There’s a New Moon in the last degrees of Taurus on Friday (near Fixed Star Algol) and the collective is weary and susceptible from too much information, too much internet, too much algorythm, although it’s a really nice hopeful moment and new forms are emerging, projects are budding and starting to unfold; Venus in Cancer rules over the skies, birthing pathways towards greater pleasures and joys, inviting us towards compassionate care and connection with ourselves and with others.
There could be worries about money, about resources, about not having enough or needing more since most of the planets in the sky right now are concerned with ease and stability. Needing more reassurance and proof although Taurus knows how to take charge of itself and its world slowly and steadily. Taurus rhythm is nature’s rhythms but with Venus in Cancer ruling over this New Moon there’s also a need for connection, care and value.
This is not supposed to be a pity party but… …Mars in the very last degrees of Cancer and applying to oppose Pluto is like a dull blade; more dangerous than a sharp one, insecure about its position, needing to prove something, doubling down on efforts and requiring more pressure and force to do what it’s usually good at – which is making things happen without tearing itself up trying to prove something. Power and power imbalances are obvious now. Know how to distinguish between quiet strength and quiet rage within yourself; They don’t have the same effect on your body and your health. These acrimonious ‘’feels’’ threaten to blind the vision, the aims, and the peace.
This New Moon brings fertile opportunities but care must be taken to plant seeds in soils that offer steady growth and longevity; not just hollow gratification. Invest your powers wisely not just to curse strangers on the internet or people who’ve hurt you.
The Goddess is near, waiting to hear your prayers.
Scorpio is one of the three Water signs and sometimes I say that Scorpio is like the Water sign of Cancer but on steroids. The intuitive and receptive qualities are so acute and so sharp that everything is experienced at a higher level of intensity, especially the things that affect the root and emotional centres. ”Feeling” power and power dynamics is second nature to Scorpio so the implications of relating are profound and the efforts to conceal are mostly self-protective although people often read that as manipulative. Scorpio is a very unconscious sign. It doesn’t lead with the head; it leads with the guts and the groin, and true motivations are often hidden, even from oneself, as one cannot reason with survival instinct.
Everyone wants to be a Scorpio when Halloween comes around. Being edgy and dark is trendy during that time of the year but the rest of the time, people don’t want to deal with the intensity and the implications of what it means to be fully involved in your desires because it doesn’t fit into a neat box and it can be really confronting to face ugly truths.
I’ve been calling the upcoming Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio on May 5th: The Purging of Poisons. It takes place in the middle Decan of Scorpio, which is the most fixated place of the zodiac, the end of the Via Combusta, and relates to the transmutation of toxicity, toxic states and self-destructive tendencies, into power. This is also a South Node Eclipse which is more about letting go and being receptive to the spiritual lessons contained in the darker aspects of your story and what you keep hidden from yourself. There is a need to live life more profoundly now and the things that have gotten in the way, stuck, static, and stagnant are being purged in exchange for a more meaningful ways of being. Trust the process. Don’t resist it. It’s ok to be sad after making the right decision or while moving through a difficult process. The underbelly of life is death, and death is inevitable but there’s power in flow.
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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.”
In many cultural traditions from the past, there seem to be an important link between sound and eclipses and more extensively, ”evil spirits” and noise making.
The word charivari refers to the derisive cacophony made at night in traditional European cultures. Banging of pans, cauldrons and so on in front of the houses of people suspected of love-making in scandalous, incestuous circumstances. This noise making tactic has been compared to the din made traditionally by people in many parts of the world.
This may also be related to beliefs that a dragon or monster is about to devour the heavenly bodies and to make sufficient noise to discourage the monster of excessive intimacy with the Sun or Moon. Should a celestial monster intervene in the natural cycle of day and night by eating the Full Moon, there is then a danger of a gap opening up the sequence so that unless something is done, darkness would alternate with darkness.
