Life With Venus/Pluto

A half-humorous, quick-and-dirty way of determining whether or not you have this energy signature present in your chart – how many of these themes can YOU resonate with, huh?

  • You have at least one ex-friend/ex-partner who turned stalker on you at some point. Double bonus points awarded if you can claim both, LOL.
  • The words “It’s complicated” could probably best sum up your love life at any given point in time.
  • You describe yourself as a staunchly loyal ally – if you manage to make an enemy out of the loved one of someone with Venus/Pluto, for all intents and purposes you should probably consider yourself dead to the Venus/Pluto individual as well.
  • You’ve had at least one significant relationship that you would classify as “pretty screwed up”. On the plus side, though, going through relationship hell can give a deep level of insight that heals dysfunctional patterns of relating – especially as it relates to self-worth.
  • Affinity and animosity do seem intrinsically tied to one another with this pairing, and sometimes the line between the two is very thin. Some who initially found themselves put-off by your energy (for whatever reason) may one day turn around and become your closest allies, while those you once held an alliance with may at some point come to develop enmity for you. Love can easily turn to hate or vice versa with this pairing – whether this is within the context of close personal friendships, romantic unions, or a business partnership – and people may seem polarized as to whether they adore or detest you.YouHadMeAt
  • You’ve ever bonded with someone else over your mutual dislike for another person, LOL.
  • You’re inclined to intimidate would-be suitors who might be inclined to describe you as “pretty, but a little bitchy”.
  • Intimacy is a must for you in your closest associations – cut the superficial B.S., cause we’re goin’ in DEEP!  For you, loving someone means you can bare it all – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and trust them to keep your secrets.
  • Each major relationship has in some way significantly transformed how you love.

So how did you do? Are any of these past or current themes in your life? If so, you just might have some Venus/Pluto in you! 😉

06/22/2015

The Pluto/Saturn Mutual Reception, Revisited

Saturn is just about to dip back into Scorpio tomorrow for a final 3 month long foray before leaving this sign for good (well, the foreseeable future, anyway!) in September. This reignites a mutual reception between Saturn and Pluto, as both planets will once again come to reside in each other’s domicile. The vibe of this is heavy and intense, and one thing that has been a recurring theme for me in contemplating the co-mingling of these energies over the last 2 1/2 years is the concept of a power:weight ratio.

The power:weight ratio is something you hear about often within the context of auto racing circles. You want enough weight on your vehicle to keep the rubber on the road – this helps you to have better control and avoid doing a wheelie, as the most effective use of energy always involves a straight line since the least amount of waste occurs when this happens. But you also don’t want so much weight on your car that too much drag is created, as this would essentially render your horsepower ineffective.

If we were to take this premise and look at it in a more metaphorical sense, Saturn is an energy that we associate with weight; i.e. responsibility, burden, duty, etc.. Pluto, on the other hand, concerns our personal power and the ability to make major gear shifts (transformations) in life. It is the internal combustion powerplant that takes stored energy and transmutes it into kinetic energy in order to propel us forward.

It takes skillful management – and sometimes lots of trial and error – to get this ratio just right. We need to be grounded in reality and aware of the responsibilities we carry so that we use our personal power correctly and not corruptly. Doing so prevents us from the repercussion that would otherwise come from dumping them off somewhere they don’t belong. Conversely, we also need to be very aware of the weight of duty so that it doesn’t suck us down the tubes, because it does have a definite undertow now. Some time ago, I wrote in one of my newsletters about how this is an optimal time to cut losses – when we’ve invested a lot of time, money, energy, support, etc. in something or someone and it just hasn’t provided a concrete return for our efforts, we also need to know when it is time to fold. It is self-protective to do so and provides us a lesson in survival basics to cut the rope on any anchor we’ve been holding that would otherwise pull us under.

