the Fall Equinox, Sun into Libra and Mercury moves direct | where do we want to go from here

floating by sollena fotografie

Mercury retrograde - over the past three weeks (and the area came to our attention a bit before that when Mercury when into his shadow period- the degrees he was going to nit-pick over) some space in each of our lives (Virgo) had Mercury backpedaling and doing what Virgo (and Mercury since Mercury rules Virgo) does best - picking at something, checking for problems, re-thinking a situation, hitting a time out - you get the idea.

Maybe some miss-shaped pattern in our thinking, doing or relating was brought to our attention. Maybe something came to standstill. Maybe something/someone from the past re-emerged (it could disappear again). Things can start to move forward now. We will learn where we stand here.

Mercury rules Virgo and Gemini and is an important player in the inner skies (our day to day life) ruling communication (and the things we communicate with ie computers), our thinking, our early experiences and things nearby, ie siblings (even when they are no longer close by) and neighbors, education, transportation (re its link with speed, communication and commerce) and sales/commerce (re its link with communication and intellect).

He/she is the closest planet to the Sun - we will all feel better when he is back up to speed (give him a couple/few days to un-wonk himself and iron out the kinks). There could be rewards for our thorough re-work and patience. If you know where 14 degrees Virgo is in your natal chart this is the space he is moving forward from .... so here we go!

Also today, the Fall Equinox arrives as the Sun moves into Libra. Darkness and light are equally balanced today. Burning Libra fuel we can come into balance. In my part of the world we move from Summer into Fall (and heading toward Winter) - the time between life and death.

We take stock of our harvest - what do we have, what do we need, what do we need to do to get it, what do we need to do differently. We prepare for the winter ahead. We move into an air sign (and could reap a head cold - do whatever it is you do to head that off) and could feel a bit off-kilter and ungrounded for a couple days.

Libra is the sign of beauty and partnership and balance. We give and we get. With all of us burning Libra fuel for the next few weeks any ways this is out of balance in our lives could show up for us - an inability to make a decision could cause us a problem, bending too much to other people could cause us a problem, pouring pink paint on problems and pretending they don't exist could cause the problem to bleed through our crappy paint job in bigger and messier ways.

The good news and there is plenty of it - we are heading toward what astrologer Susan Miller calls "the luckiest day of the year" on Monday - the day the Sun conjuncts (joins) Jupiter.

This happening in Libra this year (love and money) makes it even more magical. We are in that energy now as they move toward their meeting

(and if you have a birthday between now and September 30th - my brother does, the lucky devil! - this energy will be part of your whole, entire next year and because it's part of the Fall Equinox we all have access to it for the next 6 months!).

We'll talk about this in the next weekly, but it's all good with this one!

For today - we can be like that Libran scale symbol and weigh our options (don't run full steam ahead just yet, let things fall into place a bit around you first).

This has been a challenging six months. The mutable trials have been immense. Mutable energy is rather boundless and stretchy. This can be a good thing.

But it can also have its drawbacks. We can end up right back where we started very easily. Too much space sounds like a good thing until we get it. Less options always equals more focus. More focus with less options is exactly what we get with Saturn in Sagittarius (through the end of 2017).

As we move into the second half of the astrological year we will have learned that sometimes we need to know this is as far as we can go. Or this is where we must concentrate our energy in order to succeed. People who do not see things this way at all may feel their goals and dreams are stifled now or get kicked in the ass at some point. For dreamers that can embrace this way of thinking (we can't have everything all at once and this means even in little things like we can't sleep in all the time and waste time and still get our work done on time or we can't eat fast food and have a fast moving, fast thinking body, etc), Saturn will help us build the kind of stability that supports BIG THINGS.

While we have the Sun in Libra - two heads will be better than one, air signs in particular (Aquarius, Gemini and Libra) will be very quick thinking and easier to work with, yes, even stubborn Aquarius (ack!). It's a time to negotiate. Brings legal matters to a close if possible. It's a time to partner. We will refuel the way Libra Suns do - through beauty and peace - get to a museum, get outdoors. 

