Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of April 30th - imperfect options, compromises, adjustments, making the best of what we have on the table now, contracts, partnerships, take some 'noses in the roses' time because Taurus season won't last forever

Perceive the light by anaispopy

What has all this Scorpio/Plutonian energy brought to light for you? What is dead in the water? What has risen from the ashes or been brought back to life?

There is more lunar activity than anything else this week - we are processing what has happened through our emotions.

I can't tell if this week looks calmer than we have seen in awhile or if we are all just exhausted. There are multiple "rock and a hard place" situations, some positives around the middle of the week, but a lot of the week's energy could feel either unsatisfying or challenging depending on how directly your chart is impacted. We are riding the waves brought by Sunday's Full Moon for the next two weeks.

BIG changes (and REAL opportunities) ahead in May!

On MONDAY, the Moon (in Scorpio) trines Neptune at 8:32AM EDT. What were you dreaming when you woke up this morning? We start the day/week maybe feeling more sensitive and compassionate. Good energy to meditate, make art, do imaginative work. To make magic happen. To pull up anchor and drift off to sea. At 3:11PM EDT the Moon conjuncts Jupiter. This is a good business aspect. It might be a good time to ask someone for a favor. We could all be feeling more generous than usual. By 6:43PM EDT the Moon will sextile a retrograde Pluto (in Capricorn). There is an opportunity here to repair something, to have something that felt "dead in the water" suddenly rise from the ashes.

If you are entering into any sort of partnership/contract this week make sure you are looking behind corners and under rugs. Both partners need to be fired up (Juno in independent and fiery Aries since Saturday) and given enough space to move about freely for this thing to work. This won't be about merging multiple energies into one thing, but separate people/situations/groups working together because both benefit from the alliance. Like someone has a spare bedroom and needs extra money and someone else needs a place to sleep and has the means to pay the rent. This kind of stuff can fall into place now, but keep in mind with Aries energy being so independent and inclined to not look too far ahead - you need to take a more long-term view of what you are getting yourself into, there could be trouble not too far down the road if you are not both moving in the same direction and at the same speed off the starting line.

The Moon goes void at 10:56PM EDT off a sextile to Mars.

On TUESDAY, we kiss April good-bye - don't let the door hit you April (a challenging month with LOTS of growth!) - the Moon moves into BIG picture, big thinking Sagittarius at 11:19AM EDT. The next two and a half days will be fast moving!

This will feel similar to the Moon/Jupiter energy from yesterday. We might be more idealistic with more of a desire to travel and stretch our boundaries over the next couple days. It will be hard to restrict ourselves to one of anything - note to self - hide the Thin Mints.

Venus in versatile Gemini will inconjunct a retrograde Saturn, strong in Capricorn. This is a "rock and a hard place" aspect between what we want and what is actually available. We might not get exactly what we want here, but Gemini tells us there are options available. There could be a choice that doesn't really feel like a choice or a compromise needed. We might have to confront some relationship issues that make us irritable.We could be facing a financial limit, authority issue or maybe just not enough time/resources to do what we want to do!

The good news here is that WEDNESDAY, that same Venus is going to make a sextile to the North Node In Leo (our way forward), at the same time trining (brakes off) the South Node in Aquarius (what we are moving away from). Stay flexible. Adjust toward the new.

Maybe that imperfect option is actually exactly what is needed NOW to move things forward in the long run. 

Saturn will make sure we are working within our limits and means, but also make sure whatever is being built here is stable and lasting.

EXAMPLE FOR VIRGO, Virgo Rising (Gemini 10th house) - Venus is in your 10th house - your career, your calling, your achievements, your achievement goals, dad, business, authority, responsibility - something here is between a rock and a hard place now. Staying flexible in your professional life, even as challenges to your goals/status/authority present themselves will keep you on the North Node path within your career/public life. Adjust toward the new. Sunday's potent Full Moon (your 3rd house) could be bringing you evaluations/feedback/criticism on any changes/actions you took early in the year - pay attention and stay open-minded. There are big changes for all of us that start next month. You are going to need MORE SPACE Virgo.

The Moon squares Neptune making things a bit confusing.

On THURSDAY, the Moon goes void at 8:50PM EDT off a trine to Uranus then moves into steady Capricorn at 10:06PM EDT. Do something different.

The Capricorn Moon will make us more focused on our goals, career, duty and responsibilities for the next couple days. The Moon in Capricorn makes people less compassionate and more hard-hearted - pull yourself up by your bootstraps, like I did, buddy. Also more inclined toward self-protection, just staying alive. Every can in our cupboard could feel like the last can of beans in a blizzard. Good energy for business and building stability.

On FRIDAY, the Moon (in Capricorn) conjuncts Saturn at 3:02PM EDT for their monthly pow-wow. This is yesterday's energy on STEROIDS. Things are taken seriously. If you are prone to depression - give yourself a break now. Stuff could seem harder than it actually is. It could feel like we are facing whatever it is we are facing ALL ALONE. Stepping into your responsibility is required. Hard work pays off.

On SATURDAY, Mercury makes a "rock and a hard place" inconjunct to a retrograde Jupiter. With Mercury in "just get it done/said/out there" Aries - we could say something we regret or make too fast a decision on something. Words could be inflated - ours or other people's. Expectations could be too high. We could be making assumptions. We could be rushing something that shouldn't be rushed. With Jupiter in Scorpio we could reveal too much and put ourselves in a difficult position.

The inconjunct tells us to proceed cautiously, especially with our communications/sibling issues and written and verbal contracts - also whatever is happening with your Aries/Scorpio natal house themes. Jupiter's retrograde in Scorpio has us zeroing in on something in the shadows, something we missed - next week when the Sun (in Taurus) opposes Jupiter, something will conclude or come out into the light.

EXAMPLE FOR Capricorn/Capricorn Rising - (Aries 4th house) With Mercury in your house of - home, family, your roots, mother, mothering, your ancestry, real estate or a home business - family communications, real estate decisions, renovations, etc could be challenged by over-ambitious plans, inflated expectations, making assumptions about what is possible or just by rushing through a choice or decision. Late July's first eclipse on the Cancer/Capricorn axis could be a game changer for you Capricorn - you might be catching a glimpse of what's in store then now.

I will be back with some longer term stuff including Uranus into Taurus (May 15th) and some updates on the Donald series - since we finally have a week with no major transits - I can catch up!

xo all

Full Moon in Scorpio | April 29th - RECLAIMING a commitment to our life

The Moon. by laura-makabresku

Sunday's Full Moon at 8:58PM EDT - the Moon at 9 degrees Scorpio, the Sun at 9 degrees Taurus - squares the North Node in Leo (Ceres is conjunct the North Node) and the South Node in Aquarius. The Moon sextiles a retrograde Saturn in Capricorn. It is also the day Uranus reaches the 29th degree of Aries. We have Chiron and Juno sitting together on the Aries point (0 degrees Aries).

And we have had a powerful, crazy two week period leading into this Full Moon!

The Full Moon in Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and Mars. Pluto is retrograde in Capricorn and conjunct Mars (exact just yesterday).

Full Moons (the part of the monthly cycle when Sun is opposing Moon) bring things to light and to a culmination.

Scorpio, in the northern hemisphere, rules late autumn. The wind is blowing the leaves from the trees, the landscape is becoming barren, death is expected - there is a sense of being cut off, a sense we are on our own. Scorpio energy doesn’t fear the dark. Taurus, in the northern hemisphere, rules late spring. The world is fertile. Taurus energy seeks the light.

Both signs are fixed and want what they want.

(one energy isn't "good" and the other "bad" - neither could exist without the other - they are really two sides of the same coin)

So, we have this polarity - Scorpio beckoning us "come over to the dark side" and not because there are cookies (although there might be and I freakin' hope they are my Girl Scout Thin Mints that still haven't shown up) but because there could be buried treasure.

Scorpio energy embraces complication. There is no fear of what we might find when we go digging around in the dark because Scorpio knows the negative thought or feeling is an aspect of personality we have sacificed to help us survive and "fit in".

(it is up to us to be humble enough, and astrology is helpful here, to find the context for such thoughts and feelings and give them credibility by knowing they are there for some good reason)

Taurus is equally adamant that we should "stay where we are - it's comfortable and working out just fine". Of course there could be a life that is better than "fine" if we are willing to take those steps in the dark to find it.

Taurus energy embraces peace and comfort.

With Scorpio we have the shadow of control and jealousy and taking on too much that can fuel greed. With Taurus; stubborn resistance to change and resistance to anything that is complicated - an attachment to the familiar that is also a kind of greed if you think about it - "this is MINE".

There are no right or wrong answers. Without any journeying through Scorpio though, Taurus "peace and comfort" is just pouring pink paint over our problems and calling them cotton candy.

Scorpio is always reminding us that getting caught up in the ego's preoccupation with conventional morality and what it means to be "good" can rob us of our spontaneity and trustworthiness. We can confuse "being positive" with being authentic.

In many ways, the Scorpio Full Moon is the most powerful and intense Moon of the year (it's Scorpio, so duh!) and this one is super-charged. 

By Sunday, if we have been paying attention, the Mars and Saturn squares to the Sun and Mercury and the Mars/Pluto conjunction, will have bared, any spaces in our lives that we have been sleep walking through by waking them up. Our "no skin in the game" situations have probably demanded some skin in the game

and/or by activating a kind of "going to the dentist" style aversion to anything we are only halfheartedly doing/being/living. 

