Dear Planet Waves,

This red-chalk drawing (circa 1512-1515) is broadly believed to be a self-portrait by da Vinci.

I am a recent college grad with what I am told by professors and professionals is an unusual and highly precocious artistic talent. I have been writing and drawing for as long as I could hold a pen, and some very gifted astrologers have told me in no uncertain terms that I ought to have an extremely lucrative and very public career ahead of me — should I seize the right opportunities, of course.

However, I tend to have an adverse reaction to this suggestion. I often have a very strong feeling that I’d be better off in a position deeply retreated from society at large — in a convent, say, or in a subsistence farming situation.

Friends and advisers want to write this off as the result of ingrained fear of failure or some other sinister type of chronic insecurity.

I don’t know what to make of it myself; am I really just suffering from depressive agoraphobia, or am I allowing the well-meaning words of career-driven urbanites distract me from something that would ultimately be a greater boon to me? Is there some way of splitting the difference that I have not yet discerned?

This condition has persisted for many years and still I have a hard time “following my heart” on this one. At this point I find myself almost totally stalled out.

Regardless of whether this note makes it to virtual print, I am compelled to thank the entire PW team for their stalwart and compassionate work over the years.

Thank you, Eric, for this important project. I wish it long life.

Best,
C.

==

Dear C:

I am not sure who your astrologers were, but I would not have made any such promises. It is a good thing that most of what astrologers say in no uncertain terms does not actually come to pass. I’m not saying you lack talent or potential. It’s just there’s a long way to go from drawing or painting well to having an extremely lucrative and very public career. It may be the longest distance between any two points on Earth. And people do cross that distance, though you don’t often hear about how many pairs of shoes they went through along the way.

It is a little early to be worried about how rich and famous you’re going to be.

Here is a question for you. Why do you have this talent? I don’t know your spiritual orientation, that is, who or what you believe in, but let’s presume there is a reason. Or at the least, a use for your talents to someone besides yourself. You did not mention having a career that would express an idea, spread a message, or propagate beauty for its own sake. You don’t mention what you want to do with your abilities. You mention two options: being catapulted to some sort of public stature and well-endowed bank account, or being cloistered away.

Let’s take a look at your chart. There is something really interesting about it: the main focus is on the 3rd and 4th houses, which represent an interior space. The signs involved are Aries and Taurus, which represent a focus on oneself, ones inner mind, home and sense of security. With all due respect, your chart and your letter suggest that you are somewhat self absorbed. I think you’re bright, you seem to possess a measure of alertness, and you crave innovation — but you’re going to need to reach escape velocity to get free of your interior orientation.

You do have quite a few massive planets in the public sector of your chart, but they are all retrograde. The retrograde suggests that you pull back into yourself when you need (in my view) to be expressing yourself. To me that is the point of artistic talent. Usually it has a purpose, which is to help the person who has it process their reality and along the way, keep their sanity, grow and with any luck have the products of their efforts help people on our benighted world.

Here is something you should know. Around 2001, Pluto began its transition into your 12th house, which is a transit that pulls you deep into yourself. It’s not that your chart lacks this emphasis — it’s painted in bright colors just about everywhere. But Pluto through the 12th can pull you down under the depths of your psyche to the point where you really can feel like you’re the only person in the world.

Now, nearly eight years later, Pluto is about to cross your ascendant. It will do this beginning later this year and through all of 2009, when it will be in your 1st house. This will help you break out of your spell of being cloistered. But it will also push your sense of a special destiny through the roof. I suggest you wear that sense of destiny as humbly as you can, and make an effort to see that you can have a positive impact on the world. It may be in a large way or it may be in a small way. And it may not be a positive contribution at all, unless you guide it that way. But you will have an impact and you need to be aware of what you want it to be. If you equate having artistic talent with fame and fortune, you’re likely to miss the boat on living a constructive life just like so many of the people we read about in People.

You’re a young person with a wide horizon, and you seem convinced that you have an artistic gift. I suggest you focus on what you want to do with that gift rather than what is going to happen to you personally as a result of having it. You don’t need to worry about whether you want or need to be cloistered or not. Anyone who develops their talent tends to spend a lot of time alone mastering their craft and moreover the mind that is trying to apply it meaningfully to existence.

