saturn saturday - our first volunteer - we will call her Faith (since she has some crazy faith I know what I am talking about here - I will give her a chart of her planets so she can check out what real astrologers have to say about it, too - since I can only guarantee my accuracy in corks and dog biscuits)

available at gritty city goods

Life is a series of checks and balances (to use my old banker jargon).

We create, we review, we keep what works, we tear down what doesn't or what is finished and we move on to create again. This never stops.

When I was in banking I would often sneak a peek at clients' charts before looking at large investments or commitments to see whether they were more motivated by safety or growth, any significant financial or work related pitfalls ahead, etc - but I haven't looked at charts in a decade plus.

Last week I put out a call for some guinea pigs volunteers to help me get my feet wet again and was grateful to find a few takers. I am going to look at each chart's Saturn, 10th house and North and South Nodes first and then see where my favorite female goddesses rear their heads (next month) - all of this geared to our maker businesses.

During times of transition it can be a clearing exercise to check out what Saturn is doing in our charts. Saturn moves every couple years bringing changes to whatever part of our chart he is hitting and every seven years he creates some hard aspects to shake things up.

The incredibly rich narrative of Saturn in Roman and Greek (Cronus) mythology is too important for me to do it justice here in a paragraph - astrologer Liz Greene has a wonderful book on Saturn and of course the web has lots of info if you are drawn to finding out more.

In astrology Saturn is an aspect of the father/authority figure - it's the 2nd largest planet, it's the planet of contraction (Jupiter, the largest planet, is the planet of expansion so we expand a little more than we contract) - it's about boundaries, responsibilities, karma, commitments, self-control - the stuff that defines (meaning = outlines) us.

Some of Saturn's harder tests are our first Saturn return

(Saturn takes 28 -29 years to come full circle back to the place he occupied at our birth)

in our late 20's and our second Saturn return in our late 50's.

(there are also other aspects like the Neptune Square Neptune at about the age of 41 and the Uranus/Uranus opposition at about the age of 43 - one or both of which throws pretty much every one of us into a mid-life crisis, Chiron return 48-50, Pluto trines Pluto at 58, Uranus Squares Uranus at 63 - both new beginnings)

First up is Faith (names changed to protect the innocent).

When Faith was born Saturn was in Libra and since Saturn was again in Libra from late 2009 until just a couple months ago, I knew at a glance that Faith has just been through her 2nd Saturn return.

This is like our own little (often not so little) personal earthquake- allowing us to shake off anything that is not really us (note- this shaking off may feel kind of like being water-boarded at times and in a partnership house like Libra might lead us through some loneliness and depression).

It can create dramatic change!

new moon day - set those intentions!

print by sonya kanelstrand

Today's full moon in Capricorn makes this a great day to set some intentions for the New Year.

This is not a time to be limiting the universe so it's best to work in terms of essence and not details here.

Life can dream bigger dreams for us than we have for ourselves truly!

(yes, I'm channeling Oprah today)

Don't overthink this. If we are sitting from the place of the question "what do I do now"  or "what do I want" the answer isn't just going to pop into our head because the question (place we are sitting) doesn't vibrate at the same level as the answer (place we are going) - and these aren't really places but maybe this is an easier way to look at it.

These very questions are what keep us stuck!

(this is science - every particle of matter within the universe contains at all times two aspects - the presence of the thing and the absence of the thing)

We are literally activating the vibration of "not knowing" with these questions - the one place in the universe the "knowing" is prevented from being!

We don't have to figure anything out today. The new moon isn't the time for that anyway and that just puts us back in our heads when we need to be working from our hearts right now.

Let's just put our hand over our heart and set our intention for joy!

(imagine it is the end of 2013 and we are thinking that we just had the most joyful year of our lives, just imagine how that would feel and sit in that)

Proof Positive that Positive Thinking ALONE Won't Get Us $5000 A Week For Life

A friend emailed me recently and while we were catching up she asked, "why all the positive thinking stuff on your blog lately?"

I didn't think of this as my recent subject matter, but we all know how scattered multi-faceted this blog is, so it did get me thinking.

I am more about "focusing on what we want" (in particular how we want to feel) these days than positive thinking -

although if we are more naturally inclined to doom and gloom, the sky is falling, Wednesdays are for whining kind of thinking and can evolve just that - well, things will certainly be shaken up for us in big ways.

