A Personal Taurean Story

In case any one missed the blog I wrote for The Mountain Astrologer Magazine last week about what having Taurus rising means to me currently I am putting the link here.  My sister Mary writes, edits and monitors their weekly blog posts which are terrific.  http://mountainastrologer.com/tma/a-personal-taurus-report

One Last Mars/ Neptune Reminder

People are always coming up to me and repeating what I told them, "Things will get better after Mars moves ahead again, right?"  "Yes" I say, but the question becomes," better for what?"  Mars stationed  last Friday the 13th at 3 degrees of Virgo, looked across the zodiac and  planet Neptune was staring back from 3 degrees of Pisces.  This means several things to a person interested in using astrology to move in concert with the times.

One is that any action we take from now until March 2014, the next station of Mars, will have to incorporate all that Neptune signifies. Neptune is the planet of spirituality, self sacrifice, dreams, false hopes, visions and artistic pursuits. There will have to be a spiritual or artistic component to our actions in order to be completely authentic, unless we succumb to Neptune's illusionistic tendencies (always possible).

If you are designing a health regime (Mars in Virgo) for your self, you will be motivated more from a spiritual place, that is to rid the body of toxins (Neptune), or gain more clarity (clearer visions). Yoga is a perfect Mars/ Neptune pursuit.  If you are pursuing a new creative endeavor, activities such as writing poetry, playing an instrument, starting an art class or joining a choir are perfect. If you are involved in work and an opportunity take on a new altruistic cause is presented that too is supported.  Any activity that needs a meditative focus (including meditation itself of course) or involves self sacrifice for the good of someone else is highly recommended.

It is also interesting to witness the events in the outer world that materialize over the time span that Mars and Neptune are conversing.  Last weekend was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic;  the media was full of all the heartbreaking stories and scandals. If the You Tube videos, "Why They Sunk the Titanic" that astrologer Erik Francis brought to my attention, are to be believed it was actually her sister ship the Olympic that went down.  This is one of many mysteries surrounding the Mars/ Neptune event;  Mars (accidents, activity) and Neptune (oceans, sacrifice/ loss, frauds). We were enthralled in remembering that tragic event this past weekend as Mars and Neptune opposed one another in the sky.

Another event in the news this weekend was the Columbia women/Secret Service Presidential advance men alleged sex (Mars) Neptune (scandal). After a dispute over money, the participants turned the party into a scandal, which made headlines.  It is also in the news that our soldiers (Mars) coming back from the Middle East since 2007 are reporting a 35% increase in the number of psychological problems (Neptune). The VA has to hire more professionals to heal (Mars) the sick (Neptune).

From my own life, I went to the movies last night and saw "The Way" with Martin Sheen. A father takes his son's ashes to finish the 1,000 km walk (Mars) from southern France to the Cathedral Santigo de Compostela  in northern Spain to come to terms with the meaning (Neptune) of life his son had chosen.  It was a spiritual journey.  (Mars/Neptune).

One last thought-both planets are moving slowly so we have many examples from life of some of the many possible manifestations.  Please do not feel if you have not already decided upon your own spiritual journey, that you have missed the boat (Mars/ Neptune). Neptune has a way of making us indecisive as to what action to take. You have from now until March 2014 to come up with something.   If you do want to start this month -best advice- wait until Saturday when the New Moon occurs at 3:20 AM EDT.  Always better to begin any new adventure after the Sun and Moon have married, and the tide is with us.

Mid April

Seems like there is a lot going on-just past the Full Moon when things come to a head. Did you notice how bright the Full Moon was, and how big she looked?  That is because this Full Moon coincided with the Moon's perigee, that is closest pass with the earth. This past Full Moon, the one May 5th (especially) and the Full Moon in June will coincide with the Moon passing quite close to us. It is not unusual for the Moon to pass close to the earth, but it is not often that perigees coincide with Full Moons. We know that the Moon and Sun's gravitational pull affects the tides on the earth. A correspondence has been observed between the Sun/Moon placement, either at New or Full Moon, combined with perigee and earthquakes. The news of  one in Indonesia Wednesday and another in Mexico City yesterday is not altogether unexpected. We can anticipate news of others occurring at the next 2 Full Moons unfortunately as well.