And anyone who takes the sincere path of a creative career is indeed fortunate to be supported by their work.

Yours & truly,

===

Dear Eric (and friends),

I am currently going through a change in my life which I’m having a hard time dealing with. I recently spent five months living in another country and rekindled a relationship there. We are in love and I want to move there for a few years but actualizing that feels like a huge struggle, internally and externally. I’m trying to be independent and create the life that I want because (in true Virgo fashion) I have been pleasing other people for so long. I love to be of service but I feel like an emotional paramedic and I’m exhausted. I’m a writer, performer and facilitator and I want to expand and be my most fabulous self, but I need some guidance on how to pursue my dreams without alienating people I love.

I was born on August 24th, 1976 at 4:35 pm.

Peace & Many thanks
Akimbo

===

Dear Akimbo:

Why are you so worried about alienating anyone? Well, okay — I see you live with a pretty extreme polarity — a deep need for security or injured sense of safety (Chiron in the 4th house) and a powerful calling to make your innovative mark on the world (Uranus in the 10th house). However, I would propose that you need to go a little deeper than this discussion in order to find out why you specifically equate living your life, on the one hand, with being cast off, on the other.

Anyway, for all those who really want to do something with their lives, be it go on the road to visit a lover or play for the Yankees, be prepared to let go of friends who don’t get it, or who don’t actually support your choices. It could be said that you specifically need to alienate people in order to live your life, and in the process, discover the people who are going to be your true family of choice; your actual tribe.

From what you say, I am not sure you love them so much as you feel a need to take care of them. And if you can manage to alienate yourself from this lot, perhaps they will either learn to take care of themselves or find someone else to do so. But this would leave you without your old job, and a perfect opportunity to be your most fabulous self.

Yours & truly,

===

Dear Eric,

I was born on September 25th, 1955 at 8:06 pm in Wichita, Kansas.

As an early Cardinal Sun sign I am very interested to see your input on the significant changes that I will see with the upcoming cardinal grand cross and outer planet transits 2008-2012.

I have a strong interest in new career endeavors as well as new personal relationships but I have felt uninspired for a few years.

Regards,
Gary

===

Dear Gary:

You are about to experience a once in a lifetime transit known as Pluto square the Sun. It is one of those transits that will basically get you off your ass. Then Saturn will make a conjunction to your Sun in late 2009, which is a nice way of saying that you come to terms with yourself.

Then you will experience Uranus opposite the Sun, which will get you moving even faster. You are going to experience these transits one at a time, so I suggest you analyze them one at a time.

However, there are plenty of people who would experience these transits as disruptive or difficult; the difference comes down to what you want from life, and what you’re willing to do in order to have it. By this, I mainly mean undergo a deep process of transformation (a Pluto transit), followed by a maturing process (Saturn) and then being subjected to what I can only call wild inspiration (Uranus).

I don’t think you will be bored. But I suggest you do your best to find ways to express yourself and therefore keep a very good attitude.

Yours & truly,

===

Hello Eric,

I’ve been following the eclipse cycles and now they’re in the Aquarius/Leo pairs. As you can see, the last eclipse fell a day short of my birthday.

My husband and I have been together for 19 years, and I understand very well how to keep a long term committed and loving relationship. We do not wish to divorce because we share a deep friendship and responsibility for a young child. However, the last eclipse gave me the the impetus to move myself beyond my traditional marriage, and I have been very fortunate in finding a new companion to explore polyamorous relationships with.

But now I’ve been feeling “antsy” in regards to my new friend, and rather surprised to find myself wanting to slip back into the comfortable pattern of a one/one classic partnership. My question I would like to know is how best to handle this energy? My understanding is that eclipses propel you into the future, not let you slide back into old patterns like a pair of comfy old slippers. I thought I was making progress, but now I’m confused!

Thank you,
Amy

===

Dear Amy,

First, congratulations on your efforts at monogamy reform. While I think it’s natural and necessary that people be committed to one another in the long run, I also think that we need to make room for one another to explore life outside of long term committed partnerships, if that is what we want — and most people seem to.

I wish I had more to go on than antsy, however, regarding how you feel about your newish friend. I looked it up and the dictionary and found out that it means nervous, impatient and restless. Are you feeling confined by the relationship? Are you balking at a sense of disloyalty? Or are is the new relationship energy wearing off, with something lacking beneath that level?