(I still miss Wednesdays ... sniffle)

I don't think, as Marianne Williamson says "pouring pink paint over our problems and pretending that they don't exist" works either. The stuff we push down always bobs to the surface sooner or later -

although maybe this stuff that is bobbing to the surface is like an inner tube in a fast moving river and actually there to save us and the only reason we think we are drowning is that we are clinging to a slippery rock afraid to let go and reach out for it.

Besides I learned long ago that positive thinking alone is not a sure thing to getting what we want.

When I was a kid I was afraid to go into the bathroom because I always thought something scary was lurking behind the closed shower curtain.

(I admit I still peek behind one now and then ... or maybe every time I go in there)

My mother, being a highly creative and highly frazzled mother of 3 children under the age of 5 would ask, "why does it have to a monster in there Cathy? why can't it be something good? does everything we can't see have to be something bad?"

She started asking us what good stuff could be hiding in the shower. "An ice cream truck!", "A fairy!", "A treasure chest!", "A library!" we shouted, my little brother stopped us in our tracks with "Bozo" (we were old enough to know that clowns could be scary, too) - finally my mother clapped a halt to our shouting with a decision.

"No", she pronounced solemnly, "the best thing would be ... the Publisher's Clearing House guy with the balloons and the check". We all cheered.

From that day forward we pretended the Publisher's Clearing House crew was hiding in our shower ready to spring a $10,000,000 check on us.

It kept us from being afraid of the closed curtain (sort of) but if having 3 kids thinking about that an average of 3 times a day each for, I don't know, let's say 5 years, which would create (grabs my calculator) over 16,000 positive thoughts of a Publisher's Clearing House check didn't draw that guy to our front door

I am pretty certain positive thinking alone is not totally a sure thing.

(of course I am not totally sure my mother ever actually mailed in an entry form)

new moon, new year - 2013 here SHE comes!

calendar by anna newell jones

On Friday we have the first New Moon of 2013 and it's a goodie! Now this new moon is in the sign of Capricorn and Capricorn is the sign that is all about hard work.

Oh no, you are thinking - "not more hard work, Cat, I can't work any harder".

Don't worry- this is the kind of work that pays off, not the kind of work that gets you clean dishes for about 32 seconds until someone lays a coffee spoon in your clean sink.

This is the work that matters.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn who is kind of the daddy of the universe (well, the sun is kind of the daddy actually, but Saturn is that stern daddy energy). When daddy (ego) is in balance with mommy (the moon/soul) all is right with the world.

When daddy has too much power (like the patriarchal society we had been living in) our drive for power, wealth and control overwhelms the emotional needs of the Moon (soul). It can create a society of greed where too few have too much and stuff gets clogged up - the energy just doesn't flow well - which is part of what we have been dealing with on this planet.

But Saturn is also the awesome and amazing daddy who shows us that hard work pays off, who gives us something to push against and teaches patience and commitment -

his is the gift that keeps us on our path.

Saturn doesn't promise success of course, our journey on planet Earth doesn't come with any guarantees, but he does promise self-esteem.

He's how we earn the stuff that we really get to keep.

(and if you are in your mid-late 20's or mid- late 50's you might find it helpful to study Saturn because he is about to kick your ass)

Anyhoo, a new moon in Capricorn usually just kind of reinforces this power, wealth, control mindset back to us, but it is a brave new world and this new moon is different. The feminine energy will not be held back any longer.

2013 is also a 6 Universal year bringing balance, peace and harmony - this is all about the heart chakra and balancing heaven and earth - bringing our ideals and practical matters together

(for many people this will be  the year when the doing what we love and the money will follow will fall together).

We need the balance of the inner and outer work to create this - the inner work to allow and the outer work to create.

This is a rebuilding year - 6 always brings more responsibility (especially when it comes to family and health) - it brings relationships, community building, love and romance - all good stuff for the planet. Balance and love will be the planet's vibration this year.

(this doesn't mean everything will be all roses and chocolate because vibrations bring up anything that is not of that vibration so we can look at it and deal with it)

The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Pluto, Juno and Venus are all in Capricorn at this New Moon so it is really empowering us to take charge of our lives. It's a time to breathe deeply, ground and center ourselves - move from our hearts - we are setting the foundation for the next 12 months. 

Jan Spiller has the New Moon Wishes Reminder HERE that you might find helpful. Voicing and putting our intentions on paper at any New Moon is powerful.

To everyone who left a comment or emailed me about our upcoming 10th house exploration (we are also going to look at north and south nodes) - we will do this anonymously - I will contact you or you can contact me with your birth date info if I don't already have it - if you know the time (and time zone) of your birth that works best!

xo all