situations already in play ....

photo by Katarzyna Kos

A couple of the transits I wrote about in yesterday's eclipse post tighten up today.

The Sun (in Virgo) opposing Neptune (in Pisces) - this shines a light/focus on something ruled by Neptune/Pisces - illusion, deception, compassion, imagination, something hidden or put away, hospitals, prisons. If it sounds too good to be true though, it probably is. Resist the temptation to escape whatever the Sun illuminates with drugs, alcohol or Netflix. This is good energy to edit (Virgo) imaginative (Neptune) work. If a decision needs to be made today, keep a clear head. It is also easy to get a little too self-absorbed with this influence and create resentment in others - stay tuned in, but not boundary-less .....

Mercury is conjunct Jupiter (28 degrees Virgo) - this can bring good (Jupiter) news (Mercury). It can also make communications, conversations, news and ideas over the top and overblown or just BIG in some way. Jupiter is larger than all the other planets combined, but it has no surface - it's all gases. Maybe we could say he's full of hot air (ha!) - couple this with that Neptune opposition and it will be important to keep our heads with any news we hear. This would be a good day for some positive conversations and to have a BIG idea - write things down! This could be a good day for a talk that leads to BIG things, just be sure both parties are clear with what is being said/offered and know there could be some hot air thrown about .....

The Sun and Moon are still in Virgo for a few more hours. If you haven't done your New Moon intentions you still have time to take advantage of Jupiter. With Mercury retrograde and ruling yesterday's eclipse and ruling this New Moon - setting intentions that work with energies and situations already in play, or with a connection to the past, can be very powerful and effective.

Not that we can't make something from nothing here

(seeds planted in the dark earth, especially during an earthy New Moon like this one, can certainly take root),

but I have found I sometimes get the best results working with what I already have going on.

For example say we are going to make something for dinner. We can make whatever we want, but we are limited by what we have in the house. Or we want to buy a new camera. We can buy whatever we want within the limits of our budget.

Even with the excellent manifesting energy we have available right now - we are working with situations already in play. Our previous beliefs, thoughts and actions have supplied us with the food in our kitchen or dollars in our budget. I'm sure if we could see all the stuff we have in play at any given moment all lain out before us we would be exhausted and need a nap!

So, if one of your intentions is to be more organized (Virgo) - get specific about something you have in play that needs more organization. Set the intention for it to be accurate and organized and for this to lead to X (a satisfied feeling of completion, an increased bank balance, etc).

Our new chapter is starting to take shape in September, and yes it is new, and yes, it also builds on all the preceding chapters.

Some of us may be starting a whole new book, but most of us will have characters and storylines that carry over and impact this next section.

And something else to think about - Jupiter is preparing to leave Virgo. How have we expanded by shrinking over the last year? How have we grown by staying small ... or humble ... or focused on the tiniest detail .... or focused on someone else  ... or focused on our health. 

There is a rainbow at the end of September for EVERYONE, stay flexible and focused. xo all

New Moon in Virgo | Solar Eclipse - new realities

eclipse by Tina Apple

Today's New Moon, at 9 degrees Virgo (Sun and Moon both in Virgo), is also a powerful Solar Eclipse, with lots of intimate and complicated conversations with the other players in the sky!

This is the bookend to the lunar eclipse of September 16th. By the Lunar Eclipse we will be in a totally new energy field.

If you are a Virgo or Virgo rising, this time period could bring you to a distinct turning point or usher in some kind of important change. If you are a Virgo, Pisces, Libra or Aries (the polarities the eclipses have been affecting the last couple years) 2015 and 2016 have been/will be eventful years for you and you can expect that to continue for a while.

Everyone with planets in their Virgo house and especially with planets or points near 9 degrees Virgo and its mutable neighbors Pisces, Sagittarius and Gemini will be impacted by this one. You can check your natal and progressed charts or just look at what is happening in your life.

To lay this one out - we've got Mercury (ruler of Virgo and so ruler of this eclipse) just gone retrograde ... in Virgo. This is our mental processes, our ideas, our paperwork, our communication - something here is getting looked at more carefully now. Maybe something is no longer serving us in a positive way - some judgement or belief that needs to shift. Virgo encourages us to prioritize our health, to value quality over quantity, to be of service to others (not at our own expense though), to care for our pets, to take care of the day to day things that make our life our life. It also rules co-workers, employees and our work.

We also have our North Node (collective way forward) in Virgo and this is the last Virgo eclipse for about 10 years (this eclipse also ends a journey we began back in 1997).

