Venus In Taurus Trines Pluto In Capricorn

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It’s time to fertilize the roses; both literally & metaphorically! We have a lush Earth trine on our hands between Venus in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn at the moment (perfecting on June 24th), and as a result many of us may be seeing green over the next few days. This energy is just perfect for magnetizing money your way – if you’re looking to invest, secure a loan or financial backing, or enter into any kind of “merger and acquisition” endeavor, consider this astro your green light! One thing we do need to be cautious of with this planetary alignment is not to flex the plastic on a spending spree, though – this vibe can make it easy to rack up debt on things like fine fashions, beauty treatments, or pretty much anything, really.

If you need a little energetic help drawing things to you on the material plane, augmenting your fiscal intent with help from the plant & mineral kingdoms in particular is the thing to do now – prosperity herbs like basil or mint in your wallet coupled with abundance stones like jade or peridot can help. If you’re kitchen witching, seeing as how it’s peak strawberry season in my part of the world, now would be a good time to prepare foods featuring this fruit paired up with real vanilla bean (the sticky black seed pod as opposed to commercial extracts). Once you’ve scraped the seeds out of the bean, simply toss the husk into your sugar jar/bowl and use the “marinated” crystals to subtly scent/flavor a rose petal or rose hip herbal tea – there’s nothing quite like ingesting your magick, is there?

In other areas, Venus in Taurus trine Pluto in Capricorn facilitates the hooking up of “power players” for mutual pleasure and/or profit – perhaps even both. Invest in each other because this is the kind of thing where together the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts; the true essence of “synergy”. Collaborate and pool resources, as this can facilitate an enriching union where both parties become key influencers & establish a prosperous and enduring legacy.

If you’re feeling tempted to energetically help this process along, I cannot emphasize enough that Step #1 is to always start out with an open, heart-centered, free-will based intention whenever it involves others. Intent to align with a partner for the above purposes is all fine and good so long as we state this must be in accordance with the Highest Good of All and let The Universe figure out the “who” and the “when” part – that’s when the magick happens; when we relinquish the prospect of total control and trust. You can design a ritual for this purpose and prepare a mojo bag or sachet to carry with you to help attract this connection – plants like rose, apple, cherry, avocado, peach, geranium, and daisy along with cardamom, mandrake, vanilla bean, damiana, orris root, and passion flower do the job nicely while stones such as magnetite, rose quartz, and malachite can also aid. Perhaps if the goal involves a business alliance, consider adding one of the aforementioned prosperity stones to your mojo bag.

06/21/2017

Venus In Taurus Trine Pluto In Capricorn

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For those moments (i.e. NOW) when the astro has a modern-day “Orpheus & Eurydice” kind of feel and you need an appropriate melody: U2’s “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”

“All my life, I worshiped her
Her golden voice, her beauty’s beat
How she made us feel
How she made me real
And the ground beneath her feet
And the ground beneath her feet

And now I can’t be sure of anything
Black is white, and cold is heat
For what I worshiped stole my love away
It was the ground beneath her feet
It was the ground beneath her feet

Go lightly down your darkened way
Go lightly underground
I’ll be down there in another day
I won’t rest until you’re found…”

06/20/2017

Shamanic Chiron, Part 1

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“Jason and His Teacher” (Chiron) by artist Maxfield Parrish

In this writer’s humble opinion, Chiron doesn’t receive nearly enough astrological recognition – many people haven’t even heard of this relatively newer celestial object, so if you are one of them please don’t feel badly because I am about to change that right now. I plan to do a whole series on this topic as a matter of fact, so do stay tuned for more.  But for now let us begin with some basics, which involves a little background on this astrological body.   Let’s explore…

In 1977 Chiron was discovered in an expanse of space between the Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt – it was the first of its kind found and as such actually prompted the classification of a whole new variety of space objects; the centaurs. Chiron has always seemed to have a bit of a problem with labels – we might expect this with something named for a mythological demigod/horse “half-breed”. Astronomers first called it an asteroid, then a minor planet, comet, and finally seem to have settled on a combination comet/minor planet designation, with a few preferring to use the term “proto-comet”. Astrologically, we tend to place it under the catch-all umbrella of “asteroid” in much in the same way as the Sun and Moon are often generically lumped into the category of “planets” simply for ease. This is why we tend to hear far less about it comparatively speaking – in most astrological software, it has to be selected as an additional object to even be viewed in the chart.

