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

venus, on point[e] and a royal game for you

The Aries Point, that is --where the personal meets the political. This morning in the US Venus has crossed over and is now a 0+ degrees Aries --the Aries Point.

In fact the astro news this week is all about Mars turning direct just two degrees from an exactly 120 degree angle from its cohort and lover, Venus. These two are absolutely primed for spring break.

But back to Venus at 0+ degrees Aries.

Just as I'm typing this, NPR is airing a story of the role of women in today's Iraqi parliamentary elections. Apparently 25% of seats in the Iraqi parliament must be held by women; they're saying that's a legal quota that might, just might, change that country's marriage and divorce laws. Okay. That's a Aries Point story with a Venusian theme. So, too, are the courageous hearts of the Iraqi people defiantly showing up to vote despite some terrible bombing meant to scare them away from polling stations.

I'm calling this a reflection of the Aries Venus-Leo Mars trine right now. Throw in the Moon in Sagittarius --un-aspected to Mars and Venus, but in a fire sign, nonetheless-- and you got serious sympatico fire, folks. Very harmonious and ready to blaze.

A few minutes earlier, a different Venus showed up on NPR, the Venus of resources (money, in this instance): Icelanders voted to reject the terms of bank bailout repayment. 

Several Icelandic banks collapsed in the fall of 2008, most notably an Internet bank called Icesave, which offered high interest rates and was especially popular in Britain and the Netherlands. When Icesave collapsed, the British and the Dutch governments compensated their angry savers to prevent riots on their own streets, but then billed Iceland for that compensation. The government in Reykjavik agreed to pay, prompting a citizen's rebellion that culminated in Saturday's referendum — the first in Iceland's modern history.

Again, the fire: No way, Jose!

Election days are solidly Aries Point activity. The Aries Point reminds us these moments have far-reaching consequences. Or will have as we approach the big Jupiter-Uranus conjunction at 0+ Aries this June 8th.

Here, it feels a lot like early spring fever. Even with the ever-present wind, we can feel a little warmth coming through and that's making a lot of people happier. 

There's no such thing as second place when you're dealing with fire energy, so don't expect folks to go cowering into a corner in the coming days. It doesn't have to be combative energy, though. It could be unspecified enthusiasm that misses the mark. Or, you could have a raging case of retrograde Mars that can't wait for the brake to release. Or you just be horny. It's nearly spring, after all.

Mark this feeling the next few days, and note what's setting off your own internal fires. This will be Clue 1 and Clue 2 about what Mars in Leo is teaching you this year.

And if that advice isn't specific enough for you, try this little mind game: If you were King/Queen of [insert name]-land, what would you decree?

RULES OF THE GAME:

1. You may not make decrees for anyone else. The rules are only for YOU. Again, this is all about you, not anyone or anything else. You lose the game if your decree is about controlling anything or anyone outside of yourself. Game Over. Bonk!

2. The decrees are just for you. If you do this in the right spirit, you'll find you're giving yourself permission to just be you.

3. They must be positive statements: "I decree that second helpings of mashed potatoes are good for me."

4. They must be personal statements: "Dang, I've got gorgeous legs!"

5: They must be specific: "I decree that I need one hour of playtime every day."

So. How 'bout it? What do you decree in the Land of Me?

Returning soon with the Mars goes direct (takes the brake off) report...

Photo: AFP.

Illustration: Kevin Woodson.

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

venus-uranus humor

On the low end of the spectrum, I'm afraid --right down there with puns. But someone introduced me to this site this morning...and, well, I killed a couple of valuable brain cells there today.

So without further ado, I give you the Frieda Kahlo Uterine Plushie, straight from Regretsy, a website devoted to bad DIY craftiness found at Etsy.

(Whole website devoted to making fun of other websites! What a world...)

venus-uranus mash up

The mash-up is exact tomorrow at 11pm (ish). But the aspect is in play all week.

Piscesland is the time of the year where we're finishing stuff before the crocuses peep through the cold earth and suddenly we realize it's time for new beginnings. So we're finishing up. Not in the Virgoan efficiency expert way, but in the sense that "all is well with my soul". That's one potential of Pisces. 

So how does that play when Venus and Uranus hook up? Well, look around you. Uranus gives us the unexpected or innovative and Venus gives us benefits. Venus gives us love, money, companionship, attraction, social connections. This week can be all about unexpected Venusian benefits. 

Apart from my weekend Full Moon bingle, here are some more Venus-Uranus reports from friends. One has clearly fallen in love, or found a primo job (I got a text, but no details), another got an unexpected invitation to a great concert after a couple of months of social isolation and a bit of depression, another person's terrible diagnosis turned out to be false...a woman got a better than expected bid on a project.

Have you had an unexpected "all is well with my soul" moment this week? If you haven't, are you open to it? More specifically, is there some fear that holds you back for saying somewhere in your heart that "all is well"? Venus wants to give us gifts but we don't have to accept them. And why not? Do we think we don't deserve good things? If so, you might want to track that idea down to its source. Because everyone deserves a little Venus in their life. Another possible blind spot: Pisces potential is so slippery, perhaps the goodness is too light, too nebulous, too lark-y to qualify for your definition of "well". Could that be the case?

