Today's Astrology Forecast | July 17, 2019 - we feel the weight of it all and then we keep going, moving on, fated meetings, saying yes to something new

The Moon moves into detached Aquarius at 5:19AM EDT. We might find ourselves focused on and nurtured through Aquarius themes for the next couple days (or the theme of our natal Aquarius house) - groups, friendships, the internet, astrology, technology, the goals that bring us into connection with other people, our causes.

She will oppose Mercury retrograde (12:38PM EDT) and square Aquarius's ruling planet Uranus (10:44PM EDT) and then move on to oppose Mars. People, including us, could start arguments just to see what is going to happen! Expect change and disruptions. Unless the people around you are Aquarians/Aquarian-types, this would be a better day for solitary work. This is good energy to step back and get a little distance from something.

We could have an emotional (Moon) breakthrough (Aquarius) about how to proceed because we also have - Venus meeting the North Node of destiny.

She gets past her opposition to Saturn - maybe we get serious about something, are really feeling the pressure of an old (or new) responsibility or commitment, hear a "no", reach a completion/culmination - this is the reality bites thing with the responsibilities we talked about in the Eclipse post.

Limits/boundaries can be a good thing, but they probably won't feel good. At least we know where we stand. Keep in mind the Plutonian eclipse is bringing up alot of fears that our body is carrying, so our emotions (and the Aquarius Moon will help cool this down) could be more intense than the situation calls for.

(I got a new puppy last weekend and am feeling like I opened a kennel and am responsible for 100 new puppies - the weight of this responsibility/commitment added to what I already have on my plate is overwhelming me right now - this is where astro wisdom can help us to know we aren't losing our mind, of course with Pluto sitting on my natal Mercury, I could be, and that transit are transitory)

As Venus meets and crosses the North Node we are moving on.

With Mercury retrograde we might not be clear on exactly what that means and that's ok - something will be illuminated within the next couple days - but the Venus/Saturn reality check (we do or do not have the resources to do this thing, we do or do not still love this person/situation, we do or do not get what we want, etc) gives us some kind of solid ground. It may or may not be exactly where we hoped to be standing, but it's where we are standing (and, yes, the solid ground could include a nipping puppy with teeth like sewing needles attached to our ankle).

Her contact with the North Node tells us this is unfolding exactly as it should be. Venus is in Cancer - so yes, we could be a little more needy than usual, but Venus in Cancer is also where we merge what we want (Venus) with what we need (Cancer). And happening opposite that Capricorn karmic line-up we are required to take responsibility for it.

Watch for synchronicities around Venus themes - love, relationships, balance, money, resources, our values, our self-esteem, beauty and women. Fated meetings. Fated encounters. Fated investments. Fated choices are being made about what we really value.

More in the weekly HERE

xo all

A couple weeks before Christmas, our beautiful pup Olive died. Her loss hit us (hubs also lost his mother shortly after) like a freight train. It's been overwhelming. I have lost both parents, had multiple miscarriages and lost several other pets, but have never experienced this kind of grief. This continued throughout the time Mercury was back and forth through Pisces in the spring - I knew this grief was very old and very deep. I felt literally empty. When Olive died, transiting Ceres (mothering, loss) was sitting exactly conjunct my natal Neptune (which conjuncts my Ascendant) and transiting Pluto was exactly conjunct my husband's natal Ceres. I had also had a near death experience in May 2018 (exactly as Pluto conjuncted my natal Mercury, Mercury rules pets - I will have to see what Ceres was doing then, I just realized I never looked) which immediately preceded the onset of Olive's illness.

And I know this is alot of astro babble, but I know many people who read this blog study astrology and might be interested. Also for the astro babble people - I am a Capricorn South Node/ Cancer North Node. It would create less anxiety in me to help you start a business than to help you watch your toddler.

Last week- exactly one week prior to the Eclipse - after registering with five local rescues in mid-May and never getting a call back, although two people I knew registered and had dogs within a couple weeks - I got a call about a puppy coming up from Georgia.

She, and her two siblings, had been abandoned at a construction site. She was found dragging a hurt leg, fifty feet from the other puppies. A recent x-ray had shown two possible pelvic fractures. The fractures, which might or might not even be fractures, might or might not require surgery at some point. I was told she was probably about nine weeks old and a Beagle-mix. The woman at the rescue told me she wouldn't be going on any long hikes, but if I was looking for a pup to cuddle in my lap and love she might be my girl.

I told her I would call her back the next morning. She asked if I could call her at 10AM precisely because she had a busy day packing pups for her trip up to New Jersey. Tossing and turning all night I decided to go and meet this pup at a local Pet Smart on Saturday. I called the woman at 10AM, but got a recording and she didn't call me back until 12:30PM - at exactly the start of a Grand Water Trine in effect for just a couple hours - that spoke of fast change that created a big commitment/work, and had some magical/spiritual support. I knew as soon as the phone rang I would be getting this dog.