We are awake to any situations where we are not fully participating. 

With Scorpio, we are either living life now or we are getting ready to die.

And there are about a million things that can kill us these days - we had better make a commitment to being here if we really want to be here.

Fence sitters are falling over (another reason to hate plastic fences, fences used to be quite comfortable).

Our friends/partners/tribe/job/house/town/family - wherever we are feeling any lack of intimacy - are simply reflecting back to us any need on our part to embrace our own passion. Scorpio doesn't provide easy answers because it rules complicated issues. It rules the 8th house (yes, the collective space Jupiter is diving through these days - the house of other people's money, other people's resources, loans, debts, inheritances, life/death/rebirth, reproduction, sex, intimacy - the ways we merge with other people) - the 8th house is the unconscious container of the difficult material, outside of our conscious awareness, that our psyche carries until we are sufficiently mature enough to deal with it.

So, here we are - having been through all the days since the day we were born until today - with intensified emotions as the Sun and Moon oppose each other - striving for/seeking a DEEPER CONNECTION WITH LIFE.

The only way to get out of here alive is to truly BE ALIVE.

Intimacy/sex/money/power issues between people could come out of the shadows now. Our watery Moon in watery Scorpio is very empathetic. At its point of fullness we could be full of the energies of other people.

The Sun is in Taurus opposing this Moon. Taurus rules our 2nd house (money/resources/values/self-esteem) - our possessions. Taurus energy is possessive. It can make us afraid of losing what we have. Taurus might say, "MINE!" like a two year old with a death-grip on her pacifier. The 8th house is our possessions; the resources we share. So maybe we are a couple and why are we holding onto our possessions and not sharing? Stuff could play out around themes like this or one partner treating the other as a possession. Maybe one partner not wanting to share something now (time, attention, resources) they used to share willingly. Maybe a couple isn't having sex. If you have ever seen the 1989 movie with Kathleen Turner called The War of the Roses - that kind of depicts a Scorpio Full Moon style divorce - they tear their house apart with death-grips on their joint possessions. It might be hard to avoid something like this if you are breaking up some situation now (Scorpio is passionate and intense), but it doesn't have to be so dramatic.

This Moon will carry in HIGHER levels of consciousness when we are prepared to let go of what is complete for us (that dead stuff we are dragging around).

This could be an actual death, but most likely it will simply feel like a death ... and maybe this feeling is appropriate to the circumstances and maybe it is over the top. Like we are losing something not that important, or something we never actually really had, and it still feels like a death. Honor your feelings with this. There is a reason this energy packs such a punch for you.

Within hours of the Full Moon, the Moon moves into conjunction with Jupiter - this would be a big emotional release point, if we allow it to be. Tears would help.

Asteroid/dwarf planet Chiron (wounded healer) sitting with asteroid/dwarf planet Juno (partner/contract) at the Aries point is very potent. This is a BIG opportunity - remember the Full Moon is a point of fullness and in Scorpio, ruler of the 8th house, is filled with the stuff we carry for other people and the stuff that blocks our true intimacy with other people - to face the hurt/healing of old familial (and societal power structure) programming/restrictions and carries the ability for us to write off old contracts that no longer serve us.

The ways we have given our power away to family, to relationships, to "the man", in order to simply stay alive (in this lifetime and many prior lifetimes and you don't have to believe in reincarnation to believe in the idea that more than a tendency toward brown eyes is carried in our DNA) - these obligations have expired.

It's like we have a 30 year mortgage and are continuing to mail in our monthly payments in year 37 or we are still paying our parents' mortgage and they have retired and moved to sunny Fort Lauderdale.

A retrograde Saturn is sextiling (opportunity) the Full Moon from secure and stable Capricorn. This is an opportunity to burn that mortgage (ie expired soul contract)!

This can also be the time of a new contract as Juno begins her journey through Aries.

At the same time asteroid/dwarf planet Ceres (earth mother, I think the future ruler of Taurus once astrology has more time to ) is sitting with the North Node in Leo squaring (tension/frustration) the Full Moon and the Sun.

On our journey from the South Node (been there, done that) toward our North Node (collective future) right smack in the middle is this Moon - we have to GET PAST THIS FULL MOON IN SCORPIO.

Remember what the North Node in Leo, South Node in Aquarius journey has been and is about (and this ends this summer when the nodes move into Cancer/Capricorn) - moving from the space of alienation and distraction and detachment and over-thinking into our heart-space, the space we are meant to shine - where is Leo in your natal chart? We come in from the house on the edge (Aquarius) of town and a detached view of life from a distance. We step away from technology (Aquarius) and a detached view of life from behind the screen. We step out of the audience (Aquarius) onto the center stage. We step away from our over-thinking brain that is trying to protect us by giving us all the reasons something isn't going to work and toward what our heart wants. We move from traumatized (Aquarius PTSD) into our power (Leo).

Ceres connected with the North Node on December 2, 2017 and then on January 16th, 2018, so this is the third time around for her (as us). This is the final conjunction so something is reaching a culmination here now. Remember who Ceres is - she was the Goddess whose daughter was kidnapped by Pluto (ruler of this Moon!) and taken into the Underworld. Ceres' grief began the earthly cycles of death and rebirth we experience as the seasons.

Ceres sitting with the North Node (our collective way forward) and squaring the Moon in Scorpio speaks of fated cycles. It speaks of GRIEF. Maybe a life and death fear of losing something that is part of a natural cycle and must be shed or something that is growing away from us but feels like it has been stolen from us. Maybe something about smother-mothering or a pushy kind of nurturing that requires something of us when it should just love us unconditionally. Again this makes me think of that two year old's death grip (have you ever tried to take something from a toddler's hands?!) - we are either holding on for dear life or some situation/person has a hold like this on us.

Again the Moon is the release point on our journey toward that North Node. We are full up. This situation has nowhere left to go. It must unwind itself so we can breathe. 

With the Full Moon squaring the Moon's Nodes we know that whatever it is that is ending now or culminating or coming to light - this is a HUGE Moon for secrets to be exposed - is fate train stuff. We are ready (even as we don't feel ready) for it to come to light or culminate or end now and so it is.

So, what do we do?

One of the great things about Full Moons is we don't have to really do anything - although our current situations will need to be attended to, of course (Mars/Pluto will see to that!). We get what we need to get just by being on planet Earth and experiencing them. We just have to allow ourselves to feel what comes up. Don't judge ourselves as weak or crazy (yes, Full Moons can make people look crazy!) and allow other people the same gift of non-judgement. Just hold the space for the emotions to come up and out. Tears, sweat, being in or near water can help release lunar emotions.

Mars (Scorpio's traditional ruler) and Pluto (Scorpio's modern ruler) are both activated now - adding strength, courage and intensity to the Full Moon. Whatever dragons we are facing now - we have the power here to slay them. Dead.

Just remember the Taurus toddler with the death-grip (MINE!). And the Roses (from the movie) with their death-grips on their stuff and their egos. This is what we want to avoid - filling ourselves up with stuff so we don't have to deal with what is happening underneath. Jupiter - the planet of good luck and expansion - is UNDERNEATH. The treasure is buried now.

Think about - what GOALS (Saturn in Capricorn) would, in order for me to complete them - require that I transform myself into someone I have heart-felt respect for (North Node in Leo)? How would that feel? What would I look like, dress like? What would my work space look like? My house? My town? My day? My bank account? How would the other people in my life make me feel?

This isn't about taking actions toward that goal (although it might be for some people - Full Moons are peak action). Just get into the energy of embracing that new person. 

Transformation is offered by fully experiencing the Moon - by NOT CLOSING OURSELVES OFF from whatever life is showing us now - what life has been showing us for the last couple weeks. This is an introspective Moon. It's an emptying kind of experience. The emptying creates the space for something new.

Imagine those parts of ourselves we have exiled off to Elba being welcomed back.

What old beliefs about what is not possible for ourselves are we ready to tenderly love away now?

Just sit with yourself during this Moon. Take a long walk in it. It doesn't matter if the sky is cloudy. It's there. It doesn't matter if you think you don't know what you want. You do. You came in with a plan. It is fail-safe.

If we've emptied ourselves at the Full Moon, in the days following we will find signs and answers coming in. Nature abhors a vacuum.

xo all

As above, so below - think about physical actions to empty and dismantle - give away a bag of old clothes, delete old picture from your phone, emails from your inbox, expired food from the cupboard, toss broken items, etc. EXHALE.

Mars Conjunct Pluto | something's gonna blow, focus like a laser beam

Beneath the Water Lily by Christine-Muraton

We knew when Mars (how we get what we want, our will, action, initiative, anger) entered Capricorn back on March 17th that at some point during his Capricorn journey - since Saturn is hanging here until the end of 2020 and Pluto is hanging here from 2008-2024 - we knew our hero would have to face Saturn and Pluto. Although they are not together yet, thankfully.

He hit Saturn (obstacle, wall, limit, authority) back on April 2nd.

Today is the day he (as we) runs into a retrograde Pluto (transformation, life/death, rebirth, power, control). This energy has been in play for a few days - you may have already felt this - and will continue to be in play until early May. Since these bad boys are squaring Eris, too - this energy is even more potent.

Mars' Capricorn transit started within hours of his square (in Sagittarius) to the New Moon in vulnerable, compassionate Pisces - so we have been coming at this period from a place of weakness - we kind of started this leg of our journey on our knees.