We've got the Sun and Moon squaring Saturn and Mars (both in Sagittarius) and opposing Neptune (in Pisces). So, we've got the Saturn/Neptune square we've been dealing with all year impacting this eclipse as well as Mars, recently over his own long retrograde. We've also got the Moon's closing aspect a conjunction to Jupiter (in Virgo)!

With Neptune, strong in Pisces, (escape, illusion, imagination, hospitals, prisons - people, places and situations we have 'put 'away') opposing the Eclipse (re-boot). There is something that needs to dissolve before we can make this shift - maybe a belief or way of thinking/being. Maybe there is a dream that wants to awaken to get us back on track.

With Saturn (time, foundations, commitment) in Sagittarius (faith, beliefs, foreign) squaring the Eclipse - whatever we are building now must be something we believe in. Saturn demands our effort here. Results may not be visible (Neptune) and may be delayed (Saturn).

On the other hand with Mars (energy, initiative, our fight) racing through Sagittarius, maybe Rome really will be built in a day this time!

Eclipses can act as a kind of cosmic reboot; like when we download new software and have to turn our computer off and back on for the newly downloaded material to function properly. Except in this case, we are the computer, and our connection to a changing cosmos gets "reset".

Eclipses are some of the most dramatic means life has to draw our attention to spaces in our life that need to change. 

If we have moved too far "off chart" we can expect our attention to be drop kicked just where it is supposed to be. 

There is nothing here to fear or fight. With eclipses - something comes to light, something gets eclipsed out. It is also a New Moon that seeds real, and lasting, change.

All year the Saturn/Neptune square has been reminding some that we need to get our heads out of the clouds and come down to earth and others that there is more to life than certainty and safety and facts and figures. No one is untouched.

We had this crazy summer that kicked off last spring with the March Solar Eclipse in Pisces requiring us to let go of something. With Neptune on the south node (what we are releasing) some dream needed to go. We lost Bowie. We lost Prince. Transgender issues were in the news as our very physicality and the separation of the feminine vs the masculine began to morph. Bernie Sanders (the dream) lost the primary. We have/had continued unexpected violence. We have/had children dying on beaches and in bombed out houses.

The two eclipses this month will shift us back onto more solid ground.

There may be some twists to get us there. And the feet we place on the solid ground (remember we are a planet in flux, so solid ground is not so solid anymore either) are different feet than the ones that carried us last winter.

Opportunities can appear out of nowhere now. So can challenges. And yes, we are up for them, even when they feel insurmountable. The answers, and OUTCOMES, are in process and impacted by our changing beliefs. What do we believe now? Can we hold fast to our highest ideals? Can we release the stuff that no longer serves us?

The way we go with this truly determines the world we get to live in.

If our heart, and our chart, eclipses are fated, remember, are in agreement we can build long lasting and solid things. If what we create is based on false beliefs with shoddy workmanship it will all fall apart when Eclipse season ends with the Pluto trine at the end of September.

And if it does - go deeper!

This is going to be quite a month when we will be required to walk our talk and separate fantasy from reality - let's pace ourselves ....

And remember this is still a New Moon in Virgo (and if you are a Virgo - this is your Moon, don't miss it, do these within the next 3 days - with this Moon's closing aspect to Jupiter's good luck and expansion, I am getting mine done TODAY) so set your intentions and make your affirmations for Virgo themes for the best outcomes - health, quality over quantity, service to others, attention to details, work, co-workers, employees, day to day activities, cleaning, organizing, pets.

INTENTION TIPS: let the earth guide you this month, plant your feet firmly on the ground, clear your head, write what your physical self, grounded by the earth, wants not what you think you should write, write your intentions down by hand in script on a blank piece of paper, speak the words out loud, burn the paper, give the ashes back to the earth - release your attention from these things knowing your intention is known.

Life has heard you. What do you do next? Do what is right in front of you. 

xo all

Remember Mercury is retrograde (and will be squaring Mars) - don't make major changes or major purchases now.

Venus into Libra | Mercury Retrograde in Virgo!

sleeping beauty by suzi9mm

Last night Venus moved into Libra - one of the two signs (the other is Taurus) where she is most at home.

After being cramped up in tidy Virgo, she can breathe again and there is room for other people. Venus in Libra is about love and partnership, collaboration and compromise. Venus in Libra is about balance.

This transit (until September 23rd) makes Libra Suns and Risings, who are already naturally attractive, even more so - both physically attractive and more able to attract what they want/need. Everyone's Libra house gets more attractive, too (what house was Libra in when you were born? where is it in your progressed chart?).