I suggest you have a radical honesty clearing session with everyone. Get to the heart of how everyone feels, and don’t keep anything to yourself. I suggest you first talk to both of your partners individually, and give them the space to state exactly what they are feeling; then you do the same. And then I suggest you get all three of you in the same room and have one more conversation.

There are honest alternatives to monogamy, and they all come at the price of honesty. I think you have this capability. But you need to watch a tendency to be able to compartmentalize. By this I mean you can relate to someone in one way and then someone else in another way, and keep the two separate. I see this in both your Capricorn Venus and your Gemini Moon.

The Moon, for its part, suggests that you really do need some diversity in your life. That Capricorn Venus suggests that you have some unusual ways of processing your emotions, but you feel passionately and crave experimentation: but I don’t suggest that you fold your clothes before you make love.

Anyway, write back to me about the antsy part and let me know what happens after you have your radical honesty sessions.

Yours & truly,

===

Readers may send their questions to questions -at- planetwaves.net with the word QUESTION in the subject header. Not all questions will be answered. Please keep them short, concise and most of all, relevant to our readers. Please include your full birth data written out, for example, Feb. 30, 1801, rather than 2/30/01. Please include your time of birth! This feature is sponsored by your subscriptions to Planet Waves Astrology News! So please sign up and if you’re already a subscriber, please sign up a friend!

Today’s Oracle takes us to Apr 01, 2006 - Taurus - Monthly

You know that your ambitions are delicate, and the fact that certain individuals have found it within their rights to play dice with their loyalty or play politics instead of carrying water has been disconcerting. Yet if you can let the petty things remain small and keep your heart and soul focused on the vision for a better world that you’ve been nursing, you’ll find that all the games in the world cannot sway your steps. It has been said that there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. You are currently in possession of such an idea, however humble or personal it may seem. Let the waves you seem to be making serve as a testament to your influence. It would seem that the greatest gift you have to offer is giving people an opportunity to cooperate, and setting an example for how they may take that too-often insurmountable evolutionary step.

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Arachne (12+ Libra) trine Nessus (12+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (7+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Mercury (7+ Leo) quintile Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Venus (21+ Leo) square Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) square Ceres (21+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra) square Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Sun (7+ Leo) quintile Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Amor (4+ Gemini) semisquare Varuna (19+ Cancer)
Venus (21+ Leo) septile Arachne (12+ Libra)
Pallas (28+ Taurus) septile Varuna (19+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra) quintile Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Venus (21+ Leo) trine Eris (21+ Aries Rx)
Vesta (9+ Taurus) quintile Ceres (21+ Cancer)
Mercury (8+ Leo) square Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Ceres (21+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Pholus (6+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (14+ Leo) quincunx Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Hylonome (2+ Sagittarius Rx) quintile Logos (20+ Virgo)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) septile Ixion (12+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (15 Leo) sesquiquadrate Aries Point (0 Aries)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) semisquare Pholus (6+ Sagittarius Rx)
Ceres (21+ Cancer) sextile Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Venus (22+ Leo) quincunx Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Eros (15+ Leo) sextile Sisyphus (15+ Libra)
Mercury (9+ Leo) quintile Atlantis (21+ Libra)
Mercury (9+ Leo) square Vesta (9+ Taurus)

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today we have two reader questions for you, with replies. For those of you who found Planet Waves through the old Astrology Secrets project on Cainer.com, my fingers are pleased to inform you that I won’t be writing any 5,000 word replies, or at least I don’t plan to. I will do my best to give a concise, relevant response to the questions we select, and Genevieve Salerno will be assisting me in this. Rachel Asher, our associate editor, will also see your questions. Please send them to: questions -at- planetwaves.net with the word QUESTION somewhere in the subject header (this helps us sort the mail). We will not use your last name in any response, though we may publish your birth chart anonymously.

This project is sponsored by your subscriptions to Planet Waves Astrology News. So please sign up, or sign up a friend. Thanks for participating.

Does location have an impact on my writing career?

Dear Eric,

You seem to know the impact of your writing pretty well, so I’ll just try to nudge on past my impulse to gush and fawn in the opening paragraph of this letter. But *thank you* for opening this door. And for the June access as well.