I believe there is value in honoring our commitments even when the road seems treacherously difficult. But that said, when this moves to an extreme point that it actually on some level threatens to kill us (psychically, emotionally, energetically) with its crushing weight, this is something altogether different. Under this mutual reception, I have seen a lot of people learning the hard way to protect their energies by cutting certain ties – even when they have been previously afraid to do because of the prospect of loss (emotional, financial, etc.). I have also witnessed those who have had the weight of the world held up on their shoulders (either by circumstance or on a self-imposed basis) and cringed when this got to the point their knees eventually bucked under the strain and they were sent crashing to the ground. Being “the strong one” or “Man/Woman of Steel”, if you prefer, can carry its own shadow – it may actually be something that limits intimacy and the capacity for deep exchange on a soul level. If this sounds like a resonant theme in your life, definitely work on it, because this mutual reception is all about grinding out our psychological “baggage” so we can fortify ourselves from the very core of our being outward and reclaim our power.

This mutual reception says above all else: Learn exactly what you can (or can’t) let go of. If a debt is legitimately yours, make good on it because this will help keep Saturn’s karmic “wheels” (or perhaps that’s “rings” LOL?) planted firmly on the ground so they don’t come boomeranging back at you later. But don’t keep a death grip on a burden that is not yours (or entirely yours) to bear, either, because it can crate hellacious drag and under this energy others may be all too willing to try pawning theirs off on good old reliable, responsible You – shut that shit down! There is a higher likelihood of there being joint responsibilities (energetically, emotionally, fiscally) in a scenario that has broken down now – accept only your part in it and don’t take on somebody else’s shit on top of your own, because doing so robs them of the necessary lesson that they do indeed have to clean up their own messes.

If you are dealing with a situation in your own life where your energy is feeling sapped but you are unsure of whether or not the right thing to do is to suck it up or to stop and drop, consider putting a hard deadline on making a firm decision about whether to pull your chips out. Ideally, this would be before Sept 17th when Saturn leaves Scorpio for good and this mutual reception comes to a close.

06/13/2015

Saturn Has A Theme Song….

….And this is what it sounds like:

Much as I love the original, I must say I’m quite taken with this cover.

Lyrics:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run; you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say…

A frightfully apt song with Saturn passing back into Scorpio – especially when we take into account the broader astrological context that it will eventually creep toward a square with Jupiter/Venus in Leo during early August! If ever an advertising slogan fit a particular transit, I’d say the old Reebok tagline “Life is short; play hard” seems pretty damn apt for this upcoming square. Jupiter + Venus in Leo is hedonism to the nines, ostensibly spurred by Saturn’s realization that it could all end at any moment and that nothing in life is guaranteed except death and taxes.

I think that if you’re grimly hanging onto anything that you shouldn’t be at this point in life and thinking you still have time to make up for it, the tension of this square could be quite the wakeup call. Entrenchment in defunct situations because we are locked in and too afraid to let go (perhaps due the prospect of loss) could be preventing something wonderful and life-affirming from entering our lives – things like happiness, abundance, joy, and love, for example. When Venus and Jupiter are in league, our cups may runneth over…but with Saturn and Pluto back in mutual reception once again, there may be a contrasting psychological barrier where we’re putting ourselves on lockdown for some reason. Perhaps in true Saturn/Pluto fashion, we find ourselves making an effort to delay the inevitable and may fear the potentially life-changing ramifications of opening ourselves up to whatever opportunities Venus & Jupiter present. Saturn squaring Venus especially calls to mind possible issues regarding self-worth that inhibit pleasure because on some level we might not feel deserving of this bounty. While we can’t take it all in one bite and forgo paying the piper entirely with this square, we can certainly work on any psychological complexes that stand to limit personal growth and fulfillment.

Ergo, during this square I say to hell with the concept of “hanging on in quiet desperation”- in a case like this, I think it’s important we know when to quit and then steel ourselves to take that hit, because the alternative may mean staying stuck in a dysfunctional scenario that does indeed have severely limited growth potential. Jupiter & Venus in Leo are all about opening and expanding the Heart Center; especially as it relates to self-love. Remember they are the Greater and Lesser Benefics, respectively – are you sure you want to shut the door on them if they come knocking?

06/09/2015

Venus Sextile Mercury Thought Of The Day

Can you assimilate a compliment?

