Mars Retorgrade, lay down your weapons...

Warnings of strife are going out to everyone born in Leo and Aries! Mars, the ruddy warrior planet is in the sign Leo, appearing stationary in its orbit as seen and felt from Earth. The energy of this cycle is commonplace, Mars makes this retrograde motion every two years in its orbit around the Sun. While hovering on the 19th degree of Leo, the energy imparted to the world is a stillness, but with a violent undercurrent. Mars is the planet of energy, of will, of the way we face the world, and the physical application of our selves to life. Here is the planet of conception, birth, and the courage keep going. Athletes need a strong Mars, and in the charts of champions, Mars is always prominent. The glyph for Mars is the one universally used to denote male, and it is how we use the masculine kinetic outpouring of muscle and blood to situations.
Ambitions run through us in Mars fashion. Depending on the sign Mars was in when you were born, you have will that is aggressive, or cunning, or manipulative. But today, Mars is in full fire, having coursed through Leo since mid-October. Mars in Leo is the glint and glitter of Kings in arms, it operates through the Sun's own sign, and ignites the fires of the hearth and the furnace. Leo is not a war sign, but it is a sign of pride and glory--the so-called rewards of war.
All of us are in a kind of shock, as our efforts are meeting this month with the full stonewall, and resistance that won't reason or indicate a key. The key is silence, retreat, and acceptance. Energy is in a reverse mode now and receptivity is the magical solution. And Mars will be retrograde for the winter Olympics, meeting of the champions of Mars.

What the hell was that! Mars, planet of violence, speaks from the center of the Fire....

Our classic image of Mars is the Roman warrior dressed in the ultimate refinements of the gladiator. The planet Mars accompanies the sharp and momentous events of life. Here is our planet of war, of athletes, of blood, testosterone, iron, machinery, weapons, and violence. As of October of 2009, Mars has moved into Leo--the sign of the leaders, the Sun, the hearth and the light of the world.
From October to mid December Mars is going forth with the tools of Leo, pride, show, expression, and magnanimity. In the sky it appears by 9pm, in the southwest, a ruddy amber glow which will grow in brilliance through the next several months. Because its retrograde is a perceived motion and measurement from our relative motion here on earth, it is an unusual and disturbing phenomena to see a planet hold still in the sky and hover in the same place every night. On the eve of the Winter Solstice, December 21st, Mars will actually travel backward in its orbit, until March 10th when it comes back into forward motion in the early degrees of Leo.
For all Leos and Mars-ruled Aries and Scorpios, this time is dangerous. It carries a warning of change. But not the kind of change that can be controlled, the kind of change that hits you; stops you and requires surrender. Surrender to what? Well, life. Become a listener, a user of the second wave of natural motion. Think before you act, and maybe stall the action for a few months. Be careful around fire, machinery, knives, guns, autos, trucks, and sharp objects. Sex is ruled by Mars, and this is a different kind of sexual energy, stay in the good and true, avoid the twisted and shadowy.
The whole world feels these planetary changes and people and earth creatures are responding to the Mars cycle of backwards motion, in definite but varied ways. Look for sudden reversals of action, of intentions, and of promises. Avoid forcing issues, because they will break--irreparably. Use the Mars retrograde as a time of rest and reconsideration, a time to polish the tools, and catch up with the real work which is the inner work of the truth and of the heart. The test is to take action to a new refinement, and it will require our whole concentration.

The Great Shift of 09--All Hallows Saturn--moves to Libra

History is made when Saturn arrives to crystallize and give form to the issues of the sign Saturn passes through. Think of your life in cycles of 29.4 years, or 30, to make it simpler. Each one of those periods marks one orbit of Saturn around the Sun. This week, coincidentally enough on the feast day of All Saints, Saturn will leave Virgo and enter Libra, the great Cardinal sign of Air, keeper of the Autumnal Equinox, the high holy days and New Year of many cultures and religions.
Libra is the seventh sign, the furthest we can go from the beginning sign of Aries. Its symbol is the Omega, the opposite of the Alpha of Aries. The Omega is also the sundown, the finishing of the promise of dawn.
Its symbol is a pair of Scales, held by a balance beam. As this sign is placed at the end of harvest, Virgo, when all life is sustained by what is gathered at the end of the growing cycle, the Scales come into service to balance, and evaluate. The Day of Atonement is in Libra, where we behold the great relationship--ourselves to the almighty. This is one of the first religious moments in human development, where we realize that there is something beyond our immediate shelter, something that is the world itself. The not me.

Ancient Egyptian Goddess Maat held a scales that weighed the human heart against a feather. The afterlife conditions were decided from that balance.
Libra in the chart rules the 7th house, the place of marriage and our most characteristic needs and desires around our personal alliances. Of the three conditions of human interaction, this is the strongest one. We live in tribes (Gemini), we are part of a world of humanity (Aquarius), as the other two Air signs illustrate. These are inevitable conditions of being born, but Libra is the one conscious place where our choice of humanity is based on our own individual identity.
Even in arranged marriages, the identities of the two--much influenced by rank and family-- still are considered in a one-on-one consideration.
Symbolically, Libra is the dividing line between the separate individual with all its talents, values, point of view, feelings, and inclinations-- and the outer world. The outer six signs, starting with Libra connect us to society, to others, the outside world, other peoples power and money, the places and teachings of the whole world and the tools to connect in the most extended manner.
Here are the cycles of living that move our lives along without our own initiative.
We may create the resume, but it is only the receiving of it that moves our life to the next step. Libra is the action of them, not I.