My question has to do with location and sidereal influence. I am a writer and my career has been off-and-on, mostly because I keep fussing with the definition of what I do (variously: grant writer, art manager, muse, diseuse, etc). [Note, a diseuse is a woman who is a skilled and usually professional performer of monologues.-efc] But I am also beginning to think that longitude/latitude might be playing in. If I move, will my focus and traction improve? I have lovers and kids and longterm ties here in Austin, but something here feels dead(ish), unyielding in both my being and place.

Born July 6, 1955, at 5:20 in the afternoon, in Corpus Christi, TX. Just started my 3rd 26-year cycle on this planet. Yippee.

Thank you again,

Mysti

===

Dear Mysti:

Looking at your chart, it seems clear that you are obsessed with relationships, or that they are obsessed with you. The people around you are important to you, and you need deep contact. You seem to have an electrifying presence; this chart is glowing (Moon conjunct Chiron in Aquarius; plenty of Gemini in the 7th house; Sun/Uranus/Mars/Vesta/Jupiter in the 8th house). But more than that, you have a lot of energy to blow off, and you seem to do it through various means of eroticism and emotional contact.

While you might expect me to say that sex is good for creativity, there arrives that point where the distractions of relating and processing relationship material can diffuse even your abundant energy. These relationships clearly feed you and I would guess from that Moon conjunct Chiron that people gravitate toward you, and they will no matter where you happen to be. You know the old saying, wherever you go, there you are.

The thing about location is that it shifts one’s realty. It confronts you with who you are; travel does this, and living different places does it as well. You have a 9th house Pluto and you live pretty close to where you were born (and I do I know that Austin is not Corpus Christi). That Pluto tells me you might be as obsessed with travel as you are with relationships. I wonder how much traveling you’ve done, which would help you get to know yourself outside the context of one-to-one (or two- or three-to-one bonding as the case may be).

Moving locations would shift the emphasis of your chart, but it would also reorient your mind and put you in a position of needing to adapt. That, in turn, would stir the pot and get you thinking in new ways. And unless you are Emily Dickinson, this is almost always good for writing.

However, you raise the issue of how you define yourself. I would say that you’re probably caught in a kind of psychic hall of mirrors of trying to see how others define you; or of attempting to define yourself differently for different people in order to have their approval. In the end, who cares what you call yourself? You don’t sell writing with a business card, you sell it with good writing. An editor looking at your story about ancient Egyptian sex cults doesn’t care that you like to go bass fishing with your friends once a month. They care about whether your ideas are coherent and your piece is on time.

If you’re a professional writer, you need to master the writing business; and you need to focus on projects that represent your interests and will also pay the bills.

I think that from a financial standpoint, you have two things you need to watch. Your 2nd house Ceres in Capricorn is saying that you have a survival mentality, that is, you have defined eating as the bottom line. Usually you need to go past that in order to thrive. Second, you have the Moon conjunct Chiron in the 2nd house; and by itself, the Moon in that house can represent some extreme financial cycles.

But a 2nd house Chiron suggests that the deeper issue involves self-esteem. Do you feel you have the right to be a writer? If you did, you might feel you had the energy and focus to create projects that work as part of the writing business. And if you did that, you would probably find some good sources of income.

I suggest you write about the subjects that get you going the hottest. You know what they are.

Thanks for your question. Please let me know if my response was even vaguely relevant.

===

How do I break my old patterns?

Dear Eric:

Thank you for offering your insight. I was born Feb. 14, 1955 in Salzburg, Austria. I don’t have a birth time however my mother remembered it was in the am, as the shift of nurses were changing.

Question: I can see what I want to change. I can feel the energy of the change, the possibility of such changes are sitting and waiting…that is what it feels like.

I don’t know how to break my old patterns, and they are breaking me down causing more difficulty maintaining the “old”. But I am still keeping the “old” despite the pain ….

I would appreciate some guidance on how to make the changes…how to move through the old patterns…

Warm Regards,

Ann

===

Dear Ann,

I am not sure what patterns you are talking about. I have my theories based on your chart (you have the Moon and Juno conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, which is a heavy emotional cast; and it is square your Sun/Mercury, making it difficult for you to discuss your feelings even though you want to). It would help a lot to have a single example of a pattern that you are thinking of.