What feels out of balance? Hint - it's probably that thing we dread doing or the relationship with that person we dread dealing with. On the other side of that same coin it can also be whatever we feel we can't live (breathe) without - they only thing we can't breathe without is oxygen! If something feels like a do or die situation or there is some person we simply must be in balance with to be able to sleep at night - this is a good time of year to make changes here.

We can evaluate the past 6 months and see what we can do in the next 6 months to bring ourselves into a better balance with ourselves and with other people. Our beliefs, past decisions and past actions have brought us to exactly the space we now occupy - our current beliefs, today's decisions and today's actions will bring us to the next space - where do we want to go next?

xo all

after the eclipses | the baseball cap

final hour by sebastien tabuteaud

So, if you are reading this you have survived the Eclipse season - ha! (although maybe it's not officially over until the New Moon at the end of the month). It feels closed to me though.

The Fall Equinox in two days represents the mid-point of the astrological year. Someone in a store yesterday said to me, "this year is flying" and I said, "yes, we are half-way through already!" and she looked at me like I was nuts and needed to repeat my second grade math class or maybe buy a calendar. 

You might have felt a big adjustment in your life, maybe it was more subtle, maybe it's still to play out in the visible realm. Pisces rules the 12th (and final) house of "everything hidden" and "what we put away" and "what we do last" so it could be the shift was more "behind the scenes".

Usually with Eclipses we start to feel the energy about 6 months prior, so probably six months ago there was some change in our thinking/beliefs and we started to move in a different direction without us consciously moving in a different direction. Then the Eclipse season acts like a portal to connect that thinking/belief realm to our 3D physical reality and over the 6 months following the eclipse the changes manifest ... and life is different.

It's like when we set intentions or make goals, except the intentions and goals that set the changes into motion are outside our conscious control. They line us up with fate/destiny - what we came here to do.

(I always imagine us all lined up in the heavens like children on their first day of school - shiny new shoes and notebooks with smiles on our faces and ready for everything ... before schoolyard bullies (or maybe we are the schoolyard bully), burned out teachers, overloaded backpacks and helicopter parents have their way with us - ack!)

Sometimes we just need a little tweak to get back on track and sometimes we need a more major overhaul. Life can turn on a dime. And when enough people's individual lives turn on a dime - the world turns on a dime, too. This particular eclipse (in Pisces) maybe had a lot of us looking within because there were no answers outside of us.

The eclipse was t-squaring Mars and Saturn (the two planets considered malefic by astrologers) and with a t-square (picture the letter T) the energy gets funneled in the direction of the t-square. That is a lot of energy to change outdated belief systems; stuff that we often don't even realize is constraining us.

my cap circa 1999

Most mornings I get up early and walk at my local reservoir. I throw my hair into a baseball cap and when I first put on the cap it feels tight and annoying, but after a few minutes I don't even notice I am wearing it. Some days when I get home and check my email and get off track with whatever comes up I can find myself still wearing it hours later because I have adjusted to the tight/annoying feeling and don't remember to take it off. I always feel better when I finally do though.

We could think of an eclipse (and this happens with other transits, too, especially those involving Uranus and Pluto) as one way life has to get us to notice and (hopefully) remove that baseball cap; to move past what is constricting us.

I had a memorable eclipse season this month with Olive's accident and in March 2015 with a financial tax matter - to outside eyes these might seem like very different things, but I can see the connections.

They were both about "values, what's most important - what money can't buy" and "other people's money" and my own habit of negative thinking where I immediately take what is happening to the worst possible conclusion in my head and don't trust things to unfold properly without my manipulation.

I took Olive's situation, in my head, to an expensive surgery she would not survive (I have experience with pets having expensive surgeries they did not survive) and the tax situation, in my head, had me going to jail, missing months of Sully's life and losing tens of thousands of dollars. Both these things were extreme and very, very unlikely to ever happen, but I did not see them that way. In my head, they were right in front of me. Both situations were outside my control, resulted in me having to "let go and let God" and offered up lessons about what my negative thinking does to my physical body and lessons in what is most important to me (ie Olive and Sully) and the way I react emotionally to issues around money and security. They have a 'before' and 'after' feeling to them and are situations/times I will remember.