At the same time we have had Mercury back and forth through Aries for weeks squaring this whole thing. Ugh! Indecision, roadblocks, frustration.

By Saturday both Mars (by conjunction) and Mercury (by square) will have moved past Saturn's obstacles. This doesn't mean we got what we wanted, although surely some people did. And we might not know what we are doing or going to do, but we probably know what isn't working by now.

If we can't have it, we know we can't have it.

Saturn is karmic so in some way these obstacles are the 'effects' of causes we ourselves set into motion. Maybe recently. Maybe long ago. Maybe long, long ago. Maybe in other lifetimes - our other lifetimes and our ancestors' lifetimes because we carry their energy and their stories forward.

Now, after finding out/and working through what we can't have - what we can't go back and redo - our limit here - here is Pluto.

Running into Pluto isn't like running into Saturn. This isn't a wall. This is more like a box of dynamite waiting for our angry, impatient Mars, who just happens to be the man with the match.

Our will (Mars) merges with the ultimate power (Pluto). As you can imagine this can be very potent destruction. Something is going down. This can be a good thing or a not-so-good thing.

This could play out in our lives with an argument as tempers flare around control issues.

People (including us) will be tempted to use drastic measures to get what they want. Think "the nuclear option" as a metaphor for whatever lies within Mars/Pluto potential.

We have the knowledge and power of astrology to see what is happening - to use our power for good. If something we are doing smells even slightly of manipulation or revenge or compulsion, stop, think that action through. Be certain of your motivation. Be awake.

I wrote about today's energy HERE - see Thursday. It might be hard not to get caught up in the heat of the moment. Think about that angry man (who doesn't even know he's an angry man) coming upon that box of dynamite. And we are also that box of dynamite (who doesn't know she's a box of dynamite) seducing that angry man. This is all going on inside us and in our personal world and in the collective.

We can choose to go higher and use this energy is healthy ways. And it is probably best to do something with this, rather than leaving it for other people to act out around us or upon us.

This is good energy for any project we need extreme focus, strength and ambition. This is good destruction energy. What needs to be broken down?

If we find ourselves angry today - go deeper with the feeling. What is this anger really about?

Our Mars journey through Capricorn doesn't end here. Mars will square Mercury on May 12th and then on May 16th Mars will move into Aquarius - where he will start answering to Uranus and Saturn. Uranus will be freshly minted in Taurus (and yes, this information sounds very similar to the Mercury information from yesterday MID-MAY is GOING TO BE HUGE) so Mars will be squaring him.

There will be break-throughs and breakdowns. We will talk about this more as we move through it.

For today - this is the serial/cereal killer energy (not a coincidence the Golden State Killer has finally been caught and by DNA with both Saturn and Pluto retrograde) we talked about the other day. It was only by virtue of my having procrastinated both grocery shopping and dishwasher 'button pushing' that I was unable to take out the entire neighborhood.

And we are building toward this weekend's HUGE "die or be reborn" Full Moon in Scorpio (ruled by Pluto)!

April has been uber challenging for many people - lots of stuff happening with maybe not much headway on the physical plane to show for all our toils in the end, but MASSIVE movement underneath if we are awake enough to feel how far we have come. 

So don't forget the Taurus Sun - take care of yourself, get your hands in the dirt, get a massage, prepare a meal with ingredients that have touched the Earth. This will balance us now.

xo all

There is also something in the energy here about a 'gracious defeat'. About not being a sore loser. About the way we handle things when we don't get 'our way'. The way we handle any need to throw up a white flag will be the energy that seeds the ground our next battle is fought upon. We have many, many wins ahead of us folks. We are playing the long game. In the grand scheme of things we aren't all that many years from the sandbox where we first learned to keep our cool (or not) when little Susie got the red shovel we wanted and took her victory lap around the playground. Do we lay in wait for our revenge (like the box of dynamite)? Or do we move on and go play on the swings. It's our choice.

Mercury Square Saturn | hard to think straight, writer's block, hitting the wall, frustration, words falling on deaf ears, tongues are tied up or should be, narrow mindedness

My Personal Silence by Natalia Deprina

Today (and this has been in play for a couple days and then will take a couple more days to unwind) we have Mercury (in Aries) squaring Saturn (in Capricorn) at 9 degrees.

This entire month seems like it has been Aries vs Capricorn - some kind of hurry up and wait thing - wanting to GO, wanting/having to STOP or wait or be sure. 

We had the first square (tension/challenge/frustration) between these two planets on March 11th, the second when Mercury was retrograde on April 4th and now the final square with Saturn retrograde.

Our communication/idea/sibling issue/transportation issue/Aries natal house issue hits the Saturnian wall/rule/limit/authority/responsibility.

With Saturn retrograde this is probably not a new issue - at least the Saturnian part isn't.

Mercury/Saturn is a tongue-tied aspect. We could say the wrong thing now or misinterpret what someone else is saying - keep this in mind. This makes me think we need to know what we are talking about.

It makes me think of loose lips sinking ships and tight lips making our heads explode.

It makes me think of trouble with authority. Trouble with rules. Trouble pushing our own agenda forward via language. Maybe stop signs involving a lack of credentials.

And remember we are Saturn, too - it could just as easily be a younger person/newer idea wanting to speed past us that we are putting the brakes on. We could be stopping ourselves because we just don't know what the hell to do or say or think.

We could hear a "NO" now.

We could say "NO" or be the one making a firm decision. Facts could be delivered that might not be to our liking, but keep in mind this is the FINAL square.  

Mercury is moving past Saturn after this. And then he is on a collision course with change-maker Uranus!

We may not be walking away from the table with exactly what we wanted here, but with Mars (action, initiative, anger, independence) meeting Pluto (transformation, life/death) in this SAME Capricorn house on Thursday - this energy is already in play now and continues in play until early May - changes/progress will come through our ability to keep moving forward.

On May 13th, Mercury (at 29 degrees Aries) will conjunct "anything-can-happen" future-focused Uranus and then finally (due to her/his retrograde Mercury was in Aries a long time) leave Aries for Taurus. And yes, that is just two days before Uranus leaves Aries for Taurus, too. There will be some kind of money/resources/values WAKE UP CALL coming in then. We will be required to answer the phone - start right now envisioning the Publisher's Clearing House guy with the balloons and the check.

In the meantime, if that rock we are trying to push up that hill keeps rolling back down and smashing us in the face it might be the time to put that particular rock (ie problem/situation) to the side for a bit. Ruminating/worrying won't help. Over-thinking, thinking too far ahead won't help. Talking it out could lead to arguments. Squares are tension points, but without them we would never get anywhere that really matters. No one said this was going to be easy.

So, on one hand maybe that rock is just not going up that hill.

On the other hand Mercury is going to move past Saturn (that hill). And it's not like Saturn (the hill) is chasing after Mercury. Mercury will be long gone before Saturn gets back to these degrees and Mercury is just a couple weeks from his meeting with revolutionary Uranus, so things that seem good and solid are not so good and solid.

Maybe we need this rock at the bottom of the hill. Maybe we can climb the hill faster without the rock. Maybe the rock isn't the problem, maybe we want to try climbing another hill. Maybe our rock is being turned into a diamond with all this pressure. 

For now, instead of trying to talk it out which will probably lead to angry words and frustration - or think it out - our brain is in a vise right now - it might be better to just step away from the situation and go and do something else.

Let the square unwind a bit. You know how a solution can suddenly come to you when you are doing something else. It could be something like that.

There could be an ending now. We might have taken an idea as far as it is going to go and we can see that now. It might not be the kind of ending the storybook would label as "happily ever after", but it will free up our focus in the long run. Mercury is the fleet-footed messenger and this is a fast transit. This will be in our rearview mirror in no time at all. We can count on that.

For now. Treat language as sacred. Mercury/Saturn speaks of karma and contracts and we want to be clear on what we are getting ourselves into. Commitments made now will not be unwound easily. 

This is excellent energy to get clear on our intentions.

Just keep moving. We are playing the long game now.

xo all

Mercury also rules siblings and transportation - which sounds random but really isn't.

DRIVE SAFELY. Avoid eye contact with that crazy driver tailgating you. Simply pull over and let him pass. We are Saturn, too.

Venus into Gemini | more options regarding love and money plus the transit's kick-off sextile to Chiron

Duel by Diana Cretu

I wrote quite a bit about this transit (thru May 19th) HERE see Tuesday.

Venus's month in Gemini will give us more options.

So you will want to keep yours open, if possible. If you are a flexible person this will feel good. If you feel more comfortable with solid situations, you are going to have to remind yourself that change is a good thing. Stay curious.

Maybe this will work/feel good. Maybe that will. Maybe a little of this and a little of that is needed.

Maybe you don't have to know what you want right now.

Try that one on for size.

If we must choose and the choice is important at least we finally have a planet in an air sign.

We should be able to get a little distance from the situation mentally and not make the choice based entirely on emotions.

Gemini is dualistic and not much help with deciding though. There will be alot for us to see and hear and learn - so unless we are being terrible lazy, we won't be choosing without quite a bit of information available to us, so there's that.

Now, immediately, because Gemini is sextile to Aries and Chiron is freshly minted into Aries and moving through 0 degrees, Venus will sextile (opportunity) Chiron.

Having the wounded healer energy (Chiron) in Aries for the next few years won't be about healing through talk therapy or hugging it out or crying about it.

Cardinal Aries just wants to get moving.

