Sun Sextile Ceres, Venus Sesquiquadrate Pluto | spreading seeds, feels like a hug, back to square one with something, vampires suck, maybe stop looking for the reason, last day of summer ... sniffle

goodbye by Ciril

The Sun, about to make his move into Libra and kick off a brand new season tomorrow, has a comforting sextile (opportunity) with mothering Ceres today (Goddess of the seasons!) at 29 degrees. Whenever universal timing offers up something like this (synchronicity) it pays to pay attention.

People with the Sun sextile Ceres in their natal charts are often generous with their gifts/talents/resources. They are fertile. Maybe not always in the pro-creation of actual children, but they are able to spread their seeds (gifts, talents, resources) and have those seeds germinate. Conflicted, they also make great hoarders.

With this energy in play today for all of us it would be good time to take action with the seeds we are spreading (this could be a good time for a mailing or email campaign, but we would have to be quick about it since the Sun changes signs tomorrow at 4PM EDT). And also with the stuff we are hanging onto that has outgrown its season.

This could show up today as something that feels like a hug ... I hope we all get one! Maybe some good advice, a warm cup of coffee, a smile just when we need it!

The other thing we have going on today - besides all the stuff I wrote about in the weekly - is Venus (now in Virgo) sesquiquadrate Pluto (in Capricorn).

Sesquiquadrates are 135 degree aspects and are considered 'minor' aspects. I usually don't write about them here, because I don't have time to look and there is so much else to write about, but I find when talking to someone about their natal chart that it is often the minor aspects that give them those Oprah "aha" moments.

Sesquiquadrates fall between the trine (90 degrees) and the inconjunct (150 degrees). With trines we find things falling into place smoothly, talent we don't have to work for, stuff comes to us easy-peasy and we often take this stuff for granted. With inconjuncts things are out of balance, the two energies are not congruent, they don't get along, they can't work together, one side needs to adjust to the other, win-wins don't happen.

Sesquiquadrates are the middle ground. There is ready ability here but without the balance to have the success we are looking for. In the natal chart they lead to faulty planning or difficulties through inflexibility. They give us a kind of tunnel vision. We have an urge to do something or to cause something to happen in a very specific and very controlled way. We don't always look at the real circumstances clearly - which are always changing! - because we are too focused on the "goal". We don't adjust when the situation changes. We don't see how this could all work so much easier if we just adjust!

So sesquiquadrates usually require some kind of disappointment or loss that forces us to be FLEXIBLE.

So, Venus (freshly into Virgo) and Pluto (9 years into his 16 year journey through Capricorn) are 135 degrees apart today.

This could be the time when a loss or disappointment shows up to teach us the gift of flexibility.  

Maybe we could have put alot of energy into the details of something and it feels like we did it all for nothing. We could be back at square one. Maybe we are trying to make the environment conform to our plan and that is not really how life works. Ugh!

So now, moving forward, our planning will be more realistic, more flexible, more allowing of life to take its course and get us to the place we are wanting to be!

This could also be, since this is Venus/Pluto - about toxic relationships. Vampires (energy suckers, time suckers, resource suckers), obsessions, power plays are all themes of Plutonian relationship dynamics. Maybe the blinders come off. Remember we can only change our own behavior, not anyone else's.

Since the Sun is still in Virgo now the way through are those small, practical steps - if you are not a terribly practical person ask yourself what a practical person would do, or find one and actually ask them. Find a routine. Take it one day and one thing at a time.

Sometimes it is best to let go of trying to find the "reason" something is happening or the "lesson" in the loss. You have absorbed it. Trust that you have grown from it. You don't have to analyze (Virgo!) the thing to death.

And remember the North Node of our collective way forward is in heart ruled Leo and a healthy heart is passionately self-loving. If we wouldn't want it for someone we love we shouldn't allow it for ourselves either. Keep this in mind.

More info about the energies at play this week in the weekly forecast HERE

xo all - enjoy this last day of summer (or winter if you are down under)!