This week has us coming off of a Mercury station.  I view these times when Mercury is apparently at  standstill as excellent times for me to standstill too. From the 31st of March until 10th of April the messenger of the gods only traveled 2 degrees.  Mercury's normal speed is over a degree a day.  So if you have noticed that things have been a little stuck lately, this will change.  Mercury affairs (buying, selling, writing, traveling) will start to pick up again especially by Monday the 16th in the afternoon, when he moves back into fast paced Aries-good bye dreamy Pisces.

A good lesson about the potential of what can happen in a retrograde period is the Martin/Zimmerman case in Florida. The shooting occurred February 26th, just as Mercury was stationing to go retrograde. It took 6 weeks until Mercury was going forward at that same degree for charges to be filed.  This is a very sad example of what can happen between the beginning and end of a Mercury retrograde cycle. Decisions made at first had to be rethought, with a different outcome by the end of the cycle.

Next we have planet Pluto stationing last Tuesday the 10th.  Pluto, the god of the underworld, or Hindu Lord Shiva, the creator and destroyer, has come to call.  Anyone born around October 2nd, March 30th, July 1st, and December 31st, any year, are already feeling the effects. There are others too, but you would have to know more details about your natal chart to know if you are having a Pluto transit.  You cannot miss it-if you are having one, as Pluto is not mild or subtle. Either you have to go with someone into the dark side or will be taken there yourself.  There is a sense with a Pluto transit that your basic survival is at stake.

The changes can come via a new person coming into your life or departing, or a situation or circumstance that has the same effect. Pluto rules the death of the old and birth of the new, demands complete honesty, and often gets us entangled in power struggles. Pluto will stay at 9 Capricorn for 3 months now through
the end of May. However, all that is being created and/or destroyed in your life will not be completely known until the end of 2013, when the transformation will be complete. There is a long grinding evolutionary process taking place. Then Pluto moves further along in Capricorn to bother other birthdays.

There's more this week with Mars stationing tonight at 11:53 PM EDT, but it will have to wait until next time.-maybe tomorrow..

Standstill

For the first time since I began writing this blog, today I felt at a standstill  about what to write.  Usually I have one or more ready ideas that just flow out .  But today I am stuck. Then as I am an astrologer, or cycles scientist as I have started to call myself,  I decided to find the meaning of this inertia in the movements (or lack thereof) of the planets.

When I look in the ephemeris I see both Mercury and Mars apparently slowing down to the place in the zodiac where they each will go forward.  Mercury is beginning to station at 24 degrees of Pisces today, will  move forward on the 4th, staying at 24 and 25 degrees until the 12th of April when he gets to 26.  These next 2 weeks are the standstill part of the cycle known as a station.  A station is where a bus or train is parked and does not move.  So with the planets.  Mercury rules communications, travel, writing, negotiating, contracting, selling, talking, moving from place to place and thinking. Mercury was the swift messenger of the gods.  His natural speed is over 1 degree a day when he is in top form, where he likes to be.

With Mercury's speed being slow, ours words and movements are apt to be slow to non existent.  Why? Well we are picking up information from one spot in the zodiac. Pisces is the sign of the poet and musician and dreamer.  The information gained from Pisces is of the more subtle kind;  seeing visions or images while walking, or listening to music, or evoked by feelings. If those 2 degrees of Pisces are important to you as seen in your natal chart, then this time can be quite significant in identifying an aspect of your self that you might have glossed over when Mercury is at the faster speed.  The dreamlike quality we are experiencing now will disappear, as Mercury slowly  picks up speed and returns to the sign Aries on the16th of April. So enjoy it while it lasts and don't try too hard to fight the natural course of things.

The same is true for Mars.  He is backing into 4 degrees of Virgo now, will gradually back into 3 Virgo, station there, and begin to move forward on Saturday the14th.  Mars does not get to 5 degrees until the last day of April.  This is another case of a planet at a station. Our energy, will and drive is at a standstill.  We might have a newly formed plan to fix an old unresolved issue with a male friend, or health regime program  that we have been wanting to try, but there has likely been little or no will force available to make it happen.  
Such is the case of the cycles of the planets.  Knowing what they are doing is meant to be an aid to us;  not as the cause of our adventures or misadventures, but as markers of phases of time.

