they may seek to kill off anything they perceive as “negative” or “low vibration”. The keyword is perceive, though; it does not mean that in raising bigger-picture (social, cultural, moral, spiritual, political) questions that may be challenging to the individual’s views, one actually is being negative.  “Positive vibes only” becomes destructive when it loses context – for example, when it denies the existence of things like racism, sexism, classism, and all kinds of larger socio-cultural issues because it’s too busy white-lighting its aura in a protective bubble because we magnetically “receive what we believe”. To insist a “poverty mindset” is at the root of someone’s financial insecurity when corrupt and very real things like wage inequality still exist in the world is rather messed up, IMO – it is a very first-world problem to be able to negate the things that huge segments of the global society have been deeply affected by just because one has supposedly ascended above it all and says they have reached a level where it can no longer affect them. While it may be all fine and good that it doesn’t affect *your* reality, what about everybody else??

Perhaps the most reliable indicator that someone is suffering from a case of terminal positivity, though, is when this has twisted from being a helpful tool in combating a negative default inner monologue and turned instead into a covert weapon of smug condescension directed at those one perceives as having “stinkin’ thinkin’”. If this really is about making your life and the lives of those around you better, surely there is no need to pervert this with the taint of arrogant self-righteousness? When lifting yourself up involves kneecapping someone else, re-evaluate your ulterior motives because this is a dysfunctional, poisonous, and power-trippy philosophy.

02/19/2018

Saturn In Capricorn: Mastering Delegation

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The 3 of Pentacles as depicted in the RWS Tarot.

Saturn in Capricorn is a lot like being the General Contractor of a jobsite; something is under construction in whatever area of your chart Saturn is currently transiting and YOU are the foreman overseeing this whole operation. Now as the GC you don’t do all the work yourself – perhaps you take on the work that you’re most qualified to do, but you hire subcontractors to take care of the more specialized jobs like the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc. because 1) You acknowledge these aren’t your areas of particular expertise and 2) It frees up your time so your considerable experience can be put to better use ensuring that everything is being done the right way and in the proper order. Every building plan needs someone to supervise its execution – that, my friends, is YOU.

Or, to use a different analogy, Saturn in Capricorn is similar to being the CEO of a major corporation; you’ve put the systems, proper framework, and hierarchy in place so you can concentrate on making all those high-level executive decisions. No matter how much of a control freak you are, you can’t possibly do *everything* yourself and have to rely instead on the organizational backbone you’ve established to support you/your business.

Saturn in Capricorn is an uber-responsible vibe, so often when it contacts one of our planets or visits a particular House in our chart we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to TCOB. That’s all fine and good; we’re likely very ambitious and working toward some kind of monumental goal. But the weight of that burden may be heavier than expected, so it’s prudent to think about what labor can be delegated to others in order to make the load more manageable. This is not to be confused with pawning off our duties; rather it’s about orchestrating all the proper elements and putting the right support structures in place so we can reach that finish line. Mastering the Art of Delegation is important if we want to be successful during the roughly 2 ½ years that Saturn visits this sign, so by all means hire help, tag out and enlist the support of someone who’s more experienced/qualified at a particular task, and generally put people to work for you if/when possible. You don’t have to be a GC or CEO to do this; try it in any context that works for you/your situation.

01/25/2018

Chiron Trine Mars Redux: Healing Anger

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AngerIsNatural

NB: The following is an updated repost.

Mars in Scorpio sure has been bringing a lot of internal sludge up to the surface and putting it front-and-center for us all, serving it up raw-and-bleeding-style. It gets pretty hard to ignore our character defects under this vibe, as Mars in Scorpio is all about facing down anything grotty lingering in dark corners of the psyche.  Now with the Red Planet in contact to healing asteroid Chiron once again, let’s direct our attention to the tremendous healing potential afforded to us by this energy.

With Mars in Scorpio, what we are fundamentally looking at is the destructive side of anger and how it can implode on us from within if we don’t transform it. Before I go any further, let me just state that I strongly disagree with the general New Age mentality that entails automatically slapping a “negative” label on emotions such as anger – I don’t believe in judging any natural, organically-occurring emotion as being inherently “bad”.  All emotions serve a legitimate purpose, and our ire can also be a vastly effective motivational tool when channeled properly.  But for the purposes of this post, right now we’re going to be discussing the more pathological side of anger, as any planet found in Scorpio can easily corrupt if we’re not digging for the insight that allows us to turn it into a source of empowerment.  It is the nature of the beast after all; Scorpio is either the Scorpion or the Phoenix, as it is a sign of extremes.