Some electric shock therapy might work, and with both Chiron and electrical Uranus in Aries for the next couple weeks - most of us have experienced some kind of shocking ending or beginning (or will over the next couple weeks).

It might seem that shell-shocked people would need cuddles and warm chicken soup, but probably

(and keep in mind I am an armchair astrologer and not a psychiatrist - my couch is occupied by a 25 pound brindle beagle/terrier named Olive, not some guy named Harry with a marriage problem paying me two hundred bucks an hour)

what shell-shocked people need most is TO KEEP MOVING.

And actually I once read the survivors of a horrendous African genocide who were given counseling afterward were three times more likely to commit suicide than those who weren't given counseling.

This makes sense to me and with Chiron in Aries now maybe this is something to keep in mind.

Remember how our high school heartaches were mended so much faster if we just KEPT GOING out with our girlfriends/boyfriends and didn't sit around wallowing. By the time we got to the wallowing part, we had enough distance from the situation (ie less of ourselves invested in it) that the pity party was over with a pint of Chunky Monkey - we didn't need the whole gallon and we were able to skip the John Cusack marathon entirely. 

Hub's Moon is in Aries and too much (ie almost any) even well-intentioned comforting and care-taking leaves him feeling muzzled and restless. Back rubs work because Aries rules the first house of our physical bodies, but what he really wants is to KEEP MOVING and take some kind of  action.

Today's sextile (opportunity) between Venus, breezy in Gemini, and Chiron, already antsy in Aries - tells us the balm for whatever is hurting/needs healing will come through giving the situation a little more air, a lighter (Gemini) touch (Venus) and through our ability to KEEP MOVING. This could be good advice for the entire Venus in Gemini season, too.

xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of April 23rd - the countdown to the DIE or BE REBORN Full Moon in Scorpio, facing what wounds us, a final brick in the wall, the operating room, truth, alternative truth, danger will robinson, explosions, extreme focus, stamina, ambition, detoxification, FATED change, the curtain rises

.... . . by Frozen-photo

If your schedule didn't meet resistance last week - my entire plans for everything changed -  it probably will this week.

Especially tricky are any areas of life we are trying to power through our own agenda. Stay flexible. Pluto rules the week - if we aren't using our power wisely now, something could blow up in our face or we could find ourselves a victim of someone else's power plays.

On the other hand if we are smart and lucky we could be using this energy with an almost surgical precision.

These are the kind of skies under which someone's great-grandmother coined the phrase, "if you want to make God laugh tell him your plans".

Changes are fated now.

Pluto stationed retrograde on Sunday joined Saturn (in Capricorn) and Jupiter (in Scorpio) - so now we have three powerful planets looking backward. Pluto will return to the degree he sat on December 28th, 2017 - so anything we have done this entire year can be CHANGED over the next five months.

The big aspects in the week ahead:

MONDAY - Mars Sextile Jupiter
TUESDAY - Venus Enters Gemini, Venus Sextiles Chiron
WEDNESDAY - Mercury Square Saturn (3rd of 3)
THURSDAY - Mars Conjunct Pluto !!!
SUNDAY - Full Moon in Scorpio (9 degrees)

On MONDAY, we start the day with the Moon in Leo. We could be focused on Leo themes - a creative project, children, recreation, romance, following our heart's desire or the themes of our natal Leo houses. She will square Jupiter in the morning - not the best time to make a financial decision, especially if we are feeling overly optimistic. Throughout the day we will be building toward a sextile (opportunity) between Mars and Jupiter - exact at 11:44PM EDT. Our actions now make us lucky. This one could be worth staying up for - especially with the challenges ahead later in the week.

On TUESDAY, the Moon in Leo goes void at 2:39PM EDT off a trine (brakes off) with unpredictable and futuristic Uranus. Good energy for our creative ambitions. Don't start anything new until the Moon moves into Virgo at 4:40PM EDT. The Virgo Moon will shift our focus to Virgo themes - our daily actions/activities, work, co-workers, our pets, our health. Virgo trines Capricorn (the sign Mars, Saturn and Pluto are hanging out), so we know the 2.5 days a month the Moon spends in Virgo can be time well-spent. Good energy for decision making and production.

Venus moves from her home sign of Taurus into fast-moving Gemini at 12:40PM EDT.

With the Moon (Virgo) and Venus (Gemini) freshly minted in signs that square each other - there could be some time in the late afternoon where it might be challenging to express ourselves or where we just get bogged down in too many details. The Moon in Virgo wants to dot the i's and cross the t's and Venus in Gemini is like one of those speed-reading courses (that none of us wanted to take because what is the fun in that, but that we are all living out now). She wants to scan it over and move on to the next thing.

Venus will sextile (opportunity) wounded healer Chiron (now in Aries). This aspect makes me think of an artist who comes to appreciate her true value and starts charging what she is worth - the opportunity that comes through the process of working through the pain of those self-esteem issues. Or an aging woman making peace with her appearance. Or love that is painful and healing ... something like that. The love/money/women/beauty/self esteem/values opportunity comes through contact with our sore spot. There could also be something here about an Aries/Taurus relationship/money issue - impulsive behavior/affairs, impulsive spending, a drive for comfort .... whatever this is Chiron tells us it might hurt, but the sextile tells us there is more opportunity than pain here. The hurt makes us stronger.

VENUS INTO GEMINI 

Note - I am putting the Venus into Gemini into the weekly post here rather than doing a separate post since the weekly gets more readers - keep in mind this is a transit that begins Tuesday and runs through the middle of May. It is a process.

And we still have the Sun in Taurus, keeping our feet on the ground and our noses in the roses.

Gemini Suns and rising signs get more attractive - both easier on the eye and able to attract what they want and need. Whatever house in our natal chart holds Gemini hosts a visit from magnetic Venus now - making it easier for all of us to attract what we need in that area.

We are most attractive (use our Venus) through Gemini (our mind). It's a good time (through May 19th) to be talking and communicating with lots of different people about lots of different things.

Venus in Gemini is about variety. In the mutable air sign (Gemini) the themes Venus rules - love, money, value, self-esteem, women, beauty - get more light-hearted. There are quickly more options available. There is also more duality - this is the space where our heart is saying one thing and our brain is saying something else.

We could suddenly recognize a mismatch between what we have and what we want. Or what we thought we had (during Venus in resource-rich Taurus) could be up for grabs a bit.

With Venus in Gemini life becomes more of a flirtation. Communications are more casual, more lively and humorous. It's a good time to set aside any existing constructs about what we like and what we don't like and stay open to new experiences, new people and new situations. Say YES to the things that sound like FUN now.

This isn't the best energy to make an important decision (regarding our Gemini natal house theme or Venus ruled love, money, self-esteem, values, women or beauty) or commit to something permanently although we do have an improved ability to make SMART CHOICES with this energy.

We don't want to be asking long-term commitments of others either. For example it's not the best time to ask clients to be tied into a long-term membership, but it's an excellent time to think outside the box about who would be up for a short-term trial period.  

People will be more open-minded about less important things. For the next three weeks, it's time to "flirt", it's not the time to "put a ring on it".

This doesn't just apply to romance.

Venus in Gemini attracts through communication. If you have a business this could be the time that increasing your social media presence pays off (like ka-ching, Venus rules money after all).

This is a good time to - talk, read, make the call, write the note, tell the joke.

This is not the best time of year for introverts (sniffle). If that sounds like you - let's remember that comfort zones do not promote growth - all the goodies really are sitting right outside our self-made boxes! We can do this thing (ie small talk, light banter, jokes - yikes!).

Gemini rules the 3rd house of our early education. This isn't about high level conversations - nothing has to be profound; words over two syllables will not be necessary. This is about the kind of communication skills we all learned in grade school. Wide beats deep now.

The witty and street smart girl gets the worm this month.

We will be sizing things up quickly and others will size us up quickly, too. It's probably best to keep communications a little light, but in a way that people are left thinking we are more than a light weight (and I am talking intellect here, not squeezing ourselves into too small yoga pants or skinny jeans - exhale girls).

Women (and money) may come and go now. Gemini is a mutable sign - we'll adapt.

We will be attracted to what makes us curious. Other people will find us, and our offerings, more attractive when we make them curious about us, too. Keep this in mind now.

*****

On WEDNESDAY, we have the final square between Mercury (in Aries) and Saturn (in Capricorn).

We had the first square (tension/challenge) on March 11th, the second when Mercury was retrograde on April 4th and now the final square with Saturn retrograde. Our communication/idea/sibling issue/Aries natal house issue hits the Saturnian wall/rule/limit/authority/responsibility. With Saturn retrograde this is not a new issue. There could be a "no" now. Maybe we are the one making a firm decision. Facts could be delivered that might not be to our liking - keep in mind this is the FINAL square. Mercury is moving past Saturn after this. We may not be walking away with exactly what we wanted, but with Mars (action, initiative, anger, independence) meeting Pluto (transformation, life/death) in this same Capricorn house on Thursday - changes will come through our ability to keep moving forward.

Let's look at how this might play out for a couple different signs.

EXAMPLE FOR ARIES/Aries Rising (Aries first house, Saturn/Mars/Pluto 10th house) - you could be at some kind of finish line or culmination point with whatever authority/rule/limit you have going on with your career, an important goal or the way the world views you. There could be tension around a commitment, official paperwork or an added responsibility. On Thursday and Friday Mars and Pluto are going to be sitting together in your same 10th house (these power players last met up On October 19, 2016 -if that time period rings any bells) - this is action, ambition, power moves, you stepping into the authority to change your life/career/goals in a public way.