I am also not sure what methods you are using to break out of your patterns, or what your concept of your own psyche is, which would tell us how you might navigate your inner territory. All these things make a difference in how one might go about shifting their state of existence.

Finally, what we call patterns often protect us from what is new. They are like armor. Whatever their job is, they probably have one; they do something for you, and if you can connect with that purpose, you may decide you no longer need it. But everything in this world has a purpose, whether it be constructive or not.

This all being said, I think that what you’re really dragging around is your mother’s negativity. In particular, she seemed to be extremely negative toward sex, and it’s clear enough that you were (like a lot of people) programmed with the idea that the only sexual relationship was or should be marriage (this is Juno in Scorpio mixed in with all this influence).

Your dad, for his part, was a very different kind of man. But he did not express his feelings easily, and neither do you; you have the same influence from both parents, though it has different origins. Your father seemed to be more progressive than your mom, but he kept his mouth shut so as not to get mixed up with her. Nobody talked; you did not learn how to express your basic feelings as a kid, much less lay the truth on the line of who you are and what you need.

That is what I suggest you do. I suggest you talk about all the most difficult things first, which means finding someone to talk to about them. There are probably a lot of very bright people in your circle of friends, but you have to find someone with whom you have no fear and who you know will not abuse the power you give them by divulging everything, and I do mean everything. A very open minded therapist would be a great start — preferably somebody without a Ph.D., unless of course you trust and adore that person. Whoever it is, you need to choose a therapist you want to become like, because that is basically what happens.

You are basically sinking under the weight of all that you have not said. And that may be the pattern that is the most difficult of all. Writing to us here counts as a good start. Keep going.

===

Readers may send their questions to questions -at- planetwaves.net with the word QUESTION in the subject header. Not all questions will be answered. Please keep them short, concise and most of all, relevant to our readers. Please include your full birth data written out, for example, Feb. 30, 1801, rather than 2/30/01. Please include your time of birth! This feature is sponsored by your subscriptions to Planet Waves Astrology News! So please sign up and if you’re already a subscriber, please sign up a friend!

===

Today’s Oracle takes us to May 14, 1999 - SCORPIO - Weekly

For all the hype about sex in our culture, it remains one of the great mysteries of human existence. In Greek mythology, the prophet Tiresias, who had lived for years as both genders, was blinded for revealing that women derive more physical pleasure than men during sex. This may be true, in many cases, but it also remains true that despite their depth and power, few women are conscious of what they possess within themselves, and, not surprisingly, few men can fathom the depth of female emotional experience. Unusual aspects suggest that these difficult boundaries of awareness and communication can now be stretched in some new directions.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Venus (12+ Leo) square Psyche (12+ Scorpio)
Venus (12+ Leo) trine Ixion (12+ Sagittarius Rx)
Apollo (23+ Leo) quintile Chariklo (5+ Scorpio)
Venus (12+ Leo) semisquare Hades (27+ Gemini)
Arachne (10+ Libra) septile Hylonome (2+ Sagittarius Rx)
Pallas (25+ Taurus) conjunct Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Mercury (23+ Cancer) quincunx Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)
Sisyphus (13+ Libra) trine Nessus (13+ Aquarius Rx)
Mars (13+ Virgo) quincunx Nessus (13+ Aquarius Rx)
Venus (13+ Leo) opposite Nessus (13+ Aquarius Rx)
Venus (13+ Leo) sextile Sisyphus (13+ Libra)
Mercury (23+ Cancer) septile Amor (2+ Gemini)
Sun (1+ Leo) sextile M87 (1+ Libra)
Vesta (7+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (19+ Cancer)
Mercury (23+ Cancer) square 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Vesta (7+ Taurus) semisquare Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Eros (8+ Leo) square Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Saturn (6+ Virgo) sesquiquadrate Eris (21+ Aries Rx)
Amor (2+ Gemini) opposite Hylonome (2+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (1+ Leo) quintile Sisyphus (13+ Libra)
Apollo (23+ Leo) trine 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)

Dear Friend and Reader:

I can’t promise you this is real, but I can promise you it’s interesting. Tonight at the opening ceremony (and I do mean ceremony) for the United Astrology Conference (UAC), a new birth time for Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama was announced. As Planet Waves Astrology News readers are aware, birth times for all the major candidates have been in contention or unreliable, which is unprecedented in modern astrological history.