New Moon in Virgo | looking past what isn't working, cleaning up, doing the mending, moving on from the mess

cake go boom by schude

If the Leo Solar Eclipse on August 21st had been a regular New Moon this would be the day we would be putting that energy to bed.

Instead the Solar Eclipse energy is in play until at least the next eclipse in Aquarius in mid February,

but in some ways we are moving on now, especially after we get through the next couple days

(I find specific eclipse events, especially losses, sometimes happen almost exactly to the day one month before or after the actual eclipse, sometimes two months).

This morning's earthy New Moon in Virgo (Sun and Moon in Virgo at 27 degrees) AND also Mars, Mercury and Venus, this is very unusual - imagine a baby's chart if born today(!) - moves us past the last two New Moons that were both in fiery Leo. We also have both Saturn and Uranus going to enter earth signs (Capricorn and Taurus) over the next few months.

Earth is the new black. We can certainly feel that one!

That last New Moon (Solar Eclipse), and the energies at play before and after, has drop-kicked our attention right where it needs to be. And now here we are in Virgo, trying to clean up Leo's mess ... again. This is why the Pluto in Virgo generation is exhausted - imagine being charged with a lifetime of this!

This Moon is complicated. It is opposing Chiron (in emotional Pisces). The Virgo/Pisces polarity of healing and surrender (letting go) is very much activated. Chiron is the wound that can't be healed. Something here can't be fixed/cleaned up no matter how hard Virgo tries to make it work. Something will require an acceptance of an imperfection or acceptance of a vulnerability.

Maybe we just don't have the right info/tools/skills/resources/timing - whatever this is.

The Moon is inconjunct unpredictable Uranus (in Aries). This could create a sense of urgency. We need to fix this thing right now. Or maybe the problem itself hits us out-of-the-blue. Either way, the inconjunct tells us there is no perfect fix here. The signs involved - in this case Virgo and Aries have no middle ground. There is no real fix. There is just an adjustment we will need to live with. In astrology you will always find important points being made multiple times. You will see one thing in a chart that says something and then you will find another aspect that says the same thing (sometimes you will see things three times).

Today's chart is defined by the fact that we can't put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Mercury (in Virgo) is opposing Neptune (in Pisces) now. And because Mercury is ruler of this New Moon (rules Virgo) and Pisces is activated via the Moon (and Sun's) opposition to Chiron in Pisces - this Mercury/Neptune opposition's importance is increased. Probably alot. Neptune rules our imagination and opposing Mercury (our mind) we know that not all is as it seems now.

I could even be totally misreading today's chart - keep this in mind!

This is not a good time to make an important decision because things can look better, or worse, than they actually are. Nothing will feel certain. 

This is our brain (Mercury) on drugs (Neptune), but in the same way people who are drunk can't always tell they are drunk, we could think we are making stone cold sober decisions when we aren't. The facts can be skewed. We could get side-tracked away from what is real.

We could be very tempted to do what is easy rather than what is right. This is one apple we don't want to bite.

The best use of this New Moon energy is to do our Virgo!

We might have to respond to something that we can't make 100% better, but we will still have to respond. Focus on the details. Use commonsense. Do one thing at a time. Do your best. Know that it won't be perfect. Nothing in nature is perfect. Know that perfect isn't the point.

Even though with all this Virgo - it's going to feel like it is!

There is talk in the media about a doomsday of September 23rd. I don't see anymore of an astrological doomsday on this date than any other date lately. There are many places we could be living that feel like doomsday right now! When the energy on planet Earth reaches a certain crisis point the Earth itself will make changes. Keeping ourselves centered and balanced helps everyone. Note - this doesn't mean pouring pink paint on our problems and pretending they don't exist. It's Virgo season we are going to have to do the work. 

For more info check the weekly HERE.

New Moon Guidelines

Set your intentions and make your affirmations for Virgo themes (or your natal Virgo house theme!) 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, maybe burn the paper and give the ashes back to the earth - release your attention from these things knowing your intention is known.

