Saturn Retrograde in Sagittarius | all rules out the window, the gift of uncertainty

let the sky kiss your feet by pretty as a picture

I've been awol only a few days and the entire skies have shifted! I will work through all the changes in the week ahead and we can see/feel which transits are impacting us.

On Friday, Saturn stationed retrograde (thru August 13th) at 16 degrees Sagittarius. Since Saturn is the development of self-discipline via challenges, struggle, hard work and restraints having him ease up on us a little is very likely a good thing. Do I hear a hallelujah?!

It's kind of like dad is going on vacation and we are left with the irresponsible babysitter who snap-chats her friends while we climb on the roof to get a better look at the clouds. Yes, this could be dangerous. Without dad setting limits and telling us what we can't do - we could fall off that roof and break our arm.

It could also be our chance to do something we've never done before!

Some kind of limit - where is Sagittarius in your natal chart? - is removed. What we do with our new found 'freedom' is up to us. All possibilities are on the table (or I should say roof) while dad parties in the Bahamas.

Astrologer Steven Forrest says (I'm trusting my memory with this, hopefully it's not too swiss-cheesy tonight) - Saturn in our natal chart is the area we must learn to walk our talk and walk it all by ourselves. It's the space where any lack of self discipline can quickly lead to our undoing. It's the space where we make peace with solitude and develop patience.

Saturn rules structure. During his retrograde we will be going back and retooling and shoring up the physical structures in our life (including our bodies). Saturn rules time. Time is on our side now. We just need to trust this (patience people!). Saturn's retrograde offers us the time to "re-make" the structure of something before it is too late. It's a time to reconsider rules and obligations. We can truly do it differently this time.

Since Saturn moved into Sagittarius in 2015 (through the end of 2017) our beliefs and commitment to our dreams are being tested. Saturn has been parked between us and our big picture beliefs and dreams for over a year now, making us work for every thing. If we no longer fit in the space we are occupying or holding on where our heart is no longer invested or if we are truly needed elsewhere - life will find a way to end the dream/situation for us during this transit.

Time has sped up.  

Planet Earth needs all participants fully engaged now. There is no sitting this one out. 

Saturn might take certainly with him while he backtracks, but he leaves us with the gift of uncertainty. When nothing is certain nothing is out of the question either. 

"Instead of asking, 'What would you do if you knew you would not fail?' 

ask yourself, 'What's worth doing even if you fail?'" 

Brene Brown

Note - a whole big chunk of life is about to slow down (five planets are retrograde next month) for all of us, if we need to get something done before late summer or early fall, let's get it done. Also with the planet of "no" (Saturn) taking his siesta we might want to think twice before we say "yes" now.

you can lead a horse to water ....

girl and the sea by liquid sunny day

I am out of town for a few days. Right now we have five planets in water signs - so some space in all our lives is probably feeling "all wet", "washed up", "under water", "like a fish out of water", in "troubled waters" or "uncharted waters" or maybe "mouth-watering" - damn the water idioms are just too good and too many!

We have Jupiter and Pluto in stable earth signs. There is solid ground under all this wetness. 

Tomorrow the Sun (in Pisces), Moon (in Leo) and Mars (in Sagittarius) will form a Grand Trine. This will give all of us some oomph, and courage if needed, with whatever stories need to be heard and whatever narratives we need to finally put to rest.

It also feels like a good time to have a good time, so let's use that for the weekend.

Jupiter is the king of the cosmos right now and sitting uncomfortably in tidy Virgo, we might be feeling like our house is falling apart when we are simply rearranging the furniture. Let's keep it all in perspective and just take care of the things that are right in front of us now - nothing ever seems quite as bad, (or quite as good dammit), the day after and as the Sun moves into firey Aries on Sunday our 'day after' is coming.

I'll be back to write about that next week (plus the Full Moon eclipse!) - xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of March 14th - stretching within structure

druid by sophie black photography

This is another week we will be pushing forward through the misty energy that is the time between the eclipses. This busy period in Pisces season reminds us to take care of ourselves, set boundaries, avoid distractions and addictions and offer compassion. We've got this thing!

We kick off the week with a Gemini Moon so we will be communicating, multi-tasking (I hate that word, but nothing more appropriate comes to mind). We might be restless and ready to socialize. Decisions will be hard. Choices will be made. Testy situations might be best defused with a little humor. Save complicated conversations for clearer times.

Whatever is happening we won't have time to feel too deeply about any one thing as our emotions are all over the place. This is a day or two, of choices - maybe an argument - things don't go exactly as expected.

We might have to agree to disagree or something about the situation slips through our fingers. Things can repeat (as they tend to do) particularly with Geminis and Gemini situations (think communications, siblings, local happenings, transportation) now.

We have the quarter moon on Tuesday- traditionally a time of "crisis" (think about the Chinese symbol for crisis which also means opportunity) - when whatever we are working through this week subsides - we will be able to more clearly see how it brought a turning point in our fortunes this month.

