mars stations direct in libra - may 2014

 After his long retrograde (since early March) in Libra - Mars finally stationed direct Tuesday night!

When any planet goes retrograde, it actually goes through the same space three times (forward, backward and then forward again). When it changes direction, it doesn't just haul its big bulky self full speed ahead back the way it came. The planet slows down until it pauses for up to a few days (we say it stations) - then it gradually starts moving again in the opposite direction.

See the full post HERE

Note - I am migrating the astrology posts to another blog, but will continue to post a link here, too. Please have patience while I try to get the astrology blog looking like this one (we need more patience when Mars is stationed!) - I forgot how I set this one up, so it is slow going!

owning our impact - the value of being ourselves part IV

See part I, part II and part III

(yes, my posts have more parts than your Ikea bookshelves)

Now Mars (the planet of action and passion and desire) just stationed direct last night after his two month retrograde so I will post about that tomorrow - for now, just be careful of fire and electrical issues - appliances and batteries tend to go bust when Mars begins to change direction - sparks of creativity and clarity will start to fly, too! Anything that rubs against something else can ignite right now - use this energy wisely (wink).

OK- back to this series. We've got our burned out brick and mortar music store owner, our own online business in a sea of other online businesses, Russell Simmons talking about creating the kind of value within our business that makes it sell-able (ie able to stand on its own) - how does this all tie together?

(of course you already know everything always ties together - that's how life works)

Let me call the music store owner Hal. Well, Hal has been a smart cookie and transitioned his business very wisely. The only problem with Hal's thinking is that he expects his transition to last more than 18 months (or 18 weeks or 18 days). It won't.

Things have sped up now and the transition isn't the wobbly space between two stable places anymore - the place we work through to get to the other side - the entire space is the transition - there is no other side.

This is the same lesson for us - the end zone is gone. We have to vanish the thought of it right out of our head, it was never real anyway.

Think about this - when we think back 10 years in our life or 20 years, we have big chunks of time that all meld together - "I worked there for 10 years" we say, or "I lived with that guy for 6 years" as if that 10 years or that 6 years was all the same space. It wasn't. It only feels like the same space in hindsight. 

Most people (and businesses) stepping into a transition period - that space between our old self and our new self - get so uncomfortable they step right back into their old self. We all do it dozens (hundreds?) of times a day.

Usually we tell ourselves "this just feels right" - what we really mean is "this feels familiar." 

Remember our body isn't looking for stuff that feels good, our body is looking for stuff that feels familiar!

If we know the cravings for stability we battle in the midst of change are real withdrawals from the chemical addictions of our body - we can ride it out! 

Not because there is some rainbow at the end of our choices, but because we know the space of making choices is what we are here for - we didn't come for the rainbow!

If we understand we are changing at a cellular level we really can soldier on - we are doing nothing less than reconstructing our genes for our future, future generations and our own future lives when we stay focused and inspired!

Hal can't answer the question of what he should do next (and neither can we). There is no answer. We're all asking the wrong question.

Life is designed to focus us on the "now" - the place of creation.

Do we think our ancestors thought too far ahead of their raging winters? They climbed into bed and dared to make babies they probably would not get to see grow up! How could our own choices be any harder ....

Conclusion Part V on Thursday - so what's the right question? (our action plan) plus tomorrow a post on Mars direct!

Full Moon in Scorpio Today - May 14th

Just before the full moon (this afternoon on the east coast of the U.S.) - the moon makes a conjunction to Scorpio. Saturn has been in Scorpio since late 2012.

So, we've got the sun in Taurus which is all about our values (the stuff money can buy and the stuff money can't) - a full moon in Scorpio which is about deep release and transformation and this conjunction with Saturn making this transformation with our values a structural change. Since Scorpio is a water sign we have emotional power with this.

Saturn in Scorpio doesn't like to yield or compromise - he likes to be in control and wants to hold his ground. The area of your life where you can relate to this posture is the area you can get a real breakthrough now.

I can't think of one person I know who is not undergoing some kind of restructuring with their basic foundation right now. I really feel a very strong push toward "having to look at what we don't want to look at, having to do what we do not want to do" in this energy.

There is a "living with the unknown" space with this - lots of uneasiness and everyone trying to figure out the best way to move forward in whatever area of your life this shows up.

Remember we always get the breakthrough and not the breakdown when we release our grip.

Think clear and empty today - eat lightly. Use your words mindfully - say less. Work up a sweat (outdoors if possible). Take an epsom salt bath. Spend some time tonight in meditation. Let any sense of fear, judgement, need to control or feeling of victim-hood (why is this happening to me) be released now. The energy at play is totally supportive and will help us do this.

NOTE - this energy isn't just about today - this is stuff that has been at play in our life for months and years and even ages - we are always safe. We can let go.

Full Moon in Scorpio Tomorrow - part II - it wasn't curiosity that killed the cat

We can't blame Hollywood for our Saturn problem.

We have seen so many movies where our heroine, ie Jamie Lee Curtis, hears a noise and goes outside on a dark, rainy night to investigate or she goes down into the basement of a strange house with a flashlight that promptly stops working. 

We are yelling at the screen for her to stay safely tucked away on the couch with her blanket and bowl of popcorn. She never listens.

Our heroine must always overcome her fear - that's what makes her a heroine after all.

(of course if she is not the heroine of the movie this scene will not end well for her)

Now, I am convinced (after a lifetime of study and listening to this kid) that the best way to look at life is to see our journey here on planet Earth as a quest.

Us questers (and I am not liking that word now because it sounds too much like sequester and I am thinking of budget cuts and O.J. juries) do not get to know what is around every corner or how every situation we encounter is going to turn out.

It's this lack of certainty that makes us heroes. Our ancestors were born for their times. We were born for this.

If you are a student of A Course in Miracles (a self-study course I highly recommend) you will learn the course's most important lesson:
 Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.

Knowing that our real life quest is more of a movie quest makes this whole quest business a lot easier. Nothing we can lose is real anyway - the real stuff can't be lost.

We know everything turns out all right in the end and if everything isn't alright it isn't the end.

If we know we are forever beings on a continuous series of quests, the stumbling blocks that show up on our path (which may look more like hatchet wielding orks) are easier to face. 

This is what we are here to do after all. 

If we turn away from our quest, ie stay safely tucked on our couch with a blanket and popcorn, life will take away our popcorn. Then life will take away our blanket. Then life will take away our couch.

This is where Saturn comes in.

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 - the 2nd largest planet, the planet of contraction (Jupiter, the largest planet, is the planet of expansion so we expand a little more than we contract) - he'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)

Saturn has been working his way through Scorpio since October 5, 2012. This will continue until December 23, 2014; and then he finishes up his transit from June 14, 2015 to September 17, 2015.

Tomorrow we have the last full moon in Scorpio while Saturn is housed there.

I can't believe I am turning a Full Moon post into 3 posts, but I am! Back tomorrow to finish this up with the best ways to work with this energy.