‘’If you say this to me many times, you will observe all things growing dark, For the curved bulk of the heavens disappears and the stars do not shine; the light of the Moon is hidden and the Earth does not stand steady.’
Chaldean Oracles Fragment 147 (The Epiphany of Hekate)
Mercury stations retrograde in Taurus in the later part of April, just as Eclipse Season begins. No need to worry about it but it’s always best to plan accordingly which is something Mercury in Taurus is generally good for.
Mercury entered the sign of Taurus on April 3rd and will enter Gemini on June 11th. Mercury enters its shadow* on April 7th *where it will station direct on May 15th but won’t turn retrograde until the 21st of April.
If you have major moves to make, contracts to sign, or purchase to make, best to make them during the first week of April or wait til the later part of May.
Otherwise, lots can be done while Mercury is in Taurus, even during its retrograde which should be especially good for restructuring basics in your life, prepping gardens, managing available resources, renovating and getting your hands dirty although things may progress more slowly than anticipated. (There is such a thing as Taurus rhythm so take heed!)
On a mundane level we are almost guaranteed to see themes related to money, investments, food security, resources and the fear of scarcity take the forefront in the next few months especially with Mars in Cancer. We may be prompted to assess resources well into the month of May and it’s a good time to work on your garden, rethink expanses, DE-HOARD and manage your assets.
To understand how this retrograde may show up for you, look to the house where Taurus sits in your chart and more extensively the houses that Mercury rules (Gemini and Virgo) If you are born with Mercury in the first 15 degrees of Taurus, this retrograde will be more significant and if you are born with Mercury retrograde in your birth chart, this period may be more progressive for you!
The Sun entered Aries on the 20th and the New Moon in Aries occurred a day later on the 21st being an important astrological time-stamp or marker for the renewal that is flowing through the world and through our lives at this time.
There has been a lot going on astrologically, so much so that it’s almost too confusing to try and delineate it all, especially amidst the astrological noise that has taken over social media now that everyone speaks astrology.
Saturn entered Pisces on the 7th of March lifting the heavy vibes that had befallen us all since 2020 while Saturn was transiting in Aquarius; a sign in which Saturn is extremely strong which is not necessarily a good thing. But we’ve learned some hard lessons and our eyes got opened in many ways which is why Saturn is a great teacher in the end. Now we are all collectively excited to find our groove and blood flow again while moving from scenarios and patterns that are stagnating.
Saturn in Pisces until 2025 definitely brings a lot more fluidity but it is still Saturn, and for those of you with important Gemini/Pisces/Virgo/Sagittarius placements – you will most likely be called to sharpen your skills and refine your boundaries at some point during this transit lasting two years.
Mars which has been in Gemini since last August finally exits this dual sign that brought some paralysis by analysis, and way too much intellectual chatter, especially during its 2.5-month-long retrograde which ended mid-January. Mars enters the sign of Cancer on the 25th of March where it is way more irritable and emo but at this point, I think we are ready for the shift although Mars in Cancer is likely to bring different kinds of problematics in the world at large at least.
Pluto leaves Capricorn tomorrow to enter the sign of Aquarius for the next 20 years. You will see a LOT of delineations about this ingress but keep in mind that Pluto is an outer planet; a slow-moving, generational planet which means that its impact is long-lasting but usually more obvious in retrospect. It will also be back in Capricorn later this year and officially re-enter Aquarius in November 2024.
There is a lot of change in the air so give yourself the time to process these changes somatically. Aries season is perfect for reconnecting with your intuition, and your body and not overthinking things too much.
Saturn transiting in Aquarius since 2020 ushered us into a 200-year Air period cycle which is determined by Jupiter and Saturn only forming their conjunctions in Air signs for the next 200 years. Jupiter and Saturn met in the Air sign of Libra in 1980-81 and Air Period themes have to a certain extent been permeating the cultural landscape for a long time. However it wasn’t until December 20th, 2020 when Saturn and Jupiter met in Aquarius that the Air Triplicity shift ”officially” occurred.
