MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

June 29, 11:17pm Central—Jupiter and Pluto come together every 13 years. At these times, we’re given the opportunity to find meaning (Jupiter) in decomposing structures (Pluto). In Capricorn, we’re scrutinizing the unchecked power of systems that supposedly provide order. These include our government and elected officials, the police, the judicial system, and banking and financial institutions. As Jupiter and Pluto join again for the second time this year, we’re witnessing the chthonic stench of the abuse of power (Pluto) that is forcing us to examine our morality and take a stand on our principles (Jupiter).

Saturn is on its way to the scene as well. Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn July 1st and stations at 25° for all of September and most of October. That’s FIFTY-SEVEN days of Saturn in one spot! That spot is one degree away from the Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions of April and June. In addition, Mars will be squaring Saturn from Aries beginning mid-August and throughout September.

Saturn, the Lord of Karma, sitting on this very spot signifies bringing landmark consequences to the abuses of power and injustices of the past. Saturn is also the principle of form and structure. As Pluto deconstructs rotting systems and Jupiter asks us to examine our truth, Saturn will bring not only the reality checks but the blueprints to create equitable structures that work for everyone. The deep systemic change we’ve been collectively laboring through for decades is crowning. If not now, when?

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Mars gets ready to set up shop in his home base of Aries tomorrow, but not before opposing the Moon this afternoon. In the bounds of Saturn, this can be a cantankerous Mars. Be aware of short fuses and a wackamole of irritation. Be prepared to stake out a spot for a power nap (Mars in Pisces) to ride through potential frustration.

Tomorrow, Mars enters Aries where he will extend his normal stay of six weeks to six months. That’s a lot of Mars for one house! Mars in his own sign of Aries reminds me of a Tom Waits character with “dragstrip courage” who can “really drive a bed.” He’s going to do what he wants and he’s going to get paid. He’s no extra, baby, he’s a leading man. Best of all, he’s got real scars, hair on his chest and looks good without a shirt. In Goin’ Out West, Waits paints the picture of someone who’s impulsive, hot blooded, and you don’t want to mess with. Mars in Aries people know what they want and they aren’t afraid to go after it. They’re also upfront and direct. Mars in the Cardinal sign of Aries doesn’t hesitate.

Mars will spend part of the next six months aggravating and/or energizing the slow-moving planets over in Capricorn. In addition, he’ll be joining forces with his sister Eris the goddess of strife and discord during his elongated sojourn in Aries. Although he is well resourced in his home base, he will be overcome by Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn as these planets are in a stronger position and impose their significations on Mars.

The times we will most likely feel the Cardinal Fire heat turned up are mid-August to mid-October and as Mars conjuncts Eris and squares Pluto + Saturn. My guess is that we’re entering a time where those who have always been disenfranchised and not treated fairly (as symbolized by Eris) will rise up and seek justice. Just as it takes immense heat and pressure to form a diamond, it will take similar intensity to form a new world, one in which each one of us truly matters.

Neptune stations retrograde today, floating back to 18° Pisces where it stations direct in November. We often hear how Neptune transits accompany anxiety, fatigue, deception and confusion. Perhaps they do. But that hasn’t been my experience. In fact, I’ve found just the opposite: Neptune transits have been times of awakening.

As my Sun and Ascendant are at 18° Pisces, I’m familiar with Neptune energy. In addition, Neptune conjuncted my Moon when it entered Pisces in 2011. This is when I began practicing with Ayahuasca, accessing timeless states and beginning an ancestral healing journey that used my body as its crucifixion purge. Neptune went on to conjunct natal Mercury and then to the Sun and Ascendent as it is now.

Whether it be ayahuasca, Buddhist teachings, or nature herself that have served as handmaidens to Neptune’s energy, these transits shifted me. Large parts of my egoic lens simply evaporated, allowing me a glimpse of the bigger picture where my small self was rather insignificant. It’s not that my life was no longer important. It was simply placed into the larger context of family, ancestry, race and finally a human inhabitant on this planet. I made major changes to my life to reflect these insights.