Anyhoo, she sits, although I am not sure we would call this squirming thing where I try to protect my belly from becoming her second breakfast "sitting",  in my lap right now trying to bite my shirt - not the loving little lap cuddler I had envisioned, but her pelvis injury doesn't seem to stop her from running around like a maniac and I can't imagine it not healing up just fine. Her name has been Belle, Ellie, Nellie, Lily, Ripley and Rosie, maybe the Rosie will stick, we'll see .... maybe she'll settle a bit once we settle on her name. And I settle down a bit from this Eclipse energy ....

photo by the talented beyond impression

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of July 15, 2019 - the past is over but that home/family situation isn't, trusting in what is difficult, letting go of what we built, feeling the fear and knowing you will survive it, aligning ourselves with our values

"Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition. We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it." -
                                                                                                                                 Rainer Maria Rilke

HUGE WEEK ahead including the Lunar Eclipse Full Moon conjunct Pluto - another strong harbinger of the January 2020 mega-energy shifts.

TUESDAY - Lunar Eclipse Full Moon conjunct Pluto, Venus opposes Saturn
THURSDAY - Venus trines Neptune and conjuncts North Node
FRIDAY - Mercury retrograde moves back into Cancer
SATURDAY - Mercury (retrograde) conjuncts the Sun
SUNDAY - Venus opposes Pluto

We talked about TUESDAY and the Eclipse energy HERE and HERE

On WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY, we have lots of Venus (love, money, our resources, values, self-esteem, beauty, women) action. She will inconjunct Jupiter, oppose Saturn, meet the North Node and finally trine Neptune.

Her inconjunct with a retrograde Jupiter could have us wanting more of something or maybe wanting for something to be a little further along - this will connect to the past. Venus/Jupiter can be too much of a good thing - is this possible? Yes.  And with the opposition to Saturn maybe it is our timing that is off. It's good for us or looks like it is, but it's not good for us right now. Maybe we haven't earned it yet. Venus still has work to do.

We talked about her opposition to a retrograde Saturn in the Eclipse post - this is part of the Full Moon's "result". The reality check part with the significant responsibilities.

(You will find when you have an aspect in your natal chart and that same aspect happens by transit - not touching your natal chart, but just the same aspect - your natal aspect flares up. Kind of like an old ankle injury in wet weather. 

Trump was born with a Saturn/Venus conjunction in Cancer activated by this Eclipse by degree AND aspect. And he has a Sag Moon in Venus's natural house. His tweets and speeches this week about "Congresswomen needing to go back where they come from" have been explosive. We talked about this part of his chart HERE.)

Venus moves into a conjunction with the North Node (8:45PM EDT Wednesday) - we align with our values, so whatever we are doing - this is where we know we are on the right path. Fated meetings. Say "YES". Reboot. Then she trines magical, dissolving Neptune.

Maybe we have brought something from the past - probably something we once worked really freaking hard on - to a completion and we let go and move on now.

On FRIDAY, Mercury retrogrades back into Cancer - pulling us back into the home, family, mother, mothering, family business, home business story-line to do the "re's" before we wrap this thing up.

On SATURDAY, a retrograde Mercury meets the Sun in Cancer - information comes to light (maybe old information), a conversation enlightens us (maybe one we've had before) - this might connect back to around May 21st when we were here before. Take another look. Say it again. Re-read the fine print. Re-think it.

On SUNDAY - Venus opposes Pluto. Here's the big aspect of the week. Bigger than the Eclipse? I don't know. Maybe. The Lord of the Underworld doesn't play.

If we keep in mind Venus in Cancer's tendency to be kind of needy we can feel how this might play out. Pluto amplifies this. Maybe we have the feeling of "this is what I MUST have" with the added caveat since this is an opposition - "from YOU". This could be a person/situation, etc. Oppositions are projections. What we want isn't really OUT THERE. But it could feel like life or death that we get it. Or life and death that something plays out in a certain way.

Will we get what we want?

It depends what our previous use of this Plutonian 'power' has drawn to us. We already had the Mercury/Mars oppositions - what did we learn? Some people will get the corner office. Others will get the pink slip. Power is tricky and projecting it outside ourselves is dangerous. We are kind of asking for someone to come along and yank what we want/need away from us.

Pluto/Venus can bring an obsessive fixation and the willingness to manipulate to get what we want. Just keep in mind the karmic ramifications of everything in play now. The bounce back, if not now, come January can be FIERCE.

Pluto is truth and truth is what is needed here. Are we being honest with ourselves about what we want and why we want it?

