The Astrology of 2020 | part VI - Pisces/Neptune and the spread of disease and mis-information and how we can't rise from the sweaty sheets of our deathbeds without KNOWING we matter

We've talked about what happened in January many times (that 'time runs out' palaver with Saturn and Pluto). We've known 'winter is coming' for years, although granted not exactly what that actually meant, and talked about it here many times (this was more than an HBO series with a lame ending).

When these two bigwigs got together (reality and death) they weren't dining alone. We also had Ceres (Mother Earth) and Mercury seated there, too (the movement of everything, our thinking and also through Virgo our HEALTH).

And, of course, the king himself, the SUN at the head of the table.

2020 was already set up for Venus to retrograde in Gemini (Mercury's sign) in the spring, and with Uranus in Taurus answering to Venus, to pull Uranus chaos into the mix. Mars was scheduled to hit the hot Capricorn degrees the January palaver initiated in the spring and then to go retrograde in his own sign and square these same degrees, multiple times, in the late summer/fall.

So, let's think this through.

Saturn is reality. Pluto is death/transformation. The Sun, our energy/life/royalty/ego. Ceres, the seasons of our life/major change/the planet/food and Mercury, our health, our thinking and the movement of everything.

 It was possible to see, but not surprising that we didn't because we are talking about Pisces here, if we looked ahead at what Mercury and Ceres were going to do (we already knew Saturn/Pluto was 'time runs out') - that this whole thing could play out through a VIRUS (and with Mercury, the trickster involved, and pulling Pisces illusions and delusions into the mix, somehow an inability to see/know what is totally real/important here).

Because in 2020, both Mercury and Ceres were going to have long retrogrades in Pisces (the sign that rules the ethereal realms, the space of no boundaries, the ruler of viruses) 

at the SAME DEGREES - Mercury (just as the Sun entered Pisces - remember he was at that January meeting, too) in the late winter/spring and Ceres in the following summer/fall/early winter. 

And the Nodes of Fate, were set to move into Gemini/Sagittarius - squaring Pisces and Virgo - our two health signs and activating a whole generation of people born in the 1960's with Pluto conjunct Uranus in Virgo. Karma with trauma. The Virgo Full Moon on March 9, 2020 was designed as a potential drop kick, if needed, to launch something health related into the stratosphere. And it did.

Saturn/Pluto. Pluto/Saturn. This is where our focus went. A war? Death of the king? Remember we had Trump's impeachment and the shooting of the general in Iran, that led us to a pre-World War III (think: Cuban missile crisis) kind of moment.

Both Trump and everyone else who was paying attention rose from their sweaty death bed sheets as these situations appeared to quickly, almost magically disappear 

(the real crisis though, hidden by trickster Mercury in the background, was only beginning to seep out - China reports the first death from the new virus to the WHO).

The year seemed to set-up a crisis followed by its swift ending/non-ending. In our personal lives something would have happened like this, too and probably never totally resolved itself either, but the thing we were most afraid of happening doesn't actually happen (not that people were afraid of Trump's impeachment, although I am sure some were, but because he - the king - was afraid).

We let out the deep breath we were holding, only to find ourselves needing to draw another one ....

Mercury/Ceres may have saved many lives by giving this whole thing another road to take. We can't know. It's not a great road, but it's better than World War III or an alien invasion. Or is this an alien invasion? Maybe it is now that I think about it!

Mercury has done his/her part.

She (as us) took what she received from that January palaver and sent this thing far and wide during her time in boundless Pisces, and also, being the trickster energy in an illusive sign made it hard/impossible to know just how dangerous this whole thing really was/is. Were deaths being over or under-reported? Was this whole thing priming the pump to have all of us salivating for a vaccine? Mercury/Pluto is thinking about death and, I guess she did her job. Because we were/are.

Last week, Ceres (activating things outside our control), in Pisces, hit the degree of Mercury's station from late February, and then she also stationed retrograde! So, now she brings what she has taken from the palaver into this simmering Pisces soup.