Being born in Libra gives orientation to everyone else. One's own inner self is seen and regarded through the eyes, opinions, needs, and lives of others. To find the focal point of the Libra ego, it lies in the refraction of self to the other, or the outer thing. All Libra persons, and Libra rising persons will be much affected by events while Saturn is in this sign. Saturn rules mastery, truth, duty, responsibility, law, structure, careers, fathers, bosses and the things that have authority over us. The result of this cycle will bring truth in relationships, which for Libra is truth in self.
For everyone in the world, relationships and our identities through relationships are the emphasis facing us right now. We are seeing all around us with unveiled eyes. We are seeing the other person's reason, and our own obtuseness where others are concerned. Watch the global relationships. Alliances are changing, partners are shifting, deals are coming apart and finding new connectors. Make choices because of relationships, because of justice, and because of who you most belong to. This time is not about things, it is about relationships. In every sense all our relationships are being reviewed now. What formed us, what did we think was supposed to happen when we hooked up, how did we form that conception, misconception. What relationships were easy, who were not? Whose fault was that? Time to honestly and openly review the whole roster of what makes each of us relate and want to belong. The guiding truth of the next two years lies in our relationships.
What is not as important as who. Who's on first? Who. What has definitely moved to second. Who is on first.

Winter Solstice 2008 -- Sun and Pluto Conjunction

When a great planet conjoins the Sun at the time of the Winter Solstice, astrologers regard this as a definite omen for the year ahead. This year, for the first time in over two centuries, Pluto and the Sun were at the zero degree of Capricorn, which marks the center of our Galaxy, on December 22nd, 2008.
The Winter Solstice is the day of the year that lines up the Earth, the Sun and the center of our solar system, the first degree of Capricorn, the Galactic Center. The Winter Solstice can be traced as a definite point in the awareness of every culture that has occupied our earth. It is more noticeable than the Summer Solstice, because the winter light is so absolutely dim, that the dwindling of daylight and its following increase are dramatic. Practices of capturing light and fire are legion in the rituals used at this moment in our earthly calendar. This annual return of the Sun (or Son) has been a basis for much religious teaching and fervor for thousands of years.
The faster planets, Venus and Mercury, are never far from the sun, and several times a year will occupy the same degree as the sun. They are not often conjoined though at the solstice. The winter solstice marks a very specific place, so more than the planet's orbit plays into its probable meeting on the Winter or the Summer Solstice. The mathematics of planet/sun conjunctions are simple in terms of planet cycles and the sun's yearly travel through the Zodiac. But using a certain degree in the 360 circle to match a planet and the sun, requires additional considerations. The most predictable conjunctions are the rarest ones, and those are with the century planets, the outer three: Uranus (84 years) Neptune (164 years) and Pluto (248 years). In the rare times when one of the outer, slower planets makes this conjunction, great and all-encompassing occurrences are expected. How great will be according to the nature of the planet conjoining the sun. In 1988 the planet of communication, electricity and epidemics, Uranus, was at its closest sun conjuction on December 20th. The epidemic of AIDS was recognized and the world wide web of communication began. Neptune, the planet of chemistry and spiritual awareness made a solstice/sun conjunction in 1983. Not again until 2147. A rise in fundamentalism in world religions has been observed, as well as a few of our fossil fuel dilemmas, notice also, changes in genetic engineering and agriculture.
The outer three planets have been oddly close to each other in these times of ours, and that in itself is the making of a grand marker of destiny to live through such a concentration of such mighty forces. Electricity, Chemistry, and Atomic Energy were discovered as each of these planets were "discovered" in the recent centuries. So in 2008, as we look forward to our great year ahead, no less than Pluto the God of death and rebirth is our talisman and our icon.

The nature of Greek Hades, or Roman Pluto was to be the God of the Underworld. This power is the one that understands death, and the most revolutionary kind of change. We found Pluto the year we smashed the first atom, in 1933. Pluto has ushered in the atomic age. In watching this planet of transformation through history, or in my lifetime, I have seen it travel over each degree of the sky bringing experiences of complete change. Whether it is a solar degree, representing a self, or a Mars degree representing a car, or a Moon degree representing your mother, the effect of this planet is to destroy the old form and bring in a new one. Well, yes. It is a matter of degree, after all. So interesting, isn't it? that the by-word for 08 was Change. The same universe informs us all. The idea of "Change" certainly is cosmically delineated by Pluto's position this year. In the chart of the USA this degree is the cusp of our 8th House, the house of other people's money. Or the power of money as it is shared, traded, and connected. What are the odds, we wonder, that such a grand degree of the Zodiac, the Galactic Center would live in the nativity of the US, on the place of playing with money. Think back to the last time Pluto was here--December 18, 1760--fun times in the colonies, and mad about taxes.
Pluto's conjunction with the Sun this past Winter Solstice of 2008, represents a financial remaking of world equity. What backs the currencies has changed, often in a thousand years, but recently we have seen gold, silver and oil be our security.
That is over now, and we are watching the chaos as the new power to finance the whole world, is found. We are sure that everyone will agree and cooperate. Hades would want us to.