We now have fully exited a 200 year Earth Period Cycle and although the last two years were very static (thanks to Saturn transiting in the Fixed sign of Aquarius) they also served as a quantum portal into new ways of being in the world.
We are still humans with all of our human complexities, however we may very well be on our way of becoming very different humans on a biological and energetic level. What we ingest has been changing us in unexpected ways and as we move forward, reality may not work exactly as it did before. We have been initiated into an Air paradigm, foreign to your grand-parents, your great grand-parents and the archaic crumbling hierarchical structures that run our societies. There is still much to discover about this Air period and how it works and we can only speculate on the extent of the changes upon us especially in regards to technology, our ‘‘natural humanness”, and how these two things combined are shaping our future. There is no reason to fear or resist these changes and yet we may have to be more deliberate with our consciousness and where we invest our attention as we move forward. I believe many of us are coming to grips with that realization especially as it relates to social media and the impact of technology on our bodies.
”In a sense, what’s happening is that the unconscious mind is a luxury the human species cannot afford at this point in our dilemma, and so the unconscious mind is simply rising into consciousness by being hardwired into this global infrastructure.”
–Terence McKenna
The Air signs (Aquarius, Gemini, Libra) are said to be conceptual, dynamic or ”yang”, relating more to the intellect and the realm of ideas. Air signs excel with abstractions, linking concepts into theories with the right amount of detachment to bring about objective visions and perspectives that functions better when applied to the whole as oppose to the individual level. The Air signs allows for the experience of abstract constructs, ideas and networks which means it also becomes much easier to reside within them. We have entered a space where multiplicity is part of the game and reality may be as malleable and multi-layered as what we focus our attention on. This is always the case but the Air period may emphasize consciousness in ways we have only dreamed of so far in our life time.
Our online experiences and personas are now overlapping with our everyday awareness in ways that are hard to observe consciously. It is becoming increasingly hard to know if our cravings and desires are arising from within or if they are subliminally suggested to us via our online experience; We are becoming hackable humans.
Technology is now overlapping with reality in ways that emphasize how our internal landscapes are projected onto material reality and how our experiences of so called ”reality” is reactive to our internal dialogues. Technology, your phone, your smart watch/home/car/fridge/vacuum, social media, the internet, is filling your awareness with more images and information than your mind could ever process consciously which blurs the lines between the material, the virtual, the conceptual and everything in-between. Our ability to communicate and share information with anyone instantly is also emphasizing our inherent interconnectedness and increasing the speed at which people experience psy phenomenons like telepathy, pre-cognition and apparent synchronicities. Even our experience of time is on the verge of changing, revealing itself to be non-linear in ways which are usually only theorized about but not necessarily experienced.
CAPRICORN SOLSTICE 2022
This upcoming Capricorn Season starting on Winter Solstice is ruled by Saturn in Aquarius and I think it will offer us important integrative moments in regards to the events of the past two years and allow us to catch our breath and root down more solidly before Saturn enters Pisces on March 7th, 2023 and more extensively before Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23rd, 2023 after having been in Capricorn since 2008!!
Pluto leaving Capricorn may also bring to a close an important chapter that began in your life around 2008. The ingress of Pluto into Aquarius is very much part of this larger Air Period shift we are moving through and although we will not be able to know in our life time the impact of this 200 year Air-cycle, Astrology allows us to speculate on some of the forms that could emerge that relates to the Air element, and what kind of societal and cultural shift we could expect. As of right now, it looks like some of these shifts may in part have to do with managing our consciousness while being augmented and influenced by technologies.
This year’s New Moon in Capricorn arrives on the 23rd of December, only a few days after Jupiter’s ingress into Aries on the 20th and the Sun’s entry into Capricorn on the 21st. The New Moon takes place in the very first degrees of Capricorn and forms a square to Jupiter in Aries; two Cardinal signs that bring extremely dynamic initiating powers to this lunation.