We will be attracted to what we find 'beautiful'. We will be attracted to what we find 'just'. We will be attracted to what we find 'peaceful'. And these are the qualities people will find attractive in us and our work in the world. These are the qualities we'll want to bring to the table (and yes, flowers that would be a good thing to bring to the table now, too) to attract whatever we are wanting to attract now, particularly in the area of life housing your natal (and progressed) Libra.

The potential for peace increases as we (the collective) move from critic (Virgo) to diplomat (Libra).

The potential for people pleasing increases, too. Balance is the key now. Making life too much about the other person is Libra's shadow side. It's easier, or I should say, lazier, to just give in to something to have "harmony" than to work out the win-wins. We need to honor ourselves as well as the other person. It's simple, but not easy. If we think balance is easy we should stand on one leg for a while!

In Libra, there is power in groups and alliances - but the emphasis (for now) is on the shared human experience of connection rather than on what might emerge later. It's not the time for thinking about how it will all play out, what we are getting or giving. It's just the time for the experience. We come into real harmony when we can see each other clearly. We don't have to always agree with each other. Agreeing isn't step two or even step one hundred and two.

If you are in the United States I don't need to tell you we have what appears to be a crazy election going on, but what we really have is an election where our blinders are off (Saturn/Neptune square - reality vs the dream, what do we really believe).

We can see what we are really getting here, so no one looks all that great.

Hillary's chart is all Plutonian power, but who do we think gets to the top of the heap the way the political system is set up? She didn't create the system, the system created her. We created her. We stepped back from our responsibility and created her. She is totally fixed energy.

Donald is totally mutable energy. With Uranus (expect the unexpected) conjunct his natal Sun, Donald truly cannot be controlled and I mean by anyone. It is not possible to predict what he will do. He is a businessman, but what he really is, is a celebrity. Again, he didn't create the system that got him to the top of the heap - we did. Every time we watched some mind numbing reality television or bought into some get rich quick scheme. The entire 'abundance/secret' movement which sounds so much prettier and spiritual than "let's all be greedy bastards" has helped make him a celebrity.

Whoever wins will face a tough road ahead because in 2020 so much changes that I can't imagine they will be re-elected. Probably either candidate will get us where we are going - Donald will likely get us there much faster, although that might be a train ride we don't want to get on. Neither ride will be smooth though. We're moving past the energy of "rulers" and patriarchy and what's on the other side of this we haven't figured out yet. Everybody wins or nobody wins.

For now, the Venus in Libra transit is great energy for being able to feel when other people are putting their stuff on us and when we are putting our stuff on them. It's also great energy to be a lover, not a fighter in our relationships. We'll talk more about this transit as we move through it.

You might remember last week Venus met up with Jupiter, I believe it was last Friday. Next week, Mercury will meet up with him. So something with our Venus story (what we love, what we value) requires more information/thinking/research before it expands.

TODAY, we have Mercury stationing retrograde in Virgo.

So instead of following Venus into Libra - he would typically be right behind her now - he turns around and starts walking backward into Virgo.

Let's think these archetypes through. So, our head (Mercury) instead of following our desires (Venus), says, "hold up a bit, let's double check this.

We missed something - there is some missing information we need or we will need later. Or something that needs to be re-done. Let's go back."

Something gets held up here.

Virgo (where Mercury is back pedaling) rules our day to day activities, our work, our health, our pets, our service to others (without self-sacrifice please) - something here is up for review. He's also backtracking through our Virgo house and if you have planets from 29 degrees from 14 degrees Virgo he will walk right over top of them. This will make this retrograde more impactful for you. He's also going to bump into Jupiter who is finishing up in Virgo himself. Jupiter (expansion) has recently met Venus (what we love, what we value) so when he hooks up with Mercury (communication, intellect) just before he joins Venus in Libra there will be news/thinking/information we will need. Also, maybe news about a woman (Venus) in the public eye.

We'll talk about this later.

As always, a retrograde is a good time for the "re" stuff.

Redo, reconnect, rethink, repeat, revise, redesign, recuperate, repair things or buy recycled (rather than new) - stuff like this (warning shameless plug ahead) amazing jewelry.

We'll talk about our great big eclipse in Virgo (the last one in Virgo for about a decade) next post.

xo all

Meanwhile in my neck of the woods - on Sunday, Olive's right eye was badly clawed by a neighbor's cat in our backyard. The emergency vet told us to find an eye vet on Monday. He gave us all kinds of worst case scenarios and basically scared the hell out of us. On Monday (knowing Venus was talking to Mercury) - I called everywhere trying to find a female eye vet.