Toward A Deeper Understanding of our Country

It has occurred to me lately that we can use this Mars retrograde time frame to help us understand these interesting times. In the chart we use for the birth of this nation on July 4th 1776, planet Mars is at 23 degrees of Gemini square the planet Neptune at 23 Virgo. Those 2 signs being mutable, that is those signs  that coincide with the change of seasons, means those 2 planets are at 90 degrees to one another.  Our planet of assertion and aggression and will forces will always have Neptune connected with it. Neptune symbolizes our delusions and idealizations that have no basis in reality. In the USA chart in August of 1995 planet Mars entered 18 degrees of Libra, became stationary within one minute from October 2004, turned apparent retrograde October 2007 and will not leave that one degree of the zodiac until April 2017, when it goes back to 17 degrees of Libra. That makes 22 years that the planet that symbolizes how we use our energy is in the same spot in the zodiac.  We are not moving forward.

As we are experiencing another time frame of Mars retrograde now, since January 24th, we can associate what we are going through now:  a lessening of energy and drive to move forward, initiatives started becoming mired in frustration and delay, old arguments and fights coming back to haunt us, becoming impatient and acting prematurely, with what is going on in our country in regards the use of the military.

In August of 1995 NATO began the bombing campaign of Serb artillery.  We began "Operation Enduring freedom" on October 7, 2001 when ground troops went into Afghanistan.  The 2nd Iraq war began March 20, 2003, with Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" on May 1st 2003 and the end of combat operations.  We know that that war did not end until Dec 18, 2011.  Each year that went by from October 2001 in Afghanistan through March 2003 into Iraq saw Mars slowing in speed and apparent direction as our troops got more and more bogged down.  October 2007 saw Bush asking Congress for 189 billion dollars to support the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, just as Mars was retrograding officially.

If we have any doubts about the effects of Mars retrograding in our country's chart we can look no farther than the 4th deployment Sargent who went from house to house on a killing spree in Afghanistan last week and the burning of the Koran by US soldier on February 20th.  These 2 grave acts of aggression occurred in the current Mars retrograde period starting January 24th,  directly at 23 Virgo right on top of our natal Neptune square Mars, the misuse or idealized use of aggression potential in our natal chart. We are in a critically dangerous period until Mars passes 23 Virgo again mid June.  We will also be in a critical period 6 months from now when our progressed Moon passes over that Mars.

So what can be the best outcome? We seriously need to consider alternative ways of solving problems other than invading foreign countries.  And when we consider that not only is Mars retrograde in the USA chart, causing us to reflect on the efficiency of our current use of force, but so are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn.  That makes 5 out of the possible 8 planets that can apparently go backwards are.  When they say we are a nation in decline that is why they say it. It is time for some self reflection.

What's Up???

I don't know about you but I didn't think things could slow down more than they already have with Mars in apparent slow motion, but now we have to add Mercury to the list of situations that coincide with stumbling blocks.  We look to the motion of the planets in signs as symbols, that give us meaning not causes, of the situations in our lives. As of tomorrow morning at 3:45 AM  Mercury, in the same degree of the zodiac since March 8th, will finally move from apparent standstill to apparent backwards motion. Astrology is about finding meaning in our lives, if one is interested that is.

The Mars retrograde period affects Scorpios and Aries individuals, making them less forceful and passionate in Scorpios case and less bossy with Aries.  When planet Mercury does its loop it affects Geminis and Virgos more strongly because they are ruled by him.   Mercury is apparently stopping at 6 Aries after having passed over the planet of upsets and surprise, Uranus, last week on the 5th.  Uranus is our planet symbolizing lightening strikes, sparks of genius, surprises, mental awakenings and lots of nervous energy.  The current retrograde motion of Mercury means that Mercury will back track and come back to Uranus again on the 18th-inciting that same nervous energy and then for a third time on April 22nd, after Mercury goes forward again on the 4th of April at 23 Pisces.  So watch  what happens in your life between now and the 22nd of April and see how your thinking has changed.

This will affect everybody in the part of your chart that holds 6 Aries to 23 Pisces.  Aries wants to start something and Pisces just wants to let things float and see what happens.  They are very different energies-but lie adjacent to each other.  Our need to be part of the collective in Pisces gives way to the Arian initiatives that are inspired by our Piscean meditations. Mercury as the messenger of the gods, is the only one who could leave Olympus and go into Hades and come back (very important!).  Therefore looking for symbolism-Mercury is going to bring up some new information that you might not have noticed before-or somebody kept hidden from you.  This will have to do with selling, buying, travelling,communicating, young people, teaching, learning, negotiating, thinking.  Do all projects with the words" re" in the beginning and finish up old projects before starting new ones.

One other thing-be sure to look up in the evening sky these nights and watch Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer together.  Venus is brighter and on the right.  Jupiter is on the left.  They will conjoin early morning on Thursday the 15th.  The combination can coincide with some over indulgence.  Venus is love and money and Jupiter is lots of it.  In spite of the fluctuations of Mars and Mercury, we will be able to focus in on our hearts desire and allowing for some extra time and renegotiating be rewarded with actually obtaining our hearts desires.
 

Mars Retrograde Halfway Point

We are at the halfway point in the apparent Mars retrograde cycle as the Earth in its orbit around the Sun is passing in front of Mars, which because it is moving at a slower speed, outside our orbit, is appearing to go backwards.  The phenomenon is very like two trains passing.  You are in one train that is moving quickly,  the one in the next track is moving more slowly and appears to be going backwards.  The Sun and Mars are in opposition, with the Earth in between. Mars is closer to us than in any other time in its orbit. This occurred Saturday at 3:10 PM.

We should be now having some sense of what this Mars cycle is about.  Of course for each of us it will be slightly different and affect different areas of our life, depending on which house or department of life is the Virgo house in our natal chart. If you happen to know that you will have an easier time reflecting.  You have until the July 4^th weekend to figure it out though, when Mars finally finishes with Virgo and moves into Libra.  By then it should be abundantly clear what area of your life has been reworked, even if you do not know what house is Virgo natally.  Frustrations, false starts and recommitments to doing things better will be noticeable after the almost 8 month sojourn (November 12^th-July 4^th) of Mars in Virgo.

The position of Mars helps us to understand what we should be noticing.  We have been talking about Mars and how our activities are in slow motion or so it seems. If the Sun represents our purpose, our goals and what we want to accomplish and Mars represents the will force that is needed to actualize that purpose then when Sun and Mars are in relationship, the job is easier.  If we feel like we have only been treading water since the end of January, that our actions were feeling fruitless, then this weekend is the time to begin to get clarity.  The time to actually move forward is not until after April 14^th, but realization of what the issues  are what it is we want to do about it should be coming now.

Mars rules our efforts and work, where we put our energy, and in Virgo demands that we are healthy and have integrity . We might be feeling that there is a new exercise, diet or health regime that we want to start but the will to go forward is lacking.  We will spend lots of time in the strategizing stage before actually committing, figuring the best way to make it work.  This is appropriate for this time.   Or we can be moving too aggressively in some direction and either our physical body is reacting or we are not getting a desired outcome. It is very unwise to initiate anything new now, as those affairs are likely to bring obstacles and challenges too great to overcome.  (The talk this weekend about Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear sites comes to mind-whoever initiates during a Mars retrograde cycle LOSES). But recommitting to projects already begun and editing them or revising them is appropriate.

The other situation which could arise now is being forced to rework some aggressive action that we took and that is coming back to haunt us so to speak.  We question..was that the best way to handle that situation? Is there another way to assert myself? Maybe a friend or colleague has reminded you of an old situation which is still not resolved satisfactorily.   Or you might become aware that you are still angry at someone and by becoming aware of it now can bring it to the surface and with some emotional detachment resolve it more satisfactorily. Mars retrograde periods can bring back these uncomfortable relationship issues and are excellent times for resolving longstanding disputes. Reviewing our behavior is called for now, our own actions, motivations or those with our sexual partners, fathers, husbands and all other males.