We'll flesh all this out in the dailies.

xo all

photo by the talented Sylvia15

Today's Astrology Forecast | July 16, 2019 - karmic lessons

Today's Capricorn Moon moves toward her exact opposition to the Cancer Sun happening at 5:38PM EDT - bringing us a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse.

This is a time of karmic LESSONS. Endings. Beginnings. There are commitments/responsibilities that we have outgrown. There are new commitments/responsibilities we have grown into. Happening conjunct Pluto will make our feelings more intense (life and death - watch your language around what is "killing" you) and situations more likely to involve power struggles.

Does anything transform without a struggle? Yes, says Neptune who is active, too, but we have to let go with love/forgive/take time to grieve/bring empathy and compassion to the situation, and often hardest of all, bring it home to ourselves!

With minimal air (only one planet in an air sign) in today's chart - the atmosphere could feel heavy and stifled. And Mercury (as well as almost everything else) is retrograde. We can't think our way out of this. It's a time to release anything that starts with "if only...".

Consider any new commitments (investments of time, money, resources, your emotions) before taking them on now, because they will involve work, time, patience, taking on the man/the old guard. They could pay off in big, unexpected ways, but don't say I didn't warn you about the WORK.

There are collective themes of home/work balance issues and power struggles within relationships in the Full Moon chart. I spell it all out HERE (grab a cup of coffee, this is all happening in my third house of communication and  I like to write).

The Eclipse is intended to bring a culmination/ending to some situation - some way we interact with the world, some goal, commitment, sense of priority - in our Capricorn house. Keep in mind Eclipses come in a series and this is a process. We have two more at the end of December/beginning of January 2020.

We might think we have to "fake it til we make it" - a very Capricornian thing, but then there are times - and this is more and more true as we move into and through the Age of Aquarius - when we have to realize we are just faking it - there is no "making it" because we are faking it. We might have the corner office (maybe we do/maybe we don't) but if we aren't feeling emotionally satisfied, our cup will never be full enough/our view will never be good enough, because this is not who we really are. 

It's time to be honest with ourselves.

Lots to think about as we move through this week and close out this Eclipse season.

xo all - back with the weekly

The ECLIPSE Post is HERE

photo by the talented Rona-Keller 

Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn | July 16, 2019 - karmic chickens coming home to roost, secrets exposed, releasing grief, releasing old and deep fears, who's got the power, a good job can't hug you back, the death of the McMansion

On Tuesday, July 16th the Capricorn Moon opposes the Cancer Sun at 24 degrees giving us this month's Full Moon - happening conjunct the Moon's Nodes (Capricorn/Cancer) gives us a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (partial). 

Full Moons bring energy to a "peak"; to a culmination, maybe to an ending. Eclipses eclipse something out. We get a cosmic reset, much like a computer being turned off and back on and the program that uploads at restart is a little bit (or quite a lot) different than the one we ran on before.

Eclipses change us, and we, (vibrating differently), change our circumstances by attracting or repelling what our new self lines up with.

If you have planets or points on or near 24 degrees Capricorn/Cancer the area of your life impacted will look very, very different over the next six months (or the area of life ruled by the ruler of that sign/point). 

With the Moon conjunct Pluto (and widely conjunct the South Node and Saturn) and the Lunar Eclipse energy amplifying something that's already amplified AND setting up the big January 2020 energies and Eclipses - this is BIG. We had an Eclipse conjunct this degree in mid-July 2000. Some people will see similar themes activated now. 

Let's unpack the chart.

Mars is past his square to Uranus, but the square is still active. So here is the potential for fast change. He is approaching his trine to Jupiter, so things can get bigger/more expansive quickly. Whatever this is it pushes us into new territory. Venus (in Cancer) is exactly opposing Saturn (in Capricorn). This is important. Remember we had Mercury and Mars do this and now it is Venus's turn as she moves through Cancer and begins to oppose the karmic pile-up in Capricorn of the South Node, Saturn and Pluto. Eris is exactly square the Sun and the Moon (!), so this is disruptive. The North Node is trine Neptune and Venus is approaching her own trine to Neptune.  

The ONLY air in the chart - no wonder we can't think straight or make a decision - is Pallas in Libra. Yes, Pallas is STILL in Libra! Relationship patterns. Relationship strategies. With Pallas squaring the Moon/Sun something needs to CHANGE. Squares to the nodes speak of a skipped step. We can't go any further without this ADJUSTMENT. In Libra, even wise-warrior Pallas can get indecisive and with Pallas exactly squaring a retrograde Saturn at the time of the Eclipse - relationship commitments from the past are likely part of the Eclipse story.

The Full Moon conjunct Pluto could bring secrets into the open; the truth to light.