EXAMPLE FOR PISCES/Pisces Rising (Aries 2nd house, Saturn/Mars/Pluto 11th house) - you could be at some kind of finish line or culmination point with an issue dealing with your money, your values, your resources or self esteem. You may get a "no" now or have to deal with a rule/authority situation that is stressful/critical. News regarding a financial situation may be challenging. News might be somehow 'public' or involve group/team goals. Keep in mind this is the FINAL Mercury/Saturn square in Capricorn - after this Mercury moves on and you will, too. On Thursday and Friday Mars and Pluto are going to be sitting together in your same 11th house (these power players last met up On October 19, 2016 -if that time period rings any bells) - this is your house of the collective - your friendships, groups, causes, the internet, the public, the goals that bring you into relationship with other people, your advancement, technology. This is about ambition and power moves within the public sphere. Watch your back. Your own actions within those 11th house themes will have the ability to transform something in a powerful, public way.

Mercury squaring Saturn would not make today the best day for commerce or wheeling and dealing. Our thinking will be slowed down - we will be looking for things we have missed (and with three passes we won't have missed much by now). This energy might encourage negative thinking and even depression. Know this is a transit. It is transitory even if the results are final. This, too, shall pass. We have been dealing with this since at least mid-March - we are almost past this wall. Just do what you have to do here - give Saturn his due and move on.

On THURSDAY, the Moon goes void at 5:49AM EDT off a trine to Pluto. The Moon will be void all day until she moves into Virgo at 9:13PM EDT. This is not the day to start anything or launch anything into the world that we need 'something to come of' because the Moon isn't aspecting any other planet. The trine (brakes off) to re-framing Pluto and the fact the Moon is void all day will hopefully help mitigate any potential nastiness from the Mars/Pluto conjunction.

At 6:45AM EDT, Mars (action, initiative, anger, war) meets up with Pluto retrograde (transformation, life/death) at 21 degrees Capricorn. We will feel this explosive energy THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.

This is powerful manifestation energy but can be ruthless and brutal. What's ready to be born, will be born. What's ready to end will be cut down. This is ambitious, powerful and potentially dangerous energy. There could be manipulations, obsessions and power plays. The last time these planets met up was on October 19, 2016, so something happening now could connect to that time frame.

Don't wander down any dark alleys. You know the drill.

Be aware that crowds can turn into mobs with this energy. Eruptions are possible. The machinations of war. Earthquakes.

It is best to do something with this, rather than leaving it for other people to act out around us. This is good energy for any project we need extreme focus, strength and ambition.

My natal Mercury is at 21 degrees Capricorn - it sits in my 3rd house with my Sun and Saturn and rules my 3rd and my 8th - since I tend to feel the energies almost exactly one week to the day before they are exact - it left me feeling very POWERFUL and like a totally different person

(kind of coolly logical and less emotional, maybe like a serial killer or a psychopath, yes, I said, serial killer - although in my case it was more like a cereal killer and luckily for my family we were out of Raisin Bran .. and milk ... and clean spoons .. so things didn't have to get too messy - story to follow - as soon as I get far enough into this freakin' transit and can talk/write about)

- it gave me a laser-focus.

And, now that I know what a laser-focused mind can feel like I feel cheated to have my "versatile" 3rd house Mercury in "always looking backward, talking like my grandmother" Capricorn - dammit.

All I can say is - WATCH YOUR BACK (your camera phone in reverse mode can be pretty effective for this) and be aware of the CONSEQUENCES of your actions.

Plutonian changes are permanent and fated.

Mars is impulsive and Pluto is destructive - this is excellent energy to "cut out" what isn't working - just maybe take a couple extra moments to make sure it actually isn't working. It makes me think of a surgeon removing an infected body part. Excellent energy to de-clutter and de-toxify.

Pluto is retrograde. Re-form, re-pair, re-generate - whatever you do here, do it with complete COMMITMENT.

Once you have thrown it out, it's gone. Don't go digging through the trash later with a flash light and your gardening gloves looking for it. It will smell like tuna and be covered in egg-salad. And you won't even have any tuna or egg-salad in the garbage bag.

The good news here is that Mars, who has been trapped for weeks between Pluto and Saturn will move PAST Pluto now - what's to stand in his/our way after this ... well, not a hell of alot.

On FRIDAY and SATURDAY the Moon will be in Libra so we know the Moon will be squaring those Capricorn planets - Mars, Saturn and Pluto. This is challenging energy. We'll talk about it in the weekend's post.

And as if this week wasn't already big enough we spend the entire week building toward the Scorpio Full Moon (courtesy of Scorpio's rulers a newly retrograde Pluto and a newly unencumbered Mars) where we will toss all the 'dead' stuff we have been carrying around onto the proverbial fire.

By the time we reach this Full Moon, the spaces where we have been CARRYING DEAD WEIGHT (holding onto things that are no longer needed) or JUST COASTING BY (we need your full commitment to life on planet Earth now) will be ready for this DIE or BE REBORN, detoxifying uber powerful Moon squaring the Nodes.

Scorpio doesn't play, people.

I know you are already feeling this.

This "I am still HERE" energy. And we are readier than we think we are for what comes next - our whole life has been in preparation for this even when we don't know what this is.

Hint - the North Node is still in our Leo house - what does our heart want? what stage sits empty because our ass is parked in the audience?

Big Full Moon post to follow.

xo all

Weekend Astrology Forecast for Creatives | April 20th through April 22nd - emotional seesaw, home, family, reinvention, root replanting, adjustments

family tree by Sevim Dalan

We kick off the weekend with a Void Moon on FRIDAY morning, then the Moon moves into sensitive, home and family oriented Cancer at 10:36AM EDT.

Our monthly Cancer Moons are not as peaceful this year due to all the oppositions from those challenging Capricorn planets. If your Cancer situation - home, family, renovation projects, real estate, history, mother issues  - has been stressful, know at least this will be the last Cancer Moon this year with a Mars opposition (that feeling that we have to rush, make hasty decisions) and by next month both Saturn and Pluto will be retrograde which should make the Cancer Moons a bit easier.

We will move through the entire Cancer cycle this weekend, so things could feel up and down, with us more sensitive (self-protective maybe) to the fluctuations than usual.

A sextile to the Sun (in Taurus) before lunch should create a feeling of balance and contentment. People are in a better mood. The Moon is waxing, so this sextile is the leg of our Aries New Moon journey where we expand whatever was kicked off at the New Moon. Strategies can be effectively tweaked now. The Sun in Taurus tells us to take things slow - rushing is for ballplayers and people who don't mind falling on their ass.

Don't over-complicate anything. Taurus says - keep it simple sister. But not so simple we are standing still - the opportunity from a sextile will come from our own actions, so what can we do to make things more Taurus - simple, clean, secure, steady?

At 8:42PM EDT the Moon will square Mercury. Our minds could be restless and active. It might be hard to focus. We could get challenging news, meet traffic challenges or be challenged to fall asleep! Not the best date night. Maybe stay home. Take a bath. Eat a nourishing meal. Good for editing, de-cluttering.

On SATURDAY, the Moon has opposed a newly retrograde Saturn (in Capricorn) overnight - hopefully we slept through that and weren't up late reconsidering our responsibilities or overthinking security issues. This is the day we might feel most of the back and forth Cancerian emotions.

After lunch the Moon will trine (brakes off) Neptune - we have an annual family beach clean-up here and the energy is perfect for that. We will be in tune with the people around us. Good energy for making art, a spiritual practice, slipping into that loving feeling, slipping into an addiction - you get the idea here.

By dinnertime EDT the Moon will oppose fiery Mars (in Capricorn). It could be we need to take care of some kind of responsibility now - likely within those Cancer themes highlighted in the beginning of this post or our natal Cancer house themes. We could be channeling our sacred masculine in defense of a group - maybe home, women or children. Not the best energy for a heart to heart talk, unless you are up for an argument.

The at 8:56PM EDT the Moon will trine Jupiter. The clouds part. Do I hear a Hallelujah? Our emotions expand - and our appetites, watch the snack foods. We feel more optimistic and generous.

By 10:21PM EDT the Moon will make her monthly opposition to Pluto - Pluto is strong and still and preparing to go retrograde tomorrow. This energy could create power plays. Jealousy. Compulsion. Again not a good date night unless you can immerse yourself in something dark in the dark - like A Quiet Place. Intimacy/sex would be complicated. This is not the kind of energy to be out in dark places with strangers - not a good time to be drinking. Dreams could be important.

We wake up on SUNDAY morning (8:40AM EDT) with the Moon sextiling Venus. No one will want to get out of bed! This is good energy to be social. Good for money and our possessions.

It's Earth Day - do something for Mother Earth and your own mother!

The Moon goes void before lunch off a square to Uranus. Creative breakthroughs are possible, so are surprises. Pluto goes retrograde during the Moon's void - making his retrograde over the next five months much less troublesome (Saturn also stationed retrograde this week during a Void Moon now that I look back - good news with that, too). We will talk about this retrograde in a later post. Lots of introspection with this one as we go back over Scorpio ruled and Capricorn ruled issues - loans, debts, taxes, other people's money, savings, intimacy issues, reproduction, death/rebirth, career, goals, authority, responsibilities.