Neptune is hard to define, isn’t it? The planet entered our awareness in 1846 during the transcendentalism and spiritualism movements. Given that Neptune has been my travelling companion, I like to think of its energy as inviting us into the true nature of reality. Neptune lifts the veil so we can get an eyeful of the Wizard of Oz and how the operating system is matrixed into being. Neptune transits ask us to shed the heavy weight of a fixed identity and step into a larger, compassionate perspective. To creatively color outside the lines, a picture where we really are all one.

Image by @thenamdas

June 20, 2020—Solstice marks the day in the Northern Hemisphere where the Sun reaches his zenith and begins his descent. The Moon’s reign begins to lengthen as the Sun enters Cancer, the Moon’s domicile. In Cancer, the solar self dims as we fold into kin. We remember the past, regaling stories steeped in nostalgia. We carry the memories of our ancestors who continue to pour through our smiles, voices, facial expressions and gestures. Like the tides, Cancer’s emotional states ebb and flow.

Cancer is the expression of mother’s milk when her baby cries. It’s the Kleenex box next to the diary. It’s the evening sky when it divides into layers of pink and blue. Cancer is the vulnerable belly our dog offers for a gratifying rub-down. It’s the instinct to block the blow and protect the defenseless. It’s the sense of danger felt in our gut, grown wise from years of experience. Cancer is the mother tongue, the dining room table, the cuisine of the old country, and the smell of grandmother’s kitchen. It’s the prayer we cry to god, goddess or to mother when we need to feel safe. Cancer is the stone that sinks back into the well of memory and then deeper into the tear in the veil we all come from.

Last night’s hard rain ripped off San Miguel de Allende’s top layer of skin. This morning felt wired as the birds, busses, and hammers serenaded a new Sun. Its growing light illumined standing puddles of water, shiny mirrors everywhere, lifting them up into the sky again. Every rooftop dog had something to say. And then a crooked man with enormous lips stumbled in front of me as if he had just woken from a sleep of a thousand years. This morning barked open its ripe smells and sounds that just the day before had been hidden under the dust the rain would soon wash away.

I thought of the time we’re living in now. Awakening is what it feels like when the needle of Mars weaves in and out the semipermeable membrane of Neptune, just deep enough to prick spots of blood connected to a much deeper body of pain. Collective grief is never far away. It waits just beneath a top layer of dusty homogeneity, normalcy and blindness. But it’s there wanting to be seen and witnessed because in the end, that is what every living thing wants. Collective pain is a living thing.

As the Sun prepares to square Neptune, let him shine a light on the sorrow and the anguish that are now collecting in sizeable pockets everywhere, wanting to be illuminated, lifted and witnessed. Soon Venus will return from her underground journey, purified and revitalized as the bright morning star, heralding the dawn of a very important time we are all bearing witness to.

May 22, 2020 at 12:39pm Central—We’re really feeling the Gemini part of our charts at this time as not only are the Sun and Moon there, but Venus, Mercury and the North Node have pitched their tents as well. I can picture them roasting marshmallows, swapping stories from the sky while they speculate about this New Moon, the latest arrival to pitch her tent in the Gemini campground.

The Sun speaks first, mentioning the lunation’s trine to Saturn. We—he speaks of himself and the Moon—trine Saturn who favors diligence and accountability right now. Long term planning will pay off. Our trine in Air signs believe we should exercise responsible and cautious socializing right now.

Venus is sitting on Mercury’s lap (Ruler of this New Moon), both of them a little tipsy and swelling with encouragement from their square to illusionist Neptune. They speak in rose-colored platitudes as they giggle in each other’s ear. “Let’s break bread and celebrate. The night is young and full of terrors!” Neptune snorts from his square in Pisces.