(And now I feel the need to explain the tax situation a bit - hubs business, truck repair, has some customers who do not pay sales tax on their repairs/maintenance because of their gross vehicle weight or the type of work their vehicle is used for, etc - now, some of these rules changed a few years ago, but we were unaware of the changes so exempted sales tax where we shouldn't have and I say we, but I really mean 'me' here. A mistake I made brought this to light and I was told by a tax attorney that although we wouldn't have to pay the missing taxes, since we had tax waivers signed by customers claiming exemptions, we could have to pay the penalties and interest which totaled about $18,000 and I could even go to jail since I had signed the inaccurate returns. Of course, it's probably in his best interest to tell me the worst case scenario so I would hire him, but I was in the circus of eclipse season and this seemed to me like exactly what was going to happen. I also had a long transit in my chart that spring that looked like 'legal' stuff to me. In the end the state waived the penalties and we paid about $1500 interest and obviously I didn't go to jail - although I did watch a couple seasons of Orange is the New Black and cut my hair to get myself ready just in case and I did get on the jury of a very long heroin trafficking trial ...)

Anyhoo, with Mars (action) in Sagittarius (freedom) part of the t-square, life is asking us what we are going to do as we release whatever limiting belief (ie baseball cap) we have taken off. Do we really want our freedom or are we more comfortable staying constrained and playing small, because of course with our freedom comes our responsibility (Saturn in Sagittarius). It's easier to stay constrained and blame something outside our control for the limitations in our life or stay asleep and wait for someone to come along and fix everything - the complaining/blaming thing that Saturn in Sagittarius (through the end of 2017) is bringing to our attention.

This eclipse is releasing a constriction (maybe right away or maybe more slowly over the next 6 months). The wind has blown off that baseball cap and we can either have a really bad hair day or look the world straight in the eye, hat hair and all, set our sights on our target (the hair in our eyes won't stop us, it's only hair after all!) and move forward with this new passion that has awakened now that our head isn't being constrained by 10 ounces of canvas.

(for me, the thinking that keeps me stuck and playing small and thinking "this isn't going to work" so not doing the first step - even though I know the step by step thing changes the outcome and it's not possible to see the outcome anyway - and feeling that I have to manipulate the situation for it to work out and a lack of trust with money and other people that has me making emotional decisions focused on security rather than freedom or happiness)

We might have been so dependent on that baseball cap that we are kind of freaking out now and thinking "where the hell is my cap?!" and, of course, we have free will and so if we keep looking for that baseball cap we will re-manifest/re-create it 

(there is a Target in almost every town after all) 

and this is how we move from one relationship to a new relationship that turns into the same relationship and a new job that turns into the same old job. And then we'll be stuck in it again and get used to it again and it will be comfortable. But maybe a comfort zone is not what the world needs us to be looking for right now and maybe it's not what we came here to find ...

This is how the vibrations that we have in our physical body that are determined by the belief systems we have in our psyche create the world we experience. So we can experience a world with a baseball cap where we are all neat and tidy and our problems are all tucked away underneath and people cannot really see us or get close to us or touch our hair.

Or we can experience a world where our hair is unrestrained even if it gets in our eyes sometimes and maybe even gets caught in the steering wheel of our car (yes, I did this recently - don't judge me) and needs to be brushed and given our attention and also gets to touch and sometimes, yes, be judged, loved, hated and ignored, by others.

And I hope this metaphor is making sense to someone - I think I've lost the thread here - ack!

This is how we all live on the same planet but inhabit very different worlds and how most people, and maybe most of us in some space in our life, just move from baseball cap to baseball cap and never take the damn thing off (whatever is restricting freedom but is providing safety).

xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of September 19th - comfort zone buster, new directions, Mercury moves direct

surreal tiger bubble waterdancer dream by deskridge

This is a busy week with multiple planets changing signs and Mercury moving direct! Whatever Mercury retrograde has had you "re-ing", wrap up the re-do by Thursday when the energy around it will shift.

