Today's Astrological Weather Report - handcut carrots, small tweaks adjust BIG things, practical language, the audience goes home

South wind by painted poppy

Today, we have the Sun (in Virgo) trining (brakes off) Pluto (retrograde in Capricorn), Mars (action, initiative, passion, anger) changing signs from fiery Leo into stable Virgo and Venus (in Leo) inconjunct Pluto. The Moon is waxing in Aries this morning and moves into Taurus at 12:23 EDT (after a short void around lunchtime). The Moon is exalted in Taurus - the sign of prosperity and ruler of our resources.

First, let's look at Mercury.

You might remember he moved into Virgo on July 25th before reversing course and traveling back through Leo. So, now we are kind of back where we were then, but with a clearer grasp on whatever information/facts we need to be grasping to move ahead. We are older and wiser now. The retrograde forced us to deal with delays, to take another look at something, to ask the right questions, to revise, to review, to reconsider - and now we have the results/the decision/the info we need. It won't get much clearer than this.

Retrogrades force our hand with this stuff. They can't always force us to use what we have learned, but let's face it - if we were planning to do X, and, during the last few weeks learned Y and Z that impact X, we would be a fool not to use what we have discovered/learned as we move forward. So we will.

Mercury (communication, thinking, ideas, local neighborhood, siblings, transportation) is quite happy to be back in Virgo - a sign he rules.

In Virgo, our thinking, writing and communication will be more practical and commonsense. We will be all about the details. Nothing gets by Mercury in Virgo.  But lots of things get dismissed. If it's not real, if it doesn't work - it's gone. This is an excellent transit for organization, cleaning, paperwork, working on the tedious trivia we have overlooked during Mercury's days in star-studded Leo. The curtain gets drawn, the crowds go home, the star of the stage (us!) hones his craft without an audience, without applause. This is the work that gets done right because it needs to be done right. This is also excellent service energy - for taking care of our health, for taking care of other people, for taking care of our animals.

The Virgo house in your natal chart gets a visit from active Mercury - this is where the solutions will be. This is where we can drill down the details and become more efficient.

This is where we will be walking our talk.

The shadow side of Mercury during this transit (through September 29th when he moves into Libra - note he will start covering entirely new ground in Virgo on September 19th) is that we can't always see the forest for the trees. We might get so caught up in the details the big picture gets away from us. We could forget/lose sight of why we are doing the thing we are doing in the first place. Or we get so caught up in something being so perfect, that it never gets finished. Or we pare something down so much that in the end we end up with nothing .... keep an eye (yes, we need three eyes now!) out for this stuff.

The big news today is the perfection of the trine between the Sun and Pluto.

This is an aspect we don't want to waste. Here is where a precise adjustment (Sun in Virgo) creates career/place in the outer world opportunities (Pluto in Capricorn). A tweak to our day-to-day activities or work routine (or diet/health routine! or some regimen with our pets!) STARTED NOW is very powerful. We have to do what is right for other people here, too, because our Virgo Sun rules service - we can't take more than our fair share or cop out on something that is necessary. 

POWER comes through the details now. Use this transit to set up an improved schedule. Prioritize. Do the most important thing first. Take a look at the houses in your natal chart this trine is impacting (your Capricorn and Virgo houses) - there is an increased opportunity for these houses to work together now. Trines are easy to miss because things fall into place easily. Note where this is already happening. Help it along with increased efficiency toward what we are passionate about!

The fly in the ointment with this and yes, there is always a damn fly in the ointment. Maybe without the fly there would be no ointment!

We have Venus (love, money, women, beauty, our values, our self-esteem) inconjunct (something not solvable here) the same career/place in the outer world/authority Pluto.

It looks like something we want (Venus) won't happen quite the way we want it to. Or maybe a situation with a woman isn't working out. Love/money can be tricky. To the extent we are not valuing the right stuff the support won't be there. Whatever this is, it will impact this final leg of our Pluto story which started when Pluto met up with the Sun back in early January.

The trine with Virgo though tells us the way through this is to do our Virgo.

Cross our t's and dot our i's. Do what is right in front of us. Clean up the mess. Share. Put one foot in front of the other now. Eat right. Go for a walk. There won't be any shortcuts, but we won't need them because with Pluto answering to Saturn - whatever it is we are building it is going to be sticking around for a long time ...

xo all

Enjoy that Taurus Moon this afternoon - take comfort in what really matters. Get out in nature (Ack - I am writing a post for tomorrow about the crazy weather!). Get your hands in the dirt. Balance your checkbook. Get a massage. Cut the vegetables with a knife, not one of those fancy electric choppers. You get the idea.