If important decisions can be postponed until after the eclipse (last until August) next week, we'll do that. If not, as always, we will make the best decision we can with the information available, realize that every decision is really two decisions (the decision and the decision not to second guess ourselves) and work with any changes, pit-stops, reversals or blocks as they come up. There are probably no clear roads through now anyway.

Venus and Mercury (in Pisces) square Mars and Saturn (in Sagittarius). Squares are tension and frustrations - something 'outside' forcing us into doing it a different way. There is feminine vs masculine drama here. New, exciting possibilities are triggered. The stuff that dampens our excitement is triggered, too.

The mid-week Cancer Moon will have us wanting to nurture and be nurtured, feather our nests and connect with family. Projects put out into the world now are more likely to be 'embraced' when they embrace the other person right back!

As we move through the week and Mercury opposes Jupiter (retrograde in Virgo) and conjuncts Chiron and the South Node (in Pisces) the conversation or disagreement or situation will evolve. We will figure out ways to work around it or it will just become obvious that it’s time to let go of the idea, relationship or situation entirely. We are moving forward now. 

EXAMPLE for Scorpio (rising and to a lesser degree Sun) - Venus and Mercury are in your house of creativity, children and romance squaring Mars and Saturn in your house of love, money and values. Maybe whatever you are working with involving these themes - romance, a creative project or children or maybe a self-indulgence - is restrained by limits in money, self-esteem or priorities. Or maybe the actions you are taking in these areas do not create the money, reactions or movement you were expecting. The way forward with this involves letting go of expectations (ego). The open door, way forward, is there - you just have to widen your vision with this.

Mid-week we have the second of three Jupiter/Pluto trines. This is expansion plus transformation. We had this transit in October and we have another one in June.  

There are opportunities here.

The gains may be incremental - we are building through a detailed Virgo "one step at a time" process - but gains are gains and they will certainly accumulate over time.

At the same time taskmaster Saturn (in Sagittarius) squares communicative Mercury (in Pisces). The dream is once again tempered by the reality of the situation (our theme for 2016!) requiring us to stretch our wings within some structure. 

EXAMPLE for Taurus (rising and to a lesser degree Sun): Jupiter is in your house of creativity, children and romance trine Pluto in your house of opportunities - this can take the brakes off a creative project, an  issue around children or pregnancy or a relationship and the square to Saturn will also keep you focused on financial (partner's income, taxes, loans, other people's money) or intimate relationship realities.

The end of the week kicks off a new cycle - post coming mid-week! We are SO ready! xo all

Venus into Pisces | attracting the dream

i will grow flowers in your hair by i need chemical x

Venus (art, beauty, women, values, money) moves into Pisces (imagination, dreams, compassion, connection) today, settles into a comfy spot at the Pisces party, most certainly in the center of everything or I should say wherever she settles becomes the center of everything - joining the Sun, Mercury, Neptune, Chiron and Ceres - where she can attract ... well, whatever the hell she wants actually.

She is the most beautiful woman in the room and the space in each of us that carries the energy of attraction. Mars goes after what he wants, Venus draws it to her. Her fierce beauty (I wouldn't dare call her pretty and she quite often isn't) has toppled empires and created dynasties. Within the otherworldly realms of Pisces BIG magic is possible here.

Natal Pisces Sun people and Pisces rising people become more attractive now.

(how have we never noticed how blue your eyes are or how deep your voice?)

All of us attract what we want by working through Pisces - our ability to show compassion, create beauty, honor feelings, stay emotionally open, use our imaginations. In Aquarius it was our differences that attracted people and situations to us, in Pisces it is our ability to believe and honor our commonality.

Venus is exalted in Pisces. She can work her magic here. 

She expands relationships, money and self-esteem. Opportunities increase. Resistance dissolves. 

The tricky part of Venus in Pisces is we need to know what we want now. 

The lines between us and other people, between acceptance and avoidance, between our money and their money, between love and 'what was I thinking' - will blur.

In Pisces, things that look too good to be true usually almost always are. And what flows in can flow right back out again. But if we set boundaries - what is ok, what is not ok - and release our expectations that outcomes must go a specific way - this is wonderful energy for more beauty, love and money to move into our lives. The irony with Venus in Pisces is that although we can attract more love and money those things often will feel less important now ...

For artists and makers, and yes, that means everyone, this is wonderful energy for the beauty and creativity and imaginings and love we put out into the world to attract more abundance back into our lives. We are more attractive to our dreams now - we call to them just as they call to us.

The feeling is mutual.

xo all, enjoy the weekend

(and speaking of attraction - did you know I am a locket maker? and they are actually quite attractive, too - blog readers get 15% discount with coupon code BLOG15 - artist shown here: Inspire your Art)

time between eclipses | the parsley between his teeth

picnic by kaunau

The two weeks between the eclipses can be hard to pin down - important stuff may be happening or it may feel like nothing is happening (it is - to the other people and spaces our energy is going to line up with later) and either way when we look back at these days our memories will be kind of foggy.