Please don't pass up this opportunity to admit something good into your life. Uranus will be in and out of late Pisces territory until March of 2011, but Venus won't be back here with him. In fact, Uranus won't be in Pisces again until 2087, so unless you're planning to live for another 75 years, this is it, folks.

In the immediate future, this week presents a chance to feel and act on something you'll carry with you into the summer when that impulse will take on a life force of it's own. Maybe it's a feeling, maybe it's a knowing, maybe it's a truth you finally acknowledge. Whatever it is, this week will remind you (if you let it) that life is not over, beauty is still yours, something good is at hand, and love can still find some way into your world.

go blow your horn

This Wednesday we have a lot of inspiring, exploring action in the sky. Aquarian Neptune and Chiron are in an exact (to the minute) conjunction, and a Pisces Venus and Jupiter are still hand in hand. Mars has moved past that strange but productive Dreamtime Yod, and the Moon is now in action oriented Aries ready to do something about the lessons we've discovered over the past two weeks.

Go blow your horn today. Where, when, or with whom is your choice. Blow it fortissimo or pianissimo. Just find the tune inside you and let it fly.

renounce

Today Venus and Jupiter hold hands together at 7 degrees Pisces. The image for that degree shows a wooden cross thrown upon a rocky shore; the key word is "renunciation". Oh, joy. This, on the eve of Ash Wednesday and Lent.

But this brings to mind a conversation I had with a client a couple of weeks ago. We were doing my usual thing at the beginning of a consultation, which is to review a few dates that usually turn out to have significance to the client. I'm almost always impressed with what folks tell me, but this one was a particularly fun moment:

"So what was going on in your life in '68/'69?"

"Oh. Well. That was my first year in college and --oh, my god. That was the year I had a vision of St. Francis of Assisi! It was amazing; I'll never forget it. He was holding out his arms wide and looking at me with those intense, dark, iconic eyes, saying, 'Renounce! Renounce! Renounce!' It was terrifying. And I thought, 'What's St. Francis doing in the dorm room of a nice Jewish girl like me?"

We both crack up.

"And that was before the sex and the drugs! I didn't have anything to renounce!"

We crack up again.

"But you know, we were really into Marxism and the idea of violent revolution and 'the struggle' in those days, and St. Francis did give up his wealth to help the poor, I know."

Days later it occurred to me some sort of conflation was possibly going on there, in my head or hers. Renouncing isn't the same as denouncing. What students were doing back then was denouncing a system and a set of values they felt was invalid, in fact harmful to ordinary people. Denouncing is a kind of shaming, though. It assumes an act of judgment and engages the element it judges. We march in the streets and pull down the posters and paraphernalia of the corrupt element. We shake our fists and shout. We recognize our anger and make it plain to the world.

Renouncing, however, turns away from the object it no longer values. Call it a judgment, if you want, but renunciation's power lies in disengagement. We slough off the element like brushing away dead skin cells to let our bodies breathe again. Turn away. Turn to different work, different feelings, different people. Renunciation simply says, "I don't need this anymore."

"Making one's own wounds a source of healing . . . does not call for a sharing of superficial personal pains but for a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition." - Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer

Today is not a day to debate the efficacy and place for denunciation vs. renunciation. We're in Piscesland right now, and this is renunciation's territory. It's a day for letting one's own pain and suffering rise from the depth of your human condition --and then letting it drift away. Pisces has the blessed gift of simply swimming away into the starry midnight ocean of Forever, forgetting entirely what the argument was about in the first place.

Those of us who like things defined and settled tend to find this annoying. But, you know, the indefinite void of Forever and Forgotten is a different sort of definition. It's definitely gone, gone, gone. Whatever it was. I can go with that settlement.

If you could say, "I don't need this anymore" about something today, what would it be? And then what would it take for you to allow it to go away forever and ever? If ever there was a day you could take a breath and turn away from that unhelpful, entangling or toxic thought, emotion, person, or behavior, this is a good day to do it.

And don't forget: nature does abhorr a vacuum, so fill that new empty spot. Pisces lets things drift into our lives as much as it lets stuff drift away. Likely there's something very good and positive at hand in your life right now. You know what it is. If it's good, don't let it drift by on this stream. Reach out and grab it today.

Poster: Zefferelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon , the 1972 film about Francis of Assisi (for you, S.)

the february 13th aquarius new moon: It's a little crazy, but it's a start...

New Moon on Saturday, February 13th!

I'm having a hard time putting this New Moon into words. New Moons are about new starts, but this one is a little strange.

First off, whatever life innovation is in your sights --health, home, family, love, work, creativity-- gets a big Cosmic Kiss this coming week. If you're willing to experiment, do. Listen to what you've been learning about your personal preferences; you'll know what step to take.

So here's my visual summation --Captain Kirk in tights. The theme? It's a little crazy, but it's a start.