At 1:09PM EDT the Moon moves into "time to play, let's get this party started" Leo. Good energy for having fun, time with children, romance, sports, games. We are feeling brave, confident and generous. We will all want to be center-stage. She will trine Chiron in early Aries (our individuation, commitment to being ourselves) kicking everything "me, me, me" up a notch! Sidestep the arrogance.

This weekend's lunar cycle is all about us reinventing our lives as we are drawn toward that massive Scorpio death/rebirth Full Moon at the end of April. 

We are reinventing our lives now - re-committing ourselves to life on Planet Earth.

Can you feel it? I sure as hell can!

At 5:46PM EDT the Moon (in Leo) will square the Sun (in Taurus). Fixed signs make our usual First Quarter Moon adjustments a bit harder. Try to stay flexible. There could be a challenge here around our personal resources. Our values. Our self-esteem. Our natal Taurus house theme. Uranus will begin tossing sticks of dynamite through here in another month, so any challenges now could play into that - maybe note where you are spending your money/resources. That upcoming transit will be harder to manage if we are not valuing ourselves, if we don't know what we really value. Again review progress from that Aries New Moon back on April 15th.

The weekend's final aspect is the Leo Moon's trine to Mercury at 1:32AM EDT - good for creative actions, writing, communicating - our minds are clear and active.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! xo

Sun into Taurus | what we really own, surviving and thriving

lovelove by bsium

The Sun moves from 'Action Jackson' Aries into "stop and smell the roses" Taurus today where it will shine a light on all things Taurus and light up our Taurus houses until May 20th.

This doesn't mean life slows down, but we will feel much better if we make the time to enjoy those slower moments, care for ourselves (and others, but especially ourselves) in loving and practical ways and appreciate what we already have.

If Taurus is stubborn, it's only because it rules really important things - the kind of things that have to be nurtured and preserved and seen through to the end.

As the Sun moves through Taurus, he will oppose our Scorpio planets, square our Aquarius and Leo planets (and since the Nodes are in Aquarius/Leo square them), sextile our Cancer and Pisces planets and trine our Virgo and Capricorn planets. We will all be burning Taurus fuel.

Taurus is the nuts and bolts of life. She rules our second house of everything important money can buy and everything important money can't. She rules food and nourishment. She rules the sensual touch that feels like love. She rules our resources - our money, the planet. She rules our self-esteem and values.

Ruled by balanced and beautiful Venus (hopefully Ceres someday which feels more right to me and empowers more female archetypes) our lives could get maybe more imbalanced until they topple over or we are forced to remove something from the more loaded side or add something to the weaker one.

Taurus is the space in your natal chart that naturally encloses what we are here to nurture, preserve and grow. It may be a space we have a bit less passion and ambition because we most naturally feel the need to sustain what takes root here. A bird in the hand thing usually applies to the theme of whatever space Taurus occupies in our natal chart. The energy is cautious because the thing we are holding/carrying here is precious.

It can also become the fear-based space where good things go to die - and then we carry around a bunch of dead stuff like a crate of rotted vegetables and wonder why we are so tired all the time. 

I can already feel my Taurus house, and my life, preparing for "let's shake it up" Uranus's upcoming visit (May 15, 2018- July 7, 2025) - maybe you can, too?!

Taurus is the first earth sign. A fixed sign - she values simplicity over complexity, calm over chaos, stability over flexibility, silence over noise.

Taurus is all about the fertile Earth (it is not a coincidence Earth Day is during Taurus season). The polarity of Scorpian sexuality - Taurus is sensuality - the touch that feels like love. Taurus coaxes us back into our bodies at the end of a hard day with a long hot bath. She stimulates our hands to pick up those tomato plants at the farm market and get them into the dirt. She encourages us to buy the quality thing that will last when we can afford it. She is the quiet voice inside us that whispers I love you when we stroke the baby's ear with our lips.

People will want to be comfortable (whatever that means to them) and might resist new and unfamiliar situations now. If you make/sell things for a living keep this in mind.

(I always get my best non-seasonal response when I email/mail stores that haven't ordered my jewelry in a while when I contact them right after the Sun moves into an earth sign)

It will be easy for all of us to wander outdoors and forget the pot of water boiling on the stove, the email that needed to be answered or the work waiting for us on the bench. Keep this in mind.

Life is moving fast now - but this energy can help us stay grounded. We'll stop and smell the roses, eat food that has touched the earth, listen to good music, purchase quality long-lasting items, get our hands dirty, appreciate the stuff that is right in front of us and we'll use Taurean strength and determination to be consistent and get things done (maybe just fewer and different things!).

In ten days the Taurus Sun will trine (brakes off) a retrograde Saturn (in Capricorn). We are slowly and steadily building something that will last here - we are re-checking the structure. Do we still need this thing? What do we need to survive NOW? What do we need to thrive NOW?

We are playing the long game.

Then around the middle of May, just a few days before the Sun leaves Taurus, Uranus blows into town - most likely for the first time in your life. Uranus is a super-complicated planet but it will become easy to figure out what we really value, what we really stand for when he moves into Taurus - because it will be the things we can cling to in the hurricane winds.

The stuff with the deepest roots get to stay.

The rest (the dead vegetables which could take the form of that job, those stocks, that relationship) will be blown away. We will know what we don't need because it won't be there anymore.

For now, get into your body - take a bath, get a massage - take care of your money - straighten those bills in your wallet, balance the books - here's a post about THAT , appreciate what you have, get your hands into some dirt, talk to your plants. Look into a mirror and tell yourself how beautiful you are.

Taurus is a simple sign. Unlike its polarity sign of Scorpio, nothing in Taurus will be complicated. Just do what feels good. What feels right.

xo all

(most of this post is from April 2017 - Taurus inspiration endures)

Saturn Stations Retrograde | April 17th - September 6th - re-considering our commitments, re-thinking our responsibilities, re-assessing our ambitions, re-drawing our boundaries and re-valuing our time, NO is a complete sentence

Strength by pedadue

On Tuesday, Saturn stationed retrograde at 9 degrees Capricorn. He will move backward (from our perspective on Earth) until he gets to 2 degrees Capricorn and then reverse course and begin moving forward again (in early September).

If we have planets or points within these degrees of Capricorn or any of the other cardinal signs - Aries, Cancer or Libra - we will feel this retrograde strongest because Saturn will move over our natal "hot spots" three times. He has already made one pass moving forward. Now he will move backward. Then in the fall he will begin moving forward again. His retrogrades are annual and last for about five months.

Maybe think of a retrograde as if we are pressing the wrinkles out of a shirt. We move the iron forward, then we slow down a bit and move backward being careful not to iron in any new creases. Then we make one final pass forward more forcefully before we move on. This is kind of how it goes.

Right now we are starting the backward swivel part where we try to avoid ironing in any new creases.

Generally the best use of Saturn retrogrades is going back over structural issues. Re-considering our commitments. Re-thinking our responsibilities. Re-assessing our goals and ambitions. Re-defining our boundaries. Re-valuing our time. Re-structuring our projects. Sometimes we get to see what is holding us up because it isn't holding us up anymore. Dad is on vacation folks.

The activities of our Capricorn house tend to slow down a bit so we have the time to establish a stronger foundation. 

Wherever Saturn goes, so does our time and commitment. When planets are retrograde, more of the work becomes internal.

EXAMPLE FOR CANCER/Cancer Rising with Capricorn ruling your 7th house cusp, Saturn's transit of Capricorn will be about strengthening that 7th house. Situations will arise (mostly through other people because this is your partnership house) over the course of Saturn's two and a half year journey here that will require your time and commitment to the affairs of this house. Maybe the person/people you count on will have challenging personal problems and you won't be able to count on them. Maybe you will have to step up. Maybe a relationships changes course - romantic, business, competitor. You thought it was going here and realize it is going there, or maybe it is going no where. Those Saturnian rules, goals and limits are up for re-view now. Maybe you were born with Saturn retrograde (and Saturn is retrograde almost half the year so many people are) in your 7th house and your ability to set limits and boundaries and accurately access what can realistically be expected within a partnership situation is skewed (unless supported somewhere else in your chart) and you have a predisposition to say, "yes", when you should be saying, "NO" (which is a complete sentence all by itself). So, now as Saturn stations retrograde maybe your partners' problems will ease a bit or maybe you will start re-considering your commitment to their issues. Maybe you will re-assess your boundaries and limits. With Saturn retrograde here this could be about a past relationship.

Keep in mind Pluto is about to station retrograde in Capricorn, too - this can intensify whatever Saturn has us re-evaluating or focus us like a laser beam on one specific issue.

This is an excellent time to take an accounting of what we have accomplished over the last few months while Saturn has been direct. Saturn doesn't always offer pats on the back - so let's give ourselves one now.

It is so easy to notice what isn't working that we sometimes don't take the time to appreciate what is. 

This is the time to deal with commitments and responsibilities from the past rather than taking on new ones.

For some people, just working with "NO" being a complete sentence would be an excellent use of this transit. This would also be supported by Chiron in Aries and our North Node in Leo - whenever multiple aspects are saying the same thing we know we are onto something!

When Saturn turns direct in the fall, Dad comes home and brings some external structure into our lives. This can feel supportive (if we have been doing our Saturn retro work) or like a wall/limit/roadblock (if we have been partying like it's 1999).

xo all

Chiron into Aries | healing the wounded masculine, stepping into our warrior energy, healing through action, facing our anger

not angry by ZNZtazmanijus

Early this morning Chiron left Pisces - where he has been hanging his hat since 2011 - for warrior Aries.