The Moon will encounter Mars next. Separating from Sun/Saturn and applying to Mars can show a situation worsening. Whereas Saturn gave us social distancing, Mars in Pisces might give us a mutated virus which the Moon then carries on to his next rendezvous: Venus, the planet of love, beauty, and socializing.

Mercury is coming up on his retrograde in Cancer this time next month right around the time Venus stations direct and Mars enters Aries for a six month stay. Last time Mercury retrograded in a water sign, COVID-19 was brought to the world’s attention. Given this lunation’s sky script, it’s a smart idea to play it safe and keep exercising social distancing. The night is young and full of terrors.

The Sun lights up the mutable air sign of Gemini from May 20 to June 19. With the Sun, Mercury and Venus all in Gemini, the pace picks up. We’re feeling more social and a desire to get out and about. With the sky shifting into a mutable concentration, we’re wise to travel lightly and not become attached to outcomes.

Gemini, like Mercury himself, is a tricky sign to fully grasp. My favorite Gemini is my grandmother. She had so many curious parts to her: trickster, herb encyclopedia, traveler, story teller. We would sleep outside when she visited, like she did at her home which was filled with the uncaged birds she lived with. I would fall asleep as she created worlds from the places she had visited: Rome, Kenya, the Florida Coast. During the day, we would walk barefoot in the canyon where she would teach me all about the flowers and grasses, picking some to eat on our explorations. I was Tom Sawyer to her Huckleberry Finn with one Chiron Return between us. As I learned astrology, she became my archetype for one version of Gemini: free & inquisitive, like a playful wind that breezes between the nooks and crannies of every experience, tincturing just enough of it to carry its essence in a story file. Like Gemini, she was perennially young despite the tapestry of lines that formed around a forever smiling face and easy laugh.

With an emphasis in Gemini, our ability to adapt and take a meandering path will serve not only this month, but in the next 18 months as we experience eclipses across the Gemini/Sag axis. This mobilizing reset in the sign of the twins gives us a preview of the themes the eclipses will have us working on.

Are you ever struck by a feeling of immense gratitude that rushes in like a warm wind, enveloping you in such pure joy that you tear up in appreciation for the mysterious beauty that is your life? That’s Sun trine Jupiter: a buoyant surge of generosity and goodwill. The light pours out of you and energetically high-fives resilient dandelions growing from cracks in the sidewalk.

We’re graced by feelings of well being and heart swell today as the Sun trines Jupiter. Catch the feelz if you can. Walk outside, there, to your favorite spot, and let the birds follow your heart song. Indulge in the eternity of this ordinary moment.

Mars—the force of action, will, desire and assertion—submerges himself in the compassionate waters of Pisces for the next six weeks. Pisces is the sign that understands suffering and Mars in Pisces feels things profoundly.

Have you ever watched “Hurt” performed by Johnny Cash? It’s a great example of Cash’s Mars in Pisces using the medium of music to showcase the collective human themes of sorrow, driving it into a work of transcendent beauty.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails wrote the song during a time of intense depression. It’s been called a “Valentine to the Sufferer”. When Cash asked to cover it, Reznor was honored but had no idea that Cash would truly make it his own exquisite missive from Mars in Pisces (with help from his Sun & Mercury also in Pisces). Pisces has a gift around the arts, music, and empathy. Cash used these phenomenal gifts to truly create a masterpiece from a soul ravaged by time and heartache that connects deeply to the parts of us that yearn in our own holy suffering and broken thoughts.

As Venus retrogrades and Mars enters Pisces, this is a time of feeling things deeply. Let your “empire of dirt” be washed over by the tides of nostalgia. Dance. Create. Pray to the gods for understanding and refuge. Tonglen it out, exchanging self for the other. Run towards the intensity. Know that you are never alone

May 5—Tomorrow the nodal axis will move backwards from Cancer-Capricorn into Gemini-Sagittarius where it will stay until January 2022. For the next 18 months—except for June’s Solar Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse in July—the eclipses will ping-pong across the Gemini and Sagittarius parts of our charts. This means the spotlight turns from our Cancer/Capricorn houses onto the Gemini/Sag areas.