From “Women Who Run With The Wolves”:

“There is probably no better or more reliable measure of whether a woman has spent time in ugly duckling status at some point or all throughout her life than her inability to digest a sincere compliment. Although it could be a matter of modesty, or could be attributed to shyness – although too many serious wounds are carelessly written off as “nothing but shyness”- more often a compliment is stuttered around about because it sets up an automatic and unpleasant dialogue in the woman’s mind.

If you say how lovely she is, or how beautiful her art is, or compliment anything else her soul took part in, inspired, or suffused, something in her mind says she is undeserving and you, the complimentor, are an idiot for thinking such a thing to begin with. Rather than understand that the beauty of her soul shines through when she is being herself, the woman changes the subject and effectively snatches nourishment away from the soul-self, which thrives on being acknowledged.”

This is an apt thought for consideration with Venus in Leo – who loves praise – now in a sextile to a very verbal Mercury in Gemini.  Do you know how to accept a compliment graciously? If not, isn’t this a skill worth acquiring?

06/08/2015

Sure Signs That Jupiter Is In Leo…!

….Your “Intro to Ballroom” dance class is full to capacity and then some! The enthusiasm and encouragement of your ballroom Guru is positively contagious, creating a warm and festive atmosphere that fills up the room to the point of overflowing. Your heart rate is elevated; the dew in your mane collecting at the nape of your neck and causing stray wisps of hair to spring into buoyant curls. The upbeat tempo of swing and joy of just having fun has you bubbling over with exuberance and laughter.

From the Robin Wood Tarot.  Doesn't our King just look like he's extending an arm to his lady and asking her to tango? Grab that hand - it's time to dance!
From the Robin Wood Tarot. Doesn’t our King just look like he’s extending an arm to his lady and asking her to tango? Grab that hand – it’s time to dance!

Everybody has a King/Queen of Wands somewhere within them – these archetypal monarchs have joie-de-vivre in spades and absolutely lust for life! Venus has just entered Leo and will eventually augment Jupiter, so don’t be a wallflower because this is a time to put yourself on display! Leo is a consummate performer and entertainer, so why not give ‘em a show? We have expanded access to these fiery archetypes within our personas now and can easily connect to our vivacity, creativity, confidence, and belief in ourselves as talented individuals, so show the world how YOU shine!  All the world is your stage – embrace the close-up!

06/06/2015

Mercury Square Neptune: Message In A Bottle

MessageInABottleCommunication always gets weird when Mercury squares Neptune, but just fuggedaboutit when Mercury is also retrograde on top of this! You’ve got about as much of a chance of getting your message across as Sting did when he was marooned on that desert island, LOL! Now I have the unfair advantage of always having the lay of the astrological land 24/7 – I know what astro-energies are in play at any given point in time so am generally able to avoid many of the problematic manifestations of a particular vibe. But I am not infallible, and sometimes there are things that just cannot be avoided despite performing your due diligence.

It goes without saying this is generally a screwed-up time for getting communiqes across (barring assistance via Divine Intervention of course, LOL), but I still chuckle and shake my head whenever something goes awry.

Exhibit A: My spam filter randomly decided to act up on me and hold an important message hostage in a place where I couldn’t immediately see it. Thankfully, I’m pretty good about checking these things – especially during Mercury Rx – so it’s not as if it was lost and left floating around in the ethers indefinitely.

Exhibit B: I had to send an item out in the mail during this square – it needed service and I couldn’t wait the 6+ weeks it was going to take for Mercury to be A) direct and B) free of this square with Neptune. I had a feeling The Trickster was going to screw with me on this one, naturally, so I double checked that I was copying down the mailing address correctly, got insurance, delivery confirmation, made sure I had proper postage, took extra precautions to ensure it was packaged properly so it wouldn’t be damaged in transit, and made sure my penmanship was über legible (not usually a problem anyway when you write in BLOCK CAPS, LOL). I then decided that I couldn’t be too careful, so on top of all this I invoked Mercury’s blessing with a brief litany to Hermes. And what do you think happened?? The $%^&*!# thing came back to me anyway, LOL – sort of like that damn yellow cat! Apparently, somehow the address I had gotten for their service department was an old one, so my package couldn’t be delivered. Arg!