In Aries, Chiron turns away from the emotional, connecting reactions and the victim stories we grew through in Pisces (this is a long process he is going to be in Aries for seven years but will drift back into Pisces during his retrograde, September 25th, 2018 - February 18, 2019)

and toward our personal regeneration.

(as the Parkland survivors have been reminding us - and if they are annoying you that annoyance is something to look at, not to judge yourself, just to sit with it - the time for prayers and long-suffering silence is over and this isn't about guns, but yes, in warrior Aries, Chiron will be about healing our relationship with guns, too)

Aries is the first sign so rules newness. What does it take to embrace the new? It takes courage.

Chiron in Pisces has been about feeling and then surrendering the wound. Chiron in Aries will require action. Individual action. The kind of action that isn't always supported by other people. The kind of action we take for ourselves. This energetic is intensely impactful for the collective, too, although it could feel like we are all alone in whatever we do with this.

Our natal Aries house(s) theme(s) will be our personal field of healing. Every situation, person, place and thing - if honestly met - will simultaneously gift and wound us here.

I believe, as spiritual beings, we came here with a game plan - a blueprint, a set of guidelines for our life arranged in a language of patterns and archetypes. Some of our blueprints are very specific. Most, are specific in some areas and more general in others. We probably can't even begin to know all the reasons for this. They are almost certainly diverse and complex.

Our natal astrology chart is a complicated set of specifications designed to build up an individual and run him/her. Like we would build a car or 3D print a Christmas ornament, except our "blueprints" are a map of our consciousness. 

Unlike a machine, we always have the choice to become more conscious - more than our blueprints, we have free will - but without our blueprints we can't gain entrance here to life on planet Earth.

They anchor us in time and space.

It may seem impossible to believe, that you, that I, that all of us, came into being with a plan/possibility for Chiron (discovered in 1978, so not even knowable when many of us were born) to move into the Aries room in our "blueprint" - the space we have always had to fight, always had to walk through that door alone, always had to initiate, be brave, be motivated - in order to get anything done, maybe in order to be accepted - probably for lifetimes - that Chironic energy (wounded healer) was going to come into this space on April 17, 2018 - to work with this energy precisely as we carry it as of April 17, 2018, in order to heal the wounds we are holding/hiding here.

Life is magical that way.

There are a million ways this could play out.

A word salad could stretch our brain here, so let's do that: healing the wounded (Chiron) masculine (Aries), physical (Aries) disabilities (Chiron), going (Aries) until we drop (Chiron), healing through men, male bonding, healing through self-defense, healing through self-assertion, healing through conflict, healing through courage, healing by going it alone, healing through our instincts, painful instincts, healing by pushing past a vulnerability, healing through expressing/acknowledging unexpressed anger or resentment, healing by resolving competition issues, healing by being ourselves - you get the idea.

Remember our Aries house has always been the space we have had to fight/work alone/compete/push for what we want if we are going to have it.

Chiron is going to help us lighten this load.

And like the medic resetting a shoulder that has come out of its socket, here is the part where I say, "this is probably going to hurt."

Our Pisces house gets to breathe a nice sigh of relief. Chiron will be back for a few months, during his retrograde, to tie up the loose ends in Pisces and give our Aries houses (and especially people with planets/points in early Aries) a short respite.

Chironic healing doesn't mean the wounded space just disappears.

Like the scar after the deep cut, there is always something here we kind of have to learn to live with. The healing comes through acceptance. The healing comes through our learning to work with/live with the wound - the embrace of our scars - somehow this shifts our energy and we become like a beacon attracting others with similar wounds (the way a recovering alcoholic can help an alcoholic in ways no one else can).

That's where the collective thing comes in. But for now this will be all about ourselves. Remember this is a process. We can't jump ahead and skip steps.

We will heal by learning to express anger, aggression and force in healthy, positive ways. 

For today - if we think about why we aren't doing what we want to be doing - who/what we are afraid of angering - why we are pissed off at men/the man/him - what we are resentful about - why we don't defend ourselves - why we are always defending ourselves - why we push our physical bodies so damn hard - why we don't get off the couch - we might find a place to start.

xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of April 16th - HUGE WEEK, big news/events in the collective, the surprises they keep on coming, plot twists, are we busy living or busy dying, dad takes a powder, the wounded masculine needs a bandaid, we all need to hug a tree, identity crisis

Little Spring. by Lileinaya

 
The big aspects this week are:

SUNDAY - Mercury stations direct (4 degrees Aries),
New Moon (26 degrees Aries)
TUESDAY - Chiron enters Aries,
Jupiter opposes Venus and trines Pluto 
Sun trines Galactic Center
Saturn stations retrograde (through September 6th) at 9 degrees Capricorn
WEDNESDAY - Sun conjuncts Uranus
THURSDAY - Sun enters Taurus
SUNDAY - Pluto stations retrograde (21 degrees Capricorn)

This is another HUGE week, even after the first New Moon of the astrological year and Mercury direct, which are big news all by themselves. Chiron exits Pisces and enters Aries for the first time since 1968 - crossing the world-hot-spot Aries point. Saturn stations retrograde mid-week for five months then Pluto stations retrograde next weekend for five and a half months.

On SUNDAY night we have the BIG Aries Full Moon kick off to our new lunar year. We have had a month of Capricorn holding back Aries and now Aries gives Capricorn the finger and HERE WE GO.

Are we busy living (Aries) or busy dying (Capricorn) - what's it gonna be, folks? Decide.

The only way an Aries New Moon could get any newer is to join Uranus ... and yup, it does.

See my post about this HERE.

Mercury stations direct. Answers come in. We get greater clarity around whatever is going on in our Aries houses. Things that have been stuck for the last three weeks will start to move forward now

(maybe especially, because Mercury rules our mental processes, whatever we have been going over and over in our heads).

Keep in mind that Mercury is still walking the degrees she/he has walked before (once forward and once backward) and won't be covering entirely new ground until early May.

So, we still have one final pass over this territory- older and wiser.

Also, keep in mind, it will be 10 days (April 25th's square between Mercury and Saturn) before Mercury is making contact with any planet other than the Moon, so although we will start to make progress now, some things might still be kind of left blowing in the wind. It always takes some time after Mercury is direct to fully figure out what the retrograde was intent on teaching us and get moving again.

On MONDAY the Moon is in stable Taurus and trining serious Saturn encouraging us to build on those New Moon intentions. Actions that link career/authority with money, our resources, values and self-esteem work together beneficially now. The Taurus Moon has us seeking comfort and security. Always good energy for a massage. Nature is especially grounding with the Moon in Taurus.

The Moon will support us over the next couple days with 3 trines to planets in Capricorn and a sextile to Neptune (this is why we will have happier planets next month when the inner planets start to move into Taurus) and an opposition to Jupiter. Nothing the Moon (our emotions) can't handle and mostly beneficial energies.

On TUESDAY, Chiron moves into Aries for the first time since 1968.

We are going to talk about this as we move through it and I will write a post. I am in no way a Chiron expert, we will make this journey together! This will be about the healing of our masculine energy. In Aries, Chiron turns away from the emotional, connecting reactions and the victim stories we grew through in Pisces (this is a long process he is going to be here for seven years and will pop back into Pisces during his retrograde) and toward our personal regeneration.

I think this will be more "oxygen mask on our own face first" energy (like the Leo North Node).

We have been shattered by 'virtual reality' as Uranus and Eris have rampaged through Aries and our first houses of ourselves these last few years and pushed us to the very limits of our physical bodies.

Are we still in our physical bodies? We are about to find out! Our nervous systems are fried, but we still can't stop clicking.

Chiron in Aries will ignite a process to heal this, as well as our masculine energy fractured through decades and lifetimes of war and competition and the loss of the mother. Chiron is the wound and the cure - it is through Chiron that we face a lost part of ourselves - our sense of 'other-ness'. His journey through Aries will bring him into contact with that other discordant outsider energy; Eris.

This seven year transit is going to be about finding our Aries courage and facing our personal vulnerabilities. It is going to force into our consciousness aspects of our life we have neglected.

Hello Catherine, meet Catherine! Yikes - does my hair really look like that from the back?!

Today, as he transits over the Aries point (and he will do this three times between now and March 2019) - the world axis point - our attention will turn to a world event that will catalyze something for us collectively. And this collective story will have a relationship to our personal story. One story, myriad ways of experiencing it. Or something like that.

Then Chiron will be back in Pisces, due to his upcoming retrograde, from late September until mid February (the time to wrap up our Chiron/Pisces storyline) - so whatever happens between now and September will be a good indication of the kind of things we will be working through when he settles into Aries for his long stay.

EXAMPLE FOR GEMINI/GEMINI Rising - Chiron is moving into your 11th house of the collective - your friendships, groups, causes, the internet, the public, the goals that bring you into relationship with other people, your advancement, technology. Challenges via your personal vulnerabilities could be subject to public exposure. You might be embarrassed. Your warts could be on display, but in the long run it will be those warts, or the process that exposes them, that is the part of your healing journey that heals other people. Or maybe you bring an inner battle into the public sphere. Maybe your Chiron "outsider" story is going to play out through your friendships/groups/causes or with a particular friend who acts as a catalyst. You could be a mentor/guide or meet one and probably both will happen at some time over this transit. Chiron is going to show you (over the next few years) how effective you truly are at shattering the obstacles that keep people separated. Your wounded warrior is waking up Gemini!