Eclipses usher turning points and tremendous opportunities for change. They’re the technology the Universe uses to prod us towards our own evolution. With the North Node moving into Gemini, perhaps we’ll be learning to ask the right questions about larger topics such as ethics, belief systems and what it means to be human.

An image that comes to mind with the Sag/Gemini axis is the one above: the monk Shariputra questions the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, about the profound meaning of emptiness and the essence of reality. Their famous dialogue at Vulture Peak became the Heart Sutra. For me, Shariputra represents the North Node in Gemini. Perhaps this plays out as deeply probing into our fundamental rights (Sag) to suss out the particular foundational threads that we need to learn (Gemini) in creating a society that works and plays well with the planet. A few topics we could be dealing with in the next 18 months include food insecurity, universal basic income, and transhumanism. What would it look like to Vulture Peak these themes and question them through the lens of compassion and emptiness?

The Nodal cycle is 18.6 years. We can look back to 2001 and 2002 when the North Node was last in Gemini and the South Node was in Sagittarius to get an idea of similar themes we might revisit again. Look to the two houses these eclipses will occur in your chart and themes of approximately nineteen years ago to get an idea of where you might be ready for a redirect, breakthrough or both.

Image Art: Sariputra questions Avalokitesvara – https://youtu.be/bQCSCdu0a5Y

April 27—After a heated repartee during his sprint through Aries, Mercury entered Taurus today. If Mercury in Aries is hot sauce, Mercury in Taurus is maple syrup: grounded, slow, sweet and practical. Now in Venus’ sign, we look to the Goddess of Love and see that she’s in Gemini, Mercury’s sign. This is a positive condition called Mutual Reception which means the two planets in each other’s domiciles are working together.

Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, has his Venus in Gemini and his Mercury in Taurus. He’s a great example of the best of this mix: young at heart, a charming intelligence, and a grounded sensibility. Christina Hendricks does too. Even when angry, she delivers a calm and collected, mesmerizing Venusian monologue.

Mercury squares Saturn in Aquarius tomorrow. As this is a fixed square, be on the lookout for hitting a wall in communication and/or a limiting glass-half-full outlook. On the plus side, this energy offers focus and discipline, allowing us to skillfully work on mental projects.

The Mercury-Saturn square gives way to a Mercury-Uranus conjunction on Friday. Uranus, the planet of breakthroughs and liberation, combined with Mercury offers insights and new ideas perhaps on the very thing we were stuck on with the Mercury square just a few days before.

Image: Christina Hendricks as  Joan Holloway on  Mad Men. Credit: Shane King-Taggart

April 22, 2020 at 9:26pm CST—Tonight’s New Moon in Taurus squaring Saturn and conjoining Uranus illustrates the choreography we’re collectively figuring out between The Hammer (Saturn) and The Dance (Uranus). The term comes from an article published in Medium over a month ago by behavioral psychology expert Tomas Pueyo entitled Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance—What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time.

In the massively referred to article, Pueyo predicted the lockdown which he called the hammer. Once we hammer the virus with social distancing, restrictions and quarantine (Saturn), we can move into the next phase, the Dance: an incremental reopening (Uranus) of the economy, schools, and life in general. In effect, a do-si-do between Saturn and Uranus square dancing between restraint and freedom.

The Saturn-Uranus dance will be a major theme in 2021 as they square one another three times. Tonight’s square is not exact but the Moon at 3°24 Taurus is transferring light from Saturn at 1° Aquarius to Uranus at 6° Taurus. This new moon previews what’s in store in 2021 when the Saturn-Uranus squares adjust the complex choreography of the hammer and the dance. Since the last square of 2021 occurs December 24th, most likely we’ll be going back and forth between cautious restrictions and prudent allowances that creep towards freedom all of next year.