I think this is a mistake, personally – if your chart has Chiron featuring prominently in it, you’re *going* to feel it and in a big way; similar to how you’d notice a broken toe that causes you to limp around for an unspecified period of time. And if you don’t splint it properly, you could even wind up favoring that foot for the rest of your life. Chiron conditions can, unfortunately, be chronic and have a crippling effect on body and/or soul…unless we avail ourselves of its Medicine. And while its brand of healing does improve symptoms/quality of life, it tends to be more palliative in nature as often there isn’t a solid, definitive, singular “cure” for its ailments.

Chiron shows where and how we have been deeply “wounded” to the point where structural integrity has actually been weakened and there is no “safe container” available hold that hurt. It also reveals where we must heal ourselves, learning through this process things that will actually help us to heal others – for this reason, it aligns with the Shaman or Medicine (Wo)Man archetype. Chiron has huge ties to health and wellness, the physical and spiritual “bodies”, as well as holistic and alternative treatments/modalities. It represents the Initiatory or Healing Crisis that becomes a rite of passage for those who would undertake this physical and spiritual “Journey”. I should mention at this point that I’ve actually worked with a good number of clients who follow such a path in terms of their own personal sacred beliefs and/or work (one is so often tied to the other with Chiron), and it is always, ALWAYS Chiron I find activated. Chiron is the “walker between worlds”; someone who straddles the liminal boundary between Earth (Saturn) and Sky (Uranus) – is it any wonder its physical orbit takes place in the space between these two planets? What I also find amazing about this is Chiron has a natural affinity for astrology – in Greek mythology he was *the* premier teacher of this Art, so it stands to reason Chiron-dominant individuals would tend to seek the counsel of astrology.

To be continued…   *** See also: Shamanic Chiron, Part 2

06/13/2017

Literal Astrology: Kathy Griffin vs. Donald Trump

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In case you hadn’t heard, comedian Kathy Griffin just made headlines (ugh, forgive the unintentional pun!) for posting a photoshopped picture of herself holding the severed head of the current president of the Unites States of America, Donald Trump. Setting opinions on this incident completely aside, it actually presents an incredibly interesting astrological case study of 1) How literal astrology can be 2) Why Fixed Stars matter from an interpretive standpoint. I will explain –

Contrast & compare to the pic Kathy Griffin posted, keeping in mind that she is the Capulus figure while Trump is the representative from Algol. You really can’t get much more literal, can you? And no, I’m not going to provide a side-by-side image comparison.

If you look at important Fixed Stars in Donald Trump’s chart, you will note the Midheaven of his chart – an angle of the chart relating to the public persona, image, reputation, career, and one’s  “branding” – splitting the middle between Fixed Stars Capulus and Algol.  Let’s talk about Algol first since it is the more significant of the two stars, which is found in the constellation of Perseus and specifically in Medusa’s head.  Algol has long been considered *the* most malefic star in the sky and to say Trump has made a rather hideous and infamous name for himself would be accurate.  Why?  The name “Algol” comes from the Arabic “Ras Al-Ghul” (fans of Batman will recognize this name), meaning “Head of the Demon/Ogre/Ghoul” and one with such a highly visible part of the chart featuring this star can (rightly or wrongly) expect to be Demon-ized precisely because the Midheaven of the chart is very much associated with public image and reputation. Slap that star prominently in a nativity and people will tend to react with (justified or unjustified) fear and loathing. Incidentally, it is worth pointing out that Trump is notable for his (bad) hair and if we revisit the mythos of Medusa we are reminded of how this Gorgon did have very distinct tresses, which were actually snakes.

Turning our attention over to Capulus, it is located in this constellation as well AND in the hand of Perseus that is swinging his severing sword, no less!  Capulus isn’t as significant a star as Algol and has little more than a referential footnote regarding eye problems attached to its effects, but check this out: Guess who has her Moon on Capulus (thus activating the dynamic between these two stars)? Yup, the now infamous comedian who just posted a photoshopped picture of herself holding Donald’s decapitated head – Kathy Griffin!  It is mind-boggling just how literal astrology can be at times, no?

This is a great example of why the consideration of Fixed Stars is important, folks – if you’re not considering them in your astrological interpretation, you should be.

