MARS, god of war, retrograde in Virgo, sign of systems

Mars, mighty planet that faces the universe on the outside of the safety of earth's orbit, is our protector, our armor, our will and our blood.
The retrogrades of planets are the cycles of change, for good or for ill, they indicate the timing of fabulous shake-ups and brilliant solutions. This one should be mild, being in analytical, careful Virgo. However, Virgo rules all the things most important to our daily existence, like food, the making and growing of it; and health, the breakdowns and the healing places and people; and basically all systems. Oh yes, all the systems, clerical, electrical, digestive, and communicative. Whoops, that IS everything.
What we look for in Mars retrogrades is change. Fluctuations in all our systems will be a certain thing, and yet there will be many chances to solve problems. Mars rules action.Taking action in Virgo means fixing things and refining everything, making it work more efficiently. Retrograde, Mars gives us extra time to figure things out, go over it more than once. Take your time in the next several months. Mars is stationary from January 16 till the 21st, when it actually begins the backward orbit. It will go direct on April 11, and finish in Virgo in June.
In the sky, look for it rising in the East around midnight, a bright orange star centered on the horizon. Its retrograde lasts till April 11th, and it will hold that south eastern spot for the next 5 months.
This is also a dangerous planet. It was a Mars retrograde in fiery Sagittarius that brought us 9/11. It was retrograde on Bill Clinton's ascendant in Libra when he was set up for the impeachment trial. It rules anger, war, athletics, violence, machinery, tools, weapons, steel and iron... and men. All of those things will be evident in ordinary places. It is a time when new tools can be invented, or old griefs aired in odd ways. Take a second look at all temper tantrums, don't react in haste, and consider carefully what is offered during this phase. Check all the systems in your cars, trucks and vehicles. Machinery and fire in home situations should also be reviewed. Above all, realize that Retrogrades offer change, and change upsets the stability that was. It is a perfect time to activate change, experiment, and discover. Risks are not required, but risks in invention, thought and everyday systems will prove useful. Education is included in Virgo systems,so
dust off your ideas, and review and refresh your files. Back up all the computer systems. And get your flu shots.

2012 the end of times, the year ahead, Jupiter and Venus

So it is here at last. What is it in our human pessimism that so loves an end-of-the-world scenario? How many times since I have been an astrologer (since 1978) have I been asked if now is the end? Every year. So comes now an old piece of archaeological information that has swept the collective imagination. The world ends at the Winter Solstice of 2011? or of 2012?
All worlds end over and over. Our destructive seeds were born in us. The planet has been made and remade over billions of epochs that seemed important and ultimate in their height. Like us, now, we have reached an apex of civilization, and yet there is still country music. We are mired in our baseness after all.
In planetary positions, this is a year much like many others, not nearly so remarkable as the spring of 2011, and the great oppositions of Jupiter and Saturn which have been exact all of 2010 and 2011. Those oppositions were bound by the Pluto position at right angles in Capricorn, and every month was a perfect square completed by the Moon.
So far, the remarkable planets are the beautiful visibility of Great Jupiter, brightest it will be for the next 12 years. And of Venus, war planet of the Mayans as bright this January and February as she ever gets. Those glowing nighttime companions are our most beneficial planets, they should be a good omen for the year's beginning. Testing period comes in late January when Mars retrogrades in Virgo opposite the sun, and retrograding Mercury in Pisces. Look for health issues and the cyber war. So shore up your data, dust off the electric typewriters, and learn your account numbers again. This is a messy group in a messy arrangement, and has little to do with the Mayan predictions other than showing how details can unravel a great set of systems.
Party like it's 2012!

Full Hunter's Moon, shiver in the October air...