(at 13 degrees, which is also the degree of the final Eclipse last week, the Cappy Full Moon Eclipse, and remember it was the Cancer Full Moon eclipse that happened two days before Saturn/Pluto - Cancer/Cappy are opposite signs - that was the one with the mama-bear Cancer Moon standing all alone against the world, demanding we prioritize home and family. She certainly had a hand in what was coming!)

Remember planets at station are UBER strong. Think of your finger moving through a lit candle and then you stop moving your hand. Ouch.

So, now Ceres is moving back over Mercury's LIT degrees, but also bringing her own energy into this space - because she was at the January table, too. She is slower than Mercury - and could potentially carry us through multiple seasons of this.

Again the virus back in the news spreading/growing

(I am sorry this is so United States centric for anyone outside the U.S!), 

I am still thinking with Neptune (ruler of Pisces) retrograde the virus will not be as deadly now. This is more about 'thinking about death/fear', our karma with trauma, rising from our sweaty sheets (after) and the destruction of old support systems.

Ceres is going to be in Pisces until the end of February 2021. By that time the Sun will be in Pisces starting a fresh cycle ...

Another thing we have had happening during this time (because remember it is never just one thing in a chart) is the start of Saturn/Uranus when Saturn made a brief appearance in Aquarius. He will be back there in December and be in Aquarius until March 2023. Saturn is going to square Uranus multiple times next year - so this is two things that say the same thing. This isn't about the virus necessarily, but definitely factors in.

This is the rebellion (Uranus) against rules/limits/authority (Saturn) story-line - among other things. We've seen this play out here in the United States in multiple ways.

One thing to keep in mind is the 'death cycle' with Pluto that we talked about in other posts. The point isn't that we die. Because we can never actually die (although obviously we can lose our human life). This 'rising from our death bed' thing implies that we have been made to care enough about LIVING to be able to rise. To want to rise.

Our lives need to be made to MATTER.

Black Lives Matter becoming such a collective energy is part of that. We needed this now. All of us. We have to say our life is valuable. This had to happen now to have the impact it is going to have. To have the power it needs to have. A whole bunch of people, supported by a whole other bunch of people, need to KNOW this.

We can't rise from our sweaty death bed sheets without KNOWING WE MATTER

(if you are a person who these words bother/who are triggered by them - think about why they bother you, maybe somewhere you need to more strongly believe that you matter, I can assure you YOU ARE A ONCE IN A LIFETIME COSMIC EVENT - no one matters more than you do).

This whole thing playing out through the death of a man who couldn't breath during a time of a respiratory pandemic isn't a coincidence. This is us co-creating life on planet Earth.

Tipping points will always arrive.

As will retrogrades just when we need them, in this case, so we can re-think/re-work the 'practical'!

Maybe once we came to the collective conclusion, through quantum physics and new-age thinking (what strange bedfellows) that we make our reality/that thoughts are things and influence events, reality's shifting was set into motion in the most peculiar ways ..,..

Back in a couple days with part VII - we'll look at Ceres, the QAnon stuff with Trump and how this factors in, the virus future timelines and more



xo all

photo by the talented sistersinnister

Today's Astrology Forecast | Friday, July 10, 2020 - water, connection, family memories, stepping into our responsibility, building the dream

The Moon continues her journey through intuitive and imaginative Pisces - we move in the direction we feel called.

She trines the Sun at 2:08AM EDT, meets up with Pisces ruler Neptune (retrograde) at 6:56AM EDT (write down your dreams when you wake up!), sextiles a retrograde Jupiter at 10:46AM EDT, sextiles a retrograde Pluto at 12:51PM EDT and finally goes void off ANOTHER opportunistic sextile to a retrograde Saturn at 11:48PM EDT.

The trine to the Cancer Sun is this month's Waning Trine - Cancer/Pisces. This is a smooth flow. Water. Tears. Home. Family memories/history. Nostalgia. Unusual leaks. Expect to be emotional.

Water dissolves what was. Boundaries. Foundations. Protective coatings.