06/03/2017

The Mars/Saturn/Chiron T-Square, Part 2

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Hamstring (verb): To cripple a person or animal via cutting their hamstring muscles.

Remember when I said the T-square of Mars, Saturn, and Chiron had a “decreased mobility” kind of feel? This can be taken metaphorically as well as literally. When you want to act but your hands are tied, or want to speak up but can’t because there’s a gag order in play – damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It can also represent a case of Writer’s Block due to a lack of time, energy, too much “pressure”, or even actual censorship. The Mars/Saturn/Chiron T-square is that rock-and-a-hard-place painful “Catch 22” situation where we’re squeezed between a pressing sense of desire and a greater sense of responsibility/repercussion. Options seem limited/as if there is a trade-off involved no matter what we do.

But what’s this? Mars is also makes a sextile to Uranus! We yearn for freedom, and get it by doing the unexpected. So yes, we *do* get to do something about the situation; just not in the way we initially thought. We have to do something…inventive…and perhaps even a little “crazy”. Because when all the options suck, the only sensible thing to do is find an alternative way of redefining the “problem” (Hint: It’s not what we think it is). And we may even have an ally in this courtesy of Venus’ approach to Uranus; a friend or companion who helps us to make a jailbreak out of this “stalemate”.

Perhaps the issue is we have been operating off logic and fear all the while neglecting to trust; forgetting that our intuition, Highest Self, and spirit Guides know at all times exactly what the right thing to do is. If we get quiet enough to listen (say through meditation, prayer, or Journeying), It/They may advise patience or in contrast beckon us across a bed of hot coals as an Initiation. Because that’s exactly what this hamstrung feeling is on a spiritual level: A shamanic rite of passage. Can we walk a path that cuts through fear and logic by suspending disbelief?

Odin hanging from the boughs of Yggdrasil as depicted in the Rider-Waite tarot.

05/30/2017

Mars/Saturn/Chiron T-Square

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Public Service Announcement: Mars in Gemini approaches a T-square w/ Saturn in Sagittarius & Chiron in Pisces! Extra caution & restraint is beneficial at this time in order to help prevent injury, because these are two malefic planets opposing one another while a particularly painful asteroid squares off with both! If you have planets or points in the late degrees (23-29) of ANY Mutable sign (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) take it extra easy because you’ll be directly tied into this. This T-square is strongly in effect now through June 5th, so until then do bear in mind the following:

On a physical level, do watch for the flare up (inflammation) of chronic pain; particularly from overuse/overwork, excessive compression (especially from too much standing), and/or general weakening from increased wear/age – overall, there is a “decreased mobility” feel to this energy. There may be issues with shoulders/hands/arms/fingers/lungs/nerves (Gemini) and/or difficulty with hips/legs (Sagittarius) – bone, joint, or arthritic issues may come into play as well with the Saturn involvement. Good alignment/posture may help – our bones need good support and aligning the muscles and joints in such a way as to avoid putting excessive pressure where it shouldn’t be is absolutely key. Also be aware that pain may not be straightforward to diagnose with Chiron in Pisces – it may be vague/diffuse/nonspecific/reflexive, or the actual cause may be obscured by symptoms that masquerade as something else. If you’re doing any activity and something in your body hurts, STOP DOING IT IMMEDIATELY – do NOT try to push through the pain to show how tough/strong you are! This is not a measure of your masculinity, boys (and girls)! If you exercise/work out, this is the kind of thing where you’ll want to make sure you (non-aggressively) stretch, are really mindful of your form, and avoid using too much weight.

On a somewhat related note specific to the Mars in Gemini end of things, know this can also be a verbally aggressive placement and a wounding war of words can occur – dealing/receiving a “sick burn” is a real possibility, so make sure to temper your tongue’s fire w/ caution & restraint (especially over topics like religion and politics). With Mars presently aligned with the constellation Orion, don’t club someone over the head just to make a point. And know that if you don’t self-censor, someone else may be tempted to do this for you – try & use the verbal energy of this Mars responsibly to heal rather than harm. And speaking of burns, ping-ponging back to the physical end of things once again, literal painful burns and cuts are possible under this vibe as well. Watch your arms/digits particularly – especially around sharp/hot objects – & immediately rinse the wound under cold running water if anything should happen. Apply pressure/a burn cream/topical analgesic quickly; don’t wait. And for the love of Divinity, since we have a long summer weekend here in the US, be cautious around any fireworks!