At the same time we have Jupiter (retrograde in Scorpio) opposing Venus (strong in Taurus) - stretching that Venusian financial/love situation and trining (brakes off) Pluto, strong and still in Capricorn (preparing for his retrograde this week).

This is that 'coming back to life' energy we talked about in the New Moon post. This is an expansion (Jupiter) of what we want (Venus) with a powerful green light from Pluto - who Jupiter is answering to! Impacted by the New Moon in Aries maybe this is us giving ourselves a second chance!

Keep in mind Jupiter is retrograde so - going deep instead of wide, expanding something that is already in play - with Pluto in Capricorn and answering to serious Saturn - going with whatever has the best chance of paying off in the long run, whatever offers the greater stability over time. Venus rules love, money, our resources, our values and self-esteem, women and beauty.

Maybe don't waste this energy pouring over pretty pictures on Pinterest all day! At least not all day!

EXAMPLE FOR PISCES/PISCES Rising - this transit is happening between your 3rd, 9th and 11th houses. You could receive good news now. Positive expressions could come through an idea, information, a conversation, learning, teaching, a sibling or within your local environment. This might impact your 9th house - travel, higher education, weddings, politics, legal issues, the media, publishing, foreigners, everything outside your comfort zone, exploration, your beliefs and higher thinking via your 11th house - your friendships, groups, causes, the internet, the public, the goals that bring you into relationship with other people, your advancement, technology. Just keep in mind that expansive Jupiter is retrograde - so this will be about going deep instead of wide, re-working something already in play. Note - keep in mind I can't see your personal chart, and your houses, even with a Pisces rising, could vary a bit and would vary the forecast. The good news/information you can use part is most likely on target.

Also on TUESDAY, Saturn stations retrograde at 9 degrees Capricorn.

Since Saturn is the development of self-discipline via challenges, struggle, hard work and restraints having him ease up on us a little is very likely a good thing. Do I hear a hallelujah?!

Some kind of limit - where is 9 degrees Capricorn in your natal chart? - is removed.

Astrologer Steven Forrest says (I'm trusting my memory with this, hopefully it's not too swiss-cheesy today) - Saturn in our natal chart is the area we must learn to walk our talk and walk it all by ourselves. It's the space where any lack of self discipline can quickly lead to our undoing. It's the space where we make peace with solitude and develop patience.

Saturn rules structure. During his retrograde we will be going back and retooling and shoring up the physical structures in our life (including our bodies). Saturn rules time. Time is on our side now. We just need to trust this (patience people!). Saturn's retrograde offers us the time to "re-make" the structure of something before it is too late. It's a time to reconsider rules and obligations.

In Capricorn, this is going to take us back over recently covered ground dealing with the theme of our Capricorn house and collectively our career, authority, our goals, our father, rules - you get the idea. This period could allow a re-view or re-working. For some it will be a time to slow down and get a better handle of what is and isn't working. Someone from our past, especially work-related, could re-appear. An old responsibility could be back on our plate.

Pay attention to any situations that shift gears NOW because this will be the ground we are re-working through September.

FOR AQUARIUS/AQUARIUS Rising - Saturn is retrograding in your 12th house of what is hidden, put away or done behind the scenes, secrets, the ethereal realms, imagination, hospitals, spirituality, addiction, healing. Something here is being re-visited, re-viewed or re-worked. Since the 12th house is one of the houses that rules our past you could be severing old ties or releasing certain responsibilities over the next few months. If you are trying to control the uncontrollable (an Aquarius dealing with control issues - that sounds about right!) - the 12th house ruled by Neptune is like trying to hold onto water - there could be some relief from that now as Saturn eases up. Your co-ruling planet, Uranus, is active this week, so it could take you a bit to figure out what Saturn's retrograde will be about for you if you get caught up in the other stuff. Note - keep in mind I can't see your personal chart, and your houses, even with a Aquarius rising, could vary a bit and would vary the forecast.

The Sun (at the very end of Aries) trines - brakes off - the Galactic Center. The Galactic Center is the black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy; the solar system that houses all the planets including Earth.

This is most likely the place where time and space were created so you and I would have a place to learn and grow and work and play.

Saturn (security, stability, the patriarchy, the rules, duty, judgement, authority) spent quite a bit of time on or near the Galactic Center last year - getting a makeover or maybe I should say a make-under.

Interesting that on the day he stations retrograde, the Sun, in action-oriented Aries, will trine this space.

It's like the teacher steps out of the room and the kids take over! Of course, with Aries (Mars) the 'kids' could be playing with fire. Hopefully Saturn took the matches with him.

Tuesday is huge and of course, everything won't all play out on Tuesday and probably won't all be one thing.

On WEDNESDAY, after an early A.M. void, the Moon will enter Gemini at 8.02AM EDT. Life gets busier. We are more mentally active over the next couple days. This is the first Gemini Moon we have had with Mercury direct in weeks, so we will likely be catching up with missed information, communications, connections and appointments. This is good energy for sales, presentations, teaching, sibling interactions, short trips and errands.

The Sun conjuncts Uranus with Uranus still at his New Moon degree. This exactly squares the United States' Pluto (karma, transformation) and we have a President who is Uranus (via being born with this very aspect). 

Something unexpected will "come to light now" - PLOT TWIST - as Uranus and the Sun kick off their final solar cycle in the warrior sign of Aries for our lifetime. 

This ties into Sunday's New Moon energy and we can all expect the unexpected ... again. 

With the Sun moving into Taurus afterward and Uranus set to move into Taurus next month (a space he hasn't occupied since 1942 and where he will stay until 2026 - Taurus, exalted in Scorpio is considered in "his fall" in stable Taurus) this could be a glimpse of something to come. 

Anything "coming to light" might stress, likely through instability and potential instability, Taurean themes - security, contentment, money, our resources, the planet.

In our personal lives there could be another surprise, liberating break from restriction or disruption from the status quo. Uranus conjunctions usually bring EXCITEMENT!

There could be an abrupt ending/fresh start/disruption.

This aspect always makes me think of an unreliable dad (and Saturn is retrograde, too!).

This is good energy to do something new. Freak flags will fly. Uranus rules the 11th house and our minds can be open to new ideas and experiences now. Stay flexible and go with the flow.

Since Uranus rules accidents it would be a good idea to try to avoid unnecessary risks and impulsive behavior - especially anything brought on by us feeling restrained (for example a hasty move with our car when we don't want to wait) or feeling bossed around. People will not want to feel boxed in. Challenges to authority might not end the way we had hoped.

EXAMPLE FOR CANCER/Cancer Rising - the Sun and Uranus are meeting up in your 10th house of your career, your calling, your achievements, your achievement goals, dad, business, authority, responsibility. Whatever you had going on at the New Moon in any of these areas continues to offer surprises and innovating energy. There could be a change in your job or career or with someone in authority that gets you moving along a new path or doing something in a new way. This could impact your relationship to "the group" or with friendships or one friend in particular. Keep in mind Chiron is moving into your 10th house this week also as well as Mercury stationing direct here. Your career, goals, responsibilities should be a focus. With Aries in your 10th house you have always had to fight, and stand up for yourself, for what you want with your career/goals. What you have you have earned. The Sun then immediately moves into your 11th house of the collective - your friendships, groups, causes, the internet, the public, the goals that bring you into relationship with other people, your advancement, technology- the house Taurus will begin rocketing through next month encouraging some 'herd-separation' as you design a path uniquely your own over the next few years!

On THURSDAY, the Gemini Moon squares dreamy Neptune making it hard to tell fact from fiction now. We are doing lots of adjusting today so stay flexible. The Sun enters stabilizing Taurus maybe making it feel like one of those mornings after big news when things don't seem quite as bad (or quite as good) as they did the night before. Maybe.

Burning Taurus energy for fuel now our attention turns to Taurean themes - our comfort, security, money, resources, our income, our possessions, our values and self-esteem - all that 2nd house stuff. What house does Taurus rule in your natal chart? Events will conspire to shift your energy there. Any Taurus planets in your chart will meet up with the Sun over the next 30 days (Scorpio planets will be opposed by the Sun and Leo/Aquarius planets will square the Sun). In Taurus, the Sun is prudent and stubborn - and doesn't really want to fight anymore. The fire of "let's go for it" in Aries yields to a more earthy and resolute "let's take it one day at a time" kind of thing in more laid-back Taurus.

On FRIDAY, TGIF! The Moon moves into home and family oriented Cancer focusing us on family, real estate, renovation, security, safety, patriotism, mom, history. The Moon will sextile the Taurus Sun in the a.m. - good energy for opportunity within those Cancer or Taurus themes. The Moon squares Mercury in the evening - maybe not the best date night energy. Just stay home. Cancer/Taurus says take a long bath. Cook a nourishing meal. We could be challenged by a conversation, news or just Friday night traffic.

xo all

I am sorry I didn't get to the New Moon info by sign with that last post - UGH!

My body - neck, shoulder and elbow - is not cooperating with long stints at the computer right now and I thought it more important to get the weekly done for the week ahead.

If anyone has anything important going on or would just like a personal heads up please email me or leave a comment and I will check your rising sign/houses for the Moon.

Please take the time to do your New Moon intentions (or make a vision board) during the best hours in your area - Sunday night between 9:57PM EDT and 1:50AM EDT. If you miss this wait until after 7:51AM EDT on Monday - but try to shoot for the best time Sunday night.

This is a late degree New Moon and doesn't give us much time to take advantage of maximum potency!