In Cancer we define ourselves and our families. This is who we are. This is who we will be and, importantly, this is who gets to be included.

Pisces has no definitions/no barriers. Everyone is included because there is no inside/outside. Everything is inside (or is it outside?). Today they move together. Effortlessly. To unwind something? Maybe something that has been wound too tight?

Then the Cappy sextiles (Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn!) are Neptune/Saturn-style "building the dream" opportunities.   

Excellent aspects for dealing with authority or stepping into our own authority. Did I say"building the dream"? Yes, do some of that.

So, there's lots of cardinal energy that feels like a need to get going with something and there is, but at the same time so much retrograde and the Moon is waning. 

Cappy and Pisces both strong with their rulers comfy-cozy in their own beds. Both rulers retrograde. The Moon waning. We are looking backward. Letting go. Making revisions. Building the dream by knocking out the pilings of the old one? Releasing the stranglehold of the old world - the way we thought this was going to look/be.

So, here is where we get a grip (or a hammer).

On what needs to be done.

On what we need to do. 

There are surely old dreams that need to be put to bed. Old structures that need to be tossed in the harbor. I know we wanted to do this. But now we can't do this.

BUT MAYBE WE CAN DO THAT. Yes, we can do THAT.

There is no question that for many of us, this year, our baseline will to live, our will to fight for our right to exist has been established. So now we are going with the flow. Moving with the changes. Doing our Gemini. Small talk that brings people together. Small moves.

We have a couple other aspects today we talked about in the weekly HERE.

Tonight as that dreamy/drifting Moon meets serious Saturn - maybe there is a choice, something sobering then at 1:06AM EST, the Moon moves into Aries (passion, anger, initiative) and everything switches. More cardinal energy - the need to start something. ACTION.

This weekend we have some big squares, Mercury stations direct -

but all this Pisces now means we don't know what we don't know.

Meditate. Pray. Ask your ancestors and the collective karma of every positive move you have ever made/every positive thought you have ever thought for their assistance.

A Pisces Moon is a direct pipeline.

Back with the next 2020 series post later today.


xo all

photo by the talented xetobyte

Today's Astrology Forecast | Thursday, July 9, 2020 - magic, nostalgia, talking to ghosts, going with the flow, money/relationship pivots, change is good, don't shoot yourself in the foot

Today is all about an active Pisces Moon.

Imagination. Intuition. Creativity. Healing. Rest. Flow. Looking backward. AND moving forward. Or, better said, moving toward something different. Forward/backward, this is Pisces, so who can know?!

The Moon (in Pisces now) trines a retrograde Mercury at 1:34AM EDT, squares Venus at 7:14AM EDT and sextiles Uranus at 9:49AM EDT.

The Moon in Pisces is answering to a retrograde Neptune - everything will have its roots in the past now. And everything will be refracted, like looking through water, everyone we meet used as a mirror, a lens to magnify (or maybe start a fire - take care with that). Everything will have a different meaning for each of us. There is no one way through this ...

Moon/Mercury is about putting our feelings into words. Talking about comfortable topics or that home/family situation. Emotional conversations. This should be smooth/easy. We could feel nostalgic/be talking to ghosts. Maybe we can use what we know of our family history to awaken some compassion for those people we are closest to. We are sometimes hardest on them. Maybe more than sometimes. 

Moon/Venus is a square, so a bit of a tangle. Tension/frustration. Maybe something around money/our resources. Relationships are tricky. So are situations with women. That comfortable conversation could drift into something less comfortable. Gemini wants details/facts/choices and Pisces wants to move into the spaces between the facts. Venus in Pisces might offer choices, but maybe somehow nothing will feel quite right ... and that's OK because then she moves into

an opportunistic sextile with Uranus (in Taurus, so answering to Venus). Did I say we will move through all of this by 10AM EDT - or did we do this yesterday? This sounds like my yesterday or my last night all smooshed together like I lived a week in a day or a day in an hour. With Uranus we get comfortable with something else/something different. New feels good. Excellent for creative work. New ways to make money/new ways to make love or find peace. A happy surprise. Change is good.