Mercury station retrograde in Capricorn on the 29th of December and Venus meets Pluto in Capricorn on New Year’s Day which may bring up some of the themes you were wrestling with last year at this time while Venus was moving retrograde in Capricorn. I do think that this particular Mercury retrograde in Capricorn (29th of December to January 18th, 2023) could offer much needed integration in preparation for the important changes coming in 2023. It will get increasingly easier to let go of things that have been hard to dislodge in the past two years and 2023 will bring some important astrological shifts starting in March 2023.
To be continued….
”There is no contradiction between technology and spirit. There is no contradiction between the search for intellectual integration and understanding and the psychedelic experience. There is no contradiction between ultra-advanced hyper-spacial cyber culture and Paleolithic archaic culture. We have come to the end of our sojourn in matter. We have come to the end of our separateness.”
The Mutable signs are lit up right now with the Sun, Mercury and Venus transiting in Sagittarius. Mars is moving retrograde in the opposite sign of Gemini creating a push and pull between the philosophical and the tangential. Gemini is ruled by communication planet Mercury and therefore Mars in Gemini is currently ruled by Mercury transiting in its opposite sign of Sagittarius. The Gemini/Sagittarius axis is illuminating the dilemma between superficial information absorbed and regurgitated in bite size pieces versus the wisdom acquired through lived experience. It’s emphasizing the disparity between what you hope for and what you have to change to get there.
It’s not that one sign is better than the other as they both represent opposite ends of a spectrum in all their intertwined complexities. Example: Gemini rules the telephone you are holding and the social media platform you are using to read this while Sagittarius rules the wisdom and perspective gained from the information you read. Both signs are quite curious and verbose either way so lots of big ideas, important conversations around meaning and purpose could be taking place.
Jupiter rules the sign of Sagittarius and is transiting in its nocturnal home of Pisces and has the final say on the planets transiting in Sagittarius which brings good faith, hope and perspective on our current predicament. However it doesn’t mean that it’s easy.
We may be looking for more meaning and substance while growing tired of the superficial aspects of existence monopolizing our attention. How many check points do you really have to go through before you get to the Holy Grail?
Mars currently moving retrograde in Gemini highlights the hamster wheel you may be caught in and although it may feel like you are gaining traction are you really advancing? Jupiter is saying YES. Keep faith.
The emphasis on the Mutable signs means that we are moving from one state to a yet unknown next state. This is a transitional phase that requires us to juggle various contradictions within ourselves, modes of being in the world and hopes we have while trying to find more cohesion in our actions for the next leg of our journey.
Collectively, we have been moving from the Earth period into the Air period and Pluto entering Aquarius in March 2023 will really emphasize this. Technology is taking over our lives and consciousness and we must re-assess what we are doing. It’s a slippery slope and we have to align thoughts and actions accordingly as we move forward.
“The public and private worlds are inseparably connected … the tyrannies and servilities of one are the tyrannies and servilities of the other.”-Virginia Woolf
Messenger planet Mercury is currently transiting in the last decan of Cancer and comes into a superior conjunction with the Sun today at 15:37pm EST.
This brief moment is known as a ‘’Cazimi’’ (from the Arabic word kasmimi) when a planet is said to be ‘’in the heart of the Sun’’ or within 16’ of longitude (16 arc minutes) from the Sun and is thought to bring illumination or clarity as Mercury speaks from the solar throne.
Since this conjunction is taking place in the sign of Cancer, the realization that come to you at this time may have an emotional/intuitive/creative/fertile undertow and have to do with what you need to feel nourished and wealthy on an emotional/spiritual/physiological/environmental but also collective level not only to survive but also to THRIVE.
Patterns of stagnation that relates to your emotional wellbeing are offered opportunities to flow now as stale fixated ways are dislodged.