(if important things are happening, take notes - although I guess Facebook might work for this, too)

Life speeds up, life slows down. In Pisces, thoughts and moods and things and people run through our hands like faucet water.

Solar eclipses can trigger our need to defend ourselves (defend our Sun). 

We could react impulsively and make regrettable mistakes now.

How dare our Moon step in front of our Sun?! 

(hello, identity crisis!)

The Moon represents so much in astrology - our emotional temperature, the way we are programmed to react, our mother, the way we mother (nurture, comfort), the way we need to be mothered (nurtured, comforted), 

our spiritual lineage and matriarchal baggage (our mother's unexpressed moods and unresolved spaces that she has unconsciously handed to us like a basket of dirty laundry).

We want to allow eclipse energy to settle before making big plans or changes. With so much in flux for everyone, some more than others - we want to be observant and respectful of others' positions, too. When someone gives us a vague answer or tells us they don't know - they probably really don't know. If things look too good to be true in Pisces season - they usually are.

We can pin things down later.

For now - We weep. We sleep. We DREAM. We sweat. We feel a little numb. We feel a little too much. We set boundaries. They dissolve. We wallow. We get back up. We make plans. They fall apart. We grow tired of fighting the tides and go with the flow. We empty closets and inboxes. We release expectations. We grieve for what we lost. We grieve for what we never had. We forgive.

Or maybe we refuse to move as all this Pisces water washes over us and chips away at our grip on whatever it is that needs to go. Maybe we hold on so long we drown.

The next Eclipse (March 21-23) and then the Sun/Mercury conjunction in Aries will make good and sure we are awake though. We can count on that.

For now we'll do our best with what is right in front of us and we'll hold on lightly.

We have a wonderful Taurus Moon this weekend - perfect for an outdoor picnic or walk in the park. If we do these things with another person, we'll remember to focus on what is really being felt now, not the misplaced words, not the piece of parsley between his teeth .... xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of March 7th - working from the space of who we are now

release by jaysu

This week is all about the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Pisces - I wrote about it here.

(also check out these posts from the weekend for this week's planetary shifts - Mercury into Pisces and Mars into Sagittarius.)

Eclipses are some of the most dramatic means life has to draw our attention to spaces that need to change. They allow us to move from one level to another in some area of our lives very quickly.

This particular Solar Eclipse is as powerful as I've ever seen. We have MANY planets hooking into tomorrow's eclipse (8:45pm EST).

The Sun and Moon at 18 degrees Pisces, Saturn at 16 degrees Sagittarius, Jupiter at 18 degrees Virgo, the North Node at 21 degrees Virgo, the South Node at 21 degrees Pisces, Uranus at 18 degrees Aries, Pluto at 17 degrees Capricorn, Chiron at 20 degrees Pisces, Ceres at 15 degrees Pisces, Pallas at 16 degrees Aquarius and Juno at 15 degrees Scorpio.

Your natal and progressed planets and points from 15-20 degrees will be activated by this.

There are ways we can make this "reset" even more effective and more positive.

We refuse to re-live old woundings and release the ways we self identify as a "victim".

This includes the way we language what has happened to us and the way we language familial pain. We acknowledge the power of those scars and empty spaces as the sacred darkness they are and we work from the space of who they have made us now and not the space of who/what we lost. Even when we tell those old stories it is from this new space. We will cease to attract people and situations that will tear open those hurtful spaces when they are healed and not calling out for attention.

We trust our intuition and our "gut" knowing (if we nourish and heal our physical guts we will be more and more effective with this).

We release our attachment to any absolute beliefs - the more possibilities we are open to, the more doors open to us.

We can do only what is ours to do. We set boundaries - what is ok, what is not ok. We release our desire to "make" things happen or to fix anything. We pass up opportunities to play the martyr and carry loads that are not our loads to carry.

We offer compassion and empathy - (not pity) the highest level of Pisces energy!

People who are always thinking everyone should "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" (and yes, there are times we all need to pull ourselves up!) are usually either 1. people born with bootstraps who cannot imagine what it is like to not have bootstraps or 2. people born without bootstraps who pulled themselves up anyway and think everyone else can, too. It is easier to imagine that everyone else is as powerful as we are than it is to step into our own power and claim what we have actually accomplished!

And if we are having trouble pulling ourselves out of a situation - or grounding our dream in the physical - it could be useful, since the expression is such a part of the collective vernacular and carries so much power - to actually make a pair of boot straps and pull ourselves up.

And, no, of course I have no idea what bootstraps actually are or what this pulling would actually look like! :)

"... when we assume people are doing the best they can, it makes our lives better ... empathy isn't feeling for somebody - it's feeling with them." Brene Brown

Venus into Pisces at the end of the week (next post) - making us very attractive to our dreams. Remember the things we love, love us back folks and we can dream them right into our lives!

xo all