Lots of endings with a waning Pisces Moon, as we squeeze from a large opening into a smaller world - so what needs to be finished up?

Sometimes when there is alot of Pisces, or an active Pisces Moon, we do not always act in our own best interests and we have that Mercury/Mars still in play - so watch for that.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Don't shoot the messenger. Don't be the messenger who gets shot. Drive carefully.

But not so carefully that you never remove your foot from the brake.


xo all

photo by the talented Marta Syrko

Today's Astrology Forecast | Monday, July 6th, 2020 - attend to responsibilities early, positive action and social opportunities flow in the afternoon, the possibility for a surprise/shocker late tonight

I didn't get to the weekly yesterday, but will get it up soon! In the meantime a heads up, the week will roll out like this:

TUESDAY - Ceres stations retrograde
WEDNESDAY - Mercury squares Mars
FRIDAY - Venus sextiles Chiron
SATURDAY - Chiron stations retrograde
SUNDAY - Sun trines Neptune, Mercury stations direct, Quarter Moon (Aries)

So, we have Ceres and Chiron station retrograde (we will be going back over nurturing issues, season of life issues, our losses that were outside our control, stuff that triggers us), the last of three opportunistic sextiles between Venus and Chiron, some tension/frustration/an argument in the middle of the week via the Mars/Mercury (keep a cool ahead) - this is a repeating aspect - and then at the end of the week Mercury stations direct and we are MOVING FORWARD.

There is still ALOT of backward energy via all the retrograde planets - covering old ground, re-working issues and roadblock potential ahead, but we will have our three personal planets - Mercury, Venus and Mars - moving forward until September.

TODAY is all about the Moon (and we are still in the energy of this weekend's Full Moon Lunar Eclipse).

In Capricorn she goes void off a meeting with a retrograde Saturn at 5:35AM EDT - stepping into our authority, a responsibility, laying the foundation for something, a reality check, an ending/culmination.

It's a fast void and she moves into smarty-pants Aquarius at 6:08AM EDT. We are nurtured through our groups, causes, our intellect, new ideas, accepting other people's differences, the goals that bring us into connection with other people, our freak flags/being ourselves, online interests for the next couple days. The Moon in Aquarius can allow us to step back from/detach from situations we may have been a little too serious about in Cappy or bring other people or new ideas into the mix.

The Moon will sextile Mars at 3:36PM EDT (opportunity to take forward leaning action) and trine Venus at 8:22PM EDT (great for social interactions, future leaning news/ideas/conversations).

So Martian opportunities - masculine, outward movement - with Aquarius/Aries (taking action, initiative, passion) and Venusian opportunities - feminine, receptive - (things sliding into place) with Aquarius/Gemini so words/ideas/information around what we want, love, relationships, our money, resources and values.

The Moon's final move is a late night (12:37PM EDT) square to Aquarius so-ruler Uranus - so there could be something unexpected that comes up, even a sudden kind of shocking change that shifts our direction with something. With Uranus in Taurus this could have to do with our money/resources/values/self-esteem.

So, this day can move in alot of different directions. These Aquarius lunar transits can be smooth and easy or complicated.  

It's either working or it isn't.

Tomorrow, the Moon will be freewheeling it through Aquarius and Ceres will station retrograde.

Back with the weekly!


xo all

photo by the talented GinebraSiddal


The building Mars/Mercury can make the media especially negative/dramatic/fearful now, so keep this in mind. Here in New Jersey, on the 4th of July as the clouds gave way to bright and beautiful sunshine and a temperature around 80 degrees, I checked the local weather to see if the sun would stick around and read (this was a local news app pulling from the weather channel):

NJ WEATHER ALERT: expect more heat deaths, tidal flooding and jelly fish infestation as the weather warms.

Sounds like a nightmare instead of a beautiful Saturday.

We want to check ourselves for stuff like this too now, we don't need to go looking for trouble. Think about what you are talking/thinking about -  Mercury is strong at station and our words are our superpower now - what do we want to be empowering?