Things that happened to you in-utero or when you were a small child still informs your ways of being in the world and this is some of what the Moon-ruled sign of Cancer relates to.
This brief aspect will have different degrees of importance and meaning depending on where Cancer is located in your birth chart and if you have any planets on the Cardinal axis (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn)
You can also look to where the Moon is located in your chart and the aspects it receives from other planets to gain a greater understanding of the ways in which you may have experienced nurturing as a child and the ways you go about fulfilling your needs.
There are no good or bad Moon signs fyi. The symbols in the birth charts represents dynamics at play and I have seen thriving Scorpio Moons and emotionally dysfunctional Cancer Moons. You are born within the patterns of a certain moment in time which is represented by your birth chart. The dynamics at work in your life and what feels familiar and intimate for you may be foreign to someone else. A greater understanding of your Moon sign, placement and aspects can allow you to find more ease for its expression and nurture yourself and others in the ways that feels the most fluid and integrative for you. I call it ‘’breastfeeding your Moon’’.
Albert Aublet (1851–1938), Selene (1880), oil on canvas, 144.1 x 115.5 cm, location not known. Wikimedia Commons.
This week’s astrology highlights the transitional period we find ourselves in and the bigger tectonic shifts occurring in our world which is reflected by the movement of the planets.
There are a lot of overlapping aspects some of which have to do with the past and some which are a preview of things to come in the near future.
On a mundane level, the Full Moon in Capricorn sheds light on the old systems and societal constructs which have been on their way out for quite some time and slowly being replaced by the promise of the 200 year Air period which is upon us.
It would be too simplistic to isolate this Full Moon in Capricorn as being only relevant for this week, when we are amidst such foundational changes on a collective level. Things may look the same but deep down you may feel yourself, your priorities, and the world around you changing in surprising ways.
Pluto, planet of underworld transformation, has been traveling in Capricorn since 2008 and is about to enter the Air sign of Aquarius in the Spring of 2023. Pluto in Capricorn has done a fine job of exposing corrupt structures, especially since it came into a conjunction with Saturn in January of 2020 which saw the culmination of power-grabbing corporations hijacking the collective into a forced big-pharma coup, while shepherding consciousness into a collective virtual hallucination in order to contain, monitor, and profit from the masses.
Being ruled by Saturn, Capricorn has a lot to do with reality and accountability. Things are the way they are because x,y,z whether you like it or not. You can get with the program or you can move deeper into the hallucination while being coddled by ‘’The Powers that be Inc.’’
Saturn is currently transiting in Aquarius which is paving the way for Pluto’s entry next year into the sign of the Water Bearer. We are getting a glimpse of what it means to be moving through a triplicity shift (Earth to Air period) interacting with artificial intelligence and absorbing information and knowledge at an increasingly rapid pace. Our lives are being augmented by the quick synapses of AI, while we are coming to grasp with the deeper implications of the planned obsolescence of consumer culture and the industrialization of our food and nature.
The Full Moon in Capricorn sheds light on these themes as we slowly extricate ourselves from the dreams of our predecessors which held the suburban-nuclear-family-two-car-driveway-retirement-fund fantasy as the peak of success.
Chiron in Aries is a big player in the current astrology and offers healing, especially where you may have felt castrated out of your will and personal autonomy. It is not so much about giving up or being a victim but more so about surrendering to the pain in order to understand where it is coming from. Take your deepest dissatisfactions, frustrations and lay them in front of you. What are they made of? What is it trying to show you? Where is your power resting? Is it in your hands? Who is doing the dreaming?
Venus in Gemini forms a trine with Saturn in Aquarius while also squaring Neptune in Pisces. We can grow and benefit from the connections we make in the virtual world but the virtual world can easily become more real than the real world. We are walking a fine line between thinking that we are in control versus being influenced by things that bypass our conscious awareness. Where we focus our attention has never been so convoluted. Our body cannot differentiate between the experiences of the virtual world versus the experiences of the real world. We are saying goodbye to a way of being while thinking ourselves into the multiplicity of this 200 year Air period with all that it entails. Can you keep up?