Today's Astrological Weather Report - peacocks strutting their stuff, something about not trying so hard, imperial ambitions and alpha dogs going at it plus an empty nest "no one needs my homemade cookies anymore" sniffle

Insecure by Birdy-7

Today we have the Moon in fiery, independent Aries. Trining Venus (love, money, women) in Leo this morning making it a good time to push (the Moon is answering Mars today!) for something close to our heart that we started working on/dealing with before the end of July when Mercury went retrograde - remember Mercury is walking old territory until September 19th.

This energy is good for strong females who want to be noticed ... hmmm :)

It's also good for independent action.

By lunchtime, the Venus trine is fading out (dammit, I want my spotlight!) as the Moon moves into a square with Pluto (in Capricorn) AND Mars - in possibly today's biggest aspect - a sesquiquadrate with Pluto (yes, that's a word).

That's alot of Pluto. And since Pluto is in Capricorn, that's alot of Capricorn.

This will likely direct our action, emotions and possibly our anger at Capricornian thingamajigs - Cappy people, serious people, fathers, our career, authority, limits, rules, time constraints, security, safety, physical things we can touch, walls, things that can't be moved.

Pluto will always beat Mars in an arm wrestling contest, so this is good energy to find out who is really in charge. Battles for dominance and power are likely. It looks especially treacherous ground for the earth signs - Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn - to slug it out.

On the other hand somebody has to come out on top. Note - it will probably be whoever started out there ....

With Pluto there is always the possibility of destruction. We will be holding a hammer so everything might look like a nail. Or maybe someone else is holding a sledgehammer. Either way the good news is with Pluto there is always the potential for the destruction to lead to rebirth. Things/people/relationships can, and often do, come back better and stronger after a Pluto whomping. Or they end up six feet under. There is rarely an in between. Keep this in mind.

Another aspect perfecting today - is Ceres (in Cancer) inconjunct the South Node (in Aquarius).

I have been feeling this one and went looking through today's chart to see what it was. With perfect timing as always (kids going off to school although that's not my story now) the universe offers up an "empty nest", "miss the good old days when I was taken care of or when I took care of something/someone" transit.

There is "mothering/smothering", "nurturing", "sustenance" that is no longer needed. Maybe it has been outgrown entirely or maybe we just need to find a new way of doing it because the seasons (of life or the year) have changed.

With the South Node involved we know something is leaving. With Aquarius involved we know the ending/release is liberating. Whatever is happening will be a big deal to us to the extent our past includes issues of separation and insecurity (and whose doesn't!). And the extent 24 degrees Cancer or Aquarius - or thereabouts - might factor into our natal or progressed charts.

We'll work through this. Maybe we need to mother ourselves now!

If you have some choices about what you are doing today - and you do! - remember it is Virgo season. We are going to have an even greater heap of Virgo to work with/deal with over the next couple weeks, so it's good to embrace it.

Let's focus on what is right in front of us. Clean stuff up. Get organized. All this Pluto today makes it a good day for purging and recycling, plus the Moon in waning. Take care of the details now. Know when good enough is good enough.

With Mercury heading back into Virgo (moving forward) it is best to say what needs to be said and then drop the matter. Too many directions, extra words, etc, will be taken as criticisms ... even though we are thinking we just want something done right. Let's go easy on others, who don't have the benefit of astrology that we do, when they seem to be criticizing us. Isn't it possible they just want things done right/to go right, too?  

Best to talk about what you know for sure NOT what you are worried about that hasn't even happened yet. This is probably always good advice. Make a bumper sticker. But don't forget to credit your grandma. She probably said it first. xo all

Full Moon in Pisces | the mystical, watery dreamer's moon - seeing what we want to see

Tree Of Life by Dani-Owergoor

You have probably noticed the Moon appearing larger and fuller over the last few days as we've approached this morning's Full Moon in Pisces. I hope you have been able to get out and walk in it!

With the Sun at 13 degrees Virgo and the Moon at 13 degrees Pisces - anyone with planets or points around the middle degrees of the mutable signs - Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces - and people with planets or points around the middle degrees of the water signs - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces - will feel this Full Moon energy strongest.

Check your natal and progressed charts (astro.com).

Today's Full Moon is conjunct a retrograde Neptune at 12 degrees Pisces and Neptune is the ruler of Pisces and so the ruler of this Full Moon - its strength is GREATLY increased. Neptune reflects the longing in us to lose our separateness and merge with the greater whole. It's our quest for Eden, the draw to return to the vanished magic of the womb - to God, to the source of life. It's about everything we can feel and nothing we can touch.

With imaginative and illusory Neptune so strong now whatever is going on - coming to light, culminating, releasing - can be beyond our wildest dreams. 