Kirk here has got the vibe. Easy into the change. Sometimes just the toe shoes and tights are all you need. You know, dress up a bit and then go hang out on the Bridge. See how others respond to you. See how the tights feel. It's just a dress rehearsal for this part of the New You. Experiment.

With Valentine's stuff all wrapped up in this astrology, you might have a relationship question on deck now. My answer: Yes, as long as you keep yourself honest.

This means, primarily, honesty about your attraction to the Other and honestly about your devotion to a New You. Since October (even more since late December) Leo's been teaching us a lot about what our hearts really want and what truly inspires us. Don't deny that or distort that. This is a rehearsal for new directions. Be clear about keeping the conversation open and the intentions on the surface. There's a little bit o' Instant Karma coming this summer, so play nice and you'll like life a lot more come August.

For everyone: We've got 3 more months of Leo Mars, so more ideas are on the way. Focus on the experimental nature of the moment. Imagination and a playful Piscean kookiness will keep all the tete-a-tetes on the right waves length.

You know it sounds crazy, but it is a start...

venus enters pisces today

Attraction shifts today. Venus has broken from the Aquarian pack and is now drifting toward her date with that dreamy Pisces Jupiter Sunday.

Pisces disentangles things and gives us the broad view of life. If anything, you might be feeling disoriented...drifting. Jupiter in Pisces gives us a big, big canvas for our imaginations. What Venus will do with that canvas largely depends on your ability to imagine.

What if? is the question now. It's not an intellectual concern.

Venus meets her frenemy.

One thing your inner neurotic's got right these days is that some of your so-called "friends" are not friends at all. Problem is, our standards for friendships these days are reeeeeeeall sketchy. Planned obsolescence comes to mind, actually. It works for cars, but that kind of disposability was never intended for human relationships.

I'm not against social networking. This is not a rant against social networking, because it's kind of a requirement these days. But really --no one wants even a Facebook friend who's there 'cause they want you to buy their tea tree oil soap.

But today is a good day for noting how and why we connect with others.

Today Venus meets her frenemy, Nessus. Nessus is actually everyone's frenemy. Don't know Nessus? He's a player in astrology these days.

Nessus is a centaur who's basic story goes like this: he had the hots for a taken woman and gave her ride; but he made a pass at her (which, depending on the story did or did not go well) and then gave her a jacket as some swag for her guy, saying he was sorry and this jacket here will make him look better than ever. Turns out, the jacket was poisoned. Nice. Girl looses her guy from the poisoned jacket.

Nessus stands in for the people, circumstances and ideas who appear to help us, but don't. There's always some boundary crosses, some promise broken. And then they hand us poison and say they're sorry. Nessus' brand of backstabbing is subtle and often confusing. It's a sick head game because whatever happens, we feel as if somehow we're the ones at fault. Maybe I shouldn't have taken that ride, says the rape victim. Maybe I shouldn't have trusted that old high school buddy and studied that investment plan harder...

Venus meets with Nessus today, at 17+ degrees Aquarius, and it's like an assignation after school at the local Quick Trip. Seventeen degrees Aquarius is a place with recent history: this is at the EXACT degree of the 2008 February 7th annular solar eclipse in Aquarius. On the 2008 February 7th eclipse, Mercury sat on the eclipse degree. Pluto has just begun it's 15 year journey through Capricorn (exactly square the Aries Point). Put it together and you've got the first steps that will break up the old gang --allowing new friends (or a new milieu) in for the long haul. Something's started, you just don't know what.

This time (2010) we meet seventeen degrees Aquarius with Venus who's working a lot smarter and brought two friends along. Sure, Nessus her frienemy is there, but Venus was passing notes with Pallas today. Pallas is a smart girl, too, and she's got the dirt on Nessus. She know's his pattern. Haumea is Venus's friend today, too. She says, "Start over, girl. Shakes this one loose, coz who needs all that false guilt hanging on you?"

Think about it. How many times have we allowed a friend to take advantage of us and left us feeling WE did something wrong? Today's a good day to get clear about what really happened, or at least begin distancing your emotions from the entanglement. 

The Virgo Moon can give us some discrimination today. If you've got a bad vibe about a group or an association or friend --listen to it. Even if it's old history. Do you want to play into worn out patterns that haven't served you, or left you feeling used? On the other hand, maybe you played the Nessus. Maybe you need to think about what motivates your un-friendly sabotaging. Handed anyone poison recently because you couldn't handle your own dark self?

Because we've all got a little Nessus in us --the monster within who'd take an advantage and then freak out when we realize maybe we went too far with it. And then try to cover our tracks.

Frienemies make great sit-com plot characters, but there's nothing funny about them in real life. Today and this week, think about the behavior patterns of your friendship needs. Maybe you play victim AND perpetrator in your friendships. Even within your own self: how do you sabotage your own ideas and ideals? Are you overly accepting and undiscerning? Or are you too rigid and unable to receive what others offer you?

This week you might finally see what you couldn't admit before. Just don't forget Jupiter in Pisces --there's something very very good here if you want it. Do you want it?