The events of the Aries Spring, called Arab Spring in the history of 2011, is now six months fermented, and a new long look is taking place. There is still one planet left in volatile and fiery Aries, the planet of modern times, the planet of revolution, and of the quantum leap. Uranus, 84 years to go once around the sun entered Aries this year, and it will stay for a total of seven years in that sign. What ho, the new beginnings, the revolutions, and for what? For the embodiment of the Aries icon, the right of an individual to be a free person, with self-determination, identity, and free will.
The other icon of Aries is the uprushing life that begins in nature every spring. The "new beginning" has begun, we cannot recognize the planet we once knew, the systems that once ruled, nor the uses of all the people we have created. What are we here for? Ah,the old question has a new urgency, because all the old reasons--left. And heat? Oh, yes we are feeling the Cardinal sign of Fire. Global warming will go the quantum leap in this next seven years.
Here in October, we are Libra, the balancing, considering connection. Now the Sun and Mercury, and Venus and Mars sit with ancient Saturn, all together in Libra, our view across the solar system to Uranus. Jupiter is relatively close to Uranus, and is the mighty beacon we see rise in the east each night, brilliant and huge. Jupiter serves as a reminder that we are being watched, that the eyes of the one behold the all. Today the all are contemplating the one.
Take for guidance the rules of the equinoctial signs. Equal days and equal nights, beginnings of spring meet the results of fall, the farmer goes to market, the plantings now are reaped; the weighing and the price are being set. All must reckon with the urge that started us upon our current path. It is our turn as Americans, to look with awe at what our compatriots have rebelled for, the rights they are demanding are not ours to own, rather ours not to relinquish.
Jupiter resides in Taurus, sign of gold and earthy worth. What a time to have money, there are so many valuable things to own right now, and at such bargains. Gold is not a good deal right now, buy land is, and consider land that supports life.
Look to the money patterns. Consider Bitcoin, a new invention in a time of change, all cyber money, and all online,with no banks, and no government behind it. As the financial pages state, money is basically trust. Do you trust land, or dollars, yen or euros? Interesting that the sign Taurus rules trust, and of course banks and money, gold and gems, art and everything valuable. But we have to trust the appraiser, that what is valuable, is. Jupiter in Taurus, go outside and look to the east after 7pm.

Summer Mercury Retrograde, change of seasons, change of information

Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, is ever our stopwatch, our minute hand on the great clocks of the year. Just past the New Moon of Leo, comes a retrograde of Mercury in Leo. The face is rearranging itself, the King is subdued, the royalty fades while taking some much-needed spa time. Summer is feeling as if it is ending even tho the temperatures are sizzling, and the gardens are gasping. Mercury always changes our conscious sense of time, and its three (sometimes four) retrogrades a year are always the moments when we admit to our own shift in the seasons. Summer would have lingered had the retrograde been in late September. By-the-way, these cycles of Mercury are precise. Every 88 days it makes one orbit around the Sun, and so, from our perspective, looks as if it is traveling backwards, retrograding, in relationship to our orbit around the sun.
So, what happens now? Chill. above all stop, look, and listen. This is the left brain taking over. This brain is the one that is inclusive, pondering, sifting and the one that governs the musing side of our lives. Abandon the deadlines, (they will abandon you, anyway) and begin to catch up with what you need to do. Really catch up. Go back over territory recently excavated, what did you miss in your frenzy? Something worthwhile, you will find. Oh, and finding things? Long lost friends, items, news, and ideas are all brushing off the dust of time, and saying something very, very interesting.
This past week Mercury has been slowing down, things are starting to meet with obstacles, a reminder that life is putting the brakes on, just for a moment, but a necessary one. On Wednesday August 3rd, near 4am GMT, Mercury will begin its actual backward motion. Through this whole time, be receptive, know that you are a pawn in a bigger game, a player who must react, as well as act out. Let things come to you,
be a magnet and expect to hear what you did not expect. That is Mercury's other trick, the unveiling of opposites, the other point of view, the other side.
Not a good time to buy electronics, or send out new communiques. Is a great time to relax, take things in stride, and open up to contemplation.
Nature does have down times, and plenty of opportunities during this phase to do much good, just don't be in a hurry.
For one fourth of humanity, born during Mercury's retrograde phase, you will have an open field, can get so much done, and lead the confused to glory. While everyone else is missing meetings, forgetting their keys, and losing the addresses, You are signing deals, and grabbing slipping treasures out of distracted hands.
Mercury is the planet of details, of small things. When small hints are given, great news can be comprehended, but pay attention and make sure all the facts are in before you leap. Mercury is the trickster, the thief, and the messenger, give those three factors time to make sense. It will take about three weeks. Chill.

Full Buck Moon, The Great Grand Square of Planets, Investing in Change

Do we all watch the solar system in our heads, seeing the bright yellow star in the middle and getting very emotional as the group of planets moves into startling formations? Well, I do. And to look with your cosmic eyes would be this month to behold a rare and perfect geometric wonder.
Great Saturn, wild and crazy Uranus, mighty Pluto and the Solar disc itself are in a Square, each occupying a corner of the Cardinal Cross. The cardinal signs are the season changers, Summer and winter solstices, Cancer and Capricorn, and Spring and Fall Equinoxes, Aries and Libra.
These are the signs of leaders, of initiatory action, and violent change.
So what is happening to the world? The old is breaking apart , while the new has not been born yet. We are thinking about the next world, our future incarnations, and where our money will be launching the the next necessities. Energy is the wild card, the place of daring, and the next great fortunes. Electricity is everything, and oil has about 16 years left. Seriously, Neptune in Pisces has 16 years, then watch out--personal rockets, at least!
The Full Buck Moon of July brings the Moon and Pluto into conjunction, the combination of the personal and the shattering of the atom. We are personally feeling this nuclear meltdown this month, and the Full Moon is putting us all out at high tide, with only one oar to navigate the whole ocean. So it feels like. Still, it is also a kindly kiss from the god of hell, reminding us that we are always a part of change, and will grow because of it. Such a kiss.
Life favors the entrepreneurial now, as the next-big-thing is already in the minds of its creators. The future is not waiting for us, it is just bursting the old walls, cracking through the seams of out of date formations. Change your thinking about what is next, there is no going back, it is time to remember the excitement of invention and how awed we become watching lift-off.

Neptune, planet of generations

Great Neptune is the planet of the God of the Sea, and is one of the great trio of the Gods of Sea, Sky, and the Nether worlds, namely Poisidon, Zeus, and Hades. (Neptune, Jupiter, and Pluto)
This is the planet that ushered in the Age of Romanticism when it was discovered in 1846, among the stars of the constellation Aquarius. Curiously, that was only one orbit of Neptune ago. Takes 164 years to orbit the sun. Astrologers give Neptune jurisdiction over chemistry, music, religion, dreams, intuition, and high romance. It rules the sign Pisces of the rivers, the waterfalls and the two fish swimming in opposite directions.
In life, Neptune is our planet of illusions, film, glamor, magic,escapism, and deception. It rules liquids of all kinds, especially in their chemical functions and transmutations into other states. Oil is ruled by Neptune, and should be short-listed as the investment of choice. We could hope for a revival of musical creativity that would echo the music of the 1840's, that of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Brahms.
This period of time in philosophy was called the enlightenment, and yet much enslavement was also being promoted. Religion should be behaving very strongly through these next 16 years. Neptune is just exiting Aquarius, which has seen the rise of mega-churches, the loss of old traditions, and a great change in faith. What is next should be very, very intense.

The Worst of Times, and The Conceit of Facing The End of the World

"It is a form of vanity to imagine you are living in the worst of times--there have always been worse. In bad times and heavy seas, the natural fear is that things will get worse, and never better. It's a jolt to a Western, instinctively progressive mind, trained to think of history as ascendant--like the stock market, like housing prices--to find trends running in the other direction." Lance Morrow, from Smithsonian Magazine; June 2011 p 94.
These are not the worst of times. For instance, have we considered light, lately? Leave the city at night, go far into the country on a two lane road. Frighteningly, only your headlights penetrate a few yards ahead of you, and to the side...all the rest is pitch-black! The real nature of earth, is darkness. Well, we do have light, we have rescue teams, we have abundant, even if tainted, food and drink. We have too many of us, but at the same time, we no longer have conscription, or the rack. There is so much ease in our modern world, that our worst of times moments,like tornadoes and earthquakes, and lack of new industries, are so much more shocking because of all the comforts that we have made in our era. Who have we become, that we cannot make more? Or do it differently?
In all the yammering of the what-about-2012--there is nothing astrologically to show that anything will really be spectacular, will truly change, or will actually--end. Calendars cycle over and over, planets do too. Occasionally, they cluster all in one place, or scatter in random, or beautifully symmetrical patterns. The patterns are endless, yet don't end. They repeat. In takes thousands of years, or only six months for some of the repetitions, but they are there. So are we, repetitions and clusters and scatters. We cluster for common principles and goals, we scatter over the same things, but are we random? Do we, in fact, have value? or Values?
Coming out of the great Aries cluster of planets from the Spring of 2011, we enter a more random, typical phase in planets, where space is appearing between Venus and Mars, Jupiter and Uranus, the Sun and Moon. Those spaces are for breathing, observing, becoming calm after so much compressed energy. We can shake out our fears now, for a few months, as the buzzing of such proximity in protons releases its magnetic grasp; for isn't fear just pressure?
Where is life? Opportunity? Jobs?
The great conjunction was in the most eminently creative sign of the Zodiac.
The beginning one--only has one message--get going, move it out, start it up.
We missed the gold buying moments... that was when Saturn entered the sign of gold, in 2005! through 2007. Then, came the realization that we can't feed on gold, we have to make food. Saturn in the sign of agriculture, 2007-2009. And where are we now?
In relationship. Find your partners. Gold needs buyers, farmers need consumers, and all of us, must relate to each other. The Age of Aquarius is upon us,
not the worst of times, but a populous time. It will be ascending in order of friendliness. A friend for every whim, for every mood, for every dance. That is what too many people can bring.