This can be a real thing or it can be a total delusion - smoke and mirrors.

It might be hard to tell which is which. We will see what we want to see now, especially within our relationships with other people since Full Moons are times of Sun/Moon oppositions.

Something stirred up by the recent Solar Eclipse energy comes to light or culminates now.

The Moon is also sextiling (opportunity) Pallas in Taurus. So, there is opportunity energy between our natal Pisces house and our natal Taurus house themes. Sextiles are the kind of opportunities that require some kind of action. Think about how you might be able to work with this.

(for example Pisces rules my 4th house of home and Taurus my 7th house of partnership, so an opportunity for me to take action, and meet with success, combining these two themes)

Pisces rules the 12th house of what is hidden and put away, the ways we self-sabotage, escape, our addictions, our imagination, lack of boundaries, connection, compassion, charity, hospitals, prisons, the things we do last, the things we have forgotten, our distant pasts, water, sleep, illness, healing, spirituality ....

Our Piscean spaces (the roles we play and the roles we have rejected within ourselves and passed out to other people to act out for us) will be on full display. Dreamers will dream. Escapists will run away. Victims and martyrs will play out some endless saga we will all have to hear about. Saviors will march into action. Seekers will look within. Artists will make art. Drifters will drift off course. Anyone whose boat is only lightly tethered to the dock will be pulled out to sea ...

Maybe a whole lot of people could just feel like giving up.

The invitation to regress, to have permission to suspend the hard work of critical thinking/doing, to indulge "poor me", can be mightily seductive in Pisces. We need to be especially gentle with ourselves and others now.

It will be best to seek to balance the Virgo/Pisces polarity (warning shameless plug ahead - have you seen my Polarity Lockets HERE - I am having a rare sale) through some combination of imagination (Pisces) and practicality (Virgo) with whatever we are dealing/working with.

Know that things that look too good to be true now ARE too good to be true. This doesn't mean the whole thing is necessarily a total tosser though, use the Virgo Sun to see what is really going on.

We can ask ourselves - what is our big pie-in-the-sky Piscean dream? How can channeling our inner Virgo and breaking it down into practical, doable slices help make our dream come true?

AND in what ways is life feeling tense and stressed because of a pressure to do something just right or to have something show up in a very specific way? How can channeling our inner Pisces help us let go of the specific version of the way something has to be, or how perfect it needs to be or any need to micro-manage the process - go with the flow and allow ourselves to trust that life really does have our back, now and always?

Neptune is a trans-personal planet ruling the collective - it rules the realms where we are all connected and there are no boundaries between us (one of the reasons since "like cures like" that connection is the most powerful tool to aid addiction). And just as our dreamy Pisces Moon reaches its peak, Trump, whose 12th house has been on fire for weeks with that 28 degree Leo, announces an end to DACA (the dreamers program) .... hopefully Congress - with the help/push of the American people and the people who want to be American people - will use practical Virgo and idealistic Pisces to make this all work out.

For today - get your body into water (this is good advice for all week!), get rid of something/give it away/clear it out - we are FULL UP, too, and it is good practice to make some room for something else at this time of the month. Get out and walk in the Full Moon energy. See what opens up. It is magical!

Make art. Write a poem. Journal. This week has some crazy long Void Moons, too - we might really need some extra rest now (written at 4:44AM since I can't sleep - ack!). Give yourself permission to take a time-out if you need it. Take a nap. Thin boundaries make it easier to catch colds and things from each other (also bad moods!) so take some extra Vitamin C or whatever works best for you.

Our intuition will be strong, but we could pick up the wrong signal and there are other energies at play advising us to be cautious now - not guarded exactly, but it's certainly NOT the time for any big decisions.

Make the time to meditate today - truly this is the best use of the energy. The portals between yourself and yourself are wide open.

xo all

(see yesterday's post HERE for more details on this Moon - and take this breather today because the end of the week is going to see more KABOOM energy with the Aries Moon again clashing with Pluto! Also the Moon goes void at 4:30PM EDT today and stays void until 8AM EDT tomorrow morning - the longest we've seen in a long time.)

Mercury Stations Direct, Mars Into Virgo, Sun Opposes Neptune | BIG ENERGY, take your time

listen to your heart by dorottyas

There is alot happening in the skies today!

Mercury stations direct at the big Solar Eclipse activation point of 28 degrees Leo. Mars moves from fiery Leo into practical and precise Virgo. And the Sun (in Virgo) opposes Neptune (in Pisces) at 12 degrees.

Let's look at Mercury direct first.

Happening at the exact degree of the Solar Eclipse, our Eclipse stories move forward now. We have all the facts we need - we may not know everything, but we know what we need to know. We know enough to take practical and precise action (Mars into Virgo).