05/26/2017

Venus In Aries Square Pluto In Capricorn, Part 2

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Building upon my last post regarding Venus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn,

When you’re wondering what the counterpart male ”voice” of this energy might sound like and you get an answer in the form of another song:

 

“Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you

Look in my eyes
You’re killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

I tried to be someone else
But nothing seemed to change
I know now, this is who I really am inside.
Finally found myself
Fighting for a chance…”

 

I am forever and always saying that ultimately we are our own lowest common denominator in relationships. Sometimes it takes the breakdown of a union to strip it all bare and put us in touch with our core Self, the Shadow within, and what it is that we truly want out of a partner/partnership. Nothing gives us potent clarity surrounding the Good, Bad, and the Ugly of our love nature quite like having to face ourselves in the mirror of relationship. Power/control dynamics, possessiveness, jealousy…if we don’t like what we see reflected back, it’s time to nut up, do something about it, and dig down deep to heal/transform the heart and provide a more psychologically constructive underpinning.

Sometimes we are tempted to simply kill time in a defunct, non-compatible relationship because underneath we are afraid to face devastation (whether this be material, psychological, etc). Over time, this eats away at a union from the inside – when we stay wrongly matched with someone *period* or for the particular place we are at in our psychological development, emptiness can set in during this long, slow, steady process of deterioration. This includes partnerships that may have had a lot of initial “spark” but that in the longer-term had little actual compatibility – hot sex is a poor stand-in for real intimacy. But when Venus in Aries squares Pluto, this provides  the impulse and the bravery to break new relationship ground – when we hit that “stick a fork in it; it’s done” point in a union, a post-mortem autopsy is always useful. Strip it all down and look at the roots – what was the “seed” that bore this “fruit”?

05/24/2017

Venus In Aries Square Pluto in Capricorn

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NB: The literary voice I’ve adopted for this particular post is pointedly edgy – apologies in advance if you were looking for something fluffier and less gritty, but it’s important that I set the tone correctly in order to convey an accurate portrayal of a particular facet of this energy. Let’s set the stage then, shall we? Music please, maestro!


“Go on take everything, take everything, I want you to!
Go on take everything, take everything, I dare you to!

I told you from the start just how this would end;
When I get what I want, then I’ll never want it again…”

Venus in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn gives me the sense of a contentious divorce; people fighting over who gets what while pathologically trying to cling to tattered remnants of material security. Personally, I favor the Courtney Love approach above, as in “Go ahead and have it all” – this is a Spartan Venus we’re dealing with and as such sometimes the best “fuck you” isn’t hitting them in the wallet but proactively deciding for our own inner peace we don’t want the energy attached to their money or their things. It’s a “Get out of my life and take your shit with you!” kind of vibe; a purgative influence rather than one that chooses prolonged, messy, complicated (financial/material) entanglement.

Within the astrological community Venus/Pluto is all too often given the bad rap of being a “gold digger” or for being “vindictive in a divorce”. While this *can* be true in its Lo-Fi capacity, the higher functioning version wants nothing at all to do with “dirty money” or physical possessions that have any kind of bad energy attached to them and would much rather just do without. In an ugly relationship situation, the best cut Venus/Pluto can make is one that is as clean and virtuous as possible – nobody does a coup de grâce better than Hi-Fi Venus/Pluto. It’s a shame that in an astrological sense we so seldom see this pairing being given balanced credit for the kindness and fairness that it can also convey when dealing with endings and loss, and divorce is always a loss even in the best of circumstances. With Venus currently in Aries (the sign of Venus’s detriment), granted this will considerably less graceful than it would otherwise be, so in this particular instance the Courtney Love treatment does seem much more apropos.

05/23/2017

Jupiter In Libra Inconjunct Neptune in Pisces

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What is “marital bliss”, anyway?  As the inconjunct (or quincunx, if you prefer) between Jupiter in Libra and Neptune in Pisces perfects on May 17 2017, it is important to note this is truly a subjective ideal!  Many of us think about this in broad terms and haven’t bothered to clarify with ourselves/Divinity/The Universe what exactly that vision looks like to us – it’s nobody’s fault, really, likely the result of being indoctrinated since childhood with fairy tales that vaguely trailed off in this manner. “And they lived happily ever after….” May have been the last words we heard before drifting off to dreamland as youngsters; a nebulous but reassuring omnipresent narrative that helped put us to bed at night.

