Spreading Self-Knowledge through Astrology
If you’ll be in the Providence, RI area tomorrow (Thurs., May 18), consider treating yourself to a dose of art therapy with the Thrive Tribe. The theme for this burst of creativity will be “Serenity”…and who among us has too much of that available…??
Details can be found HERE.
If you’ll be in the Providence, RI area tomorrow, and you’ll have your lunch hour free, you might consider stopping by The Empowerment Factory in Pawtucket. I’ll be giving a FREE one-hour lesson on how to go about discovering what Astrology says about your own health profile.
I’ll be discussing which symbols in Astrology have the strongest ties to notions of health, and how to connect some of this up with your own unique birth-chart. I’ll also be touching on the sub-field of study known as Medical Astrology.
More information about the session can be found HERE.
This coming Wednesday, the Moon waxes full in the rather intense realm of Scorpio. That means a lot of light shining into a lot of darkness, as Scorpio is the province of such weighty concepts as sex, death, secrets, power dynamics, psychology, and transformation.
If you’re in the Providence, RI area, please feel invited to drop in on the meditation/healing session I’ll be running at the headquarters space of the phenomenal Thrive Tribe! Several Reiki practitioners will be on hand for the event, so infusing the proceedings with positive, healing vibes is part of the central concept. We’ll also be focusing specifically on the idea that this Full Moon will be illuminating that shadowy Scorpio terrain.
And if you won’t be in the area, you can still do something in your neck of the woods to mark the event. An opportunity to carry some light down into the depths of Scorpion-territory is not to be missed!
A few days late with this, but get your month of May Astrology highlights video report here! I recorded this with a fantastic local group called the Thrive Tribe, with more of these videos planned.
They also run some great workshops, classes, and other events at their space, so if you’re in the Providence, RI area, you should get yourself acquainted with them and start showing up at a few!
First of all, for those of you who fear it when Mercury goes retrograde, then today is the day you’ve been waiting for. Today, Mercury stations direct. In regular-speak, that means our quick little neighbor stops its latest retrograde activities, and starts marching in forward-looking fashion again.
Today’s station is interesting even beyond what it might usually represent, because Mercury is almost on top of Uranus’ position in fiery Aries as it’s making this apparent reversal in its course. If you have any significant placements in your birth-chart in the same vicinity of Aries, or if you have anything in the corresponding late degrees of the other Cardinal Signs (Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), then you may really feel this event.
And then the presence of Uranus adds an extra dimension of newness and possible eccentricity to the proceedings. Uranus is the Planet of the Rebel, the Genius, the Exile, the Non-Conformist – so look for these energies to wash over your Mercury business at this time, lending your communications and thought processes an air of uniqueness, possible suddenness, and even some outright strangeness.
This might be an excellent opportunity for the cracking of codes, the solving of riddles, the running of mazes, and the dazzling of others with your inspired wordplay. You may also be on the receiving end of some important messages. Some astrologers like to say that Uranus is simply the “higher octave of Mercury” – the idea is that the former is sort of a more modern, more sophisticated updating of the latter, like a huge, oddball “Mercury 2.0.”
Whether you subscribe to this view or not, though, this combination of Mercury’s direct station and its conjunction with Uranus does feel like an indicator that our communications may be primed to experience noticeable surges forward in the categories of progress, passion, and maybe overall weirdness for a minute. Brace yourself for the oddity, but don’t shy away from it – instead, lean right into it, speak your truths as needed, and allow others to do the same. Your word is your wand…what spells do you want to be casting with yours today?
Today, our often-demure relationship Planet, Venus, steps across a Zodiac threshold. The Goddess of Love returns from the watery realm of Pisces to cross back over into the fiery terrain of Aries.
She made this particular crossing once already this year, back on February 3rd…but then she turned retrograde a month after that, and retreated back into Pisces on April 2nd, presumably to revisit some of the structures of the relationships we maintain with whatever we consider “Divine.” Pisces does, after all, lend a rather mystical and transcendental flow to anything that might happen to come splashing through its liquid gates.
Today, though, Venus emerges again from that Piscean seascape, and strides with purpose on into the blazing arena of Aries. Since Venus symbolizes the human drive to have relationships, this clearly puts a new spin on our interpersonal dynamics.
Where our relationships down here on Earth may have been backburnered behind our more cosmic connections with the Universe itself for the last month, we’re now at the start of a whole new Zodiac cycle. Brash Venus in Aries is far less dreamy and celestial-minded than Venus in Pisces. It can be helpful sometimes to think of the Planets as people, and the Signs as suits of clothing that those people wear. Using that analogy, it’s like lovely Venus had been outfitted in a portable sensory-deprivation tank and a pair of 5-D glasses, but is today trading those in for combat gear.
Aries is the Sign of the Warrior, so our relationships may reflect this big shift at this time. We may be quicker to anger than usual in our exchanges with others for a while, and more impatient. We might grow more competitive, and more attracted to debating, arguing, or even outright fighting (and then making up afterwards). Relationships may serve as trigger-points for testing our courage in some fashion, and they may be pathways to adventure.