Whenever Mercury is retrograde, it is for sure a test of our flexibility. We have to learn to relax and let that which does not matter truly slide – the devil may be in the details when this planet backtracks, but sometimes you can make every attempt possible to cover all your bases and it still won’t matter.  Sometimes Mercury is just going to thumb his nose at you and you’re far better off just laughing *with* him than thinking you’re going to outsmart him. Either that, or figure out how to perfect telepathy, LOL! :-p

06/04/2015

Sadges On Jupiter In Leo

A group of Sadges partying hard under Jupiter in Leo, LOL!  Image from Disney's Fantasia.
A group of Sadges partying hard under Jupiter in Leo, LOL! Image from Disney’s Fantasia.

Ever since Jupiter arrived in Leo last summer, nothing has brought out the party animal in Sadge quite like this energy! But maaaaaybe it might be time to dial it back a bit, yes? We know how this sign already tends to do things to the max (read: excess) – and being on Jupiter in Leo 24/7/365 has definitely strengthened the inclination to perhaps overdo it a bit when it comes to having a good time.

But with the longer-running influence of Saturn passing over your Sun at some point during the next 2+ years coupled with the fact that Jupiter will soon slip into Virgo, it may be time to dial it back a bit, no? Saturn transits always call for the cultivation of self-restraint – couple this with Jupiter passing into wellness-oriented Virgo in a few months, and it may be time to think about cleaning up your act before your health suffers for it, yes?

06/01/2015

More Mercury Square Neptune Messages

For those who grieve over troubled sibling relationships under Mercury square Neptune – a perfectly fitting and possibly cathartic listening/viewing experience:

Mercury represents our brothers and sisters, Neptune can signify the dissolution of this bond; the sadness and suffering connected to a brother or sister becoming “lost” to us. Perhaps there is an estrangement, or heartache caused by a substance abuse issue, for example. But if this is indeed a source of sorrow, I think it important to retain an elastic heart. Stretch the heart center; keep it open and allow yourself to feel the softer emotions like grief and compassion that are often hiding behind feelings like anger and frustration, even while acknowledging What Is and giving the situation over to The Universe/Divinity to handle. Sometimes the state of things just cannot be helped – we are often powerless in situations where someone dear to us chooses a path that hurts themselves and/or others. But it is still possible to connect to unconditional love for a sibling on the spiritual plane and wish them healing and wholeness, even as you do what is necessary to love and protect yourself on a physical/emotional level. Finding forgiveness in our hearts to bless and release the situation can at least help us to accept the things we cannot change and reach some measure of serenity.

05/21/2015

Mercury Square Neptune’s Jedi Mind Tricks

Remember that when Mercury in Gemini squares Neptune Pisces, words can (and usually do) have two meanings.  Is ambiguity a subtle form of trickery?
Remember that when Mercury in Gemini squares Neptune Pisces, words can (and usually do) have two meanings. Ambiguity may be a subtle form of trickery – read the fine print and don’t ignore. Especially if you’re buying a cell phone, LOL.

So if you’ve been paying attention to the astro-climate lately, you know that mental Mercury has been squaring illusionary Neptune since the beginning of May and this will continue to be the case through most of June. Mercury is associated with sleight-of-hand, while Neptune’s penchant for smoke and mirrors makes it all too easy to be fooled by the information our eyes and ears provide now, especially given the fact that Mercury just turned retrograde yesterday. There is something akin to a hypnotic suggestion inherent in this energetic pairing, not unlike Obi-Wan’s famous incantation, “These are not the droids you are looking for”.

Indeed, we have to filter information more carefully than ever now to avoid either being deceived OR deceiving ourselves. There is something about this energetic coupling that can tend see data as a buzzkill, so it doesn’t ask because it would prefer *not* have anything hard to go off of. Sometimes, it would rather just not know and it’s this kind of voluntary ignorance that has the ability to be quite harmful now. It’s far from bliss and more like an opiate (or perhaps “glue fumes” is the better analogy, LOL) that impairs cognitive function and maybe even kills a few brain cells.