The time was announced by Dallas astrologer Joni Patry, who said she obtained it from a client who works for the Obama campaign. She in turn obtained it from a “campaign manager” who accessed the data through a closed-access government database.

The time is 7:11 pm, and the date (as known previously) Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu. The chart gives 14+ Aquarius rising.

Patry told me that since it was obtained from a “private government website,” a copy of the document would not be available. It cannot, therefore, be authenticated and under the Lois Rodden rating system, which sets the industry standard, it is “dirty data” or DD rating because there is not documentation, and there are conflicting times. By contrast, a birth certificate in hand gets an AA rating and “from memory” gets an A rating. DD is the lowest rating.

Sources at the conference told me that people from the late Rodden’s company, Astrodatabank, were working with Patry and others to verify the authenticity of the documentation involved.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Greetings from Denver.

Today the Sun is conjunct something called Admetus. I say “something” but that is questionable; Admetus is one of the hypothetical planets. In other words, it is a point with an ephemeris, which is cast (by relatively few astrologers) into charts; but it does not exist in the sense we think of something existing, particularly a planet. It is a calculated point that is treated as a planet.

How this came to be is a long story. It’s not that strange that things without physical mass get respect in astrology; the South Node is a calculated point and it works great. NASA will never send a mission to one of the house cusps and you cannot collect rocks from up on the Part of Fortune; they exist by virtue of mathematics.

But Admetos and the other seven “Uranian points,” as they are called, seem to exist just fine. They have orbits ranging from about the length of Pluto (a couple of centuries) to about 800 years. Some day I will tell the story, which takes place in Germany in the early 20th century, where astrologers in what was called the Hamburg School came under persecution from Hitler. They were the people who came up with these points, and who also gave us the Aries Point. They still exist, though they are few and far between (one of them basically got me into UAC as its Mr. Journalist).

In any event, the Sun is conjunct Admetus today. This is a really interesting myth from the Helenic age. Some people spell it Admetos. Here is what Martha Wescott, one of the most trustworthy Uranian astrologers to ever walk the planet, says on her Keywords page:

Facing blockages; biding your time; encountering delays, frustrations, complications or the need for something else to happen BEFORE success or progress; dealing with raw materials (including stone, lumber, etc.,) packaging, inventory and storage; having cramps or other indications that reveal a tightening to endure/persevere/hang in there; issues with self-containment, shunning; literal and behavioral “cold.” Narrowing or specialization.

I’m going to take this as a cue for my UAC coverage. At the moment, it’s 8 am in Denver, I am awake and more or less conscious and about to report for the conference. I am likely to be blogging more than once a day, so please check in, and if you’re reading in Feedburner, it’s only set to mail once a day, circa noon Eastern Time — perhaps check in in the evening as well.

I am pretty sure this is going to be an interesting conference, and I promise to get the story. With the help of somebody called Lion out in Oregon, I’ll be doing audio blogs twice a day but those won’t start till Saturday, since it’s going to take me today to get the first two, and then Lion has to make the template. From there, it should go pretty quick and I’ll do as many as Lion can handle. This man, by the way, has been very helpful with some of the changes you’ve seen at Planet Waves the past five months. He has provided a vital outside perspective on how to streamline and redesign the site. I totally get lost in the sauce trying to do this, and he went through our design problems like, well, like this thing that’s eating the antiquated poured-concrete parking garage next to my studio in Kingston, which I wish I had the time to photograph.

We have an absolutely dynamite Planet Waves Astrology News in the works for tomorrow, our most incredible treatment of Mercury retrograde ever. That is running on time and will be out in the email to subscribers Friday morning and on the subscriber homepage late tonight.

To sign up and receive this edition, please click either three months, six months or a full year.