We start the week with a Taurus Moon (Monday and Tuesday) focusing us on what we value, our money, the stuff we own and our purchases. This is good energy to get stuff done and bring ideas into physical form.

We have Venus (strong in Libra) opposing Uranus (retrograde in Aries) and sextiling Mars (still in Sagittarius). We could find ourselves unexpectedly getting what we want with minimal effort. We could surprise ourselves with actions that choose freedom over security. There could be sudden changes with Venus ruled relationships, money and women. These are good days to meet new people and make new friends.

Something is shaken up here. Opportunity could be calling. We're rattled because something here is not in balance (or maybe something is brought back into balance unexpectedly) and that could be a good thing (lottery winners are rattled, too, eh?). This energy clearly says "the good stuff is just outside your comfort zone - go for it". Results are not guaranteed, of course, but are they ever?

On Wednesday, Mercury (retrograde in Virgo) trines (brakes off) Pluto (retrograde in Capricorn) then Mercury stations direct and changes direction and trines Pluto again on Friday moving direct. Pluto rules obsession, karma, compulsion (also 8th house matters - other people's money, surgery, debt, taxes, inheritance, reproduction, life and death, sex) so whatever this is we think about it on Wednesday (or something is communicated about it) and then on Friday we take action or it wraps up or moves forward in some way.

On Wednesday and Thursday the Moon moves into Gemini. We are busy. Lots of communication and conversations going on. Words can move us emotionally and we can move others through our words. Keep this in mind.

The Sun moves into Libra (Wednesday- I'll do a post) and we all start burning Libra fuel - cooperation, balance, justice. It's the Fall equinox - as day balances equally with night it's another opportunity for us to get back in balance - with Jupiter in Libra this week, balance cannot be over-rated. This is a critical time of year - we'll talk about it on Wednesday.

The Moon (in Gemini) and Uranus (out of the blue) could offer up some surprising news on Wednesday afternoon/evening or maybe it is our emotional reaction to the news (or someone else's reaction) that is unexpected.

On Thursday, Mercury goes direct and whatever we have been dealing with since early August can start to move forward or resolve. There can now be progress and answers. Mercury won't be covering new ground for a bit longer and the period when he stations is fraught with snafus so don't rush back into anything immediately, but know we are moving forward now!

On Friday, Venus says bye-bye to Libra and dives into Scorpio (I'll do a post). Scorpios and Scorpio rising will get more attractive - both physically and able to 'attract'. Our Scorpio house gets more attractive (able to attract what we want). Love (and money and women) situations get intense. Our passions are stirred. We could get more possessive or want what we can't have. Superficial relationships are not gonna cut it. If you are moving through a divorce, loss or separation - this energy will work with you. We'll talk about this later in the week.

The Moon in Cancer on Friday and Saturday has us focused on home and family; squaring Jupiter indicates some, possibly over-the-top, tension and disruption here (on Saturday this same Moon squares Uranus so we'll expect the unexpected - something wants to break free here).

No Void Moons during work hours this week - the Moon is waning so it's a great time to clear out and let go. By the next New Moon, Mars will be in Capricorn, and it will be pretty much all systems go. There is the same aspect with Eris (female energy, discord, Mars' angry sister) and Uranus (unexpected, rebellion) this week that we saw previously in the year with traumatic events - heads up. Take care with fire and electricity and any jealous/angry tendencies around 'being ignored' or not valued - if any new or unexpected health stuff crops up, get it checked out pronto.

Saturn is squaring our North and South Nodes (what we are releasing what we are working toward) - setting boundaries and working with right timing (no rushing through) is a good thing.

We'll talk about this later, too. This is an intense week as we prepare for what comes after. xo all

FULL Moon Lunar Eclipse in Pisces | cry me a river ...

cry me a river by julie de waroquier

We have a BIG T-square Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Pisces today.