This could also be a time of new relationships appearing – keep in mind, though, that Aries-energy is terrific at starting things, but not so across-the-board excellent at finishing them, so maybe remind yourself that there’s value in seeing things through to their later stages. And Aries can also at times lend a decided air of lust to the proceedings when it can sift its energies into a set of circumstances, so this could be a period of increased desire for you and those around you. Try to keep accurate track of what will stand as legitimate and possibly enduring passion, versus what’s just heat of the moment.
Venus will be fire-walking through Aries until June 6th, when she wanders over the next border into Taurus, which will be yet another very different type of vibe. We’ll get there in a month or so…but until then, see if you can wring some enjoyment out of the bold, direct, forceful frequency of the Sign of the Ram!
Astrology Update: Just as one tough square fades, another steps up to take its place… You may have felt the effects of the Venus/Saturn square that’s been testing our relationship structures since around the time April Fools’ Day was applying pies to faces all across the land. Thankfully, that square is fading now, and likely has only a few more days of fight left in it.
What’s probably of more pressing importance now is the fact that Saturn has found a new partner to square-dance with in the form of Chiron. This already powerful square is building toward peak effect this coming Sunday, April 30th.
So what does all that mean…? First of all, as always, you really need to plot this activity against what’s going on in your own birth-chart. Do you have anything around the 27th degree of Sagittarius (where Saturn is right now) or the 27th degree of Pisces (where Chiron is kicking it for the time being)…? Or do you have anything in the corresponding degrees of the other Mutable Signs, Gemini and Virgo? If so, this square may pack an extra bit of wallop in your world. The same may hold true if Saturn or Chiron are highly influential in your chart in general.
But outside of putting thumbtacks in maps, it may help to ponder the symbols involved here in broad terms, too. Saturn symbolizes a rather chilly, impersonal force in the Universe. It wants us to be excellent in all things, but its preferred methods are not of the warm and cuddly variety. Saturn plants foot in posterior when it wants to motivate. Saturn is a drill instructor, a merciless personal trainer, a constipated auditor doing a full and scathing review of your financial records.
When Saturn shows up with sickle in hand, the question is always: How much preparation have you done leading up to this visit…? If you’ve been diligent in your work, putting in the time, attending to details, and not cutting corners, then you’ll probably pass Saturn’s tests with flying colors. If you’ve been careless, lazy, or prideful in your approach, though, Saturn is likely to dash your shabbier efforts apart like trembling little houses of cards. These types of Saturn visits can lead to periods of rebuilding, damage control, and even razing everything down to the soil and starting over from scratch.
And what about Chiron? This “Planetoid” is named for a mythological character dubbed “the Wounded Healer.” In darker times, Chiron is more about the soul-wounds that we carry around with us. These are the traumas that seem built right into us, and that may even to some extent define us. In more positive periods, though, Chiron emphasizes the healing and the healer parts of that “wounds/healing” spectrum. During Chironic passages, we may find ourselves more able to heal others, and maybe even more able to heal ourselves. Epiphanies and rejuvenation may be on the menu.
So is this square period more about the wounds or the healing…? It’s important to think about the nature of the square relationship. Any Aspect that links two Planets together represents an occasion of those Planetary energies trying to work together. Some Aspects are easier and more user-friendly to experience, though. The square is one of the more friction-heavy varieties. Squares can feel uncomfortable and abrasive to the spirit when they exert themselves, and they can signify instances of Planetary energies merging badly, misfiring, or even working against each other. Planets in square can bring out the worst in each other.
In this case, just as Saturn has been taking harsh and critical stock of our relationships lately (that now fading Venus/Saturn square), and shaking them vigorously to see if they’ll come apart or not, with this new square, the same sort of attentions will be turned upon our wounds and our health. This isn’t to say we’re all doomed or anything – squares aren’t necessarily deadly, and we’ve all lived through thousands of them in our lives, and we’re still here. But the point is that this may be a time during which old hurts are brought to the surface, and loneliness and depression come easily. Saturn might dig a few fingers repeatedly into your tenderest bruises just to verify that those bruises still cause you pain. Recurring hot-button issues may be triggered, and it’s possible that actual physical health woes could surface alongside any mental, emotional, or spiritual ones.
The best thing to do is to work with Saturn’s demands rather than against them. Take extra-good care of yourself for the next two months or so until this square has had time to fizzle out. Make some positive changes to your diet, be a bit more devoted to some sort of exercise regimen, meditate with some regularity, and be very realistic with yourself about what your own strengths and weaknesses truly are (as opposed to what you’d really, really like them to be).
And it’s not all bad news. While squares can be tricky to weather, they’re still very powerful connections between Planets. And as mentioned, Chiron can bring about sudden revelations, and fairly sweeping upgrades in a person’s worldview, especially regarding those aforementioned soul-wounds. Maybe study your wounds: what are they, how have you approached them in your life, and how might you either view them differently, or try to deal with them in ways you haven’t yet tried? Even when Chiron is being squared, opportunities for great healing can still manifest – just don’t let Saturn’s heavy presence get you so down and depressed that you fail to make use of them!