Life has heard you. Know these things are already yours.  

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

xo all

(I find setting my intentions when I see that first little piece of the waxing Moon works best)

Venus Into Virgo | nothing constructive about criticism, the power of discrimination, taking a closer look at what we want and what we already have

Audrey Hepburn by bluesaga331

Today, Venus, after crossing over the 28 degree Leo eclipse degree, moves into stable and practical Virgo until mid-October when she comes home to Libra.

Since Venus naturally rules our 2nd and 7th houses (Libra and Taurus) the themes of these houses - love, money, self-esteem, values, relationships, women, beauty, our resources - are subjected to Virgo's keen focus and attention to detail now.

We will be analyzing what we want and what we have. We will be analyzing our relationships.

The problems will stand out. We won't be able to miss them. And since what we focus on grows, sometimes things get worse before they get better during this transit. But this is excellent energy to fix what needs fixing and accept (or eliminate) what just isn't fixable.

Our Virgo houses get a visit from lovely Venus. Virgo Suns and Ascendants get more attractive - both easier on the eye and able to attract what they want. Our natal Virgo houses get more attractive, too - what is your dream for your Virgo house?

We have a New Moon in Virgo late tonight (we will talk about it tomorrow) so now is the time to think about that!

Venus in Virgo is about loving the details of something, enjoying the work, appreciating the craftsmanship and complexity of something or someone or some situation - yes, also, noticing the imperfections, Virgo can't miss those, and choosing not to dwell on them.

Venus in Virgo works for her money. She gets us clear on what we want. She gets her hands dirty (and then she scrubs them clean). Venus in Virgo can make love critical. We can use this discrimination and ability to see things clearly with our work and make things more beautiful.

We could also use this energy to criticize the people we love. But let's not do that. Constructive criticism is not possible. It's still criticism. Nothing constructive there.

Things could get bitchy and people could get hurt. With people, it's always best to work on ourselves and not others. We will then attract from others something different as they mirror the something different we project onto them. We can't change people into something they're not. So we allow Venus (love) to soften Virgo (critical thinking, seeing what is wrong).

Here is a story I wrote on the blog a couple years ago. Right now hubs and I are sorting out our own Eclipse mess and it's a good reminder for me now, too. We didn't get the boat into the water at all this summer .... and that's another story.

*****

Hubs, a Virgo rising, bought a Hurricane Sandy wreckage boat. He's been working on it for almost 3 years. It finally went back into the water last week. It's docked about 15 minutes from our house in the river. We went out yesterday morning (river to ocean). It was my first time on the boat. As we were loading the things we brought with us I noticed George running a towel along the floor of the entire boat with his foot. We would carry a few things into the boat, I would head back to the truck, he would swab the deck and then join me at the truck. Three times he swabbed the deck.

This is the kind of thing that used to drive me nuts.

I might have said "for Pete's sake the boat is going to get a little dirty you know - we'll just hose it off" or I might have worried about his inability to just enjoy the fruits of his labor and relax for 5 minutes.

But I thought about Venus in Virgo; about the attention to detail this man I loved had put into something he loves (and my own Virgo mid-heaven that zeroes in on this kind of stuff) and I said, "you certainly keep this boat clean".

And not in a bitchy, 'meaning the opposite of what I say' kind of way, but purely from an openhearted space. He responded, "well, I spent a lot of days cleaning it ... and I forgot to bring a hose." We laughed. With Venus in Virgo we are reminded, in small ways and big ones, that we get what we pay attention to. 

***** 

Venus in Virgo can bring a woman/women to help with Virgo themes or focus us on a woman/women who is important to our Virgo theme - work, health, paperwork, organization, our day-to-day routine, service to others, co-workers, the people we hire and our pets. Venus energy into these areas can make this stuff more enjoyable and smooth off any rough edges.

There is lots of other stuff happening today, too, so be sure to read the weekly HERE .

We will talk about the New Moon tomorrow - start thinking about your New Moon intentions for those Virgo themes listed above! xo all