Mercury is naturally curious – that’s what it does; it asks questions. Neptune’s soft edges, however, may tend to dissolve any inclination to help us fact check in this manner so we can be sure our stories are straight. What if we found out important information was being hidden from us? Or that someone has pulled fraudulent figures from their ass in an attempted ruse?  What if gossip were literally “unbelievable” and turned out to be total BS?  Could we be deliberately handwaving pertinent facts away because our sympathies are aroused and/or we’re idealistic about a “cause”? We can only stick our heads in the sand for so long before it comes back to bite us, ya know, even if we think we are being a sucker charitable. And with a total of 3 exact squares hitting between these planets by the time June ends, it might be a good idea to do a little more research before aligning ourselves with something/someone we *think* is for The Greater Good. Because that’s exactly the kind of guise deception is apt to come cloaked in with this astro. All is not as it seems, and making decisions based upon what we *want* to believe could possibly leave us hoodwinked – remember that Lo-Fi Neptune can be quite the greaseball. So don’t succumb by drinking any mind-numbing Kool-Aid, kids – stay sharp, stay sober, and definitely read my tips for how to find your way to clarity under this influence.

If we *have* been in denial about key details or had material facts obscured by somebody else, expect to have news or knowledge of this around the 3rd week of June, if not sooner. And if it’s something *really* big, it’s wholly possible this could even drag out until later this year or even 2016 when King Of Clarity and Reality Check Supreme Saturn reactivates the echoes of this square. Methinks there may be some hard truths coming out around the holidays this year, and if we don’t want to run the risk of having the magic of the holiday season dampened, best get a jump on finding lucidity now just in case, yes?

05/19/2015

Of “Pollen Tsunamis” & Mercury Square Neptune!

GreenWave1

Jeez, I guess I called that one…! While watching the local news and waiting for the weather forecast to come on, I overheard a story about a so-called “pollen tsunami” hitting this year and started chuckling to myself. Basically, medical experts are saying this is a particularly bad allergy season and that even people who don’t normally suffer from the affliction are dealing with it for the first time – here’s a related article about it.

Now allergies certainly *aren’t* funny so that wasn’t at all what I was laughing at, but what I did find amusing was the fact that I had just addressed this very subject in my May newsletter (published on May 1st)! See the following excerpt:

If you’re a seasonal allergy sufferer, I feel like this could possibly be an especially touchy month for hay fever with Mercury squaring Neptune for the majority of it. Though you’ll read about one facet of this energy in the May editorial, on a physical level Mercury-Neptune energy also has to do with environmental sensitivities that could disturb the immune system, so this would be a really good time to minimize contact with things like VOC’s, mold, dust, pollen, etc. with the use of a good air filtration system. If your home’s heating & cooling system is equipped with a filter, maybe think about changing it. Or think about getting a portable HEPA air purifier you can stick on your headboard or nightstand to clean the air while you snooze. Also think about your pets – even if you are not allergic to pet dander, if they are indoor/outdoor critters there is a good possibility their fur could trap pollen, so maybe think about giving Fido or Fluffy a few extra baths this month to cut down on sneezing and wheezing? You might want to wash their bedding, too.”

GreenWave2Now I typically write my newsletter content (at least, the editorial portion) weeks or sometimes even months in advance, but I’ve found it easiest to actually publish it and send it out on the first of each month for consistency’s sake, so it’s not like I had any kind of head’s up about this big pollen wave coming other than by looking at the astro. Astrological students will probably get the same kick out of this I did in noting how this phenomenon is being labeled a “tsunami” and it’s The Lord of the Seas (Neptune) we have involved in this 7 week long square with Mercury! It’s definitely not a coincidence, that’s for sure!

So those with seasonal allergies should prepare to strap in as this energy unfortunately won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.  Consider the above-mentioned tips to help alleviate symptoms caused by this Green Wave and remember this square will hang around until after the Summer Solstice, so we have a while to go yet.  You could also try something like a nettles tincture or tea to see if this helps your symptoms, visit with an acupuncturist, or see a naturopath to help you figure out other strategies to keep your head above water during this peak time for hay fever.

05/13/2014