Hubs thought I was nuts, but I wanted good news. No luck finding a female eye vet (I should add that I have never had a male vet - most vets around here are women, so as you can imagine, I took it as a bad sign I couldn't find one).

When we got to the new vet's office though - the eye vet wasn't able to meet with me. He saw Olive briefly in the back, but sent another vet out to talk to me (a female vet) - she gave me a slightly better, although guarded, prognosis.

Olive goes back to the vet on Friday when we see if she gets to keep her lens and vision. This is the day after the solar eclipse eclipses something out - hopefully just my money (happening in my house of other people's money) and not Olive's eye! The Moon (emotions), Mercury (information) and Jupiter (something gets bigger) will all be meeting up that day, and Olive is a Virgo, so I'm worried. :(

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of August 29th - truth and reality coming our way

precious illusion by pinkmango77

On Monday, Mercury (in Virgo) conjuncts Venus - we could get information or have a conversation or meet someone (most likely a woman) with a helpful message. This is excellent flirting energy if we are up for that! People will like what we have to say and we will like what we hear. This is a good time to reach out to someone. Or maybe some words/ideas (Mercury) are both beautiful (Venus) and truly useful (Virgo) now!

Right after she meets Mercury, Venus comes home to Libra (until September 23rd), the sign she rules. I'll do a post about this tomorrow. Know this will make Libra Suns and Risings more attractive (both able to attract and yes, easier on the eye, too) and make everyone's Libra house (natal and progressed) more magnetic and able to get what it needs. Our focus will be on our relationships. Also because Jupiter is about to move into Libra (after his last year in Virgo) next week - we may get a little preview this week of what we have to look forward to over the next year!

(this will be about our partnerships and diplomacy and equal relationships in all forms - did someone say flock??)

Also on Monday, Mars (in Sagittarius) squares the Nodes. This could feel like a crossroads or point of decision regarding what action to take or what to aim for. The way forward is still Virgo - small, measured, accurate steps toward a chosen target. It will be easy to put a lot of energy into the wrong thing. The "dream" (south node/Pisces) needs to be do-able and actionable right now. This just means we break it down into bite-sized pieces. The next step is do-able and right there in front of us.

On Tuesday, Mercury goes retrograde (in Virgo) - time to "re"visit, "re"view, "re"evaluate - you know the drill! We can imagine Mercury leaning conspiratorially toward us, "OK, we've gone as far as we can go at this point in time - we need to backtrack a bit to recheck a few things, allow the stuff we've lined up with to catch up with us and gain a little more experience".

Stuff ruled by Mercury gets wonky because he is looking over his shoulder - this includes communications, electronics and transportation (think - stuff with fast moving parts - he is the fleet footed messenger, after all).

We get re-routed. Something gets put on hold here.

Now, we can try to plow ahead anyway and sometimes things must be plowed through - we will just know that some of the stuff we have plowed through, would have been easier to move through later or we will have to plow through this stuff again when Mercury moves direct and passes over these same degrees. We'll talk about this as we move through it. If you haven't backed up your files - DO IT TODAY.

On Wednesday, the Moon (in Leo) hooks up with "anything can happen" Uranus. Have some fun - this feels like a good hookey day to me! If you do work though, you could get a lot done.

All week we are building toward Thursday's New Moon Solar Eclipse in Virgo. Something is eclipsed out of our way. 

For the next 2 weeks - take the meeting, make the call, the universe will bring in stuff and say "this is for you" - people, places and things (and yes with Mercury retrograde they could have a connection to the past) and the universe will take away options, people, situations that no longer work. Holding on will only break the nails we haven't bitten off stressing out about what is leaving. Whatever this is if it impacts you - this won't be totally out of the blue - we can already see this coming.

Most of life is free will, but eclipse seasons are fated folks.

This eclipse also activates the Saturn/Neptune square. Mercury meets Jupiter. There could be fear and paranoia here. This one is rather epic and we will talk about it in lots of detail on Wednesday! Next year we will have Saturn trining Uranus and be done with this damn square (we actually have the last exact square this month!) and that will feel much better!

xo all

not a time to rush .....

the magic of literature by ponti55

Mars has moved past Saturn - the young upstart promoted over the old faithful employee, the brash young soldier plowing ahead of his commander's orders, the new bride tucks her mother-in-law's gifted china into a cabinet and displays the assorted, handmade pieces she loves and has chosen for herself - PERSONAL WILL is asserted.

(and if these analogies seem strange I just binge watched 20 episodes of Manhattan, a tv series about the Manhattan project and am lost in the 1940's right now)

Yesterday we had Venus (love, money, values, women) inconjunct Uranus (the unexpected) and with all this Virgo maybe our careful plans were disrupted. Inconjuncts require adjustments.