With Virgo, there has to be a plan. Things must be done in a piece by piece, step by step manner. It is a great gift to us for all of this to end in Virgo, believe me.

During the last few weeks we have been back over the Leo part (the theme of our natal Leo house, the creative project, the children, the romance, the recreation) AND the Virgo part (the theme of our natal Virgo house, the day-to-day activities, health issues, job issues, the practical details of something).

Maybe we've had a rip-roaring fight, maybe we haven't (that energy is still in play).

Now as Mercury stations to move forward - and we know how powerful Mercury is at stations we've seen multiple terrorist/vehicle events in the days around this energy peak, so take care now - there is a shift that moves us forward, too.

This has been a very challenging Mercury retrograde. I think we'll all be glad to see it in our rearview mirror! Note- Mercury will be covering old ground until September 19th, so action on things in play BEFORE late July is still favored.

With Mars (our action. initiative, passion, anger) changing signs at the same time we know our movement forward is best done in a Virgo manner. This means practical, precise steps focused on what is right in front of us. Mars in Virgo can be excellent for productivity and it can also run entirely off course with perfectionism.

The good things about Mars in Virgo is our ability to organize, to be productive, to focus on the details and what needs doing right now; the next step. Since Virgo is a service sign, the actions we take that help us will most naturally help other people. Mars in Virgo can really clean up the mess and improve the situation. The wheat is separated from the chaff - yes maybe rather ruthlessly, this is Mars we are talking about. But in the end we are left with the wheat (I think - I am not really sure I need to ask a grain farmer or google) or whatever it is we need to grow the wheat. Either way the superfluous stuff is gone.

On the other hand if we let fiery Mars get out of control in pious Virgo territory we could have a bigger mess on our hands even though everything looks all clean and sparkly. Mars can get very pissed off here if everything doesn't meet his exacting standards of perfection. So let's not go there. We could find ourselves taking action toward some quite impossible something or other. If everything has to fall precisely into place for something to work out - well, Mars in Virgo is the man for the job - on the other hand he doesn't see the big picture - just the details right in front of him - and can toil rather tirelessly with not much to show

(of course this 'not much to show' thing isn't taking into account the muscles we are building and experience for next time, let's not discount it, sometimes without the things that don't work out we would never get to the things that do).

If we find ourselves, or someone else, demanding an impossible to meet goal or impossibly high standards of perfection we will know we have veered off course here. Mars has run amok.

So, we have Mercury (words, ideas, communications) moving forward. And Mars in focused and practical (also service oriented) Virgo - we are no longer going to be just thinking about what we want/should do, we will no longer just be talking/communicating about it - we will be taking action.

You will notice I am not saying full steam ahead. This is because we have one more piece of today's puzzle - we have the Sun (our ego, our life force) opposing dreamy, imaginative Neptune.

So, although the urge to plow ahead will be strong this week - things might not be quite as they seem right now. We are building toward tomorrow's elusive, watery and mystical Full Moon in Pisces (note - clear some time today and tomorrow, the bigger the chunk the better, for meditation and quiet time - the channels will be WIDE open).

Don't sign on the dotted line just yet.

We might be telling ourselves something that isn't really true. Someone else might be telling us something inflated, too. This doesn't mean they are lying necessarily, although they might be - but with the Sun opposite Neptune we are susceptible to deception and confusion; to wearing rose colored glasses.

If we find someone glossing over the truth or if something seems too good to be true (or too bad to be true), this is a RED ALERT to use that Mars in Virgo to filter out the deception and dig for facts. We don't want to move forward with a fantasy during Virgo season!

If we still don't know what to do, do like Mercury and just stand still for a while longer.

Actually, even if you are sure you know what to do (and if you are I need your help pronto!) first let's look inside - we are fast approaching that miraclulous Full Moon and it is full enough right now to be VERY illuminating. Pisces rules the 12th house of what is behind the scenes, put away, done behind our back, self-defeating.

Let's see what the Full Moon brings to light. Neptune rules the seas and cannot be controlled - what is meant to flow in or out will be unstoppable.

Meditation today and tomorrow, even if you never meditate and maybe especially if you never meditate, will be VERY effective to get clear. The Sun is shining a big, old spotlight on our inner life. We don't want to miss the chance to see it more clearly!

Full Moon post coming tomorrow morning. Sorry I missed writing the weekly. Sully turned four and I never had enough time or focus to get it done. Today's energy pretty much sums up the week though and I will write dailies.

If you are still waiting for news or info to come in, especially from events put into play before late July, your wait is almost over.

xo all
hang in there