Thursday 15 May 2008

Venus (17+ Taurus) sextile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sun (24+ Taurus) conjunct Admetos (24+ Taurus Rx)
Ceres (18+ Gemini) opposite Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (18+ Taurus) semisquare Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Eros (6+ Gemini) septile Apollo (27+ Cancer)
Sun (25+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Sisyphus (10+ Libra Rx)
Pallas (27+ Aries) trine Orcus (27+ Leo)
Jupiter (22+ Capricorn Rx) quintile Hidalgo (10+ Scorpio Rx)
Venus (18+ Taurus) quincunx Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (6+ Taurus) semisquare Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Apollo (27+ Cancer) quincunx Juno (27+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (6+ Gemini) semisquare Eris (21+ Aries)

April 02, 2004 - Capricorn - Weekly

You are quickly heading toward a solution to a seemingly deadlocked situation. It may be that you’ve put too much emphasis on security and not enough on taking a chance. There are virtues to both, but in the end there is very little security in the world, and its value is mainly psychological. Focus on investigating what you’re actually willing to do, and whether you leave yourself room to revise your plans or change your mind. You will need this flexibility, but at the moment it’s better to have too much to do rather than too little.

Dear Friend and Reader

Here is the Mercury retrograde in Gemini rundown. As you may have read here or elsewhere, the process began Sunday. Mercury has an approximately 88 day orbit, so it goes past the Earth three times a year. Each of these is called Mercury retrograde, because it appears to pass by the Earth and thus moves in apparent reverse motion. This is not an illusion, as some astrologers say. It is actual relative motion, which is why the experience has real effects.

We all know how weird this can be. On a technical level, it’s sometimes simpler than the psychological level; i.e., back up your disk drives early and often; avoid doing anything of the kind during the days close to the station. All of this becomes common sense after a while. What makes each Mercury retrograde interesting is the psychological and emotional material around the process, which many have noticed can be quite creatively potent.

We will be looking at this in detail, using the minor planets in Friday’s subscriber edition of Planet Waves Astrology News. (Subscription info is always on the main cover of Planet Waves.) All UT calculations by Serennu. All EDT calculations by me.

11 May - 20:42:08 UT - Mercury echo (also called shadow) begins (12 Gemini 58′). This is when Mercury enters the degrees where it will later be retrograde. Mercury is always direct during the echo phases.

23 May - Mercury slows toward station, shifting mental and perceptual perspectives, making your hair dryer act weird and deleting the occasional mainframe system. This is sometimes called the Mercury storm.

26 May - 15:47:34 UT - Mercury stations retrograde (21 Gemini 32′). It is closely trine Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius at the time. Neptune also stations retrograde the same day. Mercury covers about 11 degrees of Gemini (most of the second decanate or “face,” which is ruled in old timey traditional astrology by Mars. So on one level we have what may feel like a long Mercury-Mars conjunction.

03 June - 3:22 pm EDT - Gemini New Moon, with the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Ceres in Gemini. Ceres is opposite the Galactic Core.

7 June - 11:27 am EDT - Mercury makes its interior conjunction to the Sun, marking the midpoint of the retrograde phase. Notably, Venus is also making an exterior conjunction to the Sun the same day, which is close to the midpoint between the 2004 and 2012 Venus transits of the Sun. An “interior conjunction” is when Mercury or Venus is retrograde and conjunct the Sun. An “exterior conjunction” is when they are direct and conjunct the Sun. Remember that, you will need it another time.
19 June - 14:31:07 UT - Mercury stations direct (12 Gemini 58). Mercury now moves through the same degrees where it was retrograde for the third time, again direct.

02 July - Cancer New Moon.

04 July - 12:32:44 UT - Mercury echo or shadow ends (21 Gemini 32′).

Tune back in on Friday. And watch Planet Waves later this week for ongoing coverage of the United Astrology Conference in Denver.

Monday 12th May 2008

Venus (14+ Taurus) quincunx Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Venus (14+ Taurus) quincunx Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx)
Pallas (26+ Aries) quintile Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Orcus (27+ Leo) trine Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius) - Near Miss Only
Sun (21+ Taurus) sextile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Venus (14+ Taurus) quintile Apollo (26+ Cancer)
Venus (14+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx)
Venus (14+ Taurus) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Venus (14+ Taurus) opposite Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx)
Amor (5+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sun (22+ Taurus) trine Jupiter (22+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (15 Taurus) semisquare Aries Point (0 Aries)
Vesta (10+ Aries) quincunx Hidalgo (10+ Scorpio Rx)
Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) opposite Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sisyphus (10+ Libra Rx) opposite Vesta (10+ Aries)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) opposite Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) trine Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx)
Eros (3+ Gemini) quintile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx) semisquare Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx)