the weather inside me

go feather your nest

 It's nearly spring after all.

That nest could be your brain still coming off the Mars retrograde. Today may feel tense, but the cure has something to do with nests.

Venus and Pluto and Saturn form squares with one another today. On a chart this looks like the top end of a drafter's T-Square, which is what it's called --the T-square aspect. It also looks like a bow with it's string drawn back for maximum tension. So the experience could be tense, or intense.

We recommend looking at where the bow is aiming. Here, it's outlet is 5+ Cancer. The Sabian Symbol is "game birds feathering their nest". A lovely image for spring.

Venus-Pluto contacts can bring out the gamesman/powerplayer in us all, if we get hung up on winners and losers. If we can release the need to control the ball, we could find a deep surrender to something mysteriously transforming.

You don't have to be all "woo-woo" about this. Right now I'm facing a recalcitrant child with a secret agenda she won't reveal until we have a sit down with tub of cream top vanilla yogurt and the prospect of no computer access. This is the carrot (Venus) and stick (Saturn) approach so common to parents (Pluto --the prime mover) everywhere.

Of course, most of us aren't children and we need something less crude than yummy food and the threat of lost entertainment to get us motivated. But what is the motivation today? That'd be a good thing to know before you go into any negotiation.

Consider, then the game birds feathering their nests. No one's hunting them because this is home-building and security forming season. Time instead to soften the mood and deepen the feelings of purpose and place for the impending changes that will come soon enough.

Find a soft place, therefore. Add a little grace and charm to your surroundings, even if it's the simply the thoughts you surround yourself with. Relieve the me-you tension by taking the topic beyond the interpersonal. Send your need to change into your immediate surroundings and create a safe, comfortable spot for the people in your life today.

Top photo: Mamma Roots
Bottom illustration: The Paper Apartment

down and under with the scorpio moon

A couple of thoughts for this Scorpio Moon day.

"I think he knew that, through his own pain, his own suffering, his own anxiety, his own love, and his own journey, he could relate to people in an intimate way. . . . He was one of the most humble men I ever met and one of the men most tormented with anxiety. . . . At the same time he was one of the most confident men I ever met." - Brian Carroll, psychotherapist and former Franciscan priest

Anyone who's taken up the mantle of service to mankind inevitably hit an wall in their work. Perhaps it's mere enthusiasm that drove them to their cause, or perhaps they've had deeper, nobler inspirations for their work. However they're motivated, they sooner or later run into a massive obstruction that challenges everything they believed about their intentions and their purpose.

On one side of this wall is every belief they held about their skills, their competence, their experience and their flaws. On the other side of the wall is everything they don't know about everything. The wall itself is doubt, frustration, anger, incompetence, failure, fear, loss... I could go on. The important point is, the wall feels more like an insurmountable mountain, a Mount Everest of lost causes. 

Despite the Venus-Uranus bingle, many of us feel we're facing an insurmountable Mt. Everest of lost causes today. This is the feeling we can assume when a major planet like Uranus is lingering at the end of the sign Pisces.

Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, the Omega Point of the mandela. In the last degrees of Pisces we can get the feeling of things falling apart, the center can no longer hold. Something must die, must shift, must be cast out before we can start over again. With Uranus there, we can feel a tremendous urge to change. But Uranus energy is not consistent; what it wants one moment may not be what it wants the next. If we're not aware of it's push-pull tendencies and can't get perspective on the dynamic and the larger purpose of Uranus energy, it can feel like a visit to the grocery store with toddler hopped up on a bowl full of Fruit Loops. I want that! No, that! No, no, no! No say that!!!

Exhausting.

But if you can't take yourself home and solve the problem with a teddy bear and a nap, what do you do?

Reading a couple of weeks ago about Father Mychal Judge, I found the quotation above. I kept it; I don't know why. Perhaps for today. Who knows? Father Mychal was the first victim retrieved from the south tower collapse on 9/11, and according to the many stories I've read about him, he was an extraordinary ordinary man by any measurement. But I'll let you judge for yourself.

The quotation, however you think of its subject, suits a Scorpio Moon day like today. Father Mychal taught those who knew him there's a confidence that comes from knowing you have nothing left to lose. We usually learn this lesson from action heroes who, in a desperate leap of self-preservation and/or sacrifice, leap off a tall building or bust through a window and save the damsel in distress. Most of us gave up emulating action heroes long ago, though. And our heroism has long been replaced by doubt and fear. But Father Mychal's legacy suggests an alternative. Lingering here at the end of everything, we can surely find some strength in our doubts and fears.

Scorpio Moon doesn't scale mountains. Scorpio isn't an 'up and over' impulse, it's a 'down and under' strength. Scorpio Moon dives into the hidden stream that lies beneath the mountain of our frustration, and swims the depths of our unconscious fears to emerge on the other side of what we don't know. Scorpio gives us the will to explore what lies beneath the surface of everything.

Scorpio Moon will meet the Pisces Mercury, Sun, Venus and Uranus today and tomorrow --and share thoughts with Pluto in Capricorn, too. It's a co-mingling of emotional waters, running beneath the mountain that is this great shift in eras (Pluto in Capricorn). Some things are absolutely falling apart. What do you need to know about that? What don't you know yet? Where have you come to end of your confidence, creativity, assurance, skill, faith? What is your wall today?

Down and under...

Painting: G. Okoemova

Sculpture: "Hombre en llamas" Jason DeCaires Taylor, underwater sculpture

the story so far...the (long) late february 2010 overview

If you're just joining us, here’s a summary on the current long and mid-term astro scene:

Pluto-Saturn square: it’s still on --the hard realities, the call to courage, the fear, the projecting of shadows-- but Saturn’s moving back into the Virgo degrees, so we’re just getting a second look at relationship “stuff” that popped up since last October. Count it a second chance at important conversations and decisions.

Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius: the end of an era, or as Gawker proclaimed it, “The Fake Decade”. Finally, we're getting it. Chiron’s not done with his work here, but these past few weeks have certainly given me some unusual views into inconvenient “truths”. And talk about a wild dream life. Oy. I need a break.

Jupiter in Pisces: Connections, identifications, and professions with and of encouragement and hope are totally available if you want them. As are big creative possibilities. Can you be the bigger person? Sure you can. (As I type this, I’m listening to Alan Simpson joking it was time to hold hands and jump into the wine-dark sea --of the budget deficit. Poetic water imagery as political threat? Only with Pisces.)

Avoid the paranoid and the generally detached from reality. This is the dark side of Pisces and not a comment on Mr. Simpson. Uranus in Pisces (at the end of the sign, now at 25+ degrees), is pulling punches with those teetering on the edge of the Fear Abyss. A lot people are completely convinced this is the end of the world. No, it's just the end of the world as they know it, a fact that's microcosmically true every day of our lives. Still, we can't ignore the big, big challenges we face as a country. It's just that fear is not gonna get us closer to a sane deficit, safe highways, or decent health care for all.

On a related note: if you’re a Pisces or have personal planets in Pisces, take care with substances this year--right on down to caffeine, MSG, BHT and food coloring. I’m serious.

And finally, Mars, still retrograde in Leo: Mars is really slowing down now, and by the full moon on the 28th will have reached it’s retrograde direct degree. So if you feel some kind of gear grinding or stuckness, that would be Mars. Ditto big case of anticipation. This is all about going backstage and reworking your self image. (My original horoscopes on the retrograde are here and here.) What you're feeling could be a case of stage fright, or could be a case of retrenchment before the big advance come March. Circumstances vary.

If you know where Mars is passing through your chart, just ease up on yourself in that area. Strategize, visualize. Play with any new ideas that popped up with the Neptune/Chiron bingle last week AND the Full Moon in Leo in mid-January. What do you want to do with that new knowledge?

Strangely, if we’re not handling our own nervousness or irritation well, we seem to invite similarly nervous, irritating people into our lives. Not always true, but you could play with that idea and observe other people’s responses to your energy right now.

A note to men, or anyone who cares about a man: I'm not a guy, nor do I play one on TV, so I'm not gonna pretend I know what this feel like for you. My thoughts are based on my own reading, and the thoughts shared by men at other serious astrology forums.

Mars retrograde is especially challenging for men; after all, Mars is THE planet of the male impulse, the anima, the dude in you. Here’s the bottom line: the man in your life (could be you!) may or may not know what Mars retrograde is doing, but it's affecting him nonetheless --rearranging his ego, his self-image, his heart, his leadership instincts, his pride for his pride (or whatever substitutes for his creative output, progeny or no).

Mars retrograde is all backwards and inhibiting, frustrating and often confusing for many men. You could be angry, frustrated, scattered, inconsistent, or distant --really, really distant. Especially now as we approach the incredibly slow stationing direct motion. Imagine trying to save the damsel in distress who's stranded on the opposite side of a molasses pit. And the molasses pit is your expectations about what guys should do, could do, did do --starting with your dad and then every significant male authority figure you've known in your life. Now imagine how difficult this time could be if you never really had a solid male figure who taught you what to do when damsels lie on the other side of molasses pits. McGuyver never had it so bad. This "self" thing won't get fixed with a Leatherman, some chewing gum and three paper clips. Think about that for a moment.

If the man in your life doesn’t know what’s going on, or they’re resistant to introspection, you get a guy who needs to take on the world instead of himself. This might get internalized as heart problems; Leo rules the heart. As Leo practically grinds to a halt, Evan Bayh announced today that he’s lost heart in his work in the Senate and will retire. This is not good for the already straggling Democrat majority in the Senate.

The WORST example of this impulse also showed up in the news today: Andrew Stack, an enraged, suicidal man (badly managed Mars retrograde?) who’s sense of manhood and pride (Leo) was threatened by the limitations (Saturn) imposed by a government (Pluto in Capricorn) agency, the IRS, flew his personal airplane into an IRS office.

No doubt his actions were exacerbated by feelings of paranoia and doom emerging from those who’ve been embracing the end of the world (Uranus in Pisces) scenarios. He's not the first man who's wanted to take on the IRS with violence, but as we're revisiting a Saturn-Pluto alignment that last appeared fall of 2001, I'm saddened but not shocked that Stack chose to mimic the violence of that tragedy by flying his plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas. Note --this was his own Piper airplane, and thus, he was not one of the huddled masses spewing underclass resentment. This was a wealthy guy by any standard. Do you have Piper small craft docked in your local airport hanger?

On that note, I looked at Glenn Beck’s astrology last week. He’s got Venus at 29+ degrees Pisces, the last degree of the zodiac, aka, the end of the world (sort of). In short, he’s in love with the end of the world. Yes. Have a look at his wiki and you’ll see a guy obsessed with eschatology. We'll hear much more about his obsession come spring. Bank on it.

Sigh. So play safe out there folks. You don’t have to be paranoid. You don’t have to push people around. I know so many people who are experimenting with huge new possibilities for their lives. Really big thoughts. I've got one friend who was making good money as a black-jack dealer, but she's leaving the industry to work at a raw-food retreat. She'd been wanting to walk away, but it wasn't until she broke her wrist in four places over the January eclipse that the decision was forced on her. A break like that is a career ender for a card dealer. But the end didn't start there: as she became mentally and emotionally more stable, her tips took a nose dive and she knew why --unhealthy people only reward their own kind. She's a Cancer rising, so Leo is working through her second house of money and self-esteem.

If you're moving towards healthier self-esteem, know that some people will find this a turn-off and not know why. They would prefer you functioning as their food source for whatever emotional, financial, or practical service you give them. And you're gonna catch some flak for this. For my friend, this translated into lost income. If you're hanging with people who pay you for being as immature, selfish, and needy as they are, you're going to face a loss of something --a contract, a contact? Or you may face losing old friends. These are not easy losses at first because they represent an old image you've probably carried with you for years. But this whole year is forcing all of us to rethink the old ways. Those who refuse to change won't be any fun to hang with anyway. Keep that in mind as you grow and experiment with the new you.

The time is also exciting because it presents the kind of risks that demand truly creative thinking and not a little paradigm shifting/shattering going on in that mix. But the risk doesn’t disappear just because the adventure holds happy possibility. So compassion is very much in need right now, too. Compassion that entends both ways --to you and to those around you-- and patience.

In that spirit, I’m taking a few days off from this blog to address some work at my side. One project is a revamp of this site, another some notes for the upcoming NCGR conference...and then daily ephemera and sticky fingerprints that come with motherhood. I need to shift my focus for a bit. Maybe I'll actually go for a walk. What a thought.

I’ll be back before the Full Moon to talk about the Venus-Uranus conjunction and early March events.

Until then, have a visit with any of the forecasters on my link list. They’re good people who’ll be happy to serve your astro needs.

Ciao.

Art: lisacongdon.com

Photo: seattlepi.com

All other photos: Philippe Halsman

get out of your own way

I love this. Robert Wilkinson always pulls something good out for days like today.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.” --Goethe

Which is why we should never allow our limitations or fears to deflect us from a noble goal. You just never know what might happen if you get out of your own way....

Just what my incentive/disincentive dilemma tape needs to hear.

Art: Damien Hirst, The Dream

how astrology (almost) saved my sanity: the epilogue

Major transit periods like the one I experienced these past few years are complex, hairy-scary, and monumentally painful times. In fact, I had lived through something similar to this last period back in the mid-90's when Pluto was moving into Sagittarius. It was like a firestorm on top of an earthquake --as if I was running from flame to flame, never able to get my bearings. But I eventually found a foothold in life. I'm here, aren't I? I knew if I could make it through that storm, I'd make it through this storm, too.

This storm, however, had one difference, and that difference is difficult to articulate. But I'll try.

The difference was The Beloved. No, not the pixie dust dream man I had fashioned in my head. No, it was something deeper than that. Sometimes people come into your life and they challenge every assumption you held about yourself. These people do not have even have to be in your life. They can be characters from a novel, or a movie. Or they can be someone you read about or work with for a short time. In other words, you don't have to have an intimate relationship with this person to be affected by them.

But what these people offer is inspiration. Sometimes that inspiration makes no logical sense. I suppose that's why we call it inspiration --there's some spirit at work. That's Neptune, too. The best sort of Neptune.

I wanted to be a better person when I thought about this man, The Beloved. I still think of him this way, actually. Not because he is perfect. He is not perfect, and I don't think I ever completely saw him as such. But when I thought of him, I wanted something more for myself and I wanted to change. I was hungry, and in my obsession I nearly "ate" him, but was I really wanted was a taste of my true self. Some people do this to us. I think we can count ourselves a little bit blessed when we encounter someone who makes us want to be that better person, even if it at the time it feels a little bit like a curse.

About that time I also told a friend that I wanted to "find my voice". She didn't say it then, but she knew it: if I did find my voice, everything would change. And everything did change. Is still changing, in fact. All of this --the hunger for a true voice, the urge to become a better, a more whole person-- is the positive side of Pluto: the power to transform. Not superficial change, but the kind of change that rearranges you down to the cellular level.

And this is the fascinating thing about studying astrology --you get to see the contact points that speak to one another --between you and the moment, or between you and another human. You get to see the soul in process and the triggers that catalyze it's development. If we can sort out the different voices demanding their authority over the situation, then we can get to the business of growth and diminish some of the distractions. That's a gift.

As time passes, we encounter minor transits that trigger new points of personal growth built on the back of older, major transits. The lunar eclipse over New Year's is a good illustration: boom! I got hit with a sudden upsurge of neurotic-crazy making emotion I had to sort out quick-quick. With the lessons of the Pluto-Moon transit behind me, and a few rounds to my favorite astro sites for perspective, I got reoriented faster. Didn't make some of the dumber mistakes I indulged in the past. I'm growing.

So there you go. A little epilogue about my (nearly) lost sanity. Hope it helped.

how astrology (nearly) saved my sanity, pt.6: the pluto-moon crisis (for real)

"I don't want to be good; I want to be whole." Carl Jung

When your shocked shelf lands in your therapist's office, having not slept for two days and degenerated into a wasted wet mess, you are officially in a Crisis. But when your therapist smiles and says annoying things like "This is good," you are officially in the Pluto Crisis.

The Pluto Crisis doesn't come on with a bang. That's Uranus' style. No, Pluto is stealthy. Pluto has a long, long fuse before it goes 'boom'. And the crises comes when you stop trying to control what's happening to you and instead acknowledge your powerlessness over the transformation it's demanding. Pluto transits are non-optional, and it's better if you know that up front.

I explain it this way to some of my friends: it's like a Garden of Gesthemene experience; you get to say, "take this away, please, but if I have to, then it's thy will not my will." And they understand this image. Except they're picturing something pious and "pure" like this:

When the experience is a lot more like this.

Which is why most people freak out during Pluto transits.

Pluto transits are evolutionary. That's the goal, anyway. To evolve usually means taking a step up, becoming more conscious, more capable, less neurotic, more...together. Which is where Jung's idea comes in: not good, whole. Which means we've got to look at both the pretty and the unpretty parts of us.

The Pluto-Moon transit wants to evolve your emotional foundations --specifically your unconscious emotional foundations. Pluto-Moon transits will call into question everything we've assumed about our family of origin and every emotional "reality" we've attached to that experience.

The "Good" Person Dilemma.

Personally, I'm with Jesus on this score, "who is good but God?" Which means, none of us have got our act together. But we try anyway. We SO want to be "good" people and each of us inherit a set of expectations of what a "good" person is and does. Largely these are cultural/belief system templates overlaid upon our personalities for the benefit of simplifying our lives. Well, sort of. They solve certain problems of social identity but create other problems of individual identity. Later, we may jettison some of the family belief system model and adopt the "good person" model of our social group. But we never really let go of the whole original template, there are just more layers to our assumptions now. Pluto-Moon transits demand we get a new (hopefully) more healthy emotional foundation. Pluto-Moon transits force us to get to the bottom of the "good person" dilemma.

But before we're able to get closer to wholeness, we have to go collect the parts of us we've been shoving into the back closet of our minds. Think of it this way: our mind is a house full of stuff we've collected since childhood, but like our own homes, we prefer to show our guests the 'clean' rooms. It's bad form to look through someone's medicine cabinet or kitchen drawers, you know. But Pluto doesn't care. He comes in and slowly, gradually, determinedly pulls all the clutter from your mental closets and dumps every memory and detail in a heap before you.

full moon roar under the world tree

Full Moon this Saturday at 10+ Leo, opposed by Sun at 10+ Aquarius. Building now.

Leos everywhere will finally feel a return of the inner fire because this Full Moon is conjunct the current Mars back-peddling his way through Leo. That should feel good.

The rest of us? I think this is about connecting with your emotional intent. What's driving your motor right now? Full Moons push our emotions to the forefront, so look for signs of what emotional and ego needs are really driving your intentions. They probably deserve your attention. And under these aspect, they'll probably demand your attention.

Here's a little image for you. A very, very simple but common picture.

 Picture a woman (or a man) sitting in her 6x6 parcel of the cubicle farm. She's a devote employee (to the extent that anyone can be devoted to the act of pushing numbers from one column to another) and a she's accumulated 243 friends on Facebook (that Venus retrograde last spring brought out half her high school, you know), and life is pretty cool. She knows where she came from and she still remembers her college fight song, her first Sunday School teacher and the high school haunts. She's got her co-worker lunch posse now, and the co-ed volleyball team that plays most Saturdays. She feels like she belongs. This is Aquarian group energy.

And yet, and yet and yet... Something is missing. And that something has been missing for a year now, or more.

Maybe she feels as if she's drowning a little in the global internet collective. It's a big stream. So she's been hiding more friends on her Facebook account and paring down the notices. Maybe she wishes she could have gotten that award for Best Accountant last year. Maybe she wishes her credit card company would stop misspelling her name. Maybe she'd just like to go somewhere different for lunch AND not talk about Sex In The City for once. And maybe she's wondering what's so wrong with that, anyway?

What she wants is a little recognition. Strike that. She wants a LOT of recognition. Some genuine props, or at least an acknowledgment that she's a real person with a real heart and her own dreams, not just one of the herd. This is Mars in Leo roaring.

If the she is a "he" in this story, multiply this drive by about 5x.

So I'm here to ask you: What's driving you to distinguish yourself from the crowd? What would you do or say that says, "YOU"? How are you pushing yourself away from the standard practices of your friends? Your townies? You homies? Your FeeBees? What's driving you?

This weekend should give you both insight into and an a opportunity to express this. But, because we're working with fixed or consolidating energy, think carefully about what you're fixing in place --especially if you have planets or points in the first ten degrees of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo or Aquarius. These degrees will be most affected.

Len Wallick at Planet Waves makes this point:

The trick for each of us will be to see the distinction between legitimate issues of autonomy and arbitrary stubbornness. In turn, any group in question will be challenged to balance its standards of conduct to allow individual expression. The outcome will depend on how open the flow of communication will be. This aspect will flow into and become part of the more powerful aspects at the end of the week.

Saturn in Libra will square Pluto in Capricorn immediately after this Full Moon. This demands cooperation, an eye to fairness and awareness of the power you're brokering.

Air signs value ideas and communication. Libra and Aquarius are Air signs, which means five planets right now want to exchange ideas and communicate. Diplomacy and detachment are helpful right now because they're going to balance that big emotional fireball heading our way. If we get the balance right, we could probably negotiate the recognition and contribution our hearts really want this week.

Finally, the Sabian symbol for the Full Moon degree is about a child swinging under a well-established and sheltering tree. This is about open expression and having fun --like Leo's playfulness. It's also about the big tree that was once a little acorn. It's about legacies left for all of humanity --a very Aquarian theme.

Individual experience within a larger communal stewardship are what this Full Moon is about. What's your inner fire burning for? Where do you want to make this investment? And with whom? Are adjustments (Saturn/Pluto) needed? Choose the high road --oh please, oh please.

I end this post with a quotation from William Blackstone, whose Commentaries (published when Pluto was last in Capricorn 250 years ago) are the backbone of western jurisprudence:

The public good is in nothing more essentially interested than the protection of every individual's private rights.

That's a lifetime stewardship right there.

how astrology (nearly) saved my sanity, pt.5: the pluto moon transit mess

No major transit says, "Get thee to a therapist's office!" like the Pluto/Moon transit. Honestly. And if you're having one, I say find a good therapist and be quick about it, man.

Are you having one?

• If your Moon sign in is in the first 10 degrees of Capricorn, Aries, Cancer or Libra, you're having yours or about to have yours --by conjunction, square or opposition. Ditto the first 10 degrees of Taurus or Virgo --by trine.
• If you Moon sign is in the last 10 degrees of Sagittarius, Virgo, Pisces or Gemini, you probably already had one in the last five years --again by conjunction, square or opposition. Ditto the last 10 degrees of Aries, or Leo --also by trine.

That seems like a lot of people having Pluto/Moon transits, but when you consider that Pluto just changed signs for another 15 year cycle, more than the usual number of people have been affected by the Sagittarius to Capricorn sign change-up right now. The next fifteen years will affect cardinal moon signs and the earth sign moons predominately. (see your favorite astrologer to find out if/when you'll get the Pluto visit)

I always look to see what Pluto/Moon transits come up in a person's history, and you'd be surprised at how many people have not yet had one in their lifetime. On the other hand, I know a couple of people who've had 3 or 4 of these things, and you can be sure these folks know a thing or two about the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Seriously.

I've had a couple. The first, back in the mid-'80's, which was a hell on wheels nightmare, mostly because I was still a kid and had no control over my environment or the people in it. The second Pluto/Moon transit came in 2007-8. Yes, these are long transits.

Both totally rearranged my emotional foundations.

Sigh. And speaking of emotional foundations...I think this entry is best finished during the Cancer Moon --which will begin Wednesday. Not being superstitious here, but this Gemmy energy isn't conducive for depth-psych talk. Will expound on other, lighter topics today instead. 

Want to find your Moon sign? This great site will sort it out for you: Serennu.

Come back Wednesday for more Pluto mania.

eve of the new moon and where's my hobby horse?

As I type this, the Moon is exactly, and I mean exactly to the arc minute in full lip lock with Venus. Just a degree away from my Ascendant. How charming. Venus rising for me. No wonder I'm feeling the need to reach out from my self-imposed break from the world and touch someone. [wink] And no --I did not plan this. Synchronicity just kills me.

Ah, there she goes now, the Moon is separating...Adieu, sweet Moon! We'll meet again.

Really, if you've got a Mac, go get yourself an Io Sprite. It's a whole lot of fun watching this stuff in the sky do its thing, real time. Even on a cloudy night. Seeing how quickly the Moon moves, for instance, deeply impresses upon me the sensitivity and importance of the Moon's placement in any chart. With a toy like the Sprite you can finally see what astrologers mean when they call La Luna the second hand of the celestial clock.

Right now the Moon is at 17+ degrees Sagittarius, but by the time I have finished this paragraph it will have reached 18 degrees. Does that matter? For most, not really. What's one degree over another? But esoteric symbol systems like the Sabian images do count each degree has a distinct theme, so one degree's difference matters to them.

And because you asked, I'll tell you that this moon's Sabian symbol is about hobby horses. 

I like New Moons in Sagittarius because the sign implies new vistas, new horizons, new ideas. Fresh starts and newness everywhere! Sagittarius is not a backward looking sign at all. What happened in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas. In fact, by the time Sagittarius has made it to the plane, he's only thinking about his next adventure not the last one.

The hobby horse has multiple meanings. Some bawdy, some benign. Here, I think the Sabian interpretation emphasizes idealism and the practice that comes from working out your hopes and dreams with enthusiasm and joy. It's not nose-to-the-grindstone practice, but nose-almost-to-the-horizon practice. You know, practicing your galloping before someone hands you a real horse and saddle.

I've been thinking about this image all week. It's been a good week for me here at my friend's home in Chicago. We've had some good 'horizon' conversations about our futures, and the practical realities we're negotiating as parents.

The Venus trine Mars stuff all week has been brilliant for me, too. I'm not redefining the novel, but the words are coming quickly and my work has been very productive. And we've played theater a little, too. Not everything has happened as we'd planned, but I expected that. My host is a Fish --a Pisces girl. So she comes and she goes, we make plans and then everything goes sort of wonky and we rearrange them. But Fish are fabulous for letting you swim off for the day and not getting hung up about it. Loners like me do appreciate that; Fish folk do too.

This past day I've been particularly tired, something I've noticed at the end of dark moon phases. So it helps to have a friend who appreciates my need for alone time.

Mars is slowing down (which could account for some of my foot-dragging, too) all this week. So while New Moons imply new beginnings, Mars is about to turn retrograde. A Sun, New Moon and Mars all in fire signs is a recipe for hot enthusiasm, but your flame probably isn't so bright right now. So if you're feeling a bit low on fuel, it's not because you're already exhausted with the holidays. We'll see, but I think tomorrow you'll feel brighter. Enjoy the perk.

And about that perk: the New Moon is sextile the Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron connection in Aquarius. Lots of perkiness there. Or rather sparky thoughts. Insights, sudden vistas open when you thought some door was closed.

Think about the people you spend the most time with --or wish you spent the most time with. This is an Aquarius theme, and it's been running pretty hot since last January. Something's been shifting since then, and that something is your place in your crowd, your culture, your peeps, your milieu. Whatever it is, your relationship to the people who help you do "your thing" is shifting, and has been for a long time now. Part of this is because you are shifting. (This is Pluto work, which deserves a different entry.)

December's New Moon gives you potential to shift a lot more. It's likely a mental shift, but as I've come to learn, mental adjustments precede practical implementations, often by months and years. But it's important that you see the door that's open to you now. Likely some very different people are on the other side of that door. Note the opportunity and the people. Note what you think they mean to you now. Most of all, honor the far-sighted enthusiasm of Sagittarius in your personality. (It's in there somewhere.) You don't and can't have all the information you think you need now. There's a bit of "you've got to believe" in this moment, so keep an open hand and an open heart.

In the next couple of weeks we have some hot astrological action, and my chart is loaded with contact points this month. I'm wondering a lot about it myself, but for now I'm content to observe this new moon on it's own merits and think about my shifting future. 

Happy New Moon.

mercury into capricorn

Mercury moves into Capricorn today, squaring the Aries Point, and will pair up with Pluto on the same degree (2+ Capricorn) December 7th. Thus beginneth the Capricorn season.

We'll have about ten weeks of Capricorn thinking this year: Mercury goes retrograde the day after Christmas (aka Boxing Day) and then resumes its forward path January 15th where it will remain in Capricorn until February 10th. Ten weeks. Whew.

Soon each of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, the Sun and the Moon) will pass by Sir Pluto, pushing all our dear Cappy friends into new realms of selfhood. We Cappys are such Nervous Nellies and Pluto sitting in our sign for the next fourteen years will no doubt make us or break us, so be kind to our neuroses this holiday season. 

On the other hand, if you get rebuffed by a Cap, don't take it too hard. If they feel anything like me, they are so not into your games these days. Whatever games they are. Doesn't matter. Was having a laugh at myself after I realized Mercury had already moved into Capricorn because today I've noticed the shift in my approach to others right now: if you've got a serious offer or a legitimate/thoughtful plan, we'll talk; otherwise, I've got better things to do --and one of 'em is not you.

I know, hard core.

Still, there's that fishy/mystic interior life that Caps work so hard to hide. But with Mars still in Leo and Mercury now in your own house, any opportunity for self-expression won't go unnoticed these days. In fact, if you're a creative Cappy, I imagine these would be pretty fertile times for you.

So welcome, Mercury.

Sculpture: Max Ernst, "Capricorn" (1964).