Remember this isn't the time for big, splashy moves (unless they flow into place and are the result of past efforts) or big decisions (unless our heart leaps with joy at the thought of the choice and our mind agrees).

We are in eclipse season. Mercury is going retrograde on Tuesday. Jupiter is about to change signs. Pluto will move direct. Stuff is in flux. After the New Moon in Libra things will get a lot easier. We have to get through September first and see what is eclipsed out, what comes to light (maybe something big involving a female?). We still have another week to see what the Mars/Saturn conjunction could shake up.

If we are starting something big and splashy and it can wait until October, let it wait. If it is business related and can wait until Scorpio season when Mars is in Capricorn, even better. If not, just move ahead with it, knowing things will require adjustments. Let's not make a big deal out of everything - this is Virgo season and everything can feel like a major thing. Most stuff isn't.

Tomorrow, Venus will conjunct Jupiter. This is about what we want, what we love or what is beautiful -a fresh start maybe? an opportunity? a little luck? The Moon will be in Cancer, so home issues will be emotional and also satisfying. There may be some adjustment required with a male. See the weekly for more info.

Today, Mars squares Neptune. This is tension and frustration (think of that young upstart getting the corner office and then the reality of that responsibility hits her or maybe there is some let down after the climb when that peak is reached or maybe we are starting back down the mountain without ever reaching the peak). Maybe we feel lost or disillusioned or like we have lost the plot of our own story. We have a Gemini Moon squaring a bunch of Virgo planets today so making a half-baked decision, or move, is not a good idea.

There is no rush right now. There aren't any shortcuts that won't come back to bite us in the butt later. We still have some summer left ..... enjoy the weekend.

 xo all

BACK UP YOUR FILES!

one chapter closes, another chapter opens ...

starting point by fox-orian

As Mars meets up with Saturn today in Sagittarius initiating a new chapter of Saturnian lessons we can be grateful for two things

(and gratitude and patience will help us immensely today).

First, even as Saturn narrows our options and requires us to step into new responsibilities, Sagittarius expansion and optimism widen our story.

Jupiter (Sagittarius ruler) is soon to move out of his tiny leased apartment in Virgo where things have been tidy, maybe, but so cramped Jupiter had no space to be Jupiter. The good stuff he's used to unleashing via growth has had no space to unfurl itself.

Well, he's got some new, more spacious digs over in Libra starting next month. He can finally unpack all the goodies he's had stored in the closet the past year. His influence (and the magnetism of Venus who he will be answering to) will be activated.

Influence is what moves us and how we are open and available to be moved. It's good to respond to the power of influence (what are we drawn toward? what do we attract?) with constancy - steadying the motion (action) it inspires and creating a space to contain it. This is where Saturn will be very helpful, because this is what he does.

It might be best to see it in very old fashioned terms. A man (Jupiter) marries a woman (Venus) and brings her into his home (and yes, I know he is actually entering Venus's home, but let's not split hairs, no story is perfect and I'm writing this from my sick bed - play me some violin music and toss me some mentholated cough drops, please) and he makes room for her there. Good luck comes to him from this more feminine way of relating - being open and allowing space for new influences. This will be our good luck, too, in our next chapter.

Influence might first enter our life as a stirring realization that we might be somewhere else. Something starts pulling us thataway with no clear ideas of what it all means other than damn we have itchy feet. 

OK, back to the second thing we have to be grateful for today.

That Scorpio chapter, the chapter that included whatever lessons we learned while Saturn roamed Scorpio from 2012-2015 and whatever was reinforced while Mars retrograded there earlier this year - well that chapter is concluding. Some of the characters and situations make an appearance in future chapters, of course, that's how stories work - but the lessons Saturn tightened up our life to impart on us, well we either got them or we didn't. And I think we did.

So, what have we learned since 2012? Let's be grateful for whatever has made us the people we are today.

Now, we not only have Saturn and Mars getting together today, we also have another Yod (finger of God - fate - cosmic course correction) and something called a Mystic Rectangle, known to ancient astrologers for its power to resurrect old (even very old) dreams.

So, as we head into this new chapter some things will be out of our hands, some dreams will be carried from our past (and our ancestors past) and new influences will soon draw us in new directions and toward new people and experiences and draw others to us (and I hope to hell you've put time into that flock I told you, you were going to need in this next chapter).

Saturn's lessons have steeled us for this next part of our journey. Are we ready?

xo all

Merc's about to go retro - BACK UP YOUR FILES!