But what if we are Awake, and wondering?

The paradigm that such a thing happens as if by magic is so deeply embedded in the Collective Unconscious that many of us have been sleepwalking in a sense.  It probably hadn’t even occurred to us to separate personal philosophies about love, togetherness, and relationship from the ones that have been instilled from media, our moral and/or spiritual background, our faith, and/or culture. But with Jupiter in Libra awkwardly backing into contact with Neptune in Pisces, meditating upon this topic is essential – there are a lot of things that have been passed off as Universal Truths about relationships that, well, aren’t.  Think about all the myths and stories we may have absorbed via osmosis that could have distorted our own personal Truth about what a happy union is AND regarding what it is that specifically makes *us* happy within the context of partnership.  The inconvenient Truth is we’ve been lied to – there is an “Eat, Pray, Love” quality to this energy and from a relationship perspective if we don’t ever take the opportunity to reflect on this and separate the signal from the noise it can be a setup for major disappointment and/or disillusionment.  An adjustment is needed – lucky for us, the current inconjunct between Jupiter in Libra and Neptune in Pisces provides just such an occasion.

05/15/2017

A Jupiter In Libra Truth

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The above philosophy regarding elevating our partner has huge resonance during Jupiter in Libra; particularly while it makes repeated squares to Pluto in Capricorn (i.e. in the weeks surrounding Nov 24th 2016, Mar 30th 2017, & Aug 4th 2017).  To reiterate a key point about this energy, Jupiter in Libra is a time for (mutual) growth and happiness in a union, but ever since Jupiter turned retrograde back in early February 2017, it’s entirely possible that we’ve taken for granted this will happen automatically; with no effort on our part. That’s what can make Jupiter transits a letdown – we puff ourselves up with these overinflated hopes expecting that he will just drop a cosmic goodie bag in our laps.  Then when we perceive him as not delivering the goods, we become disappointed when really what we should have been doing all along was seeking opportunities from within to create the growth and happiness we hope for.

At the moment Jupiter in Libra is also sitting in a prolonged and uncomfortable inconjunct with illusory Neptune until late July (note this leads right up to the time frame of the final Aug 4th square between Jupiter & Pluto), and many may be attempting to tune out inconvenient Truths about their partner, the general state of their relationship, and regarding their own role pertaining to any disillusionment with either. There is an element of Divine Discontent conveyed by this awkward pairing that can make it difficult to put a finger on why we’re not exactly happy in a partnership.  It’s not abuse – that would be far too obvious. Neglect, however, is far more insidious, eroding away happiness until partners drift away from one another.  It seems innocuous at first so that we tolerate it; appearing “benign” enough that we don’t see the Truth of it in its entirety.  But even small leaks can turn into a cascading waterfall.  Perhaps we’ve forgotten to give our spouse a kiss before leaving for work – if it happens once, we might not think it a big deal. But sometimes this snowballs until all the love and affection has seeped out and we’re left sleeping in separate beds.

On occasion, we also might not realize that we don’t seem to have as much in common with one another as we did “once upon a time” – political and social views may have blurred our understanding of one another where we no longer see eye-to-eye and isolation trickles into the open space where there was once unity.  There is also the angle that couples don’t always grow together in a spiritual sense; an uncomfortable schism can indeed infiltrate a relationship, creating a wide gulf between orthodox “faith” and the more free-flowing “spirituality”.  Or maybe we simply can’t recall the last time a significant other paid us an honest compliment – whatever the case, these many different kinds of “trickles” can all have the potential to dissolve even a good union if there are enough of them.

If we value the relationship, however, we cannot continue to ignore such issues. Neptune’s current influence upon Jupiter in Libra can be one of estrangement, so unions become more vulnerable to this pervasive-yet-vague sense of general dissatisfaction that cannot quite be named.  If we’ve ever been “together” with someone and yet felt so alone, the current inconjunct between Jupiter in Libra and Neptune in Pisces can carry this same rippling sheen of sadness. Meditate on all of this now, and imagine what might happen if our Significant Other were to stumble upon a Price(ess) Charming who elevates them where we have neglected them.

05/03/2017