Uranus in Taurus is and will continue to be activated in the weeks to come urging us out of our familiar comfort zone, prompting us to push on the boundaries of what we think is possible. If you feel compelled to think outside of the box, you are on the right track! The power is in your hands or is it?
“Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coersion, brainwashing, and manipulation.” ― Terence McKenna
The week began with Mercury in Aquarius meeting the Sun which marks the half way point of its retrograde cycle. Mercury’s inferior conjunction with the Sun can represent a time of illumination and breakthroughs. You may be able to get back to an idea that started to emerge in mid-January or at least gain some traction with your thinking. Stay aligned with what your intuition is telling you.
Mercury in Aquarius is also applying to square Mars in Taurus, exact on Wednesday. The square between Mercury rx and Mars can bring arguments or tense situations to surface. Mercury square Mars can also be associated with rash thinking or jumping to conclusion too quickly. You may want things to happen faster than they can or be caught between what you want to do, versus what is possible which can feel frustrating. Much of the astrology of this whole year is about applying the right kind of pressure for things to evolve while also being aware of the breaking point. We also have to keep in mind that Mercury is still retrograde until the 20th.
The New Moon in Aquarius takes place on Thursday for a total of six planets transiting in Aquarius. The New Moon is a time of inception and with six planets in Aquarius, there is a lot of momentum available, especially in connection with the house where Aquarius sits in your chart. Just keep in mind that it will take time and probably some mental gymnastic to get where you want to go. Be open to changing your perception. You may also feel like you need more space than usual to process your thoughts and do your own thing, just don’t shut down people entirely as we truly need each other more than ever in order to create smaller networks of people who can provide each other with different services. We won’t be able to depend on the big corporation monopolizing the world right now and keep our autonomy simultaneously. Lets support the people as much as we can.
Venus conjunct Jupiter on Thursday morning which could help smooth out recent tensions you may have experienced. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter can be harmonizing and bring the optimism we need to believe that things will all work out in the end. The Moon enters Pisces on Friday and could even magnify the conjunction of the two benefic planets, bringing some smooth sailing into the weekend.
The Sun enters Aquarius on Tuesday and the First Quarter Moon in Taurus arrives on Wednesday triggering the Mars/Uranus conjunction which is exact Wednesday evening in the East. We can expect this First Quarter Moon to highlight inherent tensions that have been building up since the end of 2020.
We are being challenged by the new forms and awareness emerging and it may be nearly impossible to reconcile our budding desires with our immediate restrictions at this time while we try to give our visions and obligations equal importance.You can look at the areas where Aquarius and Taurus sits in your chart to gain some perspective. Uranus in Taurus is pushing for new forms to emerge which requires freedom, independence and/or total liberation from the old forms, while the hyper-emphasis in Aquarius (because of Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Mercury and soon Venus all in Aquarius) highlights where you may be feeling like you need a solid plan for things to improve. You may feel blocked by circumstances outside of your control or need to spend time carefully planning. Things will take time. This tension will continue to be felt for the rest of 2021 but may be more present heading into this super concentrated Aquarius season.
On Saturday, the Sun conjunct Saturn in Aquarius which carries a sobering or realistic tone after the explosive and less compromising aspects of mid-week. You may need to temper your momentum or desires to break free at the risk of having to take sobering remedial measures down the road. On the other hand, you may need to break free of what is restricting you in order to pursue or evolve out of a stale situation.
Mercury is preparing to turn retrograde in less than two weeks and already transiting on the degrees where it will be moving back in a few weeks meaning that what we are itching to get done now, may realistically take a bit longer or we may be forced to revise again later.
This is a time of innovation when we can start to conceptualise new ways of doing thing but we also do not have much leg room so we basically need to find innovative ways to get the spaciousness that we crave while patiently biding our time.
9th House 