The Taurus New Moon corresponds to the Five of Pentacles. We often associate scarcity and hard times with this card. And it’s true: we can experience a sense of terrifying lack when this card appears. That said, wasn’t it Duran Duran who sang “your freedom (Uranus) held you captive (Saturn) just the same”? Sometimes, when resources and choices evaporate and there’s only one viable road left to travel, we finally put on our shoes and start walking it.

These silver pieces were forged during a powerful Sun election when the Sun was in his exaltation (Aries). The Sun’s image (pictured) will be molded in gold in a subsequent Sun election when the Sun is in Leo. In the meantime, I charge them every Sunday morning during the Sun’s hour with ritual and intention.

Why do we work with the Sun? We can petition the Sun for confidence, creativity, success, recognition, vitality, favors, and fame. The ritual consists of creating a Sun altar, lighting the appropriate incense and reciting magical words. There’s a perceptible shift during this time. For instance, I get really warm and am filled with a golden light that feels like immense gratitude. Additionally, this practice is cultivating solar qualities within myself.

The end of July, these prayed over magical pieces filled with solar intentions will be molded into magical talismans. A Sun talisman acts like a tiny transmitter of solar qualities. The wearer attracts and exudes confidence, creativity, success, recognition, vitality, favors, and fame.  I will be making one for myself and three more to sell.

Mercury toweled off from his prolonged swim through Pisces and entered Aries last night under the watch of a swollen Sagittarius Moon. Mercury in Aries communication style is frank and upfront, a welcome departure from the amorphous information haze we’ve experienced in Pisces. Mercury gains strength in his move into Aries which could translate into more direct and clearcut messaging. It might be easier now to make flight changes. I’m hoping the cervical pillow I ordered over a month ago finally moves out of Customs. I imagine that schools, teachers and students—all ruled by Mercury—might be adjusting to a new norm. Most of all, this Mercury is better fit to communicate factual news that we all need now surrounding COVID-19 and the domino effect it’s had on just about every part of our lives.

Mercury travels through Aries until April 27th. Three days before arriving in Taurus, he’ll square Pluto & Jupiter in Capricorn. He’ll take what he learns here when he steps into Taurus and conjuncts Uranus on the 30th. Now combust the Sun, Mercury will be holding onto breakthrough information. Perhaps we’ll learn more about the Jupiter/Pluto discovery when Mercury exits from beneath the beams of the Sun and becomes visible again May 18th.

CST—Tuesday night’s full moon illuminates the fault lines in our relationships. In Libra, we focus on harmony, balance, and justice. Where are we not getting our needs met? Where have we compromised too much? Are we asking for too much? The Full Moon in Libra asks us to find the middle ground that brings more ease in our relationships and greater peace in our lives.

Ruled by Venus who’s having to make do inside a malefic enclosure (a Mars/Saturn sandwich by trine), this Libra lunation may have us feeling as though we’re at our rope’s end. Adding to the intensity, Mars squares Uranus earlier in the day. Coming off his conjunction with Saturn, our ability to get what we desire (Mars) may have felt constricted and frustrated (Saturn). As Mars carries that energy into a square with Uranus, we can experience volatility such as walking off in a huff, cutting people out of our lives, or courageously acting out our truth. Watch out for hair-trigger tempers, barbs you can’t take back, and reactions that you’ll regret later. Uranus wants to liberate some of the stuck energy we’ve been feeling. Exercising, breath-work, or hammering away 8-of-Pentacles style are alternative ways to express it.

The skies are action packed. As Mars squares Uranus, Mercury will be applying to Pluto by sextile. Mercury Pluto always reminds me of Wonder Woman with her lasso of truth—time to speak our fears, resentments, and deepest vulnerabilities. Given the combustible nature of Mars+Uranus, the lasso of truth might be the tide of anger our emotions are riding. Mars & Uranus are both in fixed signs, causing heels to dig in. Remember that compassion can move mountains and trying to see another’s perspective can make an enormous difference in the end result.