It lays out like this - we have the Sun in Virgo at 24 degrees (we also have the North Node of our collective destiny in Virgo). We have the Moon in Pisces at 24 degrees - we have the Moon conjunct Chiron (the space of our wounding and the bridge between restriction and freedom, and maybe why new things are so often birthed by pain) in Pisces (and the South Node of what we are collectively releasing and leaving behind also in Pisces). We have all of this squaring Mars (in Sagittarius and also the space where Saturn is still hanging out). I'll put all of this into english, too, I promise. :)

Full Moons bring energy to a "peak"; to a culmination, maybe to an ending. Eclipses eclipse something out; we get re-set. If you have planets or points near or on 24 degrees Pisces or Virgo your life will be very, very different in 6 months (lunar eclipses play out over 6 months). For everyone else this eclipse is bringing something to a peak, culmination or an ending. It will be complex and we will probably be asked to be compassionate toward ourselves and other people. Emotions will be running high now.

With Chiron sitting with the Moon this is probably going to hurt a bit .... and instead of turning away from what hurts - it is the time to let our defenses down and feel it. We don't have to understand or figure things out. Pisces dissolves. Pisces feels. Pisces is a water sign and heals through wetness - blood, sweat and tears (I would avoid the blood though if possible). If we want/need to cry, and even if it turns into one of those big old ugly cries that has our eyes all scrunched up two days later and people looking at us funny, it's time to cry. You will probably not need me to tell you this though .....

There could be losses, accidents - things beyond our control. Or maybe the controls are still in our hands, maybe we can still steer the ship away from the rocks, maybe .....

Old patterns and ways of thinking and being are very seductive. Our physical body craves, not what is good for us, not what it actually needs - but what is familiar (see the work of Candace Pert and others). 

Whatever fantasy crap is standing in the way of our growth (and the collective's growth) needs a swift kick in the ass now. 

We'll try to remember we need this when we are being kicked in the ass.

(and I'm not talking martyrdom - that crap is part of the Piscean fantasy and the way we keep ourselves separate from others - it needs to go, too)

This Moon culminates the New Moon from two weeks ago, the Pisces New Moon from March 8th and reaches forward from the Eclipse cycle we've worked with since spring 2015. Lots of things are impacted here because one thing brings us to the next and where things start and end aren't really where they start and end. Look at the ultimate beginning "thing" - a baby. The baby doesn't start when she is born, she doesn't even really start when she is conceived - she is set into motion long before that. We can see that right?

If we've been toughing something out and carrying some load that is bending our back into a pretzel - this would be a good time to set it down long enough for us to feel for a moment what we could feel like without it - who we would be without it - what the world might look like if we are standing up straight.

If the tears now make everything a big black, mascara-y blur - we will narrow our focus (Virgo) and remember that every ending, even one that is fated like an eclipse ending, always ALWAYS carries the seeds of a new beginning and the best thing about our Virgo North Node is that a fated beginning will come from doing the next step thing, the thing that is already right there in front of us.

There is a leap of faith here to release the past.

With slippery Pisces the results this Full Moon brings could be unpredictable. We think we are getting X and we really get Y. Our energy could flow here and there and much of it could be wasted (especially with Mercury still retrograde). If something leaves now though, there is no stopping it.

Since this is a Lunar Eclipse a woman might leave or bring news of a change of direction or ending.

As always get out and walk in the Full Moon energy - if you can walk near water or be in water (yes, a bathtub totally counts here), even better!

Now a quick look through the signs (Sun and rising). 

If you know your Virgo house for the solar Eclipse (two weeks ago) and your Pisces house for the Lunar eclipse (today), use the houses (number in parenthesis) for best accuracy!