Pluto is retrograde - something from the past needs to end/die. We either transform/clean up the mess or the tower falls. And I am not saying "or" as if we have a say in the matter. We probably don't. If the base is rotted the structure collapses. Capricorn endings could just as easily be the end of a limit/restraint/rule/commitment/authority. An earth sign - the ending could be a physical thing although the greatness of its impact might only be felt in hindsight. 

The theme of our natal Capricorn house - the theme that is in play through at least the beginning of 2020 in our life gets a major reshuffling. Pluto is ultimate energy - absolute light (honesty), absolute darkness. Power. Control. Loss of power. Loss of control. 

With the Moon conjunct Pluto situations might feel like life and death. Sometimes because they are. But most likely because a part of us is dying. Outgrown Capricornian identities are being shed. Rules. Limits. Bye-bye. Moon/Pluto and then that square to Eris may speak of powerful feelings/situations around women. 

With Venus exactly opposing Saturn - what we want/love/value comes with a hefty price tag. Commitments. Responsibilities. We talked about this last week. The fast change (Mars/Uranus) coming at a cost. She is almost close enough to the Sun to be blown out (combust), but I think an exact opposition to Capricorn's ruler at the time of an Eclipse keeps her in the game. With Venus about to trine Neptune and conjunct the North Node and with Saturn trining Neptune - we have magical, spiritual assistance here to make this whole thing work out. We just have to let go of the old dead thing. We have to clean up the mess. We have to polish off that old commitment.

If we are stepping into a new commitment/responsibility now - it won't be easy. That Saturn opposition to what we want means work.

(many wealthy, successful people have challenging Venus/Saturn aspects in their natal charts - Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Oprah - facing powerful old-school opposition/the way things have always been done - it's worked for them, it can work for us, too)

The trines to Neptune and aspects to the North Node (plus 2019's Neptune sextile Saturn - we won't have this one forever!) speak of powerful forces moving us in a new direction because the stuff behind us - the ground that used to be beneath our feet - isn't even there anymore! We are counting on structures and abiding by rules that don't even exist. Those timelines are finished.

Neptune forces development of deeper values through sacrifices and a sense of loss/grief. Sometimes with Neptune things can mysteriously vanish (like my first post!) and the more we shut out any recognition of our spiritual gifts the more we become overly concerned with protecting all that we own as exclusively ours - the more screwed up everything gets and the more scared we feel as things dissolve. What is really happening is our unlimited energy is trapped.

So, HERE, this eclipse is where the trap door gets opened.

We won't likely be dropped onto a bed of feathers because then we would never get up and the point of everything is to KEEP GOING. It's unlikely to be a bed of nails either. Keep in mind those intense Moon/Pluto emotions that stimulate our body to feel every cataclysm/death we (including our past lives and the ancestral DNA that we carry) have ever suffered.

It will all be OK in the end.

Eclipse events are fated - whatever impact we have before or after is probably out of our hands now. The facts must be dealt with. This stuff will play out over the next 6 months.

At its core this is a Cancer/Capricorn Full Moon with the North Node in home and family focused Cancer - see my Nodes posts HERE for more on that. The old structures that are no longer "home" MUST change.

Where I live in Central New Jersey they build these mega-houses we call McMansions. Big house. Little bitty piece of land. Back when my mom lived with us, the year leading up to her death, the nurse who visited us told me how she often went into these houses and they were mostly empty. Which sounded sad, but almost made sense to me, because what the hell do you do with all those rooms and those mega-entryways and sky-high ceilings (not to mention the upkeep costs interfering with someone's ability to buy furniture). The McMansion - is a perfect representation of the kind of shallow, Capricorny thing that is ending. We all have a McMansion somewhere in our life ... the shallow, empty space that is self-destructing as we move toward a more authentic space.

The problem is it might not feel like a shallow empty thing - it might feel like the thing that is holding us up. It isn't. The completion/ending is inevitable. This sense of doom and gloom that is out of proportion to the situation is us being triggered by our history (or our past lives/ancestor's history that we carry).

If it feels like the sky is falling, take a walk outside.

It is probably still up there.

We are actually stepping into a more powerful position as we work through these power struggles through the end of 2019. We are working our piece of the puzzle that moves the collective into the New Age. There is no way we can get this wrong.

To sum it all up - this is a major ending/culmination/beginning WITH some Plutonian deep truth dug up and brought into the light. We see the man behind the curtain or maybe why we do what we do because we are the man behind the curtain. Relationship power dynamics will play a part as well as our Cappy/Cancer house themes or the collective themes of our life in the world, being hard-headed vs home/family, being soft-hearted. We move toward something more authentic and VALUABLE. 

Note this intense and possibly destructive Eclipse is followed a couple days later by some soothing, forward-leaning Venus aspects. So whatever ends/changes it is likely our attention quickly moves to what's next.

xo all

the weekly post will be up on TUESDAY