Mercury Square the Nodes from Scorpio |what is beneath the words, stuck in a loop, hearing what we might not want to hear, walking our talk, the unavoidable facts, uncomfortable conversations that are worth having, seeing the patterns - MAKING A PLAN

in.my.head by lunariya

Yesterday's astrology was so gnarly that although I wrote about it in the weekly HERE (Mars square Venus, Mercury opposing Uranus) I didn't want to put my thoughts (which are things) onto paper again.

Whatever this was for us - maybe unexpected or abrupt information, frustration - I'm not going to rehash all the possibilities. We know these are challenging times and this week is particularly harsh.

Our Scorpio house is stressed.

After her opposition with Uranus yesterday, Mercury slips into square with the North and South Nodes of the Moon today (2 degrees - Scorpio, Aquarius, Leo).

This indicates an important piece of information comes to us now - maybe something we don't want to know, but just as likely something that points us in a particular direction. There is a conversation/discussion to be had and with that Venus/Mars square still so tight - it could be confrontational and might be connected to something from the past.

Venus (as us) is swimming backward through the dark waters of Scorpio now, so we are re-viewing, re-vising and re-turning to old situations. This doesn't mean we aren't moving forward. We are. It does mean though that totally new things are kind of "moving against the tide". So, when the tides turn (when Venus stations direct or when she starts covering new degrees) our fortunes with those things can, too. So, we could put alot of time/money/energy into something now that won't pan out in the long run. On the other hand the time/money/energy we are using to - review, revise and return - we know are being put to a good use. Maybe what didn't work before, can work out this time. Old opportunities come back around. Remember, Venus is in Scorpio - the sign of other people's resources and the ways we merge ourselves with other people - there is old gold to be mined now.

For today - and you may have received this information yesterday - pay attention to what triggers you. The fight about the garbage isn't really a fight about the garbage. The uncomfortable conversation with your boss is important. That late notice is important. That thing your kid just said to you that made you hold your breath is important. That song that gets stuck in your head is important. 

We are being put on notice. That Aquarius situation, that is very old and very deep - the past life (childhood) trauma, alienation, what happened to us before when we spoke out/when we were uniquely ourselves, when we detached - is ripe for release and here is the information (that yes, could even come through the mouth of an a**hole boss or client) that pushes us toward that Leo North Node - our heart, our children, our creativity, our happiness, that stage that sits empty because it is intended solely for us and we are off hiding in the audience.

Pay attention to the facts that come out now.

There is a nice trine between Pluto (ruler of Scorpio and a hugely important player right now) and Pallas in "dot your i's and cross your t's" Virgo right now. Pallas is excellent energy for strategies, think warrior mode here (where we get to win) and in Virgo is highly effective.

So, make a plan. Step by step. One foot in front of the other. This isn't about making dramatic changes right now (although that Leo North Node does love drama!), but it is about taking practical steps. What has to be done to make the numbers add up? Do more of that. What is working? Do more of that. What isn't working gets cut. Get concise. Look for patterns. Think like a general (or an accountant!). Figure this sh*t out. These energies are activated within us now and want to work with/through us.

We have access to their collective firepower and remember both Venus and Mercury are answering to Pluto!

That trine to Pluto makes the practical VERY powerful right now.

xo all

(whatever news is playing out in the collective now - I admit I have stepped away from it for a couple days - will be important, too)

New Moon in Libra | October 8, 2018 - power imbalances, hard truths, holding ourselves together, planting the seeds of the old fruit, almost time to rebuild

The Catcher by Wonder Milky Girl

Some of today's post I am going to pull from MONDAY in the weekly, but some of it will be new. I thought, after re-reading yesterday's post last night, I might have colored it too darkly with my own current circumstances, so am going to break it down a bit differently here and we'll see if we end up in the same place or with a new vantage point.

The Moon entered Libra on Sunday night at 9:10PM EDT focusing us on Libran themes for the next couple days - partnerships, balance, justice, cooperation, diplomacy. Libra is the sign of relationship.

Before she meets the Sun at 15 degrees Libra (11:47PM EDT) she will square Saturn and trine the South Node (3 degrees), square Vesta (6 degrees), trine Black Moon Lilith (7 degrees) and trine Mars (9 degrees). Note she is doing all of this in the dark (balsamic moon phase) and in Libra she is answering to Venus, recently retrograded into the dark of Scorpio. There is stuff we don't know and can't see here.

The Moon's Capricorn squares today are us reaching limits, dealing with authority, hitting road blocks. The Moon's Aquarius trines (brakes off) speak of an easier time of it off the beaten path now. The Balsamic Moon is a natural time of endings and with the South Node in Aquarius those are supported now. 

She met with Ceres on Sunday, still in play now, which I talked about in yesterday's post HERE. By the time the Moon meets the Sun tonight, this aspect will be waning. The power imbalances within our relationship/situation have been made clear to us (personally and collectively) as well as the things that are out of our hands and any mama-drama we are working through.

Everything is leading us - still in the dark - toward that Sun. Now, unlike other planets that get illuminated when they meet the Sun, the Moon, coming between the Earth and the Sun, blocks the Sun's light. And like other planets when she meets the Sun we get a new story. We get a mini re-set every month.

Because this is happening in Libra we look to our natal Libra house (15 degrees) for the kind of theme we will be working with personally. Then we consider the general Libra themes (relationship, partnership, balance, justice, women, beauty) and we consider what Libra's ruling planet is doing and where she is.

We want to keep in mind with Venus (ruling our desire nature) retrograde  - we could be wanting something we don't usually want. And with the Sun - remember it is the Sun's meeting with the Moon that creates the New Moon - moving toward a square with Pluto (ruling power, but also death/the finality of situations) on Friday - any big moves toward that thing we want could set energies into motion that cut off other options. We might want to carefully consider any big moves this week because they won't be so easily undone later.

That square to Pluto (and general theme of relationship and other people) could indicate the new from the New Moon is forced upon us, maybe not totally welcomed, and grown from the seeds of something that has reached a conclusion - which I guess new things always are, but maybe it is somehow more obvious here. Maybe we are working through a loss of power here. There could be further destruction before we can get to a place to rebuild - like when workers go into a rotten house and tear down the old walls before the new walls go up.

Or maybe we don't have the power to make the things happen we want to happen or to get what we want from the place we now stand.

Neptune is making an inconjunct (that rock and a hard place) to the Moon/Sun, so something involving a Neptunian theme - self-sacrifice, self-sabotage, illusion, delusion, connection - will not be easily reconciled here. It makes me think things may not be quite as we see them - possible not quite as scary or, with Neptune ruling the 12th house of the ethereal realms, just being handled by larger hands than ours. We could spend alot of time/energy working out something we don't actually have any control over anyway.

Remember the energies influence us in subtle and not so subtle ways. Our stories are always in flux. We always, always have the chance to start again with ourselves.

(Astrology forecasting is like predicting the weather. The weatherman can tell you it is going to rain today, but it up to you whether you change your plans, bring an umbrella or just decide to walk in it! Take what is helpful, toss the rest, the Moon is trining Black Moon Lilith and Mars today, so make your own choices)

So we move toward the New Moon on wobbly legs having been unbalanced by the last two weeks, five months, 8 years - who knows. The New Moon's chart, a launching pad, is a lunar reset. We get a fresh emotional start (remember the Moon is about our emotions) with that Libra theme! Let's not waste it - set those intentions!

Now here's the part that is a repeat from yesterday -

MONTHLY AFFIRMATION TIPS for the Libra New Moon:

What house holds Libra in your natal chart?

This is our annual opportunity to restore balance here. Who/what do we want to partner with?

Get grounded - we have moved from an earth sign into air so this is important - always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning certain).

It is a good idea, since the New Moon is literally a blank sheet, to work in a clean, uncluttered space and maybe right after a bath or shower. Definitely when you are alone.

I find affirmations are most effective if I speak less on New Moon days so my words will hold more weight when I need them to. 

I usually burn a white candle to help me focus and thin the veils between me and me. It also helps to channel ancestral energy a bit since I am always thinking as I move my story forward, their story moves forward with me.

Write your affirmations down by hand in cursive, we want the letters all connecting and flowing together. Speak the words out loud. 

I used to write my affirmations on strips of paper and put them into a bowl of rice so I could mix them around every now and then with my fingers if things got stagnant. Then I decided to burn them. I have written them on rocks and buried them.

This month, I'm doing something I did a few weeks ago to line up with a specific thing that happened pretty effortlessly afterward -

I'm going to write my affirmations

(astrologer Jan Spiller recommends writing 10, but I have found myself stretching to do that or writing the same things every month which feels silly, so I have worked my way down to 3 which feels like a powerful number to me)

on my chalkboard while burning a white candle - when the candle burns out, all by itself - don't burn your house down - I erase the words first and then clean the blackboard with water.

Some people store them until the corresponding Full Moon (in this case during Aries season next April) and burn them then. Do what feels right.

I don't think it's terribly important what we do with our writings as long as we are not pulling them out and checking on them all the time. Setting intentions is like baking a cake - checking on how things are going just slows things down.

We are not handing a honey do list to the universe! We are lining up with the universal energies of creation here.

And I wouldn't be sharing them with other people, which also feels like it dilutes the process or pulls them into our story. I was writing them on my blog for a few months, as examples for people, and that definitely wasn't helpful.

Then - and this is the important part - release your attention from your words knowing your intention is known.

Know these things are already yours.

 

xo all 

(please read MONDAY in the weekly for more about this New Moon)

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of October 8th - dealing with loss, control issues, surprising news mid-week, the angry feminine energy (men carry feminine energy, too) isn't going away, fear of losing what we love, losing what we love, things outside our control are making us cray-cray, planting something new from the seeds of the old fruit

s by marina kochetyga

Some important aspects this week are:

SUNDAY - Sun conjunct Ceres
MONDAY - New Moon in Libra
TUESDAY - Mercury into Scorpio
WEDNESDAY - Mercury opposes Uranus, Venus squares Mars
THURSDAY - Mercury squares the North and South Nodes
FRIDAY - Sun squares Pluto

Yes, another cray-cray week. Hold on. Know we are all in this together. Tread carefully.

Mars starts covering new ground this week - finally! - after his long summer retrograde through Aquarius. He is in Aquarius for another couple weeks, but now walking new degrees. This can energize stalled actions, initiatives and projects as well as group causes.

Sunday's exact conjunction between the Sun (in Libra) and Ceres is a big part of Monday's New Moon, so let's look at that.

On MONDAY the Moon (in Libra) meets the Sun (in Libra) at 15 degrees. The Moon and Sun are sitting with Ceres and squaring Pluto (the Pluto square with the Sun will be exact on Sunday so the square is waxing/building at the time of the New Moon).

This is the Ceres/Pluto story come to life! You have likely heard this before, but the following is a very brief rehashing of it:

Ceres (known to the Greeks as Demeter) is the mother - the provider, the nurturer - the goddess archetype of spring. Ceres represents the part of our nature that longs to give birth and then nourish and sustain new life. She represents the essential bonding or lack of that occurs between mother and child. She is the impulse to nurture and also to be nurtured by others.

Ceres's daughter, Persephone, was abducted and raped by Pluto, lord of the underworld. The grieving mother, Ceres wandered the earth in search of her missing child.

In her grief, depression and anger, she caused a famine, withholding nourishment from the world until her daughter was returned. Persephone meanwhile had eaten pomegranate seeds, a symbol of sexual awareness, which gave Pluto a claim over her so she could not be returned permanently to her mother.

A deal was reached so Persephone would spend part of each year in the underworld with Pluto caring for the souls of the dead, but each spring would be reunited with her mother in the upper world as she initiated the dead into the rites of rebirth (spring).

Ceres in our chart alerts us to any challenges with nurturing and directs us to the kinds of experience we need to feel unconditionally loved and accepted. Our mother issues, the way we deal with painful and uncontrollable loss and separation - that's Ceres.

Although not much in terms of synchronicity surprises me with astrology - this is a kind of mind-blowing line-up at this New Moon given what we have been going through in the U.S. collective with the Supreme Court seating. The entitled masculine and the marginalized feminine (and we all carry both masculine and feminine energies within us) and with Chiron back in Pisces digging up old wounds and addictions that are demanding our acknowledgement and release.

With Ceres ruling cycles, the seasons of our lives, the way we nurture and what we need to feel nurtured, our mother issues, the way we deal with painful losses squaring Pluto (power/death and rebirth) - whatever we have going on - New Moons are all about new starts - is likely to involve the themes of loss and power imbalances.

We could be dealing with issues that feel like life and death (which they may or may not be) and potentially de-stabilizing financial issues.

New Moons are times in the dark. The seeds go into the ground, but the day we plant the seeds is not the day we eat the fruit. If we can see the seeds as the ashes of the old fruit - we can see better what we have in front of us.

Ceres is about cycles - the highs and lows. She represents a very real lack of control - her grief was not only about the tremendous pain inflicted by Pluto over the loss of her daughter (how are we losing?) but also about the depression (she could be said to rule over the winter season as well as Saturn) that comes when we can't control important things. She turns away from her life. She wanders the earth.

NOTE - You will find the area of life where Ceres sits in your natal chart to be an area where you experience extremes. The tide is in or the tide is out. Things are either very bright and sunny or very dark and depressing. We often face situations that are out of our control.

For us, as a collective, this New Moon in collaborative and diplomatic Libra is a fresh start seeded through a painful loss/something outside our control. With Libra naturally ruling our 7th house of 'the other person' this could play out through partnership, through agreements - which are likely to be seen as unfair or unjust in some way - at the core of it all we see the Ceres/Pluto square and story - our fear of losing control, our fear of losing what we love.

The New Moon will also be inconjunct (rock and hard place) Neptune speaking of fantasies and delusions. Take care with addictive substances. Watch for rose-colored glasses. This could mean our fear of loss is not totally grounded in reality and also reminds us that bigger hands than ours are guiding this whole thing ....

MONTHLY AFFIRMATION TIPS for the Libra New Moon:

What house holds Libra in your natal chart?

This is our annual opportunity to restore balance here. Who/what do we want to partner with?

Get grounded - we have moved from an earth sign into air so this is important - always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning certain).

It is a good idea, since the New Moon is literally a blank sheet, to work in a clean, uncluttered space and maybe right after a bath or shower. Definitely when you are alone.

I find affirmations are most effective if I speak less on New Moon days so my words will hold more weight when I need them to. 

I usually burn a white candle to help me focus and thin the veils between me and me. It also helps to channel ancestral energy a bit since I am always thinking as I move my story forward, their story moves forward with me.

Write your affirmations down by hand in cursive, we want the letters all connecting and flowing together. Speak the words out loud. 

I used to write my affirmations on strips of paper and put them into a bowl of rice so I could mix them around every now and then with my fingers if things got stagnant. Then I decided to burn them. I have written them on rocks and buried them.

This month, I'm doing something I did a few weeks ago to line up with a specific thing that happened pretty effortlessly afterward -

I'm going to write my affirmations

(astrologer Jan Spiller recommends writing 10, but I have found myself stretching to do that or writing the same things every month which feels silly, so I have worked my way down to 3 which feels like a powerful number to me)

on my chalkboard while burning a white candle - when the candle burns out, all by itself - don't burn your house down - I erase the words first and then clean the blackboard with water.

Some people store them until the corresponding Full Moon (in this case during Aries season next April) and burn them then. Do what feels right.

I don't think it's terribly important what we do with our writings as long as we are not pulling them out and checking on them all the time. Setting intentions is like baking a cake - checking on how things are going just slows things down.

We are not handing a honey do list to the universe! We are lining up with the universal energies of creation here.

And I wouldn't be sharing them with other people, which also feels like it dilutes the process or pulls them into our story. I was writing them on my blog for a few months, as examples for people, and that definitely wasn't helpful.

Then - and this is the important part - release your attention from your words knowing your intention is known.

Know these things are already yours

On TUESDAY, Mercury dives into Scorpio (joining Venus and Jupiter). The planet of communication/ideas/thinking/new/information - also rules siblings, pets, our local neighborhood (Mercury) ingresses into the sign of power, transformation and secrets (Scorpio) until October 31st - note his November retrograde will bring him back into Scorpio to re-walk the final degrees.

This is excellent energy for deep (Scorpio) investigation/research (Mercury).

Instead of learning/thinking/communicating about a little of this and a little of that, now is the time to go "all in" with a subject we are passionate about.

Our mind can focus. Multi-tasking will be harder because our intellect will want to sit with one thing for longer than we usually do.

We will be getting to the bottom of things and will not be satisfied with Libra's (Mercury's last stop) conversational civilities. We'll want to know, and think/talk about, what is really happening. It won't always be comfortable.

The hard truths won't be blurted out spontaneously - we will have to dig for them. 

Decide first if you really want to know what is hiding underneath because Plutonian authenticity is not only transformational - it is permanent. There is no going back to "not knowing". Mysteries can be solved. The truth could come out. Secrets can be languaged and spoken out loud.

Difficult conversations will create deeper levels of intimacy now. 

If you are dating someone and you have sex (also Scorpio ruled) with them you can never go back to not having sex with them even if you never have sex with them again. The intimacy is still there. It will be like this with our words now. 

And once we know the information - we own it. It's our move (with Scorpio the move might be internal). 

It changes who we are and we ignore who we are at our own peril.

Careless language (disrespect for ourselves and others) and our careless treatment of other people's words (and their reaction to ours) will be karmic. Keep this in mind.

There could be battles for mental supremacy and mind games during this transit.

People prone to manipulation could be extremely effective (or someone will finally see right to the bottom of what we are doing - maybe that someone will be ourselves).

This is a time to take a good, long look at what we are really seeking when we are trying to make a situation/person behave in a way that pleases us. Think about it. There are gold nuggets to be mined now. Even tiny specks can be used to create great fortunes. Scorpio rules our inheritance.

The fly in the ointment here is that we might think we are mining for gold when we are really just obsessing on the same old same old. Scorpio rules obsession and compulsion and our minds could easily go there now. Notice it. Don't judge it. Think about - "what does it mean that I keep thinking about this?". Scorpio rules death, too. It's not only what we dig up, but what we put into the ground that matters now.

Maybe some words/language/story needs to be put to rest.

This transit could also be about money and paperwork, contracts - wills, loans, etc.

The Moon is void all day Tuesday.

On WEDNESDAY, the Moon will be in Scorpio focusing us on Scorpian issues - life/death, other people's money - loans, inheritance, taxes, partner's income, the things we share with other people, intimacy, sex, reproduction.

Mercury (in Scorpio) is going to oppose Uranus (in Taurus) at the same time the Venus/Mars square becomes exact. This is a BIG day.

Immediately with Mercury/Uranus we get a surprising truth.

Maybe some disturbing news. Maybe a brainstorm or stroke of genius. Maybe a shocking conversation about money or intimacy issues. If something has been a secret or done below the radar this is the time it could come out.

We have talked about the Venus/Mars square before because we have been dealing with it for a while - although not with Venus retrograde. This is where we really want something but are blocked somehow. Our actions and our desires are at cross purposes. This is the masculine vs the feminine. There could be power struggles.

With Venus retrograde this isn't really the time to push. Do what needs to be done, yes. Don't miss a deadline or just come to a complete stop. Take the actions you can, but know that things have a bit of unwinding to do. Things are in flux. When Venus is direct in November - things will start to fall more smoothly into place.

We will flesh out the rest of the week in the next post. It is equally dynamic!

xo all