ARIES (Virgo in the 6th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago was about your health and your vitality, maybe some change in your day to day situation or day to day functioning or an issue with a pet, co-worker or employee - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 12th) today is about this being "time to go", maybe a move or relocation? events could show you how you sabotage yourself

TAURUS (Virgo in the 5th) the New Moon two weeks ago was about peaks, endings and culminations with creative projects and how you show up creatively, could be changes or endings with a romantic partner or with children - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 11th) today is about changes, endings and culminations with friends and groups and your emotions around them or some adjustment around that 'big dream' you carry for yourself

GEMINI (Virgo in the 4th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago brought changes in your home and family, maybe a physical move or family member left or moved in, maybe some kind of trauma at home, something you needed to just 'deal with'. This could also be something about your mother or your belief about your mother. - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 10th) today is about your career and reputation in the world, whatever peaks, culminates or ends within this space is meant to go now, so something new can be built. This could also be something about your father or your belief about your father.

CANCER (Virgo in the 3rd) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago was about changes in your mental thinking, your attitude, your communication, maybe a peak, culmination or ending with a sibling, neighbor or within your neighborhood - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 9th) today is about deeper emotional insight and truth or maybe a peak, ending or culmination or the release of a belief related to education or travel or a wedding or someone or something from or at a distance.

LEO (Virgo in the 2nd) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago could have brought possible losses of money, maybe a check didn't show up or you didn't get your money's worth somehow - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 8th) today is about a financial loss of some kind or inheritance debt, some kind of debt or tax coming due? something impacting 'other people's money', maybe a change regarding your spouse's income. This could also be about sex or reproduction; a peak, ending or culmination

VIRGO (Virgo in the 1st) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago will impact your entire life for the next 6 months - big changes ahead, release and let go of whatever is not needed - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 7th) today is about a possible rude awakening with a relationship, maybe someone leaves or some karmic connection/debt releases - some peak, ending or culmination regarding a partnership

LIBRA (Virgo in the 12th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago released a karmic debt - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 6th) today is about self reflection (try to flip depression to self reflection and don't repress your emotions), your health, your day to day operations, something is peaking, culminating or ending here, this could also be about your pets, co-workers and employees

SCORPIO (Virgo in the 11th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago likely brought a peak, culmination or ending within friendships or associations or maybe something in the way of your big dream gets removed or the dream itself evolves through release or loss - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse today (Pisces in the 5th) is about romance, creative projects, children - something here reaches a peak, ends or comes to a culmination. Time to let go.

SAGITTARIUS (Virgo in the 10th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago brought changes within your career and reputation in the world - there will be big changes in this area within the next 6 months! This could also be something about your father or your belief about your father. The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 4th) today is about emotional changes within your family, possible losses within the family, your home or 'base'. This could also be about the release of a belief about your childhood, what 'home' is or something about your roots. This could also be about your mother or your beliefs about your mother.

CAPRICORN (Virgo in the 9th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago brought changes in your education or travel plans or with what is foreign, maybe the removal of a belief system and access to greater knowledge (opening of crown chakra) - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 3rd) today is about letting your emotions open your mind, a challenge for Cappys! learning to trust your gut intelligence, maybe a peak, ending or culmination in regard to communication, intellect, something with a sibling, neighbor or your neighborhood

AQUARIUS (Virgo in the 8th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago was about death, divorce, surgery, sex, deep discoveries, reproduction something about taboo experiences - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 2nd) today is about the loss of something valuable but the loss brings freedom .... what belief about 'security or safety' is standing between you and freedom? what do you really value?

PISCES (Virgo in the 7th) the New Moon Solar Eclipse two weeks ago  was about the loss of a close relationship or belief around a relationship - the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (Pisces in the 1st) today is all about you, you will feel the wounding and healing here, take it easy on yourself, meditate don't medicate, get some exercise and skip the alcohol, don't overeat, get healthy. Your life will be so different in 6 months!

If you need assistance determining houses let me know! Eclipses work themselves out over a six month period although big events often happen at the eclipse and, I often find, one month to the day before or after.

Also something about Full Moons and Pisces - it's a time to 'let go'. It isn't a time to 'move on'. The 'letting go' and the 'moving on' times are two different things - we get all screwed up when we push them together like they are one big thing.

They aren't. 

This is how we dis-honor our feelings and try to bypass grief and we get ourselves out of 'right timing'. This is just the time to 'let go' - nothing more ....

Happy Harvest Moon everyone! xo all