The Aquarian New Moon and the Year of the Dragon

As we spoke about last week, we had the beginning of a Mars retrograde time period  (Jan 24th - April 14th) as the red planet is making an apparent slip backwards against the backdrop of the stars.  We also had a New Moon in Aquarius.  The Sun, the planet (not really) signifying our goals and purpose, unites with the Moon, the vehicle for expressing that purpose, and we get a monthly new beginning in the house or department of life in your chart ruled by Aquarius.  Aquarius is the sign ruled in part by Uranus, the planet that innovates, liberates, awakens us.  He was discovered in 1781 in time to influence our country's founding and the French Revolution.  Both events can be remembered as times of great chaos when the new was birthing with the old still holding on.

At this time we have both the sense that something new wants to be born in us, but as Mars is not on our side but creating headwinds that push against us the going seems to be tough.  One might say that the new beginning will have to be about going back to something we have done before, something we started last fall and have to redo or just a general lack of drive, courage and assertion.

But there is hope as this week also began the Chinese New Year and it is the Year of the Water Dragon.  I am not familiar with Chinese astrology but in my readings this week I am very impressed with the propitiousness of the Dragon.  He is the most fortunate of all the Chinese signs and bringer of great good fortune.  The Dragon brings four blessings: wealth, virtue, harmony and longevity, as he is mystical rather than earthy.  2012 is a Water year and will be the year that many dreams will come true at long last.

As we come to the end of the Mayan calendar (December 21st), we have also come to the end of a very long and very unfavorable 60 year cycle in Chinese astrology when luck was hard to come by.  Instead of stagnation, in this Water year ideas will flow, creativity abound, economies and love blossom, new leaders chosen and new choices made. There will be a huge serge in personal Chi or Qi with of course many upheavals, natural disasters and political and cultural developments.  But we have the opportunity to choose new leaders, as the way forward (after Mars is at our back), seems to be in reforming what community, nation and leadership look like.

source for the Chinese astrology:  www.ProAstro.com

Coming Attractions

It is always interesting to watch what happens in our lives when one of the personal planets changes its orientation to the Sun.  The personal planets symbolize affairs in our lives that we have control over (our thoughts, desires, actions).  Come 8:00 PM tomorrow night  it is Mars, the Roman god of war, that is doing the dance.

 Mars has been in Virgo since mid November and will not leave that sign until the July 4th weekend.  So instead of staying in one sign for 6 weeks, the planet of courage, will force, anger, strife, aggression, passion, spirit, wrath, rage, unconscious desire and conscious volition will stay for 8 months, as he will go back and forth over one area of the zodiac.  Mars is outside our orbit around the Sun. Every 26 months our Earth passes between Mars and the Sun and so it looks like he is going backwards or retrograde. Every 15 years he repeats the extra long passage in the same area of the zodiac, gradually moving backwards through the signs. It denotes a time when a change in orientation takes place in regards the "doing" in our lives.

Everyone has Virgo someplace in their horoscopes.  It can rule a department of life (or house), you can have it as your rising sign or culminating one, a planet or your Sun or Moon can be in the sign Virgo and therefore its symbolism will be important to you. Degrees count here too.  Today Mars is at 23 degrees and will go back to 3 degrees on April 14th, when he returns to apparent forward motion in the zodiac; that becomes the area of Virgo that will get crossed 3 times, giving us extra chances to align our passion and get it right.

Getting things right is what Virgo is good at.  Judging what job is important for us, what is important in our job, what is important for us in our health regime, in our diet, and in the rhythmn of our daily life. Virgo demands personal integrity.  If you are involved in affairs that are not truly representing who you are, Mars going retrograde will bring the urge to refrain from moving ahead.  Around March 4th when Earth passes exactly between Mars and the Sun we can expect to feel more connected to our true selves.

So anyone with a strong emphasis in Virgo, or the signs Mars has rulership over, Scorpio and Aries, is in the hot seat. (But remember some area of everyone's life will be affected by this passage). Mars did not have such a good reputation in mythology, always being on the scene when there was  trouble, violence and war.  There is a primitive aspect to Mars, acting without thinking of consequences for instance. At these times of his retrograde the consequences of our former actions come to the surface, or have to be revisited.

As Mars is blocked from having the freedom of outward expression he turns inward hypothetically and withdraws.   If someone you know has had an argument with another person, or someone you know has repressed aggression or unexpressed resentments, there can be an explosion of sorts as these repressed feelings come to the surface, creating socially awkward situations.   Or if Mars is retrograding in your 5th house of creative pursuits, for instance, you might go back to learning to play the piano, something begun earlier and forsaken.

I find it interesting that Newt Gingrich just won the South Carolina primary as Mars is at 23 Virgo. This station of Mars sets off his Full Moon birthday, his Sun and Moon-coming out into full light. Mars will be here again at the end of June igniting these same places.   It also hits the USA natal Neptune-where we do not see clearly;  and it also hits President Obama's natal Mars.  Mars puts fire in your belly, but for what is the question.  I doubt political affairs will be the same by then. Watch for it!!!

It's Official!!

The NY Times  had a piece last Thursday the 12th that reported on the results of the recent Pew Research Center poll.  About 2/3's of Americans now believe there are "strong conflicts" between rich and poor in the US.  This conflict now eclipses racial strife between immigrants and native born Americans as the source of our greatest  tension. The article continues to say that the message from the Occupy Wall Street movement "may be seeping into the national consciousness". In the last survey in 2009,  47 percent of Americans thought class inequality was the biggest conflict, with immigration being the biggest challenge.  The new survey represents a 50% increase in public opinion regarding the issues surrounding income inequality.

The  Sunday Times had a front page piece on who and where across the US the 1% represent.  In Stamford, Connecticut, for instance, you have to earn $908, 000 to be included in the local 1% ;  in  Jamestown NY earning $176,00 will get you into the local 1%.  There is a long and detailed exploration with maps of what professions and jobs the top earners have and where they live.

The discussion has entered into the political arena as well, with the Republicans arguing over whether Romney the millionaire, created or destroyed jobs in his tenure at Bain Capital.  Americans are beginning to understand that some of the policies that the Republicans advocate, dismantling regulations and unions and keeping taxes low for the wealthy are in part responsible for the growing divide of the rich and poor.  This awakening might affect the chance of a Republican win in November. The median income for top earners is soaring while that of the average household has declined.

My point in bringing all this to your attention is that whenever you hear it said that the Occupy Movement was a failure because they did not have a specific goal, leader or agenda, the Pew Center poll and the pages of the NY Times  are refuting that notion.  It has come to 2/3's of Americans attention, in part because of the Occupy Movement, that there is income inequality here in the US and that the trend is moving towards more of the same.  The question becomes what to do about it.

Bipolar America

Sunday's NY Times book review section reviewed 3 books that speak to the polarization in current American politics.  The Republicans are in the process of choosing a candidate, moderate or conservative? The thrust of the thinking is that our future depends on which person wins the election in November, that that person will make  a difference, and to some extent it does make a difference;  but there is another consideration that also must be taken into account.

The moment the incumbent takes the oath of office is a moment in time, unique as any other, and foretells the course of events in that administration for the next 4 years. Whether it is Obama or the current Republican front runner Romney, the next president will be greeted with affairs conditioning forward from the moment he says "I do".  The planets are in one position at noon on the 20th and keep moving to create new geometric patterns to each other. As they do so "stuff happens".  I will give you 2 examples.

As you may recall in Obama's swearing in-he and Chief Justice John Roberts messed things up and the swearing in was redone the next day.  The moon at noon on the 20th was 29 degrees and 45 minutes of Scorpio and termed "void of course" where it is making no more geometric relationships to other planets before moving in to the next sign. When we do things during these times, which occur for varying lengths of time, we often have to do things over, or those events do not have the intended outcomes.

On May 2nd last year Osama bin Laden was killed by a special forces unit commanded by President Obama, a signature moment for this administration, which we should see following on from the moment he took office. In the chart for the 1st oath, Mercury, the planet symbolizing the messenger, the Midheaven- public recognition and the Sun-the leader or goal of the administration were moving into a exact conjunction with the planet of luck and success, Jupiter.  On May 2nd this progression had moved to within 30 minutes to lucky Jupiter.  (Only the MC and the Sun made it-Mercury was moving backwards in the zodiac-and ran into the progressed Moon for the 2nd of May-part of the story).

Venus, the planet of satisfaction, also had moved to within 2 minutes of the planet of surprises, Uranus.  So pleasant surprises anticipated from the moment the oath was taken occurred with the coming to exactness.   Faster moving planets move towards slower moving ones and marry them for a minute before moving on.  The geometric aspects that are forming are more powerful than those separating and indicate events coming in the future, rather than those that have already occurred.  (One can also see the great polarization that has occurred these last 3 years symbolized by the opposition of the planet of conservatism, Saturn, facing off against the planet of the progressives, Uranus in the oath taking moment in time.)

So back to my original thought, whomever wins the November election has to contend with the moment in time he takes office.  Assuming that moment will be noon on the 20th, and setting up a chart for then we see the Moon in Taurus is  the people, the people's mood, coming quite quickly in time to a 90 degree aspect to Mars the planet of war, anger, energy, violence, aggression, very visible and working 100%. The Moon likes to be in Taurus so the public's values are noble but the move into Mars indicates action of some sort.     Instead of having the Sun, the leader, surrounded by the MC, Mercury, Jupiter, the North Node, which affords a great deal of protection, as we have in the 2009 Inauguration chart, we have an angry populace,  the South Node which symbolizes a letting go or sacrifice and the planet of success and protection, Jupiter, very weak.

There are other factors coming into play here in 2012 which we have spoken of before and will again.  But at this stage in our evolution it is wrong to think that we will have a knight in shining armor come and rescue us.  The man who becomes president in 2013 will have to contend with the destiny of the United States.  There is a change of consciousness taking place, here and all over the planet, although you will not see it if you are not looking for it.  (4 million Americans doing yoga in 2000, 20 million in 2007-NY Times).  As Sai Baba says:
Each thought, each emotion, each new awakening of a human being towards the consciousness of God elevates the vibration of the planet. This might seem a paradox, due to the fact that the majority sees around themselves more hatred and misery, but this is not so.