As Mercury moves past Pluto and forms a sextile to Jupiter hours later, the supermoon in Libra exacts bringing the biggest and brightest lunation of the year. We’re seeing clearly now, perhaps even a middle ground. Mercury sextile Jupiter opens us to generosity of spirit and heartfelt words of goodwill. We begin to understand the strengths of our relationship(s) in a new harmonious light. Or maybe it’s time to release one another and travel in the direction towards peace.

Jupiter and Pluto meet every 13 years as they do today. At times, their conjunction has coincided with epidemics and financial collapse. Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, rules all things hidden, from corruption to viruses. Jupiter amplifies. The Spanish Flu (1918), the HIV epidemic (1981), and the Great Recession (2007) broke out during a Jupiter Pluto conjunction. And now we have COVID-19, right on queue.

However, just as beloved painter Bob Ross instructs, “Gotta have opposites, light and dark and dark and light.” What the light side of Pluto? Regeneration. The rising Phoenix. The opportunity to build from scratch. And with Jupiter involved, there’s an invitation to reveal the meaningful gift contained within the rubble.

When Jupiter and Pluto conjoined last time, I left Oregon for Guanajuato, Mexico. As people were losing their livelihood and homes, I was walking away from mine into the unknown in search of meaning (Jupiter). An empty-nester at 40, I felt amputated with both daughters out of the house and my job as a librarian had lost its spark—Pluto: the process of breakdown. I wanted to find purpose and heart centered work. I eventually found 30 girls to care for, 7 nuns to work with, and many women to help heal from a life of abuse and trauma. In the space of two years, I had completely remade my life (Pluto, the rising Phoenix) in a way that felt meaningful and brought back joy (Jupiter). Jupiter + Pluto can and does use the compost of a disintegrating way of life to build a better tomorrow.

We’re at a crossroads. Jupiter and Pluto meet three times in Capricorn this year: today at 24°, June 30th at 24° and November 12th at 22° In January of next year, our first New Moon will be in Capricorn at 23°. In the later degrees of Capricorn, we are focusing on decaying economic structures, government, and regulation. There’s an opportunity here to move away from the decomposing status quo and use the lessons we find here to rebuild from scratch. This year and next are the caterpillar soup stage that invites us to transform into something more agile, meaningful and restorative.

March 31, 2020—Every couple of years, the two malefics, Mars and Saturn, meet one another in the sky. In traditional astrology, Mars and Saturn are considered to be problematic. Their manifestations can bring challenges, struggle, frustration, and hard times our way. When these two come together as they will on the 31st, we can feel as through we’re in a distressing bottleneck: wanting to move forward with our lives but having to overcome a major obstacles in the way.

In the context of COVID-19, Mars conjunct Saturn will very likely escalate fear. The end of March could be one of the critical peaks of the crisis we find ourselves in.  We are in this contractions for a 12 week period while Mars travels with Saturn. The bottleneck of fear and increased restriction began when Mars entered Capricorn, February 16, joining the South Node, Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn. It should ease up May 12th when Mars will leave Aquarius and enter Pisces.

Laser like focus

I hesitate to paint an entirely negative picture. Saturn and Mars might intensify restraints and worry, but there’s another side of the coin: focused action. This conjunction’s high side is the ability to employ a laser like focus in deliberately working towards sustainable solutions we desperately need right now. Structures such as Universal Basic Income, establishing food security, and skillfully addressing climate change to name just a few. If things feel as though they are falling apart right now, hold on. Collectively, we’re in the process of waking up to a new vision.

On a more personal level, the isolation and disruption to our normal lives is giving us a precious opportunity to reevaluate how we want to spend our time and with whom. 2020 and 2021 is a time of upheaval and change. The astrology we find ourselves in reflects the birth of a new collective paradigm.  We have valuable time right now to tune into how we want to participate as the world resets and reconfigures.

Image by Jetter Green