So Mars through Scorpio (since Dec 9, 2017) has involved many of us getting face-to-face with our “demons”; anger being one of them.  But with The Red Planet now in harmonious contact with Chiron in Pisces, we start to heal this with things like compassion, acceptance, and forgiveness.  We come to an understanding that – underneath it all – anger is often just a reaction to pain, and we start confronting it instead of denying so it can be dissolved, released, and ultimately healed. Perhaps the source of this is frustration, or even deeply buried grief – if we’re into working with the metaphysical properties of stones and crystals at all, the energy of Apache Tears may be helpful to this end.  Regardless, this is a fabulous time to bravely face the REAL source of our rage: Our pain. The blessing inherent in Chiron/Mars contacts is they do tend to bestow motivation to “heal thyself”, where we are driven to seek wholeness rather than act from a place of woundedness. Along this vein, anger (especially the chronic variety) can take energy away from our individual healing process, so when we’re pissed off about something know the answer isn’t always the outward-based focus of having it out.  Sometimes it lies instead in retreating to look within so we can reflect upon the way(s) this emotion may not be truly serving us, and seeking to mend that which has been doing more harm than good.

01/18/2018

Saturn In Capricorn: The Era Of “No”

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Beginning on December 19th 2017, we’ve ushered in a new era: The Era of “No”. Whilst Saturn resides in Capricorn for roughly the next two and a half years, we are firming up our boundaries, ensuring that our time and work is respected, and turning down/away those who can’t grok this; especially so if they can’t get it together or generally behave like mature adults. This is the era of shutting shit down, folks – from the habitual line steppers, to the clueless flakes, to the chronically needy; there’s going to be a whole lotta “no” going on. As in:

Do not pass go, do not collect $200; go directly to jail – Gandalf has just become our steely new boundary-setting Saturn in Capricorn mentor  😉  No, you don’t get to take up someone’s time/energy/space free of charge. No, it’s your responsibility to be in charge of your own life, thank you very much. And no, you don’t get to suck on this teat anymore #SorryNotSorry. Saturn in Capricorn is the line-in-the-sand giving us the firm resolve to put a stop to the things that should be stopped.

On the other side of the coin, we also need to be mindful not to take this too far – we must be sure to check ourselves before checking others, because otherwise it can be easy to O.D. on this parental “enforcer” type of vibe and get too big for our britches. Saturn in Capricorn = knowing our role; what it is, what it isn’t, and staying squarely within the bounds of our own authority.

Mars In Scorpio Anger

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Mars in Scorpio: For those moments in life when you want to do the genocide playthrough 😈

To say Mars in Scorpio has a volcanic temper would be an understatement – any Hadean* Mars is super potent, but the murderous rage unleashed by this placement is fully capable of making the Showdown at House of Blue Leaves chapter in Kill Bill look “cute”.

Rather than resort to violence, though, this placement is arguably most effective at psychological warfare.  It doesn’t even *need* to get physical; it’s a freaking ninja at psyching an opponent out. For Mars in Scorpio, sometimes just the insinuation of what it will do to you should you rouse its favorite vice (that would be Wrath BTW, in case you haven’t already figured this out) is more powerful than actually unsheathing its blade.

Although that’s not to say one might not occasionally be compelled to do so just to remind people they’re not screwing around…😉

*Footnote: For the purposes of this post, a Hadean Mars is construed to mean Mars in Scorpio, Mars in aspect to Pluto, or Mars located in the 8th House.

12/26/2017

Message From Saturn

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As I ran down the hill to reach the end of my first mile, I noted an elderly gentleman standing roadside by his mailbox.  I thought nothing of it at first but then I saw that after retrieving his mail he just stood there, watching me pass by with a cheerful expression on his face as he clapped both hands together. “Keep going – you can do it!” He urged as if I were some kind of marathon runner he was rooting for.  Maintaining my pace I smiled and replied, “Thanks – I try!  Some days are harder than others but today’s not too bad.  Have a good one!” as I ran past.

Right after I finished speaking I was struck by how this exchange was actually a great metaphor for life while simultaneously taking comfort that Saturn – in the form of this senior citizen – was offering me encouragement to persevere.  “If only you knew, Old Man….” I thought to myself with a wry smile.  😉

With Mercury currently conjunct Saturn for a second time (exact on December 6th), we’re all getting similar “Saturn Mail” at the moment; that is to say we should be paying special attention to the messages delivered to us from elders, parents, teachers, and other Saturnian “authority figures” now.  This conjunction perfected for the first time on 11/28; a date when I not coincidentally had a lovely dinner & conversation with a retiree friend. Because of Mercury’s retrograde, the third and final conjunction of these two planets won’t be until 1/13/2018 but do look for similar refrains between these 3 dates to see what messages Saturn may have for you – hopefully, you’ll be on good (or at least speaking) terms!

Statue of Mercury atop Grand Central Terminal, NYC. Photo credit: Purple74

12/04/2017